Australia tops the global list for online recruitment

A new international workplace survey has found that Australian job seekers topped a list of countries in their use of the Internet to find jobs, with a majority finding their most recent position online.

Online recruitment eclipsed all other forms of recruitment including direct approaches, newspaper advertising and ëword of mouthí according to the international survey.

The survey also found that more than a quarter of Australians have concerns about how they perform during face-to-face job interviews while one in three have doubts as to whether their CV presents them to potential employers in the best possible way.

The Kelly Services global survey sought the views of more than 115,000 people in 33 countries including almost 19,000 in Australia on a wide range of issues about how they find work and how they deal with aspects of the recruitment process.

Amongst the key findings:

ï A majority (54%) found their most recent job online, the highest of any country in the survey followed by Thailand (52%), Hong Kong (51%) and China (50%), New Zealand (43%) and Indonesia (43%)

ï 8% admit they have been untruthful on their CV

ï 37% have doubts about whether their CV presents them in the best possible way

ï 27% have doubts about how they perform in face-to-face job interviews

ï 62% nominate ëwaiting for a responseí as the worst part of the recruitment process

ï 80% believe that employers treat them fairly in job interviews

ìThis shows that candidates have embraced the Internet as the preferred way of finding a job,î said Kelly Services Country Manager, James Bowmer.

ìPeople are now very confident about applying for jobs online while employers are becoming much more skilled at dealing with the online recruitment phenomenonî.

While 54% of those in the Australian survey found their most recent job online, 9% found work as a result of a direct approach to an employer, 9% from a newspaper advertisement, 8% from a direct call from an employer or recruiter, and 7% through other methods.

Online recruitment is considered by candidates to be a better way to find a job, with 83% pleased with the outcome compared with 51% for traditional written and posted applications.

James Bowmer said however that online recruitment should not be seen as a shortcut to proper evaluation of candidates.

Eight per cent of candidates admitted to being untruthful on their CV or in an interview. The most likely untruths were omitting negative details from the past and claiming experience that a candidate did not have.

While 72% of respondents said they performed well during face-to-face job interviews, 12% said they did not and 15% were unsure. Men were more confident in their ability in job interviews than women.

Some 37% of candidates also had doubts about the quality of their CV with 11% certain that it did not present them in the best possible way and 26% unsure.

And even though the task of applying for jobs and facing an interview can be daunting, itís not the worst part of the recruitment process according to candidates.

The worst aspect of the recruitment process, nominated by 62% of respondents was ëwaiting for a responseí, followed by ësearching for jobsí (13%), ëattending interviewsí (12%), ëfilling in applicationsí (6%), and ëpreparing resume/CVsí (6%).

The factors that best determine a personís job suitability were also canvassed in the survey. When asked what single attribute people considered to be the best indicator of job suitability, the overwhelming factor was ëattitude and personalityí, cited by 42%, followed closely by work experience (38%). Other factors such as interview performance, level of education, reference checks and psychological test results all rated low.

Despite the uncertainties on the part of some candidates about their capacity to perform well in the recruitment process, most feel that they get a fair hearing from employers. When asked if they felt employers treated them fairly in the interview process, 80% said they did, 18% said ësometimesí and only 2% said ëneverí.