Question:

The Recruitment department of a major company has 13 staff including a manager, 7 recruiters and 5 administrators. The department is continually exceeding its budget for expenses, particularly in relation to overtime payments. There have been some complaints against the department for poor recruitment decisions and the time taken to recruit into vacant positions.

After holidays, training and non-recruitment activity, each recruiter has an average of 170 days to carry out recruitment activity, working 7 hours per day. An analysis of business processes has revealed that the average time spent by recruiters is 18 hours on each vacancy. There is an average of 45 vacancies per month requiring recruitment action, although there are seasonal fluctuations in this workload.

How does a business process and activity-based approach help to understand the difficulties facing the Recruitment department? What steps could the department take to overcome its difficulties?