E-HRM in recruitment

Guest blog by Vanessa Geissler, Anna Szabolcs, Alina Vahldieck, and Arttu Ylinikkilä*

Times when companies only had to “post and pray“ to get fitting applicants for open vacancies is over. Nowadays organizations have to be more creative and proactive to attract the right employees (5). With the help of the Internet, e-HRM (electronic Human Resource Management) gives stakeholders the opportunity to get HR information as well as access to diverse HR functions (10). This blog post will discuss the question “Why should companies engage in e-recruitment as part of their HRM practices?”.

What is E-HRM?

In this context it is necessary to create a common understanding of both terms: e-HRM and e-recruitment. The first can be defined as “(…) an umbrella term covering all possible integration mechanisms and contents between HRM and information technologies aiming at creating value within and across organizations for targeted employees and management” (2). Furthermore, e-recruitment can be defined as using websites, Web portals, or kiosks to attract applicants and enable them to apply for jobs online (3). There are certain requirements for e-recruitment e.g. that applicants are able to use a computer or mobile device (e.g., tablet, smartphone) to locate and navigate websites to learn about job and organizational opportunities and to upload a resume or complete an online job application once on the website (4).

Tools for e-recruitment

Recruitment focuses on getting the right people in the right job and the digitalization has an increasing role in generating actual job candidates. Most companies use their own websites, online job search sites (e.g. Monster.com) and other popular websites to post vacant jobs and career opportunities. The growing use of social media plays an emerging role in recruitment through the use of professional networking sites like LinkedIn (8).

Commercial job boards are often used forms of online recruiting. Their strengths are that a company can reach and examine a globally large pool of candidates, share specific information about the organization and the job description. Also, job boards enable recruiters to look for candidates based on their skills and experience (6).

Jobvite (2017)

Another example of online based recruitment method that companies started to use within the last decade or so are corporate websites. A company’s website can provide all the information required to describe an open vacancy, information considering the company, what is required from the applicant and how to send an application (6).

Especially recruitment with the help of social media has been increasing its popularity lately. Social media allows companies to use different channels in recruitment process: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are just some examples with which companies can more quickly advertise and search new candidates for their open vacancies nationally and/or internationally. By re-tweeting a company’s tweets or sharing Facebook announcements, current and/or former employees can also assist in the recruitment process. Some companies even use Facebook during their background check processes. This makes HR function less reactive and more proactive from a strategic perspective (1).

Why use e-recruitment?

As demonstrated above, e-recruitment evolved to be an important tool in the recruitment process of companies. Compared to traditional recruitment methods it can provide opportunities, like increased efficiency, cost saving, reductions of effort for administrative issues and an improvement of HR planning processes (10). The downsides of e-recruitment should also be considered, such as the lack of “personal touch” or a huge volume of unqualified and low quality candidates (6).  Although we only focused our research on the company’s point of view, further research regarding the applicant’s perspective would be necessary to have a more complex understanding. For example, the increasing use of social media brings up the question if it is really allowed for companies to do background checks and candidate profiling based on their social media profiles. The EU is actually now trying to regulate this issue by releasing the General Data Protection Regulation effective from the 25th of May 2018 (7). However, due to the significant advantages it covers, companies should continuously ensure that they are up-to-date with technological changes regarding e-recruitment processes.

* This blog was written during the MA course Human Resource Management at the University of Southern Denmark

References (in alphabetical order)

  1. Arjomandy, D. (2016). Social media integration in electronic human resource management: Development of a social eHRM framework. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences. 33, 108-123.
  2. Bondarouk, T. V., & Ruël, H. J. M. (2009). Electronic Human Resource Management: challenges in the digital era. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 20(3), 505-514.
  3. Braddy, P. W., Meade, A. W., & Kroustalis, C. M. (2006). Organizational recruitment website effects on viewers’ perceptions of organizational culture. Journal of Business and Psychology, 20(4), 525-543.
  4. Cober, R. T., Brown, D.J., Blumental, A.J., Doverspike, D., & Levy, P. (2000). The quest for the qualified job surfer: It’s time the public sector catches the wave. Public Personnel Management, 29, 479-496.
  5. Dannhäuser, R. (2015). Praxishandbuch Social Media Recruiting. 2. Auflage, Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
  6. Dhamija, P. (2012). E-recruitment: a roadmap towards e-human resource management. Journal of Arts, Science & Commerce, 3, 33-39.
  7. European Comission, Justice and Consumers, General Data Protection Regulation, Article 29 (online access 08.11.2017)
  8. Hitt, M. A.; Black, J. S.; Porter, L. W. (2012). Management. 3rd edition, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 166-202.
  9. Jobvite (2017). Job Seeker Nation Study 2017: Finding the Fault Lines in the American Workforce (online access on 08.11.2017)
  10. Stone, D. L.; Dulebohn, J. H. (2013). Emerging issues in theory and research on electronic human resource management (eHRM). Human resource management review, 23, 1-5.

Image of the person with the newspaper by Esther Vargas, via Flickr.