An analysis of the use and success of online recruitment methods in the UK
Emma Parry and Shaun Tyson, Cranfield School of Management
Human Resource Management Journal, Vol 18, no 3, 2008, pages 257–274
The use of online recruitment methods is now widespread among UK organisations,but has not dominated the recruitment market in the way that was predicted by the
英國dissertation網 popular media. This may be because organisations experience mixed success inusing online methods of recruitment. This article reports on the use of a large-scale,longitudinal survey of recruitment activity to investigate the usage and perceivedsuccess of both corporate and commercial web sites by employers. In addition, 20interviews with users and providers of online recruitment were conducted in orderto provide a deeper exploration of the factors that may affect the success of thesemethods. The results provide valuable insights into the use and success of onlinerecruitment in the UK and have strong implications for practitioners.Contact: Dr Emma Parry, Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield,Bedfordshire MK43 0AL. Email: [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
The Internet first emerged as a recruiting tool in the mid-1990s and washailed in the popular management press as the driver behind a ‘recruitingrevolution’ because of the benefits it could bring to recruiters (Boydell,2002). Indeed, some authors suggested that the Internet had ‘revolutionised theway that people look forwork’ (Birchfield, 2002) and brought ‘radical change tocorporate recruiting’ (Cappelli, 2001). There has been little empirical research toinvestigate whether these predictions have been realised, despite extensive use ofthe methods. We will examine the use of online recruitment and perceptions of itssuccess in comparison with other methods in the UK http://www.400190.com/dissertation_sample/by the year 2006 throughour longitudinal data set and interviews. We will then analyse our data todiscover whether the successful use of online recruitment is limited to particulartypes of organisations or whether its success is determined by how employers useonline recruitment systems.
THE INTERNET AS A RECRUITMENT METHOD
Recruitment ‘includes those practices and activities carried out by the organisationwith the primary purpose of identifying and attracting potential employees’
(Breaugh and Starke, 2000: 405) and has long been regarded as an important part ofHRM as it ‘performs the essential function of drawing an important resource –
human capital – into the organisation’ (Barber, 1998: 841). The strategic significanceof recruitment is often reported in the literature (Boxall and Purcell, 2003), theemphasis being on the need to attract and retain high-quality people in order to gainHUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, VOL 18 NO 3, 2008 257#p#分頁標題#e#
© 2008 The Authors.
Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX42DQ, UK and 350 Main St, Malden, MA, 02148, USA.
a competitive advantage, as is consistent with the resource-based view (Barney, 1991;Wright and McMahon, 1992; Barney and Wright, 1998).Labour market shortages and recruitment difficulties have led to a morecompetitive recruitment market in the last decade. Lievens et al. (2002) asserted that
the ‘war for talent’ meant that the emphasis in organisations moved from theselection to the attraction of employees. Indeed, the Chartered Institute of Personneland Development (CIPD) (2007) reported that 84 per cent of organisationsexperienced recruitment difficulties, indicating the continuing tight labour marketconditions and the need to choose appropriate ways to access labour markets. Thealready extensive range of recruitment techniques available to organisations hasbeen augmented further with the development of technologies such as Internetrecruitment.
The use of online recruitment has grown rapidly over the past 10 years, and theInternet is now a widely adopted medium by both recruiters and job seekers withinthe UK and across the world. Arthur (2001) found that 96 per cent of US companieswere online, with spending on electronic advertising expected to rise from $48 million
in 2001 to $460 million by 2006. More recently, Cober and Brown (2006) found that 50per cent of new hires in the USA were from online sources. In the UK, onlinerecruitment has become popular for both organisations and candidates. For instance,the CIPD (2006) found that 64 per cent of UK organisations used e-recruitment,suggesting that the growth of the Internet as a recruitment tool has been considerable.
In the USA, at least, online recruitment has begun to displace other moretraditional recruitment methods. Feldman and Klaas (2002) have described how theInternet is ‘clearly beginning to cut into other types of employment advertisingrevenues’ (p. 2) such as newspaper advertising and headhunters. Boehle (2000) andQuick (1998) suggested that expenditure on newspaper advertising and headhunterretainer fees have dropped 20 per cent in the USA as spending on Internetrecruitment has increased.
Despite the reported growth of the use of Internet recruitment, academic researchregarding this topic in the UK is relatively sparse. Bartram (2000) noted that, ‘Thetopic of study is relatively new. As a consequence there has been little time forresearch to have been carried out and found its way into the literature. A search ofPsychLit for papers concerned with the Internet and . . . recruitment found nothing’(p. 261). The situation has changed very little since Bartram’s article, with themajority of academic interest in online recruitment being from the candidate’sperspective rather than the employer’s. Our study will attempt to address this gap.
