Future of Online recruitment in Pakistan or Online

recruitment effective or defective

Literature review
The term online recruitment, e-recruiting, cyber recruiting or internet recruiting

indicates the formal sourcing of online job information. The first reference to online

recruitment appears in the articles of mid 1980’s (Genter 1981; Casper 1985), while

systematic reference to the online recruitment in the human resource journals begins

almost a decade later, in the mid 1990s, when IT companies and universitiesbegin to

use internet extensively (Galanaki E, 2002).

Online recruitment services are the most popular techniques of recruitment which

are used on internet among all other techniques of recruitment (Smyth 2002)

While seeking for a job, internet is a big source for it such as websites like

rozee.pk in Pakistan offers free job searches and resume posting. During last few years

job recruitment web sites had passed through a tremendous growth and a large number

of job seekers are searching jobs over the internet (Tong 2002)

Generally the recruitment services which are provided on the websites are free

for the job seeker but for employers typically have to pay a subscription fee in order to

take advantage of the recruitment services. Because employers are required to pay for

the services, their perceptions of the level of service are typically the concern of most

recruitment websites and recruitment service quality level for the job seekers is typically

ignored (Tong et al 2005). Tong et al. (2005) believes that if job seekers are unhappy

with a recruitment website, they may look for other websites that fulfill their expectations
that leads to the decrease in the number of active job seekers. This in turn may

contribute to a reduction in the number of employers who are looking for recruitment

websites to subscribe. Therefore studuy on online recruitment websites success from

jobseekers point of view is of prominence for one e-recuritment website to stay

profitable in competitive environment

Some other data

http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/recruitmen/onlnrcruit/onlrec
.htm

What is e-recruitment?

E-recruitment, also known as online recruitment, is the use of technology to attract and recruit
candidates. For further details on the recruitment process more generally, see our factsheet on
recruitment.

• Go to our factsheet on Recruitment

The use of technology within human resource management has continued to increase over the
years. One particular area of growth is for recruitment and selection purposes. Our 2008
Recruitment survey shows that 75% of organisations used their own corporate website in 2007 to
attract applicants.

• See the results of our recruitment survey

For more information on our research into HR and technology, see our research pages.

• Go to our research pages on HR and technology

In the past online recruitment advertising and online applications have been the most common
activities that e-recruitment has been used for. Online testing can be used as part of the selection
process and the number of organisations making use of it is growing. Global recruitment website
yasni.co.uk found that 'although 68% of recruiters said they had not searched for applicants
online, 44% of these said they probably would do in the future'1.

In addition to this, technology has developed and the employer brand has grown in importance
presenting technical opportunities together with a greater need for employers to gather
intelligence on candidate behaviour to strengthen their attraction strategy which makes the
Internet a useful mechanism to support this.

CIPD research highlights that the key drivers for e-recruitment among those making use of the
technology were:

• reducing recruitment costs

• broadening the selection pool
• increasing the speed of time to hire
• greater flexibility and ease for candidates
• strengthening of the employer brand.

The main concerns raised was that e-recruitment could increase the number of unsuitable
applicants and act as a barrier to recruiting older workers.

The internet is popular among job-seekers – figures from the British Market Research Bureau
show that it is the favoured job-hunting method for one in four UK adults, with the most likely
job hunter to be 25-34 years old according to the National Online Recruitment Audience Survey
(NORAS). Many candidates use online sites to register for job alerts by email and to register
their CV. However, it is important to remember when designing a recruitment campaign that
online job hunting is not the first choice for all. .

Using e-recruitment

Technology can be used:

• to advertise vacancies – on your organisation’s website, job sites, or on social

networking sites
• to deal with the applications – email enquiries, emailed application
forms/CVs, online completion of application forms
• to select candidates – online testing, information gathering
• to better understand your audience and learn about how you are perceived in
the market place
• to enhance employer brand
• to create a personal relationship with your talent pool.

Advertising vacancies
This is the most basic form of using technology to recruit. Vacancies can be placed on an
organisation’s own website or on a commercial job board.

Own website

The amount an organisation invests in its e-recruiting (from custom designed sites to basic
information pages) will depend on organisation’s ‘e-strategy’, resources available and competitor
activity. The basic option is to provide a list of vacancies and contact details. A more in-depth
approach would involve a dedicated web site area that gives details of vacancies, person
specifications, benefits, your organisation’s mission and values and the application process, for
example, for online application forms. Large organisations may have areas for specific types of
employees, for example graduates, technical specialists, or have a search facility for candidates
to view all vacancies.

Job areas are often signposted directly from an organisation’s home page so that more general
browsers can access them too. An intranet may also be used to host vacancies for internal staff to
access.

Some organisations take a ‘partnership’ approach, working closely with recruitment

consultancies and specialised web agencies who manage the online process for them as they
don’t have the necessary skills in-house.

Commercial job boards

These are large databanks of vacancies. These may be based on advertising in newspapers and
trade magazines, employment agencies, specific organisation vacancies, social networking
websites and many other sources. They often have questionnaires or tests for applicants to
improve their job-hunting skills to act as an incentive for them to return.

