A Research Project Report on

EFFICACY OF WEB RECRUITMENT

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the MBA Degree
Bangalore University

Submitted by

MANASA.V
Register Number

03XQCM6055
Under the guidance of

Prof. Prabakar,
Professor,
M.P.Birla Institute of Management

M.P.Birla Institute of Management,

Associate Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,
Bangalore 560001
2003-05

PRINCIPALS CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that this report is the result of Research Project

Efficacy of Web Recruitment undergone by Ms. Manasa.V
bearing the register number 03XQCM6055 under the guidance and
supervision of Prof. Prabhakar. This has not formed a basis for the
award of any Degree/ Diploma of any University.

Bangalore
Date:

Dr Nagesh. S. Malavalli
(Principal)

GUIDES CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that this report is the result of Research Project

Efficacy of Web Recruitment undergone by Ms. Manasa.V
bearing the register number 03XQCM6055 under the guidance and
supervision of Prof. Prabhakar. This has not formed a basis for the
award of any Degree/ Diploma of any University.

Bangalore
Date:

Prof. Prabhakar
(Guide)

STUDENT DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this Research Project entitled Efficacy of

Web Recruitment has been undertaken and completed by me
under the valuable guidance of Prof. Prabhakar, M.P.B.I.M, in partial
fulfillment of Degree of MBA program is my original work and that no
part of the work has been submitted for any degree, diploma,
fellowship or other similar title or prizes for any institution previously.

Bangalore
Date:

(Manasa.V)
Reg No: 03XQCM6055

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my profound gratitude to Prof.

Prabhakar, Professor, M.P.Birla Institute of Management whose
guidance was significant in the successful completion of the
project.
I wish to thank our Dr. Nagesh Malavalli, Principal,
M.P.Birla Institute of Management for providing the means and
encouragement.
Last but certainly not the least, my family and friends who
tolerated me and cooperated when I was not so very best.

Bangalore
Date:

(Manasa.V)

LIST OF GRAPHS/DIAGRAMS
SERIAL
NO.

PARTICULARS

PAGE
NO.

Methods of Recruitment

Companies using on-line job portals for

recruitment

Companies having Career Section

Candidates apply directly

employment website

Pie Chart on percentage use of Application

Mechanism

Percentage of Online applicants formally

considered candidates

Use of online job advertising

Attitude towards Online Recruitment

Mechanisms

Individual Beliefs regarding online recruitment

10

Organizational Beliefs regarding online

recruitment

11

Recruiting Environment for online recruitment

12

Perceived Technical Expertise regarding

online recruitment

13

Intentions to invest HR resources for online

recruitment

through

your

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Do HR Practitioners believe that Internet is a valuable Recruitment
tool?
Perhaps no method has ever had as revolutionary an effect on
organizational recruitment practices as the Internet. Internet job boards such
as Monster.com and HotJobs.com have enabled organizations to attract
more applicants from a wider geographic base than ever before. At the same
time, many practitioners and researchers suggest that for organizations to
truly gain a competitive recruiting advantage, they must prudently use their
own web sites for recruitment purposes.
The main objective of the research project is to examine HR professionals
attitude toward and Use of Internet for employee Recruitment. The other
objective includes assessing the risks associated with web recruitment.
The results of the research provide:
A barometer of current attitudes toward the online mechanisms.
An assessment of internal organizational expectations regarding the

use of the
Internet for employee recruitment and perceptions of online recruitment
norms
Insight into the short-term future of the Internet for employee recruitment
Perceptions regarding the ease of using online mechanism for

recruitment purposes.
This research is qualitative in nature. This study is based on the data
collected through various structured questionnaire and n-depth interview with
key personnel. The sampling technique used is stratified sample technique.
Since the research topic is qualitative in nature, we are prompted to use
simple percentages so as to make the data more succinct and amenable for
easy interpretation.

