What is recruitment?
Recruitment describes the end-to-end process of identifying and hiring someone for a job; specifically, it’s about finding the best and most qualified candidate for that role.
Recruitment isn’t just about checking CVs and interviewing candidates. Recruiting involves spotting staffing needs in the company, bringing new hires onboard, and making sure everything runs smoothly and is cost-effective.
Who handles recruitment?
There are typically two ways that most organisations choose to manage recruitment.
In-house recruitment – when an internal team within the organisation – typically human resources (HR) – takes care of the recruitment process.
Outsourced recruitment – when the organisation pays an external, third-party company (i.e. a recruitment agency) to manage recruitment for them.
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What’s involved in recruitment?
When you hear the word “recruitment”, you might picture sifting through hundreds of CVs, face-to-face interviews, and a high-stakes contract negotiation.
But recruiting can also involve:
- Hiring someone internally into a new role
- Reaching out to potential candidates
- Choosing from a small pool of candidates
- Interviewing candidates virtually
- Hiring a contractor or apprentice into a permanent role.
What does a typical recruitment workflow look like?
The recruitment process – or recruitment workflow – can differ depending on your organisation or how you’ve chosen to manage it, especially if you’re using a recruitment agency.
However, on the whole, you can expect a typical recruitment workflow to cover the following key stages.
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Identify the hiring need
Recruitment isn’t just about getting the right people for the right jobs, it’s also about spotting areas in the organisation where new “talent” is needed. This might involve:
- Noticing a drop in productivity in an under-staffed team and identifying a need to hire more people to maintain output
- Working with leadership to improve team structures, e.g. bringing in a project manager to support a busy team
- Responding to the changing needs of the business, e.g. if the business wants to move into a new market, securing talent to help achieve this
- Identifying and priming potential candidates to step into roles when staff members are nearing retirement (particularly if it’s a specialist or leadership role)
These functions would usually be carried out by an internal recruitment team who are part of (or made up of) a human resource (HR) department.
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Prepare a job description
Once you know what the vacancy is you’re trying to fill, the next step is to write and distribute the job description.
A job description is a document laying out the responsibilities and requirements of the role. It’s also your chance to attract great candidates by spotlighting what makes your organisation a great place to work for.
Job descriptions can include:
- The role’s key responsibilities
- Required experience or qualifications
- Expected salary or wage
- Location of office or workplace
- Working conditions (e.g. hybrid working)
- Employee benefits (e.g. private healthcare)
- Company bio (e.g. mission and ethos)
- Details of the interview process
- Instructions on how to apply
Application deadline.
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Search for suitable candidates
Once you’ve cast your line (AKA shared the job description on all suitable online job boards), you can now wait until suitable applicants send in their CVs.
But part of recruiting also involves going out and finding people you believe would make ideal candidates. This might involve perusing LinkedIn, putting the word out in your own professional networks, or dipping into an existing pool of talent.
External recruitment agencies tend to be particularly good at this, as many will have a pool of talent they already have a professional connection to. However, with the right tools, in-house recruitment and HR will be able to perform the same function.
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Manage ongoing applications
Once you begin receiving applications, the next step is to start reviewing CVs and managing your communication with applicants.
You can also use specialist software – known as an applicant tracking system – to keep track of who’s applied and when, so you can respond promptly to promising candidates.
Even if you’ve got weeks until an application deadline, it’s best practise to reach out to quality applicants as soon as possible – lest they be snapped up by competitors!
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Screen applications and narrow-down your shortlist
Part of managing applications involves screening candidates and narrowing down your short-list of applicants.
Both in-house HR teams and recruitment agencies often use technology to help with this process; especially with filtering out applications that are unsuitable straight off the bat.
For example, if the role requires someone to have a certain qualification for legal purposes, you can discount applications that don’t fulfil that requirement.
This is also the time to identify any promising candidates who you’d like to interview – or at least learn more about. Even if a candidate doesn’t tick all your boxes, you may still want to consider them if they have other skills or strengths.
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Interview promising candidates
The next step is to reach out to qualified candidates to invite them to interview for the role.
Interviews are traditionally held in-person and usually take place at your company’s office or place of work. If you’re relying on a recruitment agency, they may opt to perform a “pre-interview” screening call or meeting, to ensure the candidate is suitable.
The type or frequency of interview can vary, and can include:
- Virtual interviews (especially for remote working roles)
- Multiple-stage interviews, perhaps with HR and then senior leadership
- Assessment days with group activities and panel interviews
- A request for a presentation or piece of work to be completed before the interview.
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Check references/right to work and make an offer
Once you’ve found the ideal candidate, it’s time to make an offer – and at the same time, confirm their references and right to work in the UK.
Checking an applicant’s references is important, as you need to confirm what the applicant has told you about their professional experience is accurate. In most cases, you will need to ask the applicant to provide the contact details of their references so you can contact them.
