The Advantages And Impact Of Electronic Recruitment For Modern Businesses

Write an essay in which you:

1. Use theoretical concepts, and academic / industry sources, to critically assess how Information Technology and the Internet have revolutionised methods of recruiting new employees from the external labour market. Ensure you critically comment on the effectiveness of internet recruiting to target the labour market accurately.
2. Use correct academic writing technique including effective structure, grammar, spelling, use of in-text citations, and a full reference list, all of which should use the Harvard Referencing convention.

Note: The vast majority of work should demonstrate your own original thinking, with data, quotes, paraphrased opinions, and other evidence used, where appropriate, to evidence and support your own, original debate.   

Note: There is no need for an executive summary, table of contents, or appendices. You must not use diagrams or tables as part of your answer.

Critical Analysis of the Utilization of the Internet for Recruitment

Every organization has a very huge concern that is associated with recruiting new employees. Whether it is for filling up a vacant position in the company or to create a new position in the organization or even to plan a succession in the management of the organization, recruiting is a crucial aspect that has to be conducted appropriately.

In the current scenarios, the change in the recruitment process from traditional to modern process has helped the organization to recruit a wide variety of employees belonging to a different culture and possessing different talent and skills that can be very fruitful for the organization. In the 21^st century and especially in its first decade, the utilization of the internet for recruiting employees gain a rapid growth and this made the electronic recruitment a more convenient and the fastest technique for hiring people.

The main advantage that the organizations have attained through electronic requirement is the wide reach to the applicants, the faster mode of exchanging information between the employers and the potential employee, and also due to this, the cost of advertising has also reduced. Though there may be some issue with the electronic recruitment process, this is the most cost-effective method till date. The internet and the information technology industry has revolutionized every aspect of the global business.

The internet has been useful in a broad spectrum with the various departments of business and its contribution to the Human Resource management has been immense. About a decade ago in 2008, the job searches on the internet were the most fasting growing areas and in the current times, the whole process of recruitment is conducted on the internet through emails, voice calls, video calls, and many other aspects of the internet and the information technology. The service of recruiting employees from the external market labor with the help of information technology and the internet has been most effective for human resource managers.

Critical Analysis of the Utilization of the Internet for Recruitment

The internet and social networking sites have taken over the recruitment process by making it more convenient and broad. The employers have the convenience to hunt for the job applicants and the applicants also have the facility to apply for numerous jobs easily.

Especially when hiring from the external labor market (Aggerholm and Andersen, 2018). Thus, E-recruiting in the current market means that the growth of the internet and the information technology has been beneficial for the employers as they can adjust their job requirements and can target only a specific group of applicants but through the internet, now the targeted market has evolved hugely. The various internet recruiting tools like Web 2.0 sites, twitters, blogs, Internet Links, and many other internet recruitment tools (Al-Kassem, 2017).

Impact of Electronic Recruitment on the Traditional Recruitment Process

According to Salmen, there has been a new addition that has been brought by the digital world to the world of recruitment that was initiated by the Web 1.0 also known as the world wide web, which helped in shortening the time and cost, also in bringing a transparency in the process of providing the candidates with  the information. The process of e-recruitment helps in publicizing the company also on the global level and also increases the credibility of the organization in the market (Salmen, 2012).

This is very crucial for extracting the skilled labor from the external labor market, as the initiative of the e-recruitment is very helpful in attracting the right candidates for the organization. The E-HRM also facilitates in conveying the different kinds of human resource policies, the different training programs and also the payslips in an easy manner. The main theoretical framework of the e-recruitment is dependent on a systematic approach that is driven by a high-tech technology, which facilitates the human resource department of every organization to scrutinize the performance of the employees accurately and carefully (Balasubramanian, Vishnu and Sidharth, 2016).

According to Ganalaki, the e-recruitment is a complete process that is made up of receiving resumes, job advertisements, creating the database of human resource, and then recruiting the desired candidates through all these practices that are conducted for attracting the right applicant (Galanaki, 2009).

