Employers may gain a lot from recruiting online, but it does have its disadvantages – not least a torrent of unsuitable applications. How can employers select the best candidates?
People Management, 26 Feb 2004
Online recruitment has at last taken off in the UK in the way that employers and industry have been anticipating, according to new figures.
The latest survey from IRS Employment Review shows that 84 per cent of employers are making some use of electronic recruitment, and this rises to 94 per cent for employers with more than 10,000 staff. The majority of employers (82 per cent) are using their corporate web sites to attract applicants and advertise vacancies.
But the survey of 208 employers reveals a downside to the boom: 60 per cent of organisations using the internet as a recruiting tool receive too many unsuitable applicants. Although convenient and cheap, the internet remains an indiscriminate tool when it comes to picking talent. Problems include irrelevant CVs, multiple mailings by the same candidate and forged applications.
So what have recruiters done to reduce unsuitable applications and attract the candidates they want?
One of the main methods is some form of testing to filter out candidates. A number of the larger employers PM spoke to are using online testing on their corporate sites. The IRS survey found that one in six organisations employing more than 10,000 staff use online testing.
This method is not foolproof, according to Victor Dulewicz, head of the HRM and organisational behaviour faculty at Henley Management College. He voices concern about the nature of online testing, particularly for graduates (see "Give full details...",26 February).
He warns that any testing which screens out more than 50 per cent of applicants in each round could be screening out good candidates. During Dulewicz’s research, he came across one organisation screening out as many as 90 per cent of candidates based solely on one mental ability test. "I certainly don’t recommend recruiters screen out that many candidates on one, or even two, ability tests," he told PM.
Other employers are becoming more sophisticated in their attempts to filter out unsuitable candidates.
At Reuters UK, the recruiting strategy focuses heavily on the internet and candidates are expected to go through the recruitment process – including questioning – on the organisation’s web site.
Ivan Newman, head of talent acquisition at Reuters, says the system has cut the cost of recruitment by 80 per cent and has drastically reduced the time it takes for the organisation to fill a vacancy. "Average time to offer is almost invariably under a month; in some cases it’s days," says Newman. "There is no solution which is problem free, but overall it’s been highly effective."
There has been a concerted drive to bring down the number of unsuitable candidates. Newman said this focuses on self-selection. For example, candidates are asked about their willingness to work shifts. The responses affect the progress of their application. Newman added that questions such as these often help candidates select themselves out of the process. If the candidate responds appropriately, the application is followed up with a telephone interview, where the interviewer can gauge how serious the candidate is and whether he or she was truthful in their online application.
The IRS survey shows that 5 per cent of organisations have a self-selection dimension to their online recruitment process. This process encourages candidates to remove themselves from the application process if they realise the job isn’t exactly what they want. Self-selection is most popular among private-sector organisations.
At Marks and Spencer, online testing was revised this year as part of its graduate recruitment strategy, which is 100 per cent online. It eliminated competency-based tests because candidates said they found them too lengthy and time-consuming.
John McElwee, head of graduate recruitment at Marks and Spencer, says: "I wanted to break down the selection process so that candidates would be very clear at any stage as to why we weren’t progressing further. It also meant that they didn’t waste their time completing an application when we knew quite early on that we were going to reject them."
Now, Marks and Spencer initially questions candidates about their eligibility to work in the UK, their mobility, their education, and whether they’re prepared to work weekends and other shifts.
If the candidate meets all of the requirements they do three online tests. They must reach a certain score in each test before moving on. A verbal reasoning test is followed by a numerical test, then a "talent screener", which examines the applicant’s motivators and what they would like to get out of the job.
If the candidate does well in all tests, they are invited to one of the retailer’s assessment centres where he or she goes through some of the tasks they would do at Marks and Spencer. There is no interview in the process and the candidate’s selection is based on their performance at the assessment centre.
McElwee says the online process has increased the rate of success at the final stage – the assessment centre – by 10 per cent, to 37 per cent.
"So what we’ve done is really focus on talents and skills and how candidates can display them in situations like the ones they would find themselves in at work," he says.
But McElwee admits the organisation is conscious of not missing out on suitable candidates through its online tests and arranges alternative methods of application if the candidate cannot, for any reason, complete the online process.
Rebecca Clake, CIPD adviser, organisation and resourcing, says the key to targeting desirable candidates online is providing as much information about the job as possible. The more information online, the more likely it is that candidates will screen themselves out. But many employers are still not giving candidates enough details on their web sites, says Clake. "By putting some time and thought into how they design what people see on the web – providing better quality information – employers can make sure they’re getting the people that they’re after," she says.
Are senior job ads moving online?
More and more jobseekers are turning to the internet to find senior-level positions, according to new research by UK jobs web site Totaljobs.com. The study says that a third of the web site’s 9,745 jobseekers were looking for employment at management level or above.
But organisations have traditionally preferred alternative methods of advertising for management and senior positions. So is this about to change?
Ivan Newman, head of talent acquisition at Reuters UK, says that although the company has begun to advertise more management positions online, these postings will never be as numerous as those advertising lower-level jobs. "We’ve noticed an increasing willingness of senior-level individuals to participate in online recruitment, from our managers internally and also from the candidates," says Newman. At executive level the organisation continues to use an executive search method, he says.
Peter Bedford, head of recruitment at the Royal Mail Group, who formerly held the same position at the BBC, said the broadcaster was very successful in filling senior posts using the internet.
"It is highly effective as an overall advertising strategy," he says. But he adds that the best method of recruitment is a combination of online and more traditional media.
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