What is the best website for recruiting?

• Published date: 01 October 2023
• Author: Véronique Rémy,Véronique Simonnet
• Date: 01 October 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/irel.12331

Industrial Relations. 2023;62:359–379. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/irel 359

1Dares, French Ministry of Labour, Paris,

France

2Grenoble-Alpes University and Dares, French

Ministry of Labour, Paris, France

Correspondence

Véronique Simonnet, Grenoble-Alpes

University and Dares, French Ministry of

Labour, 39-43 quai André Citroën 75902 Paris

cedex 15, France.

Email: veronique.simonnet@travail.gouv.fr

Abstract

Do employers form higher-quality matches at a lower cost

when they hire via websites such as corporate websites,

specialized sites, generalist sites, or the site of the public

employment service (PES)? Based on a survey of French

establishments, we find that employers who rely on the

Internet to look for candidates employ more search chan-

nels and selection methods. Of Internet users, the employ-

ers who recruit via the PES website consider their match to

be less satisfying, whereas those who hire via the company

website obtain better matches. There is no relationship

between the vacancy duration and the recruitment channel.

JEL CLASSIFICATION

J63, J23, M51

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

What is the best website for recruiting?

Véronique Rémy1 | Véronique Simonnet2

DOI: 10.1111/irel.12331

Received: 3 March 2022 Accepted: 16 February 2023

INTRODUCTION

The Internet is now widely adopted by recruiters and job seekers in the United States and many

European countries, including France (Bhuller etal., 2019; Campos etal., 2018; Faberman &

Kudlyak,2016). More than 90% of posted job vacancies in France now appear online (Bergeat

& Rémy,2017), whereas only half did in 2005 (Bessy & Marchal,2006). Recruiters' use of online

résumé databases has more than doubled since 2005, although their use remains much lower than

that of online job postings. Last, 88% of French jobseekers now state that they consult online

job advertisements, post their CVs online, or use social networks to look for a job (Gaumont

etal.,2018).

In the context of an increasing use of online search for candidates/jobs, our analysis aims to

characterize the French employers who look for candidates via the Internet, and among those

who recruit via this channel, the websites they use according to the type of vacancies they wish

to fill. We are also interested in the quality and cost of these matches since, given its pervasive-

ness, the Internet may have consequences on the matching process between job seekers and job

vacancies.

With the expansion of the Internet, employers can access a large pool of candidates and job

seekers a wide range of job offers. As it provides a large number of potential matches at low cost,

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits

use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or

adaptations are made.

© 2023 The Authors. Industrial Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Regents of the University of California

(RUC).

RÉMY and SIMONNET

360

the Internet may be expected to improve the quality of job–worker matches1 and reduce the cost

of job vacancies (Autor,2001). However, the low cost of applying online may encourage jobseek-

ers to apply for many jobs, increasing the risk of irrelevant applications (Autor,2001) and so the

cost to firms of reviewing them. The Internet in addition provides employers with easy access

to generic information about candidates (education, experience, etc.) but much less information

about soft skills (such as autonomy and the capacity for team work), which are crucial for a

successful match. As it provides less information on a larger number of applications, the Internet

overall has an ambiguous effect on the cost and quality of matches.

There have only been few evaluations of the effects of the Internet on employers' recruit-

ment processes. In the 2000s, employers in the United States and the United Kingdom reported

excessive numbers of Internet-generated applications, and consequently difficulties in screening

them (Autor,2001; Freeman,2002; Parry & Tyson,2008), although this no longer seems to be

the case in France (Bergeat etal.,2018). Better broadband coverage in Norway reduced both

average vacancy duration and the share of companies reporting recruitment difficulties (Bhuller

etal.,2019). Regarding the quality of the match, online recruitment does not seem to have had

a major impact on the wages of new hires in Germany, but slightly increased the duration of the

match due to fewer job-to-job transitions (Gürtzgen etal.,2021).

Nevertheless, the effects of the Internet on the cost and quality of the match may differ

significantly by the type of website and the selection methods that employers use for recruit-

ment. Employers can appeal to a wide variety of websites to identify good candidates: generalist

websites such as Monster, Viadeo, Indeed, and Leboncoin; specialized websites focusing on a

particular labor-market segment; the Public Employment Service website; and their own compa-

ny's website. These sites may provide different algorithms for sorting applications, which can help

in initial screening and so improve match quality.

Each type of website has its own advantages and disadvantages for recruiters. For exam-

ple, specialized websites targeting particular industries, occupations, or workers (older adults,

students, etc.) should reduce the number of applications and the number of irrelevant applica-

tions (Fondeur,2006). As candidates may self-select onto this type of site, employers can reduce

the number of selection methods used and their selection costs. On the contrary, generalist sites

yield applications from a wider range of candidates, many of which may, however, be unsuitable.

Company websites provide candidates with useful information about the company and the job,

encouraging applications from those who are attracted by the characteristics of the job and the

company (Parry & Tyson,2008). Last, the Public Employment Service website may allow for a

more-local recruitment search.

Only few contributions have investigated the efficiency of these different websites, mostly

focusing on only one type (Brenčič & Norris,2009, 2010, 2012 on Monster.com; Marinescu &

Wolthoff,2020 on CareerBuilder.com; and Banfi & Villena-Roldán,2019 on trabajando.com).

Parry and Tyson(2008) found that most employers who use job boards or their own websites

find them effective, even though they were not all able to attract a pool of good-quality appli-

cants. More recently, Bergeat etal.(2018) found that employers who used specialized websites are

more likely to report that the applications they received matched their expectations than those

using generalist websites. Employers' behavior on the job board can also affect its efficiency: in

Marinescu and Wolthoff(2020), employers’ choice of job titles played a key role in the matching

process, as they are used by workers to decide on applications. Banfi and Villena-Roldán(2019)

concluded that recruiters strategically hide or display the salaries offered on job advertisements

to reduce the number of applicants and thus increase their suitability for the position. Despite

the interest of this work, none of the above has systematically compared the advantages and

1

Freeman(2002) has also emphasized the Internet's role in reducing the importance of networks in the hiring process and providing

access to geographically distant but better-suited candidates, thus leading to better-quality matches.