The Role of The Internet Recruitment in Modern HR Management

Internet Recruitment in the Modern World

Internet recruitment plays a great role in the modern world due to the technologies development and labor market demands shifting. It is a strategic process that involves maintaining, developing, and attracting energetic as well as talented workforce to the support of the strategies, objectives, and mission of an organization. This method has many advantages in comparison with the traditional recruitment strategies. The main positive sides of the electronic recruitment are costs and time amount reduction as well as large candidate databases, which cover the world, provision. It gives the companies greater opportunities and abilities. Most of the researches and studies conducted in this area are focused exactly on these issues.

Hence, the paper describes the impact of the legal and culture environments on the Internet recruitment. The legal acts vary in different countries that can be expressed through the documents demands in the online application forms. Concerning the culture, the situation seems the same since certain countries, for example Turkey, have strong involvement of the national culture while the others, for instance the US, are focused on the international culture. Internet recruitment has great popularity across the world. Hence, mostly, this method is used in the US but it is also widespread in the EU and UAE.

In all these regions, the electronic recruitment is expressed through the online application forms or simple resume sending. At the same time, the Internet recruitment is in a strong relationship with the HR area, stakeholders, and organization in general. For HR area, it means automatized work and great search databases; for the stakeholders, it provides the search of new electronic recruitment effective strategies while for an organization, it means reduced time and costs amount. Therefore, the Internet recruitment is a highly significant part of the HR management that leads the companies to the positive outcomes, particularly resources use reduction and efficient results.

Nowadays, Internet recruitment is considered the most widespread and popular way to employ people from all around the world because it brings a considerable number of benefits and opportunities for a company. What is more important, e-recruitment can lead the organization to being recognized at a global level. In addition, it helps in imparting the HR policies, effective providing the employees’ transfer and promotion, and observing the employees’ daily activity report.

Therefore, this paper is focused on the Internet recruitment as the most critical element of the modern human resource area, its participation across the world, and its impact on the HR, stakeholders, and organizations in general.

Internet Recruitment Topic Importance

The Internet recruitment is a highly crucial topic since most of the companies across the world are based on this method. It is critical to understand that the hiring is a difficult process that demands a great amount of time; in addition, it is money-consuming (Bondarouk, Ruël, & Looise, 2011). The online recruitment has to be analyzed from the benefits and costs perspective, and in order to define the approach to be used towards each process, its implementation must be evaluated. The strategy that is utilized in the Internet recruitment can include simple tools, particularly the placement of advertisements on the popular job search websites; this action is focused on attracting people through asking the candidates to send their applications (Arthur, 2012). Hence, the potential employees can upload their resumes, finish skill and aptitude assessments, and handle HR paperwork from the remote locations by the electronic recruitment tools use. Therefore, the main advantage of the Internet personnel recruitment systems and their tools is the costs and time reduction (Bondarouk, Ruël, Guiderdoni-Jourdain, & Oiry 2009). What is more, HR department members spend less time on the hiring process. Due to these benefits, the Internet recruitment system is widely used across the world. To understand its prevalence, global impact, and implementation process, one has to evaluate the proposed area seriously and thoroughly.

Internet Recruitment Overview

Nowadays, the Internet recruitment plays a significant role in supporting efficient HR area functioning. In the modern world, human resource is considered the asset of an organization, and it is critical to develop new strategies to meet the changing global business environment as the human resource area challenge effectively. Hence, human resource management can be defined as a strategic process that involves maintaining, developing, and attracting energetic as well as talented workforce to the implementation of strategies, objectives, and mission of an organization (Gupta, 2016). Human resource planning includes defining type and number of the employees that are needed for reaching an organizational goal. Hence, Internet or electronic recruitment plays a great role in this area. Thus, the Internet recruitment means online hiring and has specific stages as well as includes particular processes (See Figure 1). In general, the recruitment processes connected with the use of such electronic resource as the Internet and utilized to improve and reach normal recruitment outcomes of the activity of an organization is known as the E-recruitment (Gupta, 2016). This method helps the corporate HR to streamline and automate simple tasks that results in more productive and efficient hiring. However, even with the technology advancements, the recruitment is still a process that needs people involvement. The processes supported with the help of online technologies include efficiency and automation in the value-chain since direct personal interaction still takes a great amount of time and effort (Gupta, 2016).

Figure 1. The stages of e-recruiting.

There are many benefits and drawbacks of the Internet recruitment. The main pro of its implementation is money and time saving (Gupta, 2016). Hence, the efficiency and productivity are the main reasons why the companies prefer the paperless system. In addition, it seriously reduces the storage space needs. At the same time, the implementation process is a challenge, and it takes time to answer the questions, explain everything to the users through group demonstrations on team meetings and one-to-one sessions. However, once the HR starts to work in this direction, everything gets easier since, as a result, the system will save a huge amount of time. Therefore, the technology managed to change the whole dynamic of people hiring and shifted the ownership and accountability (Gupta, 2016).

