Abstract
E-recruitment is an emerging subtype of traditional recruitment. Many researchers note that this practice of Human Resource Management has the potential to replace the conventional one. It is safe to say that the implementation of e-recruitment varies depending on the geographic region since different communities with different cultures live there. That is why it is necessary to conduct various studies on topics related to e-recruitment.
One such issue is the advantages and disadvantages of e-recruiting in Asia, which the author of this paper explores. This work answers the questions of the benefits and shortcomings in e-recruitment and which are inherent to Asian countries. The author also provides recommendations on what should be followed by Human Resource Management novices and specialists who see the discussed region as their future workplace. Discussion about topics for further possible research is also present here.
Introduction
Recruitment is one of the pillars of business as a phenomenon. It “includes those practices and activities carried out by the organization with the primary purpose of identifying and attracting potential employees” (Tyagi, 2016, p. 1). The rapid development of digital technologies and globalization have contributed to the development of such practices as e-recruiting, which significantly expanded the capabilities and functions of Human Resource managers.
According to Tyagi (2016), e-recruitment “refers to the practice of advertising job vacancies online, and the formal sourcing of information about the jobs online” (p. 1). It is safe to say that this statement is relevant to businesses in all regions. Therefore, it is crucial for every economic specialist to study and know the basics and nuances of e-recruitment in Asia.
Purpose of the Study
As noted above, nowadays, it is necessary to know the theory and practice of how to effectively hire highly qualified specialists in a particular area through online resources. The learning process can be carried out in many ways, one of which is studying the advantages and disadvantages of regional e-recruitment.
There is literature on e-recruiting in Asia; however, there are not enough sources on regional specificities of this practice to close the knowledge gap about this topic, especially those about both benefits and drawbacks. In this work, the author aims to identify and describe the advantages and disadvantages of e-recruiting in Asia through library research.
Significance of the Study
New digital services and online platforms continue to emerge every year, if not daily. Many of them are potential tools for finding and hiring new and effective employees from the perspective of Human Resource Management. E-recruiting has been practiced in Asia for a long time. It can be improved through research on the benefits and drawbacks of regional e-recruiting, which is an appropriate measure. The author is confident that this will be beneficial for both employers and employees since they are the intended audience for this paper. Moreover, this work provides a fresh look at the phenomenon of e-recruiting.
Research Questions
Each researcher should identify and state clearly one or more research questions in their study. The writer of this work also adheres to this principle. It is crucial because it is a necessary element of the research methodology that provides clarity of the study. Four thematical questions in this work were developed:
- What should be considered an advantage in e-recruitment?
- What should be considered a disadvantage in e-recruitment?
- What are the strengths of e-recruitment in Asia?
- What are the disadvantages of e-recruitment in Asia?
Each of them will be answered further.
Hypothesis
Developing a hypothesis is another critical step in any research, both library and field ones. According to Cambridge Dictionary (2020a), it is “an idea or explanation for something that is based on known facts but has not yet been proved” (para. 1). The hypothesis of current work is that e-recruiting in Asia has certain significant regional advantages, some of which are unique and others are universal, and several drawbacks of the same nature.
Objectives of the Research
Research objectives are those components of the methodology that maintain consistency and clarity in the process of the study. By developing them, researchers get an understanding of what kind of results they will get and what methods should be used. Within the framework of this work, the author identified the following key goals:
- To identify and describe the regional benefits of e-recruitment in Asia.
- To identify and describe regional weaknesses of e-recruitment in Asia.
These two major objectives will be followed here.
Literature Review
E-recruiting in general and its regional and other characteristics have been topics of interest for many economists and sociologists since the emergence of this phenomenon. In order to identify and highlight both the positive and negative aspects of e-recruitment in Asia, one needs to understand what it is. That is why it is necessary to study the relevant scholarly sources. Here will be presented an overview of literary sources that the author studied to answer the research questions and achieve the set goals.
The Essence of E-recruitment
E-recruitment is still a new topic for students and beginners in the Human Resource Management. This statement is mostly applicable to the regional characteristics of this practice. In the book, Dr. Ajay Tyagi (2016) comprehensively describes e-recruiting, namely its implementation, benefits and challenges, trends, methods, evaluation model, and relevant and significant policies and processes. Among the shortcomings of Tyagi’s work were found that the author focuses on the universal aspects of e-recruitment and pays little attention to its local features. The only area the author mentions is India, which is a very special place in the context of Asia.
Meaning of Advantages and Disadvantages
Cambridge Dictionary provides descriptions and interpretations of all words in the English language. Their definition of advantages and disadvantages fits well with e-recruitment terminology. They claim that advantage is “a condition giving a greater chance of success” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2020b, para. 1).
They also denote a deficiency as “a condition or situation that causes problems, especially one that causes something or someone to be less successful than other things or people” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2020c, para. 1). Clarification of the definitions of various concepts is necessary to avoid misunderstandings among readers.
