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The purpose of this paper is to determine whether an outsourced recruitment service can provide a satisfactory organisational solution from the perspective of its line-managers.

The study is based on a single, large organisation involving dissemination of an on-line survey targeting line-managers with a recent record of hiring new employees. Using quantitative analysis including correlation, multiple regression and binary logistic regression, assessment is made regarding manager perception, including experience as customers, overall rating of the recruiter and a willingness to recommend the service.

Aspects of standard service, assessed in terms of operations and recruiter provision, are perceived as being at appropriately high levels, while the arguably more demanding external aspects of the recruitment process are perceived to be less successful. Line-manager satisfaction as customers and satisfaction with the recruiter are explained by various experiences of both service and recruiter, while willingness to recommend is explained in terms of customer satisfaction, satisfaction with the recruiter and recognition that the service provides added value. Personal line-manager experiences, perceived realisation of organisational values or achieving preferred line-manager recruitment objectives play no significant part in these explanations.

The research considered an individual organisation, with participating managers being solely from within. Further research could see the assessment being extended to other organisations perhaps at different points of maturity in their relationships with an external recruitment partner, as well as revisiting the participating organisation at a later point in time to assess potential changes in the relationships assessed.

To enhance line-manager satisfaction with service and with the recruiter, aspects of process and recruiter contribution both play a role, while these satisfaction indicators, in tandem with an appreciation of added value will prompt a line-manager to ultimately recommend such a service.

This centres on the assessment of an outsourced recruitment service from the particular perspective of its hiring line-managers, through evaluation of service satisfaction and willingness to recommend.

This article reports and evaluates how a traditional approach to recruitment and selection in the Social Services Department of West Sussex County Council was superseded by a competency‐based approach. The authors discuss the impacts of external and internal changes on the local authority and the need to develop less subjective and more effective methods of recruitment and selection, at all levels. After describing and reviewing existing practices, they outline the results of an internal research investigation involving managers and personnel and training specialists. The research participants acknowledged the limitations of the existing recruitment and selection practices and recognised the need for a more competence‐based approach. This was clearly an important stage in the change process which the authors proceed to describe. Here, they highlight the key role of training and relationship‐building between line managers and personnel specialists. Examples are provided of traditional and competence‐based job descriptions, person specifications and forms of assessment. The authors conclude that the new system fits well into the department’s overall human resources strategy for improving workplace performance and reducing workplace conflict.

This article will set out to compare some findings of a study on recruitment with the more general pronouncements on selection which are available in the literature on personnel management. The research study investigated the recruitment systems of major employees, all with relatively developed personnel functions, in three areas of Britain and West Germany; it concentrated on manual and low‐level white‐collar jobs in the 24 largest employers in each area. Although the study confirms the importance of internal recruitment, even where there is no developed seniority system or internal labour market, this article will concentrate on external recruitment (and/or some of the general conclusions of the study, but not on the Anglo‐German comparative dimension).

Anonymous recruitment seeks to limit managers’ reliance on stereotypes in employment decisions, thereby reducing discrimination. This paper aims to explore how managers interpret the information embedded in anonymised job applications and how they interpret the organisational priorities driving the adoption of anonymous recruitment.

Semi-structured interviews with 30 managers in two Australian public sector organisations were analysed.

The results showed that managers used implicit signals and cues to infer the gender identities of applicants in anonymised applications, reintroducing the possibility of bias. Managers perceived that anonymous recruitment sent positive external signals to prospective employees but were sceptical about its effectiveness.

The results showed that removing applicants’ names and identifying information from applications may not be sufficient to reduce bias. In organisations where managers are sympathetic to equity and diversity issues, use of anonymous recruitment may provoke resentment if managers perceive organisational distrust or inconsistent objectives. Limitations regarding the size and nature of the sample are acknowledged.

