Online
recruitment sites are used by HR managers everywhere on a daily basis. But are
they being fully embraced by the department and integrated as fully as they
could be?
If
the answer’s no, it may be because they are not being managed properly. i-GRasp
is an online recruitment management systems company that aims to ensure job
applications – whether online, direct to the recruiters or from an employment
agency – can be tracked and managed online to streamline the process further.
Managing director Andy Randall explains why such systems can make a difference.
By Sue Weekes
PT:
Online recruitment systems on their own can significantly cut recruiting
costs and timescales. What difference will a management system make to the HR
department?
PH:
It lets them keep the human touch and takes away the administration. A lot of
recruiters are heavily loaded and such a system should let recruitment shed its
data-entry image and bring new challenges for them that should make their work
more interesting and make fuller use of their abilities.
Recruiting
becomes a more collaborative process. If a line manager calls up an HR manager
to ask what stage they are at with a particular application, they can both
access details on the system and have an intelligent discussion about it.
It
helps to promote a feeling of working together. Companies aren’t groups of
islands anymore. You can be a virtual team – HR manager in one office, line
manager in another office in London and candidate in Edinburgh, for instance –
but they can all meet together via a single system.
PT:
What problems have you had to overcome installing online recruitment systems?
PH
Problems arise when people sell a vision and customers believe that once they
have a job site on the Web, all they have to do is switch a button and away
they go. It must be implemented properly, often with a programme of change
management at the same time. If not, reactionary factors can arise, such as HR
staff fearing for their jobs and line managers not wanting the new responsibility
that an involvement in recruitment brings. We like clients to already be
thinking about how the system will change their organisation before they come
to us.
PT:
So how should senior management and HR departments prepare?
PH:
They must be committed to the success of it and be prepared to commit resources
to it, in terms of the right solution and the right staff. They have to be
visionary and have to have a project sponsor or champion, who could be the head
of HR or recruitment. They need to prepare for both organisational and process
change. Some companies put together a dedicated e-enablement project management
team where the key people could come from HR, and maybe some from IT.
PT:
How do you see online recruitment systems working over the next few years?
PH:
We will see development of communities working at several levels. First of all,
HR professionals and recruiters need to look at their own intranet in terms of
how staff use it and how they deploy their range of vacancies on it. Next, they
should develop alumni networks, rather like college websites do for
ex-students.
At
the moment this is a very underdeveloped area on corporate sites, but if there
is a corner of the website dedicated to alumni, ex-employees can keep an
association with the company and may one day return if they’re kept in touch.
At the moment, the referral section we have on our system is a midway point to
this, where people can recommend friends and ex-colleagues for jobs.
There
should also be an aspirational part of the site, where people who are
interested in working for the company or brand can visit.
PT:
How do you see companies approaching recruitment over the next few years?
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PH:
Printed media will remain important, but recruitment adverts will work more
generically, driving people to the corporate website. Recruiters and HR
professionals need a multi-pronged attack when it comes to their recruitment
strategy: their system should be integrated with the employment agencies’
integrated with their website and corporate intranet and integrated with their
internal people. These three areas are vital and they shouldn’t do any of them
in isolation.
