Recruitment Revolutionized - Essay Example

Running Heading: RECRUITMENT REVOLUTIONIZED – E-RECRUITMENT! Recruitment Revolutionized: E-Recruitment! In recent times the job selectionprocess has completely seen another face with the progress in internet technology. This day in history, most of the traditional ways of job recruitment have been surpassed in favor of the latest one, e-recruitment. This essay explains what the e-recruiting system is, gives a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity & technology) analysis on it, tells you how it works and what are its advantages and disadvantages if compared to the orthodox system of employment. Most institutions in recent times are giving preference to e-recruitment system and are thus able to hire more competent people at a faster rate then before and that also while being able to keep their costs low. Essay The hot word and the latest inclination in the way organizations recruit potential employees is called the “E-Recruitment”. E here refers to online and recruitment as we all know means to employ people for jobs. In a lump sum, it is also referred to as online recruitment. Basically, by the use of the computer and the internet, it brings potential employers and employees into a single destination in the look for a job. Another form of recruitment that’s available is the basic one; the one where companies advertise in the news papers, candidates apply and are called in for interviews. However, the orthodox recruitment system has lost its touch and e-recruitment is taking over. According to a recent study, a job is among the top reasons why new users will come to the internet besides e-mail. It is believed that there are more than 18 million résumé’s floating online across the web at this time in history! Many big and small organizations around the globe are using the internet as a source of recruitment. How this process of recruitment works via the internet is that first of all they advertise job vacancies through the internet. Then many people view the positions and the interested job seekers send in their applications or curriculum vitae (what many people refer to as the CV in recent times) through an e-mail over the internet. Alternately, this system works in the reverse as well; the job seekers place their CV’s over the worldwide web which can be viewed by prospective employers depending upon their necessities. Generally, there are two kinds of e-recruitment that an organization can use, 1) Job portals, and 2) By creating an e-recruiting section in a company’s own website. Most organizations prefer looking for jobs through job portals then by creating a separate section for that purpose on their own company website. How organizations make use of the job portals can be compared to how a fishnet separates fish from water; the approaching organizations place the job descriptions and specifications on the job portal and then search the possible résumé’s posted on the site to match their demand. Lets discuss how the second option works; the company adds a software to its website, where the hopeful applicants post their résumés into the company database for consideration when a job vacancy is reported. However if we compare the two options, the job portal option seems much better to me. The people who operate the job portals, even though they charge you a certain fee in case they find you a match, they always give you the best filtered results and save your time. What the people who work for the job portals do, is that they search the entire lot of applications, only for the most capable and deserving one’s which are then forwarded to the organization for selection from the already shot-listed candidates. However, in the case where the company posts jobs on its own website, not only would be prove expensive to them, but would also take up a lot of their time. They would have to pay bills to their web-operators who set sets up the job adds on their website, then they’ll have to waste time looking through all the candidates who applied, then shortlist them and then make a final decision! Seems far too tiring, isn’t it? Talking about e-structuring, it would be better if we analyze this mechanism using a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity & threat) analysis. This would give us a better idea about the information that is useful in linking an organization’s resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which it functions. Moving on to each point of the SWOT matrix one at a time, let’s first discuss about its possible strengths. The job portal system via which the e-recruitment system works is basically a smart system. What is basically does is that it matches possible results for a set job query and gives you the result. This saves a lot of time for the person who otherwise would have to go through the entire mail for the same thing! Secondly, this system is rather new in the market and is backed up by latest technology and innovation. This means that it would be pretty helpful as well as reliable and robust, something which you can trust upon and that would not let you down that easily! Another of the most appealing strengths of the e-structuring system is that it is virtually boundary less. What I mean here is that this system is far reaching and can attract possible employers and employees from all corners of the globe and make them work together. This mechanism is also low on cost for both the parties; the job requiring company does not need to put up costly advertisements in newspapers for jobs, where as on the other hand it also saves the applicants’ cost as he does not have to pay the mail cost or travel cost up to the company’s office