Organisations seeking to reduce gender discrimination in recruitment may consider adopting standardised application procedures or training managers to understand how stereotypes affect evaluations. Organisations should also assess managerial support for, and understanding of, anonymous recruitment prior to implementation.

The findings add to existing knowledge regarding the effects of implicit gender signals in managers’ assessments and the effectiveness of anonymous recruitment in reducing gender bias. It also contributes to signalling theory by examining how managers interpret the signals conveyed in organisational policies.

A “critical case” approach is used to examine whether the recruitment practices and procedures advocated by social scientists within the personnel field are realised in practice. The “critical case” selected is the graduate recruitment known as the “milkround”, where “scientific techniques” in theory stand the best chance of being used. In practice a major discrepancy between theory and practice was found, which is explained in terms of the preoccupation with material and symbolic security that conditions the actions of personnel managers in competitively co‐ordinated employment establishments.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the conduct of recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), based on a real-life case study of one company in Malaysia. The paper analyses the company’s process of recruitment outsourcing from beginning to end, in three sections: RPO decision, RPO implementation and RPO outcome.

The case study was carried out through semi-structured interviews with relevant respondents, including the country HR manager, the HR staff and operation managers in the organisation, plus with the RPO provider.

The key findings, from a theoretical and academic viewpoint, are that RPO decisions and implementation cannot be fully or properly explained by one theory, but are better explained by integrating transaction cost economics, the resource-based view and the Agency Theory. The study also highlights the importance of involving end users in the RPO process.

While this single case study gives a clear, in-depth insight into the issues in this particular instance, future research extending to a wider range of organisations would serve to expand the findings and provide more generalisable results.

Practitioners and service providers should be able to draw valuable lessons from the experience of Tech-solution, particularly from the different perceptions and levels of satisfaction about the service provider’s performance between internal HR and the internal end users (operation managers).

This paper provides a specific and detailed analysis of RPO implementation in practice. It also addresses the call for more RPO outsourcing-specific research in the extant literature.

Has the recession been a significant factor in bringing about changes in the recruitment process? Have personnel managers taken advantage of it to alter their practices, make their procedures more rigorous, sharpen up or introduce tougher criteria? Alternatively has the recession taken the pressure off managers so that they no longer need to seek new and more effective ways of recruiting?

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how technology can improve the recruitment process.

The author discusses how the replacement of a paper‐based system with online technology has greatly improved recruitment efficiencies and the candidate experience at high street retailer, River Island. Because of the high volume of applications received, the organization acknowledged it needed to revise and refresh its approach to recruitment. The business needed a robust, flexible and candidate‐focused recruitment system to enable it to attract and sign up the most talented people that will see it stay at the top of the high street. River Island researched suppliers and different online platforms before working with Changeworknow to design a system to meet the needs of the brand.

The combined impact of moving from a manual to a technology‐led process and transferring recruitment from front line managers to HR has improved the process to the extent that the system is being expanded in functionality and across the organization.

As a retailer, River Island has seasonal recruitment demands that impact directly on the success of the business and on the brand. The paper shows how technology can help to overcome the associated challenges of seasonal recruitment.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the vital issue of managerial recruitment for private industry. Personality and demographic variables and their interactions are to be examined to determine the extent they uniquely influence the attraction of business professionals to managerial jobs in simulated position advertisements.

The study consisted of 330 experienced business professionals who role‐played as applicants for managerial positions by rating jobs described in simulated position advertisements.

After statistically controlling for the demographic variables, the hierarchical regression analyses suggested that personality (inclusion, control, openness) as determined by the FIRO Element B explained statistically significant job rating variance in each of the three regression models. Thus, job applicant personality influenced the attraction of the participants to simulated managerial jobs.

These findings suggest the practical significance of human resource professionals producing recruitment media to attract managerial applicants with the appropriate personality to best assure a good person‐job fit. This notion is discussed as a possible lost cost method for managerial recruitment improvement and as a solid first step in developing a cadre of managers for organizations.