The Building Blocks for Global Internet Recruitment
By Chris Leech, Director of Business Solutions
http://www.hr.com/HRcom/index.cfm/114/
Over the last five years, Internet recruitment has expanded at a rapid pace and many multinational and global companies are now building cross-border online recruitment strategies. The Internet has made communications between different locations efficient and effective. Internet recruitment has also been one of the largest business success stories online exceeding 1 billion dollars in the U.S. in 2002. This expansion has not only been in the United States but is also very rapid in other countries. However, the rate of growth is very different from country to country.
Individual norms and values over time build very different country cultures and these varying cultures have had a dramatic effect on the adoption of online recruitment. Some countries, such as the United Kingdom, are using the Internet for recruitment at high levels, while other countries still do not find the Internet as an attractive option for job searching. The pace of adoption is amplified when we take into account the technological proficiencies of the different countries. You can see below the current levels of Internet use in Western European countries.
Belgium
Country Population = 10,300,000
Population Percent Online = 15.5%
Denmark
Country Population = 5,400,000
Population Percent Online = 29.6%
France
Country Population = 60,000,000
Population Percent Online = 9.2%
Germany
Country Population = 83,000,000
Population Percent Online = 18.2%
Italy
Country Population = 57,000,000
Population Percent Online = 14.4%
Netherlands
Country Population = 16,000,000
Population Percent Online = 21.1%
Norway
Country Population = 4,500,000
Population Percent Online = 31.1%
Spain
Country Population = 40,000,000
Population Percent Online = 10%
Sweden
Country Population = 5,400,000
Population Percent Online = 29.6%
Switzerland
Country Population = 7,300,000
Population Percent Online = 24.6%
UK
Country Population = 59,600,000
Population Percent Online = 21.8% Source: www.onrec.com
With all this being said, what are the best ways for multinational corporations to capture the efficiencies of online recruitment on an international level?
Having a strong base for domestic Internet recruitment is a first step, but this must be a foundation that can expand internationally. Companies also need to review their five-year goals before making large capital purchases such as HRIS and ATS systems. These systems must have international capabilities. Furthermore, organizations need to review their five-year staffing forecast and in what countries these opportunities lie. The countries targeted for expansion must also be reviewed. Many Western European countries are accepting the Internet, but Eastern Europe, Asia-Pac, Africa and South America are very slow to join the online ranks.
Various country employment laws also play a key role in the development of online systems. Many counties have very different standards or seemingly obscure laws to protect the rights and privacy of candidates. Over time these laws have been developed as a reflection to the country's norms and values. Often times the HRIS and ATS systems will have experts to assist their clients in these areas. However, it is advised to seek internal or external International employment counsel when setting up online employment processes in foreign countries.
Organizations must also review the ways these systems will be used in each country. Will online recruitment advertising be needed to generate the candidate flow to hit staffing forecasts? If online advertising is necessary, then what kind will be needed, what candidate process is desired and for what countries? Will job distribution technologies, resume search technologies and other add-on technologies be needed to support the desired processes and candidate generation? Building efficient online recruitment advertising that properly drives traffic to an ATS from international sites can be a challenging task. These processes can seem very simple from a high level, but as usual, the devil is in the details.
Flexibility from job boards selected for a strategy is very critical. An example of the flexibility needed can be found when setting up many of the Western European job boards into the strategy. The recruiting industry in many of these countries is still dominated by third party recruiters. The strength and demand of the staffing industry has shaped the development of the Internet job boards in Western Europe. The staffing industry is looking for fast and efficient advertising and they typically are not driving candidates to their own Internet sites to build recruitment branding. Therefore many of the job boards have built sites that allow only limited posting information. The sites also do not allow or support html to allow active links in on the job postings to redirect candidates to an employment section on a corporation's home career page. These restrictions lead to difficulties for corporations that have detailed standardized job postings to assist in branding and also have set up candidate application processes via their corporate careers sections.
This example is just one of many difficulties that lie ahead of an international online recruitment advertising strategy. It is therefore very important to make sure to blueprint an entire strategy first and then begin a selection process for flexible systems. The entire technology and process flow from requisition management, to advertising, to candidate apply process, to local employment law must be reviewed ahead to assist in determining what purchases need to be made and how they are all going to relate to one another.
Obviously this total process is very large and needs to be handled at many levels in an organization. Many organizations have still not reached the full realization that the staffing piece has become very technical and has tremendous project management requirements. Without the proper internal human resources appointed, developing an international Internet recruitment strategy will be extremely difficult. However, once built and implemented properly, an online recruitment strategy will set your organization up to move faster and deeper in your search for talent as the market becomes more difficult to find quality candidates. These advanced capabilities will allow organizations to stay several steps ahead of their competition and in effect yield the best and brightest talent in the market.
Chris Leech is the Business Solutions Manager for TruStar Solutions (www.trustarsolutions.com), the leader in creating exceptional hiring strategies. Mr. Leech serves on the board for the local EMA chapter and is an active member in SHRM. He has over 10 years of business experience in the area of Internet recruitment consulting, sales and international business. Mr. Leech has a Bachelors degree in Economics from Anderson University, a concentration in Law from Indiana University and will soon complete his MBA from Anderson University.
