14-07-2012, 01:06 PM
Developing effective e-recruiting websites: Insights for managers from marketers
Developing effective.pdf (Size: 251.05 KB / Downloads: 67)
Abstract
In recent years, the practice of using corporate websites to recruit job
applicants has increased steadily. Despite this trend, however, studies show that
approximately 75% of job seekers find the sites too complicated to use successfully
[Brown, D. (2004). Unwanted online job seekers swamp HR staff. Canadian HR
Reporter, 17(7), 1–2] and that more than 20% have rejected job opportunities based
marketing and employee recruitment research to offer six development implications
for creating an effective “e-recruitment” source on a corporate website. Based on a
job marketing approach to the recruitment process and consumer behavior research
on persuasive communication and decision making, we present considerations
important to creating an online recruiting website that effectively influences the
search decisions and behaviors of a target market of desired job candidates.
An e-recruiting source design model
Considering both the challenges and potential benefits
of using corporate websites as recruiting sources,
this article presents a consumer research-based
model to aid HR managers in their efforts to develop
effective e-recruiting websites. This model is based
on arguments that the recruiting process is essentially
the task of marketing jobs in a labor market of
competing job opportunities (Maurer, Howe, & Lee,
1992) and that, in today's global economy, “the hiring
process has become nearly indistinguishable fromthe
marketing process” (Cappelli, 2001, p. 6). Consistent
with this perspective, the model presupposes that erecruiting
is part of a job marketing process in which
the job seeker is cast as a potential job consumer and
that the recruiting manager's goal is to create within
the employer's website a variety of job marketing
materials and information designed to influence job
consumer decisions and search behavior.
The virtual recruiting environment
As used here, the virtual recruiting environment is
defined as the online environment that allows
companies and potential job applicants to interact
with each other. Such environments may vary in
sophistication from relatively simple job bulletin
boards that provide basic job descriptions and little
or no opportunity for applicant interactions, to
highly sophisticated sources that allow applicants to
complete job applications and even perform online
situational job interviews.
Consumer characteristics
As with marketing any product, marketing of jobs
requires knowledge of the target market of persons
who are capable of consuming the product offering.
In a job marketing context, this requirement
dictates that a basic part of virtual recruiting
environment design is the need to focus e-recruitment
efforts on a target market of job seekers who
are likely to possess the skills, experience, etc.,
needed to “consume” the job. Further, Fig. 1 also
reveals that the ability to effectively reach such
target markets requires attention to the degree to
which potential applicants are truly motivated to
seek a job and/or are able to use previous
experience or job information to assess the attractiveness
of job offerings. Because consumer behavior
studies have shown that search motivation and
prior knowledge of a product affect the consumer
decision processes, the first design step is to
consider how these factors can be used to decide
how to meet the decision needs of desired
candidates.
Influence route emphasis
Somewhat surprisingly, management studies of
employee recruiting methods have failed to provide
managers with a theory-based understanding of how
media such as e-recruiting sources contribute to
recruiting success (Breaugh & Starke, 2000; Allen,
Van Scotter, & Otondo, 2004) or explain “not only
what happens, but why it happens” (Barber, 1998,
p. 31). Hence, to fill this void, Fig. 1 relies on the
extensive and well-documented research on consumer
behavior and marketing communication
media (e.g., newspapers, e-commerce websites)
to identify psychological factors affecting consumer
intentions and decisions.