For businesses to operate and perform successfully and stay competitive, it is essential for the business to have a good recruitment and selection team within their human resources department. Recruitment must be a success by making sure that they attract and catch the attention of the most suitable candidate for the job. Selection procedures are carefully planned and carried out on the possible candidate to help the business select the most suitable person possible for the job. The human resources department in an organisation are comfortable to justify the filling of a vacancy as it saves the business money. Training the employees is not the only task an organisation has to carry out however quite a lot of time is also taken to recruit them.

At times there is no need for new employees as there are other ways of filling vacancies which could result in more work being done. The term for such events taking place is called Productivity rate. Productivity can be improved by a business from finding out why people are off ill or absent, from the finding the business can improve working conditions or change working hours. If such changes are made then this may mean that the business may not need to recruit new staff. Another way of filling a vacancy is by doing a skill audit. This involves finding out if the business already has the skill and experience needed for the job advertised. If the business finds such skill and experience then they could use their current employees rather than recruiting new staff and employees are likely to be flexible, meaning that they will be more qualified to work in more than one area of the business.

If a business decides to recruit someone new then this does not mean they have to look for people outside the business. Businesses like to recruit internally first before they start advertising externally, the key reason for this is so that they can allow existing employees to progress in a business. There are certain advantages and disadvantages of internal and external recruitment. Recruitment strategies and processes Recruitment can be carried out internally through the promotion and transfer of existing employees or through referrals, by current staff member, of family and friends.

Internal recruitment is the method of filling vacancies by using internal sources of an organisation, for example job openings can be advertised by job posting; this is a strategy of placing notices on manual and electronic bulleting boards, in company newsletters and through office memoranda. Internal recruitment does not always produce the number or quality of workers needed, in such cases organisations may need to recruit from external sources, either by advertising vacancies in newspapers, magazines and journals, and the visual or audio media; using employment agencies (job centre), advertising online via internet, or through job fairs and the use of college recruitment.

The purpose of posting vacancies is to bring the attention of all interested persons (within or without an organisation) the jobs that are to be filled. Informal recruiting methods enter a smaller market than formal methods. Informal methods can involve rehiring previous employees and choosing from among those. Formal methods of external recruiting are searching the labour market more widely for candidate no previous connection to the organisation. Such methods usually include newspaper/magazine/journal advertising, the use of employment agencies and executive search firms, and college recruitment. More often, now, job/career fairs and e-Recruiting are reaching the job seeker market.

Posting vacancies externally through the media or through employment agencies reaches a wider audience and can also help bring up a greater number of potential candidates from which the organisation can choose. At the same time this method can be quite expensive and can also take quite a lot of time as the organisation works through advertisements in newspapers, periodicals and journals are and will continue to be an important way to reach potential candidates.

Recruiting agencies are become much more popular, particularly when searching for management level positions. This method of recruiting does cost quite a lot of money. Executive search firms usually find candidates for jobs quicker than most organisations as the recruiting agencies have larger databases of people. Professional organisations say that the best jobs are never advertised, their availability is communicated by word of mouth. Therefore networking is a method for recruiting, particularly at the senior management level in certain industries. In several cases, networking is a method and strategy used by majority recruitment agencies.