E-recruitment gains steam

E-recruitment has been gaining momentum for the last few years. Inspite of the earlier trepidations among firms, it has gained acceptance. It cannot solve the problem of quality but it can handle quantity.

Hence e-recruitment firms have grown rapidly. While the biggest conventional recruitment agency is not more than Rs 30 crore in size, the biggest e-recruiter, Naukri.com, which is much younger, is Rs 100 crore.

While e-recruitment has speeded up recruitment, the quality of manpower available is often not upto mark, since the claims made in resumes posted on the Web do not give a correct picture of the candidate.

Now, e-recruiters are considering ways to get round the quality issue. Among plans up their sleeve is outsourcing the process of shortlisting the candidates for a job. So there will emerge shortlisting specialists.

This is important as out of every 10,000 resumes received, only some 500 can be placed and fewer actually recruited, said Sanjiv Bikchandani, founder CEO, Naukri.com.

He was speaking at a convention 'War for Talent "" The Next Decade', organised by Executive Recruiters Association (ERA). Executive recruitment consulting is a specialised profession that helps client organisations identify, evaluate and recruit executives at various levels. In addition to this, there is also a plan to ensure greater accountability on the part of the e-recruitment firm.

Money back guarantee is an innovation that Naukri.com is considering. 'Get the recruits or get your money back' is the job portal Naukri.com's plan in the coming months, said Bikchandani.

In the US e-recruitment firms also help aspirants. They have been providing the service of writing resumes such that they show up on the top when a potential recruiter does a search for potential recruits.

V K Viswanathan, joint MD, MICO called for quality orientation in the war for talent.

"Winning the war for talent is the key to success of any firm." There should be an improvement in the quality orientation to be able to beat the competition from China, Brazil, Czech Republic and such other countries in manufacturing, he added.