All candidates’ management aspects from searching the applicants to orientation of new employees have a chance to accord with the electronic recruitment system. At the early Internet recruitment period, its concept was focused on the online resources use for the search of candidates for different work positions. The resume databases and job boards helped the employees and employers to find and connect with each other (Gupta, 2016).

Nowadays, the electronic recruitment includes assessment tools aimed at the pre-employment process, talent search by companies, online applications, online advertising, and job boards (Gupta, 2016). In addition, the software packages were developed to help HR personnel and companies to fasten the recruitment process even more through the assessment tool incorporation in the online employment applications and automated database searchers. With the business growth that very often exists in online form, the electronic recruitment tools demands have also increased.

Nowadays, the organizations are able to provide all business services due to the freelance employees who can work remotely (Gupta, 2016). Hence, these businesses, due to online operation in many cases simply have no conditions or facilities for conducting traditional meetings and other HR duties. To handle it, many international and national companies ask the job-seekers to complete the provided applications for the online employment or submit their resumes to the general electronic databases. Therefore, the recruitment process is almost finished. In this case, the Internet recruitment system is highly important for modern world development. Therefore, the applicants are encouraged to complete online applications, send work samples, and finish assessments. During the selection process, they provide necessary documents by reporting online information that is critical for beginning work.

Internet Recruitment Literature Review

There are many research and studies of different types that are focused on the electronic recruitment. Hence, Tong and Sivanand study showed that electronic recruitment made the job applying process more streamlined and simple. What is more, it began to be accepted as the advantageous method in comparison with traditional recruitment ways (as cited in Gupta, 2016). Holm’s (2010) research was aimed at determining the electronic recruitment impact on the recruitment activities, underlying tasks, subtasks, and processes. The study covered three big organizations with the established high-level electronic recruitment process.

The research has been conducted from 2008 to 2009 in Denmark, and the author used qualitative research methods. The results showed that the Internet recruitment had a great impact on the recruitment process in general in terms of the studied companies. It also discovered changes in the repetitiveness, divisibility, and sequence in a number of subtasks and tasks. The research identified the new process design that the communication and information technologies supported. This process provided recruiters with the ability to perform tasks in the recruitment area with more efficiency. Nonetheless, the practitioners have to take into account the increasing demands for the online communication quality and electronic communication skills.

At the same time, Shahila’s study is focused on the electronic recruitment trends aimed at its methods, practice and use, challenges and increasing scope in the recruitment process of the companies. The paper states that the main electronic recruitment success factors including company brand building facilitation among others help in establishing the relationships with HR managers, providing customized solutions, and cost-effectiveness (as cited in Kaur, 2015).

The research by Florea and Mihai (2014) is concentrated on the idea that human factor is very important in the proposed sphere since due to it, an organization is able to reach success. Hence, it is crucial to maintain, attract, and recruit the candidates with appropriate competencies, knowledge, and skills. Due to it, an organization will reach effective performance in the dynamic and competing global environment that continuously changes. The article analyzes the dependence of the selection and recruitment processes performance on the internal and external factors. Doing this analysis, Kalman filter was used, which helped the authors to find new solutions, improve the communication in the selection and recruitment processes, develop new strategies, and define to which limits the external and internal factors can lead. Hence, it is possible to conclude that there are many researches and studies in the Internet recruitment area that are mostly focused on the comparison of the electronic and traditional recruitment methods as well as the benefits of the first.

Impact of Legal and Culture Environments on the Internet Recruitment

Just like the traditional human resource management, Internet recruitment is under the impact of the legal and cultural environments. In the countries that are fully integrated into the international economics and business, the companies are more open to the influence of the universal culture while in the other states, the organizations are affected by the national characteristics. The situation concerning the recruitment process is the same (Brewster, Sparrow, Vernon, & Houldsworth, 2011). The main relation between the electronic recruitment and culture is associated with the employees’ attraction, selection, and retention. The attraction form represents the culture and brand image of a company. Hence, the electronic recruitment has to be based on the diversity principle to attract various people (Florea & Mihai, 2014). The main idea is that an applicant has to perceive a company as a positive place for work, and to provide this attitude, a company has to develop an effective diversity image through the application of new recruitment methods including anonymous resumes.

