Corporate Australia Tests the Internet Recruitment Waters!

The newly released The Australasian Top 500 Internet Recruiting Study (September 2002) reveals that corporate Australia is experimenting more than ever with Internet recruitment concepts and tools. This experimentation, however, is marred by an overriding focus on process management, at the expense of the job seekerís experience.

Elizabeth OíLeary, Director of Catch22 Asia Pacific (the advisory firm behind the annual study), explained: ì On the positive side, the recent study indicates that the use of the Internet for recruitment purposes through a dedicated Careers website has risen to 49% of the Top 500 enterprises. However, the Careers site is only part of the equation ñ it must be enabled by a robust back-end solution in order to gain maximum advantage out of the online mediumÖ and this is where the industry is really hotting up!î

The Top 500 findings indicate that the use of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and the like is holding steady at 21.5%, with a promising outlook with many employers currently ëtesting the watersí in relation to the raft of tools available. This level of experimentation rose to 15% of the Top 500 during the past 6 months, who either changed their ATS provider, tool use or and strategy.

ìWe estimate that the Australian market is now in the ëtake-offí position in the adoption of innovative Internet recruitment tools, and that over the next 2 years we will see Internet recruitment shift from being seen as an alternative strategy to being an industry norm,î she said.

OíLeary explained that the news, however, is not all good for those employers engaged in Internet recruitment: ìWe were disappointed to detect a growing number of enterprises failing some basic best-practice measures. For example, we noted 8% of the sample group temporarily shut down their dedicated Careers websites (and associated tools) over the past 6 months, as a method of managing candidate supply during a quiet recruiting period.î Catch22 strongly discourage this strategy, although efficient from a management perspective, it results in an inconsistent job seeking experience for the candidate and ultimately does a tremendous disservice to the employers, who would be better positioned by focussing on the development of talent databases and prospective candidate relationships.


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