Factors influencing the adoption of online recruitment
Abstract：
Purpose – The internet is initially hailed as the future of recruitment and is expected to replace other media as the preferred recruitment method, but the adoption of online recruitment has not been as comprehensively predicted. In addition, empirical research regarding online recruitment from an organisational perspective is sparse. This paper aims to examine the reasons behind an organisation’s decision to use online recruitment, and reports on the development of a model of the factors affecting the adoption of this recruitment method.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses in-depth interviews and a survey of human resource (HR) managers with recruitment responsibility.
Findings – Factors related to the adoption of corporate web sites and commercial jobs boards are found to be different, with positive beliefs/relative advantage, subjective norms and negative beliefs emerging in the case of corporate web sites and positive beliefs/relative advantage and compatibility for jobs boards.
Originality/value – This paper addresses an important area that is under-researched academically and provides a basis for further research into how organisations may adopt online recruitment successfully.
Keywords：Online operations, Recruitment, Human resource management, Internet
Introduction
The use of online recruitment has risen dramatically over the past ten years. However,it has not – as yet, at least – become as dominant a recruitment method as was
predicted by many researchers and practitioners. Despite this, research regarding the adoption of online recruitment is sparse. This study examines the reasons behind an organisation’s decision of whether to use online recruitment, developing a model of the
factors influencing adoption.
Background
Recruitment “includes those practices and activities carried out by the organisation
with the primary purpose of identifying and attracting potential employees” (Breaugh
and Starke, 2000) and is an important part of human resource (HR) management as it
“performs the essential function of drawing an important resource – human capital –into the organisation” (Barber, 1998). Lievens et al. (2002) asserted that the “war for talent” meant that the emphasis in organisations moved from the selection to the attraction of employees, and that labour market shortages and recruitment difficulties led to a more competitive recruitment market. Research by HR prospects (2003) found
that recruitment was the second highest priority for HR practitioners (after absence management). Given the importance of recruitment, it is surprising that little research
has been conducted into the decision making processes that form the basis of an employer’s recruitment strategy.
The internet first emerged as a recruiting tool in the mid-1990s and was hailed by
the popular media as the driver behind a “recruiting revolution” due to the benefits it could bring to recruiters (Boydell, 2002). It was predicted that the recruitment industry’s “future is on the net” (Edgeley, 1995) and that the internet had brought “radical change to corporate recruiting” (Cappelli, 2001). Online recruitment has indeed grown rapidly over the past ten years and is now widely used by both recruiters and job seekers across the world. In the USA, Cober and Brown (2006) found that over
50 per cent of new hires were sourced from the internet and that this was expected to increase. Crispin and Mehler (2006) found that 20 per cent external hires were from corporate web sites and another 13 per cent were from jobs boards. In the UK, Total jobs (2004) found that two thirds of UK organisations used jobs boards – independent
web sites matching multiple recruiters to job applicants, typically through recruiter advertisements – during the 12 months up to July 2004, supporting the assertion that the internet is now a part of recruitment practices within many organisations.
For the purpose of this paper, we will use Breaugh and Starke’ (2000) definition of
recruitment (above) and will therefore define online recruitment as the use of the internet to identify and attract potential employees. The internet may also be used for the selection of candidates once they have made contact with the company via the internet or otherwise, but we focus on its use prior to this point as this is more common
in the UK (CIPD, 2006), and yet has been the subject of less empirical research. Online
recruitment will be divided into the use of an organisation’s corporate web site for recruitment and the use of commercial jobs boards (such as monster.com) for posting
job advertisements.
Given that the adoption of online recruitment has yet to be studied in any detail, we need to turn to literature outside of this area in order to provide a theoretical framework. While we are interested in organisational adoption of online recruitment, it
could be argued that the decision to adopt this method is primarily driven by an individual such as the head of resourcing. It may therefore be appropriate to examine the literature on individual decision making. A model that has been used to explain the decision of individuals to act in a particular way is the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991) which was developed as an extension of the theory of reasoned action (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). This model proposed that the intention to perform a particular behaviour is based upon attitudes and beliefs about that behaviour. Individuals who hold favourable attitudes towards a given behaviour will hold a favourable attitude towards performing that behaviour, while a person who has negative attitudes towards behaviour will hold unfavourable attitudes towards performing it. In addition, individuals hold beliefs that specific individuals or groups think they should or should not perform a particular behaviour, known as subjective norms. A person who believes that those who he is motivated to comply with think he or she should perform the behaviour will perceive social pressure to do so. Therefore, the intention that a person has to perform any action is based upon a combination of their attitudes and normative beliefs towards that behaviour. Ajzen and Fishbein suggested that an individual’s intention to perform a particular behaviour, and therefore the likelihood of them actually performing that action, can be predicted by the measurement of attitudes and subjective norms. TPB was developed in order to address the point that the performance of any action is not based solely on the intention to perform that action but also on the perceived behavioural control that an individual has over the action. TPB therefore suggests that behaviour is based upon a combination of attitudes towards the behaviour, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control.
There is still a large proportion of organisations in the UK who have not yet adopted
online recruitment at all, and those who do use online recruitment often do so in conjunction with other techniques such as print advertising and recruitment agencies. The Recruitment Confidence Index (Cranfield School of Management, 1999-2006) has
tracked the use of online recruitment over time, and showed its use has levelled out at
around 40 per cent of companies for corporate web sites and 25 per cent for commercial
jobs boards. This was supported by the CIPD’s (2006) finding that 64 per cent of organisations used online recruitment. The RCI also showed that the use of more traditional methods such as national newspapers (29 per cent), regional newspapers (33 per cent) and employment agencies (44 per cent) remained comparable to that of online methods. While online recruitment is becoming well established, then, it has not had the overwhelming impact on the recruitment process that many predicted.
