Annotation
Selecting and recruiting human resources for Public Administration is a management area that has been undergoing in – depth changes. An effective response is required to meet the challenges of a society in which growing knowledge and awareness of citizenship demand transparency and speediness of processes.

Abstract
Once Manpower Planning is done, the process of recruitment begins. Recruitment is the process that entails the search for prospective workers and stimulating them to apply for the jobs put up by the personnel administration on behalf of the organisation. It is based on selection of the best principle where a number of applicants are invited for a single job opening and then the unwanted are eliminated selecting the one for the job who suits all the prerequisites suitably. Recruitment can make a break an organisation because even a brilliant training module cannot repair a faulty recruitment. The recruitment process consists of attractive recruitment literature and publicity, finding out target sector and people, usage of scientific tests for ability and aptitude testing of prospective candidates, tapping right candidates from within the organisation as well as outside as the requirement be (sometimes only one way or combined),placement of the right man for the right job and effective probation period process and proper induction into the organisation.

We all know that the manifold functions of modern governments are carried out jointly by the ministers and civil servants. Civil servants are the full-time, paid, permanent, professional servants of the State. They are taken in the service of the State by a process which is called the process of recruitment. 'The quality and efficiency of the civil service depends upon the-policy of recruitment. If the recruitment policy is good, then the country will have better and efficient civil servants and then naturally the administration will be successful-. But if the recruitment is neglected, then the administration will fail and the civilised life may collapse. We can, therefore, say that -recruitment1 is considered as the most important aspect of personnel administration in all the countries. If undeserving and inefficient persons are recruited in the services, no amount of training can improve the country's administration. In the present conditions, due to the scientific and technological progress many new problems have come up before the administration.

In order to solve these problems, able and meritorious persons are needed in administration. Old methods of recruitment have now totally changed and today, almost all the countries have accepted the 'merit system' for the recruitment of civil servants. Recruitment system of a country depends, to a great extent, upon the constitutional provisions and socio-political policy of that country.

The recruitment and selection process is important for new and established businesses alike. Your human resources department has the support and expertise of employment specialists who assist hiring managers with the procedures to ensure your company’s leaders are making wise hiring decisions.

2.1 Definition of recruitment
According to Jerry and Franklin, "Recruitment is the foundation that feeds the managerial pool : without it managerial personnel dries up and survival of the enterprise is threatened.
According to Edwin B Fllipo, "Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating and encouraging them to apply for the job."

According to Yoder D, "Recruitment is the process to discover the sources of manpower to meet the requirements of the staffing schedule and to employ effective measures for attracting that manpower in adequate numbers to facilitate effective selection of an efficient working force.

Recruitment in government organization is all about finding the right people for the right job. It involves having good public relations, employment campaigns and effective systems of sel ;ection of the people.

2.2 Meaning of recruitment
The term 'recruitment' does not have a precise meaning. According to some writers like L.D. White, meaning of the term 'recruitment' is limited to attract the suitable and proper candidate for the post to be filled up. Some other writers think that recruitment is the entire process of idling up the vacant posts, beginning from advertisement to the appointment and placement 0f.a selected persons in the vacant post. In the words of J.D. Kingsley, "Public recruitment may be defined as that process through which suitable candidates are induced to compete for appointments to the public service"

We can, thus, say that recruitment is an integral part of the wider process of 'selection', which includes the process of examinations, interviews and certification etc. 'The entire process of filling up the vacancies in the government services seem to be wider than recruitment. Recruitment is, however, commonly understood as the process by which persons are taken' in the services to fill up the vacant posts. Recruitment is a common activity both in the private and public administration. However, we should remember that in public administration, recruitment policy is determined by the constitutional requirements and political outlook. No such limitations are there in the case of private administration.

2.3 Features of recruitment
1. It is a process rather than a single act or event.
2. It is a linking activity as it brings together the employer and the prospective employees.
3. It is a positive process to seek out eligible persons from which suitable ones are selected.
4. It is a way to locate the sources of people required to meet job requirements.
5. It encourages the ability to match jobs to suitable candidates.
6. It is a two way process between a recruiter and recruited.
7. It is a complex job involving a lot of factors like the image of the company, nature of jobs offered, organizational policies, working conditions, etc.

