1. INTRODUCTION
Recruitment forms the first stage in the process, which continues
with selection and ceases with the placement of the candidate. It is
the next step in the procurement function, the first being the
manpower planning. Recruitment makes it possible to acquire the
number and types of people necessary to ensure the continued
operation of the organization. Recruiting is the discovering of
potential applicants for actual or anticipated organization vacancies.
In other words, it is a „linking activity‟ bringing together those with
jobs and those seeking jobs.
Companies are now looking out for new ways of giving themselves a
competitive advantage. New product, new image& new marketing
idea are some of the ways this can be achieved but enlightened and
successful companies look towards their people to provide the leading
edge.
Herein lies the important once of recruitment and staffing- getting
the right people for right job.
DEFINITION
According to Edwin B flippo “Recruitment is a process of searching
for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in
an organization. It is often termed positive in that it stimulates
people to apply for jobs to increase the selection ratio. Selection on
the other hand tends to be negative because it rejects a good number
of those, who apply, leaving only the best to be hired.”
SOURCE OF RECRUITMENT PROCESS
 INTERNAL SOURCES
Internal Sources include personnel already on the pay-roll of
the organization. Whenever any vacancy arises, somebody
from within the organization may be looked into:

o Internal promotions

2. o Referrals
o Former employees
MERITS

o It improves the morale of employees, for they are assured
of the fact that they would be preferred over outsiders
when vacancies occur
o The employers are in a better position to evaluate those
presently employed than outside candidates. This is
because the company maintains a record of the progress,
experience and service of its employees
o It promotes loyalty among the employees, for it gives them
a sense of job security and opportunities for advancement
o As the person in the employment of the company are fully
aware of, and well acquainted with, its policies and know
its operating procedures, they require little training, and
the chances are that they would stay longer in the
employment of the organization than a new outsider
would
o It is less costly than going outside to recruit.
DEMERITS

o It often leads to inbreeding, and discourages new blood
from entering an organization
o There are possibilities that internal sources may “dry up”,
and it may be difficult to find the requisite personnel from
within an organization
o Since the learner does not know more than the lecture, no
innovation worth the name can made. Therefore, on jobs

3. which require marginal thinking, this practice is not
followed
o As promotion is based on seniority, the danger is that
really capable hands may not be chosen.
EXTERNAL SOURCES
External Sources of recruitment refer to Prospective candidates
outside the enterprise. They usually include new entrants to the
labor force.
The external sources are

o Advertisement in newspapers
o Campus and Online recruiting
o Casual job seekers
o Consultants and Job fair
MERITS

o .External sources provide the requisite type of personnel
for an organization, having skill, training and education
up to the required standard
o Since persons are recruited from a large market, the best
selection can be made without any distinctions of caste,
sex or color
o In the long run, this source proves economical because
potential employees do not need extra training for their
job
DEMERITS

4. However, this system suffers from what is called “brain drain,”
especially when experienced persons are raided or hunted by sister
concerns.
RECRUITMENT TECHNIQUES
RECRUITMENT TECHNIQUES
These techniques are classified as traditional techniques and
modern techniques.
v Traditional Techniques include:
 Promotion
 Transfers and
 Advertising
Promotion: Most of the internal candidates would be stimulated to
take up higher responsibilities and express their willingness to be
engaged in the higher level jobs if the management gives them the
assurance that they will be promoted to the next higher level.
Transfers: Employees will be stimulated to work in the new
sections or places if the management wishes to transfer them to the
place of their choice.
Advertising: Advertising is a widely accepted technique of
recruitment, though it mostly provides one way communication. It
provides the candidates in different sources, the information about
the job and company and stimulates them to apply for job. It includes
advertising through different media like newspaper, magazines of all
kinds radio, television etc.

5. The technique of advertising should aim at 1) attracting attention
of the prospective candidates: 2) creating and maintaining interest
and 3) stimulating action by the candidates.
v Modern techniques:
Modern recruitment techniques to stimulate prospective employees
to apply for jobs in the company include:
1) Scouting
2) Salary and perks and
3) ESOPs
Scouting
It means sending the representations of the organizations to various
sources of recruitment with a view to persuading or stimulating the
candidates to apply for jobs. Salary and perks:
Companies stimulate the prospective candidates by offering
higher-level salary, more perks, quick promotions etc.
ESOPs:
Companies recently started stimulating employees by offering
stock ownership to the employees through their employees stock
ownership programmes
PROCESS OF RECRUITMENT
STEPS IN RECRUITMENT PROCESS
The process can be separated into three components:
 The process starts with job planning, which among other things
involves analysis of the present and future needs for personnel

