Introduction
The study focuses on investigating the use of online platforms in recruitment employees. Digital transformation is a term used to describe the process of bringing new technologies into the realm of human resources. The theoretical framework presented by Mahmood and Ling (2017, p. 179) can be used, which “consists of three independent variables (IVs) such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust towards dependent variables (DV) intention to use”. In light of these elements, certain hypotheses may be made concerning the role of online platforms in the recruitment process.
A five-point Likert scale will be used to evaluate the recommended technologies in relation to the hypotheses identified.
Recruitment and Digitalisation on employee recruitment
The processes and activities carried out by the organisation with the primary goal of discovering and attracting potential employees is what recruitment means (Barber, 1998: 5). In order for organisations to be more selective in the hiring process and assure high-quality recruits, recruitment activities and practices are designed to develop a broad pool of competent candidates (Schmidt and Hunter, 1998). Candidates’ job choice decisions and the many techniques that can assist recruiting become more efficient were studied by researchers like (Barber, 1998; Dineen and Soltis, 2011). According to Strohmeier (2020), there has been a significant increase in research on digital HRM and digital transformation, although most past studies have focused on the subject of how digital technologies affect HR-related tasks. Just how (Baum and Kabst, 2014; Nikolaou, 2014) examine how well company websites and social networking sites attract job applicants. (Baum and Kabst, 2014) research states that the influence of recruiting activities on applicant attraction has an effect on employer knowledge by combining high (website) and low (printed) information activities. In addition, the use of high-information recruitment procedures has greater favourable benefits on the employer’s understanding of possible applicants than utilising low-information recruitment practises, according to Baum and Kabst, (2014). As a result, it is critical to evaluate the importance of online platforms and their ease of use on the organization’s staff recruitment process (Gilch and Sieweke, 2020).
Online platforms are valuable in the recruitment process
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the sudden economic slowdown has led to a global recession (Boyle, 2020) that changed business approaches as well as the labour market. At such a time, companies have had to adopt an agile workflow approach to sustain their operations (Dupré, Chatry, Kornprobst and Michalun, 2020). As the lockdown became mandatory in most countries (Dupré, Chatry, Kornprobst and Michalun, 2020), multiple organizations had to transition to work away from the office. The worst issue in this situation is that majority of them were not prepared (Dupré, Chatry, Kornprobst and Michalun, 2020). This increased the desire for digital transformation. The phenomenon named digital transformation represents the integration of technology into the human resource work, (Marinaki, n.d.) states that it is acquiring data solutions as well as technology to reduce or simplify administrator tasks while improving the efficiency of operations across multiple departments of an organisation. In the process of recruiting, it is a way of reducing the workload. Managing numerous job submissions becomes easier in employee recruitment (Spychaa et al., 2019, p.282). Additionally, it can be argued that it is the primary reason for some firms’ low staff turnover rates (Barreto and Alturas, 2018). Before the use of technological assistance to recruit individuals to work for a particular company, the process was tedious (Van Esch and Mente, 2018, p.270). Handling many people at the same time took a toll on recruiters, which often led to the selection of wrong candidates. Recruiting new employees online allows a business to utilise internet-based solutions, for example, job listings, advertising, social media as well as company websites (Nichols, 2019) to source and employ the top candidates. Using the internet to search for new employees (Nichols, 2019) has made it easier to get candidates and do interviews and the procedure the necessary paperwork to hire and train them. It is a way of providing an organisation with an inexpensive and efficient way (Okolie and Irabor, 2022) to fill positions. Some benefits offered by this approach include helping a brand gain a competitive edge, a better applicant pool, and fewer resources being consumed. Additionally, (Okolie and Irabor, 2022) argued that automation can be utilised to interact with a great number of applicants at the same time. Nevertheless, for 2021, it is forecasted that approximately two hundred million full-time employees are no longer in employment (Newman et al., 2021, p.1381). Recruiters, thus, must prepare to receive a large number of applications. With the assistance of the proper technology, they can easily sift through the submissions and shortlist the most qualified candidates. It also allows one to sustain high standards of hiring regardless of the number of applications. Many technologies exist that can aid in managing many individuals, such as interview scheduling and pre-employment testing. As a result, the more digitised the company’s recruitment process, the easier it is to utilise.
Effectiveness Use of Online Platforms in the Recruitment Process
An effective tool is one that helps people achieve a certain goal with less effort and so far, the online platforms have proven to accomplish that (Okolie and Irabor, 2022). Carrying out recruitment digitally ensures that one is able to handle numerous applications with ease (Saad et al., 2021, p.3). By the start of 2016, the number of people per opening was fifty-nine on average, and this reduced further to thirty, three years later. This was due to a growing economy and a drop in the rate of unemployment (Brandão et al., 2019, p.274). (Wessel et al., 2021) contends that simply digitising the firm’s products, services, and procedures is insufficient; rather, the organisation itself needs adapt and embrace a digital identity and culture in order to achieve the goal of attracting and retaining employees.
Another thing that makes online recruiting effective (Nichols, 2019) is those analytics are easier to find. Recruitment technology offers one exclusive access to real-time and updated information overview. It allows an individual to locate any areas of growth that aid in executing the best strategy (Newman et al., 2021, p.1382). Moreover, it will also offer instant updates as well as data on issues happening with the employees that guarantee adjustment according to requirements (Brandão et al., 2019, p.276). It has simple and easy to comprehend dashboards that permit one to view critical metrics and reach quicker conclusions. This, in turn, allows one to make required changes in the recruiting tactics faster. With the assistance of the information from the technologies, for example, assessment scores, it is possible to automate interview schedules. According to Mahmood and Ling (2017, p. 479), one of the elements influencing Job-seekers’ intention to use online recruitment websites for job-seeking reasons is trust, which refers to online users’ overall perception of the trustworthiness of online service providers (Amin et al. 2014). The need to analyse whether or not trusting internet platforms with our information is therefore necessary as the more a corporation digitises its recruitment process, the more concern for trust there is.
Conclusion
In order to identify the extent to which the respondents justify or reject the hypothesis, a Likert Scale will be used. For example, one of the central hypotheses of the research, the inquiry of how easy it is to use online platforms for recruitment, should not be evaluated through a binary “yes-no” opposition. Instead, by evaluating the responses with a 5-level numeric Likert Scale, the evidence from the research could provide qualitative attributes to the study.
Reference List
Banerjee, P., and Gupta, R. (2019) ‘Talent attraction through online recruitment websites: Application of web 2.0 technologies’, Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 23, pp. 1-23.