Targeted recruitment strategy refers to a selective recruitment mechanism which involves applying proactive recruitment measures that are aimed at seeking applicants that have certain characteristics or certain skills or targeting personnel within a specific location (Elrehail et al., 2019). It provides an opportunity for the HR professionals to narrow down their hiring efforts and identify certain characteristics that are linked to the vacant job description.
In my opinion, I think that targeted recruitment systems are fair and can be helpful for an organization in various ways towards enhancing the effectiveness of the organization’s personnel to meet the needs of the organization. As noted by Gartner (2020), targeted recruitment systems commonly focus on the segments that the prospective employer wants to draw employees from. The deontological ethical perspective attempts to provide a rationale underpinning the duty of an employer to seek individuals who are most suited for the vacant position and recruit the most suited individuals even if it is through selective recruitment supported by targeted principles of hiring new staff. For example, if a position will enable an individual to interact with an older person mainly, then it is deemed productive that the employer fills it with an older person (Oehlhorn et al., 2020). Conversely, if the employee will mainly be engaging or interacting with people of a certain background or language, then the employer can consider recruiting someone who is conversant or shares such a background to enhance the ease of integration and promote effective communication (Oehlhorn et al., 2020). Generally, targeted recruitment procedures can promote the biblical values of fairness and being merciful towards people who are within certain underrepresented groups such as those with a certain disability.
It is evident that one might perceive that such practices of targeted recruitment can be blatantly unfair because it might involve bypassing people who might have more skills and knowledge for the specific role. In fact, the unfairness of this practice has been challenged before the Supreme Court in a case called General Dynamics Land Systems versus Cline (Gartner, 2020). The Court pronounced itself and held that the practice is not unfair especially if it is done in a manner that is sufficiently supported by reasons that can be effective to enhance productivity and does not cause any unfairness to the targeted personnel who apply. This means that employers should still diversify their work forces, but this should be done through a procedural manner that still supports the overarching principles of fairness. Therefore, employers must comply with legal provisions that are aimed at ensuring that the process of targeted recruitment is done in a manner that increases diversity and opportunity instead of impeding it.
Therefore, targeted recruitment can focus on securing candidates that have very specific skills, or located within a specific area or might target an under-represented demographic group such as Hispanic women, and others (Oehlhorn et al., 2020). This targeted recruitment process should be conducted in a fair manner with the goal of enhancing organizational competency in a specific discipline and helps to improve the number and quality of applicants particularly for positions that are difficult to fill. If done correctly, targeted recruitment strategy enables the organization to represent the various segments of society through advertising for job openings in identified places and mechanisms that will only attract candidates that possess certain skills, experiences of characteristics (Elrehail et al., 2019).
The human resource department should ensure that the targeted recruitment strategy is highly specific in terms of goals and the intent to track the return on investment of applying the targeted recruitment strategy. This should be effectively done with the goal of marketing to the type of candidate that an employer is seeking to fill and must be implemented in the areas where the target candidate lives and has access. Interestingly, the targeted star tegu should incorporate regular posting and promoting of the available jobs and seek candidates that are involved in the process and who resonate with the overarching values and goals of the organization.
References
Oehlhorn, C. E., Maier, C., Laumer, S., & Weitzel, T. (2020). Human resource management and its impact on strategic business-IT alignment: A literature review and avenues for future research. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 29(4), 101641.
Elrehail, H., Harazneh, I., Abuhjeeleh, M., Alzghoul, A., Alnajdawi, S., & Ibrahim, H. M. H. (2019). Employee satisfaction, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: The case of Northern Cyprus. European Journal of Management and Business Economics, 29(2), 125-149.
Gärtner, C. (2020). Smart human resource management. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.
