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Advantages & Drawbacks of E-Recruitment


The internet is a global service that provides 24/7 access to all who access it globally. For employers moving to e-recruitment (CIPD,2005). Corporates have accepted online or e-recruitment with open arms based on the considerable amount of benefits moving in the online recruitment platform. However, it also has its limitations such as when an organization receives a higher number of applications, processing these will be indeed a challenge. Below mentioned are the benefits and challenges faced by corporates related to online recruitment. 

Benefits

Cost and Time Saving 
This will be the most noticeable benefit for e recruitment (Kim & O'Connor, 2009). Compared to the cost of employment agencies, head hunters and other traditional recruitment medium such as Printed media (Malinowski, Keim, & Weitzel, 2005). Due to the by the internet job seekers can send application to employers in seconds and vise versa where the recruiter will be able to communicate with the applicant in seconds, this saves time for both party which is a great benefit of e-recruitment.

Reduction of HR workload
Reduction of the HR workload will be a burden taken away from the HR department (Kerrin & Kettley, 2003). The significance of cutting down of HR administrative workload which therefore saves time as well (Malinowski, Keim, & Weitzel, 2005). According to Kumar & Pandya (2012), it is proven that HRIS (Human Resource Information System), inclusion & development to a company can reduce the HR workload as well cost can be significantly cut down. Organizations should embrace new technologies faster to compete with the competition and create especially in their field (Kerrin & Kettley, 2003). 

Reach towards inactive job seekers  
These type of seekers will not be actively looking of jobs, but, may have an interest such as different work experience, better working conditions, better salary, this is a trend amongst today's workforce. This also indicates a segment attached to the organization but not loyal (kinder, 2000). Apart from motivation, they have quality potential (Dhamija, 2012). 

Optimistic impact on corporate site
According to Barber (2006) in reality, Recruitment is, job marketing, therefore, the corporate image and how the websites are constructed related to recruitment pulls jobseekers to the corporate (Thompson, Braddy, & Wuensch, 2008). Aid of the internet job posting sites are constructed in a very informative interactive way by including videos, images and links to them (Maurer & Liu, 2007). Therefore the prominence of the corporate brand the organization is measured by the success based on the attraction of potential knowledge (Parry & Tyson, 2008). 

Challenges

Budget Limitations 
Corporates have concerns about estimating budgets for e-recruitment due to financial limitations especially for smaller enterprises compared to larger once (Kim & O'Connor, 2009). Based on the study IES, (2003) It is not only a strategic decision for a smaller company to lean towards Internet technology but also depends on its financial capacity. 

Possible risks of Failure  
Implementing an e recruitment system can be complex it needs constant development, the process will not end there should be continues striving for improvement which needs time and further costs (Kim & O'Connor, 2009).

Quality vs Quantity of Applications 
Based on e-recruitment the applications volumes can be very high, it can be a concern during selection process, if a good e-recruitment tool is not selected it workload of HR team will increase dramatically choosing these tools can be complex, since there are lots of options (Bartram, 2000).  
   
Cultural changes 
Major changes can occur in the organization due to the introducing e recruiting tools. Organizational staff to be trained to handle the new system (Cappelli, 2001), added technology for the existing software can be offline (Kim & O'Connor, 2009), this needs to be presented in a way that it also adapts to the cultural change (Kerrin & Kettley, 2003).


Conclusion
According to the CIPD (2005) due to the internets global reach and availability, it has become the ideal platform for e-recruitment. Organizations have adapted to this due to the advantages of Time & Cost saving, reduce HR workload due to automation, attracting passive job seekers due to the how the corporate brand is portrait hence this has enabled them to recruit the cream of the crop or more suitable employees for the available position. However, it also has its challenges where each organization needs to strive to improve, such as budget limitation based on size of the organization, how to manage the quantity of the application volume and select the suitable candidates, how the Organization adapts to cultural changes and possible risk of failure whether the selected e recruitment system is suitable for the organization, therefore it is a process of continues improvement with changing technology to maintain an up to date e recruitment system which will find you the right candidate for the better of the Organisation.


