E-recruitment is here to stay

Despite the challenges of a lower Internet penetration in India, online recruitment is likely to pick up momentum thanks to the twin benefits of speed and cost-effectiveness, says Vinutha V.

A Bangalore-based software major was in urgent need of professionals with unique set of skills to develop a financial planning software. Initially, headhunters were approached, and recruitment ads were placed in newspapers. The response was discouraging and the company was able to meet only a handful of people in India, who matched the requisite skill mix. It decided to opt for an alternative-posting the job on its website and online databases. The result was instantaneous, the company was innundated with applications from across the country and people from other geographies willing to relocate to India-evidence of the reach of the Internet.

Online recruitment facilitates just-in-time hiring. When an organisation needs a candidate it can access the database of job portals, screen resumes and send a mass mail. It can also shortlist people based on skills, location, salary and availability and move on to the interview stage.

The traditional boundaries that existed between print media owners, job boards, recruitment advertising agencies, recruitment consultancy and technology companies are breaking down. Resume databases have been increasing manifold and the availability of a database (number of candidates) is much higher than what manual recruitment modes can offer. Dhruvakanth B Shenoy, Vice President-Marketing, Asia, Monster.com India says, ìThe growth in e-recruitment industry has been fuelled with the adoption of technology by prospective employers and Internet penetration. Organisations have cut costs by almost 80% over traditional recruitment modes by moving over to the online recruitment process.î

Manual recruitment process has its own limitation in terms of time, cost, technology, wider platform and ease of applications. Raghuveer Sakuru, Managing Director of Kenexa Technologies says, ìThe costs involved in manual recruiting process include advertising costs, the cost of hiring a placement agency, administrative expenses and the cost of time. Recruiting online would ideally be more focussed, fast paced, effective and give higher RoI (Return on Investment) on the administrative expense.î By breaking geographical boundaries, online recruitment give maximum reach. On the contrary, to get similar benefits through manual recruitment process one has devote more resources.

Online recruitment offers candidates the advantage of knowing the job profile, responsibilities expected and the nature of the organisation, which are well defined at the outset.

Regular communication with potential employees in the manual recruitment process is almost nil, whereas communication with job seekers and within the team is seamless in online recruitment. ìIt takes a while for the manual recruitment process to become operational and yield results whereas in e-recruitment, one can look at the first response to a job advertisement in just 20 minutes,î claims Shenoy.

Although e-recruitment caters to jobs at all levels, it is largely useful in exploring people at entry and mid-tier levels. As the base of candidates looking for these positions is very huge, the online recruitment process comes in handy for administering standard evaluation tests for screening and evaluation. For hiring senior professionals, online recruitment process does help in seeking the required skill sets and qualification, but the screening and evaluation is not done online.