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Recruitment and Selection: Strategies for Workforce

Planning and Assessment

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Author: Carrie A. Picardi

Pub. Date: 2020
Product: Sage Academic Books
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483396439
Keywords: recruitment, labor markets, organizations
Disciplines: Business & Management, Human Resource Management, General & Applied Psychology,
Human Resource Management (general), Recruitment & Retention, Occupational/Industrial Psychology
Access Date: July 29, 2023
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc.
City: Thousand Oaks
Online ISBN: 9781483396439

© 2020 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Recruitment Strategy

Welcome to the world of recruitment! Now that you understand the importance of having an accurate and
current foundation of job information, incumbent qualifications, and necessary job-related behavioral compe-
tencies, we can move into the strategies, best practices, and tools needed to identify and recruit talented indi-
viduals for the most effective workforce possible. As I will mention several times throughout this chapter, the
primary goal of a recruitment strategy is to develop a compelling outreach for a job opportunity that attracts
qualified potential candidates while at the same time deters unqualified individuals from applying for the job.
But there is a fine line between being too open and not setting clear-enough parameters that would discour-
age individuals lacking the appropriate qualifications from applying, and being too restrictive and limiting your
pool of potential job candidates. Both of these possible scenarios may be a turnoff to the qualified candidates
you are trying to identify and attract. In this chapter, we will explore the different types of recruitment strate-
gies, their benefits and challenges, and techniques and best practices that will enable human resources (HR)
professionals, hiring managers, and consultants to design and implement an effective and efficient recruit-
ment outreach based on the nature and specific type of job, myriad internal and external factors, and other
relevant considerations.

Recruitment: The process of developing a compelling outreach for a job opportunity designed to at-
tract a diverse pool of qualified prospective candidates.

The recruitment of job candidates is considered to be both an art and a science. What does this mean, ex-
actly? After being involved in the recruitment process for a while, an HR professional, recruiter, or consultant
learns the value of a compelling job posting or advertisement, including its wording, placement, and timing,
as well as the importance of finding a balance between being too broad or too narrow in the outreach to
potential job candidates. This is the “art” of recruitment. In addition, HR professionals, recruiters, and con-
sultants should be proficient in the evaluation of recruitment methods for effectiveness, resource efficiency,
ethical practice, and legal compliance. There are many different metrics and evaluative tools that can be used
to examine short-term and long-term success using a chosen recruitment strategy for a particular job, which
we will explore later on in the chapter. This is the “science” of recruitment. This integrative approach is very

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important in terms of identifying a pool of strong candidates who would be drawn enough to the job to apply.
The reality for many HR professionals, hiring managers, and consultants, particularly those who are fairly new
to recruitment, is that finding this niche group for each and every job opening that needs to be filled can be
challenging unless you understand how internal and external factors impact recruiting efforts. Let’s examine
some of the more common factors that can affect a recruitment strategy and ways to effectively handle them.

Factors Affecting Recruitment

There are always a variety of different factors, both internally and externally, that impact a recruiting effort and
its effectiveness. Some of these factors will be within the control of the organization, and some factors will not
only be unavoidable but often unpredictable. We will explore four factors that are considered to be the most
significantly impactful to all organizations regardless of industry or location: labor market conditions, organi-
zational reputation/image, competition from other organizations, and available resources for recruitment.

Labor Market Conditions and Demographic Shifts

The first factor impacting a recruitment effort that we will examine pertains to the pool of job candidates avail-
able at any given time, also referred to as the labor market. The labor market—often depicted through em-
ployment/unemployment rate statistics—fluctuates in accordance with other trends, such as economic ups
and downs, demographic shifts, changes in government and regulatory agency requirements, timing through-
out the calendar or fiscal years, and more localized changes occurring in specific geographic locations. Labor
market conditions can be understood in a supply and demand manner (Lussier & Hendon, 2013). When there
are more active job seekers than there are jobs, then supply is higher than demand and it is considered an
employer’s market, as they have many qualified job candidates to consider. Conversely, when there are more
job openings than qualified candidates, it is considered to be a job seeker’s market, and organizations may
be vying for talented candidates in a shallow pool.

Labor Market: The pool of job candidates available at any given time.

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Additionally, labor market conditions can be drastically different among different fields in the same period of
time. For example, in the 1990s during the technology dot.com boom, information technology professionals
were highly sought after in fields such as software development, programming, web design, e-commerce, in-
frastructure, networking, and so on. Organizations implemented myriad tactics to hire and retain information
technology (IT) professionals, including offering exorbitant sign-on bonuses, telecommuting and flextime priv-
ileges, stock options, and other desirable incentives. This high level of demand was not necessarily the case
in other fields at the time; supply and demand was profession specific.

Demographic shifts will also impact an organization’s recruiting practices. Such shifts include a growth in the
global movement of citizens from different countries working and living abroad more seamlessly, large num-
bers of people entering or exiting the workforce such as recent college graduates and retirees, state and local
economic trends resulting in groups of people relocating to different states or regions, and young adults going
out of state to college and not returning to their home state to work.

It is likely that you will experience most or all of these labor market conditions throughout your career. While
this factor may seem out of an organization’s control, it is important to remember that a value such as un-
employment rate is a lagging indicator of overall economic conditions, which essentially means that the con-
ditions will occur first and the workforce outcomes will follow. If you are savvy enough to analyze conditions
such as the ones briefly described here, you will be able to predict trends that will impact the workforce, in-
cluding recruitment, enabling you to make a better assessment of the most appropriate recruiting approach
given the hiring need and labor market outlook.

Organizational Reputation/Image

Organizational reputation/image is certainly a significant appeal factor, though this factor also depends on
economic conditions and the labor market situation. If the job market is sluggish and there are more job seek-
ers than available jobs, then an organization’s image and reputation will probably not be a high priority, be-
cause finding a job anywhere will be the priority. However, in a reasonably good economy in which available
jobs are plentiful, this factor will be important to job seekers. Think about the organizations today that are
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known to have more resumes and applications streaming in daily than they can handle. The examples that
you probably thought of immediately are also most likely the organizations that are leaders in their respective
industries and have excellent brand recognition and reputation for treating all their stakeholders with respect
and consideration. Increasingly, individuals prefer to work for organizations they view as innovative, exciting,
trustworthy, fair, socially responsible, and provide quality products and services with minimal negative impact
on people and the world. It should come as no surprise that talented individuals are highly motivated to obtain
jobs in cutting-edge, reputable organizations where their qualifications are appreciated and rewarded, and
they are treated as valued contributors in working toward a mission and vision that will enable long-term sus-
tainability as a respected organizational leader.

Organizational Competition

Competition for talent among organizations is another factor affecting recruitment and is usually linked to the
previous factor—labor market conditions. When there are fewer job candidates looking for work, the labor
supply is sparser and organizations have to consider techniques that will draw the most-talented candidates
to their job opportunities and not those of another organization. “Competitor” organizations can be perceived
as competition based on several different elements: geographic proximity, industry, and type of job openings
(e.g., area of expertise, field, or function).

