By its own admission, HR still has a lot to learn about web recruitment. Few
employers have adequate online strategies, and the deluge of candidates for
jobs acts as a comfort blanket for those recruiters slow to change.
Yet as our reports this week show, recruiting via the internet is booming,
with increased popularity, improved effectiveness and dynamic growth in job
sites. E-recruitment had a tough start, but no-one can deny that it is the big
success story of the dot.com era, and manna from heaven for HR.
While 98 per cent of organisations have used the web at least once,
recruitment agencies want more HR professionals to bite the bullet and make it
a key part of their recruitment mix.
It is inevitable that with such a catch-all medium you may end up with
unsuitable candidates and some poor quality job applications, but online
converts have been bowled over by the web’s speed, time saved and value for
money.
To really exploit the online medium, more attention must be paid to the
basics, such as how it fits with everything else you are doing related to the
recruitment and retention of staff.
Planning and job specifications could be an awful lot better all round. It’s
not good enough to produce a job profile that is eight pages long, but doesn’t
specify what sort of person your organisation is really after. It’s a hirer’s
market, and employers can afford to be precious about the type of staff they
want to attract.
Web recruitment is no longer just the domain of IT specialists and the young
– managers and senior executives are developing the habit, too.
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If you want to understand online recruitment better or refine your
organisation’s approach to it, guidance is available in One Stop Guide to
Online Recruitment. Call Caron Berry on 01371 810 433 or e-mail [email protected]
 By Jane King, editor
