Online recruitment attitudes and behaviors of job seekers.

Borstorff, Patricia C. ; Marker, Michael B. ; Bennett, Doris S. 等

ABSTRACT

The Internet has changed the way companies conduct business, including how they attract and recruit employees. As a result, online recruiting has become a major Internet business tool. Companies can recruit online with their own websites, job boards or resume banks, newspaper classified ads, and specialized job boards or professional certification sites. Effective online recruiting processes increase firms' competitive advantage through increased efficiency and lower costs, and offers benefits and opportunities to job seekers. This research investigates the perceptions and behaviors of job seekers concerning the use of the Internet as a recruiting source. We found citizens to be more comfortable with online recruitment and used it more frequently than did non-citizens. Older applicants and those with work experience also applied more often and made more job searches. Minorities applied more frequently for job online than did whites. We found no differences in gender and online recruitment behavior or attitudes.

INTRODUCTION

In the current volatile business market, one of the most distinctive competitive advantages companies can gain and sustain is their human resources. Thomas and Ray (2000) believe that the single most important determinant of organizational effectiveness is the ability to attract, hire, and develop capable talent. To be able to compete, firms must be able to find and retain the best available employees. This is difficult due to the shrinking availability of qualified labor. Furthermore, the rise of computer technology and the Internet has changed the way businesses compete. One area that has been changed drastically by information technology is e-recruiting or online recruiting.

Online recruiting is the process of recruiting through commercial job sites or company websites that promotes employment opportunities and retrieves potential employee information (Lin & Stasinskaya, 2002). Online hiring is used to post jobs, accept resumes, administer screening tests, and correspond with job applicants (Flynn, 2002). In the past, most organizations used employee referrals, newspaper ads, and traditional employment agencies to advertise job vacancies. Today, the Internet is a popular method to recruit potential employees, with the competition for qualified talent being online. Over 90% of Fortune 500 companies use some form of online recruiting (Feldman & Klaas, 2002). One survey showed 85 percent of companies with 500 or more employees in North America have an online recruiting program (Schweyer, 2003). Job seekers are also conducting their searches online. Over 52 million Americans have used online job searches, with over 4 million doing so daily (Jansen, Jansen, and Spink, 2005). Also, studies based on hiring practices reveal that 51 percent of new hires in 2005 were generated from internet sources (Hamilton, 2006). The job database Monster.com claims to have more than 48 million resumes in their database, with almost 4 million people visiting their site on Mondays alone (Backhaus, 2004). Similarly, Hadass (2004) found that the population of users of this website has increased to 6.5 million and is constantly growing. These numbers do not include the 40,000 other job boards available on the Internet.

This increasing use of online recruiting and hiring as a business tool has not only changed the way companies recruit employees and how job seekers search for jobs, it has also impacted both parties involved. This research reviews current online recruiting and hiring practices and examines the attitudes and behaviors of online job seekers in their use of company websites and the online job boards.

METHODS AND PRACTICES EMPLOYED IN ONLINE RECRUITING

Traditionally, organizations depended on low-tech, time-consuming recruiting methods such as newspaper ads, employee referrals, and employment agencies to locate and attract qualified candidates. While these methods may have served employers well in the past, the need to be dynamic and progressive is predicated on the global and competitive business environment of the 21st century. Today, companies view the Internet as a way to extend their business at little cost by offering information and advertisement as well as conducting business on their websites. According to a National Online Recruitment Survey (NORAS), seventytwo percent of organizations acquired their resumes or curriculum vitas through various forms of electronic communication methods available through the internet (Zall, 2000).

Online recruiting includes at least four identified techniques, including company websites, general online job boards (sometimes referred to as internet job search engines, resume databases or resume banks), online newspaper classified advertisements, and job postings through specialized job boards or professional certification cites.

The two most popular tools available for online recruiting are company websites and Internet job boards. The most popular online recruiting tool, the company website, is the most convenient of all. Simple HTML editing software allows HR staff members to take Word documents and post job requirement information directly onto the website.