You will also need to check the applicant’s right to work in the UK. This can be done by checking the applicant’s:
- original identity documents (if they’re a British or Irish citizen), such as passport or driving license
- documents confirming their right to work in the UK, e.g. a working or student visa.
Some organisations may perform these checks before making a formal offer, however, they are typically carried out immediately after an offer is made.
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Sign the contract and arrange onboarding
Once the contract has been negotiated and both parties are happy, the employment contract is signed and the onboarding process can begin.
Onboarding can include:
- Setting the new hire up on your HR system
- Arranging a start date
- Sending them useful documents (e.g. benefits package)
- Making virtual introductions to managers and/or team members
- Liaising with facilities (e.g. Working with IT to secure a log-in).
In some cases, recruitment can stretch to talent retention; which involves working to ensure promising new hires stay on board permanently.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Have a question about recruitment, how it works, or who carries it out? Learn more in our frequently asked questions (FAQ) section.
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No, you don’t necessarily need to use a recruitment agency if you’re planning on recruiting new staff members into your organisation.
While some organisations prefer to hand over recruitment to a third-party – such as a recruitment agency – others like to handle recruitment in-house. When recruitment is managed by the organisation in-house, it’s usually the responsibility of the human resources (HR) team.
However, small organisations who may not have an HR department can still manage recruitment in-house. Many choose to use technology, like recruitment software, to help them achieve this.
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In the world of recruitment and HR, the word “talent” is used to describe both current employees and prospective new hires.
For example, you could say “our organisation is keen to attract top talent”; this means your organisation is looking to bring on staff who are highly qualified or ideally suited to the role.
You might also see the word “talent” used in the context of talent management. Talent retention is all about keeping your valuable employees in your company, usually by improving working conditions, offering great benefits, and responding to their needs.
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Internal recruitment describes the practice of recruiting people who already work for the organisation into new or recently vacated roles. Promotions are technically a type of internal recruitment.
It can be a great way of encouraging staff to advance their careers, while you take advantage of your existing pool of talent (AKA, your current staff).
For example, if you’re looking for a new accounts manager, you might advertise the role internally before sharing it publicly. This gives existing staff the chance to get their applications in first and be in with a better chance to land the role.
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As an employer, you don’t need an internal recruitment policy, but it can be advantageous to have one in place.
An internal recruitment policy is an extension of your standard recruitment policy. It sets out any rules around internal promotions and transfers, so both you (the employer) and your people know what to expect from the process.
Like any policy relating to employees and the workplace, an internal recruitment policy keeps things fair, transparent, and accessible to all – it makes life easier for both the HR/recruitment team, and the employees applying for roles internally.
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Online recruitment is when an organisation uses web-based tools (typically cloud software) to advertise vacancies, identify and attract candidates, screen applications, interview, and onboard new hires.
Basically, online recruitment is all about using web-based (AKA cloud-based) technology to make recruitment easier, more cost-effective, and more successful.
With online recruitment, you can use technology to:
- Improve job descriptions using AI
- Automatically share job descriptions to multiple sites
- Filter out unsuitable applications
- Manage communications with applicants
- Interview candidates virtually
- Onboard new hires with greater efficiency.
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Mobile recruitment – or remote recruitment – is the process of recruiting people into roles they’re going to be performing remotely, usually from home.
One of the advantages of offering fully remote working is you can cast your net wider, attracting more talent from further afield.
While organisations can opt to interview candidates in-person, with mobile or remote recruitment, candidates are usually interviewed virtually to reflect their prospective working conditions.
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A recruitment app is a program or piece of software that organisations can use to make recruiting easier.
Recruitment apps can be installed onto a computer/digital device or accessed online via the internet (these are known as cloud-based apps).
Recruitment apps or recruitment software can help you with:
- Writing job descriptions and sharing them to job boards
- Managing and screening/filtering applications
- Monitoring and sending out communications with applicants
- Checking applicants references and essential documents
- Arranging and holding virtual meetings
- Onboarding new hires onto the company’s IT and HR systems.
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In a recruitment context, onboarding refers to the process of bringing a new hire into the organisation and getting them set up in their new role. It’s an important part of the recruitment process.
For example, after you hired a new marketing assistant, you’d need to go through the onboarding process so they could start work and be set up on all necessary systems.
When onboarding a new hire, you might need to:
- Set them up on the HR system
- Liaise with their manager/team
- Share important documents (e.g. annual leave policy)
- Arrange a start date
- Prepare any equipment or access they might need.
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Yes, when hiring a new employee in the UK, employers need to check the applicant’s legal right to work as part of the recruitment process.
If the applicant is a British or Irish citizen, they will need to provide proof of their legal identity to confirm their right to work in the UK so the employer can confirm its validity. This could be a passport, driving license, or other form of legal identification.
If the applicant is not a British or Irish citizen, they will need to provide proof of their legal right to work in the UK. This could be in the form of a working or student visa, for example.
You can find more information and detailed guides for employers on the gov.uk website.
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