INTRODUCTION TO RECRUITMENT
Performing todays HR Recruiter function has not significantly
changed. Infact, the job of a HR Recruiter has increased considerably due to
constant business requirement to recruit and retain a diverse workforce. HR
Recruiting Functions and Recruiters in most organizations are faced daily
with time consuming transactional tasks such as, prescreening thousands of
resumes, preventing them from focusing on more strategic activities such as,
building solid relationships with qualified candidates and hiring managers.
Many HR Recruiting Functions and Recruiters are experiencing additional
administrative challenges, with very little opportunity to learn the required
strategic behavior that will significantly improve their value, productivity,
performance and career growth.
Optimizing HR recruiting productivity and performance requires
aligning your daily activities to the companys core business competencies
and strategy, while improving upon those skills that not only add value, but
also enhances our ability to be viewed as a Strategic HR Recruiting Function
and Recruiter in the eyes of every hiring manager we serve.
The goal is to help the Strategic HR Recruiting Function and
Recruiters gain a basic understanding of what it takes to easily achieve
individual and strategic hiring breakthrough performance results now and
into the future.
Hire The Best and Inspire The Rest
The Evolution of the HR Function
The HR function has evolved from the early days of the industrial
revolution to the present. This evolution is typified by increased complexity
and regulation, as well as rapid pace of technological change.

Key areas of evolution include the following:

1) Human capital has replaced plant, property, and equipment as an
organizations most critical asset
2) The death of the organization man
3) The development of sophisticated HRIS packages
4) The growing acceptance of outsourcing business processes
5) The increasing scope of responsibilities that fall under the auspices of
human capital management.
While theses changes have been material, the level of sophistication
and progress that HR and the recruiting function has achieved falls far
behind the evolution that has transformed other corporate activities such as
inventory management, manufacturing, distribution, marketing and finance
The reasons for back lag in Recruitment
Increased Employee Turnover
Employees currently change jobs more often than they have in the
past and that even satisfied employees are increasingly investigating job
opportunities. According to the. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average
person entering the workforce today will work for between eight and ten
different employers. This makes it more difficult for employers to retain
qualified, experienced individuals and increases the number of hires that
must occur each year in order to maintain or grow an
The Costs of Recruiting
Some experts theorize that the cost of recruiting equals 50-60% of an
employees first year salaryand up to 100% for certain specialized, highskill positions. According to a recent survey conducted by the Employment
Management Association, the traditional advertising cost-per-hire is $3,295
while the Internet advertising cost-per-hire is $377.
Recruiting Concerns.

In a recent survey conducted by The Center for Organizational

Research, Inc., responding organizations most frequently identified the
following (in approximate order) as their biggest recruiting
1. Developing the skills to succeed in HR Recruiting and Human Capital
2. Managing recruiting costs and funding
3. Finding the right people in light of skill mix, cultural fit, long-term
commitment, etc.
4. Competing with other organizations in a tight labor market
5. Employing effective application/interviewing/recruiting processes
6. Recruiting the right people within a demanding time frame
According to a recent survey conducted by The Center for
Organizational Research, while most organizations feel that they are able to
attract quality talent at least to some extent, 57% believe that they are not
excelling in this
Increased Urgency to Reduce Time to Hire.
Because of the shortage in highly skilled job seekers, qualified
candidates must be hired quickly or they may be lost to competitors. The
ability to quickly hire qualified employees may have a significant influence on
the future success of a company.
Management's perception of the recruiting function is driven by four
concerns
1. Competitive pressures that have never been greater; Critical HR Strategic
Recruiting Skills and Competencies
2. The routine challenge to remain profitable and develop strategic
competitive advantage;
3. A growing lack of confidence in recruiting activity, the result of its
negligible impact and increasing costs and time requirements; and
4. Concern about its relationship with the recruiting practitioners who provide
recruiting services, and in particular their evident of being reactive, lack of
business acumen, and their poor follow through. In making this evaluation,
management is concluding more and more that the sizable expense required

for recruiting quality talent is not yielding an adequate improvement in

performance by the HR Recruiting function. Further complicating this
situation, management is coming to recognize that the organization itself
may ultimately provide the sole avenue for acquiring quality talent to sustain
a competitive advantage, and the
strategic HR Recruiter is sure to play a major role in realizing this potential.

INTRODUCTION TO ONLINE RECRUITMENT

Technology has changed the dynamics of HRD strategies especially in the
area of recruitment
All over the world it is quite evident; the brick economies have been
transforming into click economies. There is a sea change in the structure
and style of the economies and organizations. Several changes are
occurring in the field of Human Resource Management as a result of
liberalization, privatization and globalization. Information and IT today has
become the key factor.
Information technology and human resources: IT is rapidly changing the
face of corporate world. Each profession and professional is now using IT to
improve their work life and provide better products and services to their
customers. HR professionals too have discovered the magic of IT which is
exemplified by usage of terminologies such as intranet, internet, groupware,
Tele interview, e-mail used largely for recruitment, training, performance
management review.
Earlier the trends in using IT for HR largely included database, HRIS payroll
process, job seeker tracking, letter generation etc., but with the advent of
networked environment the trend is to make more of the HR process
automated and interactive.
Development of E-recruitment
Formally E-recruitment was first developed and launched on the
Internet on 11th September 1996 for US jobs which attracted a growing
number of job seekers. (www.usjobs.opm.gov). The main benefit of using the
company website to enhance recruiting efforts is that it's an inexpensive way
to sell organization across the globe. Organizations can share their culture,
announce their achievements and promote their job opportunities, as much
they desire.

