Human Resource Planning - Effective Source of Recruitment in a School

 

Human resource planning is a process that takes place by aiming to ensure the organization has the right number and right kind of people at the right jobs at the right time, analyzes current human resources, identifies their future human resource needs, identifies vacancies available, and then implement necessary actions to fulfill the vacancies.

After discovering the vacancies available in an organization, human resource managers check the availabilities from inside the organization. They determine which current employees are capable of fully fulfilling the identified vacancy. Managers can retrain and transfer into the vacant positions, convince employees who are planning to retire or they can implement programs to increase the productivity of the current employees. If the managers need more employees other than the inside employees or in other words if managers need external employees they go for the recruitment process. 

Once the managers create the job description and job specification for the specific job vacancy, the recruitment process takes place. Recruitment is a process where searching for the right candidates and encouraging them to apply for a job.

Sources of recruitment 

Internal source of recruitment means encouraging the current employees to apply for the job vacancy or filling the vacancy by the current employees. There are many ways to inform the vacant of the employees.

Human Resource Information System

Through the employee database, employers can access and identify potential candidates for the available jobs. Through accessing the information managers can transfer to the similar jobs of other departments, and promote the skilled employees to the suitable jobs, depending on the performance of the employees managers can remove the employees as well.

External sources

The external source of recruitment means hiring a new employee to the organization for a specific job vacancy. To recruit a new employee schools use different types of methods.

Educational Institutes

In a government-owned school, all academic and non-academic staff members are appointed by the Ministry of Education. The school informs them about the vacancies to Ministry they find employees from educational institutes and other schools. Educational institutions are a source of young applicants with formal training but with little full-time work experience. Finding candidates from campuses and teaching schools are effective method. It helps to find eligible, energetic, and competitive candidates. This method is beneficial for both the candidates and organizations. 

 Internet recruitment

Nowadays the technology is developing very fast. And the benefits of using the internet are increasing. There is a good reach among the society. There are many Social media sites available;

1.             Facebook
2.        WhatsApp messenger
3.        Instagram
4.        Twitter
5.        LinkedIn

If the school faces a high need for a teacher, labor, or any other vacancy until the Ministry of Education appoints staff, the school temporarily recruits wanted staff under a contract basis; where the School Development Committee pays for them. To recruit such employees to the school mostly they use this method. The school has accounts on WhatsApp Messenger and Facebook, and they post an advertisement in it to make the public aware of the vacancy.

On a contract basis, there are teachers, Computer operators, Sanitary Labours, Office Assistants, plumbers, and coaches, at school.

Employee referrals

Employees’ referrals are recommendations made by current employees that can be used as a recruitment approach. This method was also used when they planned to recruit employees on a contract basis.  Employees of the school inform about the vacancies available in the school as well as recommend about well know people to the organization. The school management team interviews them and selects if the candidate is qualified.

Usually, people stay backward to recommend people because any negativities happen the recommended person needs to take responsibility.  Therefore even knowing the above point if an employee recommends someone, that recordation would be more trustworthy.

 

There are both advantages and disadvantages of recruiting internally.

Advantages are,

§  Loyalty increases towards the school when a current employee got a promotion.

§  Morale may increase if an employee sees promotions for loyalty and competency.

§  It saves time. Because they fit for the culture, their record is easily accessible and they may not need interviews.  And it reduces the time spent for recruitment process.

§  Existing employees know about the organization’s culture well therefore employers needs not to train about it.

§  There will be less paper works.

§  It helps to increase job satisfaction and motivate other employees’ performance as well.

§  Transferring an employee to a new or different department may help to reduce boredom.

There are some disadvantages too.

§  Middle and upper level positions that require special training and experience which cannot be filled within the organization.

§  Fails to fill new roles. Some new job positions need new skills to perform but when the organization recruit an existing employee for the position he /she may fail to fill the need skill.

§  Lack of external information. New ideas and approaches may not flow into the organization.

§  Losing more efficient persons from the external environment

Recruiting new employees may have positive effects on the organization,

The advantages of recruiting externally are,

§  New employees may be supported with new ideas

§  Can find the best candidate since there will be a pool of workers in the job environment.

§  People have a wider range of experience

§  Candidates who are capable of handling a certain skilled job and some of them search for those candidates

§  When a school selects a candidate with high potential, then there is a higher possibility of the overall growth of the school.

Disadvantages are,

§  Since the Ministry of Education has more procedures to do when appointing a fresher, transferring, or with attachment basis an existing employee from another school, it takes time to process the recruitment steps.

§  The school needs to conduct training if they get an employee under contract basis and the School Development committee needs to bear the cost of the salary.

§  Should make extra efforts to teach the organization's culture and morals.

§  Since employees are new, the school needs to take risks about the employee.

§  Takes some time to understand the employee so to takes time to build trustworthiness on the employee.

§  Employees’ who are under contract basis have less job security and at the same time the school also faces a risk. Because the employee may resign from the job at any time; therefore finding a replacement is difficult.

§  A Salary anomalies between government-appointed staff and contract-based staff.

§  Ministry appoints staff under guidelines of difficult provincial areas and preferential areas. When employees are appointed to difficult areas or far places from their residences, employees face big difficulties in transportation, accommodation facilities, and cultural differences. Staff from far place needs to spend more time traveling or needs to get boarding services.

§  The Ministry of Education transfers staff from one place to another yearly or after 10 years of service in one place. When well-trained staff are transferred the school faces difficulty to train the new staff and the flow of the work progress may fall down. 

 Conclusion

Depending on the nature of the organization the best method for recruiting employees for an organization may vary.

For example, when recruiting a teacher a private school uses advertising methods and selects the candidates, while government schools request from the department of Education and the department may fill the gap.

Some managerial posts in government posts go for internal recruitment methods where they fill the gaps by transfers and temporary attachment methods; while private sectors use both internal and external methods.

One method of recruitment may suit one type of vacancy and the same method may not suit another. For example in an organization, recruiting for a managerial post internal source may be more beneficial since existing employees are familiar with the culture, goals, and morals, as well as he/she might know the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the organization. Meanwhile for lower-level vacancies, using both internal as well as external methods suits to fill the gap.

By considering the advantages and disadvantages of both internal and external sources of recruiting methods and above mentioned points I can conclude that there is no one best method for recruiting employees for an organization. Internal as well as external recruitment methods have disadvantages. We cannot assure you that there will be no disadvantage in any methods we choose for recruitment.

Find Teacher vacancies :

https://www.topjobs.lk/applicant/vacancybyfunctionalarea.jsp?FA=TAL 

List to find government school teachers :

 Displaying of the List of Names of Teachers, who have completed a Service Period of 10 years or more in the same School.

 

References

1. Indeed Editorial Team, 2022. What are recruitment sources and why are they important? Available at: https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/recruitment-sources (Accessed 24 November 2023)
2. MOE, 2023, Displaying of the List of Names of Teachers, who have completed a Service Period of 10 years or more in the same School. Available at: https://moe.gov.lk/2023/11/displaying-of-the-list-of-names-of-teachers-who-have-completed-a-service-period-of-10-years-or-more-in-the-same-school/ (Accessed 25 November 2023)
3. Byju’s, 2023, Sources of Recruitment. Available at: https://byjus.com/commerce/sources-of-recruitment/ (Accessed 24 November 2023)