An example of this type of situation can be examined from my own professional HR experience, in which I
worked for a midsize manufacturing company. The products and services our organization provided to clients
required us to employ engineers in various niche areas, research and development specialists, laboratory
technicians, chemists, and operations experts knowledgeable in complex manufacturing processes. If you
have ever worked in a recruiting capacity, you would probably attest that these types of jobs are unique to fill
in that the qualifications are highly specialized. Now, let’s add another element to the scenario: a very well-
known global pharmaceutical company was located down the street from our company. They had an excellent
organizational reputation, brand recognition, they could pay their employees much more than we could be-
cause of their size, and their recruitment efforts almost always included job opportunities similar or exactly the
same as our job opportunities. Moving to another location or offering a compensation package and other in-
centives beyond our budget was not feasible. What can an organization do in this type of situation? A strategy
that we adopted to offset this reality that worked out quite well was to have excellent training and development

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opportunities for employees. You may be wondering what this has to do with recruiting, so let me explain. As
an organization, we accepted the fact that we would always be struggling to recruit the most-talented job can-
didates available because they would most likely go to the other organization. Instead of competing for those
individuals, we expanded our recruitment outreach to include individuals who were more marginally qualified
or just met the minimum qualifications for our jobs. For example, we may have considered candidates with
the requisite education level who possessed a necessary specialized certification but with minimal work ex-
perience for a job that required 1 to 2 years of relevant work experience, and then we provided them with
targeted training and development and an on-the-job coach or support person to bring them up to speed. The
organization also offered tuition reimbursement, so we were able to consider an otherwise qualified job can-
didate with a bachelor’s degree for a job that required a master’s degree and help him or her complete the
required graduate degree within a designated time frame while working in the job.

As this example depicts, there are always creative solutions to handling these factors affecting recruiting when
what you are faced with is a less-than-ideal scenario. Even though a situation may seem out of the organi-
zation’s control, thinking outside of the box and also exploring the best practices of other organizations faced
with a similar challenge may enable you to develop an effective and feasible strategy.

Available Recruitment Resources

The last factor that we will examine involves the availability of necessary resources to carry out an effective
recruiting process. Two of the most critical resources are money and time, which should not be surprising
since every business process is dependent on adequate budget and time allocation. What makes the recruit-
ment process somewhat unique is that the budgetary and time needs are rather changeable from one job to
another. This is not a one-size-fits-all type of process, and the monetary and time requirements can vary sig-
nificantly based on the actual job. However, it is not impossible to predict what will be needed for the recruit-
ment activity for a particular job as long as the HR function maintains records on the resource requirements
for each job opening and can refer to this information when a particular job becomes open again. These data
may not be exactly the same year after year, but they can provide a reasonable benchmark with which to
conduct an accurate needs assessment.

Having adequate monetary resources in the budget for recruitment activity is of course a key requirement, and

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the total cost will vary depending on the job. For some jobs with particular executive-level and specialized jobs
in niche industries or fields, it may be necessary to retain the services of a search firm with that expertise and
pipeline of qualified candidates, which is typically more expensive than posting the job on online job boards or
publishing an advertisement in a newspaper or professional publication. In addition, the best candidates may
not always be local, and you may need to consider all possible travel expenses to bring candidates on-site
for interviews into the budget. On the other hand, you may have a job opening that can be filled relatively
easily through less costly means such as an online job board posting, presence at a local job fair, outreach
to local colleges and universities, or an internal job posting or word-of-mouth employee referral, which we will
examine in the next section. The point is that the budgetary need for recruitment will vary across the different
jobs in an organization, which should be examined through a needs assessment before the recruiting process
begins.

Besides budgetary resources, the recruiting process will require other resources as well. Time is another im-
portant resource. It takes time for an HR professional or recruiter and the hiring manager to review and vali-
date the information in the job description for use in the recruitment outreach. It takes time to create a com-
pelling and accurate job posting, one that is appealing, clear and understandable, accurate, legally compliant,
and comprehensive yet concise. For those of you with HR and/or recruiting experience, you know that it takes
a great deal of time to collect and review all the applications and resumes that are received in response to a
job posting or announcement. I can recall collecting and organizing hundreds of resumes submitted by hope-
ful candidates through hard-copy mail, e-mail, and fax in response to one job advertisement we published in
the classified section of just one Sunday edition of the local newspaper. I was tasked with reviewing all the
resumes and creating folders for the resumes to be categorized for the hiring manager to review based on the
extent to which a candidate possessed the education, experience, and KSAO requirements. It also takes time
to reach out to the candidates who will be invited to interview and coordinate a date and time based on every-
one’s availability. For the organizations who use applicant tracking systems or other technology tools, having
dedicated time for entering the hard-copy resumes received into the system and managing all the electronic
applications and resumes is necessary. Lastly, time will be needed to work with any outside agency or search
firm retained for the recruitment activity to have status update phone calls and to discuss and vet potential
candidates. It is critical to determine who needs to be included in the recruitment process for a job and how
much time each point person will need to dedicate to their respective tasks and responsibilities.

Figure 6.1 has been designed to provide you with a graphical depiction of the entire recruitment process, with
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attention given to the identification and consideration of these key factors before any actual recruiting out-
reach activity takes place. We explore all these steps and focus areas throughout this chapter.

Recruitment Strategy: An Internal Approach

Internal recruitment involves implementing an outreach within an organization to existing full-time, part-time,
and temporary employees and interns with current job opportunities, typically enabling qualified and interest-
ed internal candidates to apply and be considered before an external recruitment effort takes place. A new
job opportunity may be appealing to an internal candidate for a variety of reasons, including transitioning from
part-time to full-time status (or vice versa), being promoted, moving into a managerial role, transferring from
one area to another (e.g., department, business unit, geographic location), and even stepping down from a
higher-level role.

Internal Recruitment: The process of implementing an outreach within an organization for a job open-
ing to existing employees, enabling them to apply and be considered before external recruiting activity
occurs.

While recruiting through external channels (which we will explore in the next section) occurs in most every
organization, internal recruiting is not as ubiquitous and therefore may be slightly less understood. An organi-
zation may not consider an internal recruitment approach for several reasons. Perhaps historically the orga-
nization has not recruited internally, and this has become part of the culture and “the way things are done.”
Another reason could be the HR function does not know enough about the benefits of internal recruitment to
be able to confidently recommend this approach to managers with hiring needs and implement it competently
and consistently. Maybe the HR function is so inundated with pressing day-to-day needs and issues that there
is little time to research and design an internal recruitment process to integrate into the overall recruitment
strategy, even though it would make a substantial long-term impact. Whatever the reason, internal recruit-
ment is an approach that more organizations should be leveraging because the benefits typically outweigh

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the costs and challenges. The two most common and effective internal recruitment approaches are internal
postings and employee referrals, which we will examine next.

Common Methods for Internal Recruitment

Internal Postings

The use of internal postings to drive an internal recruiting effort can be a cost- and time-efficient method
for many organizations to implement before moving to other recruiting approaches that are more costly or
require greater effort and resources. Before technology completely transformed business processes, internal
postings were simply hard-copy job announcements that were regularly posted on bulletin boards throughout
the organization’s physical site and in the HR department. These job postings provided pertinent information
about the job, including its responsibilities and duties as well as required qualifications and the application
procedure. Today, internal job postings are still often distributed in this manner as well as electronically. Most
organizations have some type of internal portal that only employees have access to view, often with a dedi-
cated HR area for posting resources and information pertaining to payroll, benefits, performance appraisals,
training programs, and job opportunities. This is an ideal location for posting updates regarding job opportu-
nities because of the scope of the outreach, especially in organizations with multiple locations and business
units where hard-copy bulletin board announcements may not be adhered to consistently in every physical
location. Additionally, employees who travel frequently or work remotely may rely on electronic information
distribution because they are not working on-site with any degree of regularity or frequency (if at all).

