Source: theHRDIRECTOR
Date: January 2007 

In today’s ever competitive search for the right talent, companies are increasingly turning to the internet. But, is this the cure all solution to a businesses’ recruitment needs? We investigate…

Oh for those halcyon days when a loosely worded, last minute advertisement in the local rag would have hundreds of literate, numerate and presentable would-be employees beating a path to the door of the recruitment office. Would that it was ever so! In truth it was never quite that easy. But compared with 20, or even just 10 years ago, today’s recruiting environment is considerably more complex and angst-ridden.

"According to the latest national online recruitment audience survey (NORAS) only six per cent of applicants using recruitment sites posted hard copy CVs; 43% e-mailed their CV and 28% filled in an online application form"

In their recent Labour Market Outlook joint report, the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) and KPMG tell us that 41% of the CIPD members they surveyed intend to recruit additional staff during the next three months. But will they be using traditional, paper-based recruiting techniques? And how will they ensure they recruit the right people? Many companies have now turned to the Internet and online recruitment as the way forward for recruiting staff at all levels within their organisation; some two-thirds of UK companies advertised vacancies on their web sites last year. It is also a popular technology with job seekers. According to the latest national online recruitment audience survey (NORAS) only six per cent of applicants using recruitment sites posted hard copy CVs; 43% e-mailed their CV and 28% filled in an online application form. Not surprisingly, then, online recruitment web sites are more popular than ever and worth, last year, more than £200m.

But is this the universal panacea for recruiting ills? Could its very use be described as ageist? Might potential employees judge your company more on the quality of its web site than on its more substantive merits? One of the biggest players in the online recruitment game is aptly-named Monster. And Alan Townsend, their chief operating officer, explained the reasons for their continuing success. “The key thing about recruitment is that it is still a very young industry – it has only been going for some 11 or 12 years – and I think what is interesting is how quickly it has evolved; how quickly it has become almost an essential part of the HR recruitment process, and also the impact it has had on how people live their lives and even in changing their lives.

“What online recruitment has already done, through its evolution, is encourage a tremendous amount more in the way of mobility of labour; it has allowed employers to reach out farther in terms of the quality and diversity of the people; and really to refine the skills element they need to move to a more detailed level. A lot of the old methods didn’t allow you to gather the same amount of data you can now amass through online recruitment.”

"Online recruiting has much to offer but it needs to be undertaken carefully and with thought. Bad planning begets bad results and partial systems achieve only partial success"

Key elements to online success are its 24/7 availability and its cross-border accessibility, says Townsend, because it allows the job seeker to be out there all the time looking for their next job in whichever country it may lie. Data from StepStone, a leading European provider of online recruitment services, reinforces the international message still further. They say that when the decision to work abroad has been taken, 66% of job hunters start their search by visiting online job boards. Fewer than 23% contact recruitment agencies and only 20% consult international newspapers. Online recruiting has much to offer but it needs to be undertaken carefully and with thought. Bad planning begets bad results and partial systems achieve only partial success. The message seems to be that if you are going for an online recruitment initiative then you might as well make it as all-encompassing as possible.

"The introduction of Broadband into people’s homes -70,000 people coming online every week - means the home computer is now becoming a major factor in online recruitment for candidates of every age"

At a time when more and more businesses are questioning the merit of various academic qualifications, the use of psychometric testing is seen as a valuable tool in identifying ‘best fit’ candidates. And online recruiting
provides the opportunity of incorporating psychometrics at the earliest stage of the recruitment process. Yet, according to training consultancy cda, there are still many companies failing to make use of this cost-effective approach.

