Preview
Recruitment, Appraisal and Labour Turnover
IB DP Business Management — Unit 2: Human Resource Management | HL | 2.1 Recruitment, Appraisal and Labour Turnover
📋 What You Will Learn
- Distinguish between internal and external recruitment, and identify the stages of the recruitment process
- Explain the purpose and types of appraisal, and analyse how appraisal links to motivation and performance management
- Define labour turnover, calculate the labour turnover rate, and interpret what the figure means for a business
- Analyse the costs and consequences of high and low labour turnover for different types of organisations
- Evaluate the effectiveness of recruitment and appraisal strategies in reducing labour turnover and improving workforce performance
- Apply these concepts to real business scenarios, including social enterprises, and make justified recommendations
📊 Topic Importance
| Paper | Relevance | Common Question Types |
|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 | High | Apply recruitment/appraisal to the pre-seen company; "Recommend" a strategy to reduce labour turnover |
| Paper 2 | High | Section B: calculate labour turnover rate; Section C: evaluate recruitment or appraisal linked to a concept (e.g. change, ethics) |
| Paper 3 (HL) | High | Justify a staffing recommendation for a social enterprise, integrating appraisal and turnover data |
🔍 Guiding Question How can a business attract, develop, and retain the right people — and what is the true cost when it fails to do so?
🌍 Why This Matters In 2023, Amazon's UK fulfilment centres reported annual labour turnover rates exceeding 150% in some locations — meaning the entire workforce was replaced, on average, more than once a year. The cost of recruiting, onboarding, and training replacements ran into hundreds of millions of pounds, directly eroding profitability and operational efficiency. Getting recruitment and appraisal right is not an HR formality; it is a strategic and financial imperative.
1. The Recruitment Process
Recruitment is the process of identifying a vacancy, attracting candidates, and selecting the most suitable person for a role. Poor recruitment decisions are expensive: a mis-hire at management level can cost an organisation more than twice the annual salary of the post.
📘 Recruitment The process of identifying a vacancy, defining the role and person specification, attracting suitable candidates, and selecting the most appropriate individual to fill the post.
Stages of the Recruitment Process
- Identify the vacancy — arises from resignation, expansion, new skill requirement, or restructuring.
- Job analysis — examine what the role requires in terms of tasks, responsibilities, and skills.
- Job description — a written document outlining the title, duties, responsibilities, and reporting lines of the post.
- Person specification — a profile of the ideal candidate: qualifications, experience, skills, and personal attributes.
- Advertise the vacancy — internally (notice boards, intranet) or externally (job boards, recruitment agencies, social media).
- Shortlisting — screen applications against the person specification to produce a shortlist.
- Selection — interviews, tests, assessment centres, or work trials to choose the best candidate.
- Offer and onboarding — formal offer, contract, induction programme.
📘 Job Description A formal document that specifies the title, duties, responsibilities, location, and reporting