These websites help companies perform the first two major functions of the hiring process; attracting applicants to the company through the posting of available jobs, and receiving applications and resumes from the internet. Company websites that were originally used as public relations and commerce tools are now creating a virtual labor marketplace (Wyld, 2005). In a survey by iLogos.com, 96 percent of the recruiters polled reported posting jobs on their company's websites. The Value Creation through Corporate Careers Websites study from iLogos Research found that 92 percent of Fortune 500 companies have a website solely for careers (Co.-Specific Career Web Sites, 2003). The results of several surveys and studies suggest that company career websites are very attractive. A survey of job seekers conducted by CareerXroads found that 92.4 percent of respondents were likely or very likely to visit a company's website to find out more about the organization. The study noted that although 85 percent of the respondents had gone to company websites for other reasons, they found themselves checking out available jobs (Agnvall, 2005). Another survey of 70 leading US companies performed by DirectEmployers Association showed that nearly 25 percent of survey respondents' new hires in 2005 were found using corporate career websites (Minton-Eversole, 2006).

The second popular online recruiting method is Internet job boards. Job boards are websites that act as places for companies to look for job seekers and job seekers to look for jobs. These online job boards function much like an electronic version of the traditional newspaper ads that companies have been using for years (Volpe and Tucker, 2004). Companies can post job ads on these sites in addition to using the sites' resume banks to search for potential applicants they would like to contact. On the other side of the search, potential applicants are able to access the job board to view job postings and submit resumes and applications to the companies they would like to work for. Today, there are many job boards excelling in online hiring, such as Dice, Monster, Hot Jobs, CareerBuilder, and Vault (McLean 2006). The online job board Monster.com reports that for April, 2006, a total of 28 million visitors spent an average of 12 minutes on the site with over 12 million visitors described as "quality" (Monster Advantage, 2006). The Monster Fact Sheet (2006) reported having 61 million job seeker members worldwide, a resume database of more that 52 million resumes, and over 200,000 member companies. While job boards have focused on recruiting management and whitecollar workers, recent television ads by Monster.com have begun promoting the site as an option for the blue-collar job seeker. Both online methods, company websites and job boards, are important tools for organizations and job seekers wishing to become active in the online job market and the 52 million resumes Monster.com has stored on its site and the 40,000 other resume-posting websites points out that companies cannot ignore online job boards as an essential recruiting tool.

IMPACT OF ONLINE RECRUITING ON BUSINESSES AND JOB SEEKERS

The use of online recruiting impacts significantly businesses and job seekers who utilize this method in the hiring and job search process. Businesses are finding many favorable reasons to use online recruiting including increasing efficiency, lowering recruitment and hiring costs, attracting more qualified applicants and simplifying the entire selection process. Using online recruiting, a company is able to streamline and increase the efficiency of its HR functions, leading to a decrease in the cost of recruiting and hiring new employees (Karakanian, 2000).

Regarding increasing efficiency, the move to online recruitment provides managers with rapid access to the information essential when planning, directing, and addressing staffing needs. State of the art resume databases provide recruiters and human resource managers easy access to the best talent in the workforce. Employers can tailor questions and conduct searches for candidates based on specific skills, knowledge and abilities required for the position. From the database of information, they can extract a list of individuals that best meet the needs of the company. In addition, providing facts about organization culture, environment, and practices can increase the visibility of the employer and enhance the chances of properly aligning the employer with a suitable employee. (Zall, 2000) Furthermore, company websites can also be used to receive electronic resumes and online applications. The collection of resumes and applications online allows companies to quickly acquire large amounts of data on potential job applicants (Karakanian, 2000). The use of job agents allows HR departments to target and identify quality candidates with more efficiency. Utilizing Internet prescreening tools and completing and submitting the job application online streamlines recruiting and talent deployment processes, thereby cutting the length of the hiring cycle (Co.Specific Career Web Sites, 2003). This data collection and the control a company has over its procedures creates a process that allows a company to collect the data it needs at a quicker pace than with traditional methods. Many different applications available allow a company to evaluate the information posted prior to its movement to the HR department.

