Human Resource Management involves a wide array of functions that encompasses the time from when an employee enters an organization to the time the employee leaves the organization. The specific activities that are involved in HRM include job design and analysis, recruitment, orientation and placement, development and training of the personnel, employee remuneration, and performance appraisal (Aswathappa, 2007: 5). This paper shall focus on three main activities which are recruitment, training, and personnel development. When it comes to recruitment, it is incumbent upon the Human Resource Manager to bring into the workforce, employees that are both wiling and competent to accomplish specific tasks. The work of recruitment goes hand in hand with that of selection both of which form an integral part of the planning process and the overall HRM processes (Aswathappa, 2007: 8).
It is worth noting that for any business to succeed, effective management of human resources is central. This largely depends on the policies that have been set to guide recruitment, training, and personnel development. Besides bringing on board competent employees, the function of recruitment serves to solve certain problems related to shortage of employees in various departments of an organization (Lugonja, 2011: 2). For external candidates to be recruited into an organization, human resource managers must select appropriate media and co-operate with agencies and educational institutions. These will help in the targeting of talents and attracting them through advertising on various media such as the Internet, newspapers, television. Central to this aspect of advertising and attracting new talents, is the question of the costs involved (Lugonja, 2011: 2).
Therefore, managers have to make a comprehensive cost analysis so as to choose the right media for advertising job opportunities. In addition, the employment process requires effective communication in terms of the messages to post via advertisements. This is because potential candidates will be attracted by the content of the messages displayed through the adverts. In light of the current technological advancements such as the Internet and social networks, human resource managers would want to utilize such channels to reach many potential candidates across the globe (Lugonja, 2011: 2). This calls for flexibility and willingness to invest in technology where adequate efforts have not been made. However, a multidimensional approach would work better since not all people can access the Internet. In a nutshell, the process of selection and recruitment involves looking for and motivating prospective employees to apply for available job posts. Being a negative process, selection entails scrutinizing the qualifications of candidates that have applied in order to choose only the best applicants for various jobs (Sharma, Khurana, & Khurana, 2009: 17).
When the process of recruitment is complete, the next tasks involve developing...