As previous empirical research in this area is so limited, we will adopt anexploratory approach and will therefore seek to answer broad research questionsrather than to prove hypotheses. Given the absence of longitudinal studies followingthe organisational use of Internet recruitment, we undertook a longitudinal surveyover a period of six years so that trends in the use of Internet recruitment could beanalysed. We believe these to be critical years, from 1999 to 2006, when the Internetbecame a popular means to communicate and a source of new information.#p#分頁標題#e#
The first question that this study will explore is:
What trends are there in the use and perceived success of corporate web sitesand commercial jobs boards, and what are the reasons behind these trends?
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In order for online recruitment to have the impact on the recruitment process thathas been predicted, it would need to offer considerable advantages over other, moreestablished, methods of recruitment such as print advertising. The literature hasprovided a reasonably long list of the advantages of Internet recruitment over othermethods that included cost effectiveness, access to more people, ability to target thepeople needed, access to applicants with a technical and computing background,quicker response and turnaround times, ease of use, and economy (Starcke, 1996;Cappelli, 2001; Galanaki, 2002; Zusman and Landis, 2002). These suggestions havebeen supported by the CIPD (2006), in that 71 per cent of their survey respondentsused e-recruitment to reduce recruiting costs, 60 per cent to broaden the selectionpool and 47 per cent to improve the time to hire. Lin and Stasinskaya (2002)discussed the improved accuracy and verifiability of data through online sources,and Cober et al. (2004) described the interactivity and usability of corporate web sitesand the ability to present more information with fewer spatial constraints and theopportunities for employers to draw on their brands more effectively in attractingcandidates.
Starcke (1996) added to this list of benefits with a list of problems, including the
danger of being flooded with résumés, the increased volume of applicants, tracking
difficulties and the fact that not everyone has access to the Internet. This has been
supported by empirical research by the IRS Employment Review (2005), which found
that 74 per cent of organisations received inappropriate responses to advertisements
on the Internet. The evidence indicates that the perceived success of online
recruitment may be mixed, but these assertions have not yet been fully explored
empirically.
The second question that we will address as part of this study is:
Are particular ‘types’ of organisations more successful at using online
recruitment methods than others?
Anecdotal evidence suggests that online recruitment may initially have appealed
particularly to graduates and highly technical organisations, where good levels of
computer literacy were assumed among the target labour market. However, there
has been little investigation about whether online recruitment methods are better
suited for particular types of organisations, for instance, those of a particular size or
in particular industries. Barber et al. (1999) suggested that the recruitment practices#p#分頁標題#e#
of small and large firms differ significantly. Hausdorf and Duncan (2004), however,
failed to find differences in the use of companies’ corporate web sites for recruitment
in small and large firms. Wiley (1992) found some differences in the effectiveness of
12 recruitment methods across occupational categories, but did not include online
methods in her study. Therefore, there remains a question as to whether the success
of online recruitment is related to the kind of organisation using the method or if it
is purely a result of the nature and implementation of the online method used. This
issue will also be addressed in this study. Finally, in order to extend this exploration
and provide useful insight for practitioners, we will also consider the question:
Are there steps that employers can take to improve their success at using online
recruitment methods?
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To summarise, the purpose of this article is to examine empirically the success of
online recruitment methods in more detail. An investigation into the use of online
recruitment and its effect on the use of other traditional recruitment media, together
with information on users’ perceptions, may allow us some insight into how
successful this method is perceived to be within the UK. In addition, a more detailed
examination of the use of online recruitment methods within organisations may
allow us to explore the factors that drive the success of online recruitment. To do this,
we have supplemented this survey research with interviews with employers and
online recruitment providers.
METHODS
Survey
A survey of recruitment activity, including the use of online recruitment, was
conducted over a period of six years. This was a quarterly survey of HR managers,
which posed a number of questions covering all aspects of recruitment, including the
organisational experience of recruitment difficulties and recruitment methods.
Recruitment difficulties were not defined within the survey in order to focus on the
respondent’s own perception of the existence of recruitment difficulties at any one
point in time. We are following a long tradition in the social sciences that if a person
believes something to be true, to all intents and purposes, for that person, it is true
and it will guide their actions (Silverman, 1970). Organisations were also asked on
a quarterly basis whether they had used a corporate web site or commercial web site
over the past six months and whether this method had been successful. The
context-specific nature of HRM and recruitment is such that definitions of success
will be different in different circumstances. For example, while we would anticipate#p#分頁標題#e#
that size might be important, as in a small organisation recruitment timing is critical,
this could also be true in large organisations for specific roles or at moments of crisis.