What is E-Recruitment?
Web recruitment is the process of hiring/tracking job seekers through web
technology.
E-Recruitment encompasses just about every step in the traditional
recruitment process like presenting the available openings, testing
candidates for applicable skills, interests and fits for a particular job,
checking references etc., instead of taking place with paper forms erecruiting gives details about the company and vacancy positions is given
either in the company's website or on the website of commercial recruiters.
E- recruiting may also be done by outsourcing the recruiting activities of the
firm to the brokers who can post it in a paid website, allow candidates to
apply, scrutinise their applications and match those with the available job
specifications and finally send the profile of the list of candidates
(applicants), everything being online.
Online recruiting is a huge industry. It is estimated that online recruiting costs
one-twentieth as much to hire an employee online as it does to hire that
person through want ads and other traditional means.( embracing online
recruiting - Graeme browing , April 08, 2002).

Features and Trends

Most On-line recruiting sites deliver easy-to-use search capabilities,
customer service and convenience. The common features include:

State-of-the-art resume database providing recruiters, head hunters

and corporate human resource professionals easy access to some of
the best talents in the workforce today

Questionnaires tailored to detect required skills to meet the exact

needs of the Company or position

Simplified application process

E- recruiting technology is skill-based with automated pre-screening

features, which is the next step in the evolution of Online recruiting.
A quick look at the overall trends in Online recruiting shows the rise in the
importance of marketing the web site, online training, dawn of video
interviews and emergence of professional Internet Recruiters.
If you are a Job Seeker
Online recruiting sites are specifically designed for those who seek the most
demanding and challenging positions in their chosen field, with the most
dynamic employers. These sites offer the job seeker:

A quick, convenient, reliable, timely and effective way to reach

recruiting, search and employment professionals worldwide

Comprehensive resources for finding a job online

Crucial information on potential employers - The more you know

about the company, their business objectives and goals, the better
you will be able to communicate your value to them.

Topnotch career information

Valuable, content rich information on resume writing advice

Access to tools like resume builders

Career tips from HR managers

Upgraded facilities for maximum visibility

Constant monitoring of job postings against resume

Educational resources for developing effective job searches

and other user friendly services

The best way to work with the system and let it work for you is to become a
member and create a profile. That way, search professionals have easy
access to your skills, background and experience to quickly match you with
the job opportunities in your field.

If you are a recruiter..

Thanks to skill based automated prescreening; the time spent at every step
of the recruiting cycle is greatly reduced. This translates into huge savings
for employers in terms of:

Reduced time to hire

Reduced ramp-up time (time required for a new recruit to train)

Increased probability of hiring the right candidate

Improved retention

Lower turnover

E-Recruiting sites allows employers to:

