The Effectiveness of Recruitment Advertisements and Recruitment Websites: Indirect and Interactive Effects on Applicant Attraction

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21571
• Date: 01 May 2014
• Published date: 01 May 2014
• Author: Matthias Baum,Rüdiger Kabst

Human Resource Management, May–June 2014, Vol. 53, No. 3. Pp. 353–378

© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI:10.1002/hrm.21571

Correspondence to: Matthias Baum, University of Kaiserslautern, Gottlieb-Daimler Str.42, Kaiserslautern, 67663,

Germany, Phone: 0049 631 2052824, E-mail: matthias.baum@wiwi.uni-kl.de.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISEMENTS

AND RECRUITMENT WEBSITES:

INDIRECT AND INTERACTIVE

EFFECTS ON APPLICANT

ATTRACTION

MATTHIAS BAUM AND RÜDIGER KABST

This study compares the effect of printed recruitment advertisements and

recruitment websites on applicant attraction and shows how these recruitment

activities interact with one another. Our results indicate that websites have a

signifi cantly stronger impact on applicant attraction than printed advertise-

ments. We show that websites and printed recruitment advertisements have

an indirect effect on applicant attraction that is mediated by employer knowl-

edge. Furthermore, printed advertisements supplement the positive effects

of websites and, thus, the simultaneous use of multiple recruitment activities

directly infl uences applicant attraction. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords: recruitment, applicant attraction, web-based recruitment,

recruitment advertisements, structural equation modeling, interaction

effects

Introduction

Superior human resources are benefi-

cial to the creation of competitive

advantages (Cox & Blake, 1991;

Kaliprasad, 2006; Lado & Wilson,

1994; Wright, Dunford, & Snell,

2001). Because of this, the contest for quali-

fied candidates has intensified over the last

several years (Chapman, Uggerslev, Carroll,

Piasentin, & Jones, 2005). This phenomenon

is referred to as the “war for talent” (Michaels,

Handfield-Jones, & Axelrod, 2001). Although

competition for talent has diminished during

the recent recession, qualified employees still

provide a competitive advantage in many

industrial sectors (e.g., the automotive sec-

tor). As the economy recovers from the

recent recession, this so-called “war for tal-

ent” has begun to intensify once again

(Beechler & Woodward, 2009; Mandhanya &

Shah, 2010), and companies with high levels

354 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, MAY–JUNE 2014

Human Resource Management DOI: 10.1002/hrm

It is necessary

to expand our

knowledge of

the effects and

consequences

of web-based

recruitment

compared

to traditional

recruitment

practices such as

printed recruitment

advertisements.

of applicant attraction secure the best employ-

ees (Capelli, 2008; Laumer, Eckhardt,

&Weitzel, 2010).

Firms use various recruitment activi-

ties to attract applicants in the early phases

of the recruitment process.

Printed recruitment advertise-

ments (Collins & Stevens, 2002)

and recruitment websites (Allen,

Mahto, & Otondo, 2007) con-

stitute two important modes

of recruitment. Even though

their usage has declined, printed

recruitment advertisements are

still important and commonly

used recruitment practices (Born

& Taris, 2010; Jones, Shultz, &

Chapman, 2006; von Stetten

et al., 2011; Weitzel et al., 2011),

whereas the importance of recruit-

ment websites is constantly

increasing (Dineen, Ling, Ash, &

DelVecchio, 2007).

Recru itment websites and

printed recruitment advertise-

ments are two different techniques

to attract potential applicants.

Viewed from a marketing perspec-

tive (Maurer, Howe, & Lee, 1992),

recruitment websites can be seen as a high-

information-recruitment practice, whereas a

printed recruitment advertisement belongs

to low-information-recruitment practices

(Collins, 2007). Recruitment websites give

potential applicants the opportunity to

obtain a lot of information (i.e., about the

organization itself, the different job offers, or

the organizational culture [Allen et al., 2007]).

In contrast, the printed recruitment adver-

tisements considered here contain pictures of

actual employees (testimonials) of the com-

pany, a claim, application information, and

information about the company and trainee

program features. Thus, websites are a richer

information source than printed recruitment

advertisements. However, empirical assess-

ments of the relative impact of these two

recruitment vehicles and how they may inter-

act with each other are largely missing so far.

The utilization of recruitment websites

leads to a continuous reorganization of

recruitment activities (Hoffman & Novak,

1996). Accordingly, it is necessary to expand

our knowledge of the effects and conse-

quences of web-based recruitment (Macias,

2003) compared to traditional recruit-

ment practices such as printed recruitment

advertisements.

This study provides three main contri-

butions to recruitment research. First, we

analyze and compare the impact of two dif-

ferent early-recruitment tools, which are

important to attract applicants (printed

advertisements and recruitment websites)

on employer knowledge (Cable & Turban,

2001) and applicant attraction (Highhouse,

Lievens, & Sinar, 2003). Employer knowledge

reflects the value or strength of a brand and

denotes “the beliefs held by job seekers about

the recruiting company as an employer”

(Collins, 2007, p. 180). We contribute to the

extant knowledge of recruitment activities

by directly comparing the ability of printed

recruitment advertisements and recruitment

websites to build a strong employer brand.

A strong employer brand can help to attract

qualified applicants and, therefore, suc-

ceed in the war of talent (Wayne & Casper,

2012). The employer brand can be defined

as “the package of functional, economic and

psychological benefits provided by employ-

ment, and identified with the employing

company” (Ambler & Barrow, 1996, p. 187).

It is important to determine the relative

importance of low-information (e.g., printed

ads) and high-information (e.g., websites)

practices to the self-selection decisions of

applicants because the debate surrounding

the decline of printed (recruitment) adver-

tisement is primarily driven by individual or

expert opinion, and there is little empirical

evidence supporting these arguments (Cable

& Yu, 2006). Second, we provide advance-

ments to previous studies of isolated recruit-

ment methods (Collins, 2007) by analyzing

the interaction of the two different recruit-

ment activities. The effect of combined

activities is highly relevant, given that com-

panies use different and complementary

recruitment activities to attract potential

employees (Breaugh & Starke, 2000). Third,

we evaluate whether individual cognitive