Internal Posting: A job announcement that is distributed within an organization through hard-copy
and/or electronic means of communication.

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Figure 6.1 Recruitment Strategy Flow Chart

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It is a good idea to consider a combination approach of hard-copy and electronic internal job posting because
there will most likely be employees who do not work on or have regular access to a computer and may be at a
disadvantage if job postings are only provided electronically. For example, my HR career began in manufac-
turing environments; there were some office and administrative departments within the physical sites of the
companies where I worked, but the vast majority of employees worked in the plant on machinery as equip-
ment operators, maintenance mechanics, line supervisors, and quality assurance technicians. There was only
one computer station at each major production line in the plant that employees did not necessarily have to
access on every shift, but there were several large bulletin boards that they all walked past multiple times
every day to get to the breakroom, the restrooms, the HR department, and the doors to the parking lot. These
employees were more likely to see job postings on these bulletin boards than they were on the company por-
tal online.

In order for an internal job posting practice to be effective, you need a consistent process. Identify all the
places where you plan to post job opportunities, whether only electronically, only hard copy, or both, and spec-
ify them in a procedure. In my manufacturing example, we documented every bulletin board location in our
procedure so that every time we made the rounds with new postings, we hit each bulletin board. Next, deter-
mine a time frame for internal candidates to submit an application, and this may vary among organizations
based on the culture and logistics such as work shift schedules. It is recommended that an internal job posting
be active with enough time for internal candidates to see it and gather all their application materials to be sub-
mitted but not so much time that internal candidates do not perceive any sense of urgency in applying. A time
frame of one week may be too brief, but one month may be too long. Remember, this approach is often a first
step in the recruitment process, and if no qualified candidates come forward internally, you still need time to
develop and conduct an external outreach. Lastly, the job posting itself should be comprehensive yet succinct
(i.e., one page), accurate, and current, and all postings should look consistent. Most organizations will use
a template. An example of a job posting that I created, based on my own experience as an HR professional
having researched and benchmarked many credible resources over the years, can be seen in Figure 6.2.

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Figure 6.2 Internal Job Posting Example

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Employee Referrals

In my opinion, employee referrals are not entirely an internal recruiting approach; they are more of a hybrid
between internal and external recruitment. But they do originate within an organization, and therefore, I will
maintain employee referrals as an internal recruitment approach. Employee referrals can actually occur in-
formally or formally. Informally, an employee can simply see a job posting or hear about a job opportunity and
share that information with someone outside the organization who may be interested in applying. An orga-
nization can also have a formal employee referral program in place, often with incentives for employees to
recommend qualified candidates in their personal, social, or professional circles for job opportunities. Some
programs offer a monetary incentive, $50 for example, to an employee who refers someone for a job and is
actually hired. Other programs may offer a monetary incentive that is larger, say $500, to an employee who
refers someone for a job and that person is not only hired but stays in the job for a specified period of time
(e.g., 6 months). There are also organizations that offer various nonmonetary incentives such as paid time off
and prizes.

Employee Referral: The ability for an employee to recommend an external individual as a prospective
job candidate.

Even with the inclusion of some form of incentive, the cost of an employee referral program is still far lower
than most external recruitment approaches. In addition, employee referrals offer unique benefits that external
recruiting and even internal job postings do not offer. First, there is typically a reasonable level of confidence
in the qualifications and potential fit of the individuals who are being recommended by existing employees,
primarily because their credibility and reputation are on the line. No one wants to refer someone for a job and
the result is that the person turns out to be a poor fit and makes the referring employee look bad. Second, the
individual being referred to apply for a job usually has a greater degree of understanding of the organizational
culture and job opportunity than other external candidates because he or she has inside knowledge from the
employee. Such a person is more likely to receive a realistic job preview from the employee and can deter-

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mine if he or she would be a good fit both in the job and with the organization.

If implemented consistently and fairly, these internal recruitment approaches have the potential to reach qual-
ity candidates in a cost-efficient manner before any external recruiting activity may even need to be consid-
ered. Even if these methods are implemented and no qualified internal and/or employee-referred candidates
are identified, requiring an external recruitment approach, it is still a valuable effort. An internal recruitment
strategy can demonstrate organizational loyalty to the workforce and instill the perception of the organiza-
tion’s willingness to invest in their professional needs and objectives of their current employees.

Benefits of Internal Recruitment

For the Organization

Perhaps the most significant benefit of internal recruiting for the organization is its cost efficiency. Recruitment
through external methods, as we will discuss in the next section, can be quite expensive. An external recruit-
ment effort for just one job opening can cost thousands of dollars. The cost of an internal recruitment effort is
minimal because there are no web job postings, newspaper ads, search firms, or agencies to pay.

Another benefit of internal recruiting for the organization is the extent of knowledge an internal job candidate
already has about the organization’s purpose, mission, values, history, culture, products, services, processes,
and stakeholders. Think about companies like PepsiCo, Apple, Toyota, and the vast amount of organizational
information a new employee has to learn in addition to learning the actual job. Even if an internal candidate
has been working in a different department from the one in which he or she would be working in the posted
job opportunity, that employee would still know more about the organization and how it operates than an ex-
ternal candidate, which does lessen the overall learning curve as a new hire.

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For the Job Candidate

Perhaps the most important benefit for internal job candidates is the ability to explore different jobs and career
paths within the organization in which they currently work. There are likely many employees working for or-
ganizations they love and who feel a strong commitment, but they may be in jobs they have outgrown or
in which they no longer feel fulfilled. For example, I worked with many employees who were interested in
internally posted job openings when I was working as an HR professional in a university setting. In that en-
vironment, there were many jobs that were very similar across the different departments on campus. When
we posted a job internally, say an administrative assistant in the athletics department, we often had qualified
candidates come forward to apply who were working in the same type of job but in other departments, such
as the bursar’s office, residence life, or an academic area such as the school of business. In many instances,
the internal candidates were interested in a change of scenery after working in one place for years, or had a
vision for their career that required a lateral move to gain specific experience for future promotion potential.
An example of this type of situation may be an employee who applies for an administrative assistant job in the
financial aid department, which would be a lateral move, but the employee is working on an MBA at the same
time, and that job move would provide the experience necessary to be considered for a future promotion into
an assistant director of financial aid position. The point is that employees will have many reasons for wishing
to explore other job opportunities within the organization, and internal recruitment enables movement among
employees into jobs that could be a better fit for them or help them grow their careers, which may result in
greater employee engagement, organizational commitment, and a stronger workforce.

