Understanding the traditional forms of recruitment Essay Example

of all types, sizes, and locations are increasingly turning to e-recruitment as their preferred method. According to Rynes' definition (1991), recruitment involves utilizing organizational practices to influence the number and types of individuals who apply for job vacancies (Casper, 2004).The decision-making process of applicants plays a crucial role in the complex procedure of selecting jobs and organizations for future employment (Gatewood et al., 1993). Typically, employers initiate the traditional process of enlisting employees when they become aware of job vacancies within their organization. The extent to which potential applicants participate in this process depends on the appealing qualities and attractiveness of the job, as well as their perceived chances of success in the hiring process. As a result, there is usually a waiting period for potential applicants to respond after a recruiter announces a job opening. Sometimes, this waiting period exceeds the recruiter's expectations. According to Wikipedia.com, e-recruitment refers to personnel recruitment using electronic resources, specifically through the internet. In other words, it involves utilizing internet and database facilities for conducting recruitment activities. The literature commonly refers to e-recruitment as online recruitment, internet recruitment, or cyber-recruiting. These terms encompass advertising job vacancies online and collecting information about jobs from online sources.The inconsistency in terminology used to describe e-recruitment demonstrates its novelty for many organizations worldwide. Articles on the topic began appearing in the mid-1980s. The adaptability of hiring time cycles is another distinction between traditional recruiting and e-recruiting. Traditional recruiting follows a sequential batch process, while e-recruiting is continuous and online, allowing for multiple activities simultaneously (Lee, 2005). In other words, e-recruitment has a faster turnaround time than traditional recruitment methods (Helen and Sue, 2008),

making it less time-consuming for individuals seeking job opportunities compared to traditional methods (Pin, Laorden, and Saenz-Diez, 2001). While it takes time for information about available positions to reach potential applicants in the traditional recruitment process after a job opening becomes available through the employer's initiation; Cober et al. (2000) suggest that relevant job information can be easily and quickly obtained "in theory" through e-recruitment (as cited by Anthony et al., 2010).The internet enables job information to be quickly disseminated worldwide by recruiters with a simple mouse click. E-recruitment offers a personalized occupation agent tool that can search for job gaps based on specific criteria. When matching jobs are found, candidates are notified, eliminating the need for constant searching. This tool also generates vacancy notifications from multiple organizations, saving job seekers time and effort. E-recruitment not only provides initial job notifications but also speeds up and reduces the cost of applying for positions compared to traditional methods. With various tools and applications, applicants can search for openings and submit applications within hours. The e-recruitment system includes an occupation basket tool that allows simultaneous applications for multiple opportunities within a company through online links. Additionally, application resumes stored in the system database can easily be edited and reused indefinitely across different organizations (Lee, 2005).The e-recruitment system has revolutionized the application process by eliminating the need for physical resumes. Instead, applicants can email or upload their digital resumes to recruiters' email addresses or the company's recruitment web portal. This change has drastically reduced processing time from days to seconds and eliminated delays for traditional job applicants who had to mail their responses.

Furthermore, the e-recruitment system has a

feature that suggests suitable candidates based on stored personal information in its database. This reduces the need for active job hunting and minimizes visibility of the job search. Both recruiters and potential applicants can initiate the recruitment process, allowing for better adaptation of hiring timelines.

In terms of accessibility, e-recruitment systems enable recruiters to provide detailed information about job positions and organizational culture, which encourages potential applicants to apply for openings.Differences in the information presented on company recruitment websites can affect how attractive an organization is perceived to be due to perceptions of website usability (Williamson, 2003). Potential applicants often rely on the amount of information provided by employers about a job and organization to make comparisons on their own. The more specific information that is available, the better applicants can determine if a job suits them (Turban and Dougherty, 1992).

Organizations' websites typically include pages with background information, contact details, and other policy and program details. These details can inform potential job seekers about the working conditions within the organization (Brcaugh, 1992; Rynes, 1991). Nowadays, many organizations provide additional information online or include links to testimonials and employment benefit sites (Bingham et al., 2002; Epstein et al., 2003). Such information significantly influences job seekers' decisions when applying online (Dineen, 2002; Rynes and Barber, 1990).

The quantity and quality of information provided by employers greatly impact applicants' choices and attractiveness towards them (Dineen, 2002; Rynes and Barber, 1990). Compared to traditional recruitment methods,the volume of information available online from organizations is increasing. Despite potentially overwhelming amounts of data,the e-recruitment system allows job seekers to efficiently search for their desired occupation online.This system offers an interactive search engine that

provides job seekers with the ability to quickly find job listings or contact information by clicking on buttons or hyperlinks. This allows job seekers to access a large volume of job information from various sources, which is then categorized and sorted based on individual preferences. Furthermore, job seekers are continuously informed about all relevant opportunities without the need for manual searching through the job database. This notification system is made possible by e-recruitment technology.

The use of this e-recruitment system and database also enables organizations to maintain a comprehensive record of all applicants and efficiently identify suitable candidates based on their qualifications and matching individual qualities with job requirements. The e-recruitment system eliminates any potential human biases and speeds up the recruitment process. Consequently, a relationship plan has been developed between employers and potential employees, including those who may not be actively seeking employment or already have jobs elsewhere.

