Technology and E-Recruitment, Essay Example

Online employee selection is characterized by a continuous batch of processes.  The first element is the identification of needs for hiring. This step involves accurate online evaluation of the existing workforce and the skill gaps. It could also entail moving the most productive employees upward to give room for the immediate and long-term vacancies. The next step would require the creation of a job requisition list or a formal online request for creating a new position for a select company. The requisition list details all the information about the need for the new position and whether the position is temporary or permanent. The third step is the advertisement for the job online, which is followed by the vacancy intake. The job seekers will apply, after which the company officials will use specific tools to screen and evaluate the employees for their potential to fill the vacancies. The company will then carry out online interviews and pre-employment screening to verify the candidates’ background, screen them for drugs, and assess their behaviors. The process ends with the presentation of the job offer and the signing of the employment contract.

Companies prefer e-recruitment because of its advantages over the traditional processes. One, e-recruitment increases the employee selection process by reaching a large number of qualified people world over at significantly lower the costs. An example is the case of Cisco Systems, which attracted over 500,000 applicants in and selected 1200 of the most qualified candidates in a month (Stone, Lukaszewski & Isenhour, 2005). Two, the online platform attracts candidates with higher computing skills, achievements, drive, and persistence as compared to the traditional recruitment processes. Three, e-recruitment offers broad exposure to the applicants and the public at large. Applicants gauge the company’s quality, research about the company, and get more exposed to the company based on its e-recruitment website.

The online platform also has potential negative impacts. One, e-recruitment ultimately reduces the diversity of the workforce because the minority groups lack the skills, exposure, and the facilities required for accessing online jobs, and are less likely to be part of the recruitment process. Secondly, there is evidence that the online screening process may eliminate the qualified candidate and pick the less qualified due to minor software errors. Third, there are concerns that the submission of online personal documents exposes the applicants to privacy risks (Lee, 2005). The company can sell people’s data to marketers and spammers, thereby causing privacy breaches. It is noteworthy that a company must not rely entirely on e-recruitment because the pool of qualified applicants may reduce- this could be because of their unfamiliarity with the web-based systems or discomfort in providing their details online due to the above-mentioned privacy concerns.

Human resource managers must note that a large number of applicants do not always translate to a larger number of qualified persons. Online applications are not always monitored by the systems, and the human resource manager and supervisor may not immediately validate the person or the quality of the credentials (Stone, Lukaszewski & Isenhour, 2005). Thus, there are higher chances of picking the wrong person when many unqualified applicants resort to the online application

There are at least four key considerations that can be made when selecting employees online include the need to identify and lock out fraudsters, the need to protect employee privacy, the use of efficient software, and the legal issues surrounding e-recruitment. The internet is full of malicious users who could attempt to use their expertise to compromise the process of employee section. Unless a company has sufficient information security, hackers can intercept applicant data or gain entry into the organization’s database by sending malicious files while pretending to be employees. If successful, they can manipulate the company’s information to their advantage. The protection against fraudsters goes hand in hand with the need safeguard applicant information from unnecessary access by any third parties.

The company must also adopt efficient software to help manage the large volumes of applicants because defective software can leave the company with a pool of unqualified recruits. Lastly, increasing the efficiency of the hiring process must also go hand in hand with legal compliance. The most important legal consideration is to ensure that the e-recruitment system is designed to eliminate discrimination and other claims of biasness that apply to employee selection. For instance, job advisements must exclude messages or the use of a language that may discourage minority groups, the disabled and the elderly from sending their actions, unless there is a business necessity.

Three tools used in online applicant tracking include Taleo, Resumix, and Workday. Taleo is sold by Oracle Corporation and focuses primarily on talent acquisition. It also offers performance management, learning and development, and compensation management. Workday is sold by Workday Inc.  It is primarily used for hiring purposes but does not offer supplemental functionalities other than tracking high-volume e-recruitment and making data-driven recruitment decisions. Resumix is used primarily for scanning applicant resumes for keywords. It is sold by Yahoo. Given the functionalities listed above, Taleo emerges to be the most talent intelligent software in the applicant tracking system.

Summary

Companies across the world are resorting to the use of web-based technologies for attracting, evaluating, selecting, and recruiting job applicants to fill vaccines in their workforce.  This recruitment strategy makes use of information technology to handle the entire recruitment process, including the setting of the recruitment objectives, creating a strategy, undertaking the actual recruitment activities, and evaluating the overall success of the recruitment strategy.

Like the traditional recruitment strategy, Some of the key steps of the electronic recruitment (e-recruitment) include the identification of the needs for hiring, the approval of the job requisition through a selected job database, advertising the job on the internet, search and application by job seekers, online self-assessments and submission of the applications, candidate selection, resume evaluation, interviews, online pre-employment screening, reviewing the job offer and the employment contract.

The e-recruitment strategy brings significant advantages to the company, including the capacity to reach many people in the labor market, computer literate employees who are indispensable in the digital age and marketing the company. The online platform also has potential negative impacts on the company, including reduced diversity, elimination of qualified candidates, and breach of personal privacy.

Human resource managers must proceed cautiously so that they do not end up picking the wrong person when many unqualified applicants resort to the online application. Similarly, three key considerations that can be made when selecting employees online include the need to identify and lock out fraudsters, the need to protect employee privacy, and the use of efficient software to increase the efficiency of the hiring process.

Lastly, there are three tools that can be used in online applicant tracking, including Taleo, Resumix, and Workday. Taleo is the most efficient of the three due to its multiple functionalities.

References

Lee, I. (2005). E-recruiting: Categories and analysis of Fortune 100 career web sites. In E-human resources management: managing knowledge people (pp. 86-100). IGI Global.

Stone, D. L., Lukaszewski, K. M., & Isenhour, L. C. (2005). e-Recruiting. The Professional Practice Series, 22.