BUSN20019 Recruitment Via Online Recruitment Website Seek For HRM

1. Consider how best to structure your Discussion section; it is a good idea to use the same structure as you had in your Findings/Analysis section OR to combine Findings/Analysis and Discussion.
2a. If you have separate sections, start with an overview sentence,
2b. If you combine them, start with an overview sentence
3. Compare your analysed findings to the LR and provide your own comments with a particular emphasis on ‘What does this mean?’
 

 

Human Resource Mangement: Recruitment Via Online Recruitment Website Seek And How Potential Candidates Are Attracted Via Job Adverts On This Website.

Human resource is one of the most important department of a company as it is given the responsibility of recruiting efficient employees on whom the company will run. Human resource management is a dynamic field of study as the processes change with time in an endeavor to ensure a more effective method of employee recruitment and retention (Cascio, 2018). The online job portals are the recent medium of recruiting in a cost effective but efficient manner. It does not require much capital to post recruitment advertisements in online job portals and the audience reach can be customized according to need (Antoun et al., 2016). Therefore, more and more companies are taking the online way for fulfilling the company requirements. In the year 1995 six major newspapers from USA, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, San Jose Mercury News, and the Chicago Tribune put a joint effort in starting a website called CareerPath.com which was the first online job portal. The website has now changed its name to careerbuilder.com (Careerbuilder.com, 2018). Since then there are innumerable websites for job search and recruitment all over the world in all countries.

Seek.com is one of the most popular job searching sites in Australia. It is owned by the Seek Limited, and has its headquarters in Melbourne and is a public limited company.

Traditionally recruitment advertisements were posted mainly in newspapers in the classified sections. The main limitation in this regard was it could not be tested whether the advertisements were spotted by the proper target audience or not. The advertisements had to be published in all the newspapers and many redundant sections of the population who would not in take up the job were automatically included in the target audience. This was the main problem which gave rise to the now popular online recruitment system which is much more efficient and target specific (Brandão et al., 2017). There has been increase in the ratio of job requirement and candidate profile (Mahmood, 2017). Better people are applying for proper jobs. However, in the new system of recruiting via online job portals there has been found much similarities in the structure and the languages of the advertisements. This aims to research in this regards the similarities of the advertisements on job sites and their impact on job seekers. 

The aim of the research is to understand various perspectives about emerging trends of Human Resource Recruitment process through the online job portal Seek.com, especially in recruiting Human Resource Manager for big companies. There are various commonalities seen in the advertisements posted for recruitment of HR managers in Australia, the research aims to understand these commonalities and why these common terms are used in the advertisements.

• How the companies attract best professionals to apply for the positions?
• What are the various commonalities found in the job advertisements posted in Seek.com for the post of HR manager?
• Why such commonalities are used?
• What impact does such common terms exert on the professionals searching for jobs?

In the article “Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated approach” the authors elaborate how the stakeholders of HRM process needs to move beyond just the usual approach of human resource management and require to imbibe engagements like socialization, training and education and performance management (Albrecht et al., 2015). Already there are a number of theories and frameworks that state that how innovations brought in the HRM practices result in “competitive advantage”. The research suggests that the expert job applicants are progressively looking for positions and roles that includes scope of challenge taking and fast growth. On the other hand, Kehoe & Right (2013) states how the perceptions of the employees about “high performance and innovation in HR practices” relate to the overall organisation behaviour and success. They have refuted just innovation as the driving point and included perceptions and cognition into the picture along with innovation. The findings of this research suggest that such perceptions positively affect the organisational behaviour and success therefore the employee expectation of innovations must be ideally implemented at all levels. In the article “On-line consistent ranking on e-recruitment: seeking the truth behind a well-formed CV” the authors have pointed out how the job markets are gradually moving towards a complete online digital recruitment system and how algorithms and programs sort out CV of the candidates to short-list the best ones (Faliagka et al., 2014), so more than just innovations in process, machine intelligence in recruitment also comes to play.