Some vacancies are purely extensions to ‘old media’ printed advertisements so that ‘online’ is
merely an alternative communication medium, while other vacancies are only found online with
no printed equivalent. Ideally, vacancies shoud have a link back to the organisation’s website for
candidates looking for further information and to get a ‘feel’ for the type of employer that is
recruiting. . It is also important that job board candidates can apply back into your e-recruitment
system. Monster.co.uk and Fish4jobs.com are examples of commercial job boards. Some job
boards target specific groups so it is important to explore who the target audiences for particular
boards is.

Advantages of using e-recruitment

E-recruitment has the potential to:

• reduce recruitment costs

• speed up the recruitment cycle and streamline administration
• allow organisations to make use of IT systems to manage vacancies more
effectively and co-ordinate recruitment processes
• reach a wide pool of applicants
• reach a niche pool of applicants
• make internal vacancies widely known across multiple sites and separate
divisions
• provide the image of an up-to-date organisation, reinforcing employer
branding and giving an indication of organisation culture
• offer access to vacancies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week reaching a global
audience
• be a cost effective way to build a talent bank for future vacancies
• help handle high volume job applications in a consistent way
• provide more tailored information on the post and organisation, for example,
case histories of a ‘day in the life’ or self-assessment questionnaire or quiz to
assess fit with role
• be spontaneous for candidates as ease of use means there is the ability for
applications to be instataneous
• build up a picture of your target audience to support your attraction
strategy.

Disadvantages of using e-recruitment

The disadvantages to using e-recruitment include the potential to:

• limit the applicant audience as the Internet is not the first choice for all job
seekers
• cause applications overload or unsuitable applications if care isn’t taken
drafting the job profile/specification
• exclude those who do not want to search for a new job online
• limit the attraction of those unable to fully utilise technology eg certain
disabled groups
• give rise to allegations of discrimination, in particular the use of limited
keywords in CV search tools
• make the process impersonal, which may be off-putting for some candidates
• impact on the ‘cultural fit’ dimension of recruitment
• ‘turn-off’ candidates, particularly if the website is badly designed or technical
difficulties are encountered
• lose out on candidates, especially if your own website is below the search
engine ranking of your competitors
 • base recruitment decisions on subjective information found after trawling the
Internet for personal information on candidates.

Monitoring

E-recruitment may not be cost effective for all positions so it is important to review the use of
technology along with the overall assessment of the effectiveness of the recruitment process.

Some tips
• Integrate with other recruitment methods so that all recruitment ‘tools’ work
in harmony.
• Evaluate and monitor use – get feedback from applicants about how their
experience of applying for a role with your organisation and take appropriate
actions.
• Keep content fresh – don’t display out of date vacancies. If you don’t have
any, say you don’t have any.
• Avoid jargon and ‘company speak’ in advertisements.
• Invest the same time in preparing online copy as you would for printed.
• Have a policy on how to deal with unsolicited applications.
• Provide contact telephone numbers in obvious places for those having
technical problems.
• Ensure the site is accessible and user-friendly.
• Conduct research into the most appropriate job board to host vacancies.
• Determine where and how to reach your target audience.
• Make it easy for search engines to find your vacancies – think what keywords
job hunters will use and how to improve your website's ranking.
• Realise your own limitations – think about partnership working to develop
your e-recruitment strategy.

Recent developments and future prospects

Due to its relatively low costs e-recruitment will become a more powerful and important tool in
the current economic climate and as organisations continue to strive to attract and recruit key
talent. Research conducted by DEMOS2 looks at the trends that will shape the recruitment
industry for years to come. Recommendations with implications for e-recruitment include::

• companies should align human resources, public relations and marketing,

and be clear on core organisational values
• companies should find ways to connect with the passive job seeker
• companies should broker and make use of peer-to-peer relationships
• companies should use Web 2.0 technologies (such as blogs, web-based
communities and hosted services including social-networking sites) to build
personalised relationships online.
Marketers also believe that consumer insights, behavioural targeting and brand strategy will
become more important by 2010. Creating relationships with potential employees is important,
the key way being through employer brand. In order to maximise a brand’s potential to attract
the right people, it must express core organisational values and messages and be found in the
right places. Find out more about employer branding from our factsheet.

• Go to our Employer brand factsheet

Specific opportunities for e-recruitment include:

• Tailored messaging through multimedia and social networking sites

• Using specific web channels relevant to candidate talent pools
• Using employer and employee blogs to build personalised relationships with
your talent pool.

The current online recruitment model is predominantly about organisations posting jobs.
Enhance Media predicts a shift in this model to a more proactive approach of finding candidates
and using the Internet to tap in to the passive audience.

Some employers are also taking advantage of Web 3D to engage with candidates in a live and
virtual environment. An online 3D environment lets users interact with one another and their
surroundings in real time, representing new channels of innovation. The most popular and mostly
quoted virtual world is Second Life.