Recruitment activities managed in an electronic format can lower recruitment cost by prescreening applicants, processing applications, and maintaining applicant information for forthcoming employment opportunities (Zall, 2000). Hogler, Henle & Bemus (1998) reported that it costs a company nearly onethird of an employee's salary to replace that employee. The Internet assists companies in potentially decreasing that cost by an estimated 20 to 30 percent (Menagh, 1999). Lee (2005) reported that Dow Chemical was able to cut costs per hire by 26 percent through utilizing a careers website. By eliminating the need for applicants to be at a physical location, online testing allows for companies to locate qualified applicants from a wide range of geographic locations prior to costly onsite visits (Mooney, 2002). This means that companies who engage in online hiring gain a distinct advantage over their competitors who are not online.

Additionally, online recruiting exposes the recruiting company to many more applicants searching for jobs. With nearly 200 million people using the Internet (Gale, 2001), it is very likely that some of that traffic will be crossing a company's website. The company website is an invaluable tool in the recruitment of the active job seeker. A major step for the current job seeker is analyzing the company online. Providing facts about organization culture, environment, and practices can increase the visibility of the employer and enhance the chances of properly aligning the employer with a suitable employee (Brice & Waung, 2002). Cappelli (2001) noted the GE website that linked applicants to information regarding what working for their company would be like. Companies are also using their websites to link potential job applicants to various other sites that could attract applicants, such as community sites and local attractions (Wyld, 2005). For the Internet users that are simply surfing the Internet and not actively looking for a job, the Internet is a great place to sell a company's image and culture. The website is a virtual brochure that can be updated regularly to attract any site visitor to apply for a job (Greengard, 1995). Whether the surfers are on a web page to look for a job, buy a product or just find more information on a company, it is an opportunity that cannot be missed in recruiting talent.

Job seekers submitting, and companies accepting resumes online eliminates the need to fax or mail resumes and makes the process of submitting a resume instantaneous (Wyld, 2005). Companies are allowed to receive thousands of resumes in short periods of time, which expedites the process of filling vacancies. When a resume is submitted in an electronic form, it allows a firm to quickly evaluate large numbers of resumes in a limited number of hours through key-word searching. Using a key-word search reduces large numbers of resumes received online to a small number of qualified candidates (Mohamed, Orife, & Wibowo, 2001). Once these candidates have been identified, the electronic resume can easily be transferred to the relevant departments involved in the hiring process (McCune, 1998). The direct submission and review of resumes lowers the cost of receiving and evaluating potential job applicants.

After resumes have been evaluated and a pool of qualified candidates has been established, companies can test and screen their applicants online (McCune, 1998). Twelve percent of companies recruiting online administer tests online (Cappelli, 2001).

Software programs allow a company to quiz applicants electronically and determine the suitability of an applicant to adequately perform the job (McCune, 1998; Mooney, 2002).

Personality traits and integrity can be analyzed online to evaluate the fit of an applicant to a position prior to an interview (McCourt-Mooney, 2000a). The HR department also uses the Internet to search for and validate such information as criminal records, references, and prior employment.

IMPACT ON BUSINESSES

Although businesses receive many benefits from recruiting online, there are challenges, including loss of potential candidates from application overload or technical problems, loss of valued employees, loss of "personal touch" by recruiters with potential applicants, and in some cases, increased costs in the recruiting process.

Although employers are able to provide more job listings and recruit more applicants faster using the internet, many have found it difficult to satisfy their job recruitment needs. Quantity does not always turn into quality. With millions of resumes circulating around the Internet, and with the ease of applying for a job online, employers are receiving applicants with below standard skill sets, causing unnecessary work for the hiring manager who has to sift through and eliminate nonqualified candidates. Also with the proliferation of online job postings, it can be difficult for the employee and the employer to find each other. This is especially true with online job boards such as Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com. A simple internet search of the word "job" revealed that there were over two billon web pages with this word (www.google.com). These sites offer a wide variety of jobs and are useful for employers wishing to reach a wide audience. However, these large sites can become a quagmire of too many people and can quickly swamp a HR Department with too many applicants.

