This chapter aims to enable organizations to optimize their use of job boards and the graduate recruitment process based on feedback from university students and recent graduates of their lived experiences. A theoretical framework of signaling theory is applied. A sample of 321 university students and recent graduates in Australia completed an online survey incorporating quantitative and qualitative elements during the COVID-19 pandemic. Opportunities for job board optimization include increasing the relevance of search results, providing metrics about the company, and increasing integration between applicants and organizations to facilitate communication. Opportunities for optimization of the recruitment process include the removal of unnecessary stages to reduce time investment of applicants, increasing clarity of requirements and providing timely and constructive feedback. Implications come from informing the human resource strategy for early careers talent acquisition. Optimization of the process can offer competitive advantage, cost savings, and organizational sustainability.
TopIntroduction
A job search is defined as a motivational and self-directed process driven by the goal of sourcing relevant employment opportunities (Van Hooft, Kammeyer-Mueller, Wanberg, Kanfer, and Basbug, 2021). Job boards are a key source of information that can be self-accessed by jobseekers (Bonet, Capelli, and Hamori, 2013; Parry and Wilson, 2009). This can help to overcome information asymmetry that is common between jobseekers and employers (Larsen and Vesan, 2012). However, whilst jobseekers are attracted to job boards with a higher number of opportunities, they still only review a limited number of job postings (Brenčič, 2014). Furthermore, the capability for job boards to help overcome information asymmetry relies on both parties having the ability to use the platform effectively and beneficially (Kuhn and Skuterud, 2004).
The COVID-19 pandemic as a global level chance event with over 257 million cases and 5 million deaths since December 2019 has impacted our day-to-day lives in ways that previously seemed unimaginable (Coronavirus Resource Center, 2021). One group of society that has been significantly affected by the pandemic is university students and recent graduates. These individuals have experienced a combination of virtual lectures, mobility restrictions due to border closures, limited social contact, and increased competition for graduate jobs (Brammer and Clark, 2020), which have negatively impacted their mental health (Savage et al., 2020).
The social distancing guidelines, local or national level lockdowns, and the speed with which the pandemic evolved has also proved particularly challenging for organizations seeking to recruit early careers talent (Jena, 2020). The assessment center and final interview stages of the graduate recruitment process which were traditionally run in-person had to rapidly shift to a virtual format (Laker, Godley, Patel, and Kudret, 2021). This accelerated the trend of using technology in the graduate recruitment process to enhance productivity via automation and data analytics that had begun to emerge in the years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Furthermore, individuals across the lifespan experienced information overload during the COVID-19 pandemic that negatively impacted their wellbeing (Fan and Smith, 2021). In the context of graduate recruitment, information overload makes it harder for organizations to differentiate themselves from the competition and reach prospective applicants during their university studies. Traditionally, organizations have tended to use job boards as a static means to communicate information about employment opportunities to jobseekers. However, the increased use of technology and emphasis on virtual engagement indicates that organizations will need to use job boards more dynamically and interactively in the future to foster the dyadic relationship between jobseekers and employers.
Donald, Ashleigh, and Baruch (2021) have explored the views of university careers advisors and graduate recruiters concerning the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the recruitment of early careers talent. However, the student and recent graduate views of how organizations use job boards and carry out the graduate recruitment process since the COVID-19 pandemic began are lacking representation in the Human Resource Management (HRM) literature. These views are important because they can facilitate feedback-seeking behavior to inform the HRM policy of organizations leading to process optimization (Donald, 2021). Therefore, this chapter aims to enable organizations to optimize their use of job boards and the graduate recruitment process based on feedback from university students and recent graduates in Australia of their lived experiences.
Implications come from identifying opportunities for organizations to optimize their use of job boards and the graduate recruitment process, which can help to inform the HRM strategy for early careers talent acquisition. Optimization of the process can lead to competitive advantage, cost savings, and organizational sustainability. Future students and graduates benefit through clearer communication and a streamlined recruitment process. The theoretical implications come from the application and advancement of signaling theory as a theoretical framework, which is now discussed.