References

Barber, L. (2006). e-Recruitment Developments. Institute for Employment Studies, IES Research Networks.Brighton: Institute for Employment Studies.
Bartram, D. (2000). Internet Recruitment and Selection: Kissing Frogs to find Princes. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 8 (4), 261-274.
Cappelli, P. (2001, March). Making the Most of On-Line Recruiting. (H. B. Review, Éd.) Executive Summaries, 139-146.
CIPD (2005), Online Recruitment, www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/recruitment/onlnrcruit/onlrec.htm, accessed on 21/11/05
Dhamija, P. (2012). E-recruitment: a Roadmap towards e-Human Resource Management. 
Researchers World – International Refereed Journal of Arts Science & Commerce Research (RW-JASCR), 3 (3(2)), 33-39.
Kerrin, M., & Kettley, P. (2003). e-Recruitment: Is it Delivering? Institute for Employment Studies. IES Authors.
Kim, S., & O'Connor, J. G. (2009). Assessing Electronic Recruitment Implementation in State Governments: Issues and Challenges. Public Personnel Management, 38 (1), 47-66.
Kinder, T. (2000). The use of the Internet in recruitment - case studies from West Lothian, Scotland. Technovation, 20 (February), 461-475.
Kumar D, Pandya S (2012) Leveraging Technology towards HR Excellence, Information Management and Business Review, Vol 4 (4), pp. 205–216.
Malinowski, J., Keim, T., & Weitzel, T. (2005, December 31). Analyzing the Impact of IS Support on Recruitment Processes: An E-Recruitment Phase Model. Pacific Asia Conference on Information System (PACIS) 2005 Proceedings.
Parry, E., & Tyson, S. (2008). An analysis of the use and success of online recruitment methods in the UK. (C. S. Management, Éd.) Human Resource Management, 18 (3), 257-274
Robinson, D., 2004. The Drivers of Employee Engagement (ies report 408). Institute for Employment Studies. 
Thompson, L. F., Braddy, P. W., & Wuensch, K. L. (2008). E-recruitment and the benefits of organizational web appeal. Computers in Human Behavior, 24 (5), 2384-2398











Comments

  1. According to (Sayel, 2018), adding to above stated benefits, e-recruitment has following benefits too.
    *Clarity of Communication: - There are no limits on words or figures to be used on the Internet compared with limitations on other media. Hence, an automated application process can provide immediate response for the candidates who are under eligible are not suited for the job positions.
    *Data capturing: - e-Recruitment tools also help the candidates to store their CV’s under the organization pool. This enables the Organization to reach potential candidates as and when the job requirement arises.
    *Environment-friendly: - Very less paperwork needed for gathering, processing, recording and other works for recruiting than traditional methods since the Internet can store large volumes of storage within less space and much minimized cost.

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    1. Agree with your comments that these are another 2 advantages in e recruiting whereas, job openings published in newspapers, magazine and notice boards will have a limitation of describing all the requirement related to the Job however, internet there is no limitation publishing a requirement the idea, option profile all can be expressed in one vacancy (Karim et al., 2015).

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  2. As researched by Sultana and Sultana (2017), it is evident that although e-requirement helps save time and cost of the requirement process, it predominantly beneficial only in the screening stage of the recruitment process. The organizations still need to find how to effectively use e-recruitment for the other stages of the recruitment process, such as interviewing, assessment, selection, and induction. Therefore, still there is room for improvement in the process of online recruitment.

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    1. Agree with you Kanchana, however due to the global transformation of big data, organizations were forced to adapt to change (Mayer-Schönberger & Cukier, 2013). Hence, companies such as Unilever have already implemented AI technology for the e recruitment process (Marr, 2019).

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  3. Broader search, deeper pool : The Internet's virtually instantaneous global reach means companies have the advantage of reaching a much broader pool of candidates, which increases the chances of finding the right candidate.

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    1. Agree with your comments, due to e-recruitment, a variety of potential candidate sources have been exposed, enabling the organization to locate the majority of potential applicants from all over the world (Kettley, 2003), this is indeed an advantage for all employers.

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  4. A common fear arising from online job seekers and applicants is the one of data confidentiality and security. When using traditional means, CV’s are to be returned to the applicant if the enterprise has no interest in pursuing the candidature. However, CV’s can be stocked in databases when using e-recruitment tools, and the system can better track any former applicant than when using simple statistical tools. This is why, in order to be perfectly legal, the company has to certify that the information it is receiving from applicants is strictly confidential (Kim & O'Connor, 2009; Bartram, 2000).