Another challenge for online recruiting lies within the technical abilities of the company websites to provide an effective database that is functional, user friendly, and allows easy data entry for users as well as simple data retrieval by human resource professionals Because the high volume of career sites on the Internet creates natural competition, different sites must use various strategies for attracting visitors to submit their resumes, including different styles of organizational layout, color scheme and navigation (Lin & Stasinskaya, 2002). Also, career sites must be designed with advanced capabilities, use of artificial intelligence, and keyword matching systems that will accurately reflect search criteria. These attributes are proving to be difficult to accomplish by some company sites.

The speed with which technology is changing presents another challenge with online recruiting. On average, new and faster computer technology appears every six months, causing difficulty for the employer to stay literate on the latest computer software, hardware, and Internet technology. This constant change also requires the HR staff to become more technology savvy or more dependent on the company's IT department.

Another problem associated with businesses using online recruiting is a decreasing trend of personal attention. A survey by Partners (2000) identifies personal interaction as very important to both employers and job seekers. For employers, personal interviews serve as good indicator of an applicant's composure, allowing the employer to gauge a potential employee's ability to work under pressure by observing his/her composure during an interview. This study shows that many job seekers consider online resume posting inefficient due to, among other reasons, lack of personal attention. Today, many HR professionals find themselves viewing people as 1's and 0's on computer screens, drastically altering the traditional hiring process and possibly the attitudes and behavior of job seekers and potential employees (Agnvall, 2005).

The use of online recruiting may cause companies to lose valued employees. Search engines allow companies to view and evaluate the resumes of individuals at any other company. Online information about both companies and employees allow a recruiter from one firm to search online for candidates from other firms that the recruiter's firm needs. These resumes can then be used to access a company's database and find information about all employees (Cappelli, 2001). So the passive job seeker can be located through information available on the Internet and have offers made to him/her while employed.

Occasionally, companies incur non-value added costs when using online recruiting methods. The costs involved in using a job board as a recruitment tool can be divided into the price charged by the job boards, and the costs incurred by the company in sorting and evaluating the candidates obtained from the use of a job board. To post an ad on a job board such as E-Span, a company can pay anywhere from $150 for a single ad to $4,000 for unlimited advertising in a year. Companies also have the options of creating pages on sites such as Monster.com and Career Mosaic that can cost as much as $10,000 a year (Greengard, 1995). Some boards offer companies the option to pay on a per resume received basis, for a cost of $0.75 a resume. Due to the large volume of resumes that can be received through a job board, a company must contribute additional resources to the sorting and evaluating of the information received (Wyld, 2005). Companies must also spend time competing with other companies when using job boards due to the high availability of access by an individual applicant (Cappelli, 2001). Although the use of job boards can represent additional costs to a company, the availability of qualified applicants and cost savings achieved by online recruiting generally outweigh any costs incurred.

Another potential non-legal problem involved with conducting a job search using electronic resumes submitted through job boards and company websites is the reluctance of job seekers to post their resumes. One quarter of the online job seekers surveyed by Feldman and Klaas (2002) expressed concerns about the security of their personal information on the Internet. To alleviate fears of potential applicants many companies include privacy statements on their websites. Security companies can be used to further reduce fears. One such company is TRUSTe, which provides a "seal" that guarantees the privacy of both personal information and purchases made online (Thomas & Ray, 2000). The presence of such security features can make applicants more likely to submit a resume to an online site.

Relying on a company's website to attract the "passive" job seeker also has its drawbacks. Since this method requires that a potential recruit be on the website, the company's image as well as business will affect the number of visitors (Thomas & Ray, 2000). This can work to the detriment of small companies. A study by Feldman and Klaas (2002) found that the amount of online jobs searches was influenced by the level of an applicants' Internet fluency. Therefore, positions likely to be filled by persons not comfortable or proficient with the Internet will not be filled by relying on the passive job seeker to use the website method.