The continued use or adoption of online recruitment is dependent on the recruiter’s
perception of the success of this method. As a consequence of this, the approach that
we have taken is to work with the respondent’s own definition of success rather than
to impose some criteria of success that may or may not be appropriate. Our use of
a large longitudinal data and a longitudinal study is intended to reduce any
problems of individual bias on the part of respondents.
As the survey was first conducted in December (Q4) 1999, it was possible to
identify trends in the use of corporate and commercial web sites for a period of over
six years through surveys. Corporate web sites were taken to be an employer’s
own web site, while commercial websites included jobs boards where organisations
can pay to advertise a position. A further series of questions regarding Internet
recruitment were asked in March (Q1) 2000, June (Q2) 2001, June (Q2) 2002, June
(Q2) 2003, June (Q2) 2004 and June (Q2) 2006. Respondents were asked a number of
questions regarding why they did or did not use online recruitment, whether they
predicted their use of the Internet for recruitment to change and what impact they
expected Internet recruitment to have on their use of other recruitment methods. The
questions were developed through pilot surveys and employer practitioner feedback,
as well as exposure and discussion with the recruitment industry, including online
recruitment providers.
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The survey was initially conducted as a paper-based survey, but was changed to
an online survey in 2001. The online and paper-based surveys were run in parallel
for two quarters in order to ensure that the change in method of data collection did
not have an impact on the results. In each quarter, the survey was online for one
month in total.
For each quarter, including the June (Q2) 2006 survey, approximately 16,000
employers were contacted via email and were asked to complete the survey using a
web link that was included in the email. These potential respondents were drawn
from an electronic database of employers developed specifically by the authors for
this purpose. From December (Q4) 2002 onward, this database was supplemented
with a list of subscribers to a weekly UK HR magazine. The survey was also
advertised in a daily broadsheet newspaper and a weekly HR publication in order
to maximise its reach to the target population of recruiters. Respondents included#p#分頁標題#e#
HR directors and managers, finance directors, managing directors and recruitment
specialists from a sample of UK organisations with over 25 employees. It was
requested as part of the survey that the respondent should have the primary
responsibility for recruitment decision making within their organisation.
Interviews
Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives from
organisations that use online recruitment methods. The interviewees were senior HR
or resourcing managers with responsibility for recruitment. While it is not possible
to be representative of the population with only 15 interviews, participants from a
range of organisations were included to allow some variation by industry sector,
organisation size and geographical location. The organisations also varied in their
use of online recruitment methods. An additional five interviews were conducted
with providers of online recruitment technology in order to obtain a broader
perspective. The purpose of these interviews was to supplement the survey data
with a more in-depth view of what it is that may lead to, first, an organisation’s
decision to use online recruitment and, second, their success at using online
recruitment methods. Interviewees were asked to discuss their use of online
recruitment, the reasons for their initial adoption of the method and the degree of
success that they had experienced with the method. They were also asked for their
opinions on why their use of online recruitment had been successful or unsuccessful.
Each interview was recorded and transcribed. The content of the interviews was
analysed using the content analysis software Nvivo (QSR International Victoria,
Australia) in order to identify common themes.
RESULTS
The survey produced 25,224 responses over the period of December (Q4) 1999 to
June (Q2) 2006 (an average of 935 organisations per survey).
For the June (Q2) 2006 survey, 39 per cent of responding organisations had
between 25 and 199 employees, 33 per cent had between 200 and 499 employees, and
34 per cent had over 500 employees. Responding organisations were evenly spread
across the UK, with between 20 and 30 per cent having a base in each region. A
slightly higher proportion had a base in London (34 per cent).
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The breakdown of respondents by industry sector showed that the responses were
broadly representative of the population, with 32 per cent of the private sector
organisations from manufacturing and 63 per cent from the service sector. The
remaining 5 per cent did not classify themselves as either manufacturing or services.
To ensure a representative picture, the results were weighted according to industry,#p#分頁標題#e#
region and size.
The responses to the survey questions are presented below, in relation to each
of the research questions. Where an in-depth exploration of the data is presented,
this has been taken from the June (Q2) 2006 survey results, this being the most
recent survey to examine online recruitment in detail. Under each question, the
survey data has been supplemented with information from the qualitative
interviews.
What trends are there in the use and perceived success of corporate web
sites and commercial jobs boards, and what are the reasons behind
these trends?
The results depicted in Table 1 show that after an initial increase in the use of both
corporate and commercial web sites, the proportion of organisations using these
methods levelled off. The use of commercial web sites remained at approximately 25
per cent since 2001, whereas the use of corporate web sites was between 35 and 45
per cent since 2002.
