An organization might decide to allocate more resources towards marketing or product design because they need to put the emphasis on making and selling the actual product. Let’s say, for example, the company is a startup. In their beginning stages, they probably have a very small number of employees that are all trusted individuals. In the early stages of a business, the focus needs to be on the product so that they can gain a foundation and get their brand out there. Once they start to gain some momentum and maybe even start to breakeven on all their investments, then that would be when they could consider focusing more on recruiting new employees.
A potential strength of allocating more resources on other aspects of the business is that it would be a good way to establish brand loyalty. I would consider this another important aspect of running a successful business. If customers do not know about your product, then it is going to be hard to sell it. In addition, if they buy it and are not satisfied, then they are not likely to come back. Having a known, trustworthy product will keep customers happy and coming back for more, which in turn will create a bigger profit for the organization.
A potential weakness of not focusing on employee recruitment is that it increases the chances of hiring someone who will eventually waste the organization’s time and resources. When this happens, it is very costly to the company and they often will have to spend a large amount of time fixing what that employee caused.
Overall, there are definitely pros and cons of allocating different resources to different part of an organization. I think that ultimately it comes down to what the organization needs at any given time. Thus, it is important for companies to pay attention to their needs so that they can allocate resources accordingly.
4 replies on “The Case for Recruitment and Selection”
Katherine, I think that the example that you chose to demonstrate why a company may spend less money on recruitment is on point. When a startup is initially growing and trying to spread word of their product, the employees that they have don’t matter so much if there is no marketing to get products or services out the door. This is especially true when the current employees are all really great as you stated. Once the company ramps up sales and production they will have to switch their efforts to the hiring process, but that will come later on.
I think you made a really good point in that a business’s decision to invest in any given area is determined by the current stage of the business lifecycle the business is in. At each point in the lifecycle the needs and focusses are different which ultimately leads to different decisions being made. In my opinion, especially for start-ups, some revenue needs to be generated in order for the business to see a future in an industry and thus a product/service needs to be marketed and developed to get sales before a business owner should even consider investing extra money into recruitment of employees.
I totally agree that if someone is hired for the job and then they do poorly, it will end up costing the company more in the long run than if they had allocated resources in the beginning. I think it is important for companies
to realize that employees are a vital asset to the company, and should have value added there.
I liked that you focused on the strength of brand loyalty and gaining that aspect for your company. This allows for more talented candidates to apply for your open position since the brand already has a strong following and presence. Good point!