Recruitment - EduqasThe Recruitment Process

Recruitment

Recruitment is the process of identifying a job vacancy within a business and then finding a suitable candidate to fulfil that role. Businesses go through a recruitment process. The recruitment process is the steps a business takes when bringing new employees into a business.

Identifying a job vacancy

Businesses must identify that a job vacancy is available within their organisation. Vacancies become available for a range of reasons including:

• business growth
• an employee being sacked
• an employee choosing to leave the business
• an employee being promoted to another position
• maternity or paternity leave

Prepare a job description and person specification

The next stage in the process is to prepare a job description and person specification.

A job description is another document produced by a business that wants to fill a vacancy. Its main purpose is to list all of the duties that are required in the role. A job description may include the job title, rate of pay or salary, bonus information, hours of work, location of work, all duties included in the role and whom the new employee would report to in the business.

A person specification is a document created by a business that wants to fill a vacancy. This document provides information about the type of person the business wants to hire. A person specification includes details about the educational background, skills, experience and hobbies the business wants applicants to have.

Advertise

Businesses must then advertise the vacancy. This involves creating a suitable job advert, and promoting it in locations that potential applicants will have access to. This will encourage people to apply for the role. Businesses may advertise roles on their own website, job websites, job boards, internal emails, newspapers and social media.

Shortlist

Once a business has advertised a job role and received job applications, they must shortlist candidates. This is the process of sifting through applications, covering letters and CVs to find out which applicants best meet the requirements of the role. Businesses will often let the unsuccessful applications know they have not been shortlisted for interview.

References

Once applicants have been shortlisted, a business will sometimes want references for each applicant. This is the process of contacting designated people, usually previous employers or educational establishments to establish whether an applicant will be an ideal fit for the role and the business. References may ask questions about areas such as attendance and work ethic.

Interview

The next stage in the process is to interview applicants. This can either be completed in a group interview with several applicants at once, or as an interview with a single applicant. Interviews may ask questions about experience, skills, qualifications, hobbies, questions about the role and business being applied for and scenario based questions about how an applicant would deal with specific situations.

Some businesses also undertake further testing of applicants at this stage.

Selection and appointment

The final stage in the recruitment process is to select and appoint the best candidate. A business may have one or several positions available. Once they have selected whom they want to employ, they must inform them that they have been successful. Once successful applicants have been appointed, unsuccessful applicants can be informed that they are not being appointed to the role.