The voices that echo around the recruitment industry provide mixed subjectivity when asked about the future of online recruitment. The birth of Internet recruitment sites at the turn of the millennium generated significant debate and one question rose loud and clear from the rest: Is the Internet fundamentally changing the relationship between the client and recruitment agency?



Like many industries in early 2000, recruitment was adjusting itself for a new digital era. Commentators envisaged Internet recruitment would, in essence, eliminate the middle man; the industry would suffer from ‘disintermediation' as it was rather awkwardly labelled.

By the time 2002 had arrived, the same people were forecasting that online and traditional procedures could co-habit the same space. In 2003, this confident and audacious prediction proved to be incorrect and the Internet had changed the way candidates not only searched for jobs, but applied for them. Businesses were also realising that this was a useful medium and began to advertise internal vacancies online and receive online applications. Arguably, online recruitment (or ‘job surfing') is now as popular as internet shopping and e-banking.

“The question of control remains at the forefront”, says Jeremy Caplan, European Marketing Director for Monster.com. “HR directors want to be able to track all the candidates coming through different jobsites and screen them as they would if receiving paper applications. Increasingly sophisticated software – improving all the time - can now meet those tailored needs.”

David Taylor, e-entrepreneur, writer and broadcaster disagrees: “The Internet has singularly failed to deliver the potential it promised. The medium will only have arrived when we cease to talk about the Internet and start talking about what we are doing on it. Transactions are now faster and the Internet has increased the reach of those using it, but the landscape still looks the same. The internet is very much part of our lives, particularly online job hunting, but it has not replaced any other medium – it is just another ‘dial tone'”.

And, the Internet has certainly not eliminated recruitment agencies as predicted. Far from original conjectures, only those who either invested too much money or none at all into the Internet – at the expense of their core services – have plunged into recruitment oblivion.

“Recruiters still suffer image problems”, Taylor continues. “They are perceived as the estate agents of business. Post September 11th saw a global shift in how recruitment agencies, and a multitude of other industries, embraced their existing relationships with both client and candidate. Recruitment companies need ethical foundations to promote their values and align with this high demand.”

Witan Jardine are a specialist recruitment agency, covering finance, banking and marketing disciplines, with offices in London, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. With over 29 years' industry experience, they have not only seen, but conquered the expectations surrounding the future of online recruitment.

“Online recruitment has contributed positively to the recruitment process”, says James Callard, Marketing Manager at Witan Jardine. “It has enabled recruiters to access a wider pool of talent more quickly and forced recruitment consultancy's to improve the quality of their recruitment services to both clients and candidates alike, in order to meet the demands of finding the right person for the job. The human element is still very much key in this process.”

So, possibly personality, not technology, is victorious. Emotion must be put back into the emotive process of recruitment. Undeniably, the Internet can be personalised to meet individual needs, but it can't compensate communication between candidate and company. Communication drives every business and without this engine, the motor in any organisation would simple break down. The Internet is here to stay, but it still has a long way to go in order to compete with good old fashioned face-to-face communication.