www.catch22.com.au - 17 July 2002

E-recruiting can be a tremendous source of differentiation and competitive advantage for corporations. When the Internet appeared, the first wave of e-recruiting innovation was the creation of an employment or careers section on the corporate Web site. The early innovators brought great acclaim and the status as an "employer of choice" upon themselves, and enjoyed the improved recruiting efficiencies that come with corporate Web site recruiting. By 2002, however, corporate Web site recruiting has reached close to complete adoption among the world's largest corporations.

Today, the mere possession of a corporate Careers Web site is no longer sufficient to differentiate a company from its competitors. Leading corporations are turning to new and innovative practices to maintain a competitive advantage, particularly in the integration of the front-end Careers Web site with back-end data management systems. Corporations need to be increasingly knowledgeable about both specific best practices and macro trends.

Corporate Web Site Recruiting

Based on a recent annual survey of Global 500 companies, adoption of corporate Web site recruiting can be considered to have reached a mature state. In 2002, 91 percent of the Global 500 employs a corporate Careers Web site as part of the overall corporate recruiting strategy. In the Asia Pacific region, the adoption of corporate Careers Web site stands at 90 percent in 2002.

Growth of corporate Web site recruiting by the Global 500 companies is well off of its peak period of 1998-1999, when the practice grew from 28 percent of the in 1998 to 60 percent in 1999.

The Diffusion of Innovation

The yearly increases in the rate of adoption of corporate Web site recruiting by the Global 500 since 1998 closely matches the predictions of the "diffusion of innovation" theory for the adoption of technological innovation. The diffusion of innovations theory holds that the rate of adoption of a new technology will accelerate once the technology has moved out of the pioneering innovators and early adopters phases into the mainstream. After a majority has embraced the new technology, the increase in the rate of adoption diminishes, as the "late-adopters" or laggards, with more conservative attitudes to change, take longer to embrace the innovation.

Careers Web Site Best Practices

With corporate Web site recruiting now at the point of saturation in the Global 500, the next wave of innovation and competitive advantage has already begun. Chief among the practices that will form the next wave of e-recruiting innovation are online candidate pre-screening and candidate relationship management. Already, these best practices are demonstrating robust growth among major corporations in the United States.

In the report Trends in Fortune 500 Careers Web Site Recruiting, it was found that the strongest growth to occur was in best practices that integrate the Careers Web site front-end with back-end recruitment management systems.

The Next Wave

Early innovator companies understood the power of the Internet as a channel to attract new candidates. Presently, corporate Careers Web site utilization among Global 500 corporations has reached the level of close to full adoption. While the most innovative companies understood the power of the Internet as a medium to attract new candidates several years ago, they are now well on the way to streamline their processes completely. As a consequence, we are seeing a second curve of innovation that is only in its infancy.