Monday, April 30, 2001

Canada Companies Top Fortune 500 in eRecruiting

iLogos Research, a division of Recruitsoft which monitors and analyzes trends in the Internet recruiting industry, today released research results that indicate that the 100 top Canadian companies lead Fortune 500 companies in online recruiting best practices but lag behind in overall adoption and usage of career Web site recruiting.

Recruitsoft, the leading provider of Web-based hiring management solutions, also announced today that it has formed a strategic partnership alliance in Quebec with Arthur Andersen in which both companies will provide consultation services for Recruitsoft’s Internet-based hiring management solution to corporations seeking to improve their overall recruitment process and human capital management processes.

The iLogos study finds that the lower adoption and usage of online recruiting best practices by Canadian companies compared to their Fortune 500 counterparts can be explained by lower overall penetration of corporate career Web sites among Canadian companies (64 percent versus 89 percent). When the Canadian companies without career sites are removed, the Canadian companies lead the Fortune 500 in more than 50 percent of the best practices and by greater margins, and are well ahead in some of the most innovative best practices.

The top 100 Canadian companies lead the Fortune 500 in usage of certain leading best practices on career Web sites, including: urgent jobs highlighted (4 percent versus 3 percent); submission of formatted resumes (13 percent versus 9 percent); e-mail to a friend (10 percent versus 9 percent); anonymous applications (3 percent versus 1 percent); online job agents (8 percent versus 6 percent); and customized pre-assessment tools (5 percent versus 1 percent).

Only 64 percent of the top Canadian companies have career sections on their corporate Web sites compared to 89 percent of Fortune 500 companies. Forty five percent of the top Canadian companies post job positions on their Web sites compared to 76 percent of the Fortune 500. Only 42 percent of the Canadian companies studied post job positions and accept online applications compared to 71 percent of the Fortune 500.

The study reveals that key areas where Canadian companies fall behind their Fortune 500 counterparts are in the ability for jobseekers to search a database of available jobs (17 percent versus 42 percent); link from the corporate home page to the career Web site (47 percent versus 73 percent); one click to apply for a job (36 percent versus 56 percent); information about company benefits (21 percent versus 55 percent); information about company culture (37 percent versus 44 percent); separate college recruiting section (21 percent versus 42 percent); automatic connection of an application to a job posting (24 percent versus 39 percent); candidate profiling (16 percent versus 19 percent); reuse of candidate information for multiple applications (9 percent versus 18 percent); and ability for candidates to cut and paste their resume or use a resume builder (9 percent versus 14 percent).

“The identification of the best practices is the result of more than three years of iLogos Research monitoring the online recruiting activities of Fortune 500 companies. These results have become the benchmark against which corporate online recruiting practices are measured,” said Yves Lermusiaux, president and founder of iLogos Research. “By failing to adopt key practices, Canadian companies will continue to fall behind Fortune 500 companies in the race for qualified talent.”

The Canadian companies researched for this report were selected and ranked based on revenue. The study compares online recruiting practices on corporate career Web sites by the top Canadian companies against those of the Fortune 500. The “Canadian Top 100 Companies” study was based on companies’ adoption of the best practices for Internet recruiting identified in a Recruitsoft/iLogos report released in Q4, 2000.

“The corporate career Web site is an important, yet underutilized tool for Canadian companies,” said Louis Tetu, CEO of Recruitsoft. “More than 14 million Canadians have access to the Internet at home and we have seen a significant rise in the number of people conducting job searches online, yet only 64 percent of the top 100 Canadian companies have a career section built into their corporate Web site, compared to 89 percent of Fortune 500 companies. In fact, six percent of the top 100 Canadian companies still do not have a corporate Web site. In order for Canadian corporations to effectively compete for top talent globally, they will need to be more innovative in their online recruiting practices.”

Online Population Doubles - E-commerce Flourishing
Industry experts expect that the online population will double again this year to well over 400 million (NUA - 407 million / November 2000). This growth, alongside website formation and 50% or higher E-Commerce growth rates reported by more than half the website executives in ActivMedia Research’s “Real Numbers 2001” survey, demonstrates that solid online business plans can thrive online, even as less substantial endeavors are failing. Overall, the research shows that businesses integrating their website into their entire organization--marketing, sales, purchasing, inventory management, human relations--are profiting from the World Wide Web.

Website executives in the “Real Numbers 2001” survey report that online business continues to cut operating costs and increase revenues, and for a substantial one in three, both profitability and financial stability is improving. This data, reported in ActivMedia’s “E-Commerce Shakeout: Surviving the Maturing Web” study (pub. date: May, 2001), shows a bright online future for surviving websites across all four primary Web business segments -- B-to-C, B-to-B, Online Content and Internet Support. It is those organizations that understand the value of the Web to their entire organization who will continue to survive online.

ActivMedia Research's VP of Info Services Chris Anne Wheeler comments, "Year after year, the research continues to demonstrate that simply creating a website for E-Commerce alone isn't where real success lies. Success comes to those companies that learn the value of an online presence to the entire organization. Overall, when companies see the Internet as a new communications platform and commerce channel, it takes its rightful place among the other traditional means of doing business."