longer enough. Employers must also identify those individuals who
can contribute to organizational effectiveness and competitive
advantage.
In these circumstances good recruitment practices are essential for
organizational success, particularly when a company seeks to main-
tain or develop a certain culture and style within the organization.^2
Organizations such as Disney and Nordstrom in the USA (see Case
Studies 5.2 and 5.3) are examples of companies who owe their
success to some extent to the care with which they recruit their
employees. Yet despite this, the subject of recruitment has received
relatively little attention from researchers and academics alike;
instead they have tended to want to focus on the more glamorous
area of employee selection. However, the best candidates for a job
cannot be appointed if they don’t apply for it in the first place. It is
essential, therefore, for the would-be employer to be able to attract
potential applicants and present itself to influential third parties and
individuals as an employer of first choice. If it wants to retain these
employees, it must then prove itself to be able to deliver what is
promised to prospective employees. To be a highly attractive poten-
tial employer, a clearly defined recruitment strategy that adopts a
relationship marketing focus and builds a reputation as a first-class
employer is critical if a company is to succeed in this market
domain. This section will, therefore, address key issues relating to
the recruitment market domain, specifically: the costs of recruit-
ment; finding the best employees; selection techniques; training;
recruitment monitoring and evaluation.
The costs of recruitment
Annual employee turnover, particularly in the service industry, can
be equal to or greater than 100 per cent.^3 Significant costs are asso-
ciated with employee turnover and a particularly good example of
these costs is highlighted in the Digital case (Case Study 5.4). Costs
are typically incurred through expenditure on advertising, staff time
taken up in interviewing prospective candidates, administration
time in dealing with application forms or CVs. Then there are inter-
view expenses to pay to applicants and possibly relocation expenses
if that is required. Finally, when someone is recruited there are the
costs of training the person which need to be taken into account.
These are all the direct costs incurred when a new applicant is hired;
The recruitment and internal market domains 305