Recruitment refers to the process of finding possible candidates for a job or function, usually undertaken by recruiters. It also may be undertaken by an employment agency or a member of staff at the business or organization looking for recruits. Advertising is commonly part of the recruiting process, and can occur through several means: through online, newspapers, using newspaper dedicated to job advertisement, through professional publication, using advertisements placed in windows, through a job center, through campus graduate recruitment programs, etc.
Suitability for a job is typically assessed by looking for skills, e.g. communication skills, typing skills, computer skills. Evidence for skills required for a job may be provided in the form of qualifications (educational or professional), experience in a job requiring the relevant skills or the testimony of references. Employment agencies may also give computerized tests to assess an individual's "off-hand" knowledge of software packages or typing skills. At a more basic level written tests may be given to assess numeracy and literacy. A candidate may also be assessed on the basis of an interview. Sometimes candidates will be requested to provide a résumé (also known as a CV) or to complete an application form to provide this evidence.
The follow-up process may be referred to as part of the recruitment process: inveigling the selected candidate or candidates to take up the target job or function. This applies particularly in filling positions in the military or in expanding the human resource base of a cult.
Headhunting is a frequently used name when referring to third party recruiters, but there are significant differences. In general, a company would employ a head-hunter when the normal recruitment efforts have failed to provide a viable candidate for the job. Head-hunters are generally more aggressive than in-house recruiters and will use, advanced sales techniques such as initially posing as clients to generate names of employees and their positions and personally visiting candidate offices. They can also purchase expensive lists of names and job titles. They will prepare a candidate for the interview, negotiate salary, and conduct closure to the search. In general, in house recruiters will do their best to attract candidates for specific jobs while head-hunters will actively seek them out, utilizing large databases, internet strategies, purchasing company directories or lists of candidates, networking, and often cold calling. Many companies go to great efforts to make it difficult for head-hunters to locate their employees.
Third party recruitment firms are usually distinguished by the method in which they bill a company. Outside recruitment agencies charge a placement fee when the candidate they recruited has accepted a job with the company that has agreed to pay the fee. Fees of these agencies generally range from a straight contingency fee to a fully retained service which is similar to placing an attorney on retainer. All recruitment agencies are defined by the placement of a candidate to a particular job within a company.
In the UK, recruitment services are provided by Employment Agencies or Employment Businesses, as defined by the Employment Agencies Act 1973. Essentially, Employment Agencies provide employers with candidates, which they can employ for a fixed, pre-defined fee. Employment Businesses provide candidates that are employed by the Employment Business, but act for (or are under the control of) a third party; commonly called Temporary Workers or Temps. In the UK, both Recruitment Agencies and Businesses are referred to as Recruitment Agencies, or simply Agencies, regardless of whether they operate as agencies, businesses or both. Many companies that operate in recruitment in the UK act as both Employment Businesses and Agencies.
The recruitment service industry in Ireland is a flourishing commercial environment built on the strong and constant economic growth Ireland has experienced the last 10-15 years due to the Celtic Tiger, most prominently in Dublin. Specialized recruitment agencies (sometimes known as employment agencies or simply recruiters) across the country (such as Osborne Recruitment, Hays Recruitment, and Thornshaw Scientific Recruitment) offer personnel consulting, specialist corporate recruiting, CV databasing, job-finding and headhunting, and temporary worker management services. These agencies usually work with larger business clients who are seeking qualified employees. There are approximately 600 recruitment agencies in Ireland, with an estimated 300 of those based in Dublin alone. Oftentimes large, growing businesses in Ireland prefer to outsource their recruitment and job advertising needs to an outside firm, and recruitment agencies offer these key services to these clients, usually in exchange for a percentage-based compensation matched from the new employee’s earned salary. In this way, the client pays the recruitment agency for services rendered – the candidate (new employee) usually does not pay anything for being recruited.
The past several years have shown somewhat of a turnaround for recruitment market dynamics. While it used to be more difficult to obtain business clients and large numbers of available job openings, the growing prevalence of recruitment agencies has led more and more companies to outsource their employment efforts as recruitment has become a very viable and cost-effective business partnership for many firms. Today, recruitment agencies are shifting focus to greater efforts on reaching out to job-seekers, as many agencies are finding no lack of client job opportunities. The task at hand, then, is to attract as many quality job candidates as possible, so as to place them in the multitudes of opportunities being offered by client businesses. Candidates are typically placed on multi-faceted set of criteria: personal preference and interests, industry or position experience, education, references, and psychographics.