Challenges of Internal Recruitment

A common challenge for internal recruiting involves the objectivity of the hiring managers and decision makers
themselves. As we continue to work for an organization in a job, we get to know coworkers, managers, and
senior leaders fairly well over the months and years we are employed. Relationships are forged and profes-
sional connections strengthened. We also develop impressions and judgments about others within the work-
place, positive and negative, and these perceptions can cause us to think and act subjectively. It is just as
problematic to make decisions based on an overly positive perception about another person as it is to make

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decisions based on an overly negative perception, and this can happen in a work environment just as often
as it happens in our personal lives. With internal candidates, we know more about their personalities, work
styles, their reputation, who they do not work well or get along with, and any alliances they have formed with-
in the organization than with external candidates. This can work for or against an internal candidate when a
hiring decision is made. In addition, an employee’s background, behaviors, and personal characteristics can
impact his or her candidacy. HR professionals, recruiters, hiring managers, and anyone else involved in can-
didate decisions must be aware of personal biases, such as similarity bias. Also referred to as the just like
me phenomenon, this is the tendency to like or prefer a particular person based on attributes or personal el-
ements that are similar to our own, including race, gender, age, family status, personal style, and so on. Of
course, similarity bias can happen with external candidates, but with internal candidates there is more per-
sonal information known, and established relationships between candidates and key decision makers and/or
senior-level management may exist. Similarity bias can result in poor decision making that can be discrimina-
tory and illegal. What makes this type of bias particularly troublesome is that it may not be blatantly obvious
with just one or two internal hires. Subjectivity such as similarity bias may emerge slowly, perhaps over years,
as many certain candidates are hired and comparisons can be made from a longitudinal perspective.

Similarity Bias: Also referred to as the just like me phenomenon, the tendency to like or prefer a par-
ticular person based on attributes that are similar to our own.

Another challenge that exists with internal recruitment concerns privacy issues. It is safe to assume that the
majority of internal job candidates will likely want their application process and pursuit of another job within
the organization to be kept confidential and not shared with anyone else (especially their current supervisor
or manager) beyond the HR function and the hiring manager. This means that a partnership between HR and
the hiring manager is critical to maintain professionalism, privacy, and discretion throughout the entire inter-
nal recruiting process. Employees should be provided with a discreet way to inquire and apply for the posted
job, and all communication should be with the internal candidates only, not their coworkers and certainly not
their boss. This means that voice mail messages should not be left on phones that are shared by multiple
employees in a department, hard-copy correspondence should not be sent through interoffice mail but rather

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to the candidate’s home address, no one else should be copied on e-mails, and care should be taken when
verbally discussing the job or the candidate in an open environment where others may be present. The goal
is for no one other than HR and the hiring manager to be aware that employees have applied for an internal
job opening in case they do not receive an offer and remain in their current job and department. Maintaining
this level of internal candidate privacy will create an assurance of discretion and result in employees feeling
more comfortable and trusting in the process and perhaps more likely to apply for a posted job that piques
their interest.

Internal Recruitment Questions to Address

• Will the internal job posting be worded the same as an external advertisement?

• What will be the process for submitting an application? Will interested individuals be instructed to
apply directly through the HR department?

• How will the job posting be communicated out to the entire organization?

• Where will interviews be conducted—on-site or off-site?

• Will interviews be conducted after the candidate’s normal work hours/shift?

• Will the current supervisor or manager of each internal candidate be informed of their application,
or will the applicant’s privacy be upheld throughout the process?

Recruitment Strategy: An External Approach

There are a variety of external recruitment options, ranging from a very basic and no-cost “Help Wanted”
sign in the window of a business on one end of the recruitment spectrum to a more complex and also costly
partnership with an executive search firm on the other end of the spectrum, and many other viable options in

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between. While there is some commonality among the different external recruiting methods, deciding on an
approach should not be made with a one-size-fits-all perspective, or a view that the cheapest method is the
best way to proceed. There are certain recruiting methods that will be more appropriate to certain types of
jobs or situations. Anyone with recruiting and hiring experience, whether an HR professional, hiring manager,
or consultant, will attest to the considerable time and budgetary resources that are needed to attract, identify,
hire, and retain talented employees. The idea of saving time and money by selecting an external recruitment
method inappropriate to a particular job will not yield an adequate number of qualified candidates and is sim-
ply a waste of resources. This often results in the need to repeat the entire process in the likelihood that the
person selected does not work out in the job.

External Recruitment: The process of reaching out to prospective job candidates outside of the or-
ganization with job opportunities.

Common Methods for External Recruitment

Organizational Websites

An organization’s website can be a simple recruiting method that does not require significant time or bud-
getary resources, allowing job seekers outside of the organization to view current job opportunities. Typical-
ly, this would involve the HR professional responsible for recruitment working with the webmaster or IT pro-
fessional responsible for website updates on publishing open job postings and removing closed or filled job
postings as needed. Depending on the size of the organization and the volume of recruitment activity, this
maintenance may be on a daily, weekly, monthly, or as-needed basis.

Push Technology: A technology modality in which information is automatically sent to recipients who
have expressed an interest in receiving updates.

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It is important to note that this approach requires job seekers to proactively explore organizations’ websites
on a regular basis. This is not a push technology, or a modality in which information is automatically sent
or “pushed” out to recipients who have expressed an interest in receiving regular updates. Not only do job
seekers have to actively examine each organization’s website in which they may be interested in working with
some degree of frequency, but they also have to be able to locate the job postings on each website fairly eas-
ily. I have explored job postings on many different organizational websites, and I can attest from experience
that some organizations do an excellent job with a structured and comprehensive job postings area on their
respective websites, and some organizations could use some improvement. Some best practices for design-
ing and maintaining an accurate and organized website job board may include the following components:

• The location of the job postings area (i.e., its web page) is easy to find, with either a link to “Careers”
or “Employment Opportunities” on the organization’s home page or a direct link to the HR web page
on the organization’s home page, with a link to job opportunities located within the HR area.
• All the job openings are current; there are no jobs posted in which the search is closed and/or the job
has been filled.
• The job postings are logically organized by a common set of parameters and can be searched using
different criteria (e.g., full time/part time, by department, by location).
• Each job posting contains all necessary information about the job, including the title, work hours/
schedule, unique working conditions such as travel requirements, and duties/responsibilities, as well
as all minimum experience, education, and KSAO qualifications and any “preferred” qualifications if
applicable (which we will discuss a little later on in the chapter).
• The application procedure is clear and straightforward, and instructions are provided with each job
posting, so there is no need to have to return to a previous web page for this information. All links to
electronic application systems are reliable and working properly.

Newspapers and Periodicals

Until recently, with the evolution of technology and the Internet, the publishing of job advertisements in news-

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papers, professional magazines, and trade journals had been perhaps the most common and widely used
outreach modality for external recruiting. Today, job candidates still review job ads in the classified sections
of hard-copy newspapers and other periodicals, but these options have their limitations. First, their outreach
is significantly limited compared to job postings published online. Not everyone will have access to the partic-
ular periodicals in which a job ad is published. A second and related issue is that not everyone actually reads
hard-copy periodicals anymore, and if they do, it may be inconsistently. Lastly, the cost of publishing job ads
in hard-copy newspapers and periodicals is quite expensive, from a few hundred dollars for a small line ad in
a local paper to several thousand dollars for one medium-size ad in a larger newspaper, monthly magazine,
or quarterly journal.

