E-recruitment

The term e-recruitment means using information technology (IT) to speed up or enhance parts of the recruitment process. It ranges from the applicant interface for advertising vacancies and making job applications, to the back office processes, which allow a liaison between human resources (HR) and line managers to set up a talent pool or database of potential recruits.

Used correctly e-recruitment can:

• enhance the applicant experience
• communicate the employer's image and culture better
• make the recruitment process faster, more accountable and standardised
• increase the diversity of applicants
• provide better management information on applicants
• find the right candidate for the job.

According to one survey, internet postings result in nearly ten times as many hires as newspaper advertisements.

E-recruitment for efficiency

E-recruitment can produce cashable savings, such as reduced advertising spend or postage costs and non-cashable productivity gains as HR staff are freed up to carry out higher value tasks.

Using average figures for the public sector, the recruitment firm jobsgopublic have estimated that a unitary council with 14,000 employees could save over £1 million by moving 20 per cent of its recruitment from press to online. The same council could save a further £140,000 in the costs of printing and administering application packs. Reducing press advertising by 80 per cent could save an average £3.8 million, with £600,000 saved on printing and administration costs.

E-recruitment is part of a wider move in HR away from transactional activities, which are increasingly automated or outsourced, towards strategic activities supporting organisational goals. This is a major goal of the Local Government Workforce Strategy.

Beyond the online job ad

The full benefits of e-recruitment are often realised when it is part of an end-to-end process. Examples of this include allowing line managers to view applications online and seamless transfer of candidate information to employee records. While this may be in part an IT procurement issue, careful measurement of costs and employee time can provide quantifiable efficiency gains.

Greater use of e-recruitment can also help combat longer-term recruitment issues through the use of talent pools and better management information about applicants and new hires. The case studies for the London Borough of Lewisham and North West People/Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council provide good examples.

Finally, public sector-run jobs portals may form part of a wider regional or subregional collaborative approach to tackling skills shortages and developing the workforce as well as reaching a wider audience and delivering economies of scale.

For further information on e-recruitment, contact: martin.stein@local.gov.uk