6. with different kinds of competence and for different tasks. This
first component of the process may result in a decision to
prepare for new jobs and announce job opportunities.
 In the second step of the search process after a vacancy has
been defined on the basis of job planning, the employer has to
make his choice between alternate ways to spread and
formulate information about the vacant position. He can, for
example choose between different ways to formulate the
information about what experience and personal abilities of the
potential employee, etc.,
 The third and final search decision confronting the employer is
to determine which one of the applicants to hire for the job
opening.
Basically, employers‟ decisions regarding the use of different search
channels and judgments regarding the suitability of job applicant
relate to the problems of asymmetric information; job applicants have
more knowledge of their capabilities than the prospective employers
do. The interaction of productivity difference among job applicants
and employers‟ uncertainty as regards the productive capabilities of
individuals may explain decisions taken by the employers both in
steps two and three of the recruitment process. Hiring is a decision
under uncertainty in the sense that the productivity of job applicants
in not directly observable. Therefore the employers are interested in
obtaining information that can serve as good statistic for applicant‟s
job capabilities.
The probability that a job seeker and employer shall find each other
and that an agreement about employment shall be reached, depends
on the behavior of both agent and on their characteristics. In the
traditional search theory regarding value of his/her lifetime income,
the reservation wage is important for the probability that a person

7. shall get a job within a given period of time and thereby for the
expected length of the unemployment spell.
In a corresponding way, the concept of reservation productivity can
be used for employers‟ recruitment of personnel. The assumption
regarding employers is that they try to maximize their profit by
employing persons with a value of their expected marginal product
that is higher than or equal to their expected total wage or cost.
Everything else being equal higher requirements put on the process
to be employed means lower probability to find competent job seekers
and longer expected vacancy durations. Efforts to maximize income
and profit also influence their choice of search channels.
A job seeker can be assumed to have higher probability to find a job
soon, when actively using several different search channels and an
employer can be assumed to rise that planning in general is
significant. The efficient utilization of organizational resources-
human, capital and technological does not just happen without the
continual estimation of future requirements and the development of
systematic strategies designed toward goal accomplishments.
The HR planning is the preliminary step of recruitment process. It is
the process by which an organization should move from its current
manpower position to its desired manpower position. It may be
viewed as for seeing the human resource requirements of as
organization an its feature supply making necessary adjustments
between the two organizational plans and also foreseeing the
possibility of developing the supply of human resources in order to
match it with the requirements by introducing necessary changes in
the functions of HR.
FACTORS AFFECTING RECRUITMENT
All organizations, large are small, have to engage in recruitment.
Some of them delegate the job to HR Managers, while others involve
the HR Managers directly on the job. The element conditions in the
community where the organization is located may be a factor for

8. attracting potential job applicants. Here, certain geographic factors
and location advantages play a important role.
The effect of past recruiting efforts, which shows the organizations
ability to locate and keep good people, is another criterion. For
example, if an organization follows the promotional policy of
recruiting from within, the employees will be motivated to continue
in such an organization. Also, the compensation and benefits package
offered by an organization influence and attract employees.
PERFORMANCE OF RECRUITMENT
Recruitment has always been a never-ending process in the
organization scenario. Significant transitions have been brought in
the long run of recruitment but the major concentration has always
been engaging persons in employment and the initial setup for this.
Recruitment is followed in the all-different sector, be it
manufacturing concern or a service sector. Recruitment is not just
confined to its sense it covers the aspects from selection to training.
Despite the usage of various terminologies describing each step of the
recruitment process, it is a chain link where the start is not distinct.
Recruitment involves seeking and attracting a pool of people from
which qualified candidates for job vacancies can be chosen.
Recruitment system can be subdivided into 4 major sub systems.
 Finding out and developing sources
 Developing techniques to attract candidates
 Employing the techniques
 Stimulating the candidates and making for apply for jobs.
PREREQUISITES FOR SUCCESS

9. The first requirement is to have a continually expanding list of
prospects, persons who can be approached for insurance. These are
names of people within reach, obtained from acquaintances,
newspapers reports, directories, contracts at parties, meetings,
seminars, etc.
Those in the qualified prospect list have to be met. A sale results
when the salesman takes the prospect through well defined steps.
The steps are not separate and clear-cut but blend into one
integrated process. The steps are
 Pre-approach
 Approach
 Interview
 Objections
 Close
 PRE- APPROACH
Pre-approach means preparing to approach the prospect. The
requires forming some idea as to how the interview could begin and
proceed, for which you require basic information regarding his
income, his habits, his concerns, his interests, his saving capacity, his
family position, etc. These facts can be had from a variety of sources,
and you may even have to make a personal call on the man himself,
and get from him the facts you need to persuade him in taking a
decision.
The information collected during pre-approach will provide a
reasonable idea of the prospect‟s financial position and his needs and
concerns, and help to make the sale first in your mind, you will find it
easy to make the sale to the prospect.
It is advisable to write down the proposal. The advantages of a
written proposal are
 Details are not missed by either the agent or the prospect.