With the internet's popularity, e-recruitment has become widely adopted, offering a variety of online job postings ranging from blue-collar to professional positions. This makes e-recruitment particularly appealing to digital-age job seekers who can easily explore different jobs, companies, and industries using online resources.The recruitment process can now be conducted virtually through online e-recruiting systems. These systems are web-enabled and available anytime, anywhere. They benefit both job seekers and recruiters by providing access to information on various job opportunities 24/7 via the internet.

Compared to traditional methods, the e-recruitment system is faster and simpler. Applicants can respond to online advertisements by uploading their resumes or emailing them to recruiters. Traditional recruitment processes have limited coverage because they lack alternative distribution methods as effective as the internet.

The internet serves as a

popular recruitment tool due to its ability to reach untapped markets at minimal cost. E-recruitment has significantly expanded geographic reach and allows for advertising jobs globally, locally, or in specialized markets. This broadens the pool of applicants (Smith, 2005).

Furthermore, the internet is seen as unbiased and even beneficial because it provides anonymity and transcends racial, cultural, and gender differences (Hayes and Sabir, 1996; Marzulli, 2002). These advantages create a sense of fairness for individual applicants and encourage them to search for job vacancies online.The internet provides an overwhelming amount of information accessible to people on a local, national, and international level with few restrictions (Erica, 2007). Compared to traditional methods, e-recruitment through the internet offers unlimited space for communicating career information (Marcel, Martin, and Willemijn, 2008). This includes not only displaying application procedures on the FAQ page but also emailing recruiters for inquiries and participating in online forum discussions about job openings. Moreover, organizations can use cyberspace as a database of information about potential applicants. However, the traditional recruitment process lacks effective candidate relationship management which causes difficulties in processing applications and communication. E-recruitment systems solve these problems by allowing organizations to recruit candidates online. They facilitate more efficient matching of job offers with job seekers. In contrast, traditional hiring managers and recruiters rely on hard-copy documents and conventional methods for recruitment processes.E-recruitment involves collecting data about job seekers through online application forms or resume builders and then analyzing it to create candidate profiles. This process helps organizations save time, cost, and resources in their recruitment efforts. However, the design and content of an organization's website play a crucial role in attracting job seekers. The

orientation and anticipated outcome of the website also influence how potential candidates perceive the organization's attractiveness through the site's usability.

Organizational websites have evolved from virtual information portals to becoming the primary source for attracting potential job candidates and representing organizational reputation. Unlike traditional recruitment methods, e-recruitment includes interactive tools that promote relationship-building between job seekers and organizations. These interactive features enable more effective management of candidate relationships.

One key feature of e-recruitment system websites is an interactive search engine that allows job seekers to compare multiple occupations based on various criteria such as category, location, experience, or keywords. This search engine requires a user login to ensure personal information protection and securely stores job application preferences within its database.Searching for job advertisements online through keyword search is much easier compared to searching in newspapers. E-recruitment allows users to enter various job-related search variables, making searches more specific and enhancing the online job-hunting process. The smoothness of this process is due to the interaction between internet application procedures and internal database management procedures within the company. The e-recruiting system improves job seekers' decision-making capabilities by offering a range of decision support tools, which provide customized analyses and generate reports that help them find suitable positions through self-assessment tools. These self-assessment tools assist job seekers in identifying target areas and areas for improvement before submitting their applications online (Lee, 2005). This helps reduce the influx of low-quality applications into the recruitment database while allowing job seekers to choose and apply for the most suitable positions. According to Ahuja and Webster (2001), user-friendly interfaces are crucial for employment intent websites as they should provide fast, accurate, and easy access

to information without requiring excessive search procedures.The information architecture of a website should be well-organized, well-labeled, and easy to navigate, as it enhances browsing and searching capabilities (Rosenfeld and Morville, 2002). The use of colors, signifiers, symbols, metaphors, and linguistic communications can greatly influence usability and user interface friendliness on websites, especially for individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds (Duncker et.al., 2000). These aspects are extensively studied in human-computer interaction (Agarwal and Venkatesh, 2002; Nielsen, 2000).

According to forrester.com, hiring an employee through the internet costs an average of USD183 compared to traditional methods that cost around USD1383. This makes e-recruitment approximately six and a half times more cost-effective (Lee, 2005). Traditional recruitment processes often have high costs per hire. Expenses associated with staff recruitment can be extensive and burdensome. The choice of recruitment source directly impacts the effectiveness of reaching a manageable target market of quality candidates in terms of financial and resource costs (Courtis, 1994).E-recruitment is increasingly preferred by recruiters due to its efficiency and cost-effectiveness. It helps corporate recruiters save costs by eliminating fees for posting jobs on commercial occupation boards. This method benefits both recruiters and job applicants in terms of cost savings, efficiency, and convenience. Despite larger companies having bigger recruitment budgets, e-recruitment is not limited to smaller companies as many companies of all sizes are using it because it is cheaper than traditional methods. This decrease in recruitment costs positively impacts job applicants, as most e-recruiters offer their services to applicants free of charge.