CHAPTER 1

THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Today, everything is based on technology and it is getting automated day by day. We

hear about trendy attires and shoes as well, it is a new creation of inherent manufacturing.
Electronic revolution and globalization changed the life of people living in the current epoch.
The internet has now become a necessity and considered as important as other basic needs.
Moreover for competition intention and business performance, technological adaptations
have become inevitable. People spend hours on the internet either for their work or
entertainment, and certainly the younger generations have the highest ratio in the usage of
the internet. In relation now to Human Resource Management and recruitment the internet
plays a larger role in the organizational development of the company. In the past job hunters
experienced how complicated it was to send to the resumes to the prospective employers. We
the down clicks of the internet age, we can send our resumes to numerous employees within
a span of clicks, which was not possible in the past. An organization needs to be forward-
thinking and aggressive towards the goal they want to achieve, but it all depends on the
resources the organization gets from the environment. For getting the best employees for the
organization recruitment follows three steps which are: recruitment, selection and staffing. In
the recruitment process, the company needs to get the resume of various candidates transfer
these resumes to companys database. In selection the securitization process is done in
which the deserving candidates are selected in the staffing process the selected candidates are
placed in the right position. (Ref: http://www.mnmk.ro/documents/2013-01/4-18-1-13.pdf).

Organization make planning on the basis of which required number of human resource
are determined, then the next step will be the procurement role is to allocate the sources from
where the required manpower can be available and to attract them towards the organization.
This is known as recruitment. Organization has to recruit people with mandatory skills,
qualifications and experience, if they want to undergo and prosper in exceptionally ruthless
surroundings. While doing this they have to be responsive to fiscal, opinionated and lawful

1
factors inside a country. In true sense, it is always not easy to find and select a suitable
candidate for a job opening. One of the on the whole non-conventional forms of recruitment
practice is e-recruitment.

Internet proved to be the recruiting mechanism in the end of 1990s, and in the early
stages of internet recruitment it provides many benefits to the recruiters. It was predicted that
the internet will become the back bone of the recruiting business bringing about a huge
development in the field of recruiting and making the world a fast and efficient place to work
in. The latest trend in recruitment is the E-Recruitment. E-Recruitment is also referred to as
Online-Recruitment wherein it uses the internet to recognize and draw the prospective
candidates. It is the method of promoting position vacancies online, and the information
regarding that profile. Easy availability of information generates the higher chance of getting
the best manpower for the required position. It also helps the organization in lowering their
screening cost by maintaining the employees details in a database; all the employees will be
connected to the line manager through a central system.

It made the business much easier for the employer, the employer can select or call his
candidate from anywhere around the world. It also gives huge business opportunities to the
organization. Internet acts as an interactive interface between the employers and the job
seekers.

1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

There is wide agreement among scholars about the growing importance of organizational
recruitment in the development of human capital and strategic human resource management.
Given that the primary objective of recruitment is to identify and attract potential employees,
recruitment can be defined as practices and activities carried out by an organization for the
primary purpose of identifying, attracting and influencing the job choices of competent
candidates. Recruitment activities are either directed towards external candidates from
outside organizations or towards current employees, in which case it is called internal
recruitment. The focus of this study is solely on the process of recruiting external candidates,

2
since internal recruitment often involves other issues, such as career planning and
development.

E-recruitment can be understood as recruitment carried out by the use of various

electronic means. Online, Internet, or web-based recruiting can be defined as the use of the
Internet to identify and attract potential employees. Example is advertising a vacant position
and attracting a pool of applicants through corporate websites and Internet job boards. An e-
recruitment system is a back-office system for administrating the recruitment process, and is
normally designed to allow applicants to submit their data electronically. E-recruitment can
thus be perceived as an umbrella term covering recruitment activities performed using
various electronic means and the Internet, including online recruitment and e-recruitment
systems. The recruitment process can vary in complexity and degree of difficulty depending
on the recruitment objectives and the recruitment sources chosen. The most commonly used
sources for external recruitment are newspaper ads, private and public employment agencies,
Internet job boards, corporate websites, employee referrals, colleges and universities, search
firms, job fairs, etc.

As e-recruitment uses online job ads as the recruitment source, the focus here will be
solely on the recruitment process for sourcing applicants from advertising. Traditional
recruitment, which uses formal sources like job advertising, starts with the identification of
required applicants, their location and placement in the labor market, and proceeds with
activities to attract and persuade qualified applicants to apply. Job applications are then
received, screened, and sorted, leading to the drawing up of a shortlist. The process ends with
communicating the pre-screening results to applicants.