Nevertheless, this is still a viable option for external recruiting because there continues to be an adequate
number of people who will search the jobs ads in this manner. Many newspapers and periodicals are now
typically including a free online job posting on their websites as part of the cost of the hard-copy publishing as
an incentive for organizations to continue advertising with them. This strategy benefits employers because it
helps to expand the outreach to prospective job candidates for no more money than the cost of the print ad-
vertisement itself. Again, a combination of appropriate outreach approaches can ensure that the job posting
is actually reaching individuals in a variety of ways.

Agencies and Search Firms

Organizations use outside firms to assist in external recruiting for a variety of reasons. Most commonly, they
are utilized for short-term and interim job needs and for finding candidates in niche industries or with unique
qualifications and expertise.

• Temporary agencies provide organizations with candidates for part-time or full-time jobs in which a
vacancy exists for several days, weeks, or months. The reason may be that an employee has gone
on leave for a period of time but will return, or an employee has left the organization but someone
needs to work in the job in the interim while the organization is evaluating the job for any changes
or conducting the search for a permanent employee. A benefit of temporary agencies is they often
vet and select candidates through their own assessment methods, so they can provide help to their
clients with an assurance that the employee will be a good fit for the job.

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• Industry/field-specific and executive search firms specialize in recruiting candidates in particular

fields such as information technology or accounting, in particular industries such as health care or
insurance, or senior- and executive-level professionals. They can facilitate the recruiting process for
organizations who do not have the means to find such candidates. Search firms have the advantage
of having extensive pipelines of qualified candidates because this is their business focus. Because of
these connections and the high level of knowledge and expertise in identifying talented candidates,
these types of search firms can be costly to retain. For many organizations, the financial investment
is worth it for recruiting candidates with exceptional or hard-to-find professional credentials and qual-
ifications.

Social Media

Social media outlets are increasingly being used by employers, recruitment agencies and search firms, and
job seekers. These types of platforms enable users to grow their personal and professional networks to devel-
op meaningful connections with others for myriad reasons. Most people today are familiar with Facebook for
connecting and sharing information with family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and special-interest groups. In-
creasingly, organizations are using Facebook for more professional purposes, including recruitment, to reach
its millions of users worldwide for sharing information about the organization and what it is like to work there,
as well as news updates, events, and job opportunities. Facebook users can “like” the Facebook pages of
various organizations, which will then appear in the users’ newsfeeds every time they log in. This is a semi-
push type of technology in terms of recruitment because users have to like an organization’s Facebook page
for it to appear in their newsfeeds. But even if they do this, any information about the organization, such as
job openings, may not be readily available to view if users do not check their newsfeeds with some degree
of frequency. However, individuals who do subscribe to organizations’ Facebook pages and see an important
update posted, such as a job opportunity, can share this information and “tag” any of their contacts to bring
the item to their attention. This is the social media version of a word-of-mouth referral process, with the po-
tential for tremendously high outreach.

Facebook is just one example of a social media tool being successfully used for recruitment. Twitter, YouTube,
Instagram, and Pinterest are also popular social media platforms that, though originally used mainly for per-

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sonal and social use, have evolved to professional use as well. Organizations are also creating YouTube
channels and posting videos that depict what it is like to work for them, or news and developments that pas-
sive and active job seekers might be interested in learning. Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest may offer brief
and pithy sound bites of information or photos to pique a viewer’s interest enough to want to explore an or-
ganization in more depth. For example, the U.S.-based supermarket chain Kroger leverages Facebook and
Twitter to post job and internship opportunities and announce events such as job fairs, finding success with
users in the sharing of information as well as fostering a greater sense of community through this outreach
and connection effort (Robb, 2014). A social media strategy can also be beneficial in creating brand aware-
ness within different demographic groups or in geographic areas that had not been part of any prior recruit-
ment activity, facilitating the development of a pipeline of skilled, qualified job candidates located anywhere
around the world and in any field or industry.

The last social media example I will discuss commonly used in recruitment is one that was designed more
purely and specifically for professional networking and job search purposes: LinkedIn. The LinkedIn profes-
sional networking platform provides substantial benefits for prospective job candidates whether they are ac-
tive or passive, as well as organizations and recruitment firms. A user’s profile on LinkedIn is essentially his or
her resume, with sections for experience, education, languages, skill sets, publications, presentations, spe-
cial projects, volunteer work, and other elements that may comprise an individual’s professional background.
LinkedIn profiles are all public, so care should be taken to include only the most-appropriate personal infor-
mation. Because the profiles are all public, any user can view any profiles at any time, which is quite valuable
to organizations as they search for potential job candidates with qualifications that align with current and/or
projected job openings. This is a particularly useful feature for identifying individuals who may not be actively
searching for jobs but who may be interested in learning about job opportunities as they are made aware,
also known as the passive candidate. Often, recruiters will search profiles using data mining tools that iden-
tify profiles by keywords, saving a great deal of time and effort from having to search using more manual
processes. As a professor, I advise my students to search the LinkedIn profiles of individuals who are working
in jobs that they are interested in and note the keywords and phrases in their profiles, as they will comprise
the necessary KSAOs, education, and experience as well as the jobs’ duties and responsibilities. This activity
may also highlight who the key players are in a desired professional field or industry. HR professionals can
also perform this exercise as part of the job analysis process, as I mentioned in Chapter 3.

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Organizations can also post jobs on LinkedIn’s job board, which will reach active job seekers. Users can “fol-
low” organizations so that news and job posting announcements will appear in their updates feed every time
they log in, and this information can be shared with others regardless of whether or not they have a LinkedIn
profile. The system is intuitive, in that a user will also receive periodic e-mail notifications with jobs that may
be of interest based on profile keywords, past job searches, LinkedIn groups of which a user is a member,
and the organizations being followed.

©iStock.com/franckreporter

Some organizations are finding success with leveraging social media sites to create databases of potential
candidates, reaching out to them with job openings in their respective fields or areas of expertise as they be-
come available. Other organizations are developing their own proprietary social media platforms for recruiting
and other networking practices. For example, the online retailer Zappos has built “Zappos Insiders” in which

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job seekers can become members, which enables them to interact with current employees, ask questions,
learn about the company’s mission, vision, business objectives, and practices, and receive news and updates
(Robb, 2014).

A key point to be raised here is that today’s job seekers are savvy; they are accustomed to having rapid, if
not immediate, access to information about anything, and they expect organizations to be transparent in their
sharing of information to the outside population. Social media is a growing resource for HR professionals,
hiring managers, and consultants to grow their recruitment outreach efforts in a more targeted and effective
manner, as well as for job seekers to learn more about the organizations they could possibly be working for in
the future to increase the likelihood of a mutually beneficial fit. Organizations should be actively using social
media sites in their assessment of the labor market and the types of potential candidates that are exploring
job opportunities, and what they are looking for in terms of appealing opportunities and career path.

Designing a Compelling External Job Posting

When developing a job posting or advertisement, it is important to not only think about the job itself but also
the elements of the job and the organization that will likely appeal to qualified potential candidates in the pop-
ulation. I always remind my students, colleagues, and consulting clients to keep What’s In It For Me (WIIFM)
in mind as part of any strategic process in which approval, support, or appeal is critical from outside stake-
holders, and recruitment is no different. What’s “in it” for talented job seekers, whether passively or actively
exploring job opportunities, to work for a particular organization in a particular job? Apart from the obvious
WIIFM factors such as a paycheck and a benefits package, what would a job candidate need or want to know
that can be integrated in a recruitment outreach? Think about ideal, high-performing individuals that would be
a great fit for a job, and consider what factors would attract them to (a) read a job posting and (b) submit an
application. Let’s explore some critical factors that impact appeal to job seekers.

