Online Job Recruitment: Trends, Benefits, Outcomes, and Implications
By John Younger
Little more than a decade ago, online job searches were primarily the province of a tiny population of hardcore techies. Today, online recruiting forms one of the central pillars of a smart staffing strategy for firms in every economic sector.
Increasingly, job seekers are turning to electronic resources such as corporate web sites, federal, state, and municipal job postings, online job search engines and aggregators, Internet classifieds, and online versions of local and national newspapers to facilitate the job search process. Conversely, a growing majority of employers have moved a significant proportion of their recruitment efforts online. For professionals on both sides of the hiring equation, the notion of conducting a job search or candidate hunt offline is virtually inconceivable in 2007.
However, while it is undeniable that the movement online of many recruitment functions and job search resources has vastly expanded the scope, accessibility, ease, and efficiency of the recruitment process, the longterm implications of this trend remain shrouded in ambiguity. In the interim, the everquickening pace of technological advancement has thrust many HR practitioners into the awkward position of being forced to define a set of best practices for online recruitment on the fly, as it were, even as the protocols and methods that are being used in the process continue to evolve.
As with any moving target, the exponentially expanding trend of online recruitment resists easy definition and description. But by relying on a number of recent analyses and indices, it is possible to piece together a clearer picture of what the trend of online recruitment is and what it isn’t and what it may portend about the future of HR.
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