Human resource is a complicated process as it deals with the most complex resource of a company, its employees. Unlike other resources human beings are emotional beings with complicated needs and desires. In the article “The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model” the authors have highlighted this point and also stated that a mediation model that is linked and based on the behavioural aspect of the human being (Alfes et al., 2013). The connection between the recruitment and engagement of the employees and the outcomes depend on the perception of support from the organisation and exchange between the leader and the members. However, in the article “A resource?based perspective on human capital losses, HRM investments, and organizational performance” the authors had a different version about the factors that adversely affects human resource process, they examine the problem of “human capital losses” and how it affects the performance of the organisation (Shaw, Park & Kim, 2013). This research highlights the problems in regards to employee retention issue. Proper care if not taken during recruitment about hiring employees whose retention probability will be high, the company will bear losses in human capital. Lately the companies have realised the competitive advantage possibility it gets if the superior professionals are recruited, therefore there is fierce competition in hiring the best of the market, which has led to lucrative recruitment advertisements which is the topic for study in this paper. Dries, (2013) in his article “The psychology of talent management: A review and research agenda” provided a clear picture about the psychological aspects of recruitment and maintenance of human resource. In an organisation there is requirement of expertise of various fields and recruitment is done in such way the perfect professional for executing that job can be recruited. Talent management is one of the key responsibilities of the HR process in which talent of a person is utilised in an optimum way and proper remuneration is provided in return. 

Renwick, Redman, & Maguire in their article “Green human resource management: A review and research agenda” (2013) has given some processes which can make the human resource management more sustainable and environment friendly. Reduction of paper usage, giving importance on sustainable work practices among the employees are some of the ways the Human Resource department can contribute towards sustainable human resource process. The online recruitment system has in many ways reduced the requirement of paper works and made an environment friendly method of recruiting people. In the article “The impact of human resource management on environmental performance: An employee-level study” the authors have given a clear picture about how the human resource mechanism of an organisation has direct impact on the environmental performance and footprint of the company (Paillé et al., 2014). The companies are under pressure from all stakeholder’s including the direct and indirect ones, to establish processes and practices that are environmental friendly, and a company will have environment friendly overall process if the employees follow sustainable work methods. The HR who is responsible must be serious about implementing policies that will result in overall sustainability of the companies.

The two types of approaches that are mainly followed in research are deductive research approach and inductive research approach. The deductive research approach is the system based on the system of evaluation of the existing researches, theories, ideas and models related to the research topic and study. Inductive approach on the other hand is mainly based on the idea of proposing and establishing new theories and concepts. The research approach is important in understanding the process in which the research is done and its possible outcomes.

In this research the method of deductive research approach is adopted because the paper is mainly based on research and analysis of existing theories and ideas (Mackey and Gass, 2015). The research here is about the recruitment advertisements that are given in online website Seek.com, and comparison in their effectiveness and similarity. Especially the case of recruiting Human Resource managers is taken into consideration. Critical literature review has been done on various aspects of new trends in human resource management and the further research is based on the literature review. Data that is taken is found online which will be analysed by existing models and theories and the outcomes will be stated. Hence, the deductive research approach is chosen over the inductive research approach.

There are mainly three kinds of research designs that are utilised, these are “analytical, explanatory and exploratory research design.” Analytical research design is also known as the descriptive research design. In the analytical research design there is a detailed discussion and explanation about the topic of study in detailed descriptive manner (Marshall & Rossman, 2014). It is mainly the description of the information and detailed analysis of them. Exploratory research design has an approach of describing and evaluating the study and its relevancy in the initial stage. It is about the relevance and the importance of the study. The last method called the explanatory research method aims to develop and build a relationship and connection among the two variables of the research.

In this particular research the descriptive research design which is also known as the analytical research design is followed which will help in understanding the topic in details and also all the relevant theories, models and ideas about the topic. In order to understand the similarities of the advertisements posted in the portal and why such similarities are used there has to be a study about the particular terms repeatedly used and their impact on the psychology of the professionals who apply for the posts.

Data collection method is one of the most important aspect of a research as the whole research is based on the data that is collected. In quantitative research the data is mainly collected from the primary sources through survey questions and interview, in secondary research the data is collected from various secondary sources like existing information, journals, articles, and researches (Lewis, 2015). The collection of the data for this research will be done from the literature reviews and analysis of the online advertisements in Seek.com will be the basis of the findings. Seek.com.au is the most popular online job portal in Australia and provides thousands of job searches (refer to Figure 1 in Appendices). Therefore, the research is mainly conducted on the secondary data. Research will be based on information from various sources like online advertisements, relevant researches, articles and journals on the relevant topic. 

