E-recruitment: Advantages and Disadvantages - Research Paper Example

Assignment Number 5: E recruitment: Advantages and Disadvantages Many companies and organizations now recruit their personnel through the use of the internet. Schnirer et al (7) describes this procedure as a process where the organization makes an advertisement through their website and various job portals. The company can use a third party job site or a CV database to look for prospective employees. Schnirer et al (7) and Brown et al (19) assert that prospective employees are encouraged to apply for the vacant positions, and the organization shortlists only qualified applicants based on the job description. Multinational organizations such as Coco cola, a soft drinks manufacturing company effectively uses this system. Microsoft Corporation has a human resource policy, which is electronically based (Brown et al, 31). This research analyzes and describes the advantages and disadvantages of using the internet as a tool of recruitment. To further advance the objective of this research, this paper identifies an organization that practices the policy and analyzes its system. This article describes the companies that are not using the e-recruitment technological innovation, and the challenges they face. It also explains how it serves their purpose. This paper has a concluder, which is a summary and analysis of the main body. A Schnirer et al (27) are of the view that e-recruitment is cost effective. It also saves time which the management can use for other purposes. For instance, the organizations develop and maintain a company’s website. Using the website and placing an advert is free. This is because it belongs to the company and maintained by it. This is as opposed to placing an advert concerning a job vacancy on the print media, which is expensive and time consuming. Placing a vacancy advertisement can cost thousands of dollars, as opposed to using the institutions website, which costs nothing. The time saving notion comes in the form of the period it requires an individual to develop the advert, and finally disseminate the information to the media. It also involves the time it takes for prospective employees to view the vacancy, and apply for the jobs. Putting a vacancy on the internet takes a short period of time, and on most occasions, job seekers respond immediately. The recruitment process starts after the deadline of the application elapsed, and the human resource personnel filter the applications to look for the talent they want. The period that it takes to invite the applicants is now at their discretion. Schnirer et al (33) observes that internet advertisements have the capability of reaching a wide globe, as compared to posters and newspaper advertisements which are limited to a specific region. Websites are global, and people all over the world have an access to it. This makes it possible to attract the talent, which the organization needs. When an advert reaches a greater number of people, chances are that the applicants will be many, and the percentage of getting the most competent person for the job is high (Brown et al, 31). Online recruitment systems are easy to use, and manage. Putting an advertisement concerning a particular job opening is easy to post. It does not require any professional training, or advanced skill to use the interface for placing an advert (Wiener, 33). Despite these advantages, there are numerous disadvantages that e-recruitment encounters. One of the disadvantages is the notion of the number of applicants for the specific job vacancy. Due to its global reach, the advertisement will most likely encounter numerous applications. Sometimes it is difficult to sort them out, because of the high number of applications. There is a possibility of candidates who have not qualified for the job applying. This is a nightmare to managers, because they have to sort out the qualified, and the unqualified candidates for shortlisting purposes. However, there is a way of mitigating this problem. It is essential for managers to describe the job in question, and introduce candidate screening and filtering software’s for purposes of weeding out unqualified applicants. Another disadvantage that Brown et al (33) identifies is that it is difficult to attract an executive talent through an online recruitment procedure. Executive talent refers to the skills the top managerial people have in relation to managing the company. It is essential to hire a consultancy firm to head hunt, and look for the talented individuals who can head or lead a department. To acquire and identify such talents, personal contact with the individual is necessary. This will gauge the skills in his possession and make a judgment on whether he has the right skills or not to lead an organization. Skills that are difficult to access through an electronic means are, interpersonal skills, the number of years at work, and his views of professional and business ethics. Another disadvantage of the e-recruitment policy is that it might exclude other people who do not have an access to the internet (Wiener, 36). Internet connection is a key ingredient to the success of an e-recruitment process, and lack of it, compromises the effectiveness of the process in reaching out for good and better talent. Organizations such as UNICEF have an elaborate online recruitment system. A job seeker has to go through ten processes for successful completion of the application. The first stage is accessing the web page. After accessing the web page, there is the register or the login information on the screen. A user has to register, if he doesn’t have an account with UNICEF, or login to his account and view the various vacancies in place. The fourth stage involves entering the password and the username on the login in ID (Wiener, 21). After logging in, the candidate has an access to the job portals, and he can view the various vacancies of UNICEF. The prospective candidate will click on the employment opportunities, and thereafter click on the vacancy he qualifies on. To apply for the position, the candidate will have to click inside the box, and it will open a page that describes the vacancy, and a system of uploading the documents in place (Brown et al, 14). After uploading the documents, and writing a cover letter, the candidate will click a send button, and the human resource personnel will receive the documents. This is a simple process that does not require any expertise. The process also has a wide coverage; a general characteristic of UNICEF, whose operations is worldwide. The system therefore has the capability of attracting various talents, and diversity. Small organizations are the ones that do not use the internet for recruiting their staff. These organizations usually require a smaller number of personnel, whom it is always easy to recruit and find. These organizations depend on networking, to hire and find the talent they need. This is because they do not have proper codes of conduct, which guide their operations. The code of conduct is always by implicit, and not through a standard of documented frameworks. In conclusion, it is important for large organizations to recruit their employees through the e-recruitment model. This will save time, and costs that come from developing posters, and initiating newspaper advertisements. The companies will attract a high number of applications, and they will have a choice on the best suitable person to handle the vacancy in question. It is also possible to weed out unqualified personnel by introducing software that prevents the application from reaching the human resources desk. Works Cited: Brown, Jane Newell, and Ann Swain. The professional recruiters handbook delivering excellence in recruitment practice. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Kogan Page, 2012. Print. Schnirer, Laurie, Holly Cutler, and Youth Children. Recruitment and engagement of low- income populations service provider and researcher perspectives. Edmonton, Alta.: Community-University Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth, and Families, 2012. Print. Wiener, Gary. The internet. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Print. Top of Form Bottom of Form Read More