recruitment

recruitment — noun

1. the activity of looking for suitable people to fill job openings, join a team, o

1.nounB2
Definition

the activity of looking for suitable people to fill job openings, join a team, or become members of a group or organization — for example, when a company posts job ads, interviews candidates, and offers someone a position.

Example

Quinn joined the HR team to help with the recruitment of new engineers.

recruitment of + [role/type of staff]

The company's recruitment drive attracted over two hundred applicants last month.

recruitment drive (collocation)

Common collocations
  • recruitment of staff / nurses / graduates / volunteers
  • recruitment drive / campaign / fair
  • recruitment agency / firm / consultant
  • recruitment process / strategy / policy
  • online recruitment / graduate recruitment / internal recruitment
  • recruitment freeze / ban / target
Synonyms
  • hiring

    more common in everyday business contexts; slightly less formal and narrower — usually for paid jobs only

  • staffing

    focuses on ensuring positions are filled with suitable personnel; often used in operations planning

  • enlistment

    restricted to military or armed forces contexts; carries a sense of voluntary sign-up

  • recruiting

    the gerund form of the verb; interchangeable with 'recruitment' in most contexts but feels more active/process-oriented

Antonyms
  • layoffs

    the opposite activity — letting staff go rather than bringing them in

  • downsizing

    reducing the workforce, often as a cost-cutting measure

  • unemployment

    the state that recruitment aims to reduce; not a direct opposite but closely linked

Grammar Patterns

recruitment of + [role/type of person]

recruitment + [noun: drive, process, agency, campaign]

adjective + recruitment (online recruitment, graduate recruitment)

Usage Note

Uncountable noun — do not use with 'a' or in plural form ('recruitments'). Frequently used in compounds such as 'recruitment agency', 'recruitment process', and 'recruitment fair'.

Common Mistakes

The company did three recruitments this year.
The company did three rounds of recruitment this year.
'recruitment' is uncountable; use 'rounds of recruitment' or 'recruitment drives' for countable instances.
Recruitment new staff is hard.
The recruitment of new staff is hard.
as a noun, 'recruitment' must be followed by 'of' when specifying the target group.

Word family

  • recruit
    verbB2
  • recruiter
    nounB2
  • recruiting
    adjectiveB2

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four describe the process of bringing people into an organization, but they differ in scope and register. 'Recruiting' (the gerund) is largely interchangeable with 'recruitment' but feels more active and process-oriented — a manager may say 'we are recruiting' but rarely 'we are in recruitment'. 'Hiring' is the most everyday term for paid employment and is slightly less formal; you would say 'hiring season' at a retail store but 'recruitment campaign' at a university. 'Staffing' is broader, covering both recruitment and scheduling — a staffing agency supplies temporary workers, not just finds them. 'Enlistment' is limited to military contexts and involves a formal signing-up ceremony. For most business and organizational contexts, 'recruitment' is the standard formal choice, while 'hiring' suits casual or conversational use. Example: 'The hospital's recruitment drive filled fifty nursing posts' sounds official; 'the café is hiring a new barista' sounds natural in everyday speech.

recruitinghiringstaffingenlistment

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • recruitment drive
  • recruitment agency
  • recruitment process
  • recruitment fair
  • recruitment freeze
  • recruitment strategy

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

The word 'recruitment' came into English in the mid-1600s from French 'recrutement', which developed from 'recruter' (to recruit) and earlier 'recrue' (fresh growth, a new levy of soldiers). 'Recrue' came from Old French 'recroistre' (to grow again), which traces back to Latin 'recrescere' — a combination of 're-' (again) and 'crescere' (to grow). The earliest English uses were military: bringing new soldiers into an army. By the 1800s the meaning had broadened to include hiring staff for companies and organizations of any kind.