Recruitment Is a Critical Component of Any Case Study

Recruitment is a critical component of any human resources strategy. A good recruitment strategy should seek to find the right workers for the available roles within the company. For many firms, finding the right workers is essential to gaining and maintaining competitive advantage. For such companies, recruitment is essentially a competition for scarce resources, so it is necessary to outcompete rivals in order to win and sustain competitive advantage. While a basic way of explaining recruitment strategy is to "find the best people possible," a good recruitment strategy will refine this by understanding what it means to find the best people (Peterson, 2013). Recruitment strategies therefore need to be taken in the context of organizational objectives. Further, recruitment strategies need to weigh constraints as well. Most organizations must formulate a recruitment strategy with a budget in mind, and there are often constraints either external or internal relating to the diversity of the workplace and in terms of finding the right balance of workers to drive the company forward. This paper will look at the recruiting strategy of FedEx and analyze the overall effectiveness of the strategy.

FedEx Recruiting Strategy

FedEx has around 160,000 employees around the world, and the majority of its workers are in the United States. The company seeks to minimize turnover through a number of strategies, including a promise not to lay off full-time employees even in recession times, but there is still a constant need for new workers because of turnover, which affects its part-time ranks. FedEx mainly recruits for part-time positions, because full-time positions are typically filled internally. The company may pursue senior management candidates from outside the company, but in general even these come from within, as there is a sophisticated system for moving employees through the ranks.

For recruitment, FedEx has a centralized system online where applicants fill out forms, and if selected for interview would be contacted by one of the company's professional recruiters. There is a multi-stage interview process, drug-testing and applicants who will be driving vehicles will need to submit their driver's abstract proving competency. The process can take weeks, and is then followed by a training period. Part of the interview process is designed to test the ability of the applicant to relate to customers, because many of the lower-level positions are where the company has the point of contact with its customers. This contact is almost daily, so customer service skills and temperament are just as important as meeting the physical requirements for the position.

One of the key elements in the FedEx recruiting strategy is to cultivate a great employer brand. The concept of the employer brand reflects the desirability of a company for job-seekers. Companies that are more desirable will tend to attract better-quality applicants (Knox & Freeman, 2006). FedEx seeks to cultivate its employer brand through high visibility (prominent logos on its trucks), having staff who are friendly and well-adjusted, and through a variety of programs designed to treat employees well. By developing a reputation for treating employees well, a company can attract more workers, expanding the pool of quality applicants. With more applicants, the company is likely to find more high quality applicants, thereby improve the quality of its workforce.

Armed with a good employer brand, FedEx then seeks to identify the best of the applicants to fill its vacancies. The company does this by identifying the key skill sets for success in the company, rather than the key skill sets for success in a given role.…