Benefits and Weaknesses of E-recruitment in Asia
There are some advantages and challenges of e-recruitment that are common to all regions, including Asia. Marques (2017) explores the various benefits and drawbacks of e-recruitment by analyzing and comparing digital frameworks such as Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, as well as different social platforms for recruitment and job search. The researcher notes such strengths of e-recruiting as cost efficiency, time efficiency, significant geographical outreach, higher quality of candidates, better candidate relationship management, targeted search, and employer branding reinforcement (Marques, 2017).
The author briefly mentions such shortcomings as high costs for e-recruitment software and training of Human Resource personnel, spam and overload of applications, privacy and data protection issues, ethical, legal, and information uncertainties regarding online recruiting (Marques, 2017). It is important to mention such omissions in work as the short mention of the disadvantages of e-recruiting and the small representation of the audience with an Asian background in the sample.
A similar study conducted in the setting of Bangladesh, which is part of Asia, confirms that the universal benefits of e-recruiting identified above inherent to the Asia region. According to Sultana and Sultana (2017), e-recruiting is “effective regarding speed, cost, time, and accessibility, reducing workload, reaching to a large pool of candidates, meeting specified requirements, attracting passive job seeker and increasing organizational performance” (p. 10).
They also found that the screening stage is the most advanced step in e-recruitment in Asia (Sultana & Sultana, 2017). The flaw of their work is the specificity of the region in which the study was done. Put differently, the conclusions drawn may not apply to Japan, Hong Kong, or China.
Another study about e-recruiting and job searching was conducted in the Malaysian setting. Woon et al. (2019) studied “jobseekers’ behavior towards e-recruitment system usage by jobseekers in Malaysia” (p. 76). Researchers have found that e-recruiting applications oriented to the perceived usefulness are in high demand among job seekers (Woon et al., 2019).
E-recruitment systems that implement perceived information content quality and perceived search engine optimization models were found to be less advantageous (Woon et al., 2019). Therefore, Human Resource staff should adopt and apply the perceived usefulness type of e-recruitment software in Asia because it has a significant advantage in the mobile application market.
Another study demonstrates the crucial role of perceived usefulness in e-recruitment in Asia. Priyanka (2016) set out to study a similar topic that was described in the previous paragraph, namely the principles of IT adoption. The author found that not only perceived usefulness is a critical factor in the adoption of e-recruitment systems, but also perceived ease of use (Priyanka, 2016). The drawback of the work can be considered a specific population, which is Bahrain university students. It makes the results and conclusions of the study less applicable to other areas of Asia.
Other researchers also conducted a study on behavioral patterns in the adoption and usage of mobile applications for job search. Dhiman and Arora (2018) investigated what motivates students to choose a particular software to find a job. Such a key pattern as social influence has been found that plays a most significant role in both the decision to adopt and use of e-recruitment systems (Dhiman and Arora, 2018). It can be said that the aggressively promoted and widely advertised job searching application has the edge over its competitors in South Asia, namely India.
Human Resource Management in general and e-recruitment in particular, is developing very rapidly in the developing countries of the Asian region, namely in South Asia. Wajeeh-ul-Husnain et al. (2020) aimed to explore the practices used by Human Resource managers of companies in South Asian countries such as “Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka” (p. 1).
They came to the conclusion that practices common to all Asian countries and unique ones are applied there (Wajeeh-ul-Husnain et al., 2020). Researchers also note that e-recruiting in South Asia is less advanced compared to developed countries in the West and regional neighbors such as China, Japan, and Singapore.
There is one more significant drawback of e-recruitment application in Asia. A necessary clarification is that the study described in this paragraph was conducted in Malaysia. In their research, Tan et al. (2017) found that “most of the existing job portals do not cover the unskilled job sectors” (p. 141). It is necessary to clarify that these industrial sectors are “construction, hotel, manufacturing, restaurant, sales, and service” (Tan et al., 2017, p. 141). It is safe to say it is a major shortcoming of the e-recruitment approach in Asia. It is because due to this flaw in the e-recruitment system, Human Resource personnel is missing out on plenty of people who could become quality employees.
Conclusion about Literature Review
A literature review is a crucial step in the study topic’s cognition, both for the researcher and the readers. Relevant digital sources were presented and described here that study the topic of e-recruitment, its strengths, and weaknesses in the geographical setting of Asia. Latest sources mostly investigate the regions of South and Southeast Asia and pay little attention to the major players of the Far East, such as China, Singapore, and Japan. Researchers examine the issue of the strengths and challenges of e-recruitment in Asia simultaneously in only three works. It is obvious that more work is needed on the topic.
Methodology
Research Design
There were two options for doing research, which is library research and field research. The author has chosen such a research design or, put differently, a research strategy as library research. It should be noted that “library research involves the step-by-step process used to gather information in order to write a paper” (“Library research process,” 2020, para. 1).
The first stage of this research strategy is an introduction, which includes a description of a problem under discussion, identification of the purpose and meaning of the work, formulation of research questions, hypothesis, and research objectives. It is followed by a literature review and a description of the methodology. The final steps are the description of the results and the development of conclusions as well as the discussion.
