Analysis of Changing of Traditional Strategies of Recruitment - Assignment Example

 Recruitment Use of Web 2.0 Tools Contents Recruitment Process 1 Recruitment through Web 2.0 3 Recruitment Blogs: 4 Podcasts 5 SEO 5 RSS 6 Search Engines 6 Social Media Websites 6 Facebook 7 LinkedIn 8 Twitter 9 Advantages of using Web 2.0 in Recruitment Process 9 Disadvantages of using Web 2.0 in Recruitment Process 10 Conclusion 12 Bibliography 14 Introduction Technology has changed how the organizations worked, the tools used these days have truly globalized the world. The research paper investigates how the traditional strategies of recruitment used by organizations have changed by introduction of e-recruitment method, focusing specifically on the recent phenomena of Web 2.0. It explains recruitment process and Web 2.0 tools that support recruitment activities in the modern organizations with advantages and disadvantages of using Web 2.0 tools. Recruitment Process The evolution of and change in management techniques and emphasis shift from bureaucratic approach to humanistic approach paved way to talent management practices. It was realized by modern organizations that a clear competitive edge in the market can be achieved by recruiting and retaining high performers. This realization enhanced the hiring methods and organizations strived to attract best available talent from the market. The war on talent started between competitors and in order to streamline their recruitment processes, new approaches to recruitment were introduced besides the traditional means. The marvels of information technology changed the way humans used to interact, gather information and make decisions; similarly organizations started to utilize the most efficient processes and tools to increase their productivity while executing business objectives and communicating with both internal and external stakeholders (Wuttke, 2009). The process of recruitment starts with job profiling where the responsibilities and job specifications are documented. This job profile guides the organization about the type of person they require and clarifies the expectations against the job applicant is applying for. The second stage is sourcing, where potential candidates are attracted by using different strategies both external and internal in nature. The external sourcing strategies may include newspaper advertisements, use of social media sites, job boards, head hunters, recruitment outsourcing and using job centres. On the other hand internal strategies may include lateral hiring within the organization, employee referrals, internal vacancy announcement and transfers etc. After the sourcing function, screening and selection process starts, where candidates are evaluated and screened according to their possessed skills, knowledge and capabilities. Other important elements considered during the screening process include relevant experience and qualification possessed by the candidate. On the basis of above mentioned elements certain candidates are shortlisted, tested on aptitude and interviewed for the available position. The interview process may involve multiple interviews with people occupying different positions in the organization. The selection process yields relevant candidates for the available position and an employment offer is presented to the most preferred candidate, after negotiations and acceptance of offer the candidate goes through the on boarding process. The on boarding process ensures that the candidate is ready for the job, orientation and introduction steps make sure that an initial contact is made between the incumbent and his peers (Mistry, 2009). Recruitment through Web 2.0 The traditional methods of recruitment although still in use by most organizations, saw a setback when job related content was available to the candidates online. Most organizations introduced their career page within their websites and started attracting candidates without much hassle. These text based static brochure like websites introduced recruitment to the online world, the technique is more commonly known as Web 1.0. With Web 1.0 organizations would advertise their vacancies and reveal information to web site visitors although these websites did not allow interactivity or input from the candidates or visitors. With web 2.0 recruiters and organizations can leverage from social media websites and networks to gain a competitive edge in their recruitment processes (Henricks, 2009). For recruitment, Web 2.0 means a new way of sharing information across a variety of networks and reach a wide audience. The basic difference between web 1.0 and web 2.0 is the level of engagement and interaction that can be achieved. These enhanced interaction through web 2.0 can be achieved via blogging, video sharing, RSS feed and an incredible amount of information sharing through social media websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter and others. In a typical and traditional resume an employer might find a few sentences about candidate’s interest while on blogs and social media websites the same employer can get much more information about the candidate. Similarly candidates now have access to a lot of information, they can view and show interest in a job vacancy right from their social media accounts. This saves both parties a lot of time on hectic processes such as screening and shortlisting, with candidates saving time by applying directly from their social media accounts rather than logging in to a specific section of employer’s website and submitting the same information again (Martin, Reddignton, & Kneafsey, 2009). An increasing number of organizations are now using Web 2.0 strategies for their recruitment as it is more cost effective than paying head-hunters and attracts a huge audience of interested candidates. Furthermore it provides more information about the client than a static resume. While using Web 2.0, information can be gathered from multiple points, personalized and seen in one single view by a massive population. The population is now more informed and instead of one single source information can be gathered from multiple sources hence decision making is made easier (Casarez, et al., 2008). The communication medium is enhanced and as a result traditional recruitment strategies are altered and customized in order to take maximum benefits of marvels offered by Web 2.0. When using Web 2.0 for recruitment purpose the most popular tools are; Blogs, Podcasts, RSS feeds, SEO, Search Engines and social media websites. Recruitment Blogs: The use of recruitment blogs