3
1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Recruitment is important for organizations since it performs the essential function of

drawing an important resource, human capital, into the organizations. It has a strategic aim as
it focuses on the need to attract high-quality people in order to gain a competitive advantage.
Recruiting people with the right abilities reinforces the organizational goals. E-recruitment is
the use of the internet to attract potential employees to an organization, and can include the
use of an organizations own corporate website as well as the use of commercial job boards.
E-recruitment is part of e-HRM (electronic Human Resource Management) and is known as
one of the most popular e-HRM applications used by organizations. The first references to e-
recruitment go back to articles published in the 1990s. From this point, the use of e-
recruitment has grown rapidly. Nonetheless e-recruitment is one of the most popular e-HRM
technologies used, and literature shows that the majority of organizations report achieving
moderate results concerning e-recruitment.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

Gathering of Went to ten It is the fastest

data using selected BPO mode to apply
companies, for jobs.
quantitative distributed five Large pool of
method by questionnaires applications
per company. can be
means of
collected
distributing easier.
questionnaire, Applying
through job
descriptive portals is more
survey and accessible.

4
1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The aim of this research is to determine whether the introduction of e-recruitment has
an impact on the process and underlying tasks, subtasks and activities of recruitment.

The researchers hope to answer the following specific questions:

1. What is the comparative analysis in the hiring process of companies with e-
recruitment and companies without e-recruitment?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of having e-recruitment as a tool in
hiring?
3. How effective is the electronic recruitment or online recruitment?

1.4 ASSUMPTIONS / HYPOTHESIS

This electronic progression built the assumption that e-recruitment bring easiness and is
effective and efficient to find a suitable job. As an outcome it brings the job seeker and
employer closer on e-platform. Indeed, the e-recruitment eliminates the geographical
boundaries and potential job seeker can search for the jobs around the globe. Moreover, e-
recruitment plays a critical role in enhancing organizational survival and success.

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1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The significant importance of e-recruitment practices as they help us comprehend the

changes and developments in the discipline of Human Resource hiring process. Also, the
number of issues that are important for organizations seeking to maximize their manpower
potential. And to be able to know what will be the impact of e-recruitment or online
recruitment in the hiring process of the Human Resources Management practices and the
comparison between companies with e-recruitment and companies without e-recruitment.
Also, the advantages of having online recruitment to attract candidates than to find them
proactively through the traditional paper-based system. Some of the advantages include:
easier to share profiles with colleagues, communication is easier, efficiency, lower costs,
reporting is easier and saves time.

1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This study aims to determine whether the introduction of e-recruitment has an impact
on the process and underlying tasks, subtasks and activities of recruitment. There are large
number of BPO companies in the Philippines but our study focused on ten selected BPO
companies in Metro Manila. To develop an understanding of how recruiting has evolved and
the ramifications that E-recruitment has on the recruitment process. E-recruitment is a
relatively new phenomenon, so the researchers will try connecting the dots of how traditional
recruitment process evolved to the modern day recruitment process using social media.

There are also people who will benefit from this study, including:

Employers:

The study is most beneficial to the employers. This is because unlike the traditional
paper-based system, it is easier for them to look for the qualifications of the best employees
that will fit the organizations position. Having also the advantage of easier reporting of the
job seeker to the employer, the communication is quicker, easier to share profiles with
colleagues and most of all, it saves time.

6
Job seekers:
Aside from employers, the study is also beneficial to job seekers. Instead of going to
the company for submitting the requirements like application forms or resumes, it is easier
for them to just send it through email in just in just one click. Communicating with the
employer is easier now for the job seekers for asking clarification or further information.

Organization/Company:
The study will also benefit the organization itself in which it allows businesses to make
cost savings. Compared to the usual recruitment, it saves costs in terms of advertising and
using newspapers. Since social media is a recent phenomenon, there are lots of people who
are engage with it, majority of the applicants prefer email application. Also, this will keep
advantage ahead of competitors.

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1.7 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS
1. Technology is the collection of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in
the production of goods and services or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as
scientific investigation.
2. Electronic utilizing devices constructed or working by the methods or principles of
electronics.
3. Epoch a point of time distinguished by a particular event or state of affairs; a
memorable date.
4. Inevitable - unable to be avoided, evaded, or escaped.
5. Recruitment - Recruitment refers to the overall process of attracting, selecting and
appointing suitable candidates for jobs (either permanent or temporary) within an
organization.
6. E-recruitment - also known as online recruitment, is the practice of using technology
and in particular Web-based resources for tasks involved with finding, attracting,
assessing, interviewing and hiring new personnel.
7. Interface - a point where two systems, subjects, organizations, etc., meet and interact.
8. Internal recruitment - is when the business looks to fill the vacancy from within its
existing workforce.
9. External recruitment is when the business looks to fill the vacancy from any suitable
applicant outside the business.
10. Feasible possible to do or capable of being done.
11. Procurement the act of obtaining or buying goods and services.
12. Mandatory required by law or rule.
13. Prospective likely to happen or become something specified in the future
14. Non-conventional not established by accepted usage or general agreement.
15. Complexity a part of something that is complicated or hard to understand.
16. Peer-reviewed the evaluation of work by one or more people of similar competence
to the procedure of the work.
17. Manu script letters written by hand or typed
18. Empirical research a research based on experimentation or observation.

