Recruiting through the Web: better or just bigger? - includes related article on sources of and techniques in online recruiting

HR Magazine, Nov, 1998 by Ruth E. Thaler-Carter

There is no question that both employers and job seekers are increasing their use of the Internet, or that web-based resources are providing more recruiting information. The real question is whether the Interact is becoming a better source of candidates as it gets bigger.

"The Internet is both bigger and better, but we need better understanding and stronger skill sets to take advantage of it," says Gerry Crispin, SPHR, vice president of Shaker Advertising Agency in East Brunswick, NJ, and co-author of CareerXRoads, a book that reviews web sites for job seekers.

The very breadth of Internet recruiting activity today can be mindboggling; The resources have quadrupled in number in recent years but not necessarily in quality, says Crispin, who is working on the fourth edition of the book. "I have to look at 10,000 to 15,000 recruiting sites to find 500 worth reviewing; three years ago, I had trouble finding 300 sites."

"What I see and hear is that the Internet is both a bigger and a better resource," says Peter Franks, head of the Boston-based World Association for Cooperative Education and an associate with HR Alliance LLC, a staffing cooperative in Jenkintown, Pa. "The concept certainly is growing, because there is a higher use rate in the job market among younger people coming out of academia - they are forcing the use of the Internet because they are so comfortable with it. The technology is getting better."

A special report from Best Software Inc. says that "while online recruiting is fast becoming an essential tool for HR professionals, its potential remains largely untapped. The Internet recruiting industry, estimated at $48 million in 1997, will grow almost tenfold by 2002, according to industry observers ... this explosion marks a change in the way companies attract job seekers."

With the industry's exponential growth, recruiters have benefited from using Internet sources and services. Crispin cites getting the word out about a job opening faster, as well as easing the recruiter's work in researching a job seeker's interest, evaluating the response, then moving and tracking the hiring information. "Saving time means saving dollars; effectiveness as a function of investment cost [makes the Internet] very reasonable," Crispin says.

Despite its rapid growth, low cost and potential, recruiters should not depend solely on the Internet, Franks warns. "The best companies use a variety of sources to identify strong candidates, and the Internet is one such source."

ETHICAL, LEGAL AND QUALITY ISSUES

The increased use of web-based recruiting and addition of new services and techniques (see box) present several ethical and practical issues. The value and ethicality of sharing resumes, while increasingly common and even encouraged by some Internet recruiting sources, is one big concern.

"There is a sense of confidentiality and trust that are breached when a company shares a resume without the candidate's permission," explains Alexander T. Godun, an associate with HR Alliance LLC and president of the Delaware Valley Technical Recruiters Network. "The biggest problem with sharing resumes is that it is potentially unfair to the job seeker. A person who sends a resume to a company usually is only interested in a particular job within that company, not asking to be considered for a variety of jobs with any companies that the initial company may do business with. However, if a candidate submits a resume to a job fair or Internet resume bank, the candidate wants the resume to be reviewed by as many people as possible."

Crispin shares these concerns. "Corporations have at least implicit agreements with job seekers who apply to them directly that the resumes they have submitted are for that corporation's use only," he says. "There is no implicit agreement between job seekers and third-party agencies. These issues need to be addressed by each company. Unless there is an explicit statement such as 'resumes received may be shared with other corporations,' a corporation reselling resumes without permission is, at best, ethically bankrupt and, at worst, liable for whatever problems arise."

Crispin also sees "significant ethical issues developing as more corporations dabble with direct sourcing. Technology can be abused unintentionally as the ability to search by nonperformance criteria creates demographically unbalanced applicant pools."

Misuse of information can have life-changing and even life-threatening effects. Potential problems include a company selling a resume to a candidate's current employer and contact information about female applicants getting into the hands of stalkers as a result of resale, Crispin warns.

Diversity can suffer if women and minorities have unequal access to Internet resources, notes John Sullivan, professor and head of the Human Resource Management Program in the College of Business at San Francisco State University.

"Some of the largest issues in Internet recruiting are still uncharted legal ones," Godun says. "There are the questions of who owns the rights to retain, and possibly even sell, resumes that are posted on web sites. There also are 'fairness in advertising' issues with the language in some companies' web sites and recruitment advertising."