The last decade has seen great change in the recruitment market place. Firstly, in contrast to the 1980s, employment has been relatively high and the skills needed by organisations less readily available, resulting in competition for high quality workers increasing. This ‘war for talent’ has meant that employers are forced to find new and innovative ways to engage with job seekers in order to attract them into their organisations. Secondly, the use of technology for recruiting staff has grown dramatically with around two-thirds of organisations now using the internet in some capacity to attract staff. Current skills shortages mean that employers need to engage with potential employees and build relationships with them in order to attract them into their organisations. Writing for FSN, Dr Emma Parry, Senior Research Fellow, Cranfield School of Management, outlines how the internet is being used to do this.
The war for talent moves online
Our anecdotal discussions with recruiters have shown that some are struggling to keep up with these changes in the recruitment market. On the one hand they are finding that their usual methods of recruitment are no longer sufficient to attract the skilled workers they need; and on the other hand many employers are struggling to interpret the hype that exists around new technology and do not know how to use these systems to their benefit.
Over the past year we have conducted several research projects into the use of e-recruitment and Web 2.0 as tools to attract and engage with job seekers. We have found that in many cases, the use of technology can actually provide a solution to the difficulties in recruiting skilled individuals. Our research examined the potential benefits of e-recruitment to employers and the ways in which recruiters can use the internet and Web 2.0 tools to attract and engage with the talent they need. This included a series of case study interviews with job seekers, conducted on behalf of Monster.co.uk; and a survey of employers about their use of Web 2.0 technology.
Benefits of e-recruitment
Our research has consistently shown that e-recruitment, defined as “the use of the internet to attract, sift and manage candidates”, can provide significant benefits to organisations. Significant cost savings can be achieved through the reduction in agency and advertising fees, less need for paper and postage and drop in headcount due to administrative savings. The telecommunications company, Orange, has saved £1.8 million a year by moving to an e-recruitment system. E-recruitment can also lead to considerable efficiency savings by shifting to a more streamlined process. Vacancies can be posted online immediately and reviewed as they arrive, making the process much faster. This means that the overall time to hire is greatly reduced so there is less chance of a good candidate being recruited by a competitor before the process is complete. For instance, Marks & Spencer have reduced administration by around 60% through using an online system.
Not only is the process faster, cheaper and more efficient, but it is transparent and the data produced by the system is accurate and readily available. The process can be tracked through the system and an analysis of the value-for-money of each recruitment source can be obtained virtually at the touch of a button. E-recruitment can also be used to ensure that recruitment processes are consistent across an organisation so that everyone is treated the same way regardless of where they have been sourced from.
The benefits of e-recruitment may seem too good to be true. Many employers are worried about its capacity to reach the candidates that they need or to reach a diverse population of candidates. Statistics from the National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (Enhance Media, 2008) show that people from all industry sectors and at all levels search for jobs online. For example, 18% of online job seekers are from ethnic minorities and 7% are over 55 years old, suggesting that the internet attracts a diverse source of applicants. In addition, online recruitment can reach a global audience, 24 hours a day.
The need to engage job seekers
Employers may still however have difficulty attracting high quality job seekers to their organisation if they do not take steps to engage with these people. Employers must make sure that they pay enough attention to the design of their system if the benefits described above are to be realised. Unless they have a prominent brand, employers must take steps to drive job seekers to their corporate websites through the use of jobs boards or search engines. Once they have done this, they must present themselves in a way that will attract the job seeker and build a relationship with them so that they want to apply for a job.
This can be done by creating a content-rich website that is interactive and interesting, by using functionality such as videos and podcasts to provide information about the company and job. For instance, Marks & Spencer have included a quiz on their website so that potential employees can find out whether they are suitable for the job (see Figure 1). On its website, Cancer Research UK offers prospective applicants details of what it is like to work for the company in an easy-to-use modern format (see Figure 2).
Employers can also attract job seekers by making the site quick and easy-to-use so that people can find the information they want within three or four mouse clicks and by allowing the individual to interact with the company through web chats. The application process should be clear, simple and not too time-consuming to complete.
Web 2.0 tools
During the last five years we have seen internet use enter a second phase, termed ‘Web 2.0’. This is characterised by the use of the internet as an interactive platform, rather than just as a source of information. We have seen the emergence of a number of Web 2.0 tools including social networking sites such as Facebook, Linked-In and Bebo; photo or video sharing sites such as Youtube and Flickr; blogs, wikis and webinars; and better utilisation of search engines such as Google. Very recently we have seen further advances in internet use such as the development of 3D shared space such as ‘Second Life’ and an increase in mobile internet access and the move towards the use of artificial intelligence.
The popular HR press has given some attention to the implications of these developments for recruitment, but generally this has focused on the problem of employees discussing a company online and potentially damaging its employer brand. Little attention has been paid to the possibilities of using Web 2.0 to help attract and engage potential employees. Our survey research has shown that the number of organisations using Web 2.0 for recruitment is still very low (see Figure 3).
Anecdotally, the evidence suggests that this may be due to a failure on the part of employers to fully understand the potential that these tools provide. Many employers are only beginning to take advantage of the benefits of e-recruitment and are now faced with another minefield of technological tools and ways of communicating.
Research has shown that the new generation of job seekers regularly use social networking sites to communicate and use search engines such as Google to look for work. Therefore, we believe that employers may be missing a trick if they do not at least consider how they may access this online population when looking for talent. Some organisations have taken steps in this direction. For instance, Royal Bank of Scotland and KPMG both held recruitment fairs on the online virtual world, Second Life, in 2007. Others such as Wolseley have optimised their use of search engines to reach candidates and a number of organisations have developed blogs in order to engage potential applicants.
The use of the internet for recruitment is developing at an alarming rate, particularly through the introduction of Web 2.0. However, the effort needed to understand and take advantage of this technology to engage with potential employees may be worth it in helping employers to attract the talent that they need in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The evidence from our research is that e-recruitment can help employers to save money and to improve the efficiency, consistency and reach of their recruitment processes.
Employers should consider exactly how they would like to improve their recruitment processes in order to build a list of requirements for an e-recruitment system. They can then go out and select or develop the system that is most suitable for satisfying these needs. Employers must also consider the type of talent that they are trying to attract and design a recruitment website and application process that best fits with these individuals. Job seekers don’t want to spend hours on a website reading pages and pages of text, so it is important to make use of the functionality available and to take care over the content provided in order to attract and engage with the right people. A recruitment site should allow a job seeker to make judgements about how well they fit with an organisation, while at the same time promoting an attractive employer brand and allowing users to find the information that they need quickly and easily.
Finally, employers should recognise that the job seekers they want to reach may be using Web 2.0 tools both in their job hunting and in their life generally. If this is the case then optimising their use of search engines such as Google by sponsoring keywords, or venturing onto social networking sites such as Linked-In or Facebook, may be a good way of engaging with prospective employees. Recruiting via Web 2.0 tools might not yet work for everyone, but as the use of these methods is likely to grow in the future, employers should take steps to learn about this technology and take advantage of the opportunities that it may offer.
Nobody is saying that it’s easy as technology develops at a rate that makes it difficult for most of us to keep up. However, with ‘Generation Y’ entering the workforce, job seekers will expect to be able to look and apply for work online. Therefore employers must find a way to engage with this online community if they are to be successful at finding and securing the talent that they need to be competitive.