Survey respondents were also asked how their use of corporate and commercial
web sites had changed during the past year. Virtually all respondents in June 2006
stated that their use of both corporate and commercial web sites had either increased
(49 and 42 per cent, respectively) or remained the same (49 and 55 per cent,
respectively) during the previous year to June 2006.
In June 2004, organisations were also asked to indicate the reasons why they
used corporate or commercial web sites. The most common reasons were cost-
TABLE 1 Use of online recruitment methods
Corporate
web site (%)
Commercial
web site (%)
2000 21 15
2001 30 25
2002 45 25
2003 41 26
2004 42 24
2005 37 25
2006 36 21
Note: Each yearly figure represents the average proportion of
organisations using the method over four quarters, with the exception
of 2006, which represents the proportion of organisations using the
methods in Q1 2006.
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effectiveness (75 per cent), followed by ease of use for candidates (64 per cent), a
larger candidate pool (53 per cent), ease of use for the organisation (52 per cent),
speed to hire (52 per cent) and company policy (50 per cent). Less common reasons
for using corporate web sites were the success in finding candidates (44 per cent) and
keeping ahead of competitors (32 per cent).
The most common reason for using commercial web sites was access to a large
candidate pool (74 per cent), followed by cost-effectiveness (66 per cent), ease of use
for candidates (60 per cent), speed to hire (56 per cent) and success in finding
candidates (51 per cent). Less common reasons were ease of use for the organisation#p#分頁標題#e#
(45 per cent), keeping ahead of competitors (24 per cent) and company policy (10 per
cent).
The interviewees who used online recruitment gave a number of reasons for their
adoption of these methods. The majority of interviewees named the need to reduce
recruitment costs and to improve the efficiency of the recruitment process as
significant drivers for the adoption of both corporate and commercial web sites. This
is in support of the survey data. About half of the interviewees also suggested that
they were encouraged to adopt online recruitment by the need to “move with the
times” or to “keep up with other organisations”, and approximately a third of
interviewees stated that they had introduced online recruitment in order to improve
the experience for applicants.
Table 2 shows that the perceived success of both corporate and commercial web
sites for recruitment had fluctuated over the six years of this study, but had increased
slightly overall during this time. In fact, the perceived success of all of the methods
examined had increased slightly during this period. This may be a sign that
recruiters were being more strategic in their choice of recruitment channels to use to
be successful for particular roles. Just under a quarter of those organisations using
corporate web sites and two-thirds of those using commercial web sites for
recruitment in Q2 2006 found the method successful, indicating that most of those
organisations that do use the method perceive that they do so successfully. If we
compare the perceived success of corporate and commercial web sites with other
recruitment channels, we can see that online methods are certainly not seen as more
successful than these, and are commonly perceived as less successful than
employment agencies.
The interviewees’ experiences of the success of online recruitment were mixed.
When asked to define how they conceptualised the success of online recruitment, the
majority of interviewees described success as generating sufficient shortlistable
candidates or as enabling them to fill a vacancy. A number of interviewees had
managed to attract good-quality applicants through using the Internet, but this was
not true for everyone.
Those interviewees who had positive experiences of online recruitment described
how the use of either corporate web sites or commercial jobs boards could minimise
the time taken to hire employees because posting advertisements on the Internet is
faster and they are no longer reliant on the mail. Online recruitment was also
commonly described as saving costs through reducing paper and saving on agency
costs. One interviewee described how, before they started to use their corporate web
site for recruitment, they were heavily dependent on agencies and other third-party
recruiters. A number of interviewees also commented that the use of their corporate#p#分頁標題#e#
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TABLE 2 Perceived success of online recruitment compared with other recruitment methods
Corporate
web site
(%)
Commercial
web site (%)
National
newspapers
(%)
Regional
newspapers
(%)
Professional
magazines
(%)
Employment
agencies (%)
Headhunters
(%)
2000 48 43 41 52 52 57 35
2001 49 43 64 68 64 69 56
2002 52 59 55 76 69 86 78
2003 58 58 72 73 68 77 71
2004 59 63 67 68 62 75 70
2005 61 57 66 67 63 75 73
2006 71 67 66 71 62 78 69
Note: Each yearly figure represents the average proportion of organisations using the methods that are successful over four quarters, with the exception of 2006, which
represents the proportion of organisations using the methods that are successful in Q1 2006.
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web sites, in particular, allowed them to promote their employer brand and provide
a better service to candidates.
The interviewees also discussed a number of difficulties in using online
recruitment. By far, the most prevalent of these appeared to be the problem of
receiving very large numbers of applications, a high proportion of which were
unsuitable for the position advertised. One interviewee commented that
In the first few weeks, we were horrified by the hundreds of people that
just attached a CV and said I want a job. When you actually looked,
there was no connection between their skills and experience and
anything we were asking for.
