EFFECTIVE RECRUITMEN: FACTORS INFLUENCING APPLICANTS' ATTRACTION TO ORGANIZATIONS

Abstract

Recruitment has become a top priority for many organizations today as they struggle to cope with labour shortages and the so-called ‘‘war for talent.’’ Demographic trends such as the decline in the number of young workers combined with the retirement of baby boomers will make it increasingly difficult for organizations to fill job openings. As a result, attracting and retaining talent has become a major concern and a pressing problem for many organizations. In fact, some organizations now face a greater challenge in recruiting than in selecting employees. According to Taylor and Collins, recruitment has become the most critical human resource function for organizational success and survival. Organizational recruitment involves practices and activities carried out by an organization to identify and attract potential employees (Barber 1998). The primary objective of recruitment is to attract top applicants and increase their chances of accepting a job offer. This requires an understanding of the effects of recruitment information on applicant attraction. Hence, this research tries to find out how the various factors, namely, job and organization characteristics; recruiter characteristics and behaviour; perceptions about the recruitment process; and company visibility, influence a candidate’s decision while applying for a particular organization and the managerial implications of the same. To facilitate this research, a quantitative investigation was conducted through the use of a questionnaire to collect the response of 150 management students from colleges in and around Delhi, on the above mentioned parameters. The responses were analyzed with the help of SPSS and recommendations from my side were added.