2.4 Purpose and importance of recruitment
Recruitment is the most important process in the administrative system. The tone and calibre of the civil servants is decided by the process of recruitment. The usefulness and relevance of the government and administration to the society depends upon a sound system of recruitment. If the recruitment policy is faulty and wrong, the dull, incompetent and inefficient persons will get into the civil services which will make administration permanently weak and inefficient. Even best policies of training and promotion cannot improve the capacity and efficiency of faultily recruited persons and make them bright and efficient. It is, therefore, necessary that the recruitment policy should be sound and it should be implemented impartially and efficiently. Recruitment is the entry point of the persons in the civil services. It is the key to a strong public service. According to Stahl, recruitment is "the comer stone of the whole public personnel structure". In the modern times, due to technological progress,) administration has become more and more complicated and complex. It requires the best, the talented and the most efficient persons to the administration. Moreover civil service has become the most important career service in the present times. No element of the career service is more important than the recruitment policy.
Need of sound recruitment policy was realised in ancient India and China, where principles of merit system and competitive examinations were adopted. In modem times almost all the countries have adopted the merit system for: the recruitment of public servants.

2.5 Factors determining recruitment
Some of the key factors which determine the recruitment are as follows:
1. Size of the organization.
2. Compensation package to the employees.
3. Working environment
4. Past recruiting policy
5. Employment conditions.
6. Cost of recruitment

2.6 Recruitment policy
The policy provides a framework for recruitment and contains the aspects such as:
1. Organizational objectives;
2. Identification of recruitment needs;
3. Preferred sources of treatment (Internal/ External);
4. Criterion of preferences and selection;
5. The cost of recruitment and financial implementation of the same.

Recruitment needs are of 3 types:
1. Planned – Arises from the changes in the organization and retirement policy.
2. Unexpected – Arises during resignations, deaths, accidents or illness.
3. Anticipated – Refers to those movements in personnel which an organization can predict by studying trends in the internal and external environments.

Process of Recruitment
The recruitment and selection of Human Resources procedure in Public Administration relies on three fundamental pillars :
On the equal conditions and opportunities for all applicants,
In the neutrality of Selection Boards and
In the use of methodologies based on studies and technical research.
Any organisation wishing to meet staff needs should adopt a series of procedures so as to ensure the compliance with legal requirements in this field.

The process of recruitment, normally, consists of a number of steps which may be briefly stated as:
1) Requisitioning of the jobs/posts,
2) Determining the conditions and qualifications and other aspects of recruitment policy,
3) Designing of the application forms,
4) Advertisement of the posts/examinations etc.
5) Scrutiny of applications,
6) Holding of examinations, interviews, other tests etc.
7) Certification,
8) Selection,
9) Appointment, and
10) Placement.

Requisitioning of the Jobs/Posts
The process of recruitment in the government begins with asking the various government departments and agencies about their requirements of personnel. How many persons are required? Haw many posts are to be filled up by direct appointment? How many posts are to be filled up by promotions? All this information is collected by the recruiting authority before the beginning of the process of recruitment. Different vacant posts are classified and total final requirements are estimated. At the same time, requirements of the different vacant posts are also considered for determining the qualifications, experience etc., required for the posts.

Determining Qualifications, Conditions and Requirements
The second step after the requisition of jobs is to determine the required qualifications, and other conditions for announcement in the newspapers, bulletins and other methods. The decision regarding the minimum educational qualifications, previous experience, age limit, residence, nationality, physical fitness etc. are taken at this stage. The constitutional provisions and government's policies relating to recruitment are considered before finalising these matters.

Designing, the Application Form
At this stage, it is necessary to design a suitable application form, which will be given to the applicants for different posts or vacancies. The application form should contain the columns which will give all the relevant information about the applicant's age, educational qualifications, residence, nationality, experience, physical and family background, religion, caste etc. Different application forms are designed for different posts or examinations or for different services.

Advertisement
After determining the qualifications, other conditions and requirements etc. the next stage is to announce the post/examinations in the newspapers and bulletins or in radio and television etc. All the information necessary to attract and induce the maximum number of competent applicants to apply for the competitive examination is given in the advertisement. Application forms are supplied. within a specified date, to all those who want to apply. Sometimes the 'proforma' of the application form itself is printed in the newspapers and the candidates are asked to apply on their own.

In order to attract more and more suitable candidates, many times the 'advertisement' is repeatedly printed, broadcasted are telecasted. The recruiting agency may publish their own periodicals for the benefit of the prospective candidates e.g. the Government of India publishes 'Employment News' every week. Sometimes a specific day of every week is reserved for this type of advertisement by the Government's recruiting agencies e.g. UPSC. Advertisements are published in all newspapers on every Saturday of the week. Advertisement is thus an important step in the process of recruitment.