There was also some concern from interviewees that, in addition to not having the
skills and experience for a job role, a high number of applications were received from
non-UK citizens who did not have a permit to work within the country. Another
interviewee explained:
You open the floodgates when you advertise on the web, so you get
applications in from everywhere. No matter what you put in the
advertisement about having a work permit, you will get applications
from everywhere in the world, and that is a challenge sometimes to deal
with.
Online recruitment was therefore seen by some organisations as being resource
intensive, especially when compared with agencies that sift candidates on behalf of
the company. There was also some doubt among interview respondents as to
whether they would find the candidates that they required through online
recruitment methods, particularly through jobs boards. There was particular concern
about the ability to target passive job seekers and to reach a diverse population. A#p#分頁標題#e#
small number of respondents were concerned about the impersonal nature of jobs
boards and felt that they had a strong relationship with people at agencies, which
was absent in online recruitment.
Survey respondents in June 2004 were also asked, if they had stopped using
commercial jobs boards as recruitment methods, why they had done so. Of the
respondents, 59 per cent stated that they had stopped using commercial web sites
because of the large number of responses from unsuitable applicants, while 52 per
cent had received a low response or no response at all to advertisements on
commercial jobs boards and 24 per cent felt that their sector was not represented.
Around a quarter (23 per cent) had stopped using commercial web sites because they
were not cost-effective, 17 per cent did not have the budget to continue using this
method and 16 per cent had found the customer support to be poor. Commercial
web sites were found not to be user-friendly by 14 per cent of respondents, 11 per
cent had had technical difficulties with Internet use within the organisation and 5 per
cent had had technical difficulties with the web site. This data was in support of the
information that emerged from our interviews.
Table 3 shows that the proportion of online recruitment users expecting to reduce
their use of other methods because of online recruitment rose slightly from 33 per
cent in June 2000 to 44 per cent in June 2006. However, the same cannot be said of
non-online recruitment users, with only 18 per cent of respondents expecting to
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reduce their use of other methods because of online recruitment in both 2000 and
2006.
Are particular ‘types’ of organisations more successful at using online
recruitment methods than others?
There was a perception among the users of online recruitment interviewed that
online methods are unsuitable for particular segments of the population. For
example, several of the interviewees expressed the opinion that online methods are
more suitable for knowledge workers and middle management and are less
appropriate for blue-collar jobs or very high-level management. It was also felt that
older workers and ‘housewives’ could not be recruited effectively using the Internet.
This was because it was felt that these groups would not typically be using the
Internet regularly. However, this point of view was refuted by the five providers of
online recruitment services that were interviewed. These individuals felt that
Internet penetration was such that the method could be used across all levels and
industries. An examination of the survey data allowed us to investigate this more#p#分頁標題#e#
objectively.
An examination of the survey data on the use and perceived success of online
recruitment by organisation size showed that larger organisations are significantly
more likely both to use (Pearson Chi-square = 20.26; p < 0.01) and be successful
(Pearson Chi-square = 10.93; p < 0.05) in using their corporate web site for
recruitment. However, the picture is not so clear for commercial jobs boards. While
size is significant in terms of the use of jobs boards (Pearson Chi-square = 16.60;
p < 0.01), it appears to be the medium-sized companies that are most likely to choose
this method. Size is not a significant factor in the perceived successful use of
commercial jobs boards.
Industry sector was shown to be a significant factor in the use of both
corporate (Pearson Chi-square = 23.04; p < 0.01) and commercial web sites (Pearson
Chi-square = 7.40; p < 0.05), with public and not-for-profit sector organisations
more likely to use their corporate web sites for recruitment and not-for-profit
organisations more likely to use commercial jobs boards. Industry sector was not
significant in the perceived success of either corporate web sites or commercial
jobs boards.
TABLE 3 Percentage of organisations expecting to reduce use
of other recruitment methods because of Internet recruitment
Current Internet
users (%)
Non-Internet
users (%)
Q1 2000 33 18
Q2 2001 19 8
Q2 2002 39 20
Q2 2003 32 17
Q2 2004 41 19
Q2 2006 44 18
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Organisations in the services sector were significantly more likely to use
commercial jobs boards compared with manufacturing organisations (Pearson Chisquare
= 10.96; p < 0.01). However, there were no significant differences by sector in
the use of corporate web sites for recruitment or the perceived success of corporate
or commercial recruitment web sites.
The use and perceived success of corporate and commercial web sites was also
compared in organisations that did and did not experience recruitment difficulties.
Organisations who experienced recruitment difficulties were significantly more likely
to use commercial jobs boards for recruitment (Pearson Chi-square = 4.71; p < 0.01).
