According to e-recruitment analysts interbiznet.com, there are currently 15 million annual job changes taking place in the U.S. workforce of 100,000,000 people — resulting in an estimated $90 billion market of “cost to hire expenses.” To reduce this cost, Internet technologies will increasingly centralize and integrate the entire corporate recruiting process into an e-business supply chain. During the past year the e-recruiting industry has seen vast financial growth and maturation. Forrester Research estimates that the online recruiting market will grow to $2.4 billion by 2003. This is just the beginning.

According to iLogos Research, 79% of companies now recruit on their corporate Web sites — up dramatically from only 29% in 1998. By 2001, iLogos predicts more than 90% of the Global 500 will recruit on their corporate Web sites and by 2002 all will do so. Corporate Web sites will become the primary interface of an Internet-based hiring management system — integrating recruiting from all sources including job boards, print media, job fair and employee referral programs. State-of-the-art Web-based recruiting systems will bring increased efficiencies and productivity to the corporate recruiting process.

When people refer to the e-recruitment industry, they are describing a wide variety of buy and sell side services or tools that are commonly used by human resource departments and hiring managers including but not limited to:

• Candidate aggregation services that attract candidates to a Website
• Candidate communication channels such as email that allow candidate control over the recruiting relationship
• Screening processes such as background checks and “cultural fit” tests
• Advertising selection and distribution
• Response integration/management systems
• Workforce management
• Applications tracking
• Workflow management HR system interfaces

Until recently, the typical recruitment process followed the following management flow:
      defining the position
          sourcing candidates
              visual screening of resume/application
                  interviewing
                      offer and hiring
                          and hopefully — retention

Within this model, both hiring managers and recruiters have been historically dependent on paper-based systems and outdated communications that result in billions in hiring and personnel management inefficiencies and constraints.

With new, e-recruiting-based models emerging, costs that are now wasted on administrative tasks and manpower can be severely slashed. The resulting benefits established enterprises by lower costs of recruitment, faster time to hire and greater retention. This can only be accomplished with a fast, simple, cost-effective method of online candidate interviewing and assessment.

Today’s great economy has created an exceptionally tight labor market — creating an opportunity for technology to provide solutions to speed up the recruitment process. The reduction of classified ads in major daily newspapers and the increase in advertisements online have made Internet job-hunting one of the most popular first steps for many seeking employment. The Internet has helped companies aggregate pools of talent quickly but still fails to screen and assess the pool adequately. The typical recruiter or hiring manager then has to review each of them and manually filter through them before inviting a candidate in for an interview and doing an assessment. As a result, HR departments are getting bogged down in the minutiae of administration — moving in the opposite direction of the hiring manager’s priorities.

Traditional recruiting methods that are reactive and oriented to an abundant supply of talent are outdated in today’s economy. Competition for good candidates will favor companies who are early adopters of the Internet tools now being offered. Investment in candidate acquisition and assessment will differentiate companies who are efficiently recruiting from those using traditional methods. By automating many of their hiring functions, HR departments can position recruiters to work on the hiring manager’s priorities — making the HR department a true partner of senior management. In order for human resources departments to secure budgets to purchase these new solutions, they must prove their value to the organization. Faster, more accurate hiring of high priority openings will help companies earn profit quicker — allowing HR departments to affect the bottom line instead of remaining an overhead cost center.

The adoption of on-line interviewing and assessment services paves the way for a candidate information application service provider, since online candidate assessment is clearly the most efficient way to provide companies with the best selection of applicants. Identifying this need, Fitability Systems developed an online technology solution — Fitability, which provides hiring managers as well as HR departments a candidate information application service consisting of:

• A Job Fit Profile process that results in better classification during the Job Definition stage
• An online interview that provides superior relevant job information to assist in the Assessment stage
• An interview guide consisting of behavioral interview questions and legal guidelines to assist the creation of a more productive interview in the Interview stage
• Insights into a candidates preferences and challenges that benefits the company with improved hiring decision performance and assists in the Retention stage