Location

The physical location of a job is important to potential job candidates for a variety of reasons. First, is the
location within a reasonable commuting distance? This may be out of the organization’s control, but it is a
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factor that gets serious consideration when job seekers are exploring job opportunities. A job seeker will cer-
tainly want to explore all the available options for getting to and from the work location, including the different
driving routes; public transportation alternatives such as train, subway, bus, and ferry; and rideshare/carpool
programs. The more viable commuting options, the better it will be for both the employees and the organiza-
tion. If the job is located nearby to a growing or established residential area, that factor will be quite appealing
to job seekers who live in the area as well as job seekers who may need to relocate and do not want to live
too far from the job in a new city or town.

If the job is in a remote location or a location that may be challenging to get to, such as an airport or an office
in a congested urban area, then other attributes should be highlighted to offset this reality. For example, an
organization may be located very close to the entrance and exits on a major highway, or there may be public
transportation such as a train or bus stop that is within walking distance. Many organizations offer free shuttle
service to and from local train stations so employees do not have to walk in the dark or in inclement weather
conditions.

If the job location is in proximity to other businesses and services, such as banks, dry cleaners, child care,
shops, and food establishments, that should also be highlighted to prospective job candidates as nearby con-
veniences. Organizations that have various on-site services and amenities should also highlight this attribute,
which is a valued convenience for anyone with daily errand lists (which probably includes all of us) that in-
clude trips to the dry cleaner, post office, gym/fitness center, and other stops.

Job Title

While this factor may vary in terms of its importance to job seekers and may not often be a deal breaker when
it comes down to accepting a job offer, the job title is an element that has impact on a job’s appeal to potential
candidates. Think about job titles that have evolved over the years: stewardess has become flight attendant,
secretary has become administrative assistant, and salesperson has become account executive, to name a
few examples. Today, the former job title in all three of these examples would probably sound unappealing
and even antiquated to most people. If the job title sounds boring, lackluster, old fashioned, or even demean-
ing, qualified job seekers may be too put off right from the start to continue reading the details about the job

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in the posting.

Having worked as an HR professional for many years, I have worked for organizations that have had to main-
tain fairly dull job titles for various reasons. One common reason is because only certain job titles may be
recognized in a particular human resources information reporting system (HRIS), and the job title parameters
may be due to a limit on the number of characters in the job title or the need to use generic job titles from a
preset menu of options that have been programmed into a basic “off the shelf” HRIS that has not been cus-
tomized for an organization’s unique needs. Another common reason is because job titles may have to be
standardized across multiple locations nationally or globally, and they need to be simple, straightforward, and
translate cleanly and logically across many diverse geographic locations. In some situations, a generic and
standardized job title must be used for back-end workforce processes such as maintenance of organizational
charts, HRIS data entry and reporting, and payroll, but a more relevant and meaningful job title that aligns
with the standardized job title may be used for recruiting purposes, for business cards, and so on. While this
is a bit more effort to maintain, it is a practice that can make a dramatic difference to employees in their re-
spective jobs, resulting in increased job ownership and pride, accountability, and engagement.

Working Conditions and Logistics

The working conditions in which a job must be performed will also have an impact on the appeal of a job to
potential candidates, and most of the time these conditions are inherent to the job and cannot be changed.
Some of these conditions and logistical factors include the following:

• Shift days: Do the work days and days off remain the same, or do they rotate weekly/monthly? Are
weekends part of the normal shift schedule?
• Shift hours: Are the work hours part of a standard business operating day, or are they part of a
24-hour shift schedule? Are early mornings and/or late evenings ever required? Do shift hours re-
main the same or do they rotate?
• Holidays: Are public holidays part of the work schedule? If so, how are they assigned?
• Working environment: Where is the work performed, and what are the conditions of the working en-
vironment (e.g., indoors/outdoors, seated/standing, quiet/loud)?
• Travel requirements: Is any travel required for the job? If so, what would be the frequency and dis-

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tance (e.g., regionally, nationally, globally)?

In many cases, candidates will be well aware of the unique working conditions that come with a particular job.
For example, a person interested in pursuing work as a flight attendant will know that the job requires a signif-
icant amount of travel, and a job candidate for the position of a retail store salesperson would understand that
there would be no chance of ever working from home. Fortunately, there are many jobs in which the unique
working conditions appeal to some people and dissuade others. My postal carrier walks from house to house
on his route, and the postal carriers in our area must brave all weather conditions on foot all year long to de-
liver the mail. One person may take one look at a job like this and think, “There is no way I am lugging around
a heavy mailbag in the pouring rain or on icy sidewalks in the winter!” while another person may be com-
pletely attracted to being outdoors, getting daily exercise, and not being at a desk all day long—to each their
own. The same idea holds true for many other types of jobs that tend to have a polarizing effect on people,
including truck drivers, restaurant servers, salespeople, taxi drivers, and so on. As you can imagine, there are
a great many jobs that come with a unique set of working conditions and logistical considerations. Some, as
in these examples, may be rather obvious while some may not be as apparent, especially for a person new
to that type of job. A person considering a job that may appear to be a fairly straightforward Monday to Friday
type of job, such as the admissions director for a college, may not be aware that working a Saturday once
every month is required for open houses, new student orientations, and other events.

While it may be challenging to make certain working conditions sound appealing and interesting in a job post-
ing, and perhaps tempting to gloss over or omit some key elements, it is advisable to be honest and straight-
forward right from the beginning of the recruiting process. If the working conditions are without question part
of the job, then all potential job candidates should be aware of them, however harsh or stringent they may
appear. Remember, what may seem tough or unappealing to one person may sound amazing to someone
else; this is the nature of individual perception. The goal is to attract not only the most qualified candidates but
also those individuals who fully understand and accept the scope and parameters of the job and the context
in which it must be performed.

As you can imagine, there are other factors that impact the extent to which a job posting will appeal to job
seekers, but these factors tend to emerge as the most important to the majority of potential job candidates

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and possibly affect someone’s decision to submit an application. For the most part, these factors focus on the
“attracting candidates” component—showcasing the attributes of an organization and a job that will be per-
ceived as valuable and hopefully stand out among many other postings. It is also important to include specific
job qualifications to set clear expectations for both the KSAO requirements and the most critical duties and
responsibilities of the job in an effort to take care of the “deterring unqualified candidates” component. The
sample job posting in Figure 6.3 depicts both of these components.

Let’s examine this sample job posting for elements that are successful. To start, the question that appears
at the top of the posting is an intriguing opening and will likely appeal to the appropriate individuals—those
with a creative background—and compel them to continue reading. This is a feature not always seen in job
postings, and if you have the space to integrate it, may allow your posting to stand out from the others. This
type of question is also strategic in that it will address the need to appeal to qualified potential candidates
while tactfully and gently discouraging unqualified individuals from pursuing the job opportunity. Personally, if
I came upon this job posting, I would not feel the need to continue reading beyond this first question, as I am
not an artistically creative person. Will this type of question deter every unqualified individual from applying
for the job? It probably will not, though it is highly likely to reduce the number of unqualified applicants signifi-
cantly, which will save time and monetary resources.

