Online recruitment is a serious buzzword in the HR spectrum. Companies are becoming more and more aware of its importance and its prevalence in the market. 20% of the UK population are looking at a job board online more than twice every single day. This is a huge active market with advantages that can include improvements to corporate image, reduction in recruitment costs and a reduction in administration. So why is it that recruiters are finding it a challenge to integrate it fully?

Don’t get put off. Remember to look out for these issues and your candidate search online can successfully commence.

1. Confusion in the job board environment The online job board world is immense and almost saturated with niche, generalist and expert websites claiming to be the top performer. HR professionals need to do some research into who actually is the leader. This information is easily obtained. Check the website and search for statistics on their industry base and candidate reach. It is a case of recognising and researching which ones actually deliver. This is important – your next star employee is in the online spectrum and the potential pool of clients is massive if you know where to advertise.

2. Don’t get tied into a long-term contract. HR practitioners often fall into the trap of signing into a long-term job board contract because it makes the rates per advert more favourable. This cheaper price is enticing but only if you plan to recruit enough times to make it worth it. Consider – how many times a many times are you planning to recruit a year? Will you use those 100 adverts? Do you only want to put them on one site? The idea of online recruiting is having the opportunity to hit a mass market; one board could limit your reach significantly. Shop around.

3. Using the wrong job specification. So many times, a job specification looks fantastic in print but when put online the emphasis is lost. Online recruitment demands a different style. Adverts need to be keyword optimised i.e. including repetitions of the title, the industry and responsibilities, making the length shorter so that people can read it with ease onscreen and including specific salary details. Mentioning these a will make it an online worthy ad.

4. Getting lost in a pool of candidates. Online recruitment opens your role up to a huge amount of applicants and that is why recruiters need to be ready for the response. Explore the tools available to you from the job boards. They will provide sifting, keyword searches and shortlisting potentials. Use this and you will find your candidate far easier. Other routes include adding a candidate management system to your HR tools. These are easy to come by and make administration much less daunting.

5. Ignoring the social network sphere Many employers think that social networking belongs to the marketing function, but it is the perfect place to discuss your latest roles and the company culture. Using Linkedin, Twitter & Facebook for HR purposes allows companies the perfect opportunity to increase and integrate the online recruitment campaign across a wider platform, thus obtaining better success and reaching more relevant candidates. It isn’t hard to do and HR professionals won’t find it hard to talk positively about their company and roles.

6. Forgetting to measure effectiveness On overriding problem is putting an job advert online and then forgetting about. Campaigns need to be monitored so that you can determine how successful it was and help you to develop more appropriate strategies in the future. Look at the number of views, where they saw the advert, how many you have shortlisted, number invited to interview. These statistics will help you in the future.

7. Doing it all yourself. Online recruitment is an expert’s game and when employed ineffectively can be time consuming. Don’t get bogged down with administration when you can outsource for less than the cost a job board contract. It is worth getting the advice as agencies will tell you whether it is worth your while going on a mixture of sites or just going on one or two. That expert knowledge is worth its weight in minutes not wasted, minutes you can spend on other things.

Technology has enabled corporate websites, suppliers and job seekers to become more sophisticated, interactive and to connect globally 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Understanding what not to do will help in the successful recruitment online and will provide HR professionals with a new and more targeted route to candidates.

Just a few tips to help anyone thinking of ignoring online recruitment. I'm a real advocate for integration and not ignoring what is happening in the market place but combining it with previous practices.