Online recruitment has entered the mainstream, and the Internet is increasingly being accepted as a valuable tool in the job market both globally and locally.
"Online recruitment is moving from strength to strength," says Kris Jarzebowski, MD of online recruitment service CareerJunction.
"The Internet has proven itself a useful ally and developing technologies continue to provide advancements within the online recruitment industry."
Jarzebowski says iLogos Research has reported that in 1998, 29% of Global 500 companies recruited online. This increased to 88% in 2001 and the prediction is that by the end of this year 94% will be recruiting online.
"The Internet makes it possible to attract both active and non-active job seekers from any location," he says. The drive towards the Internet becomes clear when this fact is combined with significant cost and time savings.
Local online recruitment services say while the industry is not growing at the same rate as in the US, given that almost 60% of US residents are Internet users, it is showing remarkable growth in the number of job seekers as well as employers making use of it.
Steven Lawrence, development director at JobNavigator, says that after a "heyday" in 1997 and 1998, the online recruitment sector went into a decline, but is now bouncing back.
He says the Internet is becoming more accepted as a recruitment tool as it allows employers to search databases they do not have on their own.
Savvy companies
"We`re also seeing a big change in the kind of candidates using our site," he says. "It used to be that candidates were mainly A-class - people with credit cards and so on - but now we`re seeing the complete range, from school leaver to CEO."
Ernie Hipner, sales executive at online IT recruitment service CareerWeb, says there is definitely an upswing in the use of online recruiting. "We specialise in IT, so people are more likely to use the Internet to find jobs. We`re pretty unique in that way.
"But in the past year there has definitely been a marked increase." He says companies are increasingly seeing value in the Internet as a medium because of the cost-saving implications.
Jarzebowski says only 3.1 million South Africans have direct access to the Internet, but 20 million could have access through third-party services such as friends, family and Internet caf'e-type services.
"Companies have become savvy to these Internet statistics. Skills are at a premium and organisations are using their companies as an online brand to attract new recruits."
Bradley Taylor, operations director at Pnet (Personnel Net), says many large businesses are now implementing online recruitment tools on their own corporate Web sites, with advertisements mirrored on recruitment portals. "They are taking it very seriously," he says.
Labour law
Taylor says in addition to cost benefits, the acceptance of online recruitment is being driven by the fact that most corporations are not geared to handle the volume of unsolicited CVs they receive.
He says labour law requires a company to examine every CV it receives and respond to or keep it on file for a year. "One of the large corporate banks in SA receives about 35 000 unsolicited CVs every month. You`d have to employ someone full-time if you`re going to go through each one and respond."
The solution for many companies has been to implement a policy of accepting only electronic applications, and Taylor believes this trend will continue.
Adopting such a policy and using an online recruitment tool on a corporate Web site means that applicants are restricted to applying to advertised posts, doing away with unsolicited applications being sent in.
Online solutions can also serve to filter inappropriate applications and responses can be automated.
Taylor says the idea that online recruitment will replace recruitment agencies is a misconception, as corporates cannot always be expected to be able to find the right talent.
He says print and online also do not compete with each other, and in fact many print media companies have established partnerships with recruitment Web sites, where adverts that appear in print are mirrored.
CareerJunction says there is no doubt that online recruitment is here to stay. "If anything, the statistics now indicate that businesses should be measuring how far this industry can take them," it says.
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