Internet As The Dominant Medium For Recruitment

Informationweek reports about a Booz Allen Hamiltion study that says that employers turn to the Internet as their major hiring source, beating out newspaper classifieds and other traditional sources. The study found that 51 percent of new hires were developed from Internet sources. Of that 51 percent, the highest quality candidates apparently came from employers' own corporate web sites and from employee referrals. Newspaper classified ads, traditionally a major source of employment hiring, were the source of just 5% of new hires, the study found. The study finds that employers anticipate directing a greater proportion of applicants through their own corporate web sites rather than any other online source in the year to come. The study broke down Internet hiring practices as follows: corporate employment web sites accounted for 21 percent of new hires followed by general job boards with 15 percent, niche job boards with 6 percent, social network web sites with 5 percent, and commercial resume databases with 4 percent. In my experience, I always find that the best recruiting sources for professional services people are often other professional services personnel. Referrals need to be given a lot more weightage. Educational background consistent with the nature of employment being taken up matter a lot more than plain fitment based on scholastic records. Ideally profiling as accurately as possible the profile of the person needed and seriously pursue such profiles and fitment through the various pshycometrics/psychographic tests in my opinion makes the difference.