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Employers Favor Internet Recruitment

According to a new study by Booz Allen Hamilton, 51% of new hires in 2005 came about through the Internet, and only 5% through newspapers.

The study was commissioned by the DirectEmployers Association, a nonprofit consortium of US employers focuses on Internet recruiting solutions, and included data from 73 leading US employers.

Employers’ own Web sites were the top source of new hires, followed closely by referrals from current staff, each accounting for about one-fifths of new hires in 2005. A host of other channels, including job boards, search firms and campus recruiting, accounted for remaining newly hired employees. Referrals were the top source, in terms of volume of candidates, by a large margin.

One obvious benefit of relying on employee referrals and company Web sites is the lower cost involved. In fact, respondents reported that they spent 27% of their advertising on general job boards compared to 15% on their Web sites and 11% on employee referrals. Additionally, companies are most satisfied with new workers that were referred by current employees, and from the ones that came about through their own site, both in terms of return on investment and the general quality of applicants.

As for the future, companies are inclined to use the same internal resources to a greater extent. Almost three quarters plan to use their own Web sites more as a recruitment tool, and 68% hope to rely more on referrals. There is also substantial interest in social networking technology as a resource for finding new employees.

To learn more about other uses of social networking, read eMarketer’s new report, College Students Online: Social Networks and the Net Generation.