.jpeg)
Online recruitment is explained in "The Hybrid System for Recruitment and Selection During Covid-19 Pandemic," as "It is accomplished online through tools that facilitate application acceptance, professional search, quick triage, and feedback to applicants." (Amaliyah, et al.) In recent years, the number of online recruitment sites and portals has increased. Additionally, recruiters can now conduct interviews virtually using applications such as "Zoom" and "MS Teams." "The Hybrid System for Recruitment and Selection During Covid-19 Pandemic," highlights the benefits of virtual interviews, "Virtual job interviews are much the same as in-person interviews, with the added benefit that candidates can participate from the relative comfort of their own home without having to travel." (Amaliyah, et al.)
Online recruitment allows employers to reach a more significant population of skilled candidates for the needed positions. In "The Ever-Changing World of Recruitment,” Grant states, "The impact of online recruitment and reliance on social media mean recruiters are now on the job 24/7, being available to applicants across international time zones” (Grant, Roz). Additionally, recruiters aren't geographically bound to find the best skilled and qualified candidates. Online recruitment also allows job seekers to search for more opportunities better suited to their interests and skills.
The recent Covid 19 pandemic has uncovered the much-needed changes to the human resource management field in the Cyber Age. Due to health and safety concerns with face-to-face interviews during the pandemic, traditional human resource management processes couldn't be regulated as before, which "significantly reduced the number of employee recruitment and selection activities” (Amaliyah, et al). However, "Virtual interviews, driven by safety and equity concerns, will necessitate a deliberate approach to achieving desired recruiting goals” (Amaliyah, et al.).
While traditional recruitments take more human power and time, online recruitment speeds up the process. Its nature of involving less physical paperwork also decreases the loss of information and costs. However, a disadvantage of online recruitment is the unintentional exclusion of parts of the population that may need to be more technically inclined. The individual connection between recruiters and applicants may also be weaker when the interviews and meetings occur through a computer screen.
Even though online recruitment is doing wonders, there is still room for improvement. I believe the future of recruitment will be intertwined with technological advancements. Considering this, employers and recruiters should research and work on improving the candidates' experiences with online recruitment. As stated in "The Ever-Changing World of Recruitment," "Virgin Media measured the cost of poor candidate experience as being as much as US$5 million per year, so it's worth spending a bit of time adjusting your candidate experience to align with your corporate goals, culture and values” (Grant, Roz).
A potential solution to improving candidates' experiences with online recruitment is to use gamification components. In "Applying Game-Based Approaches in Personnel Selection: A Systematic Literature Review,” the approach is elaborated further as "Game mechanics include points, badges, levels, rewards, challenges, etc” (AOUAM, Hamza, et al.). Using game elements increases the candidates' engagement with the recruiting process and enhances the overall experience.
To conclude, online recruitment and selection is a promising HRM approach in the ever-changing world with unprecedented uncertainties like the pandemic. It plays a crucial part in the future of HRM, as described in "The Hybrid System for Recruitment and Selection During Covid-19 Pandemic." it is a "multifaceted phenomenon that begins with applicants on social media, progresses through the gamification of recruitment and job interviews via chatbots, and concludes with candidates and jobs powered by artificial intelligence” (Amaliyah, et al.). Technological advancements continue to expand our understanding of various subjects and transform our approaches. It is reasonable to state that it would do the same in human resources management.