Term Paper on "Internet Recruitment"

Term Paper 8 pages (2149 words) Sources: 7

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Internet to recruit employees. The writer explores the history and explosion of Internet recruiting and provides an examination of the advantages and disadvantages of its use. There were seven sources used to complete this paper.

USING the INTERNET as a RECRUTING TOOL BENEFITS ALL INVOLVED

The technological explosion of the past three decades has taken society to heights never before dreamed possible. Today, with the click of a mouse one can plan for and purchase vacations, manage personal stock portfolio's, chat with friends around the world and shop without leaving the comforts of home. The Internet has provided a life that is a significantly improved version of what was available in the past. The Internet has touched almost all aspects of daily living including the area of employment. Whether one is looking for a new position or one is looking to find a new employee the Internet has made the search much more exact and far reaching than ever before. With the ability to post jobs online and the ability to search for employment throughout the world without ever leaving home has made the Internet one of the most popular recruiting tools in world history.

FROM the RECRUITER'S VIEW

For many years recruiters and employers were at the mercy of the whim of the local public. If a company had an opening it would usually advertise in the local papers, possibly put a sign up in the window and occasionally put a call into local recruiting agencies for assistance (Levy, 2000). Then the waiting game would begin.

The applicants who were interested in applying for the position would either stop in or fax a resume to the company in the hopes they could obtain an interview.

The strain of a tight labor market has increased the importance of organizational recruitment activity. The deep pool of applicant talent that once existed has become shallow, as potential employees have ample opportunities available to them. As a result of this shortage of workers, there is a great deal of pressure on human resource departments to attract qualified applicants to their organizations. Without an adequate number of applicants, selection procedures cannot yield quality employees (Levy, 2000)."

What this says in short is that historically employers were at the mercy of those who lived nearby when they needed to fill positions.

If there was no one that was uniquely qualified in the local area it became difficult to locate possible candidates outside of the area.

Companies were usually faced with choosing from what was locally available even if none of the candidates were a perfect fit (Levy, 2000).

In addition there were many instances in which the company did not receive any resumes for a position if the position were especially tailored to a specific need (Piturro, 2003).

This placed the company at the mercy of recruiters who at times could charge significantly high fees to locate several qualified candidates and then the company was at the mercy of the recruiter to send them what they were looking for.

It is important to understand at this point, the recruiting agency was interested in getting its finder commissions therefore would make sure that someone on their roster "fit" the needs of the company opening to be sure they could send candidates.

This all added up to substandard candidates being sent at times or no one being sent at all. It could amount to wasted time on the part of the company human resource department as well as the part of the recruiting company that they worked with.

When the Internet was developed it became a viable source of recruiting for many companies around the world (Birchard, 2002). Whether the company was looking for a cashier to tend the gas station or the CIA needed to fill its data base of possible future applicants the Internet provided the means to get the word out that there were openings.

Increasingly, the North American population is becoming more technologically sophisticated. Computers, more specifically the Internet, promise to provide organizations with a new medium with which to communicate their recruitment messages. Not surprisingly, technology-oriented companies have been quick to adopt online strategies to gain a competitive advantage in attracting applicants. This strategy has proved effective for these companies. Cisco Systems, for example, has received up to 500,000 hits on its job site in a one-month time span and has hired as many as 1,200 people in a three-month period (Levy, 2000)."

Initially when the Internet began its quest as a recruiting tool for employers many only thought about using it if they had a technological opening in the computer or Internet industry, but as technology continued to improve and search engines became more abundant and readily available companies began to realize the wide reach that it held when it came to contacting people worldwide.

It was not long before companies found that any job available could be advertised online and would draw a wide and diverse range of qualified applicants.

By 2002 over 45% of American households had Internet access and it was becoming the most popular medium for searching out items of interest including employment opportunities (Levy, 2000).

According to one survey, 38% of American organizations' Web sites contained information directly related to employment opportunities in 1999(Levy, 2000)."

More recent data has concluded that as many as 81% of America's organizations have used the Internet actively and regularly to recruit new employees.

The Internet has spawned a booming recruiting industry that generated $600 million in revenues in 1999 and generated $7 billion in revenue by 2005(Levy, 2000)."

There are five key advantages to using the Internet as a recruiting tool. The first one is the fact that it is a low cost alternative when compared to the traditional methods of recruiting including newspaper ads, and use of recruiting agencies.

The second benefit is the fact that they usually provide all of the relevant information needed with regard to the opening therefore they are less inclined to receive resumes and inquiries from applicants that are completely under or over qualified for the position in question.

The design of the recruiting page of the company looking to hire people is a first impression and allows the company to put its best foot forward in the effort to impress and interest the most qualified candidates.

The use of a corporate website provides the chance to highlight specific areas of interest that the company may offer for those who would fit in with the company.

Finally the organization can provide the ability for interested applicants to file their applications online, which save time, money and provides a wider geographic reach in the search for qualified candidates.

The average recruiting cost for U.S. companies has been reported to be between $8,000 and $10,000 per applicant depending on the type of employee being selected. In sharp contrast, the cost of attraction using online recruitment has been reported to be as low as $900 per applicant (Levy, 2000)."

There are downfalls to the use of the Internet including the fact that a person can pretend to be more qualified than he or she is and send in a dummied resume online, however this can also happen during other methods of recruiting and it is incumbent on the employer to check references and previous employers before making an offer to a potential candidate regardless of how good the resume looks or how well they interview. With the ability to save money, save time, and locate the best and brightest applicants for the job it should come as no surprise that the Internet is quickly becoming one of the most popular and most used tools for recruiting of new employees across the nation.

THE APPLICANT

While it is relatively easy to understand the benefits of the employer when it comes to the use of the Internet for recruiting purposes it is also a benefit for those who are seeking employment.

Probably the biggest advantage to the applicant when it comes to the use of the Internet as a job search tool is the speed in which job searching can be conducted (Tejada, 2000). From the privacy and comfort of one's own living room one is able to click a mouse and access millions of positions that are available worldwide (Martin, 2002).

Whether it is across the nation, across the ocean or down the block, it the applicant is able to access the company web site, read about the company's history, plans for the future, and what the company is looking for in the way of workers.

Some organizations have job databases that include the descriptions of hundreds of jobs. Online application to jobs usually requires little more than filling out a few lines of personal information and clicking a submit button. Instead of physically traveling to different organizations to pick up application materials, online job seekers can search and apply for jobs in geographically dispersed locations without leaving their desktop. This savings in time may be… READ MORE

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