The rapid advances in technology have dramatically changed the way business is conducted and this increasing use of and reliance on technology is clearly demonstrated by the number of organisations and individuals who utilise the Internet and electronic mail (e-mail). The impact of technology on business is further reflected by the continuous rise in amount of literature exploring the effects of new technology development and implementation on the efficiency of business, including the impacts on human resource practices (Cullen, 2001; Dessler, 2002; Dineen, Noe, & Wang, 2004; Smith et al., 2004). In particular, the adoption of the Web as a medium by organisations has been faster than any other medium in history (Bush et al., 2002). This is demonstrated by the fact that while it took more than 30 years for radio as a medium to reach 50 million listeners, the Internet reached 50 million users within five years (Kerschbaumer, 2000).

The importance of effective human resource management practices for organisations has been highlighted by the increasing amount of research published within the media. Recruitment is a key element of human resource management; this function generates the human capital that forms the foundation of companies. The success of the company is based on the success of human resource efforts, which evolves through identification and attraction of quality new employees generated from the recruitment process (Barber, 1998).

1.1 Statement of the Problem

The scope of study is in private sector which is Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas). Private sector such as Petronas is welcoming people around the world to join them. E-recruitment system is a need for them to adopt and implement. Majority of organization have some degree of online recruitment process. Thus, it certainly creates competition within the industry. E-recruitment is affected by a lot of internal and external factors. Organizations have to constantly aware of the changes and develop appropriates strategies in order to truly gain effectiveness of the e-Recruitment process. Petronas will benefit from the study.

1.2 Research Objectives

The objectives of the study are to:

To identify the reasons why e-recruitment attract employees more effectively.

To identify the reasons recruiter in large organization uses e-recruitment.

To identify the effectiveness of using e-recruitment to recruit.

1.3 Research Question

The research questions used in this study are:

What are the reasons that e-recruitment attracts employees more effectively?

What are the reasons recruiters in large organization uses e-recruitment?

How effective is e-recruitment to recruit employees in large organization?

1.4 Significance of the Study

This research is very important, because the finding of the study will enhance the body of knowledge. This research looks at the relationship of implemented e-recruitment and the effectiveness of the result in attracting employees.

The research will benefit Petronas. E-Recruitment system is a necessity for organization to adopt and implement. Majority of organization have some degree of online recruitment process. This study will provide statistical analysis collected from the survey.

1.5 Limitation of the Study

The sample of this research is 100 staff in the Administration Department who is working at the private sector at Petronas in order to examine the factors and effectiveness of e-recruitment in a large organization.

1.6 Definitions of Terms

TERMS

DEFINITIONS

Blue-Collar

Refer to people who work in office business environment

E-recruitment

The utilisation of the internet for candidate sourcing, selection, communication, and management throughout the recruitment process

High Context Communication

Most of the information is either in the physical context or initialized in the person

HR professional

person who practice or do human resources related job in the company

Hypothesis

It is an idea, an assumption, or a theory about the behaviour of one or more variables in one or more population

Low Context Communication

The mass of information is vested in the explicit code message

Qualified Candidate

person who applied to jobs and has met the qualification of the job

Recruitment

Recruitment is the process of searching the candidates for employment and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organisation

Recruitment Cycle

is the time period of company’s recruitment process

Social Networking Sites

websites that provide common cyber space for the registered users to meet or comment on others

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

As the technology and internet advanced, organizations adopt to use web-based tools as a daily management function. For example, recruitment has no longer constrained by distance and time. The raise of e-Recruitment has bought attention to majority of organization. More and more employers adopted the trend of using e-Recruitment process to seek the best qualified candidates.

The trend of employer using e-recruitment process has result a decrease using traditional paper based recruitment process. The trend of recruitment process has tendency of use web-based methods, such as job boards, employer web sites, and professional web sites (Ghosh n. pag.). E-Recruitment strategies gradually occur global-wide. More and more countries are adopting the trend. For example, Ireland’s recent practice of online recruitment has significant influence to organizations. The Irish employer specifically implemented online recruiting for 4 factors: Cost reduction, increase the efficiency of the process, time efficient, and accessibility to broader pool (Reilly and Barber n. pag.).

In order to effectively deliver the precise information to the target market, the communication and information flow play a critical part in online recruitment process. According to research, the since the evolution of internet, there is an overflow of information (Savoy and Salvendy13). The overflow of information lead to 60% of people could not find relevant information (qtd. in Montero et al. 2003). The researchers suggested that the information needs of the consumers should be centred and beneficial to the consumers (Savoy and Salvendy14). In e-Recruiting, both employers and employees expect to find valuable information of each other on the web, so a result, the information that either the employers or the employees upload to the web should be carefully reviewed. Both employer and employee expect to learn from each other. Another study done in UK shows that the regular e-Recruiting tools that employer uses are Websites, Receiving e-mail contains resume and cover letter, and checking personal sites (Williams and Verhoeven 7).