Legal issues must be addressed when a company is engaged in online hiring. One consideration is disparate impact in the selection process. If a member of a protected category is eliminated from consideration at a greater proportion than a majority category, then disparate impact might be occurring. Although the Internet should, in theory, make job openings available to a greater diversity of candidates, it may in fact discriminate against protected groups (Wyld, 2005).

The ability to access jobs on the Internet may discriminate against protected groups based upon access to the Internet. A study by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration profiled Americans with access to telecommunications equipment. They found that minority households were less likely to have access to computers than white households. Also intercity households were less likely than rural households to have access to computers. Minority households with computers were found less likely to have modems and access to the Internet (Wyld, 2005). Age is also shown to affect Internet access, with individuals over the age of 55 the least likely to use computers (Hogler et al, 1998; Flynn, 2002).

Another legal issue facing online recruiting is the legality of the key-word search. Because the use of a key-word search is a selection tool, it must be valid to be legal. Mohamed, Orife, & Wibowo (2001) proposed three ways that a key-word search could be found to be invalid and therefore illegal. The first would be choosing keywords that may not be related to the job for which the resumes were submitted. A second problem arises with inconsistency of keyword choices. Consistency is necessary to establish validity and, therefore, a company that uses an inconsistent keyword bank may be using a flawed process. The third is related to the resume writing skills of an applicant. In the case where applicants are familiar with prime words used in the keyword search, they would be granted an unfair advantage in the selection process. Flynn (2002) speculated that a keyword search might be used to screen out members of a protected group. Because of the differences in word choices between different races, a company could be using keywords that discriminated against certain groups of people. A lawsuit dealing with such a search against Walt Disney World is wending its way through the courts.

IMPACT ON JOB SEEKERS

Utilizing online recruiting sites affords job seekers with many benefits different than those provided by traditional recruiting methods. Online recruiting is generally speedy, convenient, and inexpensive. It also exposes a vast array of job opportunities to job seekers, and provides them with valuable information about potential employers. Perry (2002) indicates seeking employment opportunities online provide a quick, convenient, reliable, timely, and efficient way to reach employment professionals and organizations without the restriction of geography. Lee, 2005 suggests that submitting electronic applications and resumes allows job seekers to provide professional and personal information almost instantaneously, and they can apply for multiple jobs while submitting their resume only one time.

Online recruiting is convenient for job seekers because access to the Internet is available 24 hours a day and companies will be able to evaluate applicants at anytime. Always having access to testing methods would increase the candidate pool by including people whose schedules would prohibit them from traveling to take a physical test.

Online recruitment is specifically advantageous to the well educated and the computer savvy job seeker. Potential candidates that utilize online recruitment are often highly skilled, and desire demanding and challenging position in their chosen fields. NORAS studies indicate that one in four adults prefer to conduct job searches using web based search engines or other electronic formats. Whether positions are posted on company websites or handled via third party agencies specializing in recruitment, the candidate can locate critical information on the potential employer. A survey by www.wetfeet.com reported that more that 90 percent of job applicants will examine a company's website prior to applying for a position. The job applicants look for hard data including financial status and company reports (McCourt-Mooney, 2000)b, as well as information on the company's culture (Cappelli, 2001). Internet based recruitment can also assist job seekers with resume development tools related to the key areas in specialized fields (Perry, 2002).

Potential problems for job seekers also exist. As more companies and potential employees are using the internet, a number of unanticipated problems occur. Potential employees often experience a lack of information and a slow recruitment process when searching and applying for jobs online. One cause of slow recruitment occurs from the use of data warehouses. Due to the increased amounts of information and resume responses for online postings, many sites have started to use data warehouses to store potential employee information for employer consideration (Maximize Online Recruitment, 2003). In addition, these online employment websites use a 'key word' system that does not always match the best candidates to a particular job (Lin & Stasinskaya, 2002). Also, the speed and efficiency of e-recruiting is frequently lost because hiring managers fail to interview candidates in a timely manner (Make e-Recruiting the Catalyst for HR Systems Integration, 2001). There is also frustration from lack of personal attention and employer feedback (Lin & Stasinskaya, 2002). With this lack of attention and feedback, there are no guarantees for applicants that someone actually looked at their resumes. Thus, many job seekers consider online resume posting inefficient. (Partners, 2000).