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

"The online recruitment industry is still very small in the Philippines, having started
only a few years ago. It accounts for less than 5% of the total recruitment advertising
industry compared to 12% in the United States," said JobStreet.com Phils. Inc. general

8
manager Candice Alabanza-Izog.JobstreetPhils. is a joint venture of a Malaysian group and
the J.G. Summit Holdings. It was first lodged under Summit Internet Investments, which
manages the IT investments of the Gokongwei Group.

"When we decided to partner up with JobStreet in 1999, the Malaysian business was
already on the path to profitability after operating for four years. Aside from the Philippines,
Jobstreet operates out of eight other offices in Asia and serves the recruitment needs of about
8,000 clients. Over the years, the company has accumulated a talent pool of close to 1.8
million job seekers. (http://www.philstar.com/business-usual/160692/e-recruitment)

As the technology and internet advanced, organizations adopt to use web-based tools as
a daily management function. For example, recruitment has no longer constrained by
distance and time. The raise of e-recruitment has bought attention to majority of
organization. More and more employers adopted the trend of using e-Recruitment process to
seek the best qualified candidates.

The trend of employer using e-recruitment process has result a decrease using
traditional paper based recruitment process. The trend of recruitment process has tendency of
use web-based methods, such as job boards, employer web sites, and professional web sites
(Ghosh n. pag.). E-Recruitment strategies gradually occur global-wide. More and more
countries are adopting the trend. For example, Ireland's recent practice of online recruitment
has significant influence to organizations. The Irish employer specifically implemented
online recruiting for 4 factors: Cost reduction, increase the efficiency of the process, time
efficient, and accessibility to broader pool (Reilly and Barber n. pag.).

In order to effectively deliver the precise information to the target market, the
communication and information flow play a critical part in online recruitment process.
According to research, the since the evolution of internet, there is an overflow of information
(Savoy and Salvendy). The overflow of information lead to 60% of people could not find
relevant information (qtd. in Montero et al. 2003). The researchers suggested that the
information needs of the consumers should be centred and beneficial to the consumers
(Savoy and Salvendy). In e-Recruiting, both employers and employees expect to find

9
valuable information of each other on the web, so a result, the information that either the
employers or the employees upload to the web should be carefully reviewed. Both employer
and employee expect to learn from each other. Another study done in UK shows that the
regular e-Recruiting tools that employer uses are Websites, Receiving e-mail contains resume
and cover letter, and checking personal sites (Williams and Verhoeven ).

The other factors can also significantly influence the effectiveness of communication.
One of them is the website design and its contents (Usunier and Roulin). The authors studied
the high and low context communication on websites. The different cultures have different
preferences to the content. In High Context communication, the information is more
sophisticated and complex, while in Low Context communication is simpler and clarify.
Despite the communication preferences, more and more employers use company website, job
boards, and social networking sites to recruit talents. All these tools can reach large candidate
pools. Especially social networking sites have bought attention to both employers and
jobseekers. A fast growing number of people use social sites to look for jobs such as
MySpace or Facebook (Roberts and Clark). In the jobseekers' view, it is easier to connect
people with less pressure since it's not face to face. It is great for passive jobseekers. In the
employers' view, it is low cost, shorter recruitment cycle, and it can get well-rounded
information of the candidates (Sah n. pag.). Certain social sites such as LinkedIn, have
noticed the popularity of e-Recruit. It offers employers to purchase business accounts with
add-on features such as job posting section or private messaging tools (Gunderson). Some
employers, not only use social networking sites as recruitment tool, but also background
check the candidates and references. However, because the content in the social sites have
less formal authorized sources, the employers have little ability to ensure the information
posted on the sites is factual (Roberts and Clark). Instead, many employers use outsourced
background check function to verify the candidates.

On the other hand, organizations may use their own website for recruitment. Typically
the organizational websites are more formal formatted. The contents of the organizational
website are well-written delivering company's information and job information along with
tools necessary for applicants such as application process. A well-developed online

10
application process can speed up the hiring process and more responsive to the applicants
(Kim and O'Connor).

The effectiveness of e-Recruitment can be varied depends on the size of the

organization. A study shown that online recruitment was not as appropriate for small
organizations, for blue-collar, lower-level position and very senior positions, online
recruitment remain more effective in larger organizations and service sectors because larger
organizations potentially have larger vacancies to cope with larger group of candidates (Parry
and Tyson 15). The limitation of this study result only valid to corporate web sites, because
commercial job boards was not related to industry, sector, or organization size. The
effectiveness of online recruitment may also affect by the strategies implemented (15). For
organizations, there are some opportunities to increase the effectiveness of online recruiting
by adding values to the process; For instance, developing a candidate-attraction process,
providing screening and response management for the online recruiting process (Wolfe and
Hartle n. pag.). Implementing the appropriate strategies can significantly increase the
effectiveness of the e-Recruitment.