Human resource management has a key goal of attracting the correct applicant and creating a strong workforce for an organization. In the current competitive world, it is crucial to hire the most appropriate employee and to do it through the traditional methods of recruitment is impossible due to the high rise in the competition between the organizations (Bashi, 2013). According to Plessis and Frederick, the reason why the attractiveness towards online recruitment is increasing with the changing times as the approaches of the traditional companies are also evolving as they are developing their own website as a strategic approach, that have two main objectives that are to attract and recruit the right applicant and also to beat the competitors by hiring the right individual (Plessis and Frederick, 2012).

According to Daft, the process of attracting the workforce can be divided into four steps that are, first, making a prediction for the requirement of new employee in an organization and the various vacancies that are available, second, using the internet to communicate with the potential candidates, third, selecting and shortlisting the potential candidate who have the best skills to contribute to the organization and the final step, welcoming the recruited employee into the organization (Daft, 2013). The initial steps that are utilized by the organization for recruitment is mainly for the purpose of testing the employee’s capabilities, talents, and skills, and how they can be utilized in fulfilling the objectives of the organization (Cocu?ová, 2011).

Benefits of E-recruitment for Organizations

The other change that the E-recruitment has brought in the traditional recruitment process is the advertising style. According to Campbell, there are two main aspects of recruitment that are applicant conversion and attraction, which can be conducted only through effective advertisement policies. The opportunity of finding out how many applicants noticed and checked the advertisement posted on the internet site and how many applied for the job helps the organization in finding out the instant impact of the job advertisement on the candidate (Campbell, 2012).

This availability of finding out the exact number of applicants who have seen the advertisement was not available through the traditional methods of the job advertisement. Also, the other facility which the E-recruitment advertisement is that whether an organization posts an advertisement for a single vacancy or for a bunch of jobs, the cost incurred on them is lesser than the cost incurred on the traditional advertisement. The job advertisement tools for the E-recruitment includes the job boards, job forums, and many other platforms. All these platforms are cheaper and help in finding out the right applicant in a lesser time (Dideriksen and Farina, 2013).

The role of social media in the E-recruitment process is immense and the broader reach which the organization has towards the applicants is due to the high prominence that the social media enjoy in the current society (Maharani, 2018). The main section of people who are targeted by an organization and those who also belong in the external labor market include recruiting from the colleges and university, labor unions, media sources and job fairs, recruitment agencies, technical schools, high schools, and many other sources.

Now, this highlights that the main targeted section of the organization is people from the age of 16 to 45 years (Marlin, Sarron and Sigurbjörnsson, 2018). The people of this section are highly active on the social networking sites and they spend immense time browsing about different things both personal and professional. According to the Price & Price, the biggest advantage of utilizing the social networking sites in the recruitment process is that the organizations have the opportunity of targeting a specific group (Price and Price, 2011).

In the process of selection for the right applicant, the social networking sites provide a detailed information about the candidate through their profile, which they keep updating, providing the organization with both personal and professional insight into the candidate (Mindia and Hoque, 2018). The information exhibited by the candidates helps the human resource professionals in making the right decision, in accordance with the needs and wants of the candidates.

Role of Social Media in E-recruitment

The information of the candidate influences the hiring decision, which is a limitation of hiring the candidates through social media (Münstermann, Eckhardt and Weitzel, 2010). It is due to this reason that a candidate who might have the potential to contribute largely to an organization, but due to the personal information displayed by him on the social networking sites influenced the human resource professionals to take a biased decision.

So, for an organization, when the main objective of recruitment is to hire a person with talent and unique skills, then just because of his preferences in his personal life he has faced the rejection and the human resource officials hire a person with the same or less capabilities for their organization (Sarver, 2014). Further, if the rejected applicant finds out the reason for his rejection was his social networking site account, then the trust between the organization and their future employee is affected. Another thing which is affected is the applicant’s personal space which is a huge ethical issue, as in the process of checking the social profile is a direct invasion into the privacy of the applicant. Both these aspects associated with the utilization of social networking site with.

