More than two thirds of HR commentators (72 per cent) now feel the Internet is an effective recruitment medium, compared to 42 per cent who found it effective in 2000.
Indeed amongst the largest organisations surveyed (over 5000 staff) more than one in three (38 per cent) now feel that the Internet a more effective route than any other recruitment method. Nationally only one per cent of HR experts feel the Internet is an ineffective recruitment route these days, compared to 20 per cent in 2000.
With effectiveness so established, the chief advantage of Internet recruitment is cited as its low cost, chosen by 40 per cent of HR respondents.
Yet while costs are down, the percentage of the recruitment budget now dedicated to Internet recruitment has more than doubled compared to 2000. Previously just 4 per cent, the amount spent on Internet recruitment now averages 11.4 per cent of the annual recruitment budget across all organisations.
Large organisations are spending much more as a percentage of their recruitment budgets than small ones.Half the organisations with over 5,000 staff said they were spending over a third of their recruitment budgets on the Internet.
Responses from over 100 organisations across the UK were analysed for authoritative research into changing trends in Internet recruitment, in findings benchmarked against equivalent Reed research published in 2000.
Other changes emerged in the HR survey.Now'professionals' are the staff category most effectively recruited over the Internet. Nearly half all those surveyed (48 per cent) found the Internet particularly effective when recruiting at this level.
This is a marked shift from the turn of the Millennium, when only one percent of respondents to a CIPD survey published in April 2000 felt that the Internet was effective when recruiting professional level staff. At that time HR professionals turned to the Internet when recruiting graduates or IT staff, but felt its relevance was limited when recruiting for other roles.
Dan Ferrandino, Director of recruitment website reed.co.uk, whocommissioned the research, comments
"Back in the year 2000 many HR professionals felt that the Internet was an unproven recruitment method, of arguable effectiveness.
"Now well over two thirds testify to the effectiveness of the Internet as a recruitment method, with larger companies even more likely to maximise their usage of this medium for recruitment than smaller ones.
"What's more, the Internet has proven its effectiveness in recruiting a much wider range of people than in the past, with professionals heading the list.Job-seekers across the board predict an even higher profile for the web in the future, underlining the fact that the Internet's ability to transform the whole recruitment marketplace is still accelerating."
