Embracing web recruitment - 10/2001

According to an IPD survey, more than 47% of employers now use the Internet for recruitment and a growing number of HR professionals are turning to the web as an effective and measurable way to recruit. While some organisations view online recruitment as simply an additional advertising medium, progressive employers are harnessing the power of technology to proactively manage and evaluate their entire recruitment process from the desktop. The benefits are clear.

Control. HR professionals who use TopJobs have ultimate control over the recruitment process via Job Manager. This enables them to post vacancies, amend existing job descriptions and view and respond to applicants ñ all in real time, and from the desktop. However, TopJobs recognises that not all HR professionals want this level of involvement, and therefore offers a dedicated account manager to clients who request the service.

Focus. Alongside the large, generalist online recruiters sits a pool of specialists. TopJobs deals only in the management, professional, technical and graduate sectors which means that employers can tailor their search to target specific groups effectively.

Evaluation. Most reputable recruitment sites are ABC audited which allows HR professionals to accurately gauge the reach of a given online recruiter. The specific benefit here is that while national newspapers may provide circulation figures it is impossible to determine whether a reader has visited a specific page ñ online recruitment sites are transparent and highly measurable.

TopJobsí Don McIntosh: ìThe online recruitment industry is still in a relatively embryonic stage in its development. We are working closely with HR professionals to develop a package which really adds value ñ a concept to which many recruiters pay lip service but rarely actually invest in. Weíre launching several new initiatives at Harrogate aimed at taking online recruitment one stage further ñ while retaining the key benefits of control, focus and evaluation.î

www.topjobs.co.uk