Effective recruitment

Businesses have many different roles and responsibilities. When recruiting to fill a vacancy, a business must decide whether to recruit internally or externally, and complete relevant documentation.

Internal and external methods of recruitment

Businesses recruit for new roles from both existing employees (inside the business) and potential employees (outside the business). These methods are referred to as internal recruitment and external recruitment. Internal recruitment usually occurs when an existing employee is seeking a promotion or wishes to work in a different role in the business.

Internal and external recruitment may use interviews, application forms, aptitude tests, group tasks, presentations and role-playing tasks to help select the best candidates for the job.

Internal recruitment

Internal recruitment is often carried out through internal job adverts published via internal emails, notice boards, business websites and internal company memos.

Advantages of internal recruitment include:

• a quick process
• applicants will already be known to the business
• applicants may have previous experience in the role
• cheaper to recruit and advertise roles internally

Disadvantages of internal recruitment include:

• usually a small pool of applicants
• applicants may not be experienced in the role
• a lack of fresh ideas in the business

External recruitment

External recruitment is often carried out through external job adverts published via external emails, job websites, recruitment agencies, the business’ own website, newspapers and trade magazines.

Advantages of external recruitment include:

• may bring new ideas into the business
• fresh enthusiasm and skills
• larger pool of potential applicants

Disadvantages of external recruitment include:

• may take the new employee time to settle into the business
• expensive to recruit
• new employee not previously known to the business
• can take more time than internal recruitment