Reviewed by HR & Business Communication Experts Updated for 2026 Professional Communication Standards

Recruitment Process

Recruitment Process can be defined as “it is a way to attract and find potential manpower to fill up the vacant post in the company”. The HR Recruitment Process helps to hire candidates based on their ability to work and attitude which is essential for accomplishment of organizational goals.

The Recruitment Process in human resource management starts with identification of job vacancy in the organization, later the HR department analyzes the job requirement, review the job application, screen and shortlist the desirable candidates and the process ends with hiring of right and best candidate for the job.

What is Recruitment Process in HRM?

The recruitment process is the most important function of HRM department. The Human Resource Manager use different tactics to reach the potential candidate. The recruitment method used to contact the candidates differs based on the source of recruitment.

The Recruitment In-charge often does the job analysis to find out the skills and ability to perform the job. Once the skills and abilities required are clear they start searching for people with such specialties. The HRM department explains the potential candidate about their job profile and the benefits (rewards) they can gain from the organization. The candidates interested in the job are further screened, interviewed by HR and finally best fit candidates are selected for the job. In short, a good hiring process involves the following:

Identify the Recruitment Needs through Job analysis
Recruitment or Manpower Planning
Writing or Creating a Right Job Description/li>
Advertisement for Open Job Vacancies
Screening of Job Applications
Initial Short- Listing of the Candidates
Conducting Interviews
Assessment of the Applicant
Reference / Background Check
Issuance of Job Offer Letter
Joining & On-boarding

Methods of Recruitment

There are three significant methods of recruitment which are regularly used in the corporate world namely:

1. Direct Recruitment Methods

2. Indirect Recruitment Methods

3. Third Party Recruitment Methods

The major difference between direct and indirect method of recruitment is that the organization send a representative to contact the potential candidate (which means direct contact) in the case of direct recruitment method while in the case of indirect recruitment methods the candidates are informed about job vacancy through different channel of advertisement.

Direct Recruitment Methods:

The campus recruitment is a major part of recruitment carried out using direct method. The organization sends a representative from HRM department in educational institutes to interact with potential candidates. The candidates who are seeking for jobs are explained about the job vacancy in the organization and the skills which are required to perform the job. The representative interacts with the candidates with the help of placement cells of the institutions. A briefing session is conducted before the actual screening and interview process.

The Organization (Employer) gets information about the academic records of the candidates through the placement cell. Once the organization is ensured about the presence of excellent working skills in the candidate the Human Resource Representative is sent to the institution to conduct recruitment process. The organization use various recruitment methods like conducting seminars, participating in conventions, job fair to recruit the candidates using direct method. Through this method the candidates from the academic background of engineering, management and medical science are mostly recruited by the organization.

Indirect Recruitment Methods:

In the indirect method of recruitment the organization use the advertisement channel such as news papers, radio, job sites, radio, television, magazines and professional journals to reach the potential candidates. The advertisement provides information about the job requirement, the range of salary offered, the type of job (full time or part time) and job location. The candidates who are interested in the job apply for it and share their resume with the organization.

The Human Resource Management (HRM) Department of an organization uses indirect method of recruitment in three situations :

When organization doesn’t have a suitable employee who can be promoted to perform the higher position jobs.
When the organization is new to the work territory and want to reach out new talent in the market
This method is often used to fill up the vacancy in scientific, technical and professional department.

To fill up the higher position in the organization the widely dispersed advertisement is very useful as it helps the company to reach various suitable candidates. Many organizations also use blind advertisement to reach out candidates in which the identity of the organization is not revealed.

Third Party Recruitment Methods:

The third party method of recruitment includes the helping hands which are outside the organization. The Recruitment Consultant or Employment Agencies, Search & Select Companies, Employee Referral, Voluntary Organization, Data Banks, Trade Unions and Labor Contractors are different channels which help the organization to establish contact with the potential candidates.

Recruitment Process Steps

Broadly, there are five steps of recruitment process in HRM which is used by many companies in corporate world to increase the efficiency of hiring. The five Recruitment Process Steps ensure that recruitment takes place without any interruption and within the allotted time period. It also helps to maintain compliance and consistency in the recruitment process.

