AN ARCHITECTURE FOR A

NEXT-GENERATION HOLISTIC E-RECRUITING SYSTEM

Online recruiting has ne of the most profound changes in the business revolutionized the way environment over the last businesses worldwide hire decade was the emergence employees. The next step of e-business, which revolutionized the way compais to seamlessly integrate nies conduct business. As a existing systems to create part of the e-business a comprehensiveand revolution, Web-based online recruiting has also complexcorporate changed the way companies hire employees [5]. career center. Indeed, e-recruitng is one of the most successful

e-business applications as a method for quickly reaching a large pool of potential job seekers. E-recruiting has enjoyed explosive growth since the late 1990s when the strong economy produced a high demand for qualified employees that the labor market could not fully satisfy [7]. Major advantages cited for the rapid and successful adoption of e-recruiting methods include cost savings, efficiency, and convenience for both recruiters and job seekers [3, 4, 8].

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The traditional process has been fraught with task services where customized placement services, assessdelays and miscommunications, resulting in a pro- ment, and candidate relationship management are tracted hiring process and high hiring costs. Timing is provided. generally viewed as being important in the recruiting Niche job boards serve highly specialized job marprocess [1]. With regard to timing issues in recruit- kets such as a particular profession, industry, educament, Rynes, Bretz, and Gerhart [6] reported that job tion, location, or any combination of these specialties. applicants frequently drew negative inference about Most niche job boards operate specialized online the delays of the recruiting process, and these delays communities or newsgroups that draw professionals, affected the willingness of individuals to accept job such as engineers, programmers, and journalists who offers. While e-recruiting goes through Tablesame share specificCategories of the E-Recruiting knowlthe 1. Summary of Six interest, skills, experience, and phases as the traditional process, the benefits of e- Sources: Recruiters Perspectivesjob boards include edge. The advantages of using recruiting are accomplished with the extensive use of access to a large pool of recruiters and job seekers and a central database and an array of Web-enabled inte- availability of state-of-the-art e-recruiting tools. The grated applications.
E-Recruiting Advantages Disadvantages Sample Source Participants CATEGORIES OF E-RECRUITING General-Purpose Brand recognition; Relatively high job posting cost; Monster.com; SOURCES Job Board E-Recruiting experience; Potentially low-quality applications; HotJobs.com; High traffic; Industry Limited content control; CareerBuilder.com While e-recruiting methods have best tools; Large candidate Stickiness of the job board; been widely used since the midbase; Large recruiter base Limited candidate relationship 1990s, no formal classification Niche Job Board Gathering of passive job Low brand recognition; Dice.com; seekers; Focused search; Possibility of identity theft Erexchange.com; system has been developed for Community of professionals Taonline.com; JournalismJobs.com; different e-recruiting sources. In MarketingJobs.com; order to give recruiters and job TexasJobs.com seekers a better understanding of E-Recruiting Recruitsoft; Brassring; Low application development Integration issues with existing systems; Possibility of closeout RecruitUSA; cost for recruiters; Quick the e-recruiting industry, we pro- Application Service Provider due to competition; Possibility PeopleClick; application development pose six categories of e-recruiting of lock-in; Low traffic TalentFusion; Lawson sources: the general-purpose job Hybrid Recruiting Expertise in advertising Strong image as a conventional New York Times, media; Low Wall Street Journal; industry; Portfolio of board; niche job board; e-recruit- Service Providers media; Price bundling recruiting technology traffic; Low Chronicle of Higher with ing application service provider; Education conventional media hybrid (online and offline) E-Recruiting Potential conflicts among DirectEmployers.com; Low service cost; Direct and members; Low exposure; NACElink immediate link to corporate recruiting service provider; e- Consortium Low technology career site recruiting consortium; and corCorporate Career Candidate relationship Needs for IT specialists; 94% of Fortune 100 porate career Web site. Table 1 Web Site companies; 81% management; High interest in High upfront development cost of Fortune 500 jobs by job applicants; Intesummarizes these six categories companies gration with existing systems of the e-recruiting sources from recruiters perspectives. General-purpose job boards Table 1. A summary of disadvantages include low brand recognition and the provide a comprehensive online recruiters perspectives possibility of identity theft. False job postings are of six categories of the e-recruiting sources. listed online and used to steal personal information recruiting solution to both Lee table 1 (7/07) employers and job seekers across from unsuspecting job seekers. Medium- and smalldifferent industries. Job seekers sized recruiters with low name recognition can access can search for jobs by category, experience, education, a pool of qualified job applicants at a reasonable cost. location, or any combination of these job attributes. E-recruiting application service providers (ASPs) Personalized job agents match job seekers profiles develop and market to recruiters and job boards a with the latest job postings and email the list of jobs combination of specialized services in recruitment to the job seekers. Recruiters can search the job software, recruitment process management, educaboards databases by skills, experience level, job pref- tion and training, and management expertise. The erence, salary, education, and any combination of tight labor market for IT professionals has led many keywords to find qualified candidates. When quali- small- and medium-sized recruiters to application serfied job applicants are available, the recruiters job vice providers. Specialized recruitment software for agent notifies the recruiter of a list of available appli- the in-house development of a larger-scale e-recruitcants. To address job seekers and recruiters rising dis- ing Web site is available for recruiters who want to satisfaction with services and costs, general-purpose quickly develop career Web sites on their own server. job boards have evolved into comprehensive career The disadvantages include integration issues with