The main method of analysis of the data will be in the thematic method. The various perspective of the research questions will be defined as themes and the analysis will be done taking into consideration the various themes (Panneerselvam, 2014). Apart from that each of the information and aspects will be set into their contextual backgrounds and analysis will be done accordingly. Keyword search strategy is applied to search for relevant data and analyse them accordingly. Keywords are the main tool to conduct a perfect online research. The online research results are produced due to proper keyword searches. Keywords like “HR jobs in Sydney”, “Human Resource Managers Job in Sydney”, “Best HR jobs in Sydney” and similar, are used.

Ethics are the moral standards that are needed to be followed during a research. There should not be any tampering of data or endeavour towards manipulating the research outcomes. In the case of the secondary researches it is important to cite the reference sources correctly and give the due credits to the authors from whose works the information is taken (Resnik, 2015). The research study is done solely for the purpose of academic findings and no advertorials should be included in any part of the research paper.

Human Resource Management is very important in shaping the business performance of an organization. Recruitment and employee retention is very basic need for a company to succeed.

The online recruitment advertisements serve the purpose of getting the perfect employees for the perfect positions in the company. The acceptance of the online information available depends on some factors. The perceived usefulness and ease of use are factors which shape the online search experience of the users.

Career progress denotes the terms used in the advertisements that refer to the opportunity of growth in the career of the employees who take up the particular job. Every employee looks forward to opportunities in growth in their existing job in lieu of the good work they are doing. In addition, they look for jobs that offer good opportunities of growth. This section of the research focuses on the terms and keywords used by the online advertisements which highlight the growth perspective.

The first two advertisements that is taken in this regards are:-

In both of the above two advertisements of L&D Resource and SECOM, words like enhancing, development and opportunities are used all of which point to the fact that the professional lives of the people applying for the job will improve if the particular job is taken up. One of the words that come repeatedly in the recruitment advertisements is “dynamic”. Recruitment advertisements lure the talented professionals by challenging them to “unleash” their creative side, or be a “game changer”, as already discussed the candidates are more and more interested in challenging jobs where they can explore their own potentials.

Terms like “dynamic” and “growing up” that denote the opportunity for growth in the organisation are used in most of the recruitment advertisements. Therefore, there is a competition among the organisations to get the best professionals in their basket by influencing them by using such terms.

In this advertisement of Lyca Mobile there are similar keywords like “dynamic” and “growth”.

This advertisement of Club Central calls upon the candidates to apply on the ground to “build career with industry experts”. This has a significant impact on the minds of the people who are going through the advertisement as they main objective in the minds of the professional’s mind is to “build” good career with the leaders in the industry.

The advertisement starts with stating that the company is “largest” in its field, and then goes on to declare the “great opportunities” that lie ahead for the professionals who join the company.

The role in this advertisement of Bridge Housing is called both “exiting” and “diverse”. A job role would be exiting only when there are growth opportunities. Diverse denotes the different number of possibilities that are there in the job role.

One of the lucrative factors in a job is the various growth and training opportunities it provides to the employees. The professionals in the market are looking for jobs that are not static and from where they can learn new skills. A large number of jobs these days come with benefits of on job training opportunities and skill development education. In this section of the research there will be comparison among various job advertisements about how they highlight their training and support opportunities.

In Figure 3 (Refer to the Appendices), the recruitment advertisement of Secom two sentences “ongoing mentoring and coaching” and “professional development opportunities” are used both of which highlight the training aspect of the job in which the employee will grow due to ongoing training.

In Figure 7 (Refer to the Appendices), the word “support” has been used to dentote that the learning process of the new employees will be supported by the existing senior employees.

In the above advertisement of AMA special importance has been given to the business students and graduates who may return to working and pursue their on job training.

In the above advertisement apart from mentioning about “great team culture”, a lucrative offer of providing “full training” is also given by the company. These terms are helpful in inspiring people who want to continue to learn and grow while doing a job.

The top professionals in the industry give a lot of importance to the work culture of an organisation before choosing it for working. Work culture or environment is the setting of the job in which the employee has to work. Work culture includes the mind sets of the management the attitude of the employees and the overall culture that prevails in the company. Work environment on the other hand is work culture in addition to the physical setting in which the employee has to perform the job responsibility.