Online testing

Companies are extending the electronic recruitment process by conducting assessments, such as
psychometric or aptitude tests, online. This process significantly reduces the administrative
overhead of distributing and collecting written test papers though care needs to be taken in how
feedback is given. For more information see our factsheet on Psychological testing.

• Go to the factsheet on Psychological testing

Broadband

Broadband access to the Internet has become the norm in the UK. It makes the transmission of
live images via the Internet a feasible alternative to a conventional video linking. For recruiting
purposes, this enables the hosting of ‘live’ employee video profiles and virtual office tours to
illustrate life within the organisation and create engagement and commitment early in the
recruitment process.

Social networking and blogs

A number of companies have started to make use of recruitment ’blogs’ (or online diaries) from
employees as part of the information they offer to potential candidates about working for the
organisation (for example based on the experiences of graduates on a development scheme). This
is a potential way to build relationships with would-be candidates - and to feature different areas
of your company and vacancies.

The use of social networking sites to target different talent audiences is a new opportunity also.
For example, social networking site, Facebook has 150 million global users and in the UK more
than 14m users with 50% of users returning daily. According to our 2008 recruitment survey (see
link above), the most popular social networking sites used by employers to attract and recruit
employees are: Linked-In (62%) and Facebook (58%).

New recruits can also benefit from social networking through learning about the organisation and
its culture, and connecting with others sharing similar experiences to help speed up their
induction into the organisation. For more information see our factsheet on induction.

• Go to our Induction factsheet

A rise in the number of employers using the web to gain information on prospective employees
has highlighted a number of challenges that need to be considered. For example, there are
employment law risks associated with using social networking sites to vet job candidates3.

These include:

• not processing personal data fairly under the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998,
and breaching guidelines in the DPA code
• claims for discrimination on any unlawful grounds
• breaching trust and confidence.

Employers can make the practice of using the web and social networking sites to gain
information safer if they:

• tell candidates that website checking may be part of the vetting process
• separate the web-vetting from recruitment decision-making
• give applicants a chance to explain discrepancies in CVs and applications
• ask if the job justifies such in-depth vetting, and whether the information
could be gathered in another way.

CIPD viewpoint

An effective recruitment strategy is essential to all organisations. There are no fundamental

philosophical differences between recruiting using ‘old media’, such as advertising in
newspapers, and the ‘new media’ such as e-recruitment. Organisations may use a mix of
traditional and online methods depending on what meets their strategic recruitment needs
and which reaches their talent market in the most appropriately way. Making use of technology
has great potential to speed up the recruitment process and provide cost savings giving recruiters
more choice and flexibility in how they wish to fill their vacancies and attract talent. It also
provides an opportunity to achieve a more personalised approach to recruitment.

The purpose of both is to fill a vacant position with the best fit candidate, cost-effectively and on
time. Using e-recruitment involves expertise in both the technology and the recruitment cycle, so
it is important to have the resources and expertise to achieve this. Ensuring that the technology is
used effectively and is fully integrated into the recruitment strategy is also key. The method
chosen should be appropriate to the vacancy to be filled. As technological change moves so
quickly, organisations need to keep abreast of new developments and opportunities for e-
recruitment as they emerge.

Useful contacts

• People Management
For details of vacancies in people management and development

• National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS)

References

1. WOODS, D. (2009) HR staff use social networking sites to find out what
employees get up to. Human Resources. 4 February.
2. CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF PERSONNEL AND DEVELOPMENT (2005) People
management and technology: progress and potential. London: CIPD.
Available at http://www.cipd.co.uk/surveys
3. CRONLY-DILLON, M. (2007) Face up to rules on researching recruits online.
People Management. Vol 13, No 21, 18 October. p20.

Further reading

CIPD members can use our Advanced Search to find additional library resources on this topic
and also use our online journals collection to view journal articles online. People Management
articles are available to subscribers and CIPD members on the People Management website.
CIPD books in print can be ordered from our online Bookstore

• Go to Advanced Search
 • Go to our online journals collection
• Go to People Management online
• Go to our online Bookstore

Books andreports

EMPLOYERS' FORUM ON DISABILITY. (2004?) Barrier-free e-recruitment: recruiting

disabled people online. London: Employers’ Forum on Disability. Available
at http://www.barrierfree-recruitment.com

INCOMES DATA SERVICES. (2006) Online recruitment. HR studies. London: IDS.

Articles

BRITISH MARKET RESEARCH BUREAU. (2008) Should personal information on social

networking sites be used for recruitment? [online] 14 April. Available at:
http://www.bmrb.co.uk

KENT, S. (2005) Get on board. People Management. Vol 11, No 15, 28 July. pp38-40.

RANKIN, N. (2005) Online recruitment in the UK: 10 years older and wiser. IRS Employment
Review. No 822, 29 April. pp42-48.

STOKDYK, J (2008) Make e-recruitment work for you [online]. HR Zone. 3 July. Available at
http://www.hrzone.co.uk

SUFF, R. (2006) Using employer websites to attract new recruits. IRS Employment Review. No
845, 21 April. pp.42-45.