Online recruiting.

Before you cast your bait in the water, you need to Know the fish you want to catch

Should you recruit employees on the Internet? Most experts in the burgeoning online recruiting field say the answer has a lot to do with who you're looking for.

"Whom does the Internet attract" is the one key question you need to ask yourself, advises Steve Wojack, owner of both Sysaver.com, an Internet backup service, and Duggan & Associates, a search firm in Shelby Township.

Wojack says "in-between" positions are those that are best filled with online help. "The fees associated with finding some positions are not realistic," he says. "And I'm not downplaying it. It's just that there are firms that can do the same job, such as those that offer temporary staff- and do it well."

Wojack suggests turning to some of the old standbys when looking for secretarial workers or general support staff. For senior management and higher positions, he believes a professional recruiting firm is still the best bet.

"People who are qualified for those jobs are used to hearing about them from recruiters or friends," he says. "They don't look for positions online."

Finding professionals to fill technical jobs are the ones that work best online, Wojack says. "Engineers, for example, are at home on the Internet. They know their way around, they're comfortable there."

There's a myriad of sites to help businesses out. "Literally hundreds of them," says Wojack. "Some are free, while others charge a fee. Check the job boards. Some, such as Monster.com, offer a free 10-day listing, then charge by the month thereafter. But it's worth it." (See page 23 for a report on Nation job, a top-rated service available through the Detroit Regional Chamber.)

"Of course," adds Wojack, "you still have to interview candidates in person. Since I've been a recruiter in the past, I know how to interview people, and I can pretty much figure out potential good workers for the job I'm trying to fill by reading the resumes that come in."

One thing is certain: online recruiting is here to stay. In fact, a report on the staffing industry from Merrill Lynch confirms that Internet recruiting is on its way to becoming the dominant hiring and job-finding tool. Merrill Lynch estimates that spending on Internet recruiting will grow from $205 million in 1999 to $5.1 billion in 2003.

The American Management Association reports that in 1998, 70 percent of large and mid-sized companies in the United States actively used the Internet to advertise jobs and recruit employees, up from 51 percent in 1997.

Matt Pietsch, vice president of General Sports and Entertainment in Rochester, says the best way he can measure his success with online recruiting is by the time it takes him to get a job done.

"We've advertised extensively using our Website," he says. "Ours is a search firm that deals with sports and entertainment positions." For instance, his firm searched for a vice president of brand development for the Sacramento Kings, a director of ticket sales for the New York Islanders and account executive personnel for the Chicago Bulls.

"To spread the word, we've partnered with a number of different companies, like Franklin Covey Sports in Mesa, Arizona," says Pietsch. General Sports and Entertainment widens the net by doing so. Pietsch will get the job done in less time by linking with others.

"It's also given us an entre into the international arena. We encourage businesses to use the Internet when they can," he says. "It's the easiest way to drop a resume into our data base. Because we can categorize our findings, it's a lot more efficient. But you still need to screen what you get."

The Detroit Region's total technology-based industry employment
stands at nearly 450,000 or just over 18 percent of the
private-sector workforce.
Metro area            Technology  Total private  Technology
                       related       sector      share (%)
DETROIT                  449,126     2,453,821      18.3
Chicago                  404,073     3,381,469      11.9
Los Angeles              386,519     3,599,297      10.7
Washington               337,338     2,302,595      14.7
Minneapolis-St. Paul     227,772     1,500,711      15.2
St. Louis                173,203     1,179,344      14.7
San Diego                155,861     1,077,411      14.5
Raleigh-Durham            93,178       545,891      17.1
Austin                    91,815       520,399      17.6
Columbus                  77,973       732,845      10.6
Seattle                   69,431     1,122,459      15.1
U.S. total            11,990,167   111,368,020      10.8
Source: Hammer, Siler, George Associates

Worth noting:

Forrester Research estimates That online recruiting and Job placement advertising will grow from $411 million in 1999 to $4 billion by 2005, mostly at the expense of print media.

The advantages of 'e-cruiting'

Ernest Ball, senior lead genlus finder at staffing and consulting services firm. The Epitec Group. A division of southfield-based Comprehensive Data Processing, believes "e-cruiting" - his term for online recruiting - is essential.

"E-cruiting not only empowers a recruiting team with a more Immediate, often less expensive means to reach candidates, it also empowers the workface with access to the recruiters' organization anytime and from anywhere," says Ball.

Furthermore, Ball says "e-candidates" are often better informed than traditional job candidates more informed about the range of opportunities in the workplace and more informed about the companies offering those opportunities. "It only stands to reason, then, that those companies employing e-cruiting activities will have an advantage in reaching this type of candidates than those that do not," he says.

Ball cautions, however, there are six questions that companies should ask before entering into a deal with a professional "e-cruiter":

1. What is their hands-off policy?

2. How long does a typical search take?

3. What is their response time?

4. Who, specifically, will be conducting the search?

5. What is the e-cruiter's completion record?

6. How many other clients and/or competitors are they assisting?

"E-cruiting is critical for today's business, but it should not be considered a replacement for traditional recruiting practices," Ball notes, "Rather, e-cruiting should be used in tandem with and to complement a company's overall recruiting strategy."

A top recruiting tool

One of the best Internet recruiting tools is available through the Detroit Regional Chamber.

The Chamber has partnered with NationJob Inc. to offer an online recruiting service that is cost-effective, technologically advanced and customer service oriented.

NationJob's value-added services include a network of specialty sites promoting Jobs in specific employment categories through custom Jobs pages and community pages for Individual companies and communities, cross-postings to other sites on the Web and P.J. Scout, one of the best-known and most successful uses of push technology In the employment industry.

In addition to offering services directly to Individual employers, NationJob's Community Sponsorship Program is the No. 1 community-based Internet recruitment program in the United States, servicing a total population of more than 7 million people in communities in 16 states.