The national and organizational culture has a great influence on the recruitment. Due to the relevant values, the culture positively impacts the desire for the hiring of candidates (Florea & Mihai, 2014). Big companies with a strong culture adopt HRM activities in a more socially responsible and sophisticated way due to the involved costs and legitimacy pressure. The organizations strongly focused on their culture actively market it to the candidates. It is another selection method since some people will be fascinated with this attitude while the others may find it inappropriate (Florea & Mihai, 2014). For instance, the corporate culture can be focused on the female employees’ attraction and, consequently, the electronic recruitment process will also represent the company culture. Hence, the main preferences, and the company position will be expressed through the posted online advisements with a great accent on these issues in an application form. Hence, the US companies are focused more on the diversity and equal culture and design their online vacancies advisements in such a way that they welcome people of different races, culture, genders, and with various abilities. At the same time, Turkish companies have stronger accent on the national culture, and their online vacancies are more targeted on the local people with native culture rather than international employees. Hence, basing on the cultural differences, the Internet recruitment attitude can seriously vary. In general, the cultural issue is very complex, and its impact on the Internet recruitment has to be evaluated.

At the same time, legal environment also has a great impact on the electronic recruitment. All HR management policies have to be created according to the legal necessities. Hence, human resource management has to be adapted to the regulations of the countries (Genç, 2014). The basic laws are the legal framework that can be met in all states. For instance, in the US, the legislative acts put on the employers the obligation to protect the employees’ medical information confidentiality and be sure that during the Internet recruitment, other personal information is not splinted, and the documents are required according to the laws (Sylwia, 2013). Similar demand that is supported by the legal acts can be met in most of the companies across the world. However, depending on the country, these laws can differ and, as a result, the electronic recruitment process can also slightly vary. As an example, there can be a difference in vacancies posting time or work experience, and it can be seen in the vacancies across the United Nations (See Appendix). At the same time, great differences can be met in the required documents according to the labor legislation. For instance, visa issue represents a great concern. In the US, it is critical to have a document that would prove the state agreement on the work while in Canada, this rule is not so strict. These issues are expressed through the Internet recruitment since in some countries, an applicant has to send one package of the documents while in the others it can be done in a different way. In general, with many laws adoption, the employees are better protected, and the Internet recruitment is based on the non-discriminative attitude that means that the selection of the candidates is related to the evaluation of their knowledge and skills.

Internet Recruitment Participation in the North America, Europe, and the UAE

Internet recruitment can be met almost in all regions of the world. For instance, in the US, the Internet recruitment includes job advertisements on the general worksites, employment section on the corporate websites, and searchable resume databanks. In case of using general worksites, the registration is needed but it is free and includes the information about educational qualifications, current work or student status, demographic aspect, e-mail address, and phone number (Autor, 2009). The registered candidates can also add the information about types of interesting jobs and subscribe to the work alert service that is very popular among passive job-seekers. The main three well-known worksites in the US are HotJobs, CareerBuilder, and Monster (Autor, 2009). On the Monster website, if a job-seeker sends a resume through the online application form or a website that Monster manages, the resume can be conveniently used for other purposes through the Monster system (Autor, 2009). At the same time, if the job-seekers subsequently activate their resumes while using the Monster system, it can be available in the main Monster resume bank. Hence, Monster makes it easier for the job-seekers to send their CVs to the resume bank. In general, in the US, the public and private organizations agreed that 44% of their new hires were provided due to the electronic recruitment (Autor, 2009, p. 31). In addition, North American companies implement Internet recruiting more rapidly in comparison with others across the world (Autor, 2009, p. 31).

The online recruitment is a highly crucial employment strategy for Europe. The EU faced the problem of high unemployment rate and, at the same time, a number of unfilled vacancies for skilled workers. It means that the EU has failed to connect the right people with the right works. Hence, to improve the situation, the electronic recruitment was introduced to the labor market. Just like in the US, the Internet recruitment in the EU includes online searching, relationship recruiting, and job boards, which, in turn, involve Yahoo and company website (Research Advisory Panel, 2006). The research conducted in the UK showed that electronic recruitment adoption by the companies rose by 20% from 2002 to 2005, and in Ireland, the respondents agreed that they were using and planned to use the Internet recruitment (Research Advisory Panel, 2006). The application process is quite similar to the one in the US. The most common method includes simple CV sending or the needed application forms filling. The researchers concluded that a great number of the companies had the facility for the candidates to submit the applications online (Research Advisory Panel, 2006, p.16). At the same time, around 2/3 of the UK online recruiters do not use own application forms and are satisfied with the CV letters (Research Advisory Panel, 2006, p. 23). However, there is a tendency of providing ready application forms for the candidates.

