What is the primary advantage of internet recruiting?

Internet recruiting has become so important because it allows businesses to utilize the digital landscape to gain access to a larger number of candidates and the capabilities to choose the most qualified candidates. There are numerous benefits of recruitment software once you decide to take part in internet recruiting, such as posting on job boards, scanning resumes, and interview scheduling to name a few. The efficiencies and effectiveness of having an online recruitment system and selection process will enable you to automate sourcing, recruiting, and eventually extend a job offer to the perfect candidate.

Having Recruitment Software as a part of your online recruiting system is an absolute must. The cost of recruitment software is fairly low considering the benefits and savings it will provide.

In the current digital age, most job seekers turn to the internet to land their dream jobs. As a result, it is imperative to integrate online recruitment into your recruitment strategy to improve your candidate search.

Here are the advantages of using online recruitment.

Advantages of Online Recruitment

  1. Better candidates. Almost everyone has access to the internet in this day and age. So if you are looking into expanding your reach, online recruitment is a great way to start. Posting job advertisements online exposes you to a large pool of potential applicants, and by extension, more qualified candidates. Due to the generalized information given in most job advertisements posted on job boards like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn, and Monster, you can use standardized messaging across multiple campaigns. You can cross-post them on different social media platforms and community groups to reach even more people. On top of that, this is an effective way to help a specific target group discover your job vacancy. Other than that, internet recruiting provides you with flexibility and a sense of control over the job advertisements posted. Unlike traditional methods, you can perform modifications and updates on your post’s description and details. You can also remove the job advertisement as soon as you achieved the desired number of applicants.
  2. Cost-Effective. Hiring a new employee requires a substantial amount of expenses. This expense covers the job advertisement fees, travel expenses to third-party recruiting costs, and referral payments to employees who may have recommended the new hire. Taking your recruitment process online allows you to save to prepare for those expenses. Posting a job advertisement to online job boards can be more cost-effective than other methods. Job boards let you post jobs for free, especially if you have connections in professional or industry organizations, and you can have recruiters post across social media platforms. You don’t need to spend a single penny to source for your potential candidates. Posting advertisements on specialized groups allow you to reach out to your target market. Plus, making such an announcement also enables you to inform your network about your vacancies, so they have the opportunity to provide valuable referrals to reach out to potential candidates quickl
  3. Saves Time. Instead of manually going over hundreds of resumes, e-recruiting allows you to sift through potential candidates quickly. Online recruitment platforms have a smart matching technology that sends your advertisement to the leading job boards. They tend to utilize resume keywording to locate a high-quality candidate pool. This process can get tedious and overwhelming if done manually. Most of all, it consumes most of the recruiters’ time, especially when hiring in high-volume. Automation of the candidate selection process allows recruiters to allocate their time to higher value tasks. They can review carefully shortlisted candidates to prepare for the interview process. Ultimately, it helps them hire the applicant that best fits the company.
  4. Efficient Communication. When it comes to using online recruitment, recruiters have the means to easily reach out to potential candidates. Instead of trying to reach them over the phone, you can send mass emails to save you time and streamline the process. Candidates that responded to the job advertisement can directly submit their resume/CV to your email, which allows you to screen them efficiently and answer specific queries in a single platform. Most companies would also perform preliminary interviews through video conferencing applications to narrow down the applicant pool.
  5. Automation of the Application Process. The automation of the application process allows recruiters to curate the job advertisement details without needing IT teams’ help. To post a vacancy, all you need is a job description, a platform, and an internet connection. Most job seekers are utilizing well-known job boards, making perfect sense to use them to find top talents. These platforms are mostly user-friendly for both recruiters and job seekers, and almost anyone can browse through them to apply.

Disadvantages of Online Job Portals

There are a couple of downsides to utilizing job portals that you should look into before fully committing to this strategy.