Five Best Recruitment Process Steps:

Recruitment Planning
Strategy development
Searching
Screening
Evaluation and control

Recruitment Planning

It is the first step of HR Recruitment Process in which the job vacancies in the organization are analyzed and relevant job description is prepared. It also includes preparation of job specification and details about qualification and skills needed to perform the job.

This step is very vital for recruitment process as it helps in attracting the right and suitable candidates for the job. Based on the education and experience requirement described in the recruitment plan a pool of interested candidate can be created.

Strategy Development

After the job description and job specification is prepared the organization decides the number of recruits needed to work on the profile to close the vacancy as soon as possible. The recruiter decides the strategy that should be adopted for successful recruitment of employee. The strategic draft includes the following point:-

Sources of Recruitment- Based on the job position and skills required to perform the job the recruiter choose the source of recruitment. The internal and external are the two categories of the recruitment source. This decision is critical as rest of the recruitment strategy is based on this step of recruitment.
Methods of Recruitment- The HRM department decides on the method of recruitment whether the firm wants to recruit the candidate using direct or indirect method. A lot of companies now are using third party recruitment method and outsourcing some part of recruitment process to the experienced consulting firms.
Geographical Area- The location of job is fixed and thus recruitment team has to decide the area from which they can search candidates who want to join the job. The area in which large amount of qualified candidates are located is selected to search the suitable employee for the organization.
Make Employees or Buy Employees- The investment required for recruitment is depending on this decision. The organization can choose to select the skilled employees and pay them appropriate salary or can selected less qualified people and trained them to perform better.

Searching

The searching step is divided into two parts that is :

Source activation

Selling.

The activation took place when the department which has vacancy confirms it to the HR manager about the requirement; also approve the draft of job description as well as specification. Under selling the organization selects the channel of communication to reach the prospective candidates.

Screening

Once the job applications are received by the HR Recruiter it starts the screening process. It is a step in which the application are shortlisted for the further selection process. After short-listing of application based on the job specification the selection process begins. At the early stage the recruiter has to remove the applications which are clearly under qualified and not suitable for the job.

Evaluation and Control

The validity and effectiveness of HR Recruitment Process is assessed in this step. The step is essential as organization has to check the cost incurred during recruitment and the output in terms of selection of suitable candidates and their joining. The cost of recruitment includes the time spent by the management by involving in the recruitment process, the cost of advertisement, selection, consultant fees in case of recruitment outsourcing and also the salaries of recruiter. The output is calculated in terms of selection and how soon the employee as joined the organization also the suitability as well as performance of the newly joined employee.

Example of Best Recruitment Process & Practices

The traditional HR Recruitment Processes are mostly used by large number of companies in corporate world. However, as there is scarcity of talent various companies are coming up with innovative ideas to reach the potential candidate and create a talent pool for company.

Here are two prominent examples of such innovative best recruitment process practices used by McDonald and Amazon

McDonald use Snapchat to recruit

People of age 20-25 are very much active on Snapchat. The digital natives younger generation is active on this app and the organization can grab their attention to include them in workforce. Snapchat is now used as way to create a employer brand and attract young people towards the job opening. It is now a full blown recruiting strategy used by big companies like McDonald and Grubhub. McDonald used video ads and applications to convey the prospective employees about the job vacancy in the organization.

McDonald has also released 10-second video ads in which their current employees are featured and they are talking about their experience to work with McDonald. The person who is interested in the job can swipe up the video and they will be redirected to the career webpage of the company. The interested candidate can also try virtually the uniform of McDonald and send a 10 second video to the employer about why they will be great employee of the company.

It is a fun and simple way to attract candidates and create a talent pool for the company.

Peer-reviewed hires by Amazon

The existing employees can set proper measure for the future workforce of the company. The peer review is an excellent way to shortlist the candidate for the selection process. The employees who are working with the company are familiar with the workplace environment, unique job requirement and everyday job demands. If a peer rejects a candidate they can be deemed as unsuitable after thorough review.

Amazon is using this unique hiring strategy under the program “bar raiser”. Here the employees voluntarily participate in the interview committees. They interview the applicant in person or via phone. The employee then submits the evaluation and collaborates with other peers who have interviewed the same applicant. The candidate are rejected if the bar raisers do not approve them. It is a way of crowd-sourcing the employees of the company.

Author & Reviewer

This content is prepared and reviewed by HR and workplace communication professionals and is updated to reflect current professional Standards.