E-recruitment raises issues related to trust and ethics, which have a direct impact on the image of the organization in the market. The human resource management enjoys the reputation of managing the people and their beliefs, which is important for carrying out sustainable business practices successfully (Sümnig et al., 2018). The organization in the process of recruitment has two main sub-process that is recruitment and selection. So, in accordance to the objectives of the organization, the one thing that is very important in the current scenario is that the organizations should not hinder the privacy of the applicant by checking their social networking accounts, to formulate their decisions.

Now, the impact of the internet on the application process is also massive. The social media provide the applicants with the chance to provide all the information that is required to apply for a job, and which is provided to the organization through the job forms or through different tools. This is the application step, which in the traditional method was very slow and it would even take months for people to get a reply after the application process. There are three main elements of the recruitment process which are sustainability, flexibility, and malleability (Terry et al., 2018).

Conclusion

The main objectives of the recruitment process are “sustainability”, that is required in addressing the potential clients and also in selecting them. Now, the sustainability of the recruitment process can only be attained if the organization targets the right individuals with a broader approach that means catering to a large number of applicants.

This facility which is not available through the traditional method of recruitment has been made easy by the social networking sites the second element that is required in the recruitment process is “malleability” that means that the applicant that has to be selected for the organization should possess the capabilities of merging with the culture of the organization. In this approach, the social media help in providing with an insight into the client’s life, which may be a privacy hindrance but it also helps the organization massively.

The human resource professionals are able to formulate a decision which is based on the culture that the organization has, and in this aspect, the social media is very helpful. Through the traditional process of recruitment, the personal information which is provided by the applicant is limited to marital status and hobbies. The third element that is important in the recruitment process is “flexibility”.  

The importance of flexibility in the recruitment process is significant due to the growing competition between the organizations in the market. So, for this, it is crucial for the organization that they employ applicants who are flexible that is they belong to a diverse culture. In the current working scenarios in the organizations and the atmosphere in the market, it is important for the organization to promote diverse working culture. The social media provide the organizations to fulfill this demand of the current recruitment process (Wiedmann, Pedersen and Nilssen, 2012).

The organizations have the opportunity of selecting candidates from diverse backgrounds and due to the current working environment in the market that states the high success rate of cross-cultural management, thus this is very beneficial for the organization. A social networking site of an organization helps in informing the job seekers about the different vacancies that are available in the company and when the applicants apply the organizations have the chance to conduct a background check on the applicants to make the final decision.

Though all these are approaches that are invading the personal space of an applicant, this is the change that the social media has brought into the lives of people. On a normal basis too, people use to share their happiness and sorrow with their closed ones only, but with the changing times, the social media has provided the people with the opportunity to display and share their personal feelings with a large bunch of people. This is a change that has made people flexible to the invasion, which takes place and when an organization checks a social media account of an applicant then the information exhibited by the applicants was posted with the purpose of informing the other about his personal life. So, if the organization conducts this then it is appropriate too.

Thus, the social media provide the organizations and the candidates with huge information that helps in building relationship easily and, also, even if the applicant is rejected the first time, in many cases the organization pursue the same applicant after a certain point when there is another vacancy and due to the availability of the candidate on the social media, the organization is able to easily reconnect with the applicant. In the case of the applicant, he is also able to reconnect with the organization for a different vacancy.

Conclusion

With the advancements in the information technology and the internet, this can be formulated that the shift in the recruitment process has resulted in paperless processes. This has had a huge impact not only the organization’s working, making them more convenient and simpler to manage, but it has also had a huge impact on the environment too. The organizations now follow a recruitment process that is less costly, due to the cost reduction in the advertisement process and also in the application process.

The other advantage of using the internet and social media is better time management, is that organizations are able to achieve due to the less time-consuming recruitment processes. Till now, major organizations had a separate place for the recruitment files which were difficult to manage and when in times of need, it used to be a tedious process, but through the process of the application being conducted through the internet, the organizations are able to save the records in a much easier manner. Apart from this, the various needs and the desires of the applicants and the organization are clearly displayed in front of each other, and thus the huge gap that used to be there in between them has been reduced massively.

References

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