There were no differences in the use of corporate web sites for recruitment or the
perceived success of either corporate or commercial web sites.
The proportion of organisations using corporate and commercial web sites was
compared in those organisations that did or did not experience recruitment difficulties.
Organisations that had experienced recruitment difficulties were significantly more
likely to use commercial web sites (p < 0.05) but not corporate web sites. There was no#p#分頁標題#e#
difference in the success of either commercial jobs boards or corporate web sites in
those companies that did or did not experience recruitment difficulties.
In order to examine the relative importance of the above factors of industry sector,
industry, organisation size and experience of recruitment difficulties on the use and
perceived success of corporate web sites and commercial jobs boards, a series of
logistic regressions were performed. Industry sector, consisting of three values
(private, public and not for profit), was entered into the analysis as two dummy
variables, with not for profit as the reference value. The model produced a Chisquare
value of 24.97 (p < 0.01) and a Nagelkerke R-squared value of 0.045.
The logistic regression analysis depicted in Table 4 showed that use of commercial
jobs boards was significantly related to organisation size, sector (specifically whether
or not an organisation was private sector), industry and recruitment difficulties, with
these variables explaining just under 5 per cent of the variance in the criterion
variable. Larger organisations, services organisations and those with recruitment
difficulties were significantly more likely to use commercial jobs boards. Private
sector organisations were significantly less likely to use commercial jobs boards.
These findings support the Chi-square comparisons above. The model produced a
Chi-square value of 31.75 (p < 0.01) and a Nagelkerke R-squared value of 0.054.
TABLE 4 Logistic regression examining factors influencing the
adoption of commercial jobs boards (n = 811)
Variable B Wald Significance
Organisation size 0.177 8.41 p < 0.01
Public sector (dummy) -0.67 3.77 NS
Private sector (dummy) -0.65 4.60 p < 0.05
Industry 0.31 4.85 p < 0.05
Recruitment difficulties 0.46 4.05 p < 0.05
(Constant) -2.20 18.97 p < 0.01
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The analysis in Table 5 showed that use of a corporate web site was significantly
related to organisation size and sector (specifically whether or not an organisation
was private sector), with these variables explaining just over 5 per cent of the
variance in the criterion variable. Larger organisations were significantly more likely
to use their corporate web site for recruitment, while private sector organisations
were significantly less likely to use their corporate web site for recruitment.
The model shown in Table 6 produced a Chi-square value of 5.03, which was not
significant. The logistic regression analysis in Table 6 showed that the criterion of
perceived success of commercial jobs boards could not be predicted using the
predictors of organisation size, sector, industry and recruitment difficulties.#p#分頁標題#e#
The model produced a Chi-square value of 9.25, which was not significant.
While the logistic regression model in Table 7 was not significant, the predictor of
organisation size was shown to have a significant effect on the criterion of perceived
success of corporate web sites, in that larger organisations were more likely to find
this method successful. The perceived success of corporate web sites could not be
predicted using sector, industry and recruitment difficulties.
Are there steps that employers can take to improve their success at using
online recruitment methods?
Interviewees were asked to discuss whether there was anything that they felt that
they had done that had impacted on the success or otherwise of their use of
TABLE 5 Logistic regression examining factors affecting the
adoption of corporate web sites (n = 811)
Variable B Wald Significance
Organisation size 0.17 9.13 p < 0.01
Public sector (dummy) -0.12 0.13 NS
Private sector (dummy) -0.77 7.07 p < 0.01
Industry 0.05 0.14 NS
Recruitment difficulties 0.15 0.56 NS
(Constant) -1.06 5.39 p < 0.5
TABLE 6 Logistic regression examining factors affecting the
perceived success of commercial jobs boards (n = 811)
Variable B Wald Significance
Organisation size -0.07 0.30 NS
Public sector (dummy) -0.07 0.01 NS
Private sector (dummy) -0.73 1.49 NS
Industry -0.03 0.01 NS
Recruitment difficulties -0.50 0.91 NS
(Constant) 2.28 4.88 NS
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online recruitment. The analysis of this information produced a number of key
themes.
Driving traffic to a corporate web site The interviews provided some evidence that
those companies that use their corporate web site successfully for recruitment are
those that either have a prominent brand as an employer or take steps to drive job
seekers to their web site. It was clear that corporate web sites cannot successfully be
used to recruit employees in organisations that are not already very well known
unless a company adopts other advertising channels such as jobs boards or print
media to drive people to the site. For instance, one interviewee from a small charity
had experienced difficulties using their corporate web site as job seekers rarely
looked at the site. Another interviewee commented that he was “not sure how
successful we would be if we only used online methods as nobody would look at
our website”. Commonly, jobs boards were used to drive traffic to a company’s
corporate web site through the use of a web link.
