HR Departments should integrate with Marketing

This was one of the main recommendations from speakers at the recent ëRecruiting in Cyberspace Conferenceí held in association with the London School of Economics this month.

Academics from Harvard, Princeton and the LSE joined spokespeople from major and specialist job boards and from JobCentreplus to give their views on the future of recruiting via the Internet to over 100 delegates.

ëSeveral speakers strongly recommended HR and Marketing departments work together more closely in promoting and handling recruitment via company websitesí summarised David Hurst of conference organisers Onrec.com. ëIt was felt that HR professionals need to:

-maximise the recruitment potential of company websites, usually the exclusive domain of the marketing managers. It was estimated that 60% of websites of FTSE 100 companies did not adequately advertise work opportunities. Having a clearly visible and easy-to-use ëwork for usí section would attract people already interested in the Brand.

-Improve the recruitment experience - research by Totaljobs revealed that a bad recruitment experience put 65% people off buying from that Brand and would affect sales.

-If working for major organisations which recruit ONLY via the Internet, have a website that works as both a marketing and recruitment tool. Applicants, who are also potential customers, must be treated sympathetically throughout the recruitment process online and offline.í
This was the first Conference of its kind in the UK, bringing together the public and private sectors along with academics involved in researching internet recruitment and analysing its effect on the economy.

The next Conference will take place in Brussels in the Autumn.