by organizations is an effective method for having conversations with the applicants about the employer’s culture and work environment. Organizations use recruitment blogs for a variety of purposes, for employee branding to sharing details related to a particular job, their career management strategies and training and development practices (Mistry, 2009). Recruitment blogs brings a human element to the hiring process and allows companies to attract potential employees for vacant positions. Podcasts Podcasts are also an effective way for giving information to candidates related to available jobs and company policies and procedures. By adding interesting podcasts to organization’s career page, organizations provide candidates with updates on new positions through audio and video podcasts. Interviews of executives are conducted and shared as podcasts on topics such as facilities, career growth opportunities, company culture, brands and other related subjects. An archive of podcasts is available for all visitors, this also provides them a historic perspective of the company, hence without spending huge amounts on advertisements and PR activities, companies explain their view points on a variety of topics right from their own websites (Casarez, et al., 2008). SEO A huge number of candidates search the internet for available jobs. For conducting these job searches candidates use popular search engines like Google, Bing and yahoo etc. Organizations and their recruiters can use the SEO techniques to improve their search rankings, this would increase traffic to their career webpage, blogs and other online material. By using effective Meta descriptions and including words such as jobs, opportunities and others to attract potential employees (Shaw, 2009). RSS RSS enables a visitor to keep track of their preferred websites, getting constant updates in an automated fashion in an organized way. Organizations can use RSS in their career portal or pages, subscribed individuals will receive constant updates on announced job vacancies (Wheeler, 2008). Search Engines Most search engines suggest about what candidates or users are searching for, by using this information organizations can associate such terms with their brands and career opportunities to attract more users (Shaw, 2009). Social Media Websites Use of social media websites to engage and attract passive candidates is another efficient way of sourcing candidates for the available jobs. These portals enable recruiters to maintain and attract a diversified pool of candidates. Usually organizations initiate and maintain their own profiles and pages that attract hoards of candidates from popular social media websites. An opportunity shared on their own pages is shared amongst users and subscribed users pass the opportunity on to other users that match the job profile or are looking for a job. In the recent decade or so the use of social media websites has enhanced drastically (Shaw, 2009). The most popular ones being Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, all three are instrumental for organizations not only for attracting candidates on a nominal cost but also gather more information about the candidate. Another convenience provided by the social media websites are the mobile application versions made available to their users (Wheeler, 2008). Without using computers, candidates can now access their social media accounts through their mobile phones with enhanced capabilities available in the social media mobile applications, capabilities that are not usually available in the mobile internet browsers (Mistry, 2009). Facebook Organizations maintain their own pages, where they not only share career opportunities but also share company pictures, events and other important news items. Although sharing information about a job is not as structured as LinkedIn although extensive information about the company can be shared with the users (Wheeler, 2008). A link on Facebook update can redirect the interested candidate to company’s career page, where they can directly apply for the job. Furthermore recruiters share their email address while announcing the job opportunity on the company’s Facebook page or by sending a personalized message to relevant users on Facebook. Candidates interested in the job can send their resume to the given email address, the traditional recruitment cycle takes on from there (Casarez, et al., 2008). A research conducted by onlinedegrees.com in 2012 reveals that about 33 percent recruiters use the services of Facebook for sourcing and other recruitment processes. LinkedIn LinkedIn is the largest network of professionals out of all the social media websites. A research conducted by onlinedegrees.com in 2012 shows that 98 percent recruiters use LinkedIn for recruitment purposes. Individuals are allowed to maintain their professional profiles (resumes) with additional elements that tells an employer more about the candidate. Information such as training courses conducted and acquired, recommendations from peers and clients, skills and expertise endorsed by other LinkedIn users help organizations acquire detailed professional information about the incumbent. Recruiters actively use LinkedIn to view matching profiles to available jobs and post jobs on their company pages. LinkedIn connects together over 175 million users worldwide, these professional profiles can be assessed directly by recruiters and with a nominal fee for upgraded account recruiters can contact them directly whether they are linked with them through other users or not. This has revolutionized the sourcing phenomena, now recruiters can view and instantly approach a relevant candidate from even the competitor companies and gauge their interest for an available position (Wheeler, 2008). Maintaining a company page at LinkedIn is also very useful for employers, as they can share their job posts that are available to the members of this page as well as the potential LinkedIn users, options such as job match and search for relevant jobs also help candidates find the most appropriate jobs. Furthermore a candidate can simply click on apply now on a job posting or company’s LinkedIn page and his LinkedIn profile is forwarded to the searching employer (Wuttke, 2009). Twitter 42% of recruiters use twitter for announcing available job opportunities (onlinedegrees.com, 2012). Twitter has 485 million account users with 288 million active users, it operates quite differently from Facebook and LinkedIn as recruiters can post a job through an update in their status with relevant link or email address from which candidates can apply for vacant positions. The online users on twitter follow each other and see the status updates instantly (Wheeler, 2008). Advantages of using Web 2.0 in Recruitment Process 1. The sourcing process overall is made easier by using Web 2.0 services. Recruiters can now share information on available position and get results instantly. 