Search and respond to resume postings online

Constantly monitor resume postings

Use criteria builders

Find resumes to match specifications

Setup interviews

Add graphics (like company logos) and active hyperlinks to your

corporate web site

Receive, sort and shortlist online resumes

Send mass e-mail to candidates direct from your desk top

Enhance newspaper advertisements by providing candidates with an

online application facility

Provide facts about company culture, environment, practices and

recruitment processes, thus giving the company a higher visibility

RISKS INVOLVED IN E-RECRUITMENT

Some of the legal risks involved in online recruitment are:
One of the legal risks is that employers, feeling overwhelmed by the
amount of rsums they get, turn to rsum-screening software. That way
they dont have to look at every single rsum that comes in; the screening
software helps select the best applicants [by screening for certain words or
phrases]. Well, that approach only works as well as the software, and theres
a significant legal risk in making a poor selection in your rsum-screening
software.
The second potential problem with e-recruiting : concerns the impact
e-recruiting has on who you consider for a job and ultimately hire -- and how
that affects the diversity of your workplace. By using online recruiting as a
means of identifying potential employees, are you excluding large portions of
the population? For instance, theres the argument that more young people
use the Internet than old people. So if you rely exclusively on e-recruiting,
then youre probably going to get more young applicants than older
applicants. So you might be excluding some of those people by primarily
requiring that applications be done electronically.
Theres also an issue with the collection of the information itself. Can
you properly comply with all the different hiring requirements that might apply
in your state, and still find yourself [in gray areas in another state]. For
example: California laws place a lot more limitations on the amount of
information employers can collect than might be the case in Texas. So if
youre collecting information from someone in California, and youre based in
Texas, but youre doing it all electronically, whose law governs? Could you
be collecting information from that California person that would be lawful if
you were both in Texas, but may not be in California?

The final area of concern: In the electronic context, theres more risk
of getting yourself into trouble by making a comment or asking something
that you wouldnt in the hard-paper format. If youre advertising in a
newspaper, you have X amount of characters, so youre pretty succinct. On
Web sites, you can go into as much detail as you want. You can put pages
of information up there about who would be the best candidate. That can be
good for the applicant, but depending on the nature of the information, can
also come back and be pointed to as evidence of discrimination.

The second component of that is the general informality that exists

online. If an HR person starts engaging in an e-mail correspondence with an
applicant, people arent as careful in those e-mail discussions. They might
say something or ask for some information that would be improper,
something that may later come back [to haunt them] when the applicant
doesnt get the job

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Problem statement: To find out the magnitude and usage pattern of online
recruitment.
What are the legal risks associated with online recruitment and how to
overcome these risks

NEED AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

While the use of web technology in the recruitment strategy is substantial,

adequate research enquiry has not taken place in this domain particularly in
the area of legal risks associated with web recruitment. As such job search
websites proliferate on the web, recruiters need to be aware of some of the
risks/hazards of using e-recruiting at their companies.
The main aim of this research work is to get a valuable picture of web
recruitment practices in software and BPO sector.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

To examine the extent of use of web recruitment

To assess the legal risks associated with web recruitment

To formulate strategic guidelines for the use of web recruitment

PURPOSE OF LITERATURE REVIEW

The purpose of literature review is to identify the problem statement,
understand the secondary data that has been gathered in the field of study
and to make new findings on the problem statement.

METHODOLOGY OF LITERATURE REVIEW

Different sources used in order to collect information or data are

Internet

Magazines and journals

Publications

Articles

This encompasses different facets of information sources concerning the

identification of the efficacy of online recruitment. It started with search in HR
magazines, textbooks and lot of other relevant magazines and journals.
Information on web recruitment were mostly available on the websites, lots
of articles and presentations on the websites were analyzed and used in the
research for better understanding of the topic. ( A list of websites has been
provided in the annexure)

1.

TITLE: E-RECRUITMENT: IS IT DELIVERING

WEBSITE: www.employment-studies.com
SOURCE: Library of articles

This article speaks about the different e-recruitment methods and the key
implementation challenges. E-recruiting, embracing the term web-based
recruiting can be described as any recruiting processes that a business
organization conducts via web-based tools, such as a firms public Internet
site or its corporate intranet. We use the terms online recruitment, Internet
recruitment, and e-recruitment interchangeably.
The article states that advertising job openings, tracking the source of
applications, and online enquiry forms, were the most frequently used
methods for attracting candidates. This article concludes by highlighting erecruitment is about cultural and behavioral change, both within HR and at
line management level.

2.

TITLE: ONLINE RECRUITMENT TECHNIQUES

WEBSITE: www.expresscomputeronline
SOURCE: Library of articles

This article speaks that online recruitment in India is likely to pick up

momentum due to speed and cost benefits despite low internet penetration.
The article speaks about the different web recruitment techniques. The
article states that to measure the effectiveness of online recruitment, set up
the metrics for recruitment spending is important. The article gives insights
regarding the talent search for professionals. Although e-recruitment caters
to jobs at all levels, it is largely useful in exploring people at entry and midtier levels. The article concludes by highlighting Online recruiting also gives
equal opportunity to all job seekers irrespective of their background.

