Assignment

INTRODUCTION

External sources of potential employees

The term external sources of staffing indicate the sources of recruitment outside the enterprise. The persons recruited from outside sources are, thus, unknown to the enterprise so far. Some organizations prefer this source particularly originality, initiative and drive are of paramount importance. Particularly in a competitive economy, fresh blood should be injected into the organization so as to make it more dynamic.

 The outside sources of recruitment usually include

• New entrants to the labor force i.e., young mostly inexperienced potential employees the college students. 
• The unemployed with multiple skills and abilities.
•  Retired experienced persons.
• All others not in the labor force

Methods of recruiting from external sources

1. Advertisements: Staff recruitment is one of the purpose of advertisement. This is a very common and effective method of bringing in candidates from outside. The employer puts up an advertisement in the newspaper either in the classified advertisement column or in the form of display advertisement. The name of the post, educational qualifications, experience in the relevant field of activity, salary, etc., are all given in the advertisement. This method is generally suitable for finding out skilled personnel.

2. Employment Exchanges: In Tanzania, employment exchanges are run by the Government. In Western countries, employment counsels and private employment exchanges are very popular. The employment exchange, can help the employers to find out suitable personnel. Besides, it can also help job seeker to get appointments. In particular these exchanges are very helpful to procure unskilled and semi-skilled workers.

3. Personnel Consultants: These personnel consultancy agencies have developed a lot in Tanzania. They recruit personnel on behalf of employers. This method of external recruitment is a costly affair. Although this method is very popular in western countries, it is not so popular in Tanzania.

4. Colleges, Universities and Institutions: Some progressive employers maintain a dose contact with the universities, colleges, vocational institutes, and management institutes for recruitment to various jobs. It is easier to mold the fresh graduates and hence they follow the well-known principle ‘Catch the Young‘. This practice has several points to its credit. This method, however, is in its infancy in Tanzania.

5. Recommendations: Applicants introduced by friends and relatives is yet another source of recruitment. Many employers also prefer this method because something about the background of the candidate is known. This method is widely practiced in Tanzania. However, this method has the inherent defect of favoritism and nepotism.

6. Labor Contractors: This method is very popular in Tanzania. They hire skilled and semi-skilled workers. The labor contractors are in constant touch with workers and bring them to places wherever required. Recently, this system has been in operation for supplying unskilled and semi-skilled laborers to the gulf and Middle East countries where large scale construction works are going on.

7. Casual and Unsolicited Applicants: Sometimes, job seekers may visit the factory, office or work site with the hope that jobs would be avoidable. They may be considered for employment. Similarly, job seekers may also put up their applications. If suitable jobs are available, they are interviewed. Even if there is no vacancy, their applications are preserved and called for interview whenever vacancies arise in future. This is the most economical method of recruitment and is popular all over the world.

8. Poaching

It means ‘stealing’ from rival firms. This is where an organization approaches employees in other competing organizations to apply for jobs in their organization.

Besides, those cited above, there are various other methods like notice at the factory gate, inviting applications through labor unions, etc. Computer Data Banks constitutes a very popular source of recruitment in the Tanzania government institutions.

Evaluation of External Sources:

Like any other sources of recruitment, external sources are mixed of advantages and disadvan­tages.

The following are the main advantages:

1. Open Process:

Being a more open process, it is likely to attract large number of applicants/ applications. This, in turn, widens its options of selection.

2. Availability of Talented Candidates:

With large pool of applicants, it becomes possible for the organization to have talented candidates from outside. Thus, it introduces new blood in the organization.

3. Opportunity to select the best candidates:

With large pool of applicants, the selection process becomes more competitive. This increases prospects for selecting the best candidates.

4. Provides healthy competition:

As the external members are supposed to be more trained and efficient. With such a background, they work with positive attitude. This helps create healthy competition and conducive work environment in the organization.

However, the external sources of recruitment suffer from certain disadvantages too:

These are:

1. Expensive and Time Consuming:

This method of recruitment is both expensive and time consuming. There is no guarantee that organization wall get good and suitable candidates.

2. Unfamiliarity with the Organization:

As candidates come from outside the organization, they are not familiar with the tasks, job nature and the internal scenario of the organization.

3. Discourages the Existing Employees:

Existing employees are not sure to get promotion. This discourages them to work hard. This, in turn, boils down to decreasing productivity of the organization.

CONCLUSION ON EXTERNAL SOURCES OF LABOUR

As seen above External Sources of Labour have their beneficial impact on any organization, External recruits bring knowledge, skills and experience gained in other companies, helping to avoid mistakes made by others in the same industry.

An employee who has not been exposed to your company culture may bring fresh new ideas that an existing employee may not think of.

If any major changes are to be made to the way the business is run, external recruits may be less reluctant than internally-recruited staff - they usually bring “fresh blood” into a company and are happier to facilitate the changes. Decides to use them as a way of sourcing for employees.

References;

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Recruitment and induction, Acas. Accessed 10 May 2015

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