Scrutiny of the Applications
The applications, in the prescribed proforma are received within an announced date, time and the applications are scrutinised. All those who do not fulfil the minimum prescribed requirements/ qualifications or conditions of application, are rejected at this stage and informed accordingly, whenever possible. Those candidates, who possess the minimum qualifications are required for being eligible to take the competition, are given information about their selection, interview or

examination schedule. If necessary, 'call letters' for interviews or 'hall tickets' for the examination giving necessary details, about the date, time, place of examination1 interview etc are sent to the eligible candidates. At this stage many of the incompetent and unqualified applicants are eliminated from the process of recruitment. However, it should be noted here that scrutiny of the application form should be done very carefully by the competent authorities, so that no injustice is done to a qualified candidate.

Holding of Examination/Interview/Tests etc.
In order to select the most suitable and competent candidates it is necessary to test their ability or 'merit'. This can be done by conducting examination or interview or other type of tests. Examination is the formal process of testing the merit of a person. Through examination we can test ;
(a) the qualification of a candidate,
(b) determine the rank or position of a candidate,
(c) determine the order of merit of the candidates.

Certification
After conducting the examination, interviews or other type of tests etc., the names or roll number of the successful candidates are declared in the newspapers or on the notice board. A list of successful and hence, eligible candidates, is prepared and it is certified by the personnel agency like the Public Service Commission. This list of certified candidates is sent to the Government with the recommendation that the candidates may be selected and appointed from this final list of certified candidates only. This is the final work of personnel agency like the Public Service Commission. Normally the Government makes the selection and appointment of the qualified candidates from this certified list only. But in exceptional cases, only because of some very concrete reasons, a candidate may be rejected from this list by the Government. But in such a case it has to give an explanation in the Parliament.

Selection
Selection is an activity of choosing from among those candidates who are eligible, qualified and available. Although the eligibility of a candidate is tested through ' examinations/interviews and eligible candidates are certified by the personnel agency like the Public Service Commission, the final act of selection is the responsibility of the government. Even if a list of eligible and certified candidates is sent by the personnel agency, it is ultimately the government which has the power to select or reject a candidate. The normal practice is to select the candidates from this list only.

But if the government finds that a particular candidate has an objectionable past record, or had been involved in violent, anti-national or criminal kind of activities then it has the power to reject appointment to such a candidate. For this purpose police records are verified and secret enquiry about the candidate and his character is conducted in many countries. If the government is satisfied then only the candidates are selected for appointment.

In democratic countries like India, the government normally makes appointments out of the certified list of candidates recommended by the Public Service Commission. However, due to some reasons, if a candidate is rejected, the government has to give a reasonable and satisfactory reason for it, in the Parliament. Because in democracy the Government has to be ultimately responsible and responsive to the people.

Appointment
After selecting the suitable and qualified candidates, the formal appointment is done by the government. It should be noted that in all the countries appointments are done by a 'competent executive authority' and not by the personnel agency like the Public Service Commission. The constitutional and legal system of a country determines as to who should have the powers to make appointments. The formal appointment letters are issued by or in the name of the legally recognised 'appointing authority' only. For example in India, all appointments in the Central Government are done in the name of the President of India, whereas all appointments in the State
Governments are done in the name of the Governors of the States.
Appointment letter issued by the Government are of different types like:
a) Permanent Appointment
b) Temporary Appointment
c) Provisional Appointment
d) Appointment on Probation
e) Appointment for indefinite term.

Initially no candidate is given permanent appointment letter. Normally a selected candidate is appointed on 'probation'. The probation period may range from 6 months to 1 year or upto 2 years. During the probationary period a person is considered to be in 'Temporary senile'. During the probationary period he is called a candidate.

Person management - Policies and Tactics
The candidate is posted in different positions and his/her performance is evaluated by the immediate superior authorities and the relevant reports are submitted to the 'appointing authority'. After the successful completion of the probationary period a candidate is given 'conformation' in the service and then this appointment is considered to be permanent. After this he is posted on a permanent government post.

Placement or Posting
After the successful completion of the 'probationary period', service of a candidate is 'conformed' and he is placed or posted in a right place. This is called as placement or posting. He is given charge of some specific nature of work associated with that post. He is given a chance to work on that post for a few years, so that he can learn from his experience. In some cases, before a person is posted, some kind of pre-entry or orientation training regarding the particular work assigned to him, is given. But in many other cases he is posted and allowed to learn while doing his work.

Essentials of a good Recruitment system
We know that recruitment is the most important step in personnel administration. If recruitment policy is not good then incompetent and unqualified persons will enter the civil services and they will spoil the administration of the country. It is, therefore, essential that the recruitment policy should be well planned and sound. It is also necessary to understand as to what are the essentials of a good recruitment policy. What makes a recruitment system good and sound?