Unclear guidelines for follow-up procedures upon posting resumes online are a frequent complaint by online job seekers (Jennings & Hayes, 2000). It is difficult to set the same rules across the entire online career providers as they all try to differentiate themselves by using different navigation, data storage, and retrieval techniques.

Privacy in online hiring is an important issue that is raising concerns among job seekers (Lin & Stasinskaya, 2002). The major concern is lack of assurance that private information on an individual's application form or resume will not be given or sold to a third party or used for other than hiring purposes. Also with the internet being available to essentially everyone, the privacy of applying for a new job is jeopardized by the ability of someone's current employer being able to see their resume online. Employees are concerned about current employers firing them for looking at other jobs, while employers are concerned about employees exposing company secrets (Lin & Stasinskaya, 2002). Concerns also exists about programs that illicitly download resumes for reposting and can also be used for secondary mailings from marketing sources that sponsor the website, without the website being held responsible. Another potential online danger is identity theft. The Identity Theft Resource Center reports that job seekers may be at a slightly higher level of risk for identity theft (Foley, 2005).

A final concern for online job seekers is discrimination. Online job seekers may not have equal or fair opportunities to discover potential job offerings with companies that use online recruiting and hiring methods exclusively to attract potential employees. This is especially true for those in protected groups with limited access to computers and the internet, little knowledge regarding use of computers, lack of knowledge regarding language and writing skills, or unfamiliarity with prime words used in key-word searches. Studies have shown (Flynn, 2002) that younger people are more likely to use online recruitment sites than older people and fewer minorities have access to the internet compared to white people. Feldman & Klaas (2002) found that the amount of online jobs searches was influenced by the level of an applicants' Internet fluency. Also, online job seekers may unknowingly be discriminated against by companies that use filter devices or key-word searches in their recruiting practices (Flynn 2002).

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY, PROCEDURES AND PARTICIPATION

The purpose of this study was to research the perceptions and behaviors of college students towards online recruiting. In order to examine issues related to online hiring and job searching, a survey was conducted with 186 business students to determine who was online and how they were using the Internet in a job search. The survey was adapted from one created by Enhance Media where job boards evaluated the users of their websites. Demographic features included ethnicity, gender, age, and work experience. Comfort level in using online job search technology as well as self-evaluation of computer expertise and use were also captured.

Using a stratified sampling method, several classes were identified and registered students in the course were administered the survey instrument. Participation was voluntary and participants were presumed to possess a working knowledge of online recruiting, specifically in the process and their perceptions of this activity. The survey was conducted anonymously; no personal information was collected that could be used to identify any individual participants.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Participants in the survey are described by the following demographic information. The gender of participants was 50% female and 50% male. The age groups were 66% being 18 to 25 years of age; 23% aged 26 to 35; 7% aged 36 to 45; 4% aged 46 and over. Thirty-nine percent reported being employed full time, 39% part-time, 12% unemployed and looking, while 10% did not work and were not looking. Of the respondents who were employed, 40% had 1 to 5 years experience, 25% had 6-15 years experience, and 8% had 16 or more years. Ethnicity of our sample was 64% white, 15% African American, 1% American Indian, 4% Asian, 12% Latino, and 4% other ethnicities.

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

Internet Fluency Level

Respondents provided information about their fluency with the Internet. The results showed that the majority of the participants were aware of the importance of the Internet. Participants self-evaluated their level of technological expertise as follows: beginner (9%); medium (15%); intermediate-computer literate and comfortable with technology (65%); and advanced-technology guru (11.3%).

Experiences and Preferences and Online Recruiting

Two questions were used to measure participants' level of experience and preference toward online recruiting. Preferences for various methods of looking for a job were as follows: 23% reported preferring online job boards; 30% preferred online company websites; 30% preferred newspapers, and 15% preferred using an employment or recruiting agency. Forty-seven percent of the sample did not utilize online sites. However, when asked if they would be willing to post a resume online, the following was reported: 62% yes, anywhere (job board or company website); 18% yes, only on a company website; 8% yes, only on a job board; and 11% would not post their resumes.

