Tech savvy HR… I think not

New research conducted by HR Magazine, first published in the 2011 HR Guide to Recruitment, reveals that most companies are at risk of losing young talent through not understanding discrepancies between the expectations of young job candidates and their current recruitment practices.

The survey, employing a ‘mystery-shopper’ approach, set out to rate company career websites and the general online recruitment process of major companies in and around Hong Kong. HR Magazine monitored candidates, who were current or recent university graduates, applying for jobs in 76 companies in both Hong Kong and Southern China, following them through the application research process and then through the online application process. All applications were submitted online, either via a company website, social media or job board. The research, commissioned by Lumesse, found that more than 60% of local large and international companies are not doing well enough with their career website, especially as young talents rate corporate websites as their top job-seeking channel.

Social media—are companies using it in line with their target employees?

When HR Magazine analysed what kind of social media candidates are actually using, 93% stated Facebook as their SM of choice, see Chart 1. Despite their popularity within professional circles, a large percentage of young jobseekers in Hong Kong have not even heard of—let alone use—LinkedIn or Twitter: 83% and 79%, respectively. So HR take note—Facebook is clearly the social medium of choice for fresh graduates.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of young jobseekers are using social media—100% of those surveyed—a startling 90% of companies are still not using social media for recruitment. The survey indicates that 41% of companies prefer to use online job boards, see Chart 2. In reality, over 80% of jobseekers surveyed applied for jobs directly via a company's own career website, with less than 20% using job boards to apply for jobs, see Chart 3.

Smartphone penetration is immense in Hong Kong and China, according to Emile Mac Gillavry, Managing Director, Maximum: 66% of people in China are accessing the internet via mobile devices rather than computers and 48% of the population in Hong Kong already have smart phones. Yet, in spite of this means of accessing a huge potential talent pool, an incredible 99% of companies are still reticent about adopting mobile technology as a source of recruitment. Mobile recruitment alone therefore represents a huge untapped resource for HR, and the sooner recruitment managers start utilising it the better.

These figures clearly demonstrate that, while the majority of jobseekers use at least one form of social media on a daily basis, only 10% of companies are currently using social media for recruitment. There is a huge disconnect between companies and jobseekers in terms of recruitment methods and expectations.

Company career websites: the good, the bad and the ugly

The overall content of an organisation’s career website and how it is viewed is important for HR to help maintain ‘stickiness’ for jobseekers—be they active of passive. HR Magazine’s survey focused on five key areas of website design and functionality:

When candidates were asked to rate the sites overall functionality, 70% rated functionality of company career websites as average or below. In fact, only 30% of company websites have job search functions, while even less, 19%, offer functionality for applicants to upload their CVs to a job databank. Only 4% of companies surveyed offered interactive games or virtual tours of the organisation. Just over half of the companies surveyed do not require applicants to register when applying and 80% have no subscription function that would allow applicants to subscribe to receive future job alerts.

While the majority of companies, 76%, provided detailed job descriptions on their website; 85% provided no information about the recruitment process and lacked any employee testimonials. 70% also lacked any information about career development. This lack of information is likely to leave candidates uninformed or misinformed about the company and its expectations, at best this will deter potential jobseekers, and at worst may lead to huge wastage of resources associated with miss hires.

Candidates were asked to rate the design of the website, factoring in the image and outlook of company web pages. Interestingly, 72% of companies were ranked as average and above average. The trend being that the majority of company websites are attractive, have a good layout and design, but improvements could be made.

88% of career websites were considered fairly easy to locate on the web, with 80% of candidates able to find them easily. However, 63% revealed that while the career websites were easy to find, once actually in the site it tended to be harder to navigate internally.

Overall, 73% of candidates rated their impressions of career websites as average or below average. So although companies’ online recruitment process is considered acceptable, there is still significant room for improvement.

Application process, new talent behaviour

The majority of jobseekers surveyed, 83%, chose to ‘apply for’ jobs via a company’s website. Despite this, candidates stated that their most preferred channel to ‘look for’ jobs via online job boards, see Chart 4. It would appear that applicants look for jobs using job boards and, upon finding a company and job they like, then go and apply for the job directly through the company's own career website. Thus, it is essential—even for companies utilising job boards for recruitment—to ensure that their own career websites are straightforward, functional and provide all the information needed by target applicants.

Accordingly, corporate websites were also seen as the most important channel for jobseekers to find out more about the company’s background and culture, see Chart 5.

In terms of the actual online application process, 91% of companies did not ask candidates to fill out an application and so missed the opportunity to collect valuable potential employee data. 87% of career websites also lacked a ‘refer a friend’ option, again leaving HR missing out on access to a huge potential talent pool of passive jobseekers via recommendations.

The average amount of time spent by most applicants applying for a job online was less than half an hour, with 62% of applications were completed in less than 15 minutes. However, upon submission, 84% of companies did not send any form of acknowledgement. Even more disconcerting was the fact that, of the candidates who did not receive any acknowledgment letter, 93% said they also could not find any information from the website to help contact the company to follow up with enquiries or check if the application had in fact been received. The few companies that did reply, did so expeditiously, with 92% of responses being received within four days and 62% of candidates who received letters ranked them as average and above average.

Through the analysis of this survey, a few major trends have been established.

There is a disconnect between the forms of social media used by companies for hiring, if any, and the social media that is actually being utilised by young jobseekers. With 100% of candidates using social media, but only 10% of companies using it for recruitment.

When applicants are looking for jobs they tend to prefer online job boards, and once they have found a job or company they then go directly to the company’s website to learn more about the company’s culture and to apply for the job.

The online recruitment process of most companies is only viewed as ‘average’ by applicants. Company home pages and first page of their career sites—are viewed as 'above average', while the information and features provided are viewed as ‘below average’. So companies are generally not meeting the expectations and information requirements of online applicants.

There is a general lack of recruitment process communication between companies and applicants, with 84% of companies not sending letters of acknowledgement to applicants. Moreover, 93% of sites did not provide clear contact details to help candidates follow up with application enquiries.

Advice for successful online recruitment

There is definitely a need for greater communication with online job applicants. To be successful in online recruitment employers should ensure they provide pre-application information online including job details, company culture, employee testimonials and contact details to help jobseekers learn more about the company and facilitate follow up enquires. Moreover—post application—employers should issue personalised acknowledgement letters, have a means of subscribing to future job alerts for candidates not wishing to apply at that time, and provide a ‘forward this position to a friend’ functionality to help garner more passive jobseekers. All of this should be done right on the landing page in a clear and simple format without the need for applicants to perform multiple clicks and navigate around the entire corporate website.