External Recruitment: Sources, Methods, Advantages And Disadvantages

INTRODUCTION

 

External sources refer to recruiting employees from outside the organization. In fact, a pool of  qualified candidates lie outside the organization. Firms cannot always get all required members from their current staff. In such a situation, an arrangement is made to attract qualified candidates from other sources.

An organization recruits employees from outside in order to fill the vacant position whose specification cannot be met by the present employees.

The following external sources of recruitment are used by most of the organizations:

1. Walk-ins

It is one of the most common and least expensive approaches of recruitment from outside the organization. Under it, the potential candidates visit office of the company and apply for jobs. Usually unskilled and semiskilled workers/supervisors are the candidates for walk-ins. It is relatively informal and less expensive method of external recruitment. It is concerned with direct recruitment and also known as factory gate recruitment.

2. Employment Agencies

This source of manpower supply is concerned with indirect recruitment. Employment agencies run by private or public or government sectors provide a pool of qualified candidates to those organizations which are seeking for employees. Employment agencies that provide manpower service to different private, public or governmental organizations.




Methods

External recruitment is concerned with generating a pool of qualified candidates through external sources of employment. Under it, following methods of recruitment are adopted. 

1. Direct Recruitment

Direct recruitment refers to a process of recruiting qualified candidates from external sources by placing a notice of vacancy in an organization's notice board. The detail of the job will be specified on the notice board. this method is useful for the recruitment of blue-collar, white-collar, and technical workers. This method of recruitment is suitable when there is high supply of human resources in the market.

2. Casual Callers

This method of recruitment is concerned with using previously applied candidates as a source of recruitment. The applications already available in the employment office are used as sources of prospective candidates. In other words, applications from individuals who are already recorded in the employment list can be referred as new applicants and the best suited candidates are selected for the job. This method avoids the costs of recruiting people from other sources.

3. Advertising

Advertising is one of the most common and popular methods of external recruitment under which the job vacancy is announced through different print and electronic media. When the qualified and experienced employees are not obtained from other sources, advertisement method is used to attract the best qualified and experienced personnel. Usually, most of senior positions in organization are filled by this method.The job description and specifications are specified in the advertisement to allow self-screening.

4. Employment Agencies

Employment agencies run by private, public or government sectors are regarded as an important source of recruitment for unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled jobs. The agencies are likely to have a list of qualified candidates in their records, and they render their service as per the requirement from other organizations for employment.

5. Schools, Colleges And Universities

It is also known as campus recruitment. Under this method of external recruitment, educational institutions such as schools, colleges and universities offer opportunities for recruiting fresh candidates.Most educational institutions provide placement services where the prospective recruiters can review credentials and interview the interested graduates.

6. Labor Contractors

Labor contractors are an important source of recruitment under which workers are recruited through contractors. However, this method of recruitment is not used by many business firms and organizations.

7. Recommendations

It is closely concerned with employee referrals. Under this method of external recruitment, applicants are introduced by friends and relatives. In fact, many employers, operating at a small-scale operation, prefer to take such persons as they are acquainted with backgrounds and credentials of prospective employees.




Advantages

External recruitment sources and methods have following advantages:

1. Wider Choice

With the availability of large pool of qualified candidates, the selection process becomes more competitive in choosing the best suited candidate.

2. Qualified Personnel

External sources of recruitment provide a pool of talented candidates for selection purpose. With the large pool of potential candidates, it introduce new blood in the organization.

3. Fresh Talent

External recruitment facilitates the entry of fresh talents in an organization. It encourages the inflow of new ideas, knowledge and skills required to perform the tasks.

4. Competitive Spirit

External recruitment creates an environment for healthy competition in between internal employees and external members, who are supposed to be more trained and efficient.

5. Environmental Adaptation

Since external recruitment encourages the entry of new skills, knowledge and ideas in the organization, it helps in accompanying environmental changes.

6. Fairness

Being an open process, external recruitment provides opportunity to all prospective candidates to apply for the vacant position in the organization. This, in turn, widens its options of selection.

Disadvantages

External sources and methods of recruitment have following disadvantages:

1. Expensive

External recruitment is expensive in the sense that it requires an extra cost for vacancy announcement, arrangement for employment office, etc.

2. Dissatisfaction

When the qualified employees are recruited from outside the organization, the existing employees may feel dissatisfied with their jobs and leave the organization.

3. Long Process

External recruitment follows a long process. Various activities such as vacancy announcement, application collection, review of application forms, selection process etc. need to be performed before the placement of the candidate.

4. Adaptability Problem

As the selected employees are new for the organization, they may face adaptability problem in the organizational environment. More time will be needed for them to be familiar with organizational arrangements.

5. Competition

The existing employees think the new comers as their competitive. As a result of which, organization faces a great loss of productivity and quality.

6. Uncertain Response

The fresh candidates may not be suitable for the job due to the limited information about outsiders.

7. Poor Moral

The arrival of fresh candidates in the work place can adversely affect the morale of existing employees.