From the organization’s perspective, recruitment is a process of soliciting the most talented and motivated applicants, and as such it is a bedrock function. Only with highly skilled staff—human capital—do organizations have the opportunity to thrive in an era in which work tends to be complex, customized, and rapidly changing. Recruitment may be seen from two perspectives: that of the employer and that of the applicant. What are the factors that affect success for the organization? And, just as important, what are applicants’ perspectives on what a quality process is, even if they are not selected?

Having a sound recruitment philosophy means asking the right and wise questions from the outset. Is the entire procedure well conceived so that it fully embodies vital organization goals? Are enough—and the correct—strategies used to reach a broad range of persons who might be qualified and interested? Is it clear and nonbureaucratic, so that would-be employees will not be discouraged? Is the process free from legal challenges yet not excessively legalistic or stultifying? Do applicants feel good about the recruitment process? Finally, is the overall procedure cost-effective for the position being considered and the recruitment environment, both of which vary enormously.

Pay and benefits are often the first factors that potential applicants review and consider. Public pay generally varies from uncompetitive to moderately competitive, depending on the agency, location, and position. Benefits (especially pension and health insurance) in the public sector are generally perceived as on par with or better than those in the private sector on average and thus represent a recruiting strength. The nonprofit sector often suffers from substantially lower pay scales and more limited benefits than either the private or the public sector, and thus must make up for these weaknesses in the intrinsic job quality elements.

Recruitment should be seamlessly connected with the selection process. Together these processes are known as staffing (the receipt of applications and the closing date of the position signal the end of recruitment and the beginning of the selection process). Even in large agencies practices range from centralized to decentralized. Finally, departments often rotate between individual recruitment for particular positions and institutional or pool recruitment to procure many candidates for job classifications such as entry-level secretary, accountant, laborer, forest ranger, or caseworker.

Many human resource offices (with legislative approval) are demonstrating a willingness to use increased flexibility and technological innovations such as on-the-spot hiring, fully online applications, and electronic scaling of applications. A plan for staffing begins with a labor market survey or specific position parity studies that compare agency job clusters.
What are the trends in terms of availability, salaries, and education levels?
Statistics and other information regarding the national labor force are available on the website of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov), and the BLS also offers a useful occupational outlook handbook online.