Research regarding online recruitment is sparse, particularly from an employer’s perspective. Lievens et al. (2002) noted that research into online recruitment is “very scarce” and that “all the studies we retrieved focused on applicant reactions”. Our own
search supported this assertion, with the majority of literature found about online recruitment being from the candidate’s perspective. For instance, Dineen and others focused on the use of online information to promote person-organisation fit (Dineen et al., 2002, 2007; Dineen, 2003); Cober et al. (2004) addressed the impact of web site characteristics on applicant attraction; and Zusman and Landis (2002) looked at applicant preferences for web-based and traditional job advertisements. Very little attention has been paid to the reasons why organisations adopt online recruitment in the first place. There are two main exceptions to this. One is Williamson and Cable’s (2003) study, which suggested that recruitment sources were adopted mainly due to mimetic processes. The other is Chapman and Webster’s (2003) survey research in the USA which found that most organisations implemented technology based recruitment and selection tools to improve efficiency, enable new assessment tools, reduce costs, standardize systems and expand the applicant pool. Chapman and Webster’s study, however, focused mainly on applicant management and assessment rather than attraction.
Interviews
The hypothesized list of factors of Table I was initially explored using 14 semi-structured interviews with UK HR managers, responsible for recruitment. As the purpose was to elicit all relevant factors, the sample was chosen to gain a spread on a number of relevant dimensions (Wilson, 2004). Firstly, ten interviewees worked for organisations that did use online recruitment, while four did not. Secondly, the former’s use included both corporate web sites and commercial jobs boards, and thirdly, this usage ranged from comprehensive users across all vacancies to highly selective users.
Respondents were asked to describe their use of online recruitment, the reasons why they did or did not use each method and their attitudes towards each.
Respondents were then probed regarding any parts of the hypothesised list that they had not addressed. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using NVivo, a computer package for the analysis of qualitative data. Each interview was coded according to the factors in the hypothesized model, and any new factors that had arisen during the interview were added. This produced a number of factors that were used to develop the survey instrument for the second stage of the research.
Pool size: the size of the candidate pool that online advertising reaches was seen as a major advantage of online recruitment
International: The ability to reach international job seekers was seen as a positive attribute but the numbers of overseas applicants without the necessary permits was a disadvantage
Passive jobseekers: There was some concern about the ability to reach passive job seekers
Diversity: there was some concern about the diversity of applicants Candidate targeting
Targeting the right people: the use of niche jobs boards and corporate web sites allows targeting of particular job seekers
Provision of information: more information can be included in online advertisements, especially on a corporate web site
Computer literacy: Belief that online applicants had a certain degree of computer literacy
Ease of sifting responses: some interviewees used their corporate web site because of the potential for sifting candidates electronically
Unsuitable applications: organisations were put off of online recruitment, particularly jobs boards, after being swamped by unsuitable applications
Convenience: perceptions of how convenient it was to use online methods were mixed, with some interviewees finding it more convenient to use employment agencies
Talent database: some organisations had created a database of potential future candidates through their corporate web site
Personal touch: Some interviewees felt that the use of the internet was impersonal and meant that they lost the personal touch offered by agencies
Company image: some organisations have adopted online recruitment as a means of maintaining their cutting-edge image
Employer brand: some interviewees felt that the use of their corporate web site allowed them to promote their employer brand
Relative cost: all of the interviewees cited cost savings as one of the main benefits of online recruitment
Speed to hire: Interviewees felt that using the internet meant that recruitment was much faster
Complexity: it was suggested that both the process of selecting commercial jobs boards and setting up a corporate recruitment site could be difficult
HR function and working practices: some organisations reported that online recruitment fitted well with existing practices, while others received resistance from line managers
Technological systems: in those organisations that already have a web site and communicate electronically, online recruitment may seem like a natural next step, whereas it is more problematic in organisations that have not already moved online in other areas
Trialability: Interviewees felt that it was relatively easy to experiment with jobs boards but more difficult with corporate web site Contextual factors Volume of recruitment: online recruitment, particularly corporate web sites, may be more suitable for those organisations that recruit in bulk
Extent of competitive adoption: some interviewees had been motivated to adopt online recruitment because their competitors had
Extent of job seeker adoption: some interviewees were driven to use online recruitment because it was expected by job seekers in their industry
Conclusions
This study has provided some insight into how recruiters make decisions about which recruitment methods to use. We may have presumed that organisations select recruitment methods based upon the benefits that they offer, but our results show that
recruiters base their choice of recruitment channel largely on subjective norms, and on
their negative beliefs towards that method, rather than selecting the methods that are most successful, cost effective and efficient.
This study is intended as a first step towards establishing of what lies behind an organisation’s use of online recruitment. The identification of those factors that separate an organisation that uses online recruitment methods from one that does not may provide a platform for the further development of this recruitment method and therefore may prove valuable to online recruitment providers and recruiters alike. A further step would be to examine the factors that enable an organisation to use online recruitment successfully, going beyond adoption as the dependent variable to examine the success of that adoption (Shih and Venkatesh, 2004) on such criteria as the quantity and quality of new employees gained: such research would help online recruitment fully to realise its potential within the recruitment marketplace and would have significant practical implications for both recruiters and providers of internet recruitment tools.