Online recruitment: advantages & disadvantages What are at the advantages and disadvantages of online recruitment and job board advertising when used as part of a recruitment strategy.

The advantages of online recruitment

• Cost
  It's cost effective. Putting a job vacancy advertisement on your own website costs you nothing. Putting a vacancy advertisement on a job site usually costs just a couple of hundred pounds in the UK and something similar in Ireland. When you consider that a recruitment consultant fee for a candidate placement could be anything up to 20% of a year’s salary, and that advertising in a national newspaper can cost you thousands, you can immediately see the real financial advantages of online recruitment.
• Speed
  It's quick. A job vacancy can be put on a job site in the morning, the first applications arrive by lunchtime, and a candidate interviewed by the end of the day. Of course, it isn’t always like this. Indeed, it isn't often like this, but this gives  you an indication of just how quick online recruitment can be.
• Audience
  Traditional print advertising methods, be they national, local or trade press face limitations: the success of your vacancy advertisement depends on the right people looking at your ad on that particular page in that particular issue. Online recruitment is different: it's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
• Demographics
  Many people new to online recruitment think that using job sites is only effective for vacancies for young net-savvy Web2.0 people. This simply isn't the case. According to the National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS) 2008, 41% of people using job boards are between the ages of 35 and 54. Job board users are people of all job levels and salaries and locations.  
• It’s easy
  It really is. Most job sites are user-friendly and you don't have to have an in-depth knowledge of IT to post a vacancy advertisement. Usually all you need is a job ad and a credit card.

Online Recruitment: the disadvantages

• Too many candidates
  You may wonder how too many applicants would count as a disadvantage of online recruitment, but dealing with inappropriate and irrelevant candidates can waste a lot of time. Applicant overload can be a real problem. However, many job sites now offer tools to "pre-screen" and "filter" candidates so only relevant actually apply for your job. What's more, choosing the right job site and writing a good job advertisment can help to reduce the number irrelevant applicants. 
• It won't always work
  That's right. Online recruitment won’t always work. You won't fill every job vacancy on a job board. For tricky jobs you may have to revert to a recruitment consultant or a headhunter. But if your job is pretty standard, like an administrator, receptionist, waiter etc. you should be okay. Besides, with more and more job sites specialising in ever more diverse areas, those difficult-to-fill jobs are becoming fewer and fewer.

Article Updated: April 2008

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