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    1. Agree with you, for as an example based on the study of Weerakoon & Gamage (2012) on recruiting activities in Sri Lanka states banks that e recruitment appears to be used only for Junior Positions and may not be appropriate for recruitment of candidates at management level due to data security.

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  5. I would also like to mention another benefit of e-recruitment is the fact that the whole process is more flexible for the company. Any amendments, edits or updates to the job vacancy can be conveniently made online, as opposed to traditional forms of recruitment medium such as the newspaper, where the company would have likely paid for an entirely new ad (Phillpott, 2019). On the other hand, even though e-recruitment saves time for both candidate and the company, there have been occasions when employers get flooded with resumes for a posting that has already been filled, due to a system glitch that shows old job postings. In such cases, companies would have to spend and invest more time than expected to address these issues (Ramaabaanu and Saranya, 2014).

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    1. Thanks for pointing It out Jehan, agree with you whereas, one of e recruitment's most significant benefit is cost savings (Kim & O' Connor, 2009). Adding to it, a good e recruitment tool is necessary for any company to avoid problems and mistakes, but the choice of a good tool is complicated due to the wide range of available choices (Bartram, 2000).

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  6. As Discussed by Hada and Gairola (2015), Another biggest challenge is to hire qualified candidates. Recruiters often contact outstanding candidates regularly to make your emails more difficult to attain out. Furthermore, job seekers who find it challenging to get a job often consider various job opportunities at the same time. You need to make extra efforts to convince uninterested candidates to accept your company instead of your competitors.

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    1. I agree with your comments Sahan however, e recruitment will also increase the scope of recruiting candidates from different counties where it is possible to avoid frustrations of not finding the right candidate. It also allows applicants to look for places where there is a lack or a need for a specific skill set and submit accordingly, regardless of location (Rana & Singh, 2015).

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  7. I would like to add bit more under Advantages & Drawbacks of E-Recruitment.With the exception of high initial investment, recruitment reduces the overall cost of recruitment staff (newspapers and advertising) and speeds up the recruitment process, effective feedback, and availability at all times. Impersonality and flexibility are disadvantages of recruitment further, older generations cannot access them due to lack of knowledge (Pivac, Tadic and Marasovic, 2014).

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    1. Agree with your comments therefore, this is one of the main reasons for e recruitment to grow faster which highlights more benefits to any organization whereas, the scope can not be limited to one location in the internet age. This has global reach within a fraction of a second. The system also follows the hiring concept by providing a huge pool of potential applicants (Karim et al., 2015).

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  8. Agreed.However, Not only the employer but also employees are benefited with e recruitment system, since the availability of information about jobs are higher.Therefor it allows applicants to find-out better opportunities allows applicants to find-out better opportunities (Brahmana, 2013).

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    1. Agree with your comments Therefore, a study by Karim et al. (2015) shows that internet recruitment is very important to maximize its financial and non-financial benefits for both employers and job seekers. In the same study, it was found that the Internet influences the Intentions to use the Internet for job searching.

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  9. As explained, application of E-Recruitment system makes benefits to the organization including Time & Cost saving and reduces HR workload due to automation (Kim & O'Connor, 2009). As well as the advantages, there are disadvantages associate with such E-Recruitment systems too. Each organization needs to strive to improve, such as budget limitation based on size of the organization, how to manage the quantity of the application volume and select the suitable candidates and how the Organization adapts to cultural changes. It is the responsibility of the management to utilize those E-Recruitment systems for their advantages while minimizing the disadvantages that are associated with them.

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    1. Agree with your comments therefore, it is the responsibility of the organization to select the correct e recruitment tool to reap maximum use out of it whereas, Cappelli, (2001) claims that e recruiting is more than just an HR tool, but is a revolution in the philosophy of hiring.

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  10. According to (Waddill and Marquardt, 2011) amount of people who use e-recruitment is the same in Canada and United States in term of gender. However, the challenge is when you compare it with the other nations as the literacy rate is not that high compared to them.

