The survey of Australia's top 500 companies tested their e-cruitment sections based on 35 criteria. The survey found only 35 percent of the companies surveyed used their Web site to attract potential employees.
-We are behind international standards," Daisy Hoffmann, research analyst at Olivier e-cruitment Advisors told ZDNet Australia. -Ninety-one percent of top global companies have an e-cruitment section on their Web site."
Of the companies with an e-cruitment section, 68 percent had a general human resources e-mail address and 41 percent used online application forms. Some companies used both, which is considered best practice by Olivier e-cruitment Advisors.
-We did a test to gauge back-end processes, where we submitted enquiries to the companies," Hoffmann said. -A whopping 48 percent of companies we sent applications to did not respond at all to our enquiries. This indicates they don't have a fully thought-out e-cruitment strategy."
-Taking consideration of the candidate is the whole point of e-cruitment," she said. -It works because it works for the job seeker." According to Hoffmann, even though the market is slow at the moment, intelligent companies are creating a 'Talent Pool' of high-quality candidates in preparation for when they start hiring.
-If they can source more candidates from their Web site that saves them thousands of dollars," she said. -Cost-cutting is a huge priority for corporations and this provides an immediate return on investment."
Olivier awarded Optus the Insite Gold Award for e-cruitment best practice. -They have a great site, and we want to give them kudos for that, and let people know where to look for best practice," said Hoffmann.
Telecommunication companies scored the highest in the survey, with 73 percent having an e-cruitment site. Technology companies came second with 69 percent using their Web site to look for candidates. Companies involved in trusts and investment capital scored the lowest, with only 10 percent having an e-cruitment section.
We have found that Australian companies are becoming increasingly aware of the need to provide a web based careers board that integrates with their back office recruitment processes. Our organisation provides online recruitment solutions that are now demonstrating substantial efficiencies and cost savings for large corporate and organisations. The key to the solution is a web based candidate interface linked to back off processing that automates many cumbersome administration tasks. This rapidly decreases the time to respond to candidates, enhancing the employer brand of the hiring organisation, and ultimately reduces the time to hire. This has the dual effect of keeping candidates happy by responding in a timely manner and increasing organisational productivity by reducing time to hire. I would be happy to expand on my brief comments.