Samples
The nature of samples, which were found, screened, reviewed, and analyzed within the framework of this work, should also be described. The samples for this study were a textbook and multiple academic articles in a digital format related to the issue of e-recruiting in Asia, an online dictionary. Such sampling is conditioned and determined by this study’s design, which is, as already noted, library research. Qualitative methodology, since the author of this work analyzes phenomena, is also an influencing factor.
Procedure
Initially, the author chose the topic and format of the research. Further, the necessary academic sources that served as samples were found through the Google search engine. The keywords were “e-recruitment,” “advantages and disadvantages,” and “Asia.” The writer has screened multiple sources and choose appropriate ones. The content of scholarly works was reviewed and the data analyzed through content analysis. Further, the author formulated the results and conclusions based on the information received and presented them here.
Method of Analyzing the Results
Content analysis is a standard method for analyzing qualitative data and research results. Roller and Lavrakas define content analysis as “the systematic reduction of content, analyzed with special attention to the context in which it was created, to identify themes and extract meaningful interpretations of the data” (as cited in Roller, 2019, para. 4). This method was chosen and applied in the current work as well. It is because content analysis has been found to be appropriate for answering research questions and achieving its stated objectives.
Results of the Study
This study’s results are not only the detailed presentation of benefits and drawbacks of e-recruiting in Asia but also recommendations regarding job search software for Human Resource Managers. E-recruitment in Asia is advantageous in terms of work, cost and time efficiency, significant geographical outreach, higher quality of candidates, better candidate relationship management, targeted search, employer branding reinforcement, and lesser workload.
The disadvantages are high costs for e-recruitment software and training of Human Resource personnel, applications spam, privacy and data protection issues, ethical, legal, and information uncertainties regarding online hiring. Many companies, especially in developing countries in Asia, should accelerate the development of their Human Resource Management practices. Other stages of recruitment besides screening need to be improved.
Human Resource staff must implement strategies that enable active, if not aggressive, promotion of their mobile job search applications. E-recruitment software should be based on perceived usefulness concept and perceived ease of use principle. Moreover, Human Resource managers should begin to view unskilled job sectors as part of the labor market.
Conclusion
Findings within the Context of the Topic
This eleven-page paper is a systematic compilation of the features, namely the strengths and weaknesses, of e-recruiting in the region of Asia. It also describes what tactics Human Resource managers should employ in the discussed geographical area. The author believes that the literature review presented here systematizes previously unrelated works. Moreover, the writer states that the results and their interpretations substantiate this research as their logical and ideological continuation.
The Importance of Findings
This study’s author believes this work will be useful for Human Resource staff in branch offices based in Asia, especially those in developing countries. The information presented here could also be of value to Human Resource Management students who see Asia as a potential region for their future work. Not only the findings but the research process itself significantly developed the author’s professional skills and knowledge of Human Resource Management.
The implication of the Findings and Potential Ways to Continue the Research
The author believes that this work has the potential to become the basis for further research into other nuances of recruitment and e-recruitment in Asia. The structure of this study could also be an example or framework for other students on how to study e-recruitment benefits and shortcomings in other regions such as Eastern Europe, Africa, and South America.
The author’s advice is that other researchers should investigate how the features of e-recruitment described here have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic. Another interesting topic is the comparison of trends and tendencies in e-recruiting and traditional recruiting before and after COVID-19 restrictions. Analysis of the post-COVID-19 situation in Human Resource Management as a practice and educational discipline is also encouraged.
References
Cambridge Dictionary. (2020a). Hypothesis. Cambridge Dictionary. Web.
Cambridge Dictionary. (2020b). Advantage. Cambridge Dictionary. Web.
Cambridge Dictionary. (2020c). Disadvantage. Cambridge Dictionary. Web.
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Marques, L. P. R. (2017). The benefits of e-recruitment: Web 1.0 & Web 2.0 [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. ISCTE-IUL Business School.
Priyanka, S. (2016). Role of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness in influencing the adoption of e-recruitment among university students. International Journal of Computer Science & Management Studies, 26(1), 1-3. Web.
Roller, M. R. (2019). A quality approach to qualitative content analysis: Similarities and differences compared to other qualitative methods. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 20(3). Web.
Sultana, N., & Sultana, N. (2017). Analyzing the effectiveness of online recruitment: A case study on recruiters of Bangladesh. Asian Business Review, 7(2), 10-84. Web.
Tan, J. K., Lee, N. K., Bong, C. H., & Sofian, S. A. (2017). Identification of personality traits for recruitment of unskilled occupations using Kansei Engineering Method. Journal of Telecommunication, Electronic and Computer Engineering (JTEC), 9(2-9), 141-146. Web.
Tyagi, A. (2016). Impact of e-recruitment on human resource. Horizon Books (A Division of Ignited Minds Edutech P Ltd).
Wajeeh-ul-Husnain, S., Shen, J., & Benson, J. (2020). HRM practices in South Asia: Convergence, divergence, and intra-regional differences. Asian Business & Management, 1-22. Web.
Woon, C. K., Singh, J. S. K., & Singh, J. S. K. (2019). Intention to use e-recruitment system: Empirical evidence from jobseekers in the advertising industry in Malaysia. International Journal of Business, Economics and Management, 6(2), 76-86. Web.