An audit of online recruitment :a South African perspective

[摘要] The survival of an organisation in a global competitive business environment depends on its survival skills(e.g. adaptability, flexibility and innovativeness), which is situated within its human resources. Hence, therecruitment function's role is critical, since it is responsible for the procurement of key intellectual capital thatcould equip the organisation with a competitive advantage. However, against the accelerated growth of theInternet combined with global competition, traditional recruitment methods are increasingly failing to rise tothe challenge of securing key intellectual capital, due to being too time consuming and expensive.Consequently, organisations are progressively turning to online recruitment (which does not refer to onespecific technique, but rather several different Internet tools that can be employed as a recruitment method,such as organisational websites, specialised job sites, media websites or newsgroups). However, thepresence of an organisational website that advertises vacancies is not sufficient to guarantee its success asa recruitment method. Hence, it is vital to gain an understanding of website recruitment, as well as how tomaximise the website's effectiveness and ability to facilitate successful online applicant behaviour (SOAB), inorder to harness its full potential as a recruitment method, able to secure key intellectual capital. For thepurpose of this study, SOAB refers to potential applicants (i.e. job seekers entering an organisational websitein search of employment opportunities) being able to browse the website without any difficulty and obtainrelevant and sufficient information concerning the organisation and its listed vacancies. In addition toenabling potential applicants to assess whether he/she will be able to fit, perform and accelerate in the workclimate and culture of the organisation (i.e. decide whether he/she would like to work for the organisation), awebsite that facilitates SOAB, should also enable potential applicants to contact the organisation to addressadditional information needs.In essence, this study comprises of three phases and centres on the identification of website content- andusability design benchmarks that should contribute to a website's ability to facilitate SOAB. By means of acomprehensive literature review, it is argued that the content- and usability design are vital contributingfactors to a website's ability to facilitate SOAB. It is also proposed that the effectiveness of the website as arecruitment method is, to a certain degree, linked to the effectiveness of the alignment of an organisation'sonline recruitment strategy with the five stages of potential applicants' job decision-making process (i.e. therecognition of an employment need, search for career related information, evaluation of career alternatives,identification and acceptance of employment and post-choice evaluation).Phase one, entails the identification of website content- and usability design benchmarks and culminateswith the development of the Website Benchmarks Checklist. Phase two, which constitutes the overallpurpose of this study, entails an audit of the sample of the 'best' SA employers' (drawn from a surveyconducted by the Corporate Research Foundation, 2005) websites. The primary aim is to determine theextent to which the sample's website design incorporates the identified benchmarks. However, the quality ofpotential applicants' interaction with a website (i.e. informative content being communicated in an effective,efficient and satisfactory manner), greatly influences their perception of the organisation's image, itsattractiveness as an employer, as well as their intention to pursue employment within the organisation.Hence, the third phase of the study entails the subjective evaluation of three websites (selected from theaudited sample), by a sample of potential applicants. Throughout the study, the empirical tests conducted were descriptive in nature and utilised survey researchmethods to acquire the required data, related to the specified goals and objectives that encapsulate the aimand purpose of this study. The results obtained provided valuable insight into website design benchmarksthat should assist potential applicants in their job decision-making process, increase a website's ability tofacilitate SOAB and maximise its effectiveness as a recruitment method responsible for securing keyintellectual capital. In addition to revealing that the majority of the sample employs its website as arecruitment method, the audit results also indicated that although a high level of adherence existedconcerning the sample's incorporation of the usability design benchmarks. However, a notable differencethat ranged from very little to relatively high existed with regards to the extent to which the sample's websitedesign adhered to the content design benchmarks. The subjective evaluation of the three websites bypotential applicants revealed that in addition to being critical contributors to the quality of their interaction witha website, the content- and usability design also had a profound impact on their assessment of the websites.Finally, the results also showed that a similarity existed between potential applicants' subjective evaluationand the extent to which the design of the three websites adhered to the recommended benchmarks (auditresults).

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University