Resourcing involves the attraction and recruitment of individuals into the right role at the right time and cost. It's about using relevant workforce planning data and knowing the right sourcing approaches and digital tools to tap into diverse candidate pools.

Those involved in resourcing activities should be focused on understanding the candidate experience, designing effective assessment and selection approaches and, overall, how to make effective recruitment decisions.

Understanding the labour market, your market position, your unique people proposition and job analysis will ensure roles are engaging to a wide range of people.

Mencap case study: Recruiting from
the heart

How a team with boundless dedication managed to transform the way the Royal Mencap Society finds and keeps its people.

Read Mencap’s story
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Resourcing standards

Each standard progresses through four levels of impact. Which level do you most embody in your day-to-day work?

Foundation level Associate level Chartered Member level Chartered Fellow level
At this level you'll understand: At this level you'll understand: At this level you'll understand: At this level you'll understand:
Resourcing and workforce planning How workforce planning impacts the resourcing agenda How to use workforce planning data to inform resourcing activity How to create resourcing approaches which support the needs of the organisation's workforce plan How to create a resourcing strategy which meets both budgetary and strategic workforce planning needs
Worker types Different types of workers and working arrangements How work can be delivered and resourced through different types of workers and worker economies How to recruit and use different types of workers as part of the organisation’s resourcing strategy Current and future trends in workers and how this impacts the organisation’s resourcing strategy
Marketing and branding Your organisation's brand and market position and how it compares with others How other organisations differentiate themselves in the market and how your organisation's brand compares with others How the current labour market affects your ability to recruit and how to use the organisation's brand to attract the right candidates How the labour market and economic factors impact the organisation's recruitment ability and how to position your organisation competitively in the market
Attraction and sourcing Different methods to attract and source candidates (eg, website/job boards/social media campaigns/forums/referrals) How to attract and source candidates from diverse backgrounds and with the right skills How to utilise recruitment campaigns and sourcing channels to meet the resourcing and skills needs of the organisation How to define the strategic direction for attracting and sourcing the right people to meet the organisation's needs
Assessment and selection Different assessment and selection activities and how to ensure they are fair and objective How to choose the right assessment and selection approach for each role and ensure fairness for candidates How to design fair and inclusive assessment approaches which identify the right candidates for the organisation How to establish assessment and selection strategies to fulfill the organisation's resourcing needs
AI in recruitment The benefits and risks of using AI to recruit and assess candidates The impact of AI on the candidate experience when attracting, recruiting and selecting candidates The ethical implications of AI in recruitment, and how to implement it in a way that enhances the recruiter and candidate experience How to define the organisation's AI recruitment strategy to deliver positive outcomes for both the organisation and potential employees
Candidate experience How to gather data and feedback on candidate experience (eg, candidate surveys) How to evaluate candidate experience, and create a consistent experience across recruitment activity How to use campaign, recruitment and onboarding data to drive better candidate experiences and more effective recruitment approaches How to drive organisation-wide continuous improvement by leveraging candidate feedback in conjunction with recruitment insight
Employability programmes The employability programmes in your organisation, and what their purpose is How to attract, source and recruit for employability programmes How to develop employability programmes which support the organisation's workforce plan How to build employability partnerships which maximise the organisation's ability to meet skills needs
Global mobility Your organisation’s global mobility policies and country guidelines How to advise on international hires (such as relocation, immigration, tax, legal) How to design global mobility policies and how to manage supplier contracts which support global moves How global mobility strategies impact organisation performanc

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The Profession Map

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  • Factsheet

    Recruitment: An introduction

    Facts on the recruitment and resourcing process; from defining the role to making the appointment

    For Members
  • Two people having a conversation in an office setting
    Data

    Hard-to-fill vacancies

    Explore hard-to-fill vacancy trends by industry with data analysis from the CIPD's Labour Market Outlook report. CIPD members can also download the data for use in your internal organisational benchmarking, discussions, and business cases.

  • Data

    Workforce diversity - Sex

    Compare your organisation's workforce breakdown by sex against UK benchmarks, using the CIPD's expert analyses of the UK Annual Population Survey. CIPD members can also download the datasets to use in your internal presentations, discussions, and business cases.

  • Data

    Workforce diversity - Ethnicity

    Compare ethnicity breakdowns in your organisation against UK benchmarks, using the CIPD's expert analyses of the UK Annual Population Survey. CIPD members can also download the datasets to use in your internal presentations, discussions, and business cases.

    • See all resources
    The Profession Map

    The Profession Map is for everyone in our profession – individuals and teams, members and non-members. Learn more about the Profession Map and how you can use it. 

    The Profession Map overview