2. Data can be gathered from multiple sources and viewed in from a single authority by a few easy steps. 3. Social media websites have enhanced the recruiter’s capability. Searching and contacting relevant candidates is easier than ever before. 4. Additional information is available on social media websites that can provide details required for the job without interviewing the candidate and assess the character of a candidate by using Facebook profiles, posts and comments. Furthermore while using LinkedIn employers can view recommendations and skill / expertise level on certain KPIs required for the vacant position. 5. A huge number of applicants can be reached by using Web 2.0 tools, this yields thousands of candidates for each posted position. Using an effective e-recruitment module organizations can filter the data to shortlist the most appropriate applicants (Verhoeven & Williams, 2008). Disadvantages of using Web 2.0 in Recruitment Process 1. Dependence on internet for recruitment can slow down the recruitment process if the internet goes down. Organizations would struggle to post and gather information if their recruitment activity is heavily dependent on Web 2.0 services only. 2. Although Web 2.0 can enable organizations to have a paperless environment while conducting their recruitment process, a clear disadvantage can be witnessed if a hard drive crashes or internet storage facility on cloud fails. 3. The traditional recruitment strategy was based on secrecy, head hunters or internal recruiters were given a job to find the most relevant candidate (Bartram, 2000). As a result they used to contact relevant candidates only, using internet and web 2.0 services reveal the information to a huge audience. This compromises confidentiality related to the vacant position, hence it is still seen that companies hesitate to use Web 2.0 for senior management positions. In support to this argument a survey conducted by Go-gulf.com in 2013 reveals that only 47% of global CEOs use social media websites. 4. When a position is shared through Web 2.0, it is likely that a huge number of applicants will apply for the same position. This attracts irrelevant candidates due to inappropriate experience, education and location, as a result companies reject most of the candidates. Rejecting hoards of applicants can be seen as negative action and company’s image may suffer as an employer in the market. 5. The traditional recruitment methods such as executive search services, employee referrals and recruitment based on references are more reliable than sourcing candidates from the web. As most referred candidates are known personally by referring party hence their reliability is greater. 6. The reliability of information shared can be compromised, any individual can start posting jobs and gather information of users, later on used for internet scams and spam emails. 7. Using social media website for assessing character of a candidate can be misleading. Companies must take in to consideration that the quality of information available on the social media site may not be the real representation of a candidate’s character. 8. It is not as cost effective as conducting internal recruitment activities, organizations need to constantly update blogs, RSS feeds and their career page which can lead to additional costs besides having a team of recruiters that are using other traditional means of recruitment in parallel to e-recruitment (Verhoeven & Williams, 2008). Conclusion The Web 2.0 has indeed revolutionized the recruitment process, the most cumbersome task for recruiters was sourcing the right pool of candidates for the next stage of recruitment. With Web 2.0 tools sourcing is a matter of mouse clicks, although the approach has its inevitable pros and cons. It can be seen that privacy of both employers and candidates is compromised to a certain extent and hence traditional recruitment methods are still used by most organizations. Hence it can be said that Web 2.0 has taken the recruitment process to a whole new level and recruitment through print media is minimized although it cannot completely replace the other traditional methods of recruitment such as employee referrals, executive search services, job centres, campus recruitment drives and hiring by reference. Bibliography Bartram, D., 2000. Internet recruitment and selection: Kissing frogs to find princes. International Journal of selection and assessment, 8(4), pp. 261-274. Casarez, V., Cripe, B., Sini, J. and Weckerle, P., 2008. Reshaping Your Business with Web 2.0: Using New Social Technologies to Lead Business, McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. GoGulf., 2013. CEOs on Social Media Statistics 2013, [online] Available at: http://www.go-gulf.com/blog/ceo-social-media/ [Accessed 31 March, 2013]. Henricks, M. 2009. Hire Better: Recruiting 2.0: How entrepreneurs are using social networking, blogging and other internet tools to hire the best employees, [online] Available at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/199672 [Accessed 31 March, 2013]. Martin, G., Reddignton, M., Kneafsey, M.B. 2009. Web 2.0 and Human Resource Management 'Groundswell' or hype?, CIPD Publishing. Mistry, V., 2009. Recruiting a Web 2.0 workforce: A University of Glamorgan perspective. Human Resource Management International Digest, 17(5), pp.32 – 34 Onlinedegree., 2012. The Stats on Social Media Recruiting, [online] Available at: http://www.payscale.com/career-news/2012/04/social-media-recruiting-infographic#.UViA9VdLnA8 [Accessed 31 March, 2013]. Shaw, T., 2009. Incorporating Web 2.0 into your Recruitment Strategy, [online] Available at: http://www.recruitmentdirectory.com.au/Blog/incorporating-web-2-0-into-your-recruitment-strategy-a78.html [Accessed 31 March, 2013]. Verhoeven, H. and Williams, S., 2008. Advantages and disadvantages of Internet recruitment: a UK study into Employers’ perceptions. International Review of Business Research Papers, 4(1), pp. 364-373. Wheeler, K. 2008. Web 2.0 Recruiting is Here, [online] Available at: http://www.ere.net/2008/02/14/web-20-recruiting-is-here/ [Accessed 31 March, 2013]. Wuttke, F. 2009. E-Recruitment Vs. Traditional Recruitment: A Descriptive Analysis, Grin Verlag. Read More