where he has to apply! Another feature which the orthodox recruitment system does not have is the job tracking system. When you apply online, you can also always check the status of your application (whether it is delivered to the prospective employer, is he interested in it etc.). Discussing the weakness side of the matrix is what’s coming up. Basically as the job portals do not limit the number of people applying for a job, the prospective employers thus get a bulk of applications which they’ll have to go through. This creates a lot of hassle for the human resource department as well as wastes a lot of time. Also as many people are applying, you cannot ascertain if the information they’ve entered in their CV is genuine until you get to personally get to meet them and see the original documents. Another possible weakness which this system is effected by is that electronic communications is not universal; you might not be able to target all areas of the globe, but probably most of them. A study shows that only seventeen percent of the total world’s population has regular internet connectivity! Also as this field is new in the market, there is lack of expertise and know how about this field by the general public. It can be said that e-recruitment is still, surprisingly as thought, NOT a layman term! Let’s move on to the opportunity section of the analysis now. E-recruitment gives an opportunity to people who live in far flung areas to look for jobs in the city, thus this helps in promoting cultural interchange when they get appointed for a job in the metropolitan. Not does it only give oppurturnity to residents of far away areas, it also gives chance to talented people. It is also believed that e-recruitment by attracting people of all casts and ethnicities will reduce work discrimination. It serves as a great oppurturnity for web developers to invest in job portals as this business is flourishing and does almost have no competitors at all. As this mechanism develops the government might even take steps to protect the web portals which work as a back bone for e-structuring and also loosen the regulations for this felid, thus bringing in more charm to this already shining industry. Furthermore, let’s finish the analysis with the threat part. One of the most alarming factors this profession might have to look towards in the near future, I believe, would be tough competition from local and international competitors! At this period in time, the government might put this mechanism at ease but once this system flourishes, another threat that will linger over the investor’s head would probably be high rates of taxation from the government. It is also possible that the government might bring in an e-legislation, thus limiting the scope of this business by bringing in some conditions. Cyber-security, not to mention, is always is a factor that businesses established over the internet will need to be well aware of! Like everything, even e-recruitment has its own pros and cons. There may be many benefits which the e-recruitment arrangement might have to tender, both to the employer and the possible applicant; however this mechanism is not free from a few shortcomings! Let’s look at each side of the coin one at a time. If we talk about the benefits of e-recruitment, the first thing that comes to our mind is comfort! A job seeker will now no longer have to go drop his résumé to some place, when now he can e-mail it right from the comfort of his bedroom. Look at the same thing from the employer’s point of view; even he will be relieved of going and checking his post box every now and then. The time factor cannot be overlooked at all! It saves a lot of time if you do not have to go drop the mail physically, instead you email the same thing. According to a study by a manpower concern, over 65% of the hiring time is reduced in e-recruitment compared to the conventional system of recruitment. Amongst the advantages of online recruitment, the cost factor is the most important one. It costs much lower to the organization to post for jobs online, then by publishing advertisements in the news papers for the same. Also, recruitment websites provide precious facts and figures about the salaries and wages offered by the competitor which helps the organization’s human resource managers to take various typical decisions like deciding upon promotions, salaries, fringe benefits in industry etc. One more benefit of the online recruitment system is that it filters out the unsuccessful candidates who apply for jobs in an organization in an attempt to shortlist the candidates. This saves the management department from the hassle of going through all the application papers. If you’re busy at the daytime and can’t look and/or apply for a job, you don’t need to worry no more! Job portals which serve as a door to e-recruitment are accessible twenty four hours, seven days a week! The employers on the other hand can also access the online collection of résumés 24/7 on the job portals. E-recruitment can boost the reputation of an company, especially when building the company’s corporate recruitment site, it is considered valuable asset to the company, an icon of novelty and flexibility. A study concluded that a company which has a strong trade name and firm physical presence will see that their website will attract more applicants then another job site. E-recruitment is well thought off as a great mechanism to reach the universal job seekers at a focal point. It can be said that apart from language barriers, which could be over looked, the internet has no boundaries! Of the many advantages that e-recruiting has to offer, one is that it encourages a company in