3.
TITLE: HOW TO DEVELOP AN ONLINE RECRUITMENT
STRATEGY
WEBSITE: www.job-interview-questions.com
SOURCE: Library of articles
This article speaks about how by developing an online recruitment strategy
can help you tap into the pool of job seekers searching for a job online. The
article states that as e-recruitment begins to gain a bigger sector of overall
employment methods, companies will find it beneficial to hone their online
recruitment skills so they can keep up with their competition in attracting the
best candidates.
The article emphasis with online recruitment, we can use career tests and
applications to find the right employee. The tests can be administered
directly online. The article concludes by giving guidelines on making online
recruitment strategy effective so that we will be able to economically attract
the best candidates to apply for your job.

4.

TITLE: E-RECRUITMENT : A NEW PARADIGM

SOURCE: BY WHIZLABS SOFTWARE

This article speaks about the evolving face of online recruitment and the
emerging market opportunities of e-recruiting. It states that e-Recruitment,
though at nascent stage, is becoming a part of corporate strategy with
increasing numbers of companies setting aside budgets for online
recruitment.
The article further speaks about many online recruitment companies are
using testing and assessment on the internet to target so called passive
applicants, who have put their CVs and resumes online, but are not actively
looking for a job. Using the power of Internet to achieve your HR goals not
only increases your productivity but also saves you time and money to give
you a competitive advantage

One industry, which has most logically impacted by the e drive, is IT

industry itself. E-Recruitment for IT organization has another facet to it: Use
of software solutions for effective and efficient recruitment. Recruiters in an
IT company, use software solutions for not only searching the best skilled
candidates but in the hiring process also.

5.

TITLE: ONLINE PERSONNEL RECRUITMENT

WEBSITE: www.winjobs.com
SOURCE: Library of articles

This article is from National HRD Network - Ahmedabad Chapter. The article
states that HR managers are showing interest in adapting IT solutions.
Trends of online recruitment were compared between India, USA and
Fortune-500 companies. Surveys and used experiences reveal that online
recruitment is producing good results and the practices are rapidly evolving
from one stage to another. The main points of inflexions in evolution of
recruitment practices are observed to be print ads, emails, corporate
websites, and career pages on web site and finally generalized online data
capture of work seekers and integration with back end processes

CONCLUSION FROM LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review has been very informative as it has thrown light on the
research and articles that have been written on web recruitment. Moreover it
has helped in identifying the degree of research that has been already done
on the subject. It has narrowed the scope of repetition and has formed the
basis of secondary data for this study.

TYPE OF RESEARCH

This research is qualitative in nature. This study is based on the data

collected through structured questionnaires and in-depth interview with key
personnel of HR departments in various companies.

SAMPLING TECHNIQUE

The sampling technique used is random sample technique. The respondents

are corporate enterprises in BPO sector in Bangalore city.

SAMPLE SIZE

Fifteen companies are chosen for the purpose of collecting data in order to
understand the efficacy of online recruitment.

TOOLS USED FOR DATA COLLECTION

The tool used for data collection is a structured questionnaire. The

questionnaire has been developed for collecting data for the purpose of
understanding HR practitioners attitude and the extent of use of Internet for
recruitment purpose.

Along with questionnaire we decided to conduct in-depth interviews with the

respondents. Interviewing is a flexible method. Interviews generate
descriptive data, which structured questionnaire fail to do so. Rigid
questionnaires tend to be less effective where the vital aspects are
concerned. So, because of this it is decided that a one-one basis interview

be conducted with the respondents by keeping the questionnaire as the

basis.

TOOLS FOR DATA ANALYSIS

Since our research topic is qualitative and quantitative in nature, we are

prompted to use simple percentages so as to enable the data more succinct
and amenable for easy interpretation. We believe that simple treatment of
data will be more useful in drawing inferences from the qualitative data.

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS

Time and cost constraints

The problem of generalization, as the research is restricted to ten

companies in one area.

Despite these limitations, we hope to widen the knowledge horizon in
respect of web recruitment with particular reference to potential
risks/hazards associated with it.

1. Methods currently being used by company for recruitment

70%

67%

60%

60%

67%
A dvertisem ents

53%

50%

40%

40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

E m ployee
Referrals
C am pus Interviews
C onsultants
(outsourcing)
Others

Methods of R ecruitment
Source: Field Investigation
INTERPRETATION:
Companies using Advertisements for Recruitment -67%
Companies using Employee Referrals for Recruitment -60%
Companies using Campus Interviews for Recruitment -53%
Companies using Consultants for Recruitment -67%
Companies using other methods like job fairs, walk-ins for Recruitment -40%

2. Companies using on-line job portals for recruitment

U sing Online-Job Portals for

R ecruitment
27%
Y es
No
73%

Source: Field Investigation

INTERPRETATION
The Pie-Chart shows that 73% percent of the companies use job-portals for
recruitment. This indicates that the use of online recruitment is growing
.Results also showed that most of the companies posts job advertisements
on internet job boards like Noukri.com.