Citizens and Non-citizens Usage of the Internet for a Job Search

We looked at differences between citizen and non-citizens in our sample. The chi-square test showed a significant relationship (p=.01) between citizenship status and use of the Internet to look for a job. Using a z-test for differences in proportions, we found the following differences between citizens (n=138) and noncitizens (n=48) in numbers of Internet job searches

The differences between citizens and non-citizens in obtaining an interview for a job found online, for obtaining a job from an online application, willingness to post a resume online, and for comfort using the Internet were not significant. 96.4% of citizens, compared to 93.4% of non-citizens were comfortable using the Internet. 88.4% of citizens would post their resume online, and 89.6% of noncitizens were willing to post online. We found significant differences in selfreported technological expertise between citizens and non-citizens.

Of the 186 students surveyed, 95 were actually looking for a job. For the 95 looking, the percentage of non-citizens who never used the Internet was significantly higher than the percentage of citizens who had never used the Internet.

JOB SEEKERS BY GENDER

Of the 95 job seekers in the survey, 45 were male, and 50 were female. The results according to gender for the number of Internet job searches were:

Differences between men and women concerning applying online, obtaining an interview from online application, receiving a job from online, comfortable using the internet, willingness to post resume online, and level of self-evaluated technological expertise were not significant. A significantly higher proportion of men (42% to 24%, p=.06) reported 3 to 5 hours of computer usage while more women (women 18%, men 11%, p=.01) had more than 5 hours of computer usage per day.

JOB SEEKERS GROUPED BY WHITE OR MINORITIES

Of the 95 job seekers, fifty were white, twenty were African American, thirteen were Latino, five were Asian, one was American Indian, and six were classified as other ethnic groups. The 45 nonwhite job seekers were classified as minority, and their responses were compared to those of the white job seekers. There was no significant relationship between ethnicity and number of online job searches. On questions concerning applying for a job online, obtaining an interview from online application, receiving a job from the internet, comfortable using the internet, and willingness to post resume online, there was a significant difference only on applying for a job with 36% white applying and 58% of minority applying, (p = .03). Differences in computer usage between white and minority students were not significant.

For self-evaluated levels of technological expertise, several differences were significant. White students tended to assess their technological expertise at a higher level than the minority students.

AGE AND ONLINE JOB ACTIVITY

Of the 95 people who were either actively or passively searching for a job, 67 were between 18 and 25 years old, and 28 were over 25. Job seekers over 25 years old appeared to be more likely to use the Internet to search for a job. The percentages using the Internet to look for a job according to age were:

Differences in age on those answering yes to questions concerning applying for a job on the internet, obtaining an interview from online application, receiving a job from online, and researching a company on the Internet were all significant. In four of these six areas, the older students reported significantly more use of the Internet than those in the 18 to 25 year old group.

For level of technological expertise, the only significant difference was that a larger proportion of the older students considered themselves advanced.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Of the 95 job seekers, 66 had 5 years or less work experience, and 29 had more than 5 years job experience. The more experienced job seekers appeared to be more likely to use the Internet to search for a job. The percentages using the Internet to look for a job according to work experience were:

Significant differences as far as work experience were not found in applying for a job online, obtaining an interview from online application, receiving a job from online, researching a company online, comfortable using the Internet, and willingness to post a resume online. None of the differences in computer usage between those with more or less work experience were significant.

DISCUSSION AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The issue raised in the literature concerning the safety of posting resumes online seems to be of little concern. Of the people surveyed, 89 percent would be willing to post their resumes somewhere online. This suggests that as people are learning more about the Internet and become more comfortable with it (96 percent of respondents) their perception of security issues regarding personal information on the Internet decreases.

When using the Internet to apply for jobs, posting resumes on company sites were more prevalent than on job boards. The company website was also found to be the most popular place to search for a job over newspapers, job boards and recruiting agencies respectively. This, combined with the fact that over half of the respondents researched a company via its website suggests that a company's website is an invaluable tool in the online hiring process. It should also be noted that of the people who visited company's websites, most of them had a more positive image of the company after viewing this site.

