Recruitment: how does it work?

A recruitment strategy must be in place to select the right person for the job. Recruitment methods are a supporting part of the recruitment strategy and need to be planned in advance. This makes it easier to predict the timing and financial costs of the selection. Let’s look at the 4 recruitment methods:

Public recruitment

Public search attracts only candidates who are looking for a job. The upside is that they tend to be more motivated, but the downside is that they are often poorly suited to the position when there is a high demand for staff in that area. Recently, public recruitment has become more of an employer branding exercise, as the function of attracting candidates has become increasingly complex. In IT, engineering or other roles with high market demand, public recruitment alone will not be effective.

Direct recruitment

Direct search is a headhunting exercise. This is the most effective way of recruiting as it allows you to communicate with the best candidates in the market. The problem is that candidates often have low motivation to change jobs. The key to this method of recruitment is to look carefully at the values offered to candidates. If they are low, it is possible to approach a large proportion of passive candidates without having to interview anyone.

This method of recruitment also requires databases. These can be external (Linkedin or job search portals) or internal, collected and managed by the recruiting company itself. At the same time, unlike public search, this direct search or headhunting requires constant work by the recruiter, who communicates with the candidates on a daily basis and answers their questions on the position, prospects, company performance, etc. In terms of resources, this search method is both the most expensive and the most effective. In high-demand positions, this method is becoming the main and probably the only one.

Recommendation search

The two methods of recruitment discussed above focus on attracting the right candidates. Referral recruitment targets people who know the right candidates. These individuals can recommend professionals in the right field who are normally difficult to find.

In-house search

This type of recruitment is used in large organisations, where the position to be filled is subject to an internal competition open to employees of the company. This not only demonstrates confidence in the company’s internal staff, but also encourages them to be motivated to perform at their best. This search method can be used in conjunction with others.

All of these 4 methods can be carried out together or scheduled at different times. In any case, the first three methods must be used to organise a successful external search. When managing recruitment costs, it is important to bear in mind that public searches cost portal search fees, while direct and referral searches cost a lot of recruiters’ time resources. At the same time, direct search requires highly competent recruiters who have a good understanding of the search area they are managing and are able to present a job offer to the top professionals in their field.