reaching its target and brings the qualified candidates to a company which they deserve. An analyst recommended that online job portals offer a resourceful way to identify and classify an infinite number of job seekers world wide. Likewise, e-recruitment allows employers to widen the scale of their lookout, and as a result increasing the possibility that top-notch candidates will be found. According to persistent views, e-recruitment brings the qualified job seekers to the employers wiling to hire them. Several sources show, applicants over the internet are mostly young, computer educated, and take interest in the company that hires them. Research shows that internet helps the companies to attract top of the line candidates over the internet and web users usually turn out to be more educated and computer literate. The list can be carried on and on, but it would be so not professional if we discuss only the benefits of e-recruitment without considering its cons. One of the most important shortcomings would be that selection and securitizing the skill mapping and authenticity of millions of résumé’s is a problematic and time consuming exercise for companies. If we talk about e-recruitment, then we need to know about its requirements too. Of the most basic requirements of e-recruitments is computer literacy and internet usage. However there is low internet saturation and no access and lack of knowledge of internet in many locations across Asia. Where e-recruitment works the most is in Europe and American countries. In many countries, most of them South Asian, the employers and employees still prefer a face to face interaction for the purpose of employment rather then rather than sending e-mails. Organizations cannot rely completely on the online recruitment methods since one does not know if you’ll even be able to find what you’re on the lookout for. However, there are some cons of e-recruitment as well. The foremost concern that relates to negative aspect of e-recruitment is the discrimination issue brought forward by the internet non-users cum job seekers. Many among those people mentioned about think that e-recruitment may have an unequal contact on certain groups, particularly cultural minority ones. People who may dispute will perhaps be those who are computer illiterate or those who do not know how to put their skills in use for online recruitment. Consequently, the employers will need to understand that even though the internet lets them attract customers from all over the web, still it does not cover all the areas as many people around the globe don’t even have access to the internet. Furthermore, many organizations find it pretty much a task to look for executive level job seekers over the internet. Many analysts believe that hiring executives needs to be done on a tabletop meeting rather then over job portals. In the same manner, many organizations believe hiring employees of the top (director level) needs to be done in the typical manner, rather then via e-recruiting. Others argue that job portals are only used for mediocre level jobs and it would not be feasible enough to look for even mid level jobs over the internet. There even are some positions which require advertisement in the news papers, as well as put up an offer for them on web portals. Some analysts argue that even though the internet might draw a batch of applications, very few of them might in the long run fit the desired criteria. Of the other disadvantages that might be calculated, the issue that e-recruitment tends to be more efficient for companies who already have their name in the market cannot be ignored. As the internet allows everybody to apply for jobs over the job portals, there is a great danger of an influx of applications thus making it hard for the employer to look for a perfect candidate. E-recruitment is generally thought of as an additional mechanism to the already available conventional methods which are used in the recruiting process. Summing it up, the online recruitment is slowly making its mark in the world market. My essay has given an overview of the advantages and disadvantages compared with the orthodox methods of employment. The positive points conclude that the e-recruitment generally targets a large number of job seekers everywhere throughout the globe, saves money as well as time and gives the organization what it needs the most, quality people willing to work! On the other hand, the cons of e-recruitment went down to the ethnic partiality towards internet non-user, difficulty in finding director level jobs over the web and not to forget, the risk of an influx of uncompetitive job applications. The end would not be perfect without this quotation from Thomas A. Jefferson, “E-recruitment would make an impact on people the way the discovery of the light bulb had made on people back then”. References Arboledas, J. R., Ferrero, M.L. and Vidal-Ribas, I. S. (2001), ‘Internet recruiting power: opportunities and effectiveness’, University of Navarra, Spain. Caggiano, C. 1999, ‘The truth about Internet recruiting’, Inc., vol.21, no.18, pp.156-157. Casper, R. 1985, ‘Online recruitment’, Personal Journal, vol. 64, no. 5, pp.4-5. Chaskelson, P. 2000, ‘The pros & cons of online recruitment’, Accountancy SA, April. Hoffman, D. 2001, ‘E-cruitment and the war for talent’, NAGCAS Connect 2001, Olivier. Pearce, C.G. & Tuten, T.L. 2001, ‘Internet recruiting in the banking industry’, Business Communication Quarterly, vol.64, no.1, pp.9-18. THOMPSON, L. F., BRADDY, P. W., & WUENSCH, K. L. (2008). E-recruitment and the benefits of organizational web appeal. COMPUTERS IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR. 24, 2384-2398. Read More