10.  This impression is more lasting.
 The prospect can go back to earlier data on his own.
 The prospect can understand, at his own pace.
 It is easy to stop at any point, clarify questions and continue
further without losing the trend.
 APPROACH
When you knock on the prospect‟s door and are face to face with him,
the dynamic phase of sales begins. You should make known to the
prospect, at the very earliest, that you are calling on him for life
insurance. The agent has to believe that he is calling on the prospect
to render him the valuable service of ensuring financial security for
him and his family.
The agent should open the talk by explaining the purpose of his call
in such a way so as to arouse enough interest. Otherwise, he may not
pay attention to the proposal. In most of the cases, the situation may
arise where the prospect will come out with a „No‟. At this juncture of
approach, when the prospect says „No‟, the agent should not be in a
hurry to convert the „No‟ into „Yes‟. The purpose of the approach stage
is not to sell insurance, but to sell an interview, which gives him the
opportunity to talk about what he wants the prospect to think about.
 INTERVIEW
The interview should first of all, make the prospect listen. This
happens if the agent refers to things which interest him, his needs,
and lot of things that matter to him, without making it appear like
patronizing or flattering. Any hint that the prospect‟s decisions of the
(relating to insurance or investments) appropriate or need to be
changed, will have the opposite effect. The proposal being made by
the agent should be seen as beneficial and complimentary to the
existing arrangements.

11. The agent should follow some simple rules like the ones mentioned
below
 Do not talk more than necessary.
 Ask questions, and make the prospect talk. Make it interactive.
 Create doubts and get him to ask questions for clarification.
 Listen to the prospect‟s point of view carefully. Do not
interrupt, contradict or argue. People feel good when they are
listened too any then they listen better.
 Make your talk interesting. Tell a true story of how life
insurance has helped families in various situations and how
families have suffered without it. Make the story have a
personal appeal. Use names for his children or relatives. That
will make the story more appealing.
 Use pictorial aids, graphics and written presentations. If you
have a lap top use Power Point presentation.
 Let the prospect write down the figures of his needs, of his
liabilities, of benefits of the insurance plan and of the premium.
This ensures concentrated attention.
 Let your advice be in the best interest of the prospect not your
interest.
Successful agents prepare their presentations carefully every time.
They rehearse in their minds the way the interview should proceed.
This ensures that they do not fumble for ideas or the right words.
The ideas, too, come in the most natural and logical sequence. Lastly,
a prepared sales talk conveys more enthusiasm and conviction than a
talk without preparation. A well prepared approach ensures a
favorable interview.
 OBJECTIONS
Prospects will raise objections, one after another. Objections are a
part of every sale. If prospects did not object, there would be no need

12. for salesmen. People would buy on their own. Also, if the prospect
remained silent, you will not know how his mind is working. The
objection is his way of referring to the further information that he
needs.
The entire selling process is, therefore, interspersed with objections.
At the stage of approach itself the prospect may say –„I do not believe
in life insurance‟, „I do not need life insurance‟, and the like. Such
objections are not against life insurance but rather against the agent
whom he wants to put off gracefully, or signs of indecision, or of a
fear of being “forced” into buying.
Then there are objections raised at the closing stage, such as, „I will
think it over‟, ‟I will consult my father‟, „See me next month when I
get my confirmation/increment/ promotion‟, etc. these objections
reveal an inability to take a major decision.
 CLOSING
The „close‟ has to be sensed and timed, because very few prospects
will , of their own accord, say „I will insure‟. The agent sensing the
close, takes the prospect‟s positive decision for granted by asking for
his implied (not direct) consent. “Will you pay the premium by cash
or cheque?” do you have your school certificate at hand now or can
you give it tomorrow?” (Affirmative choice). A positive answer to any
of these questions is an indication to go ahead. If the interview does
not end with a close and is put off to another time, the interview
will have to be gone through all over again.
In selling life insurance, an appeal to the heart of the prospect is
more useful than an appeal to the head. Life insurance is bought for
the prime reason of protecting the loved ones, affording a good start
in love to the children, duty to aged parents, or perhaps a desire for
self –preservation in old age. So a sale can be accomplished only
when an appeal is made to one of these motives; an appeal to
sentiments of love, of affection and of concern. The agent need not be
an expert in psychology to do this.

13. CONCLUSION
From this I conclude Recruitment is one of the main departments
which place the right candidates to the right job. The recruiters
should identify the best candidates from different sources and job
sites .Recruiters should identify the problems faced during
recruitment and find an alternative to make work efficiently.