The amount of empirical literature for E-recruitment is limited as it is a comparatively

new subject. The author needed to approach the topic in a traditional view of recruitment
followed by the transformation to modern day recruitment. Many of the relevant articles
were found on academic databases: Google Scholar, Springer, Emerald, EbscoHost, and ABI
inform: Proquest.

The challenge was to find various sources of information for this topic. Various
keywords were needed for the search. As it is a rather new and exploratory topic, the author
began with the keywords, social media, E-recruiting, E-cruiting, online recruiting
and E-recruitment.

Various sources were chosen due to their similarity to the topic. Some sources from out-
dated publications as far back as 2003. Text, originally written in German, was translated into
English for this studys use. German text has been chosen to support this study for the ease of
access and support of this studys purpose. The author resides in Germany at present time.

11
One of the German texts that have been translated into English is from a research network,
Centre of Human Resources Information Systems (CHRIS), whose main focus is to track the
trends of recruitment. Since 2002 and in collaboration with Monster.de, CHRIS has been
publishing annual reports highlighting the common recruitment behavior in Germanys top
1,000 largest companies. Another German source was from a book containing a multitude of
studies regarding recruiting on social media. This source was filled with detailed studies
conducted by Dr. Sonja Salmen and Bernd Rath published in 2012. Dr. Sonja Salmen is a
professor for social media, relationship and strategy management for Heilbronn University
since 2003. Bernd Rath is CEO of one of Germanys regional leading companies, BERA
GmbH which is a consulting company for businesses and job seekers. The studies provided
background information regarding the history of E-recruitment and the various uses.

Dr. Anna Holms research; regarding E-recruitment, the recruitment process and
candidate relationship management for Danish companies was chosen as a source; due to the
relevance of the information. The Department of Business Administration, Business and
Social Sciences at Aarhus University in Denmark supported and financed the research. The
version of the recruitment process in Holms research was adapted from various sources of
known Human Resource Management authors as Alice Barber.Gary Dessler, Mike Millmore,
Mark Saunders, and Philip Lewis and researchers, Dave Bartram, James Breaugh and Mary
Starke. Despite the vintage research from 2008 to 2010, the relevance of the recruitment
process has not changed, thus making this a valid source for this thesis. This research was
found in the EbscoHost database under the keywords, E-recruitment and recruitment.
The latest review of Holms work was in 2012.

Research performed in 2007 still can have relevance to todays behaviour in social
media. Danah Boyd, Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, and Nicole Ellison,
Associate Professor at University of Michigan, co-wrote the research paper Social Network
Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. It is in this research that the definition of social
media is found and various history of social media used later in this thesis.

Another research paper referenced is that of marketing professors at the ESCP Europe
Business School in France, Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein. They sought the

12
challenges and the opportunities as a tool, providing a definition of the different social
mediums.

Lastly, a source used for information of social media and recruiting is Jobvite. Jobvite,
established in California, USA, is a recruiting platform for social recruiting, sourcing and
talent acquisition solutions. The use of the studies provided by Jobvite is up-to-date but
targets the American labour sector, creating a regional bias in the results. Jobvite has been
publishing annual reports for six years regarding social recruiting.

The use of the countries (Germany, Denmark and the USA) in this study is nonspecific.
The main reason for utilizing these studies is due to the information available for the research
conducted in these countries. There is a special reference to Germany as this is the residence
and work related experience of the author.

(Ref:https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/80428/Sills_Maureen.pdf?sequence=1)

E-Recruitment formally implies sourcing of jobs online (Ganalaki, 2002). E-

Recruitment is also known as online recruitment with the help of which the job seekers can
send their CVs directly to the employer in an electronic form and their on the other end the
employer will receive the CV and can filter is from the other respective candidates CVs
(Finn, 2000). By installing the software like active recruiting it is now becoming much
easier for the employer to catch the deserving candidate for a particular profile, earlier 62
days were required to fill up vacant position but now it just require 42 days to fill up the
same position it is now much easier (willenbrock, 2005). It has been argued that online
recruitment cannot replace the traditional way of recruiting but a well implemented online
recruitment can help the organisation to make their much more easier (caggiano, 1999
&borck, 2000). At the Nikes headquarter they dont miss any of the resume they receive,
they treat every CVs to be a prospective one, and the application like active recruiter
makes its much easier for them (Nikes, 2005).