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Figure 1. Interrelationships Between e-recruiting processes and architecture of the Holistic E-Recruiting System.

Interrelationships between e-recruiting processes and architecture of the holistic e-recruiting system.

Identification of hiring needs Submission of job requisition

existing systems and possibility of Approval of job requisition lock-in, which may occur when Job posting on the Internet switching costs to alternative erecruiting sources become high. Applicant tracking Online job search by job seekers management subsystem Workflow management Hybrid recruiting service subsystem providers are traditional media Prescreening/self-assessment Submission of applications management subsystem or recruiting firms that provide Database management Job agent management Searching the applicant database e-recruiting services to both subsystem subsystem recruiters and job seekers. Evaluation of resume/application Employment advertising in Candidate relationship management subsystem Enterprisewide newspapers has suffered historic database Interviewing by hiring managers percentage declines as recruiters Pre-employment screening switch to more efficient and costRecruitment performance analysis subsystem effective recruiting methods. The Job offer and contract Help Wanted Index, a measureE-Recruiting Process A Component-based Architecture of the Holistic E-Recruiting System ment of how many help wanted ads run in newspapers, has registered a continuous decline in the past few years. The advantage of the hybrid (online to other recruiting sources. However, the cost of postand offline) recruiting service provider comes from ing additional job openings is marginally increased, the sharing of existing resources and expertise devel- whereas the fee for posting additional job openings is oped in the traditional job ad industry. The premier considerably higher at job boards. A career Web site Lee fig 1 (7/07) content of CareerJournal.com comes from the editor- also has a cost advantage and flexibility compared ial resources of the Wall Street Journal as well as from with job boards in publishing corporate information the CareerJournal.com editorial team. The disadvan- such as university recruiting, workplace, diversity, tages include a strong image to job seekers as a low- benefits, career opportunities, and culture with which tech conventional media. applicants can make informed decisions about job An e-recruiting consortium is a cost-effective alter- applications [2]. native to the services provided by job boards. DirectEmployers.com is the first cooperative, THE ARCHITECTURE FOR THE HOLISTIC employer-owned e-recruiting consortium formed by E-RECRUITING SYSTEM DirectEmployers Associationa non-profit organiza- E-recruiting systems have evolved through numertion formed by executives from leading U.S. corpora- ous technological developments since their introductions. DirectEmployers search engine merely drives tion in the mid-1990s. At the early stage of traffic directly to a members career Web site. corporate e-recruiting, the purpose of the career Web NACElink is another e-recruiting consortium created site was to simply post job openings on the static as a result of an alliance between DirectEmployers Web page for job seekers information. As the e-busiAssociation and the National Association of Colleges ness technologies advance and recruiters gain more and Employers (NACE) (www.naceWeb.org). The e-recruiting experience, the front-end e-recruiting disadvantages include potential conflicts among con- systems add new features and functions, target job sortium members and low exposure to job seekers due seekers better, and integrate with a back-end human resource management system. An advanced eto the small member base. The corporate career Web site is the hiring source recruiting system of large companies has been powmost widely used by Fortune 500 companies, accord- ered by an enterprisewide system and incorporated ing to the 2002 iLogos Research study. Deployment best-practice recruiting methodologies to achieve of the corporate career Web site is a natural extension strategic advantage. While sound architecture is critical to the successof the portfolio of e-business applications when the company has already established an e-business Web ful development of complex systems and seamless site and enjoyed high Internet traffic. The initial integration with other systems, it has not yet been well development cost of the career Web is high compared established for the holistic e-recruiting system because
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of its infancy. The architecture helps recruiters and postings and close job postings as they are filled or system developers understand how various compo- cancelled. nents of the e-recruiting system work together to Job agent management subsystem. The purpose achieve recruiting goals. Here, a high-level architec- of this subsystem is to promote information exchange ture of the holistic e-recruiting system for a corporate between e-recruiting users and the e-recruiting system career Web site is presented. Since the architecture is by using a personalized search agent. Creation of the a roadmap to the development of the e-recruiting sys- personalized job agent is interactive, leading to the tem that supports the recruiting process, understand- creationPerformance profile. For job seekers, a job Table 2. Metrics of E-Recruiting of a unique ing the e-recruiting process is required in order to agent can perform a particular search based on job search and communication parameters such as job better identify architectural components. locations, job categories, The architecture of and the frequency of job the holistic e-recruiting Category Suggested Metrics search. Based on the job system consists of eight Strategic Number of online applicants; Ratio of qualified applicants; agents notification, job distinct yet interrelated Aggregate profile of online applicants; Time to hire; Quality of online job information; Satisfaction level of job seekers may apply for jobs subsystems: applicant applicants and recruiters with the e-recruiting system; Number of passive job seekers; Compliance on EEO online or ignore them. tracking management Recruiters specify to the subsystem; job requisiOperational Efficiency of various phases of e-recruiting