  1. Surplus of Unqualified Applicants. Since you expose the job vacancy to thousands of users online, anyone can apply. Receiving more applications can indicate that there can be a majority of candidates who don’t fit the job description. This overexposure can lead to a surplus of unqualified applicants that you have to screen. You might end up sifting through hundreds of applicants and have a handful who are qualified enough for an interview. To be fair, it won’t be too difficult to weed out the least qualified applicants if you have concrete criteria at hand. Most recruiting software also has programs that allow you to screen their applications using keywording technology quickly. Therefore, if you already have an applicant tracking system, this should not be much of a problem.
  2. Cultural Fit. Because much of internet recruiting involves communication over email, phone calls, and video calls, recruiters might fail to see if they fit with the company culture. Candidates might also find it challenging to deliberate whether they can work well within the company. Therefore, it can be helpful to hold opportunities for in-person interviews.
  3. Technical Issues. To become successful with online recruitment, one must acquire access to a stable internet connection. Technical issues like poor Wi-Fi can hinder recruiters from accessing cloud-based storage, especially if it’s not available offline. Interviews conducted online can lead to miscommunications and delays when the internet connection is unstable. Always designate a back-up drive for your files. This security protocol prevents many hindrances in your workflow. Simply put, this lets you carry on with your work until your internet connection stabilizes.

What are the advantages of online recruitment? Learn why it's the most efficient, cost-effective way for business owners to source new employees.

The advantages of online recruitment make it the most efficient and cost-effective way for business owners to source new employees. And this is no small claim when you consider that for most organizations, the average cost to recruit and hire one new employee is more than $4,100, with open positions generally sitting unfilled for more than 40 days, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

And with an unemployment rate that is at its lowest in the past 18 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, finding the right employees fast can mean saving more funds to reinvest elsewhere.

"In today's tight labor market, finding great talent is one of the toughest parts of running a small or midsized business," says Maria Black, president of Small Business Solutions and Human Resources Outsourcing at ADP. "Finding and hiring the right candidate quickly is critical to their success."

While finding and onboarding a new employee is never easy, handling the process online can help you reach more potential hires as well as save you time and money. For instance, ADP recently partnered with ZipRecruiter to streamline hiring and onboarding processes to save time once you find the right candidate.

Before you start recruiting for your next open position, consider these three advantages of taking the process online.

Save Money

When you're looking to hire a new employee, there are a number of costs to worry about, from advertising fees and travel expenses to third-party recruiting fees and referral payments to employees who may have recommended the new hire. You may also have to pay a sign-on bonus or relocation costs to secure the new employee. And recruiting doesn't just involve the actual costs of hiring a candidate — it includes the costs of training and retention.

But when you take your recruiting online, you'll be able to save on some of those expenses. If you post jobs on the web, for instance, the fees are likely cheaper than those for classified advertisements in your local newspaper. And if you're a member of a professional or industry association, that organization may allow you to post jobs for free.

Social media is also an easy, no-cost option for sourcing potential candidates: You can reach many people for free by posting about job openings in LinkedIn groups or on your Twitter feed. When it's time to conduct interviews, too, you can avoid paying travel costs by talking to candidates via online video software.

Save Time

Rather than poring over hundreds of resumes by hand, an online recruiting platform can help you sift through job candidates quickly. Recruiting platforms like ZipRecruiter, for example, can identify applicants who have the desired qualifications through smart matching technology. Their program even sends your job post to 100+ of the web's leading job boards and aggregates the applications. It also reaches out to the best candidates in its network and invites them to apply. It's time consuming and costly to attempt that reach manually.

By allowing technology to source and screen candidates for them, business owners can spend time on other important matters, simply reviewing the narrowed list of best-fit applicants and carrying the process forward from there.

Cast a Wider (and Better) Net

When you take the recruiting process online, you have access to a much wider audience of potential employees than you have with a local newspaper ad or your own personal network. The internet is vast, and while that can be overwhelming, it also means that you can get in touch with those beyond your immediate reach who could be perfect for your open position. But wider doesn't always mean better: using online tools, you can also target specifically what kind of backgrounds or skills are preferable.

Once you've learned the advantages of online recruitment, there's no excuse for spending extra time and money to hire an employee who may not be a good fit. Don't wait to start nurturing your online network — you never know when you may need to hire somebody new.

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