The Importance of Seeing Recruitment as a Process

A Common Myth about Recruitment and Selection

A common myth about recruitment and selection is if companies can “get it right”, they will have a high performance workforce. Employee performance is a function of more than the employees’ knowledge and abilities. The work environment plays an important role in performance outcomes. In fact, most human resource experts feel the experience employees have at work is a far more important determinant of performance than the knowledge and abilities they bring to work.

As important as learning about the various best practices, is the ability to see recruitment as a process. A process perspective is important because it forces us to stand back and manage the matching of people to positions in a much larger context than simply trying to find bodies to fill jobs. It requires us to be objective in our assessments, to rely upon the outcomes of valid measurement tools and makes us realize the task does not end when we hand a new employee an offer of employment.

Experts in the field of human resource management have learned there is no “silver bullet” that will provide us with a fail-safe way to test potential candidates or conduct flawless interviews. It has been learned through years of research, trial and error, the way an organization carries out the recruitment process is crucial to the success it has in recruiting, selecting and hiring the right people. Therefore, the importance of seeing it as a process, that begins with planning, and moves through recruitment, selection and hiring and does not end until orientation is completed, cannot be over emphasized.

Best Practices