One of the areas of the Net that's increased the most dramatic growth is online recruiting. From virtually a standing start in 1997, we've come to the point where virtually all large corporations now do at least some of their recruiting online. In a recent survey of Human Resource Professionals, the results showed that almost three-quarters of mid-sized companies did the same.
This growth is also reflected in the number of Internet-based hiring sites, which now number in the thousands. That highlights part of the problem with online recruiting. There are great reasons to do it, but big pitfalls to watch out for.
Why do folks do online recruiting at all? The two most cited reasons almost seem like opposite ends of the spectrum. Companies say that one of the reasons they go online is for a much wider selection of applicants. Other companies say that the major reason they go online is for better-targeted applicants. And, in fact, both are true.
Two other reasons cited by lots of folks who are doing well there are a reduction in the cycle time from weeks to sometimes hours to get meaningful responses and good conversion rates varying between 10% and 25% -- far higher than from most responses to physical advertisements.
We're in the third stage of this online recruiting process now, and so we've got some pretty solid lessons that we can teach. The first phase consisted of monster job boards and not much else. It was great if you were recruiting for high-tech workers, who were in the process of job-hopping through the dot-com economy.
Phase two of the recruiting process was where companies began taking a good, hard look both at what sites they used and how they integrated their own Web site and other advertising into the process.
Now, in phase three, we're seeing more targeted job sites and more players, such as trade schools, and associations, and Chambers of Commerce in the business of helping folks find jobs and businesses find qualified workers. That changes the game.
Whatever you do when you move some of your recruiting online, you need to make it part of your overall recruiting effort. The firms that are most successful at this don't use the Web as a stand-alone. They integrate it with job fairs, with print advertisements, and with referrals.
The firms that are good at online recruiting also vary their strategies. One of my clients is a distributor of large industrial equipment. The equipment requires technicians and mechanics to keep it running, and finding qualified ones is a big deal.
The company also recruits for several mid-level positions in management and administration. The two recruiting challenges are different, and so are the strategies.
For the mid-level managers, my client mostly uses locally based Web media, in this case tied into their Chamber of Commerce and supplemented with aggressive local print advertising and referral work.
For the technicians and mechanics, the problem is quite different. There, the Web is a primary means of outreach. The company has gone out and forged relationships with local community colleges and trade schools, and does some of its advertising on sites of interest to the mechanics and technicians it want to reach.
All of those sites include links to the company's own Web site and to a particular page dedicated to technician recruitment. The headline at the top of the page asks visitors if they've ever considered working in my client's industry. Right below it, six bullet points give reasons why it might be the perfect place for a mechanic or technician to work. Each bullet point is a link to more information.
The page also has lots of good company information, pictures of current employees doing their job, and testimonials.
Both of these recruiting efforts are successful but for very different reasons. The management and administrative recruiting is done on a tightly targeted local basis on a site that is well used by local businesses and business people. The technicians are recruited from specialty sites with a special kind of Web campaign. The last time we looked at the stats, about one in ten of the clerical workers, but one in four of the mechanic/technicians had been hired through a process that involved the Web.
Making It Work
Be sure to watch the workload. Especially if you go to large Web-wide job boards, you may be overwhelmed with resumes. It might make sense to get some software or outside help in sorting them down to the few good ones.
Don't move to the big job boards unless they're common for the special type of people you want to reach or you normally consider relocation for the positions you're advertising.
Try to find more narrowly focused Web sources that are popular with the specific groups you want to reach.
Forge alliances with business and trade schools as well as local colleges and universities to get referrals off their site.
Use your site as a primary recruiting tool. Direct people to a specific page on the site where you sell the company in an honest and straightforward way. Give people lots of information.
Just like with the rest of your site, keep your recruiting site simple and information rich. People are showing up there for a purpose, and the purpose is not entertainment.
Integrate the Web into your total recruiting effort. Make it part of your strategy and part of your tactics. When you contact people who have responded to a print ad, ask them if they have visited the Web site for information about the company.
Created/Revised/Reviewed: 30 July 2002
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