2.5.2 Effective recruitment — Edexcel GCSE Business revision notes

Different job roles and responsibilities

The specification names five levels of role, and they correspond to the levels of the hierarchical structure in 2.5.1.

Figure: The five job roles

Role	Responsibilities
Directors	Setting the aims and objectives of the whole business and making the major long-term decisions; answerable to the owners or shareholders
Senior managers	Running a department or function — marketing, finance, operations, human resources — and turning the directors' objectives into plans
Supervisors / team leaders	Overseeing a small team day to day, allocating work, checking it is done and reporting upwards
Operational staff	Doing the work that produces the goods or delivers the service to customers
Support staff	Roles that keep the business running without producing the product directly — administration, IT, maintenance, human resources

Responsibility becomes broader and more long-term the higher up the structure the role sits.

Documents used in recruitment

Three documents are named, and it is worth being clear which is written by the business and which by the applicant.

Written by the business:

• Job description — what the job involves: the title, the duties, who the post reports to, hours and location. It describes the job. • Person specification — what the successful applicant needs to be: qualifications, experience, skills and personal qualities, usually separated into essential and desirable. It describes the person.

Written or completed by the applicant:

• Application form — a standard form the business issues, asking every applicant the same questions. This makes comparison easy and fair, because everyone provides the same information in the same order. • CV — a document the applicant writes themselves, setting out their education, experience and skills. It lets applicants present themselves as they choose, but makes comparison harder because no two are alike.

Why the first two matter: they make the recruitment fair and legally defensible, since candidates are judged against stated requirements rather than impressions — which links to the discrimination law in 1.5.3.

Common mistake

A job description describes the job; a person specification describes the person needed for it. Questions frequently ask for one specifically, and swapping them loses the mark.

Job description: a document written by the business setting out what the job involves — the title, duties, who the post reports to, hours and location
Person specification: a document written by the business setting out the skills, qualifications and qualities the successful applicant needs
Curriculum vitae: a CV: a document written by the applicant setting out their education, experience and skills

Internal and external recruitment

Internal recruitment means filling a vacancy with someone already employed by the business — a promotion or a transfer. External recruitment means appointing someone from outside.

Figure: Internal against external

	Internal	External
Cost	Cheaper — little or no advertising	More expensive — advertising, agencies, more interviewing
Speed	Faster — the person can often start straight away	Slower — notice periods and a longer process
Knowledge of the candidate	Their work is already known, so less risk of a poor appointment	Only what the application and interview reveal
Induction	Shorter — they already know the business	Longer — training and settling in take time
Motivation	Shows staff there is a promotion route, which motivates	Existing staff may be disappointed at being passed over
New ideas	None — no fresh perspective enters the business	Brings new skills, experience and ways of thinking
The vacancy	Creates another vacancy lower down that must also be filled	Fills the post outright

The last two rows are the decisive ones: internal recruitment moves a gap rather than closing it, but external recruitment brings in what the business does not already have.

How the choice meets different business needs, which is what the specification asks:

• A business needing a skill nobody currently has must recruit externally. • A business needing someone quickly and cheaply, for a role its own staff could do, recruits internally. • A business wanting to change direction or challenge how things are done benefits from an outsider. • A business wanting to reward loyalty and show a career path promotes from within.

External recruitment methods include advertising online or in the press, recruitment agencies, job centres, and approaching people directly. Internal methods are usually a notice or email to existing staff.

Worked example

A growing business needs a marketing manager. It has an experienced marketing assistant, but no one with management experience. Advise on recruitment.

Consider internal first: the assistant knows the business, the products and the customers, and promoting them would motivate other staff.
Identify the gap: they have no management experience, so there is a risk they cannot lead a team.
Consider external: brings proven management experience and fresh ideas, useful for a business that is growing and changing.
But it costs more, takes longer, and may demotivate the assistant, who could leave.
Reach a recommendation that addresses the risk rather than ignoring it.

Answer: Advertise externally but allow the assistant to apply. That way the business can compare proven management experience against internal product knowledge, and the assistant is not passed over without a chance — which protects motivation. If they are appointed, management training should be provided to fill the gap in their experience.

Internal recruitment: filling a vacancy with someone already employed by the business, by promotion or transfer
External recruitment: filling a vacancy by appointing someone from outside the business

Before you practise

The five roles: directors, senior managers, supervisors or team leaders, operational staff, support staff.
Responsibility becomes broader and more long-term further up the structure.
A job description describes the job; a person specification describes the person needed.
An application form makes candidates easy to compare; a CV is written by the applicant and is harder to compare.
Internal recruitment is cheaper, faster and lower risk, and motivates staff by showing a promotion route.
But it brings no new ideas and creates another vacancy lower down.
External recruitment brings new skills and perspectives, but costs more, takes longer and may demotivate existing staff.
The right choice depends on whether the business needs speed and familiarity, or skills it does not already have.

Different job roles and responsibilities

Documents used in recruitment

Internal and external recruitment

Before you practise

Now practise it