According to a new study*, 47% of HR and recruitment professionals are now attracting employees through corporate websites or online job boards, while 14% attract employees through social media sites.

Recruitment software company, Candidate Manager, a leading provider of e recruitment software solutions, carried out the survey to discover how modern companies recruit. The aim of the survey was to find what the main challenges facing recruiters are today and how they are overcoming them. The survey was designed to uncover behavious and trends of recruiters over the last twelve months.

According to the survey, advances in modern media have changed the way we recruit today. Networking and local press, which were previously seen as the best ways of attracting new staff, are now seen as the most effective route by just 5% of respondents. However, the two other traditional means of attracting candidates, agencies and employee referrals, remain popular. According to respondents both of these methods accounted for 17% of candidate attraction, respectively.

Social Media continues to grow in popularity as a recruitment solution, with 14% of those surveyed utilising the new media. Of those that use social media to attract candidates, 92% use LinkedIn, 43% use Facebook and 32% use Twitter. It is not surprising that LinkedIn is the most widely used from of social media, as it is marked as an online networking tool. However, according to this research more companies still have a company page on Facebook (77%) than LinkedIn (66%).

Unsurprisingly, the most popular form of recruitment is now corporate websites and online job boards, which are preferred by 47% to attract employees.

In terms of internal attraction, 29% of respondents stated that their company does not advertise roles on their Intranet. For the companies that do utilise this method of recruitment, 84% claimed that it works well in the hiring process. Talent Pools are an area that has been highlighted more and more in relation to best practices within recruitment. The survey found that 60% actively manage and recruit from a corporate talent pool, and from that, 84% claim that it works well for their recruitment objectives.

Interestingly, a quarter of those that responded advised that it took two months or more to hire a new member of staff. Half of the survey respondents found that the time it takes for them to hire a new member of staff occurs over a four week period. 53% of those surveyed hoped that the hiring process would become faster in 2012.

Cost per hire remains a valuable recruiting effectiveness measuring tool. While it can differ for roles, for example the cost per hire for a senior executive position is often far higher than a junior role, it does provide insights as to expenditure for each role. It is best practice to calculate your cost per hire, even if it is relatively high. It is always better to know what that figure is so it can be accounted for. Over a quarter (27%) of survey respondents did not know their cost per hire. For 37% of those surveyed, the cost of hiring was less than a £1000 per role. Lower cost per hire in 2012 was a recruitment objective for exactly half of the respondents.

Meanwhile 62% of respondents said that they wanted the recruitment process to become more streamlined, making it the most popular hope advancements in recruitment over 2012, followed closely by enhanced employer branding. This illustrates that companies are paying more attention to employees/potential employee’s perceptions and taking measures to ensure it is a positive and credible brand that is portrayed.

According to respondents the second most important objective for hiring in 2012 is to enhanced employer branding. This particular area of recruitment has often been neglected to the detriment of the brand. Today companies are paying more attention to employees/potential employee’s perceptions and taking measures to ensure it is a positive and credible brand that is portrayed.

Commenting on the results of the survey Declan Whooley, Marketing Executive at Candidate Manager said: “The survey demonstrated that 2011 was a challenging year across most industries. The next twelve months will be fascinating from a recruitment perspective. It is perhaps not surprising that the most common recruitment objective for 2012 is to streamline the recruitment process. It is interesting that our survey found that lower cost per hire was a recruitment objective for half of the respondents, while 53% wanted a faster time to hire.”

Candidate Manager, e-recruitment software solutions & hiring consulting providers, partner with HR Professionals to help increase quality of hire and employee branding, while significantly reducing recruitment costs, administration and time-to-hire. Recognised as an industry leader, Candidate Manager offers cutting edge e-recruitment solutions including web based video interviewing, psychometric testing, onboarding and background checking.  Clients range from SME’s to large blue chip organisations.  Founded in 2003, Candidate Manager operates out of offices in Ireland, UK and the USA; and services clients in over 80 countries worldwide. Clients that have partnered with Candidate Manager in Ireland and the UK include Tesco, Gordon Ramsay, and Lidl.

*About the survey:
The survey was carried out online through a number of different mediums. Email, social media, online communities and forums were all utilised to generate the highest possible response rate among HR and recruitment professionals. In total Candidate Manager received 276 respondents from businesses in the UK and Ireland.