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    1. I agree with your comments because, according to the World Internet Use and Population Statistics, the efficacy of e-recruitment may vary based on country statistics, therefore, low internet penetration in Africa (39%) may not be successful in contrast to Europe or North America.

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  11. Adding to the statement, the typical job recruitment process consists of job seekers in one side and employers using the database to fill the vacancy on the other. Recruitment agencies always looking for increasing the number of job seekers using their databases. They announce this in their campaign in order to attract more clients simply because the more database gives more access to money while reducing the visibility level. It becomes really hard for employers to spot real outstanding job seekers. Overestimate and abundance are known as above (Rammaabaanu and Saranya,2014).

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    1. Agree with your comments, e-recruitment tends to receive very large volumes of applications for less available opening, so this is indeed a concern in the selection process, a good e-recruitment tool that is essential to keeping HR's workload to a minimum, however, choosing a good tool is complex due to the variety of options available (Bartram, 2000).

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  12. It can be argued that, one of the key advantages of e-recruitment is also one of it's main drawbacks - the ability to reach a wide audience, way larger than what the traditional requirement methods have the capability to achieve. According to Ramaabaanu and Saranya (2014) online recruitment sites have the advantage of being able to reach a very large and up to date database of prospective candidates but at the same time, the wider reach could mean that there would be a subset of applicants who have overstated their qualifications & sneaked in irrelevant keywords to their resumes, to fool the system into picking them.

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    1. Thank you for your comments and agree with it’s advantage can be its disadvantage as well if this is not dealt with properly, whereas e recruitment has the reach to attract high volumes of job seekers Karim et al., (2015) however, Yet finding a good tool is challenging because of the wide range of options available (Bartram, 2000).

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  13. Further research on this subject has revealed an uncommon drawback of e-recruitment when its being used for illegal purposes such as child recruitment for terrorist activities. According to UNODC (2019), "The justice system has both a primary/active and secondary/contributing role in preventing online recruitment". It is responsible in its primary role to disrupt investigate, prosecute and adjudicate cases of online child recruitment. With few exceptions, most countries have chosen to ban online recruitment activities for terrorists, including recruiting children. Recruitment online may be a specific offense. Additionally, the relevant legal rule in some jurisdictions stipulates that the use of the Internet for recruiting purposes does not constitute a distinct element of the crime, but rather recognizes it as a medium by which the criminal act is committed (UNODC,2019).

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    1. Agree with your comments whereas, countries should take necessary measurements to prevent e recruitment related to child recruitment therefore, legal consequences should be applied (Karim et al., 2015).

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  14. Hi Mizni, In order to overcome the drawbacks and enjoy the benefits of E-recruitment, managers must differentiate between the jobs which are to be recruited through traditional way of recruiting and which are to
    be recruited with the help on online recruitment (Jain & Goyal, 2014).

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    1. Agree with your comments whereas, organization recruitment methods should vary based on the vacancies however, according to the Work Social Recruitment Survey 5, (2014) 73% of businesses plan to invest in social networks, 63% of employers invest in recruitment, 60% of companies investing in organizational platforms and 51% of employers investing in their mobile sites therefore it is inevitable more and more applicants will be hired via e recruitment methods in the future.

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  15. HR workload will be smooth because of the e methods (Kerrin & Kettley, 2003). Adding to the statement,e recruitment allows for immediate real time interaction.Comparison to traditional methods within one click of mouse online CVs can be forwarded directly to the employer or recruiters. so its an incredible time saver.

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    1. Agree with your comments, based on the Jobvite Annual Surveys (2013), the pace of recruiting in united states has increased by 33 percent. Candidates therefore expect a faster response time for recruiters (Sills, 2014).

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  16. Hi Mizni, the direction of e-recruitment.Du Plessis (2007) as well as Härtel et al (2007) support the fact that technology is an invaluable tool for most HRM processes to execute its tasks in an organisation. It not only streamlines the processing of employee data, but it is also useful in the recruiting process. Specially very effective and quick, therefore it is in vogue in all countries and by more and more recruiters.

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    1. Agree with your comments whereas, print advertisements for newspapers do not have room in the competitive spectrum of attracting applicants. Today, joining the popular recruitment scenes with the amount of internet users and technology movement will support job search (Sills, 2014).

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  17. This comment has been removed by the author.

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