A survey conducted by online recruitment specialist Recruitment Genius identified that, for 61 per cent of the respondents, the internet was the preferred method of looking for work. This compared to 20 per cent who preferred to use a recruitment agency and just 6 per cent who visited the Job Centre.
The findings of the survey are supported by other industry statistics which estimate that over 90 per cent of candidates look online before considering any other methods and that 47 per cent of candidates never look in a newspaper.
With internet usage growing year on year this trend might come as no surprise to some yet despite the statistics some businesses still prefer the more traditional ‘read: old fashioned’ methods of recruitment. Common misconceptions are that online recruitment is not suitable for local recruitment or that you are likely to receive too many responses. However, if businesses select the right recruitment partner this isn’t the case. Recruitment Genius has filled many ‘local’ positions and its intelligent filtering methods ensure clients are not bombarded with CVs.
If the fact ‘that is where potential employees are looking’ isn’t enough to persuade businesses that online recruitment is the way to go then the cost comparisons might provide the missing motivational factor. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development the average recruitment agency fee costs over £4000 rising to £10,000 for a senior management position. This is compared to the £199 or less charged by online recruitment specialist Recruitment Genius, who conducted the survey. Rather than being an empty promise Recruitment Genius is currently filling around 200 jobs per day for blue-chips companies including Tesco, Shell and Ford as well as smaller organisations. For companies who have benefited from Recruitment Genius’ fresh approach to recruitment the decision to switch is an obvious one.
Philip Hirsh of Express Worldwide said: “For a small business, recruiting is probably one of the most difficult parts of the business. We have tried looking at recruitment agencies...but we’re not always sure what you’re getting for the cost. Recruitment Genius is a clearly defined product that does what it says – it delivers CVs which have been filtered. The level of service we received was excellent.”
Carmel Fitzgerald, Institute of Financial Accountants said: “We’ve used online job sites before but they’ve sent us CVs for people all over the world...and hundreds of them. But Recruitment Genius has only sent us relevant application all of whom have been local.
“We’ve tried agencies but don’t really use them anymore because they’ve been quite unsatisfactory. They’re also very expensive and you still have to pay even if the member of staff doesn’t stay for very long. We’ve also tried the newspapers but weren’t getting many results...I don’t think people look there for jobs.
“I’ll admit I was sceptical about Recruitment Genius, especially when I heard our advert would be appearing on quite a few websites. Interestingly one of the websites our advert appeared on tried to get me to advertise for more than the total Recruitment Genius fee!
“I would definitely use Recruitment Genius again!”