Employers turn to Net search for new staff

Nearly half of the UK’s employers are using the Internet to recruit staff, according to the fourth annual recruitment survey by the IPD.

The survey of 262 recruiters, published last week, highlights the growth from 36 per cent in 1999 to 47 per cent based on matched examples 12 months later.

Companies using the Internet employed three main cyber-recruiting strategies: application forms by e-mail, used by 66 per cent of respondents; recruitment via company intranets, reported by 62 per cent; and use of company web sites to advertise positions, which was reported by 43 per cent.

The Internet is more likely to be used to advertise vacancies to recruit professional employees than it is for managerial.

Of the companies surveyed, 42 per cent recruited professional staff through the Internet, 36 per cent used the Web to recruit managerial staff and 23 per cent of the companies used the new medium to hire skilled manual workers.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

Email(Required)

OptOut

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Personnel Today and OHW+ - but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Name

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

Imogen Daniels, adviser in employee resourcing at the IPD, said, “The Internet as a recruitment tool is here to stay. I anticipate more and more employers switching to this method of recruitment.

The survey also revealed an easing of recruitment difficulties despite a tightening labour market, with employers reporting an 8 per cent drop in recruitment difficulties.