Chapter

12 (PART
1)
RECRUITMENT AND
SELECTION IN AN
INTERNET
CONTEXT
Areas to be Covered

 Recruitment and Technology

 The Impact of Online Recruitment
 Attributes of Recruiting Web Site
 Recruitment Strategies and Social Networking
 Online Recruitment Guidelines

2
RECRUITMENT AND
TECHNOLOGY
Companies in recent times have begun using the internet as a means of
attracting job applicants.

In the United States, over 90% of large companies use the internet to
recruit applicants for job openings.

Although there are certainly a number of benefits associated with online

recruitment, there are also several issues that need to be considered
before organizations adopt this strategy.
3
RECRUITMENT AND
TECHNOLOGY

Two important considerations in deciding whether online recruitment is a win-

win situation for both job applicants and organizations:

1. The degree to which online recruitment enables organizations to meet their

recruitment objectives

2. The degree to which online recruitment provides applicants with the means
of obtaining jobs

4
IMPACT OF ONLINE
RECRUITMENT ON
RECRUITMENT OBJECTIVES

5
 RECRUITMENT
OBJECTIVES

1. Cost of filling the job openings

2. Speed of filling job vacancies
3. Psychological contract fulfillment,
employee satisfaction and retention
4. Quantity, quality and diversity of
applicants

6
1. Cost of Filling the Job
Openings
Organizations constantly strive for minimizing the cost of filling job
openings.

￮ Research has constantly shown that online recruitment does reduce cost.

￮ One study shows that organizations saved 95% of recruitment costs

when they used online recruitment as opposed to more traditional methods.

7
Other researches show that although the use of online recruiting may generate a
large number of applications quickly, failure to think past the
generation of applications may result in quite an
administrative burden for organizations in terms of processing and
screening resumes.

Organizations need to consider the overall costs associated with

the entire recruitment process before implementing online
recruitment system.

8
2. Speed of Filling Job
Vacancies
Organizations aim to fill the job vacancies quickly.

￮ Research has shown that online recruitment can decrease the hiring cycle time
and increase the efficiency of the process by allowing organizations to spend
less time gathering and sorting data.

￮ One study using data from 50 Fortune 500 companies showed that the use of online recruitment
reduced their average hiring cycle time of 43 days by 6 days

9
 Some considerations that need to be examined further to determine
whether certain disadvantages of online recruiting may offset the
benefits of the shortened hiring cycle:

 Does this speediness enable organizations to hire the most qualified

employees
 Do these hires remain with the organizations?
 How is the diversity of these new hires?

10
3. Psychological Contract
Fulfillment, Employee Satisfaction
and Retention

Psychological contract fulfillment, employee

satisfaction and high retention rates are three
closely related important goals of the
recruitment process.

11
Psychological contract refers to the employees’ beliefs about the
reciprocal obligations and promises between them and their
organizations.

The information gathered and disseminated during the

recruitment process shapes the expectations that lead to
psychological contract fulfillment, which directly affects employee
satisfaction and retention rates.
12
 More realistic information can be offered to job seekers through
company website.

 In addition, since the information is posted in real time, changes in

content can be made at a minute’s notice so that information is up-to-
date and accurate.

13
Companies really need to make sure that the message
being conveyed on their website is producing the
psychological contract that can be fulfilled for both the
employees and the employer.

While providing information on the website, companies

should focus on the use of a realistic
recruitment message and the
employment brand message.
14
A realistic recruitment message is one that describes the
organization and the job as they truly are without sugarcoating.

One important tool many organizations use are realistic job

preview and realistic culture preview

15
Realistic job preview discloses to applicants the positive and
negative attributes of a job they are applying for to see if this is truly
what they desire or thought it was.

Realistic culture preview allows organizations to expand beyond

the traditional job information and provide information about the
company philosophy, value systems, history, diversity, salary structure,
and benefits.

16
A company’s employer brand can be a powerful tool to attract
applicants to its web site.

A company’s employment brand is often based on the organization’s

well-known values or distinctive image and culture.