Use of back-office functionality A number of organisations had also taken steps to
overcome the resource intensiveness of online recruitment by adopting additional#p#分頁標題#e#
functionality. Advances in Internet technology have meant that a system can be
designed that posts an advertisement to several jobs boards simultaneously,
acknowledges applications and forwards them to line managers automatically and
performs a number of initial screening activities. This removes some of the
administrative burden from the HR function and makes the process less resource
intensive. In fact, the use of a back-office system for managing the recruitment
process had led to significant efficiency savings in some organisations. One
interviewee claimed that it had improved the efficiency of the recruitment processes
in his organisation by 60 per cent.
Creation of a talent pool An additional benefit identified was that data about
candidates could be captured automatically (rather than needing to be keyed into the
system). Information about candidates could then be kept by the organisation as a
kind of ‘talent pool’ and searched at a later date should another vacancy arise. Many
of the companies who had found success in using online recruitment methods had
used the Internet in this way to become more than just an advertising point.
TABLE 7 Logistic regression examining factors affecting the
perceived success of corporate web sites (n = 811)
Variable B Wald Significance
Organisation size 0.20 4.17 p < 0.05
Public sector (dummy) -0.40 0.56 NS
Private sector (dummy) -0.36 0.54 NS
Industry -0.26 1.17 NS
Recruitment difficulties 0.60 3.09 NS
(Constant) 0.35 0.17 NS
Emma Parry and Shaun Tyson
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Branding and the provision of information to candidates Successful organisations
have also minimised the number of unsuitable applications by taking advantage of
the ability to include vast amounts of information in different formats on their
corporate recruitment web sites. Potential employees can therefore learn more about
the company and job role by reading text, watching videos and listening to audio
files. This allows candidates to self-select as to whether they are suitable for any
particular role. One of the interview respondents had even included a short selfselection
test that was scored automatically in order to advise respondents whether
or not they should apply for a particular role. As already noted, the use of Internet
technology also allows a company to promote their employer brand. Those
companies interviewed who had used the method successfully believed they had
created attractive advertisements or web pages that were in accordance with the
company brand.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
This article examines survey data on the use and perceived success of Internet
recruitment over a six-year period within the UK. The article is also based on#p#分頁標題#e#
interview data, which explored the factors that may affect success for an employer
when using these methods. More specifically, we have explored whether particular
types of organisations are more successful at using online recruitment methods and
whether there are steps that employers can take to improve their success at using
online methods.
The results showed that less than a third of the organisations surveyed used
corporate web sites and only a quarter used commercial web sites in June 2006.
Therefore, while Internet recruitment was used by a significant proportion of the
recruiting population, these results do not reflect the phenomenal rise in the use of
Internet recruitment that was predicted by the media in the mid-1990s. In addition,
our results did not show a large increase in the number of organisations using
corporate or commercial web sites over the past four years. However, given that
online recruitment was first introduced around 1995, it is presumed that the growth
in the use of these methods was greater prior to 2000. Interestingly, however, almost
half of the organisations surveyed expected to increase their use of both corporate
and commercial web sites during the next year, suggesting a longer-term trend
towards the expansion of Internet recruitment in the future. This suggests that they
are seeing online recruitment as being a successful method in the future, thereby
creating an upward trend in its overall use. However, many current non-users of
online recruitment do not appear to be converting to the method, meaning that the
number of organisations using it grows more slowly.
Of those organisations that did use either online recruitment method, just
under a quarter found the method successful. Only 40 per cent of current Internet
recruitment users and about a fifth of non-Internet recruitment users expected to
reduce their use of other recruitment methods because of their use of Internet
recruitment. Most organisations recognise its benefits with regard to cost, ease of
use and access to candidates, therefore supporting the previous research into this
aspect (Starcke, 1996; Cappelli, 2001; CIPD, 2006). Our results, however, also
confirm the existence of some of the limitations of commercial web sites (Starcke,
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1996), in that a large proportion of responding organisations had experienced
problems with applications from unsuitable candidates. The mixed success that
organisations experience in using online recruitment may be one reason behind
the failure of Internet recruitment to dominate the recruitment marketplace as
predicted. Clearly, there are currently inhibitions to the spread of Internet#p#分頁標題#e#
recruitment. There is also a strong probability that labour market constraints
encourage employers to continue with existing traditional methods, while also
turning to use the Internet in addition.