3. Please state whether your companys website has its own

Employment/career Section

C ompanies having C areer Section

27%
Y es
No
73%

Source: Field Investigation

INTERPRETATION
The graph clearly shows that 73% of companys website has its own
Employment/Career Section. The indicates that careers section is very
important for using promoting online recruitment.

4. Can candidates apply for open positions directly through your

employment website

47%
53%

Source: Field Investigation

INTERPRETATION
The companies that allow candidates to apply for open positions directly
through employment website is 53%. This indicates that half of the
companies allow and other half doesnt allow applying for open positions
through the companys website.

Y es
No

5. Please state whether your application mechanism requires

candidates to submit information beyond simply attaching a resume
document.

40%

60%

Y es
No

Source: Field Investigation

INTERPRETATION
This graph indicates that most of the companies want candidates to submit
information beyond simply attaching a resume document in their application
mechanism. Only 40% of companies require candidates to send only resume
document.

6. Does your company have a policy for defining when online

applicants are formally considered candidates?

13 %
Y es
No

87 %

Source: Field Investigation

INTERPRETATION
87% of the companies have a policy for defining when online applicants are
formally considered candidates. This shows that most of the companies
have a strong policy regarding online applicants.

7. For what proportion of your workforce would online job advertising

Number of Companies

be a potentially useful recruitment tool?

6
5
4
3
2
1
0
0%-20%

20%-40%

40%-60%

60%-80% 80%-100%

% -use of Online Job advertising

Source: Field Investigation
INTERPRETATION
The above graph shows that for around 10 companies the proportion of
workforce would online job advertising be a potentially useful recruitment tool
is above 60%. This indicates that the need for online job advertising for the
companies is increasing.

Attitude towards Online Recruitment Mechanisms

Internet Job Boards

Employment Websites

8% 2%

90%

14%

6%

80%

POSITIVE ATTITUDE NEUTRAL ATTITUDE NEGATIVE ATTITUDE

Four items assessed overall attitude towards Employment Web Sites

and Job Boards. Specifically, respondents answered four items along a 5point scale, which were anchored at each end with positive and negative
attitudinal adjectives (e.g., useless to useful, bad to good). An overall
attitudinal score was computed for each respondent by taking the mean
score of the four attitudinal items.

The charts below portray participant attitudes toward Employment

Web Sites and Internet Job Boards respectively. 80% of the respondents for
Employment Web Sites held positive attitudes while less than 14% held
negative attitudes. Alternatively, 90% of respondents held positive attitudes
toward Internet Job Boards while 2% expressed negative attitudes toward
Job Boards. Thus, responses suggest the existence of slightly more
favorable attitudes toward Internet Job Boards than Employment Web Sites.
However, attitudes toward both mechanisms of online recruitment were
overwhelmingly positive.

INDIVIDUAL BELIEFS REGARDING ONLINE RECRUITMENT

Online Recruitment Website
Agree

Neither
Agree nor
Disagree

IB1: Online recruitment enables

organizations to attract qualified
candidate:

66.67%

26.67%

6.67%

IB2: Online recruitment provides

a positive return on investment
(ROI) for organizations that use
it:

60%

20%

20%

IB3: The job ads found on

Internet job boards can increase
job seekers' desire to work
for
an Organization.

40%

40%

20%

Survey
Scale & Items

Disagree

INTERPRETATION
Respondents answered three items along a 5-point scale, which were
anchored from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. These items
assessed the extent to which respondents believed that either recruitment
mechanism could (1) attract candidates, (2) provide a positive return on

investment, and (3) motivate them to want to work for an employer. In all
cases, lower scores on each of these items indicated more negative beliefs
regarding the utility of a target recruitment mechanism.
The data above show that respondent beliefs were very positive towards
online recruitment. Above 50% of respondents believe that online
recruitment is an effective recruitment tool.
ORGANIZATIONAL BELIEFS REGARDING ONLINE RECRUITMENT
Online Recruitment Website
Survey

Agree

Scale & Items

OB1: Existing Employees in my
organization believe we should
recruit applicants using Online:
OB2: Existing Employees believe
that a company can attract
talented people through online
recruitment:
OB3: Existing employees believe
that company can obtain
substantial amount of benefits
through online recruitment:

Neither Agree
nor Disagree

Disagree

40%

33.33%

26.67%

40%

40%

20%

33.33%

26.67%

40%

INTERPRETATION
Three items assessed overall perceptions regarding how internal
organizational stakeholders felt about recruiting employees through online
recruitment. In all cases, lower scores indicated less perceived internal
pressure to use either online recruitment mechanism, while higher scores
indicated greater internal pressure.
The results above indicate that around 40% of respondents show greater
internal pressure for online recruitment while around 20% perceive less

internal pressure. The data also shows that around 40% of respondents
have neutral attitude regarding online recruitment.

RECRUITING ENVIRONMENT FOR ONLINE RECRUITMENT

Online Recruitment Website
Survey

Neither
Agree

Scale & Items

The competing companies use
online recruitment to recruit
talented people:
The competing companies treat
online recruitment a powerful
tool of talent supply chain
management:
Targeted job seekers find the
job advertisement on the
internet job boards/companys
own website useful:

Agree nor

Disagree

Disagree
60%

13.33%

26.67%

60%

20%

20%

53.33%

26.67%

20%

INTERPRETATION
Three items were included in the survey to assess individual perceptions
regarding how parties outside of the organization value the Internet as a
recruiting tool. For each item respondents answered along a 3-point scale
which was anchored from Disagree to Agree. In all three cases, higher
scores indicated beliefs that these key external parties did use or value the
target online recruitment mechanism.
The results show that 60% of the respondents agree that their competitors
use online recruitment to attract talented people.

While only 50% of the respondents agree that targeted job seekers find the
job advertisement on the internet job boards/companys own website useful.

PERCEIVED TECHNICAL EXPERTISE REGARDING ONLINE

RECRUITMENT
Online Recruitment Website
Survey

Neither
Agree

Scale & Items

The company knows how to use
job boards to effectively recruit
people with requisite skills:

Agree nor

Disagree

Disagree
53.33%

13.33%

33.33%

It is relatively easy to design

Internet job ads to attract qualified
applicants:

60%

6.67%

33.33%

It is easy to use Internet job

boards to post job ads:

60%

13.33%

26.67%

53.33%

6.67%

40%

The company has control over the

allocation of budget toward online
recruitment:

INTERPRETATION
Four items were included in the survey to assess perceptions of whether or
not each respondent felt that he/she was in control of his/her organizations
use of either recruitment mechanism. This scale was composed of two subcomponents. One component dealt with perceived technical expertise to
utilize online recruitment. The second component dealt with perceived
control over budget allocations. Specifically, respondents answered each
item along a 5- point scale, which was anchored from Strongly Disagree to
Strongly Agree.

The results indicate that above 60% of respondents are confident in

designing job ads for attracting qualified applicants.
40% of the respondents showed discretion over budget allocation for online
recruitment.
INTENTIONS TO INVEST HR RESOURCES FOR ONLINE RECRUITMENT
Online Recruitment Website
Survey

Neither
Agree

Scale & Items

Agree nor

Disagree

Disagree

Support organizational
investment:

66.67%

6.67%

26.67%

Devote more department

resources:

73.33%

0%

26.67%

Integrate into recruitment

strategy:

60%

13.33%

26.67%

66.67%

6.67%

26.67%

Increase the number of

applicants recruited by IJB:

INTERPRETATION
Four items measured intentions to devote resources toward online
recruitment.
67% of the respondents plan to advocate increased investment in
advertising on internet job boards.
74% of the respondents intend to devote more department resources to
better utilize internet job boards.
60% of the respondents plan to integrate into recruitment strategy.
67% of the respondents intend to increase the number of applicants
recruited by internet job boards.

Highlights of the findings include:

Use of the Internet was widespread with 73% of practitioners

reporting their organizations posted jobs on Internet for recruitment.

The Internet is a valid mechanism for recruitment for 60% of the

workforce for Organizations in this sample

87% of organizations have policies for defining when online applicants

become job candidates

Of those organizations that use their Employment Web Sites for

recruitment, 53% reported providing some means of application
through their web site while 60% reported that they provided online
job seekers with an automated mechanism for job application through
such sites

In general, practitioners reported very positive attitudes toward the

use of online recruitment mechanisms

67% of the respondents perceive that online recruitment enables

organizations to attract qualified candidate

50% of the Practitioners indicated that they were more comfortable

with the technical aspects of using online recruitment.