Technology can give a huge boost to employer brand by providing

better communication channels and improving the candidate
experience.

17
4. Quantity, Quality and Diversity of
Applicants
 Quantity: Online recruitment is extremely convenient and this convenience can help
organizations meet the objective of increasing the number of job applicants.

 Quality: Being convenient, online recruitment may encourage applicants to apply for
jobs without assessing their own qualifications, resulting in large volume of low-quality
applications.

 Diversity: Online recruitment may have a negative impact on the extent to which
organizations are able to attract women, older workers and some minorities, which may
pose potential legal problems for organizations.

18
 ATTRIBUTES OF
RECRUITING WEBSITE

19
ATTRIBUTES OF
RECRUITING
WEBSITE

The design of the website affects the acceptance and

effectiveness of online recruiting.

Some core dimensions of a web site’s usability:

1. Navigability
2. Content Information
3. Aesthetic Features
20
1. Navigability
Navigability refers to the overall ease with which a user can browse
through multiple Web pages to locate topics of interest.

Applicants have more favorable impressions of an organization when its web

site is easy to navigate as opposed to being difficult to navigate (Braddy,
Meade, & Kroustalis, 2008).

21
1. Navigability (cntd.)
Hosting a website that displays current information and includes active hyperlinks to
retrieve information is essential in maintaining user’s interest within the site.

To achieve this goal, organizations should follow the “three-click” rule for locating
information of interest.

“Three-click” Rule : A user of a website should be able to find any information

with no more than three mouse clicks.

22
2. Content Information

Content Information refers to the degree to which the web site hosts relevant
information that the user deems valuable and informative in
nature.

Content information can stimulate positive or negative attitudes towards an

organization.
23
2. Content Information (cntd.)
“Media Richness” theory (Daft & Lengel, 1986):

Communication effectiveness is a function of the degree to which media

sources reduce user uncertainty and equivocality.

Rich media sources (in this case, the website) contain enough relevant
and accessible information to reduce user uncertainty and subsequent
anxiety towards the target source (the organization)

24
2. Content Information (cntd.)
Organization should host a website that include information about
the organization and its products, available job opportunities,
development opportunities, compensation and culture.

person-job
The website should enable applicants in taking
(P-J) and person-organization (P-O) fit related
decisions and engage in self-selection behavior.

25
3. Aesthetic Features
Aesthetic features are the stylistic and innovative aspects of a web site.

 A tool in engaging user interest and attention

 Has the ability to affect applicants’ perception. An applicant may perceive
these innovative features of a website as “signals” about broader
organizational culture.

Especially important for entrepreneurial and small firms that wish to attract
qualified applicants.
26
 RECRUITMENT
STRATEGIES AND SOCIAL
NETWORKING

27
Findings of a survey about the Use of Social Networking Website and Recruitment
conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM, 2008):

 Social networking sites and online search engines are being used more frequently now
than before but most organizations do not have a formal policy on this use.

 Social networking sites and online search engines are primarily used to search for
passive applicants, particularly at the middle management levels, who might not
otherwise apply or be contacted by an organization.

 Social networking sites are not used to screen applicants because of associated legal
issues and the difficulty in verifying with confidence the information on these sites.

 Negative information found on the social networking sites, has a greater influence on
hiring decisions, than positive information.
28
 ONLINE RECRUITMENT
GUIDELINES (Stone et al. 2005)

29
 More suitable for well known firms with excellent employer branding
 Should be used as one of many sources of recruitment
 More suitable when many candidates are needed for high-level jobs requiring high
levels of education
 Organizations should be aware of the limitations of this method
 Online recruitment website should be user-friendly
 Job analysis information should be used
 E-recruitment systems should provide realistic previews of jobs and of the firm
 Effectiveness should be regularly reviewed and continuously improved based on
feedback from job applicants
 Online recruiting must incorporate privacy protection policies

30
Thanks!
Any questions?

31