e-recruitment spend on the rise

Mon 08 June 2009, Category: online recruitment spend

I’ve just read with interest the results of a survey carried out by Personnel Today that shows ‘recruitment spend is being focused on web-based recruitment at the expense of traditional methods’. Helen Williams of Personnel Today takes a closer look at the figures and there is a very detailed report you can read, but I have included some of the highlights below.

The survey was conducted with more than 400 Personnel Today readers, including HR directors, board level directors and managers. Overall it suggests that recruitment budgets and plans have been dramatically scaled back compared to last year, and will continue to be kept on a tight rein over the year ahead.

“Recruitment agency budgets have taken the biggest knock, with 48% of respondents reducing their budgets in this area, and 22% sticking to last year's levels. General advertising spend is also down at 45% of employers surveyed, although 9% of respondents said this has risen this year. E-recruitment technology enjoyed the most widespread budget increase compared to last year, on the up at 22% of employers that responded, while nearly a third (32%) have kept investment in this area consistent this year, and just 10% are cutting budgets.”

“The move from traditional hiring methods such as print advertising and head hunters to online recruitment was starkly illustrated. Recruitment agencies remain reasonably popular, used by 21% of respondents to help recruit for most jobs and by 65% to target some, although 14% never used agencies at all. The average proportion of agency use versus in-house recruitment last year was 40/60 - this has fallen to 25/75 this year. More than half (53%) of respondents said they never used headhunters, although the balance did use them for some roles. Nearly half (47%) never used national press recruitment advertising, although regional and trade advertising remained more popular, with 74% and 77% respectively using these media for some jobs.”

“Online methods proved far more popular. Two-thirds (66%) of HR professionals surveyed said the jobs section of their own company websites were used as a recruitment tool for most jobs, while 22% used this to promote some jobs, with just 12% never using this method.”

Online jobs boards were also popular. “The increasing popularity of online recruitment was attributed to a range of factors. The overwhelming majority (86%) of respondents felt that online recruitment is more cost effective than most other recruitment methods, while 40% strongly agreed with this statement. More than 90% felt that online recruitment is easy to use, while only 9% slightly disagreed with this.”

“Opinion was split nearly 50:50 over whether online recruitment takes more time to administrate, although nearly three-quarters (71%) felt it was more effective that other methods, and more than half (54%) felt it reduced time to hire.

Respondents did not feel strongly that online recruitment improves the overall quality of candidates, but a convincing two-thirds (66%) felt it helps improve the diversity of recruitment, with 11% expressing this view strongly.”

“HR professionals were also asked which aspects of the recruitment process they currently outsourced. Most (87%) outsourced agency and temporary recruitment. Administration was outsourced by half (49%), candidate sourcing by 59%, and interviewing and selection by 34%. Nearly a third (30%) outsourced the whole recruitment process. Half of respondents felt that outsourcing was easy to undertake and reduces time to hire”

At e-recruitment buddy we aim to reduce an employers time and cost to hire through a variety or our in-house methods and established partnerships – so please do speak with us for further details.

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