1) Recruitment policy must be positive. It must be planned to attract the best, most competent and qualified persons in the government service.

2) Recruitment policy must be democratic. It must be planned to provide opportunities to the maximum number of qualified and competent persons. All sources of supply should be given information about the vacancies in the government.

3) Recruitment policy must be attractive. It must permanently create a good employment market for the government service. Attractive literature and publicity techniques must be used to attract the best talented persons to join the government service. This flow should continue.

4) Recruitment policy must be impartial and non-political. First of all recruitment must be done by an independent, impartial and non-political recruiting agency like the Public Service Commission. There should be no interference from the government or politicians in recruitment of civil servants. Government should normally recruit only those candidates who are selected and recommended by the Public Service Commission.

5) Recruitment must be based on merit principle. Only able, capable and meritorious candidates must be recruited after testing the merit and abilities of the candidates.

6) Recruitment agency must adopt scientific and modern methods of testing merit. It is necessary that scientific and up-to-date methods written and oral tests must be used to test the ability and calibre of the candidates. From time to time these methods must be reviewed and new up-date methods must be adopted.

7) Recruitment Policy must have a good combination of direct and indirect systems - able and capable candidates who are already in the service must be given promotions and recruited to higher posts. At the same time; fresh, new, talented young persons must be recruited directly. Both systems have to be combined to make a good recruitment policy and achieve best results.

8) Placement of right person to the right job. After the selection process is over, 'the candidates must be given placement in such a way that right person is appointed to the right job, that is the job which is suitable to him and takes into consideration his qualifications and capabilities.

Types of Recruitment
There are different kinds or methods of recruitment followed in different countries of the world. They are:
1) Direct Recruitment or Indirect Recruitment
2) Positive or Negative Recruitment
3) Mass Recruitment or Individual Recruitment

Direct (Internal) and Indirect (External) Recruitment
There are two methods of Recruitment - Recruitment from within i.e. by promotion and recruitment from without means from the outside available sources of supply. When the vacant posts in the government are filled up by the suitable and qualified candidates available in the open market then it is called as Direct Recruitment. But when the vacant posts are filled up by the suitable and experienced candidates who are already in the service of the Government then it is called as Indirect Recruitment by promotion. .Both the methods of recruitment have some advantages and disadvantages. But in all the countries of the world both direct and indirect methods are adopted for the recruitment of the Civil Servants. Posts at the lower levels are normally filled up by direct recruitment and posts at the higher level are filled up by promotion i.e. by indirect recruitment. A judicious and practical combination of both types of recruitment is adopted in different countries according to their political and administrative policies.

Internal Recruitment - Itis a recruitment which takes place within the concern or organization. Internal sources of recruitment are readily available to an organization. Internal sources are primarily three - Transfers, promotions and Re-employment of ex-employees. Internal recruitment may lead to increase in employee’s productivity as their motivation level increases. It also saves time, money and efforts. But a drawback of internal recruitment is that it refrains the organization from new blood. Also, not all the manpower requirements can be met through internal recruitment. Hiring from outside has to be done.

Internal sources are primarily of 3 types:
1. Transfers
2. Promotions (through Internal Job Postings)and
3. Re-employment of ex-employees -Re-employment of ex-employees is one of the internal sources of recruitment in which employees can be invited and appointed to fill vacancies in the concern. There are situations when ex-employees provide unsolicited applications also.

1. External Recruitment -External sources of recruitment have to be solicited from outside the organization. External sources are external to a concern. But it involves lot of time and money. The external sources of recruitment include - Employment at factory gate, advertisements, employment exchanges, employment agencies, educational institutes, labour contractors, recommendations etc.

2. Employment at Factory Level -This a source of external recruitment in which the applications for vacancies are presented on bulletin boards outside the Factory or at the Gate. This kind of recruitment is applicable generally where factory workers are to be appointed. There are people who keep on soliciting jobs from one place to another. These applicants are called as unsolicited applicants. These types of workers apply on their own for their job. For this kind of recruitment workers have a tendency to shift from one factory to another and therefore they are called as "badli" workers.

3. Advertisement -It is an external source which has got an important place in recruitment procedure. The biggest advantage of advertisement is that it covers a wide area of market and scattered applicants can get information from advertisements. Medium used is Newspapers and Television.

4. Employment Exchanges -There are certain Employment exchanges which are run by government. Most of the government undertakings and concerns employ people through such exchanges. Now-a-days recruitment in government agencies has become compulsory through employment exchange.

