Relationships between e-learning and e-recruiting providers are not meeting their potential

E-learning and e-recruiting partnerships provide a great opportunity for cross-selling. However, most of the early relationships between e-recruiting and elearning vendors have been less than fruitful. This is a key message of a new IDC bulletin titled Cross-Selling Opportunities for E-learning and E-recruiting.

The logic behind these partnerships is apparent. Individuals seeking jobs on e-recruiting sites often do not have the skills necessary to land the position they would like to fill. In addition, according to IDC, 72% of job seekers who use e-recruiting sites are already employed full time. Consequently, companies in the e-recruiting market can leverage e-learning on their sites as a means to enhance candidates` skills without interrupting their schedules to attend a traditional class.

Many e-recruiting firms have made this connection and formed partnerships with companies in the e-learning space. Few, however, have formed profitable partnerships. A subset of key findings in IDC`s document include:

• Staffing firms are using e-learning to address the skills gaps of their employees to ensure they are well suited to work on projects for corporate clients.

• Online job boards are promoting curriculum from e-learning content providers to their users, but few course purchases are being made.

"E-learning firms have told us that a significant number of job seekers have sampled free courses through job boards, but the conversion rate to actual purchases has been very disappointing," said Michael Brennan, a senior analyst with IDC`s Corporate E-learning program. "Typically job hunters aren`t searching for employment online with their credit card in hand to purchase training."

IDC also believes e-recruiting firms that have relationships with multiple e-learning providers may be doing more harm than good. "Partnerships with multiple e-learning providers may confuse job seekers by adding the unnecessary steps of researching training companies on top of searching for relevant training courses," said Christopher Boone, analyst for IDC`s E-recruiting program. "Adding these steps wastes time and lessens the likelihood that a job seeker will make a training purchase."

IDC`s bulletin Cross-Selling Opportunities for E-learning and E-recruiting (IDC#B24048) discusses these issues and several others hindering the profitability of current partnerships between e-learning and e-recruiting providers. The document makes several recommendations to vendors to help strengthen these existing partnerships and suggests new kinds of relationships not yet present in the marketplace.