process; Tool utilization rate; Number of page views; Click-through rate; personalized job agent the tion management subTime to access a company career Web site; Time to search jobs; Quantity of online job information duration of the job postsystem; job agent ings, frequency of the canmanagement subsystem; Financial Cost per hire; System acquisition cost; Web site operating expense; Cost savings in recruiting didate search, and mode prescreening/self-assessof notification. ment management subPrescreening/selfsystem; e-recruiting performance analysis subsystem; Table 2. Metrics of e-recruiting assessment management candidate relationship management subsystem; work- performance. subsystem. The purpose flow management subsystem; and database manageLee table (7/07) ment subsystem. The accompanying figure shows the of2this subsystem is to assess the degree of match relationships between e-recruiting processes and the between applicants qualifications and job requireeight components of the holistic e-recruiting system. ments at the time of online job applications. To Applicant tracking management subsystem. Find- improve the overall quality of job applicants, the preing the right candidates for a particular job is a diffi- screening/self-assessment management system minicult and costly task for recruiters and hiring managers. mizes the submission of job applications from job The functions of an applicant tracking management seekers who do not meet basic job requirements. For subsystem include gathering job applications, storing certain job categories, prescreening helps recruiters candidate profile resumes, checking the status of each sort through a pool of resumes and rank them based candidate in the recruiting process, generating on a predefined scoring system. The choice of the requested information for decision makers, and dis- questionnaire item is crucial to the success of this subseminating the information to other human resource system. Commonly used question items include levmanagement systems. The fundamental technology els of technical skills, personalities, interpersonal for applicant tracking is a Web-based search engine skills, work ethics, and aptitude. The process of the that scans through the applicant database based on prescreening/self-assessment tests is interactive and keywords, phrases, or natural languages. has an option of exit any time without completion. Job requisition management subsystem. The priE-recruiting performance analysis subsystem. mary function of this subsystem is to streamline job This subsystem analyzes the strategic, financial, and requisitions and online postings. Users of the job req- operational performances of an e-recruiting system in uisition management system are recruiters and hiring order to improve the overall efficiency and effectivemanagers. Job requisition and approval submissions ness of the career Web site. Table 2 summarizes major can be processed without a manual data entry into a metrics used at leading companies. Performance job database when integrated with a human resource reports are generated based on predefined report formanagement system. This subsystem is a single auto- mat and real-time data. As each user has unique mated job posting point to multiple recruiting sites reporting requirements, this subsystem should prosuch as an internal career Web site, external job vide recruiters with an easy-to-use report generator boards, and industry consortia. During the recruiting equipped with a variety of reporting options. The perprocess, the job requisition management subsystem formance analysis subsystem should be able to alert allows managers to regularly monitor current job managers of an exceptional situation when certain
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performance measures do not meet thresholds defined by managers. Candidate relationship management subsystem. This subsystem provides recruiters with long-term relationship management programs and tools needed to effectively manage applicants. One of the disadvantages of the e-recruiting method is a lack of the human touch such as a face-to-face meeting or conference call. The candidate relationship management is designed to provide applicants with a feeling they have an ongoing relationship with the company through a virtual human touch. Delivering a maximum level of virtual human touch will increase the chance of job acceptance by candidates by implicitly indicating the attractiveness of a companys job opportunities. The rationale behind the use of a candidate relationship management subsystem is that maintaining the best pool of job applicants at all times is faster and more cost-effective than looking for new job applicants when jobs become available. Given the widespread adoption of the various e-recruiting technologies in the job market, only companies with a positive long-term relationship with job applicants will gain a competitive edge. Workflow management subsystem. While each of the previously mentioned subsystems supports the erecruiting process partially, the workflow management system integrates these subsystems to support the entire spectrum of e-recruiting activities. This subsystem enables interrelated subsystems to collaborate around the e-recruiting activities and to integrate with other human resource management systems. For example, once job applicants have entered their resume and profiles in response to a job opening, the workflow management system triggers the applicant tracking subsystem for candidate screening, and a job agent sends a list of candidates meeting the desired requirements to hiring managers for further actions. The potential value of this system is currently regarded as the driving force behind the standardization of e-recruiting processes. Database management subsystem. The holistic erecruiting system stores all the data on jobs and applicants at a centralized database. During the traditional batch-mode recruiting process, once recruiting is complete, paper-based applications and resumes are kept in the file cabinet for a predefined period of time and thrown away. Later, when a new job is available, another recruiting cycle begins with a new collection of job applications. E-recruiting has changed the recruiting practice from batch-mode to ongoing recruiting. Many companies encourage job seekers to submit applications and resumes online regardless of

