NOVEMBER 21, 2000
RECRUITING STRATEGIES
Fumbling a Valuable Opportunity | In the war for talent, few corporate job sites make the grade, according to a new study
| Despite a continuing worker shortage, many of America's largest corporations are failing
to make the most of their Web sites for talent scouting. That's the word from the folks at
iLogos, the research arm of Recruitsoft, a San Francisco-based company that sells online
recruiting software to employers.
Researchers there pinpointed 20 characteristics of the ideal corporate-recruiting site.
They picked 18 traits that can be easily quantified, then peeked at major American
companies' Web offerings in August. No site had all 18. Indeed, the best of the lot, Microsoft and IBM, employ 14 "best practices."
USER-UNFRIENDLY. The study sample was 485 of the Fortune 500 list. More
than a quarter (29%) flunked the basics: They failed to list job openings or allow
visitors to apply for them online. An even larger number of sites were devoid of
information of obvious interest to job seekers: 45% lacked a discussion of company
benefits, and 56% failed to offer any clues to the company's culture. Only a handful gave
visitors skittish about confidentiality the chance to express initial interest in a
position anonymously.
The landscape isn't all bleak. Microsoft gets praise for displaying an
e-mail-this-job-description-to-a friend button (best practice #16). IBM earns kudos for
operating a virtual job agent to notify visitors of openings that might interest them
(#17).
With the job market so tight, employers should develop sites that make it as hassle-free
as possible for candidates to find and apply for jobs online, says iLogos Research
President Yves Lermusiaux. One no-brainer is a link on the homepage to the corporate
careers section. Another best practice is to give job seekers at least three ways to
submit their credentials, including providing online forms on which they can cut and paste
their resumes. "Because it's a job seeker's market, you should allow them as many options
as possible," Lermusiaux says.
GAME STRATEGY. As corporate Web-site designers scramble to introduce new
bells and whistles to their career pages, however, they should familiarize themselves with
even more sophisticated features on the horizon. Not far off are multilanguage career
pages for the global economy. And eventually, Lermusiaux predicts, employers could begin
sizing up applicants' team-playing skills by having them participate in online games.
Now, there's an interesting thought: Perhaps video games aren't just for the idle after all.
By Pamela Mendels in New York
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Copyright 2000, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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