The first decade of the twenty-first century saw rapid growth in the use of online
recruitment and the transformation of electronic recruitment into one of the fastest growing
recruitment techniques. The most often reported benefits of electronic recruitment include

13
wider applicant outreach, faster information exchange between potential employees and
employers, lower costs of advertising, data accessibility and availability, reduced costs of
communications, and improved organizational attraction. The drawbacks of e-recruitment are
associated mainly with rsum overload, increased diversity in quality of candidates, lack of
personalized response to applicants, and issue-related candidate confidentiality. Nevertheless,
an online hiring process is regarded as being more cost efficient, and the fastest route to
finding the right candidates, than traditional paper-based recruitment.

According to the Internet World Stats (2010) approximately 1.85 million people are
using the internet in Pakistan which is 10.4% of the total population; certainly, young
generation ratio is highest in usage of internet. From the dawn of internet, reported in 1995
(Khan et al., 2011), it has been widely penetrated in social, education, economics and
business setting. Hence businesses adopted internet in their business to have an edge in the
industry.

Particularly, since 2005 firms operating in Pakistan also started to use internet as
recruitment source, on the contrary, job seekers also focusing extensively on online job
sources to avail the employment opportunities (Khan et al., 2011; Khan, 2011). Hence, due to
the easy access of job portals and websites get success to build their image as online job
market and substantially substitute the traditional newspaper based job market (Khan, 2011).

A study of peer-reviewed journal manuscripts on e-recruitment, online and web-based

recruitment, and e-recruitment systems identified only a few research contributions on e-
recruitment from an organizational or business process perspective. Some of these research
contributions are discussed below, and a summary provided in Table 1. And, as noted by
Parry and Tyson [33], there has been little empirical research to determine whether e-
recruiting leads to radical changes in recruiting practices. In his study on Internet recruiting,
Cappelli examines different service providers, new technologies, and companies
recruitment strategies. In his view, the e-recruiting process consists of three major steps:
attracting, sorting, and contacting candidates. The first step involves the appropriate design
of web pages, using electronic networks for promotion, tracking potential candidates on the
Internet and in on-line databases. The next step sorting involves the screening of

14
candidates with the help of sophisticated on-line tests. In the third step, contacting
candidates, e-recruitment systems are a big help, since they enable communication tasks to
be automated (ibid.).

Lee [25], who has studied the evolution of e-recruitment systems and analyzed the
corporate career websites of Fortune 100 companies, emphasizes that e-recruiting has
fundamentally changed the corporate recruiting process from batch mode to continuous
mode, suggesting a major change in the business process. Unlike the traditional paper based
recruiting process, e-recruiting allows around-the-clock collection and processing of job
applications. Thus, a modern e-recruiting process is a two-way communication process, web-
enabled, time- and space-independent, and a ubiquitous system for both job seekers and
recruiters (ibid.).

E-recruitment process starts by posting vacancies on the corporate website or on an

online recruitment vendors website, and allowing applicants to send their resumes
electronically through the e-form or email (Galanaki, 2002) hence erecruitment enable the
firm to perform the tasks in speed and improves the process (Tong and Sivanand, 2005). One
of the outcomes of the growth of erecruitment technologies has been that applying for jobs
has become simpler and more streamlined (SHRM, 2007).

E-recruitment emerges as a handy and advantageous method over traditional methods of

recruitment (Tong and Sivanand 2005). As advancement of technology and approaches
facilitates the processes and operations of companies and enhance their performances, as
now global companies using an advancement in erecruitment by using (dot) .jobs domain,
which offers dedicated company recruitment website to direct job seekers to gain access
easily to the openings of vacancies. The .jobs domain is unique since organizations register
part of their corporate name in the .jobs domain, e.g., www.shrm.jobs. This domains
provides a simple, fast and consistent method for the HRM community to communicate the
exact online destination of their organizations job page to job seekers using the Internet
(SHRM, 2007). In Asia e-recruitment significance has also been accepted and developing
countries of Asia are adopting the erecruitment process at steady pace. Executives of
Malaysia believe that e-recruitment can lead them to a new competitive position in regional

15
labor markets due to the importance of knowledge workers and resource-based competition
(Poorangi et al., 2011; Ahmed, 2009). Likewise, Pakistani employers also validate this
contention and know the significant impact of erecruitment on their business processes
(Khan et al., 2011). The following reasons which include; lower cost investment, shorter
recruitment cycle, reach to a wider range of applicants, better quality of applicants,
opportunity to address specific market niches, andattraction of passive job-seekers; are
described as the strong sides of the Internet recruitment (Galanaki, 2002; Khan, 2010).

Consistent with the discussion, Turban et al. (1993) found that the key factors, which matter
most, to the applicant for accepting a job are the work duties, the company itself,
opportunities for advancement, potential relationships with co-workers, salary and job
security. Some relevant researches are also found that the salary level, opportunity to use
knowledge and skills and challenging and interesting work have significant influence on
applicants decision to apply for a position (Barber and Roehling, 1993).

