As companies continue to adapt to the digital era, online recruitment has turned into the go-to approach to find talent. Consequently, several online platforms are being pushed forward to support the transition, such as LinkedIn, Indeed and Glassdoor. However, as with any other innovation, this comes with several advantages and disadvantages.
Here, a few of them:
The Good
- Cost effective: Placing a job vacancy in an online platform or in your own website is way cheaper than paying to put it on a job board or in newspapers.
- Bigger reach: Because the internet is easily accessible to the majority of the population worldwide, getting in touch with many applicant pools is guaranteed.
- Immediate: Posting a vacancy, applying to it and contacting the recruiter, or the applicant, can be done in a matter of seconds.
The Ugly
- Less filtering: Since vacancies are so easily accessible to everyone, there are higher chances of receiving several applications that do not meet the standards. Thus, job postings need to be crafted more carefully as to ensure that they are targeting the right people.
- Impersonal: Due to the digital factor, most of the communication that takes place between the applicant and the recruiter happens through emails (also phone interviews, at times). It is, therefore, more challenging for recruiters to determine the candidate’s character, and for the candidate to determine if the company is a good fit for them.
- More competition: Because most businesses have moved their recruitment processes to the online world, it is more likely that job postings get pushed back as other companies keep on uploading new ones. Therefore, the chances of your vacancy not being seen increase, while the chances of securing the perfect candidate decrease.
At the end of the day, online recruitment is undeniably a valuable method to acquire talent in this day and age. Yet, it is sensible to assume that the most effective strategy will incorporate a balanced use of traditional and digital recruitment methods.
