Recruitment through the Internet

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Permalink Reply by Theresa M. Welbourne, Ph.D. on September 13, 2008 at 6:05pm

We've had mixed results at our company. Yes, I lead a dual life - in addition to my academic work, I'm the CEO of eePulse, here in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We've found it all depends on the market. Right now, there are not a lot of jobs in Michigan, so we've received some excellent resumes via the Internet. In the past, when the market was different, we had very poor response from the Internet (in terms of quality), and we had to opt for recruiters to get high quality candidates. Hope that helps. Keep in mind that we are a technology company, so people we want to hire are more likely to use on-line tools. Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by James Hayton on September 14, 2008 at 3:02pm

I can't speak as an employer, but my observations of what is going on in terms of recruiter activity in so-called web 2.0/social networks suggests these HR specialists are really at the cutting edge of using the net for HR purposes. Just check out the blog 'Fistful of Talent' for one example of a group who are actively involved in leveraging these technologies, including blogs, Facebook, twitter and so on. Many of those guys are here in our network, so I hope maybe they will chip in with their thoughts and experiences. ANother interesting one is 'One day one job' which is run by Willy Franzen.

Monster.com was a very famous application of the web's 'match making' possibilities. Now, the networking benefits of web 2.0 are offering some really interesting developments - see for example the recent experiment by Willy Franzen in using Facebook advertising for job seekers to promote themselves to potential targets.
cheers
James

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Permalink Reply by Charles Wankel on September 30, 2008 at 5:33am

Hi Nilay

As you know as one of our authors, I am coordinating almost a thousand management professors in 90 nations in writing Management through Collaboration: Teaming in a Networked World (Routledge, 2010). ( See http://globally-collaborating.com/ ). As wonderful as management professors are they are largely management professors rather that experts with world-class talent in many needed technical specialities such as online video development and deployment. I have about 2400 LinkedIn connections and decided to search LinkedIn (where I had located hundreds of management professor coauthors earlier) for world-class new media people who might be willing to head up our project's new media doings including developing tutorials, provide mentoring, roll up their sleeves and contribute to the technical tasks needed to be completed. After going through hundreds of LinkedIn profiles located using keywords such as "video", "youtube", and "new media", I contacted about 20 targets through LinkedIn. Some were very excited about our crowdsourcing textbooks international video interview efforts and wanted to join. I ended up selecting Sibley Law of the Stratford, CT, new media firm Saxon Mills, who had been honored at the 2005 Webby Awards to take our position of Director of Media. In my correspondence with all the new media targets, I requested that they add me as a connection in LinkedIn to bolster my new media connections for the future. Mark Lennon of the University of Rhode Island found out about my search for a Director of Case Study Development from my Facebook status message mentioning that, by the bye. (If any of you are interested in our project with mind to joining, let me know wankelc@stjohns.edu ).

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Permalink Reply by Kris Dunn on September 30, 2008 at 10:21am

Hi Nilay -

Here's my take as a HR pro and Recruiter in the states. You can't do it without the Internet anymore, which I would define as a mixture of job postings (big boards like Monster referenced by James in his comment, small niche boards as well) as well as the explosion of social media like LinkedIn, Facebook/MySpace, Ning networks like HRM the J, etc.

Here's my source mix, in terms of where my hires come from (rough numbers):

20% - Direct Applies from Job Boards
10% - Direct Applies from Careers Site of Company
25% - Sourced Candidates from Resume Databases of the big boys in the states (monster, careerbuilder)
25% - Referrals
20% - Other

So the internet transacts most of it, meaning we wouldn't dream of not doing it. Also, I work at a tech company and have been here for over three years, but in my last job I had a significant blue collar workforce (people in trucks and call centers), and by 2004 most of the group had made the switch to the Internet as their primary search tool, often through the big boards. Since most of use need folks comfortable with technology, the candidates who use the web to find and apply for jobs are usually a better fit than those who don’t.

Final thought - the employee referral has traditionally been analog, but with the explosion of social networks and tools like LinkedIn, most employees are making the transition to using the internet to track and connect with their networks.

Hope that helps - let me know if you have a specific follow up question...

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Permalink Reply by Kelly Dingee on September 30, 2008 at 10:57am

Hi Nilay,

I have been using the internet for recruiting for 10 years now. I worked with a former employer to create their first "sourcing role" and then with another employer I came in as a contract sourcer. It helps to have buy-in from management and your recruiting team. You need these two groups to not feel threatened because they don't have 100% control of the "finding people" process. And if you can attend training or hire an experienced recruiter/sourcer that can find people and do cold calls, all the better.

I truly feel that now is one of the best times online to find potential candidates. The sources that are free are numerous and global. It just takes some training and practice to know where to look. And you will find more than resumes. In fact these days I encourage people to look for professional and social networking profiles, bios, organizational directories, spreadsheets filled with job title and contact information and so much more. I don't discourage the use of job boards, but in these tight economic times I certainly understand wanting to get the most bang for your buck. And so many people have their professional information online, it's hard to resist all the avenues available.

But if you only post jobs, you are touching on a fraction of the talent available at your fingertips. You have to have a strategy to make the most of recruiting online.

Best,
Kelly

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Permalink Reply by Caren Goldberg on October 4, 2008 at 6:04pm

Hi Nilay,

I would be cautious about calling any single source as "the best" way to recruit; different sources tap different pools of talent. But, I certainly think that organizations need to include the internet (either through their own web sites or through sites like Monster.com). David Allen and I published a paper in the summer issue of HRM on internet recruiting, which examines which characteristics of recruitment web sites influence applicant attraction. If you're looking to start/modify your internet recruiting, you might find a few worthwhile nuggets in there.

Best wishes,
Caren Goldberg

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Permalink Reply by Cathal Divilly on October 21, 2008 at 5:36am

Hello everyone I am MD of the Great Place to Work Institute Ireland - company who aim to make organizations 'Great' by raising workplace trust levels. Certainly most of our clients are using the internet actively to source talent. We need to hang out where the talent hangs out.

We have done some work for an online recruitment company that hosts a online jobs fair (think traditional jobs fair but on the internet). Company looking for talent on a particular day posts information on their company on the site - basically answering every question prospective new recruits would ask at a physical face to face jobs fair. I have a meeting with them today to see if they would go one step further and introduce some interactivity between the company and the employee - perhaps instant messaging or something similar.

Have a look on www.jobsfair.ie
Thanks
Cathal

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Permalink Reply by CHEN, SHU-YUAN on October 23, 2008 at 9:31am

Hi Nilay,
I think there are good sides and bad sides of internet recruitment. For good things, it is speedy, efficient, less costly, and boundaryless. However, there are some limitations. As an employer, you can not conduct a realistic job preview to your potential talents. At the same time, the potential talents can only get your information through the internet which they might not see the truth or they will overestimate the position or company. The employer also can not talk to the potential talents face to face to validate the story tells in the resume. For our experiences here, the company will set up their own recruitment website and post the information of open positions. The potential applicants can apply through the access to the recruitment website and help the company to build up their potential talent pool. The company can screen the potential applicants' resume quickly on their recruitment webiste and inform those who they are interested for face-to-face interview. In general, the internet recruitment still contributes a lot for the early recruitment process to benefit both employers and applicants. However, we still need the on-site interview to find the fit talents.

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