Next, let’s look at the job title: Creative Display Artisan. Is it a clever and unique job title while still sounding
professional, like a real job? Yes, it is. As mentioned earlier in this section, just because an organization is
required to maintain standardized job titles for back-end administrative and reporting processes does not al-
ways mean that you are stuck with the title of Signmaker I in your recruitment strategy for a job such as this
one. As long as a title developed is used consistently across all employees in that particular job and it aligns
with, or “crosswalks” to, the same general job title used for all data and reporting systems, this is a reasonable
practice that will make quite a positive difference to potential job candidates.

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Figure 6.3 Job Posting Example: What Works

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Next, let’s examine the introductory paragraph that precedes the details of the job itself. First, the company
name is included, which most job seekers prefer over “company confidential” job postings. While there are
situations in which the organization’s name cannot be provided, such as when a search firm or agency has
been retained to conduct the recruitment process and has been instructed not to disclose the organization’s
identity in the advertisement, it is advisable to include this information in a job posting. After all, wouldn’t you
like to know the name and type of organization for whom you could potentially be working if you were looking
for a job? This is a desirable piece of information in a job posting. If the name of the organization cannot be
provided, for whatever reason, it would be helpful to determine if there are any other identifiers that could
perhaps be included, such as the industry or type of organization (e.g., investment firm, global insurance
provider, nonprofit agency specializing in urban housing development, sports apparel retailer).

Second, a brief yet informative description of the company is integrated into this opening summary, as well
as details regarding the location of the opportunity, the metropolitan New York City area. It is also clear from
the information provided—“talented individuals”—that there are multiple positions that need to be filled, and
it is likely that at least one individual will be hired for this position of Creative Display Artisan for each new
store location that is part of this metropolitan NYC expansion. The next sentence in this opening summary
offers a succinct description of the job and its key responsibilities, basically a “what is the main role of this job”
type of statement. As you can see from this example, a great deal of information can be gleaned from a brief,
yet strategically worded, overview paragraph. Because space is often at a premium, certainly for print adver-
tisements but also for online job board postings, every single word has to be carefully chosen for maximum
description, appeal, and impact.

To wrap up our exploration of this job posting, let’s review the specific details provided about the job’s respon-
sibilities and candidate qualifications. As you can imagine, this information is often taken from the current job
description. To refresh your memory on a key point discussed in the job analysis and job description chapters,
this information is leveraged in many different ways and is the main reason why it is so important to maintain
accurate and up-to-date job descriptions. Whenever you see the job responsibilities and qualifications listed
this way, in bullet-point fashion, the person who created the job posting most likely took this information di-
rectly from an existing job description.

A pragmatic and thoughtful approach should be taken when deciding which information to include from a job

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description, which may be typically several pages in length and contain much more detail than will be included
in the job posting. The specific details regarding job responsibilities included in the job posting should reflect
the main areas in which an individual will be expected to perform on a regular basis. It is not necessary to
include every single task, but rather the tasks and activities that are most integral to the job and a potential
candidate’s understanding of the job. Also, consider any tasks which may overlap, or perhaps basic tasks that
would inherently “roll up” into more complex tasks. In the job posting example, it is not necessary to include
a task that specifies the need for daily e-mail communication with the marketing and creative design teams
because that is going to be a vital element in the task “collaborate with the marketing and creative design
teams on the development of flyers, coupon books, and other promotional materials.” While the job descrip-
tion in its entirety may include a specific bullet point pertaining to daily e-mail communication within the job
responsibilities section, it is not necessary in the job posting.

Regarding the section on qualifications, include the elements that are absolutely necessary to perform the job
effectively. If there are current employees that have been working in this job for any amount of time, make
sure that the qualifications in the posting align with the general range of qualifications among the existing job
incumbents. Consider this common scenario: If several individuals were hired in this exact same job (in the
same salary grade/range) 2 years ago with a master’s degree because it was determined that a graduate
degree was the required minimum education level, and now the same job is posted with a bachelor’s degree
as the required education level, the organization will now be faced with an equity issue. If a hiring manag-
er would really like to bring someone on board with a master’s degree if possible, but in reality a bachelor’s
degree is the education level needed to competently perform the job, then consider integrating the graduate
degree as a preferred element within the job qualifications. The extent to which you may include preferred
qualifications will depend on various factors, such as current labor pool conditions. If the labor market is more
employer friendly (i.e., there are more qualified candidates seeking work than there are available jobs), then
it is possible to raise the bar by including preferred qualifications. However, it is important to include the min-
imum qualifications first and foremost, followed by any preferred areas of education, experience, or KSAO
qualifications. I cannot stress enough the importance of only including the qualifications that are necessary
to perform the job in a competent and effective manner. Do not consider that an abundant labor pool full of
talented job seekers is a free pass to inappropriately inflate job qualifications in your recruitment outreach.
A job candidate with an MFA degree and years of experience as a curator for the Metropolitan Museum of

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Art, while perhaps a silly example, would be ridiculously overqualified for the job example of Creative Display
Artisan. Again, the goal of a recruitment strategy is to attract qualified candidates and deter unqualified can-
didates (including significantly overqualified candidates) with the information presented.

Recruitment Legal and Ethical Considerations

To conclude this chapter, let’s examine the legal and ethical considerations for an internal recruitment strate-
gy. There is currently no federal, state, or local legal requirement mandating that organizations must include
an internal recruiting element in their hiring strategy. This is a decision that is completely in the hands of the
employer. But if an organization chooses to include an internal posting process in their overall recruitment
strategy, then that process must also adhere to the same federal and state legislation pertaining to legally
compliant employment practices as does an external recruitment strategy, including Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 and the other key pieces of employment-related legislation we explored in Chapter 2.

From an ethical perspective, an internal recruitment policy should be carefully designed and consistently im-
plemented in order for it to be perceived as fair and transparent. If an internal recruitment process is part of
the selection strategy, then internal candidates who possess the necessary job qualifications should feel con-
fident that they are actually being seriously considered. If employees believe an internal recruitment process
is in place just for the organization to look good and only the external candidates are those being consid-
ered, it will most likely backfire and result in jaded and demoralized employees. Additionally, there should be
a detailed description of an organization’s internal recruitment protocol to ensure consistency. This is impor-
tant for small single-location employers as well as large organizations with multiple locations, branches, and
business units. For example, is internal recruitment required across all locations and business units, or for
some areas and not others? Attention to the types of jobs (e.g., full time only, full time and part time) that
are included in the internal recruitment policy is also important because existing employees will look to the
internal recruitment effort as a vehicle for career development. With a specific and clearly articulated process
in place, alignment of expectations across the workforce can be better managed, and misinterpretations can
be minimized.

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Legal and ethical compliance is also a critical requirement for an external recruiting process. All federal and
state legislation pertaining to employment-related decisions should be factored into external recruiting activity.
For many organizations, this translates into the extent to which they are casting a wide-enough net to reach
and potentially attract as diverse a population of qualified candidates as possible. Are recruiting efforts actual-
ly reaching prospective candidates from different demographic groups? If auditors or representatives from the
Department of Labor or Equal Employment Opportunity Commission come into the organization to examine
recruitment activity records for different jobs, they will certainly want to see that a good-faith effort is being
made to reach a diverse pool of qualified candidates as much as possible.

