Recruitment (SQA National 5 Business Management): Revision Note

The recruitment process

• Recruitment is the process of attracting and identifying potential job candidates who are suitable for a vacant role

  • Recruitment activities include job advertising, job fairs, social media outreach and referrals from current employees

Reasons why vacancies arise

• During periods of business growth, more employees are needed as the business expands its operations

• When an employee leaves their job and needs replacing

• Businesses often reorganise their organisational structure, which may result in the need for additional staff

• A new business start-up needs to recruit workers for the first time

• Businesses can choose to use a recruitment agency to carry out the recruitment and selection process on their behalf

  • New employees may be found quickly from its pool of available talent

  • Management time can be saved

  • Recruitment agencies usually charge a finding fee for their specialist services

• Online recruitment has become increasingly popular, with sites such as LinkedIn and Indeed helping businesses to share vacancy details and compare applicants

Stages in the recruitment process

Step 1: Define the role

• Businesses should determine exactly what is required and part of that is developing a job description and a person/job specification

  • A job specification (sometimes known as a person specification) outlines the qualifications, skills, experience, and personal qualities required from a candidate for a specific job e.g. problem solver, good communicator, able to code in Java etc.

  • A job description outlines the duties, responsibilities, and requirements of a particular job

Comparing a person specification with a job description 

Step 2: Determine the source of employees

• Internal recruitment involves a business promoting or redeploying workers that already work for them

Evaluating the use of internal recruitment

• External recruitment involves bringing in new workers from outside of the business

  • External recruitment can bring fresh ideas, experiences and perspectives to the organisation

Evaluating the use of external recruitment

 Step 3: Advertise the role

• Roles may be advertised internally or externally

  • If the business is seeking an internal candidate, business newsletters, staff noticeboards or internal email can be used to display job advertisements

    • Line managers may be asked to recommend suitable candidates following appraisals

  • External candidates can be targeted with advertisements in newspapers, industry magazines, specialist recruitment websites, agencies and government-run agencies such as Job Centres

    • Existing employees may be asked to nominate people they know for roles , sometimes receiving a reward if their nominee is successfully recruited

    • Headhunting can be used to fill high-level roles

    • Businesses with a strong social media presence can use these platforms to advertise cost-effectively, e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok

    • Specialist recruitment portals may be used to advertise, such as The Times Educational Supplement, one of the main publications and websites in the UK used to recruit teaching staff

Internal and external recruitment

• Internal recruitment is the appointment of a suitable candidate who already works for the business

• External recruitment is where a new employee is appointed from outside the business

• Businesses often use a combination of internal and external recruitment methods, depending on the nature of the job and the availability of suitable candidates

  • The method chosen will also depend on the organisation's goals, the level of the position being filled and the industry in which it operates

Advertising the vacancy

• After producing the job description and person specification when a vacancy arises, the business can advertise the role internally, externally, or a combination of both

  • In order to advertise the vacancy, the business must produce a job advertisement that includes

    • Brief details of the job and characteristics of desired applicants

    • How to apply for the job

Examples of job advertisements

Advertising vacancies internally and externally

• If a business needs to recruit quickly or if it is struggling to find the right employee it may use a recruitment agency to carry out the advertising and recruitment process on their behalf

  • New employees may be found quickly through a recruitment agency which has potential candidates already enrolled

  • It can be expensive as businesses have to pay a fee for these services