E-recruitment is the name of the game

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: advantage of the filtering tools to filter out unsuitable jobs, making their search more efficient and convenient.”

A few other advantages emanate out of the benefits that one gets out of process automation like email campaigns, search resumes and applicant tracking. Online recruitment also brings down the cost per hire due to technology deployment. “Going through a placement house means payment of one month’s salary for every successful recruitment. Whereas going through a job portal would cost much less, and you also build up a database over time,” points out Iyer.

It is the database of potential employees that is the goldmine for recruitment agencies and employers alike. Recruitment service providers use the database to select suitable candidates, headhunt the rest, and select the most fitting profiles. However, it is up to an organisation to effectively deploy this resource in their business, as sometimes there are discrepancies. “We witness significant inefficiencies in recruitment and thus, higher costs after using online recruitment. This may appear paradoxical,” says Aditya Narayan Mishra, general manager, Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd. This happens because an online tool helps one reach out to a wider community but not essentially the right group of candidates that the organisation targets.

However, having received hundreds of applications, one has to deploy resources to study them, scrutinise and interview them. “Many a time, we discover that the applications received are far higher than what is desired and most of them are from desperate job seekers rather than the brilliant candidate that the organisation should be targeting,” he adds.

Traditional placement agencies are, however, unfazed at the growth of job portals. In fact, recruitment agencies are one of the biggest customers of job portals. Large recruitment service providers can also host online recruitments without much difficulty. Most of them also have their own online and offline database, though that may not be available to clients or candidates. Agrees Oberoi, “The online recruitment sites will not replace offline placement agencies. In fact, placement agencies are our clients. Increasingly, however, advertising from print will move online.”