Quality and acceptance of online applications is improving

Online job applications are in vogue ñ and if recruiters could choose, they would prefer online to the traditional paper application. These findings come from the most recent survey by online recruitment specialist StepStone, amongst 1,875 HR managers across seven European countries.

The Dutch (81%) and the Italian (80%) respondents showed the strongest preference for online job applications. In Sweden, Denmark and Belgium, online applications were also clearly preferred, being selected by 70% of HR managers. Only the Germans took a significantly different view, with 42% still preferring the traditional printed application.

The growing acceptance of online applications by companies is perhaps linked to a perceived increase in their quality. A year ago 37% of the recruiters felt that online applications were often less accurate and complete; today only 30% do so. Opinions of the quality and improvements in online applications appear to be at their highest in Norway, Denmark and Sweden: only 12%, 17% and 19% respectively are critical of online applications, whereas a year ago these figures stood at 39%, 33% and 38%. Again it is in Germany where there are most reservations over online applications, with 45% having concerns; but this represents a significant improvement on a year ago when 52% questioned their quality.

ìToday, most companies prefer online applications, and an increasing number will insist on them because of their convenience. But candidates should not be mislead into believing that this means they can be any less careful. In a competitive market, recruiters will inevitably be influenced by the quality of the application: clarity, presentation and spelling are just as important as everî, said Colin Tenwick, CEO of StepStone.

Responses from the 1,875 HR managers come from an extensive survey, entitled Recruitment challenges and trends across various company sizes and business sectors across seven European countries. For fuller results please click here.