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8 August 2005
E-recruitment on the up - but it will augment traditional methods The Internet recruitment industry has undeniably grown from its somewhat haphazard and rapid inception to evolve into an extremely smooth-running and sophisticated sector on the worldwide Internet. Everyone is noticing the better return on time and investment - and this includes recruiters, companies and the users themselves. This is according to Bradley Taylor, operations director at recruitment web-site, PNet. Taylor said it is not a phenomenon that is going to "go away". "E-recruiting enables employers to find staff much faster and at far less cost. We can cut recruitment costs by as much as 60%." Taylor said the Internet - while augmenting the print media as a means of job searching - will continue to grow in importance. "One of the interesting factors," he said, "is that currently 75% of our applicants are already gainfully employed and are 'passively' looking for work. While detractors say that not enough people out there have access to the Internet - and it is therefore limited as a job seeking tool - in our line of business almost all our clients have access to the Internet one way or another. Although the number of Internet connections at people's homes are still limited one must not forget that people have access to the Internet at the work place - and these days there are even Internet cafes in the so-called locations." Taylor pointed out that the bulk of "recruitment-related traffic" on the Internet is related to professionals, not semi-skilled or unskilled labourers. "Unskilled workers are likely to use traditional channels to seek employment, including making use of the print media. But professionals definitely prefer the Internet as a tool. "Besides more and more candidates turning to the Internet as their preferred method of job-seeking, more corporates are also looking at this medium to either replace existing recruitment strategies, or to augment traditional methodologies and procedures. Continuing, he said e-recruitment, as a mainstream recruitment methodology, is undoubtedly going to gather momentum. "It is like the ATMs of yesteryear. Once one bank started rolling them out, everyone followed suite - and rapidly. Now they are ubiquitous. "While corporates are increasingly scrutinising and experimenting with, I don't believe there is room left in the market for anymore on-line recruiters or web-sites, like PNet. The established players will grow, but it is going to be hard for any new entrants to break into this market, even though it is buoyant." Org Geldenhuys, a director and co-founder of Pretoria-based executive search and IT recruitment company, said candidates looking for work in the IT sector are "particularly passionate users of the Internet as a tool". "Although e-recruiting is growing, traditional recruitment companies like Abacus are moving closer to recruitment web-sites like PNet due to synergies. At the end of the day the Internet can speed things up - and this is to the benefit of all players. Traditional methods of recruiting will not die -they will just be augmented by on-line, or e-recruiting methods. At the end of the day if we, as recruiters, can speed up service delivery we will enhance our ability to sustain long-term relationships with our clients." |