Des points de vue

Recruitment: is the web the panacea of the 21st century?

“No promotion or bonus this year, my boss is annoying me, I am going to look for a new job on the Internet”. It is now common to think of such media. So, is this a pro-active attitude or is it in reality a passive one…?

Do Viadeo, Linkedin, Cadremploi, Xing and other sites really offer interesting propositions to candidates? Is the World Wide Web as effective as the web of a spider that captures some unfortunate insects? Does it actually bring the vast amount of information it carries to millions of Internet users? Who can find themselves on this new world wide web? The whiz kids who created these sites boast of their ability to better seduce future users who will be able to fund their well-deserved retirement on the deck of a yacht… or in Gstaat!

But what of the millions of feverish Internet users who wish to steer a professional course?

These sites remain suppliers

It must first be noted that these sites are only suppliers, thus the quality of that which they supply is paramount. If, in your eagerness following a quick read of the bottom line of your payslip, you submit a badly-drafted CV, then no matter how marvellous the search engines are, they will only come up with results in relation to the information you have supplied. How many times have you seen descriptions of so called “executive professionals” that don’t give any detail as to the aptitudes of the candidate, that contain recruitment data which is out-of-date or obsolete and above all that lack any information on the real motivations of the Internet user concerned? On certain sites it is impossible to know whether the person in question is interested in looking for a job, sharing his/her passion for abstract art, looking for a babysitter or buying a company…

You can waste hours looking at lists of names and CVs only to find that the lucky candidate you shortlist was not in fact looking for such a position at all or that one of your competitors has offered him/her much more.

The anonymity that protects the candidate from the curiosity of his/her employer can also slow down the recruitment process. Having to send an email to an address that a hypothetical candidate who is not actively seeking work may only rarely check is not very effective in an era when reactivity is of utmost importance for businesses. The Internet is often an ineffective resource in this context. What is the strategic value of a resource that includes 2544 contacts? Should we not begin by looking at “facebook” or “smallworld” to see how such a resource can systematically conquer the entire web? Many young graduates create their own personal WebPages on those sites where curiously they seem to be more forthcoming about their true aims and sometimes more convincing. But those WebPages often resemble magazines describing youthful adventures rather than a quest for a new professional opportunity…

A so heterogeneous range of profiles

The demographics that have a web presence are thus very heterogeneous, sometimes highlighting two extremes of professional life: young people at the beginning of their career or more senior people who are often out of work. After researching the profiles of those others one must ask oneself whether it would really be useful to contact them?

Senior people rely more on the experience they have gained throughout their careers. Alas, they are less in demand in the market and their profiles remain on the websites longer, in particular when those websites are based on the principle of “a network”. They will sometimes end up acquiring a certain notoriety among recruiters but unfortunately to little benefit as regards their objectives.

In order to work is it necessary for a network to be hidden? …In fact this is indeed almost the case. A market which is lean in candidates needs more of an “intelligence service” in order to identify the best profiles. By definition, an effective network is a hidden network. It is in “hidden” markets that the best opportunities arise. Thus, to find a candidate with varied international experience and the personality that will make a difference, the web is not the panacea. You must return to good old methods: headhunting and classic networking remain the proven and effective tools for recruitment. They involve more work and are more difficult to carry out but are strategic and more effective. Such methods require a precise cartography of your target companies and markets. You must filter your data… the quality of research assistants thus remains more important than ever, it is wrong to think that an intern who simply searches websites will be ideal…

It is good to have the web for recruitment but it is far from being an effective resource for this purpose. On the other hand it is a resource and an indicator that companies should not neglect. Thanks to the Internet we now have access to a range of information: quality of atmosphere within companies, politics of earnings for a given population, turnover, management quality. We must therefore know how to get this information. For the remainder, nothing will replace the creativity of the individual.

In the end recruitment remains first and foremost an “haute couture” craft which is almost by definition an art.