The Web is an excellent device for both start-ups and established companies to find qualified applicants for a wide variety of positions that they need to fill. For startups, online recruiting is extremely cost effective when compared to job listings in newspapers and trade magazines. Online recruiting is also must cheaper than using an employment agency. For more established companies, recruiting via the Web provides increased exposure and the opportunity to reach job candidates worldwide. The Web also provides both types of companies with the ability to run a very targeted campaign and look for the "best of the best" online.
Today's Enable provides several tips for recruiting via the Web. We have ignored large commercial career sites primarily because they are already a well known source for online recruiting. Instead, because it is very difficult to find excellent candidates these days, Enable provides a few lesser known methods for finding potential employees via the Web. We also points out some of the disadvantages of online recruiting that you must learn how to deal with before beginning the process.
Listserves And Newsgroups
One lesser known method for finding candidates is to use listserves -- electronic discussion groups that route e-mail to their members (see: Tune In to Your Market
) There are hundreds of thousands of listserves on the Internet and many let you post job offers for free. The main advantage of listserves is that you can reach out to potential recruits who might not be job-hunting. Moreover, messages can be cut, pasted, and forwarded to others who might be.
However, be aware that you must follow the particular list's Netiquette and some lists do not allow job notices. Others include guidelines for such postings in their rules. If you are not sure, you should ask the list moderator.
Another option for job postings can be found in the thousands of loosely organized Internet newsgroups. These groups cover just about every topic and industry imaginable.
Search Engines - Get Lucky And Find The Best - First
The perfect candidate has probably posted his/her resumes somewhere on the Internet. Maybe it was launched as a home page or free standing "mini-site" on one of the major domains: .com-the domain for commercial enterprises; .net-the domain for network organizations such as Internet Service Providers; .edu-the domain for educational institutions; and .org-the domain for non-profit groups. How do you find these candidates resumes?
Visit your favorite search engine and use the following Boolean string: domain: com AND (resume OR "home page") AND [insert the skill or field for which you're recruiting]. You can bet that after this type of search you will find a lot of junk, but if you are lucky, you may also uncover the perfect candidate before anyone else, because the candidates resume was not posted in a commercial career site's database.
Some Disadvantages
One key problem with recruiting via the Internet is that you may provide your competitors with some key information about your company. Keep this in mind especially when you post job descriptions. You must strive to make them adequate enough to attract the proper candidates - but not revealing enough to provide your competitors with valuable information about how your company operates.
Another disadvantages is that your online recruiting may be come unmanageable due to the flood of incoming resumes via fax and e-mail. Therefore, before starting the online recruiting process, set up dedicated e-mail addresses and incoming mailboxes to handle the extra load. You should also check into using screening and selection software to automate the process.
While the Web provides numerous advantages for staffing your company, do not count on it to be your recruiting panacea. In order to find the best possible candidates, you should still use other sources like an employment agency, headhunter or even a classified ad.
Good luck and good hunting for that perfect candidate.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on January 25, 2000.