Home : Newsletters : 2003 : September
Association of Online Recruiters (AOLR)
For its research published in August 2003 RCI (produced by the Cranfield School of Management and the Daily Telegraph) focused on online recruitment, examining the levels of use and success amongst 2,000 UK employers.
The results show that approximately half of the employers participating in the survey use the internet within the recruitment process. The survey went on to detail that of those using online recruitment 54% only use corporate recruitment sites (the careers section of a company's own site), 14% only use commercial job boards (such as Fish4Jobs, Total Jobs and Workthing) and 32% of those using the internet in the recruitment process use both techniques.
The research then looked at which positions companies are advertising online. One positive finding is that organisations are now using the internet to recruit across a broader range of employees in terms of seniority. The research found that in the summer of 2003 20% of organisations used the internet to recruit at board level, compared to 5% in the spring of 2000. The other major increase comes at the clerical level; in spring 2000 only 10% of companies were using the internet to recruit clerical staff, compared to 50% in summer 2003. Overall the following percentages of companies are now using the internet to recruit at the following levels.
| Board level | 20% |
| Senior Management | 47% |
| Middle management | 60% |
| Junior management | 66% |
| Graduate | 49% |
| Clerical | 50% |
| Manual | 24% |
The research then goes on to compare success rates for recruiting different levels of candidates across corporate recruitment sites and commercial sites. The findings show that corporate sites are most successful for graduate and middle management positions and that commercial sites are most successful for graduate and clerical positions. Perhaps surprisingly the research found that commercial sites had been used more successfully than corporate sites to recruit those at board level (54% vs 34%), senior management (64% vs 50%) and middle management (65% vs 59%). These figures come against the background of a well-established belief amongst HR professionals that senior candidates don't use the internet, let alone commercial job boards and should go some way to revising these views.
Despite these levels of success the research identified employers who have ceased using commercial jobs boards and investigated why these employers had stopped advertising their vacancies online. 63% of employers who have stopped using commercial job boards stated they did so because they received too many unsuitable applicants, more than any other reason given. This is a something that we frequently encounter when talking to corporate recruiters about online recruitment. The ease of applying online can be a double-edged sword generating lots of applications, including those from irrelevant candidates.
We recommend two techniques to tackle applications from irrelevant candidates. The first is to choose your media carefully, remember the right job board for you isn't necessarily the cheapest or the largest but the site that can provide you with the type of candidates you want to recruit. NORAS is one great way of ascertaining which site provides you with the highest number of relevant candidates. If the site you're talking to doesn't participate in NORAS then don't be afraid of asking its sales team detailed questions about the site's users - after all you are paying to access this audience.
The second technique to combat irrelevant applications is to invest in sorting and sifting software that can judge all candidates against preset criteria and present you with just the applications from relevant candidates and respond automatically to those without the relevant skills. Using this backend technology effectively is the key to ensuring that you enjoy the full benefits of online recruitment and are not tied to printing out CV's and applications that were originally received electronically.
Cranfield School of Management / The Daily Telegraph's RCI research is published quarterly, the current wave focuses on online recruitment and the full results can be obtained for £50 by contacting Doctor Emma Parry on 01234 754 808 or by emailing emma.parry@cranfield.ac.uk.