Is Online Job Posting Viable in a Weak Economy?

For the past few years, HR departments have used online posting services and their own corporate career pages to recruit thousands of employees. However, with a weak economy and a glut of potential applicants in the job market, recruiters may want to reassess their online posting strategies.

The Positives

Despite the weak economy, there are several positives associated with online job posting. These are the same as they have always been and will not change. Specifically,

Online posting allows recruiters to find a broad selection of job candidates. Such advertising also can streamline recruitment search processes, allowing HR departments to target particular candidates. For instance, recruiters can post jobs on boards offered by professional organizations.
Recruiters that work with job posting services can target candidates by employing specific search engine terms.

Online posting saves HR departments time and effort in adding candidate information to recruitment databases. Often, in fact, the services allow job seekers to create database entries, using online forms.

Beyond these important benefits, online job posting services also:

- Provide recruiters with an affordable advertising medium
- Allow candidates to apply for positions at any time - for instance, even when a business is closed
- Offer recruiters access to a global employment pool - useful for filling programming and other positions that allow telecommuting
- Target entry-level candidates - when using broad-based employment boards, such as Monster.com
- Reduce telephone, postage, and travel expenses incurred in traditional recruiting processes
- Allow advertisements to run for extended periods of time
- Allow companies to publish comprehensive, detailed information about positions

Posting on a company's own corporate Web site also can be essential in finding superior employees. Often, currently employed and highly qualified job seekers use company Web sites to find information on corporate culture and benefits. That said, even when hiring demand is flat, job boards and corporate career pages can help recruiters expand their candidate databases. When recruitment needs increase, this information can be used to streamline future hiring processes.

The Negatives

With the weak economy providing them access to a large number of talented candidates and, perhaps, facing their own staff reductions, HR departments may want to limit online job posting. In the current climate, posts may bring more unqualified responses than staff can assess, or even process. With that, some companies may want to limit postings to their own corporate Web site or to small, professional job boards.

Recruiters also may want to limit online job postings to targeting local candidates. (Obviously, while one of the benefits of online recruitment is in gaining access to a global candidate pool, most positions still require on-site employment.) Another reason to avoid using online job boards currently is that such advertising can attract transient employees. The hiring of such candidates will require HR departments to repeat recruitment processes after those employees have left for greener pastures.

Additionally, as Stephanie Armour reports in her article, "Net Job Boards: More Hype than Help?" (USA Today, August 3, 2001), a recent study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project reveals that online recruiting may discriminate against minority candidates, creating the basis for litigation. (See Resources for Globalization and Diversity Recruiting at www.ecruiter.com/Magazine/Features/18-diversity-sources.htm)

Finally, a key point against using online boards in the current economic climate is that such advertising often works on a cost-per-post model. With many applicants in the job market, any employment advertisement will attract numerous responses. As Bill Leonard notes in his article Online & Overwhelmed (www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/articles), "The cost for posting job openings is fairly consistent among the large job boards. Fee-based sites that offer single postings typically charge $100 to $200 per posting. With most boards, a minimum package allowing 10 postings per month plus access to the resume database might cost $400 to $500 a month. Some larger companies ... have opted for unlimited postings and database access and pay $100,000 or more per year." Leonard notes this advertising model is less expensive than that offered by print advertising.

Short-term Strategy: Fundamentals

In meeting current hiring challenges, HR departments should focus on fundamentals.

First, recruiters should target specific job seekers, tapping niche employment boards, such as those offered by professional associations. As noted in a recent study from the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), titled, When Can You Start? Building Better Information Technology Skills and Careers (www.itaa.org/workforce/studies/01execsumm.htm):

Despite the experience of individual companies, the U.S. requirement for a steady supply of new IT workers continues. While the current economic slowdown has diminished demand, such demand for new talent persists. ... ITAA finds a national IT workforce of 10.4 million. Add to this total an additional 900,000 workers that companies say they hope to hire this year. Of this total, 425,000 positions will go unfilled because of a lack of applicants with the requisite technical and non-technical skills.

Clearly, the use of niche online job boards can help HR departments find IT, technical support and other candidates.

Recruiters also should use their company's career pages to advertise positions. This approach has the benefit of reaching candidates who have an active interest in working for the company. Additionally, HR departments may want to consider using local online advertising outlets, newsgroups, and even free employment boards. Finally, if a decision is made to buy online advertising space, recruiters should tap services that offer unlimited posting.

In short, by applying niche recruiting techniques; using multiple advertising channels; and controlling the cost of online job advertisements, recruiters should be able to streamline the hiring process.

C.M. Sumberg is a freelance writer who works with WordsWork Consulting Incorporated on a variety of Web projects.

C.M. SUMBERG / www.ecruiter.com October 15th, 20011