Moving hiring processes online allows companies to find and evaluate more candidates at a much lower cost than other processes. When moving online, companies must take care to ensure that their posting and evaluating methods do not have a negative impact on protected groups. The results of the survey suggest that companies who are seeking candidates with at least some college education may not face the dangers associated with discrimination in the areas of online fluency, unfamiliarity with prime words in key word searches, and access to computers. In our study, females were comfortable with and applied online with the same frequency as males. We found that a higher proportion of women than men had conducted more than five Internet job searches and used the computer more than five hours daily. Although whites in our sample assessed their technological expertise at a higher level, a higher proportion of minority respondents had applied for a job online. Participants over the age of 25 had applied for a job online, gotten an interview or a job from an online application, and had researched a company online. However, there were no participants in our sample over 55 years old, and only four in the 46-55 years age group.

If companies choose to participate in online hiring, their most efficient tool will be their own website. A company's website must also be viewed as a tool for promoting the company even if that company does not wish to engage in online hiring. Future research needs to be conducted that would include the groups not represented in the survey findings. Any future research should focus on the use of the Internet as a job search tool and not on household access to computers, as they may return different results.

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Patricia C. Borstorff, Jacksonville State University

Michael B. Marker, Jacksonville State University

Doris S. Bennett, Jacksonville State University

Table 1: Internet searches

 Citizens Non-citizens p value

Never used 41.3% 66.7% p = .002
Internet
1 or 2 searches 33.3% 20.8% p = .10
3 to 5 searches 5.8% 6.3% p = .91
More than 5 19.6% 6.3% p = .03
searches

Table 2: Technological Expertise

 Citizens Non-citizens p value

Technophobe 0.0% 2.0% p = .09
Beginner 5.1% 17.0% p = .01
Medium 11.6% 23.4% p = .05
Intermediate 70.3% 48.9% p = .01
Advanced 13.3% 6.4% not significant

Table 3: Internet Searches

 Citizens (n=64) Non-citizens p value
 (n=31)

Never used 26.6% 51.6% p = .02
Internet
1 or 2 searches 40.6% 29% p = .27
3 to 5 searches 10.9% 9.7% p = .85
More than 5 21.9% 9.7% p = .15
searches

Table 4: Searches by Gender

 Men (n=45) Women (n=50) p value

Never used 35.6% 34% p = .87
Internet
1 or 2 searches 48.9% 26% p = .02
3 to 5 searches 6.7% 14% p = .25
More than 5 8.9% 26% p = .03
searches

Table 6: Technological Expertise by Gender

 White (n=50) Minority (n-45) p value

Technophobe 0% 2.2% p = .29
Beginner 0% 8.9% p = .03
Medium 10% 28.9% p = .02
Intermediate 80% 53.3% p = .01
Advanced 10% 6.7% p = .50

Table 7: Age and Internet Searches

 Age 18-25 (n=67) Over 25 (n=28) p value

Never used 43.3% 14.3% p = .007
Internet
1 or 2 searches 38% 36.8% p = .54
3 to 5 searches 9% 14.3% p = .44
More than 5 9% 39.3% p = .0004
searches

Table 8: Age and Online Recruiting

 Age 18-25 (n=67) Over 25 (n=28) p value

Applied 34.3% 75% p = .0003
Interview 13.4% 46.4% p = .0005
Got job 9% 28.6% p = .014
Researched 52.2% 92.9% p = .0002
Comfortable 94.0% 96% p = .187
Posting online 89.6% 89.3% p = .97

Table 9: Work Experience and Searches

Experience 0-5 yrs. (n = 66) Over 5 yrs.(n = 29) P value

Never used Internet 39.4% 17.2% p = .03
1 or 2 searches 36.4% 37.9% p = .88
3 to 5 searches 9.1% 13.8% p = .49
More than 5 searches 12.1% 31% p = .03