Recruitment

Every business, regardless of size, needs people to perform different functions. The Edexcel spec identifies five key job role categories, each with distinct responsibilities.

Directors sit at the top of the hierarchy. They set the overall strategy and long-term direction of the business, make high-level decisions about investment and major change, and carry legal and financial responsibility for the company's actions. In a company limited by shares, directors are accountable to shareholders.

Senior managers take the strategy set by directors and implement it within their area — a Head of Marketing, a Finance Director, or a Regional Operations Manager. They manage departments, set departmental targets, and allocate budgets.

Supervisors and team leaders manage the day-to-day work of operational teams. They set daily priorities, monitor performance against targets, deal with immediate problems on the floor, and report to senior managers. A shift supervisor in a restaurant or a team leader in a warehouse fulfils this role.

Operational staff carry out the core work of the business — serving customers, manufacturing products, processing transactions. Their work directly produces the output the business sells.

Support staff provide functions that enable the rest of the business to operate — HR, IT, administration, finance. They do not produce the main product or service directly but keep systems running.

Key term — chain of command: the hierarchy through which authority and communication pass, from directors down to operational staff.

Understanding these distinctions matters in exam scenarios: a question about who is responsible for strategy (directors), who implements it day-to-day (senior managers and supervisors), and who carries it out (operational staff) tests whether you can apply the hierarchy to a real business context.

Before recruiting, a business must define clearly what the role involves and what the ideal candidate looks like. Two documents do this work.

The job description sets out what the role requires — the tasks, responsibilities, hours, location, and line of reporting. It tells candidates what they will be doing. A job description for a retail supervisor might list: opening the store, allocating tasks to staff, handling customer complaints, completing daily sales reports, and reporting to the store manager.

The person specification describes the ideal candidate — qualifications, previous experience, skills, and personal qualities. It distinguishes between essential criteria (the candidate must have these) and desirable criteria (preferred but not required). A person specification for the same retail supervisor role might require: GCSE Maths and English (essential), experience working in retail (essential), supervisory experience (desirable), strong communication skills (essential).

Key term — job description: a document outlining the tasks, responsibilities, and conditions of a specific job role.

Key term — person specification: a document describing the qualifications, skills, and experience required from an ideal candidate.

Application documents:

• Application form: a standardised document completed by all candidates using the same structure. This makes it easier to compare candidates fairly, as everyone answers the same questions.
• CV (curriculum vitae): written by the candidate in their own format; covers education, work history, skills, and interests. Gives the candidate more freedom to present themselves, but harder to compare across candidates.

Once the documents are ready, the business must decide whether to recruit from within or from outside.

Internal recruitment means filling the vacancy by promoting or transferring an existing employee.

External recruitment means advertising the vacancy to people who do not currently work for the business — through job boards, recruitment agencies, social media, or direct applications.

Factor	Internal	External
Cost	Lower — no advertising fees or agency costs	Higher — job adverts, agency fees, assessment costs
Speed	Faster — no need to verify background or culture fit from scratch	Slower — longer shortlisting and interview process
Knowledge of candidate	High — the business knows the employee's track record	Unknown — interview gives limited information; risk of poor fit
New ideas	None — existing employees bring existing ways of thinking	High — external candidates bring fresh perspectives and skills
Effect on other staff	Can motivate others (promotion is visible); leaves a vacancy elsewhere	Can demotivate if staff feel they have been passed over

Key term — internal recruitment: filling a job vacancy from within the existing workforce.

Key term — external recruitment: recruiting a candidate from outside the business.

Scenario: A supermarket chain needs to fill the role of store manager at its newest, largest store — a flagship 60,000 sq ft site opening in six months.

Option A — internal recruitment: Promote a current deputy store manager from a smaller branch.

• Advantages: the candidate already understands company systems, culture, and customer service standards. The chain has performance data from previous roles. Cheaper and faster than external search.
• Disadvantages: the new flagship store is significantly larger than any role the internal candidate has managed. The chain may need someone with experience managing higher volumes and larger teams. Promoting internally also leaves a vacancy at the smaller branch.

Option B — external recruitment: Advertise nationally and recruit an experienced store manager from a rival supermarket.

• Advantages: can target candidates with direct experience running a flagship-scale store. Brings fresh ideas from the rival's practices. No internal vacancy is created.
• Disadvantages: higher cost (agency fees, national advertising). The external candidate will need time to learn the chain's specific systems. There is no prior performance data on the candidate.

Which is more appropriate? For a straightforward like-for-like role, internal promotion is usually faster and cheaper. For this flagship store — a step-change in scale and visibility — external recruitment is more appropriate. The chain needs someone with proven experience at that level, even at higher cost, because the risk of appointing an underprepared internal candidate to a high-profile new site is significant.

Different business needs call for different approaches, and businesses rarely use just one method.

A small independent bakery with five staff needs to fill a baker's role. It may post a notice in the shop window and ask existing employees to recommend someone — fast, free, and likely to find a candidate who fits the small-team culture. A multinational technology company recruiting a Chief Technology Officer will use specialist executive search agencies, global job boards, and a multi-stage interview process. The cost and effort are proportional to the seniority and impact of the role.

Worked example — recruitment methods by role:

A logistics company is simultaneously recruiting for two roles:

1. Warehouse operative: high-volume, entry-level role. The company posts on free job boards (Indeed, Totaljobs), processes application forms, and conducts brief interviews. Cost per hire is low because many candidates are available and the role is straightforward to assess.

2. Head of Supply Chain: senior specialist role. The company uses a specialist logistics recruitment agency, advertises in industry publications, and conducts a three-stage interview including a panel presentation. Cost per hire is much higher, but the risk of a poor appointment at that level justifies the investment.

Exam tip: questions about recruitment often ask you to evaluate which method is most appropriate for a specific business type. A small family business and a multinational retailer face very different trade-offs on cost, speed, and access to talent. Always use the context of the question to shape your answer.

1. Know the four documents and what each does

Job description = what the job is. Person specification = what the candidate needs. Application form = standardised candidate response. CV = candidate-written history. Do not muddle job description with person specification in an exam — they are the two most commonly confused.

2. Internal vs external: cost AND quality trade-off

Internal is generally cheaper and usually faster. External offers wider choice and fresh skills. In a 6-mark question, argue both sides: internal saves money and carries less risk for a well-understood role, but external is better when the business needs skills or scale of experience it does not have internally. Conclude with a justified recommendation linked to the specific business in the question.

3. Application to context is essential

"Internal recruitment is better" is a weak answer. "Internal recruitment is better for [this business] because it is a small family firm with limited HR budget, the role does not require new specialist skills, and promoting internally will motivate other employees who can see a career path" is a full-mark analytical point.

4. Leaving a vacancy — a hidden cost of internal recruitment

Promoting an internal candidate solves one problem and creates another: the role they vacated also needs filling. In a small business, this chain effect can be disruptive. This is a valid disadvantage to mention in an evaluation question.