In the Figure 2, (refer to the appendices) advertisement of the HR Recruitment of Lindt & Sprungli Resource the sentence “FMCG environment with inclusive culture” has been mentioned which denote that the company is inclusive and does not discriminate among its employees on any grounds. In Figure 6 (refer to the appendices), advertismeent of the Lyca mobiles, the company culture has been described to be “dynamic” to lure the candidates who prefer dynamic, flexible and gowing work culture over static and fixed ones.

In figure 12 (refer to the appendices), the advertisement of Kelly services the first sentence is “great team culture”, though the sentence is vague and does not reflect enough details about what exactly is meant by “great team culture” but it is evident that they want to attract professionals by expressing that the work culture is positive and employee oriented.

The above advertisement of Education Centre of Australia both states that the job gives the candidate the “opportunity to grow and develop” and offers “great team environment.

The above advertisement of Instinct Electrical has given a lot of importance on their team culture and used two bullet points to denote “positive culture” and “friendly & dynamic team”. Therefore, they mainly want to highlight their team culture in order to attract employees. 

In both of the above recruitment advertisements of Brystol-Myers Squibb and Royal Sydney terms like “positive work culture”, or “supportive culture” is used to make the advertisements attractive to the professionals who wants to work in positive and supportive work culture. They also offer “new opportunities” to the candidates.

In the above section it was noteworthy how the recruitment advertisements use similar terms and sentences in order to compete against in order and recruit the best people. There are some very common terms like “dynamic”, “growth”, “develop”, “opportunity”, “career building”, “exiting”, “diverse”, “positive work culture” and similar ones which are used almost in all of the 15 above recruitment advertisement for HR manager in the website www.seek.com.au.

In the first section of the literature review it was mentioned that HRM process needs to “move beyond just the usual approach of human resource management and require to imbibe engagements like socialization, training and education and performance management.” This is very evidently adopted in the new age online recruitment where social approach is given importance by terms like “positive work culture”, “diverse work culture”, “supportive team”. Highlighting training and education is also very important feature of today’s recruitment advertisements as is seen in the chapter “5.2 THEME 2: ON GOING TRAINING AND SUPPORT”.

The claim in the first part of the literature review stating that “the research suggests that the expert job applicants are progressively looking for positions and roles that includes scope of challenge taking and fast growth” is proved in various job advertisements above where the employees are expected to be a “game changer” and “unleash the creative side” as found in Figure 2 (please refer to the Appendices).

In the second part of the literature review the problems in the new recruitment process has been discussed. One of the main problem is retention. The findings from the above analysed data show how there is a fierce competition among the employers to get the best professionals into their companies. Therefore, there are better lucrative offers everyday highlighting terms like “growth”, “development”, and “opportunities”, hence this creates a retention problem because the employees tend to change jobs for better offers.

The last part of the literature review speaks about sustainability in recruitment process. It is seen from the above recruitment advertisements that more and more companies are taking to online sites to post their requirements and vacancies. This is a sustainable practice as it reduces paperwork. Also the online advertisers are more responsible in offering benefits to the employees because people can compare all of the offers on the same webpage and decide on the best.

It can be well concluded from the above research that the employers and recruiters who post online advertisements use common terms repetitively in order to communicate the message that why their company is the best to get recruited. They take up various themes to attract the candidates like career progression, on job trainings and positive organisational culture, this is evident from the analysis of the secondary data that has been done above. There are common terms repeatedly used to lure the professionals to apply for the job.

Though the practice of online advertising of recruitment advertisements is sustainable and it can be customised to reach the proper target audience, still the advertisers need to innovate the way advertisements are written. All the advertisements should not look similar and identical, rather new terms and ways to put across the message should be thought of.

Apart from that the job sites can make the recruitment advertisement process more interactive, where the applicants who have any doubt about any particular job may ask questions to the employer and clear the doubts. This will make application process more transparent with lesser flaws.

The sample size of the advertisements taken in this research is low and hence the possibility of comparison and analysis was less. There were not enough studies and researches on the online recruitment advertisements which could be studied and understood for a better perspective on the topic. The data collection method consisted of referring to recruitment advertisements on the Australian job search site called See.com.au, however the advertisements are dynamic in nature and everyday hundreds of new jobs are posted, which make the advertisements which are extracted for study to be out of date and not enough recent. 

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