Additionally, The advertisement and its attributes are important factors in e-recruitment as
Buda (2003) found that the recruitment advertisement is to be effective when it should
include positive information at the start when being advertised through non-expert sources
(eg. general media), or have the positive information presented last when advertised through
a perceived reliable and expert source (eg. employee referral, occupational specific source)
(as cited in Marr, 2007). Advertising is one of the dominant modes of online advertising in
addition to the contextual and sponsored search advertising (Bhargav et al., 2011). The effect
of advertising showed in many researches on the applicants choice to apply, the figure shows
that more than 20% of job seekers have rejected job opportunities simply based on poorly
designed websites (Pastore, 2000). The fact about the job/company website administration
also played a part in success of e-recruitment process. Many company-designed websites are
very complicated that about three-quarters of all job seekers are unable to use them
successfully (Brown, 2004).

Study findings also indicate that providing detailed information about posted jobs (Zusman
and Landis, 2002) also played an important part to urge the applicant to use the website and
apply for suitable job. Collins and Han (2004) found that organizational advertising was the

16
only predictor that had consistently significant direct effects on measures of applicant
quantity and applicant quality.

The review of above literature provide an indication that e-recruitment is acknowledged as

being an important aspect of job/candidate searching for jobseekers and organizations.
Moreover, e-recruiting is become more effective recruitment tools, creating an avenue to
build relationships between job seekers and organizations (Mooney, 2002).

E-Recruitment type, based on Lepak and Snells (1998) HRM type. Operational e-
Recruitment: concerns basic e-Recruitment transactions characterized by short term applicant
relationships, global messages and automation. Relational e- Recruitment characterized by
the development of real applicant relationships through better feed-back, and the use of
Web 2.0 tools. Transformationale- Recruitment concerns strategic e-Recruitment, anchored
in a talent management strategy. Employer branding and reputation could be a solid support.

New practices and issues are emerging. Nowadays, Internet seems essential for
recruitment activity. Web 1.0 brought tools giving access to important data bases of
competencies. Web 2.0 reveals the shift from exchange-based recruitment practices to
relationship-based approaches. The model makes it possible to obtain a global view of
e-recruitment issues. It must now be validated by means of empirical research. Other
sectors and other type of recruiters (for example headhunters) are worth considering
in order to see the possible differences in e-recruitment practices. It would be
interesting to adopt a dual approach, by studying the applicants point of view to
detect what changes Web 2.0 brings to their professional development. European
comparison would make it possible to identify the differences in practices. It could be
worth considering other issues especially reputation, privacy and security issues.

As a conclusion, new practices and issues are emerging. Nowadays, Internet seems essential
for recruitment activity. Web 1.0 brought tools giving access to important data bases of
competencies. Web 2.0 reveals the shift from exchange-based recruitment practices to
relationship-based approaches. The model makes it possible to obtain a global view of e-

17
recruitment issues. It must now be validated by means of empirical research. Other sectors
and other type of recruiters (for example headhunters) are worth considering in order to see
the possible differences in e-recruitment practices. It would be interesting to adopt a dual
approach, by studying the applicants point of view to detect what changes Web 2.0 brings to
their professional development. European comparison would make it possible to identify the
differences in practices. It could be worth considering other issues especially reputation,
privacy and security issues.

The model makes it possible to obtain a global view of e-recruitment issues. It must
now be validated by means of empirical research. Other sectors and other type of
recruiters (for example headhunters) are worth considering in order to see the possible
differences in e-recruitment practices. It would be interesting to adopt a dual
approach, by studying the applicants point of view to detect what changes Web 2.0
brings to their professional development.

(Ref:http://www.academia.edu/8310393/Recruitment-Strategies-A-power-of-E-
Recruiting-and-Social-Media)

E-recruitment in the era of globalization anyone who is interested in corporate world is aware
of these sites. Using internet prospective applicants could search for positions in which they
were interested. Contact with employers directly is viable. Feasibility of email overruled the
use of telephone, fax or mail and the companies started accepting application through email.
Today Organizations have their own sites or job postings are given in the placement sites.
Again the candidates can visit the sites, post resume, and contact the company directly
without any delay. All these are just one click away. E-recruitment is a tool for many
employers to search for job candidates and for applicants to look for job. Recent trend of
recruitment is e-recruitment or the internet recruitment or on-line recruitment, where the
process of recruitment is automated. The automation began in 1980 but was systematized in
1990 with the release of Restracs initial product. E-recruitment simply means the
recruitment process through internet. Various methods can be used for it.

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When a company uses e-recruitment it will be easy for the applicants to find their desire job
and it's very accessible for them to reach out on their employers. It may cause time saving, it
lessens paper works and it is very convenient for the employee and the employer.

(Ref:http://www.123oye.com/job-articles/business-corporates/e-recruitment.htm)

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 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This research details the research design, sampling plan: sampling unit and sampling
size, sampling procedure, research instrument and statistical treatment of data.