As well as investigating general trends in the use and perceived success of
corporate and commercial web sites, this article also explored whether the success of
online recruitment was influenced, first, by the type of organisation using the
method and, second, by the way in which the organisation uses the method. There
was a perception among corporate users of online recruitment, in particular, that
online methods were not as appropriate for use in smaller organisations, for
blue-collar, lower-level roles and for very senior roles. This was denied by the
providers of online recruitment services that were interviewed.
The fact that the use of online recruitment remains more prevalent in larger
organisations and in the services sector suggests that the perception that the Internet
is more suitable for particular types of roles or organisations is commonplace and
may be affecting the adoption of these methods. Similarly, larger and public sector
organisations may be more likely to fill a large number of vacancies, and this means
that they can cope with a large candidate pool.
However, our survey results suggested that the successful use of commercial jobs
boards was not related to industry, sector or organisation size, and the perceived
success of corporate web sites was related only to organisation size. These findings
strongly refute the suggestion that online recruitment can only be successful for
some organisations, and is therefore an important finding of this research. It may be
that any organisation can find success with online methods if they adopt an
appropriate strategy for their use and implementation. Indeed, with Internet
penetration now at an all-time high in the UK (66 per cent of the adult UK
population; Internet Advertising Bureau, 2007), there appears to be no reason why
all organisations should not use this method.
Whether the Internet could replace other recruitment channels is less clear. At this
point in time, it appears that while organisations are using online recruitment, they
are not prepared to discard the more traditional methods such as print media and
employment agencies. There is certainly a need to use these methods to drive job
seekers to a corporate site in those organisations with a less developed brand.
However, it is perhaps too early to draw conclusions about the future growth of
online recruitment and the corresponding change in the resourcing process. The
interview data suggests that the functionality of online recruitment sites can be
improved in a way that will overcome their limitations and therefore make the
Internet more successful at recruiting across all sectors, occupations and at all levels.#p#分頁標題#e#
If organisations can use online recruitment successfully in this way, then these
methods may eventually dominate the recruitment market. Indeed, the survey
results have shown that our respondents believed that the impact on other methods
is expected to increase in the future. For the near future, though, it seems that the
Internet will be commonly used in conjunction with other methods.
Emma Parry and Shaun Tyson
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The interviews suggested a number of ways in which organisations can improve
their chances of being successful in using online recruitment methods. The need to
drive traffic to a corporate site, the use of back-office functionality such as applicant
management and sifting technology, the creation of a talent pool, and the need to use
appropriate branding and information were discussed. There are therefore useful
lessons in this data for practitioners introducing online recruitment.
The purpose of this article was not to examine the use of online testing or
applicant management systems, but it appears, based on the information from these
interviews, that the ability to use online recruitment methods successfully may be
related more to the extent and understanding of functionality and support than to
the nature of the organisation itself. It may be that the shift from traditional to online
methods is not as simple as just swapping recruitment channels. The use of online
recruitment may require a change in the wider recruitment process rather than just
the advertising medium. If an organisation simply transfers traditional recruitment
advertising methods online, then they may encounter difficulties with the volume
of applicants as discussed above. Indeed, the benefits of online recruitment may
only be realised if the organisation’s approach to the way that they recruit is
fundamentally adjusted. The use of online tools for sifting and the use of highvalidity
selection tools early in the recruitment process, in conjunction with applicant
management systems, may allow an organisation to cope effectively with the
increased volume of applicants that may result from the move online. Research from
the Association of Graduate Recruiters (2000) suggested that many employers are
now moving in this direction, with 77 per cent of respondents to their survey only
accepting online applications. This may, however, be a characteristic of graduate
recruitment compared with the more general recruitment studied in our research.
Future research to compare those organisations that have adopted the above
approach and those that have simply moved traditional approaches online would
provide more insight into this area. In the meantime, the implications for#p#分頁標題#e#
practitioners are clear. They must pay attention to the effective development and
implementation of online methods to drive traffic to corporate web sites, invest in
systems that sift and manage applicants, and see how they can promote their
employer brand if they are to find success in using online recruitment.
The above research is not without its limitations. We have conducted survey
research using single respondents from each organisation who are responsible for
recruitment, but have enriched this data through the use of longitudinal data and
qualitative interviews. Our research has therefore provided a vital first step in
empirically exploring the usage and perceived success of online recruitment within
the UK and has suggested that the successful use of online recruitment channels may
be more complex than initially predicted. Further research is needed in order to
empirically test the theories explored above in more detail and with a larger
sample of online recruitment users. Our study, as the first empirical analysis of the
development of online recruitment in the UK, provides a sound basis for this
research and some important insights into the use and potential success of online
recruitment methods. In addition, the results of our study provide some direction for
practitioners when considering the adoption of online recruitment, and therefore
provide an important step towards a more thorough understanding of the successful
use of online recruitment within the UK.
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