What is recruitment?
Recruitment is the overall process of sourcing, shortlisting, selecting and appointing the right candidate for the right position. The job may be a paid job or an unpaid position such as a trainee or any voluntary role. The role may be temporary or permanent.
What is the job description?
A job title will only give you a basic idea of what the open position entails. Inquire about the day-to-day duties and overarching responsibilities associated with the job. This lets you know if you will take on more responsibilities than you’ve had in the past or have the opportunity to expand your skill set with this role. Ultimately, you should look for positions that help you grow, learn and advance your career.
How long has the position been open?
Understanding how long a position has been open will give you valuable insights into how the hiring process is going. If the job was recently listed, you may have the privilege of being one of the first candidates interviewed. However, this may lead to a longer hiring process, as many managers prefer to see three or four potential candidates before selecting one.
How quickly are you looking to fill the position?
Understanding the pace of the interview process will give you a better idea of what to expect after your interview. If the company is looking to fill the position quickly, you might expect an offer shortly after you meet with the hiring manager if you’re selected. If the company takes more time to consider candidates, you should prepare to wait longer before following up on your initial thank you letter or moving on to consider another job opportunity.
How did this position become available?
While online job postings won’t give you an idea of what happened to the previous employee from a particular position, a recruiter can. This question will let you know whether the job is a newly-created position or a back fill. The recruiter may let you know whether the last employee left the company or was promoted to another position. A promotion is a good sign of upward mobility within the organization.
Why have other candidates been passed up?
Understanding why previous candidates were not selected will help you better understand which qualities and qualifications are most important to the hiring manager. For example, if you learn that the company rejected other applicants because they didn’t have enough experience with the company’s software system, you can make the effort to emphasize your own skills in this area during your interview.
What’s turnover like at this company?
It’s helpful to have an idea of the average turnover at a company since a business with high turnover may present some challenges. Inquiring about these before your interview will help you better evaluate whether the company is a good fit for you.
What are the most important skills for the job?
A recruiter can let you know what qualifications the company values the most. This will help you structure your resume and cover letter in a way that highlights these key skills. Understanding which skills are most important for the position will also help you evaluate whether you’re well-suited to the job or prefer to wait for a different type of opening.
What’s the company culture like?
A company’s culture impacts many aspects of the workday. An organization with a team-based culture will allow for more participation across different levels. One with a formal management style tends to keep activities more siloed. Consider your personal preferences regarding company culture so you can seek a business that’s a good fit for your personality.
Are you the only recruiter working for this company?
If you’re speaking with the only recruiter for the company, you may have a better chance of getting the position. If the company works with several recruiters, you should expect a longer and more competitive hiring process.
What is your relationship with the hiring manager?
Learning how well the recruiter knows this hiring manager gives you a better understanding of how in-depth the recruiter’s knowledge is on the job. Ideally, you’ll find that the recruiter works directly with the hiring manager and that the two communicate often. The closer the recruiter is to the hiring manager, the better your chances of getting prime details about opportunities with the company.
What can you tell me about the hiring manager?
This question is especially valuable if you’ve learned that the recruiter works closely with the hiring manager. You want to find out what this person’s interview style is, how experienced they are and what kind of reputation they have. Do they have a formal business style or are they laid back with a good sense of humour? This will help you formulate your approach to the cover letter and interview.
What types of interview questions should I expect?
A recruiter can often provide you with specific examples of the questions that the interviewer will ask. This can be helpful as you prepare to meet with the hiring manager. Some recruiters will even offer to set up a practice interview with you. This opportunity provides a unique chance to hone your overall interview skills while also preparing for the meeting in question.
Would you recommend any changes to my resume or cover letter?
An experienced recruiter has combed through dozens if not hundreds of resumes. They’ve seen some of the best applicants available and evaluated their resumes and cover letters carefully. Asking for advice on your own resume and cover letter can help not only with this job opportunity but with others a well. The recruiter can provide specific suggestions for tailoring these documents accordingly and improving your resume and cover letter overall.
Do you have a salary range in mind for the position?
Before you decide if a job opening is a good fit, it’s important to consider what the salary and compensation are. If the salary range is too low, you can reserve your time and effort for other opportunities. With your target salary in mind, the recruiter may be able to recommend a different position for you in the future.
Likewise, if you find that the hiring manager’s salary range is higher than anticipated, you can use this information to negotiate effectively if you’re offered the job. You can confidently ask for a higher salary if you know that the company’s range goes well beyond their opening offer.
What is the interview process?
The recruiter can explain the full interview process so you know what to expect at every stage. They can let you know if there are multiple interviews before the company extends a job offer as well as the length of time you should expect to wait between calls. Understanding the interview process from the beginning will help you plan accordingly and wait patiently as you progress through these steps.