RESEARCH DESIGN

This research entitled, Impact of E-Recruitment in the Hiring Process of HR Departments on

Selected BPO Company is a descriptive method of research that aims to gather information
and data about the impact of electronic recruitment in the hiring process of HR department
on selected BPO Company.

The study was conducted using the descriptive survey research design. Descriptive
research design aims to describe data about the population or phenomenon being studied.
The descriptive method fit into this study because the researcher searched for answer to some
questions about the advantages and disadvantages of electronic recruitment in the hiring
process of Human Resource department on selected Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
companies and its effectiveness. The researcher aimed to measure the significance of the
results on the overall population being studied.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RESPONDENTS

The survey was completed by 50 respondents which consist of different positions like
Recruitment Consultant, Business Development Manager, Recruitment Specialist,
Recruitment Officer, Recruitment Associate, Recruitment Assistant, Senior Recruitment
Specialist, Interviewer and some of the recruitment and Human Resource Department
coming from different companies.
They are the ones who are knowledgeable enough to answer the questionnaires that the
researchers gave them which supplies the information needed.
RESEARCH PROCEDURES

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 The following are the data gathering procedures that have been conducted by the
researchers:

1. Drafting, screening and constructing of questions.

2. The researchers prepared and administered questionnaires on selected BPO Company.
3. Then, consulted to different HR managers who are currently handling employees who used
either e-recruitment or paper-based recruitment.
4. After the respondents answered the questionnaires, the researchers retrieved the
questionnaires then tallied, interpreted and analyzed the data collected. The data were tallied
for tabulation and interpretation.

RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS

In this part, the researchers discussed the instrumentation used in conducting the
research. The researches explained every detail about how the questionnaires were
constructed.

The objective of the research is to know how effective the e-recruitment or online
recruitment among employers and the company itself including the advantage and
disadvantages of it. By this, the researchers formulated a questionnaire based on the
researchs objective.

Scale and closed-ended questions were used to give the respondents the opportunity
to give their responses, suggestions and recommendations. By rating every criteria of 5-1 (5
being the highest) meaning:

5-Strongly Agree

4-Agree

3-Neutral

2-Disagree

1-Strongly Disagree

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STATISTICAL TREATMENT OF DATA

The gathered data are grouped, tabled and carefully organized into five tables.
Frequency, percentage and ranking are reflected in all the tables.

The researcher was guided by the following:

Formula computation. For weighted mean computation

WM = TWF
Where: WM = weighted mean
TWF = total product of the rank values or weighted of the categories or values interpretation
multiplied by their respective frequency.
% = F/N x 100
Where: % = percentage
F = number of responses for every item
N = total number of cases or respondents

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 CHAPTER 4

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

This chapter presents the table of gathered data and discusses the findings obtained from the
respondents.

TABLE 1
Profile of the respondents based on the companies
NAME OF THE
COMPANIES MALE FEMALE TOTAL

SITEL 2 3 5

THE RESULTS 3 2
COMPANY 5

ACQUIRE ASIA 1 4
PACIFIC BPO 5

SALES RAIN BPO 4 1 5

ACCENTURE 2 3 5

24/7 BPO 1 4 5

TRANSCOM 2 3 5

TELEPERFORMANC 3 2 5
E

CONVERGYS 4 1 5

SUTHERLAND 2 3 5

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 TOTAL 24 26 50
Table one shows the names of the selected companies and the number of their genders

On table 1, there are 10 selected companies in which 5 questionnaires were released to each
company for a total of 50 questionnaires. The respondents were 24 males and 25 females.

TABLE 2

Based on scaled questions given to the respondents

5 4 3 2 1 Weighted
Average Mean

1. E-Recruitment is the fastest mode to apply for jobs. 35 15 0 0 0 5

2. E-Recruitment is an effective way to gather quality

resumes than the old traditional method of gathering. 10 40 0 0 0 4

3. It supports in bringing better qualified candidates in

an organization. 0 15 30 5 0 3

4. Posting of jobs online is cost saving activity for the

organization instead of advertising in the newspaper. 10 35 5 0 0 4

5. Qualified candidate hired through e-recruitment

increases the performance of an organization. 5 30 15 0 0 4

6. Qualified candidate recruited through e-recruitment

leads to the reduction in employee turnover. 10 20 15 5 0 4

7. Applying through job portals and social networking

sites is more accessible to candidates. 50 0 0 0 0 5

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8. Large pool of applications can be collected through
e-recruitment. 40 10 0 0 0 5

9. E-recruitment saves time in collecting quantity of

resumes. 20 25 5 0 0 4

Table 2 shows the answers of the respondents based on the

questionnaires given

On table 2, there are nine scale questions given to the respondents.

Based on the data,first, there were three scale questions that were ranked 5 (strongly agree).
Respondents strongly agreed that, e-recruitment is the fastest mode to apply or jobs and
applying through job portals and social networking sites is more accessible to the candidates,
lastly, large pool of applications can be collected through electronic recruitment.