Responses indicated high intentions to use both Employment Web

Sites and Internet Job Boards for recruitment in the near future.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Current Attitudes toward Online Recruiting
Employers seem to share very positive attitudes toward the Internet as a
recruiting source. In addition, HR personnel from small, mid-size, and large
organizations shared these attitudes. One notable finding from our attitudinal
items was that companies preferred Internet job boards for affecting a job
seekers motivation to work for a company than Employment Websites.
It is always recommended that companys website has its own
employment/career section. The main benefit of using the company website
to enhance recruiting efforts is that it's an inexpensive way to sell
organization across the globe. Organizations can share their culture,
announce their achievements and promote their job opportunities, as much
they desire.
Online Recruiting Expectations and Norms
Organizational beliefs regarding online recruitment should be very positive.
Existing Employees in the organization should strongly agree to recruit
applicants using Online.
The Near Future of Online Recruiting
Reponses indicated high intentions to use mechanisms of the Internet in the
future. However, it should be noted that the pattern of responses suggested
a greater intention to expand the use of Internet Job Boards than
Employment Web Sites. There could be two explanations for this. First,
practitioners could perceive that they currently use Internet Job Boards as
much as possible, but opportunities exist to expand the use of their
Employment Web Sites.
Issues Moving Forward

Though intentions to use employment websites were high, a potential barrier

to greater use of Employment Web Sites seems to be in practitioner beliefs
that they knew how to effectively design and use web sites for recruitment.
This makes sense because such web sites are more complex mechanisms
to develop and do require greater internal technical capacity than posting on
Job Boards. Given the uncertainty that surrounds appropriate design of web
sites for recruitment purposes, it may be worthwhile for organizations that
are seriously considering using their web sites for recruitment to audit their
technical capacity and the recruiting potential of their web sites.

Online recruitment techniques

The recommended online recruitment techniques are:

To measure the effectiveness of online recruitment, set up the metrics

for recruitment spending.

A detailed job description should be given while posting jobs to attract

candidates with the right skill sets.

Give a precise and unambiguous questionnaire to reduce time in

searching for a suitable candidate.

Ensure that all the approaches related to recruitment are linked to and
centered on your own recruitment site.

Integrate e-recruitment into your overall recruitment strategy.

Applicant tracking system should be of a high quality and should be

integrated with the back-office.

Develop a comprehensive website to receive and process job

applications whether through direct or online advertising.

There are various risks involved in using online recruitment. Some of the
recommendations to overcome these risks are:

First, advice to HR professional considering rsum-screening

software
Make a very educated decision about the right software for your
company. You should probably involve your labor counsel to make sure
youre making the right decision and to evaluate whether that system creates
any specific legal risks.
Second, how can HR avoid disparate impact in its e-recruiting?
To begin with, it would be a mistake to abandon traditional methods of
recruiting. When you start e-recruiting, you obviously broaden the number of
applicants who can apply, because its much easier. But as we discussed,
you can limit the pool of people in protected categories: older workers and
minorities, arguably. So you still have to maintain the traditional methods of
recruiting. You also have to constantly be reviewing the results of your erecruiting system and asking yourself: Are we drawing the right mix of people
for this job from the standpoint of avoiding a disparate-impact issue? You
need to constantly check to make sure youre achieving the results of
creating a diverse workplace and thereby insulating yourself to some degree
from liability and litigation.
Defining who is and who isnt an applicant
An applicant is defined as someone whos expressed an interest in a
job. Well, thats pretty darn broad. So you must have a very detailed system
[narrowing the definition] that says: If youre going to apply for a job -- not
just inquire about hiring -- you have to go through this application procedure,
and you have to submit something in writing that says youre interested in a
specific position.
As part of that procedure, I think its important that the company
maintain a dialogue with the individual -- thanking them, alerting them that
theyve received the rsum. Some employers are sending voluntary selfidentification forms electronically now. But you can also design something

that would be sent back to you electronically, and that will help you gather
and keep that information.
HR addressing the informal nature of e-recruiting
Employers need to stick to the application procedure they draft.
People tend to be a little less formal online, and its easy to slip away from it
because youre in a hurry and just want to send a note back to this applicant.
There are a lot of things that can go wrong, and if people dont stick to these
procedures, theyre going to be finding themselves in a lot of trouble down
the road.