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Internet Recruited Hires: How Do They Fare?

Study Shows Mixed Results

By Tommie Mobbs, Ph.D., LIMRA International

A line of studies done by LIMRA International (www.limra.com) has produced the first published research examining how Internet recruiting sources impact objective measures of candidate quality using post-hire metrics. The complete results of the study will be presented in Chicago, at the 2004 meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology held April 2- 4.

As Charles Handler mentioned in the last Rocket-Hire newsletter (State of the Industry: 2004 Trends), while the intricacies of screening and selection procedures remain stubbornly obscure, the idea of candidate quality is easy for everyone to understand. As the role of the Internet in organizational recruiting efforts continues to expand, the need to investigate outcomes associated with Internet recruits will become increasingly evident.

Given this, Peggy McManus and Tommie Mobbs of LIMRA International examined two very important aspects of candidate quality: production and turnover, and how they might be related to where an applicant comes from. It's long been known in many industries that personal recruits, those referred by present employees, are often the best source for quality recruits. However, little is known about those candidates coming from Internet sources including the big job boards, niche job sites, as well as corporate career websites.

Data gathering

In an earlier, preliminary analysis of over 60,000 financial services candidates, the researchers found that the quality of corporate career website recruits approached that of traditional recruits; using a biodata test score as a measure of quality (see http://www.limra.com/). The quality of candidates coming from other internet sources, however, was lacking and more closely matched that of impersonal recruits.

In the latest analyses, McManus and Mobbs examined actual post-hire outcomes in relation to recruiting sources for almost 2,400 financial services sales representatives contracted in 2001. Consistent with previous research, the source of the newly hired candidates did significantly impact turnover and production (see Table 1). Surprisingly, recruits coming from the Internet exhibited the worst turnover of any group. A closer examination, however, reveals a disparity between corporate website recruits and recruits from more general Internet sources (see Table 2). The former survive at a slightly higher rate and their average production is above average.

Given the enormous amount of resources organizations have poured into Internet recruiting in recent years and the extent to which organizations have come to rely on the Internet as a key source of recruits, this result is very troubling. It may serve as a cautionary note to recruiters who are eager to apply the latest technologies without examining the long-term consequences, and gives further credence to focusing on candidate quality vs. candidate quantity.

Corporate websites yield best returns

The finding regarding corporate website recruita^?(TM)s production and turnover versus other Internet recruits represents an encouraging note. There is some indication that more specific websites yield more productive hires than do general websites. Exploratory analysis offers some indication as to why this might be so. Individuals currently employed in a financial services sales position are less likely to post their resume on a general job board. They are focused on the specific industry and are most likely aware of the characteristics of companies comprising the industry. Therefore, they can take a strategy of going directly to the web page of companies they have identified as potential employers.

Further, by visiting corporate Web sites, many of which include some sort of realistic job preview and in-depth job description, prospective employees may have learned about the experiences of new hires. Providing candidates with a realistic understanding of a job typically increases job satisfaction and organizational commitment and decreases turnover. Also, the current study showed that people visiting a company's Web site are more likely to have personal contacts at the company than prospects coming from Internet job boards or newspaper ads. In fact, twice as many recruits from the corporate web page (14.1%) as from other Internet sources (6.5%) reported knowing someone in the office at the time they learned about the job. However, this percentage is still quite low and it is unlikely that prescreening has a major impact on the outcome results.

As mentioned above, in addition to being more likely to have personal contacts at the company, corporate web page recruits were more likely to be employed in a similar position to the one they were applying for than were other Internet recruits. Corporate web site recruits may be similar in a lot of ways to the "walk-in" recruit: the individual who approaches an office to inquire about a position without knowing if one is available. Like the corporate website recruit, the walk-in has proactively focused on a particular organization as an attractive place to work. In the current sample, walk-ins and corporate web page recruits exhibit similar levels of experience (45.3% and 43.8% respectively). They also produce at similar levels, although walk-in hires have much stronger retention rates. The very positive results for walk-in hires are consistent with previous research.

Best practices

Internet recruits coming from the corporate career website may continue to further differentiate themselves from a quality standpoint, compared to more general Internet sources. They are more experienced, know more current employees, and show better post-hire potential. As more people turn to the Internet to explore career opportunities, ensure that your organization has created a helpful Web site. Keep in mind that both style and substance matter. The best sites look good, are easy to navigate, provide useful career information, and engage their visitors. It must compel visitors to learn about your company and the associated careers and apply for a job. Some tips for increasing the effectiveness of corporate career site:

• Feature prominent links to the "careers" portion of the Web site.
• Use an obvious URL for the careers section of the Web site, such as www.careers.companyname.com or www.companyname.com/careers.
• Provide a realistic description of the job, including both the positives and the negatives. It should let people know what the career has to offer, the minimum job qualifications, and where the jobs are (most people want to know where they can work before they'll apply for a job).
• Make use of career previews by showing case studies or "personal snapshots" of actual employees. Convey their story through text, photos, and even video and audio clips.
• Use appropriate, job-specific prescreening tools or scored job application forms to pre-qualify applicants.
• Capture candidate information, build a relationship with them, and connect them to the appropriate corporate or agency recruiter or manager.

Conclusion

So while it's clear that an effective recruiting system uses many sources and types of media to attract new candidates, you should focus your resources on the media delivering the best recruits. The disparity of quality between recruits coming from different sources may help you focus limited resources in the most appropriate direction.

Table 1

Table 2