It may well be that the initial cost of implementing such testing can be seen as significant and, therefore, regarded in some quarters as prohibitive. Yet the cost of getting the selection process wrong could be far more costly long-term. Besides, cda believes the use of psychometrics should not be restricted just to the initial recruitment phase but incorporated within the HR long-term development strategy. “We encounter too many instances of what we call ‘Silver Bullet’ mentality,” says Lisa Michelangeli, psychologist at cda. “While there has been an increased recognition of the value of psychometrics, there can be an assumption that its integration into the recruitment process is a guarantee that it will result in a calibre of recruit who will have a long-term positive impact on the organisation. Psychometric assessment is not a onefix cure-all but has to be an integral part of the on-going development process.”

Failing to utilise all the benefits of psychometric testing is not only restricting the full development of staff potential, says cda, but is also damaging the organisation’s return on investment. “Given the sums of money companies are investing, we believe that it is essential for business leaders to ensure that their HR experts are educating and then supporting line management in incorporating the output of psychometrics into the various stages of the employee life cycle,” says Michelangeli. “putting their organisations at unnecessary risk of legal action” That life cycle will, in many cases, begin with the recruitment of a graduate. And the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) warns employers about the potential impact the newly-introduced age discrimination legislation may have on their recruiting process.

“This new legislation could potentially have a big impact on recruiting methods for graduates,” says Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the AGR. “Most of our members will already have practices in place that are not discriminatory and have policies that encourage diversity in every sense. But there are always complications when new legislation comes into force and our briefing paper - Age Discrimination and Recruitment - provides plainspeaking advice to ensure they are not putting their organisations at unnecessary risk of legal action.”

The briefing paper reminds employers that advertising for a ‘young, dynamic professional’ or using words such as ‘energetic’ could be seen to be discriminatory. And the Department for Trade and Industry has estimated that there will be 8,000 tribunal claims for age discrimination a year, of which 75% could relate to recruitment and promotion. So it is essential that graduate recruiters are as aware of the key aspects of the new regulation as their counterparts who are fastidiously avoiding the use of terms such as ‘mature’, ‘seasoned’ and ‘reliable’. But hold hard! Isn’t the use of online recruitment an ageist issue in its own right? Doesn’t the use of such technology potentially isolate older job seekers who may have very limited, if any, IT skills? Not necessarily.

Here’s Monster’s Alan Townsend once more: “It is an interesting point, but I think everybody accepts the older generation are coming online, and more and more of our audience is actually in the 45+ age range.
“It is definitely something that has changed in the last two years. The introduction of Broadband into people’s homes -70,000 people coming online every week - means the home computer is now becoming a major factor in online recruitment for candidates of every age.” Many in the private sector point to the public sector as the biggest underperformer where e-recruitment is concerned. They may well be right but the private sector is not without its laggards. A survey by Taleo Research claims that a lack of online recruitment technology puts many of the FTSE 100 companies at a strategic disadvantage; 49% of the companies do not have ‘full online application functionality’ and six per cent do not even have a careers page on their web sites, thereby missing a valuable recruitment shop window opportunity (see sidebar overleaf for fuller report).

That surprises Alan Townsend who says if you don’t have a careers page on your web site you are missing out on a very simple enhancement to your overall recruitment strategy.“Six per cent seems horrendously high  to us,” he says. “But it is a fact of life that not everyone moves quickly. I would be very surprised if, in the next 18 months, it was left in that position.” So what of those companies who have so far failed to embrace e-recruitment? How does Townsend assess their future? “I see two very clear pictures,” he says. “In one they are spending more on recruiting than they need; in the second they will be losing their future workforce because they are not where their future workers are going to be, nor are they connected in  any way with the aspirations of people that they could probably use to do a very good job for them.”

The future is constantly changing and no-one can afford to stand quietly to one side in the hope that such changes will not affect them. “For us to continue our success and remain market leader we have to refine our customer experience,” says Townsend. “We won’t stand still. We have to make sure we are at the cutting edge of technology and delivering solutions that people need, people want and employers recognise. We also  have to make the Monster experience more accessible to more people. It is not just about internet penetration. We know the next generation of mobile devices will probably be the biggest items people will use and we
have to be ready to adapt and make sure our platform is ready and available for that technology.” Will everyone else be ready?