The UAE job market is quite unique since in comparison with the EU and US, the unemployment rate there is extremely low (Latham & Watkins, 2009). Due to the high quality of life and wide perspectives, many outside companies are trying to settle their business in the UAE. Hence, a great number of employees arrive from the other countries with the aim to find jobs; thus, the Internet recruitment is highly critical for the HR area in the UAE in handling these challenges (Latham & Watkins, 2009). The recruitment is much often provided through Skype and other online forms rather than paper or face-to-face methods. Another reason for this attitude is the fact that according to the legal acts, the recruiters have to cover all expenses for inviting candidates for the personal interviews; to avoid it, the electronic recruitment is used (Latham & Watkins, 2009).

The well-known job sites are Careers in Gulf, Indeed, Bayt, and Gulf Talent. The application process is quite similar to that in the US and EU. It begins with looking for active employment opportunities on the websites and inline application form completion. Then, the selection process, through which the managers try to decide whether a person fits company demands and culture, starts (“The Recruitment,” 2016). The next step is the post-selection period, during which a candidate has to receive an approval or disapproval. In case of approval, the Human Resource Employee Services contacts a person (“The Recruitment,” 2016). In general, all regions have the same popular jobsites for the recruitment process because they globally involved in the applicants employment. It means that in Europe, the US and EUA the popular worksites are the same (See Table 1).

Table 1 Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors on Job-Related Websites Worldwide

Source: “Top 15 Most Popular Job Websites” (2016).

Internet Recruitment and Implications for HR, Organization, and Stakeholders

The electronic recruitment implication has a strong connection with the HR, organization, and stakeholders. This type of hiring has the great impact on the HR area, particularly on the recruitment process, and performance in general (Holm, 2010). It was found that due to the electronic recruitment, the action of employment transformed in the marketing selling jobs process with more resources and activities dedicated to building relationship marketing, Internet communications, and company reputation. What is more, the whole recruitment process reaches the automation (Holm, 2010).

Therefore, the Internet recruitment makes a great impact on the HR department and organization in general. The first issue, to which this form of recruitment leads, is the reduction of time needed for hiring. It means that the employers can post advertisements concerning jobs in twenty minutes on the career sites and respond on the CVs immediately. Hence, the Internet recruitment is 70% faster in comparison with traditional methods (Kaur, 2015). The next issue is the hiring costs reduction; they can be lowered up to 90% in comparison with the usual methods costs (Kaur, 2015). Another aspect is reaching the wider number of candidates that means that a recruiter will have more alternatives during the selection process. All these factors have positive impact on the organization in general that leads to its efficiency and success. At the same time, the electronic recruitment can have certain drawbacks concerning the HR area that; consequently, they will impact the organization (Kaur, 2015). The first issue is that the Internet recruitment demands from the HR employees to be computer savvy. At the same time, a huge candidates database cannot be analyzed fully that creates difficulties for the HR managers. Hence, the issues mentioned above create difficulties for the HR employees and may have negative impact on the organization (Kaur, 2015).

For the stakeholders, the situation seems approximately the same. Just like in previous cases, they will experience as positive as negative sides of the electronic recruitment. Hence, for the HR workers, the Internet recruitment provides the ability to look for the best candidates but a big number of job-seekers create the difficulties (Kaur, 2015). For the top management, the E-recruitment is useful in terms of cost and time efficiency, which assists in promoting the organizational performance. At the same time, the managers may have difficulties with choosing the best Internet recruitment strategy that will lead to the positive results. Due to the electronic recruitment, the employees experience fewer problems with paper work since the process becomes more automatized. What is more, the communication is improved due to the implemented technologies. At the same time, the employees have to manage a great amount of unnecessary information from the Internet sources. Hence, it is possible to note that the Internet recruitment is a multipurpose process that establishes complex relationship with HR, stakeholders, and organization in general.

Conclusion

Overall, it is critical to note that Internet recruitment is the most popular method of hiring employees by an organization in comparison with traditional ones. Internet has great influence on the HR department functioning. Thus, electronic recruitment has become a significant part of the recruitment strategy since it provided a great number of benefits; among them, the main are cost and time reduction as well as efficiency improvement. Legal and cultural factors have a great impact on the electronic recruitment. Therefore, the organizations have to consider them in order to attract candidates and avoid mistakes in the legal field. It is critical to understand that these factors can vary depending on a country since nowadays, the proposed recruitment method is widely used across the world. Particularly, its great prevalence was noticed in the US, EU, and UAE. At the same time, the Internet recruitment is tightly related to the HR, stakeholders, and an organization in general. This connection can provide both positive and negative results. It is critical to remember that Internet recruitment means not only vacancy posting online and research process but also the effective marketing. Therefore, it is essential to attract people and have a strategy for their retaining. In addition, the job description has to represent the company culture, expectations, policy, and procedures in effective way. It is important to explain in details what will be expected from the candidates to avoid receiving many unnecessary applications. Hence, the Internet recruitment is highly crucial for achieving success through the organizational methods. The companies have to implement them in order to meet the labor market challenges.