Why did you choose recruitment?
A career in recruitment can provide you with valuable opportunities to develop skills that could contribute to your professional growth. A career in recruitment can offer many benefits, including:
- Career development
- Entrepreneurial opportunities
- Earning potential
- Diversity of tasks
- Innovation
- Friendly competition
- Positively impact others
- Employee benefits
Explain the purpose of recruitment.
- Attract the maximum number of candidates to the organization and encourage them to apply.
- Create strong database and select the best candidate for the position.
- Ascertain the current and future manpower requirements of the organization.
- Make the hiring exercise a cost effective one.
What is the importance of recruitment?
- To identify the potential candidates within the organization for future man power requirements.
- To identify the outside candidates and hire them to meet the man power requirements.
- To establish various sources of candidates.
- To help in increasing the success of hiring process.
Explain recruitment process.
The recruitment process tries to get the best manpower for the organization. It can be considered as the first strategic step towards the success of an organization.
The process consists of following major steps:
- Identifying the vacancy.
- Preparing the job specifications and description of the potential candidate.
- Advertising the requirement.
- Receiving and managing the applications.
- Short listing the candidates.
- Arranging the interviews.
- Conducting the interviews and deciding on the candidate.
What are the various sources of recruitment?
There can be two kinds of sources of recruitment for organizations
- Internal recruitment
- External recruitment
What are the main components of a recruitment policy?
The main components of a recruitment policy are:
- Terms of recruitment
- Sources of recruitment
- Using the services of placement agents
- Payment terms and conditions for placement agents
- Recruitment of contractual employees
- Obtaining requirements from departments
- Selection process
- Employment terms and conditions
What are the advantages of outsourcing the recruitment services?
Many organizations outsource their recruitment services to the placement agencies. The main advantages of doing so are as follows:
- It allows the organization to focus on core and strategic activities
- It leads to optimal use of resources and time
- It provides access to the expertise of the placement agents
- Reduction in recruitment cost.
Explain poaching / Raiding.
Poaching in recruitment means hiring the employee of a competitor who is working in the same capacity as desired by you. This is a major challenge faced by HR managers as it causes the leakage of talent from an organization and effects its productivity.
The employee is usually hired by offering him better salary and perks.
What is internal recruitment?
It means getting the candidate from within the organization to fulfil a vacancy. Internal recruitment can be done by:
- Transfer -transferring an employee from one location/ department to other.
- Promotion -Taking the employee higher up in the retrenched employees
- Demotion – Lowering the position of an employee in the hierarchy for various reasons
Explain external recruitment.
It means getting the absolutely new candidate to the company. The sources of these employees could be many:
- Job notifications in the print/ online media
- College campuses
- Placement agents
- Unsolicited applicants
- Employee referral program
- Employment exchange
- Labour contractors
What is the internal and external factors affecting recruitment?
Internal factors -The factors which are under the control of the organization are called internal factors.
These could be-
- Recruitment policy of the organization
- Human Resource Planning
- Expansion plans
- Cost of recruitment
External factors– These are the factors that are not under the control of the organization.
These could be-
- Availability of talent
- Brand image of the organization
- Politico-social environment
- Legal conditions
- Economic condition of the market
- Recruitment policy of the competitors
List some factors that affect the recruitment policy of a company.
Various factors which can affect the recruitment policy of a company are:
- Its objectives
- Policies of the competitors
- Government laws-Social and economic
- Political environment
- Cost of recruitment
- Time available
- Preferred recruitment sources
What are the advantages of e-recruitment?
- Lower cost of advertising the job openings
- Helps in saving time
- Large pool of candidates to choose from
- Day in-day out access to the database
- Screening the database brings in only relevant candidates
- Paper less process- more organised
What is recruitment management system? What are its features and benefits?
- Recruitment management system is a tool for effective management of recruitment process. It helps in quick, reliable, accurate and unbiased processing of various applications.
- The system helps in efficient management of system by automatically maintaining the database of candidates.
- It works as a good interface between various parties involved in the whole process.
- It helps in better communication.
Explain the process of recruitment through placement agents.
The process of recruitment through placement agents consists of following steps:
- Brief the consultant about the profile and the candidate
- Placement consultant shortlist some candidates and sends the CVs
- Company’s representative shortlists the CVs sent by consultants
- Interview is scheduled by the agent
- Interview conducted by the company’s representative
- If the candidate is selected, he is given an offer after the negotiation else the consultant sends another candidate.
What challenges have you faced as a recruiter?
- Lack of candidates in some particular domain
- Changing trends of the market
- Lack of self-motivation
- Lack of agility in the process
- Lack of job prioritization
- Lack of proper job analysis