Next, there were five scale questions that were agreed using e-recruitment will help gather
quality resumes from the employees rather than traditional method of gathering. Also, cost
saving by using of job portals instead of advertising in the newspaper. Including also that the
qualified candidates through online will increase the performance of the organization and
will lead to reduction in the employee turnover. And lastly, it saves time in collecting
quantity of resumes.

Third, thirty respondents were undecided that e-recruitment supports in bringing better
qualified candidates in an organization.

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 TABLE 3

Based on which recruitment website the use

10. Which recruitment website do you VOTE PERCENTAGE

use?

Rozee 0 0%

Monster 10 20%

Naukri 10 20%

Mustakbil 0 0%

LinkedIn 25 50%

Table 3 shows the mostly used websites of the BPO companies in recruiting

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On the table 3, there were five different websites that could be possibly used by different
companies.

Based on the gathered data, the websited LinkedIn was the most used website of the BPO
companies with a vote of 25 out of 50 respondents equivalent to 50%. Next to it were
Monster and Naukri who both had 10 votes computed as 20%. No one voted for Rozee and
Mustakbil as used websites.

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 CHAPTER V

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter shows the summarization of the research, the conclusions, and the
recommendations.

The main objective of this research is to analyze how effective the e-recruitment to selected
BPO companies and having a comparative analysis between companies with e-recruitment
and companies without.

A. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

1. What is the comparative analysis in the hiring process of companies with e-

recruitment and companies without e-recruitment?
Most companies prefer to use the old tradition of gathering quality resumes and
other requirements needed by the employees. They still have to go the company they
are planning to apply and personally submit it to the employer. But in some
companies, they give examinations to the applicant online; wherein they will answer
through online and will submit it there also.

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of having e-recruitment as a tool in

hiring?
There are list of advantages of e-recruitment, including: it is the fastest way to
apply for jobs, applying through job portals and social networking sites is much
way accessible to candidates, large pool of applications can be collected easier
rather the old traditional gathering.
As a way of reducing hiring costs and reaching a wider variety of qualified
candidates, many companies have turned to online recruitment as a resource for
filling open positions. Online recruiting allows an employer to advertise a vacant
position quickly, and often inexpensively. However, some disadvantages may also
be associated with this recruiting method. Disadvantages include: high volume of
responses, poor website, and too impersonal, because much of the online

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 recruiting process may involve emails and possibly telephone interviews, it can be
viewed as somewhat impersonal. Without the opportunity for the employer to hold
multiple in-person interviews, it can be difficult to determine if the candidate will
be a good fit for the company and its culture. The candidate may also have a hard
time gauging whether the company is the right place for her.

3. How effective is the electronic recruitment or online recruitment?

Online recruitment uses internet to find people to jobs. Fundamentally, it is

advertising vacancies on the job sites or corporate websites. At this basic level it is
particularly effective at getting a greater level of response. While it may generate
lots of applications than traditional print advertising, simply attracting more
candidates is only the part of the job.

The original strength & power of online recruitment is when it is done properly,
lie in controlling internet technology to not just attract the candidates but to deal
with them also. In this sense it is also about streamlining the recruitment process,
so busy human resource departments can give a good recruitment service to their
colleagues in finance, marketing, sales and manufacturing and moreover it frees
up more of their time for other potential tasks.

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 B. CONCLUSIONS

All of the companies are using the paper-based system or the old way of gathering data
from applicants but in some situations, they used different social networking sites like
facebook, LinkedIn, twitter to advertise.Most of the companies answered, they agreed that e-
recruitment is the fastest way to apply for jobs and is more accessible when using job portals
and other social networking sites and is the best way to collect large pool of applications.The
ten selected BPO companies we used to gather data still prefer to use the traditional
recruitment. In which, applicants will personally go to the company they want to apply in,
pass the requirements needed by the company and wait until they call them back for the
interview. They dont rely on the statement, e-recruitment supports in bringing better
qualified candidates in an organization.Based on the study, e-recruitment is just an effective
and much easier way to gather quality resumes than the old traditional method of gathering.
And, is cost saving for the organization by posting of jobs online instead of advertising in the
newspaper.Also, most of the companies prefer to use LinkedIn as website for recruiting
prospective employees.

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C. RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the significant findings and conclusions of the study the researchers
recommend the following:

If some companies still used the traditional recruitment, and if posting jobs online
is cost saving instead than advertising it in the newspaper, they would rather
choose posting online than in the newspaper.

Companies could give their applicants examinations through online rather than
telling them to go the company just to take it. It saves time to the part of the
applicant.

E-recruitment should be used by the companies on some things that will help them
accomplish task easily and efficiently.

Also, we therefore recommend the use of technology for it is a big help for all the
companies looking for employees as it saves time, money and effort

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