The other factors can also significantly influence the effectiveness of communication. One of them is the website design and its contents (Usunier and Roulin 3). The authors studied the high and low context communication on websites. The different cultures have different preferences to the content. In High Context communication, the information is more sophisticated and complex, while in Low Context communication is simpler and clarify (4). Despite the communication preferences, more and more employers use company website, job boards, and social networking sites to recruit talents. All these tools can reach large candidate pools. Especially social networking sites have bought attention to both employers and jobseekers. A fast growing number of people use social sites to look for jobs such as MySpace or Facebook (Roberts and Clark 35). In the jobseekers’ view, it is easier to connect people with less pressure since it’s not face to face. It is great for passive jobseekers. In the employers’ view, it is low cost, shorter recruitment cycle, and it can get well-rounded information of the candidates (Sah n. pag.). Certain social sites such as LinkedIn, have noticed the popularity of e-Recruit. It offers employers to purchase business accounts with add-on features such as job posting section or private messaging tools (Gunderson 3). Some employers, not only use social networking sites as recruitment tool, but also background check the candidates and references. However, because the content in the social sites have less formal authorized sources, the employers have little ability to ensure the information posted on the sites is factual (Roberts and Clark 36). Instead, many employers use outsourced background check function to verify the candidates (36).

On the other hand, organizations may use their own website for recruitment. Typically the organizational websites are more formal formatted. The contents of the organizational website are well-written delivering company’s information and job information along with tools necessary for applicants such as application process. A well-developed online application process can speed up the hiring process and more responsive to the applicants (Kim and O’Connor 2).

The effectiveness of e-Recruitment can be varied depends on the size of the organization. A study shown that online recruitment was not as appropriate for small organizations, for blue-collar, lower-level position and very senior positions, online recruitment remain more effective in larger organizations and service sectors because larger organizations potentially have larger vacancies to cope with larger group of candidates (Parry and Tyson 15). The limitation of this study result only valid to corporate web sites, because commercial job boards was not related to industry, sector, or organization size. The effectiveness of online recruitment may also affect by the strategies implemented (15). For organizations, there are some opportunities to increase the effectiveness of online recruiting by adding values to the process; For instance, developing a candidate-attraction process, providing screening and response management for the online recruiting process (Wolfe and Hartle n. pag.). Implementing the appropriate strategies can significantly increase the effectiveness of the e-Recruitment.

The advantages and disadvantages of implementing online recruitment can be reflected by the statistical figures. A survey done by iLogos.com reveals that 92% of Fortune 500 companies have a website solely for careers and 96% of recruiters reported job posting on their websites (Borstorff, Marker, and Bennett 13). Majority of organizations use some form of online recruitment simply because the advantages overwhelm the disadvantages. The common findings of advantages among studies are: reduced costs, faster processes, wider accessibility, improve reputation and brand (Barber 9), higher quality of applicants, better match of the position, 24/7 running ability, and reduction of unqualified applicants (Verhoeven and Williams 2). On the other hand, the disadvantages are privacy issues, lack of personal touch, user-unfriendly tools, and discrimination issues (2).

To conclude, the literature review fitted in the researcher’s study because E-recruitment system is a necessity for organization to adopt and implement. Majority of organization have some degree of online recruitment process. It certainly creates competition within the industry. E-recruitment is affected by many internal and external factors, and it certainly changes fast. Organizations have to constantly aware of the changes and develop appropriate strategies in order to truly gain effectiveness of the e-Recruitment process.

THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.0 Introduction

This chapter has given the detail methods of obtaining the data and how researchers intend to do it. It hasspecified in detail the research operations and instruments researchers intend to use to address researchers research questions.

3.1 Research Design

This section explains the research design chosen for the research. This research is using descriptive research design which describes the characteristics of an existing phenomenon.

3.2 Sampling Frame

The sampling frame is the source from which a sample is drawn. It is a list of all those within a population who can be sampled, and may include individuals, households or institutions. So, for this study the sampling frames used by the researchers are among staff in the Administration Department, Petronas.

3.3 Population

The population is the set of people or entities to which findings are to be organized.

3.4 Sampling Technique

This section describes the kind of sampling procedures used to select the subject from the population. For this tudy the researchers used the simple random sampling as the method. The researchers use sampling method becaisu it givesthe member of the population an equal and independent chance of being selected to be part of the sample.

3.5 Sample Size

The size of the group to be surveyed generally determines the size of the sample. For this research the sample size is 100 staff.

3.6 Unit of Analysis

A unit of analysis is the subject to be included in the study. The researchers have chosen randomly 100 staff of Administration Department who is working at the Petronas.

3.7 Data Collection Procedures

The researchers have collected the data through primary and secondary data such as journals, textbooks and other references. The questionnaires have been created as a method to collect the data. Most of the questions are close ended and it will make easy to respondents to answer the question.

3.8 Instrument

The type of questionnaire that is used in this research is structured questionnaire. The researchers have prepared the questions in several sections which are about the respondent’s demographic factors such as gender and position, the employment, factors and barriers that lead to the effectiveness of e-recruitment, and the importance of the effectiveness of e-recruitment in the organization.

3.9 Validity of Instrument

The instrument used in this research is content validity. The researchers have sought two supervisors or lecturers who are experts in this area of this research to determine that the measurement measurers; that are the questionnaires, are extended to be measured.

3.10 Plans for Data Analysis

The researchers have chosen the SPSS technique to analyze the data that were obtained from the questionnaires which have been coded in several categories.