Methods of Internet Recruitment - Essay Example

With the internet revolution, the process of recruitment also called e-recruitment advanced. From job seekers' perspective, e-recruitment gave them the advantage of centralized job search and resume-building services. Therefore, job seekers do not have to spend time looking for an opening in multiple newspapers.

Several options are available to employers for announcing their vacancies on the Internet. The most simple and cost-effective approach is to maintain a vacancy page on the employer's website. The second is to use a specialist agency that has its operations on the Internet. These cyber agencies provide various advantages ranging from receiving resumes to shortlisting candidates. The third category is the job sites linked to newspapers and journals. These websites republish the advertisements, printed in the careers section of newspapers. Similarly, there are job sites operated by employment agencies. Certain employment agents have their presence on the internet. Anyone who has access to the internet, can access these channels (Taylor, 2002). It is up to the employer to select the medium he wants to advertise his vacancy. Some of these mentioned sources provide extra services like online resume building, cover letters, etc.

Internet recruitment offers several advantages to recruiters. This method costs less than other methods of recruitment. It can save enormous time and effort spent in the recruitment process. Furthermore, the Internet can gather a large pool of applicants, as recruiting medium. However, it raises some issues for example, as the number of applicants increases, more be the chances of unqualified applicants sending their resumes. Similarly, some qualified candidates who do not have access to the Internet are not able to apply. Privacy is also an issue because you share your information on websites that can violate certain laws (Mathis, Jackson, 2007). Therefore, sometimes the advantages of using the Internet for recruitment purposes turn into disadvantages. On one hand, e-recruitments save our money and time but on the other hand, if unqualified applicants submit their resumes, fore mentioned advantage is overwhelming.

As there are ethical issues involved in the internet, recruitment like fear of technology or being overwhelmed is a technological change. There are certain legal issues as well. You enter your information on websites; hence, your privacy is at stake. You can restrict your positive action outreach efforts. You may be discriminating against certain restricted classes by some online personality tests (Falcone, 2002). No one can exploit information of someone for his or her interest. Privacy of information is a major concern over the internet. Similarly, by your actions, you can be involved in discrimination against a protected group, and the law prohibits this.

Most web search technologies rely on exact word matches. They are not able to provide the user information according to his requirement. Therefore, the CASPER project, to provide clients with personalized search, came into play. With its application to an online recruitment system, there will be a breakthrough in screening and shortlisting candidates for further processing (Rafter, Bradley, & Smyth, 2000). There are huge numbers of applicants who are submitting their applications for certain vacancies. Therefore, there will be a huge unqualified pool of applicants. CASPER will help the recruiters to enter the required qualification and the system will perform the screening. As technology will advance, new developments will make the future of e-recruitment bright and will help to enhance HR processes.