What is recruitment?
In this article we explain the answer to this simple question in a way that will help you understand that recruiting is a process, and to be successful it must be methodical.
Recruitment is the process of finding and hiring the best-qualified candidate for a job opening. It should be carried out in a timely and cost-effective way.
A Core Function of Human Resources
The recruitment process includes analysing the requirements of a job, attracting candidates, screening and selecting those candidates as well as hiring and on-boarding the selected candidate.
We also use the word recruitment to refer to processes involved in choosing candidates from within the organisation, for unpaid or volunteer positions, as well as for interns and trainees.
Recruitment is one of the core functions related to human resources. Business owners, managers, human resource generalists and recruitment specialists may be tasked with carrying out recruitment although often the process is outsourced to a commercial recruitment agency like Top Recruitment Cambodia. The process is outsourced because it needs a lot of specialised skills and access to resources (like a huge candidate database) which most companies do not have.
Recruitment is challenging
There are two basic reasons many organisations in Cambodia find recruitment challenging. Firstly, they do not approach it methodically as a process which needs to be carried out from end to end in order to be effective.
The second reason is that many people do not recognize that recruitment takes place in an ever-changing market. Every market can be seen as the meeting point of supply and demand. The Cambodia labour market is varied – it is very different in different areas. We can see that at the blue-collar worker end the market is employer driven. This means that there is a strong supply of candidates for jobs and so the employer can set the market – salary rates, hours, conditions and so on. In other areas of the market – for example in technical fields there is a shortage of good candidates so we can say that the market is employee-driven. In this situation an employer who does not meet candidate demands for salary, benefits and working conditions will be unable to recruit as other employers will meet those demands.
It is easy to be confused in such a market, because there is plentiful cheap labour in one part of the market you should not assume it applies across the market.
Recruitment must be systematic
By taking a systematic approach based on research, analysis, documentation and applying a standard process you can improve the way you recruit no matter what the size or activity of your organisation.
At Top Recruitment Cambodia we strongly recommend that you should follow the method of preparing a strategy then executing a step-by-step process.
If you are a human resources professional you also need to educate the senior management of the company on this process as they need to participate in it and if they do not understand their contribution to the process then they may interrupt the smooth execution of the process. If the senior management do not fully grasp the ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ areas of the market this can lead to frustration and failure of the recruitment activity.
Basically, you should always remember that the quality of hiring is determined by the quality of the hiring process. If you are in charge of recruitment for your organisation then it is your responsibility to make sure that the quality of the process is as high as possible.