From an ethical perspective, it is important to provide accurate and current information to outside candidates
so they feel confident they are not being misled and the job information is clear and credible. Have you ever
seen a job posting appear on a job board or in a newspaper’s classified section over and over, and every few
months the same job within the same organization surfaces? One possible reason for this on-again/off-again
job posting scenario is that the organization has a disorganized recruitment process. Perhaps the job is not
accurately represented in the posting and poor hires keep getting made over and over again, or perhaps the
appropriate budgetary and other resources are not secured to move the process forward, or some other dis-
connect within the process exists and is not being addressed. While this is not necessarily a legal issue, it is
rather unethical in a manner of leading candidates down a road with no fruitful outcome, or having candidates
spend precious time submitting resumes and completing applications that ultimately go nowhere.

Organizational Best Practices

Groupon’s Innovative Recruitment and Its People Blog

Groupon is a global online marketplace with a mission to drive consumers and commerce to local mer-
chants of products and services anywhere in the world. Through its vast network of vendors, Groupon
offers shoppers a wide array of choices on everything from furniture and home goods, apparel, person-
al care and wellness services, electronics, entertainment, travel, and more. Groupon has successfully
built a business model that enables consumers to take advantage of unique deals and offers made
possible through their strong merchant partnerships.

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Groupon has developed an innovative approach to its recruitment strategy, which leverages technol-
ogy and social media in its outreach to talented prospective job candidates. According to Groupon’s
recruitment team, the focus is on the candidates. They genuinely want to provide the public with reli-
able and credible information about what it is like to work for Groupon. The hope is that this informa-
tion sharing will enable individuals to make well-educated decisions regarding how closely Groupon’s
vision, culture, and values align with their own and whether to pursue job opportunities with the com-
pany.

To accomplish this goal, Groupon has successfully implemented what they refer to as the People blog
(https://people.groupon.com/), which went live in July 2012. The rationale for creating the People blog
was comprised of a desire to actually show people what it was like to work for Groupon rather than
simply telling them, to share the unique attributes of the work environment, and to create a more mean-
ingful bond with potential candidates built on authenticity and objectivity. Employees from different ar-
eas and functions within Groupon are highlighted in the People blog, with new posts made several
times a week. Each employee can contribute a unique professional profile to the blog, or showcase
their creativity through their desk and workspace design, or share their perspectives on working for
Groupon. Each post in the People blog also links to a job opportunity in the particular function or de-
partment of the employee highlighted in that post (e.g., account executive, marketing). As a result of
the success of the People blog, Groupon created a YouTube channel as an additional social media
outreach modality so that people may also view video clips of employees sharing their perspectives
and information about working for the company.

In addition to the positive impact derived as effective recruitment tactic, Groupon’s People blog and
their clever use of social media has resulted in additional benefits. Being highlighted and showcased in
this manner has fostered a greater sense of the company’s value and appreciation toward its employ-
ees, enhancing employee engagement and commitment to the company vision and values. Employ-
ees will often share posts from the People blog and YouTube video clips with their family and friends,
which facilitates even greater exposure and acts in some way as an employee referral mechanism.

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From a data mining perspective, Groupon’s analysts can examine the volume of traffic to the different
posts in the People blog and how many clicks are made on certain job postings and links to various
resources, enabling them to tap into the needs and trends of the labor market more effectively.

Groupon has created a compelling user experience through the use of social media and technology-
driven outreach tools for prospective job candidates and individuals who are simply curious about
working for the company. Their success in developing a unique brand in terms of employment and their
workforce has led other organizations to follow suit. As social media continues to expand and evolve
in terms of its ubiquity and sophistication, it is likely that Groupon’s presence on key social networks
and media platforms will grow and adapt to engage with job seekers and make meaningful connec-
tions with qualified candidates who resonate with their story, their vision, and their people. For more
information, check out Groupon’s job page at https://jobs.groupon.com/.

Source: Glassdoor. (2014, July). 5 ways Groupon took employer branding to the next level [Web log
post]. Retrieved from https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/groupon-and-employer-branding/

As with every strategy included in this book, consideration must go toward designing assessment practices
and processes that are accurate and reliable in terms of the information and data from which they draw upon
and utilize, that are fair and consistent in their implementation, and that enable resource efficiency and ef-
fectiveness in meeting key objectives. An organization’s recruitment strategy is the first point of outreach to
potential job candidates in establishing this ideal scenario and will have a ripple effect on the other phases of
the employment life cycle—selection, performance management, and training and development. A structured
and comprehensive recruitment strategy will result in a solid, qualified, well-fitting employee hire, and we will
explore selection strategy and assessment of job candidates in the next chapter.

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Chapter Summary

• The goal of an effective recruitment strategy is to develop a compelling outreach for a job opportunity
that attracts qualified potential candidates, while at the same time deters unqualified individuals from
applying for the job.
• The recruitment of job candidates is considered to be both an art—pertaining to understanding the
value of a compelling job posting or advertisement, including its wording, placement, and timing, and
the importance of finding a balance between being too broad or too narrow in the outreach to po-
tential job candidates—and a science—pertaining to understanding the importance of evaluating re-
cruitment methods for effectiveness, resource efficiency, ethical practice, and legal compliance.
• A variety of internal and external factors may impact a recruiting effort and its effectiveness. Some of
these factors will be within the control of the organization, and some factors will be unavoidable and
unpredictable. Examples of factors that commonly affect recruitment include labor market conditions,
organizational reputation/image, competition from other organizations, and available resources for
recruitment.
• Internal recruitment involves implementing an outreach within an organization to existing full-time,
part-time, and temporary employees and interns with current job opportunities, typically enabling
qualified and interested internal candidates to apply and be considered before an external recruit-
ment effort takes place. The two most common and effective internal recruitment approaches are
internal postings and employee referrals.
• External recruitment involves a strategic outreach to prospective job candidates outside of the or-
ganization with job opportunities. There are certain recruiting methods that will be more appropriate
to certain types of jobs or situations. Many organizations use a combination of methods, such as
publishing jobs on their own website, online job boards, social media sites, temporary agencies and
retained search firms, and newspapers and periodicals, to reach out to qualified external candidates.
• When developing a job posting or advertisement, it is important to think not only about the job itself
but also the elements of the job and the organization that will likely appeal to qualified potential candi-
dates in the population. Such elements may include the extent to which qualified candidates resonate
with the description of the organization, the physical job location, the job title, how the job duties and
responsibilities are depicted, and the working conditions and logistics.
• Legal and ethical compliance is a critical requirement for both internal and external recruitment
processes. All federal and state legislation pertaining to employment-related decisions should be fac-
tored into recruiting activity. For many organizations, this translates into the extent to which they are
casting a wide-enough net to reach and potentially attract as diverse a population of qualified candi-

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dates as possible. Recruiting efforts should be effectively reaching prospective candidates from dif-
ferent demographic groups.

Key Terms

Employee Referral 142

External Recruitment 145
Internal Posting 138
Internal Recruitment 138
Labor Market 134
Push Technology 146
Recruitment 133
Similarity Bias 144

• recruitment
• labor markets
• organizations

https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483396439

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