the current job availability, store the applications and resumes at the centralized database for a considerable period of time, and evaluate a pool of job applicants stored in the database as soon as a new job is available.
CONCLUSION Even though the holistic e-recruiting system is the most advanced and effective one among the e-recruiting systems, it is also the most expensive and complex. Choosing the e-recruiting system that best fits the companys needs depends on many variables such as company size, IT infrastructure, number of job openings, target job seekers, job categories, location, and so on. For instance, given the trade-offs between function and cost, the holistic e-recruiting system may not be the best choice for some smallor- medium-sized companies with only a few hiring needs a year. The development of the holistic system would be very complicated and challenging without a comprehensive e-recruiting plan and technology architecture in place. We expect that further advances in Webbased technologies and experience with best practices will accelerate the adoption of the holistic e-recruiting system. c
References
1. Barber, A.E. Recruiting Employees. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, 1998. 2. Brice, T.S. and Waung, M. Web site recruitment characteristics: Americas best versus America biggest. S.A.M. Advanced Management J. 67, 2 (2002), 48. 3. Gale, S.F. Internet recruiting: Better, cheaper, faster. Workforce 80, 12 (2001), 7477. 4. Miller, S.M. Help wanted: Is the online job market working for your business? Office Solutions 18, 4 (2001), 2729. 5. Munger, R. Technical communicators beware: The next generation of high-tech recruiting methods. IEEE Trans. Professional Communication 45, 4 (2002), 276290. 6. Ryns, S.L., Bretz, R.D., and Gerhart, B. The importance of recruitment in job choice: A different way of looking. Personnel Psychology 44 (1991), 487521. 7. Thomas, S.L. and Ray, K. Recruiting and the Web: High-tech hiring. Business Horizons 43, 3 (2000), 4352. 8. Tomlinson, A. Energy firm sharpens recruiting, saves money with inhouse job board. Canadian HR Reporter 15, 2 (2002), 78.

In Lee (I-Lee@wiu.edu) is an associate professor in the Department

of Information Management and Decision Sciences, College of Business and Technology, Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL.

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