5. Employment Agencies -There are certain professional organizations which look towards recruitment and employment of people, i.e. these private agencies run by private individuals supply required manpower to needy concerns.

6. Educational Institutions -There are certain professional Institutions which serves as an external source for recruiting fresh graduates from these institutes. This kind of recruitment done through such educational institutions, is called as Campus Recruitment. They have special recruitment cells which help in providing jobs to fresh candidates.

7. Recommendations -There are certain people who have experience in a particular area. They enjoy goodwill and a stand in the company. There are certain vacancies which are filled by recommendations of such people. The biggest drawback of this source is that the company has to rely totally on such people which can later on prove to be inefficient.

8. Labour Contractors -These are the specialist people who supply manpower to the Factory or Manufacturing plants. Through these contractors, workers are appointed on contract basis, i.e. for a particular time period. Under conditions when these contractors leave the organization, such people who are appointed have to also leave the concern.

Positive and Negative Recruitment
When the recruiting agency actively searches the best qualified and most competent candidates for appointment in the government service, it is called. as positive method of recruitment. On the contrary negative method of recruitment aims at keeping the unqualified and unfit candidates out without adopting any active role in attracting the best candidates. At present in most of the countries. the positive methods like , newspaper advertisements, propaganda, literature,, cinema slides etc. are adopted to attract the best men and women to come forward. At the same time when the number of applicants is much more than the available vacancies, then negative method of eliminating the unqualified and less competent persons are adopted.

Mass or Individual Recruitment
When a large number of non-technical unspecialised posts of general nature are to be filled up, then mass recruitment techniques are adopted. Advertisement in mass media of communication, a large number of applications, cumbersome procedure of examination and interviews etc. have to be adopted to fill up large number of vacant posts in the government. But when particular posts requiring specialised knowledge, skill or technical know-how and experience, are to be filled up then individual recruitment method is possible and desirable. In such cases the number of posts to be filled up is very small. Both these methods are used by the Public Service Commissions in India.

Concluding remarks
Once the determination of manpower needs has been made, the recruitment and selectionprocessescan begin.Recruitmentisthe process of searchingfor prospective workers andstimulating themto applyforjobs inthe organisation.Itis a positive function which aims at increasing the selection ratio that is the number of applicants per jobopening. In contrast, the selection processisa 'negative'function because it attempts to eliminate applicants leaving only the best to be absorbed in the organization.

Recruitment determines the tone and calibre of the services whether public or private. A faulty recruitment policy inflicts a permanent weakness upon the administration.

Not even an effective training policy can make faultily recruited persons bright and efficient. The basic elements of a sound recruitment policy include discovery and cultivation of the employment market for posts in the organisation use of attractive recruitment literature and publicity use of scientific tests for determining abilities of the candidates tapping capable candidates from within the organisation placement programme which assigns the right man to the right job; and a follow-up probationary programme as an integral part of the recruitment process. Recruitment implies matching the personnel characteristics of potential employees with the jobrequirements. The sources of recruitmentcan be broadlyclassified into two: internal and external. Internal sources refer to the present working force of an organisation. In the event of a vacancy, someone already on the payroll is promoted, transferred or sometimes demoted. Filling a vacancy from internal source has the advantages of increasing the general level of morale of existing' employees and of providing to the organisation a more reliable information about the candidate's suitability.

The major weakness of this source is that it may deprive the organisation of a fresh outlook, originality and initiative. External sources refer to the methods adopted by the organisation to attract people from outside the organisation through a thorough assessment of their qualifications, skills and potential. Some of the methods of determining qualifications are the personaljudgementofthe appointing officer, certificates ofability, characterandeducation, recordof previous experience(educational andprofessional) and examinations. Employment agencies, advertisements, field trips, educational institutions, professional meetings, employees' referrals, unsolicited applicants etc. are some examples of the external sources of recruitment. An organisation cannot fill its vacancies from one single source only. It must carefully combine some of these services, weighing their cost and flexibility, the quality of personnel they supply and their effect on the present work force. A planned recruitment programme provides the organisation with job applicants from whom a required number of selections are made. There is no standard selection procedure for recruitment. Usually the selection is made through a written test or an interview or both.

Bibliography
1. Awasthi & Maheshwari, Public Administration, 2013 Edn.
2. N. Jayapalan, Public Administration, 2011 Edn.
3. Wiley Online Library, "The Recruitment of Public Administrators", pg. 210- 235.
4. Codruța Osoian, Monica Zaharie, Recruitment for Competencies in Public and Private Sectors, pg 149- 155.