Dubai: Jobseekers will have a high probability of landing a management position if they post their application directly on career websites of potential employers, a recruitment solutions provider said yesterday.
A new research conducted by Cazar showed that nearly four out of ten (38 per cent) senior candidates that recently got hired in the Middle East and Asia Pacific were sourced from company career websites, not third-party job portals or recruiters.
“While some may think that senior roles require executive recruitment agencies, [the study] suggests that employers have become very proficient at finding top candidates online themselves,” Cazar said in a report.
Guy Rickett, CEO of Cazar, said companies included in the report had good career websites which enabled them to ask candidates specific questions pertaining to their experience, competencies and skills related to the job for which they are applying.
“This means good-fit candidates will be quickly identified. So, if an applicant is qualified for the job, yes, they will have a greater chance of getting hired by these organisations,” Rickett told Gulf News.
Database
The second most popular source that recruiters used to hire new talent was the company’s talent pool (22 per cent), a database of surplus candidates who applied in previous vacancies. Internal promotion was another successful method for filling managerial roles, with 14 per cent of the management recruits hired this way.
Professional networking and employee referrals also proved to be successful, making up 12 per cent of hires. Job boards represented about four per cent of new senior employees, while executive search agencies accounted for two per cent.
Cazar’s study was conducted to find out how organisations recruit senior personnel in the current environment. It took into account 619 senior hires and 350,174 applications made across more than 30 companies in the region and Asia Pacific, operating in retail, construction, banking, transport, IT, broadcast media and telecommunications, among other sectors.
The candidates surveyed between June 2012 and September 2013 had applied for various posts, including director of marketing, financial controller and other executive management positions.
Social networking
A lot of companies used to hunt for new employees through the help of executive search firms, but the internet, as well as the popularity of social networking sites, have changed the recruitment landscape. “Most talent acquisition today is done online,” the Cazar report said.
LinkedIn said in an earlier report that 37 per cent of companies globally are utilising social and professional networks to find and hire the best talent. “Online networking continues to be a strong influence in career opportunities for professionals around the world,” said Ali Matar, head of talent solutions, LinkedIn Middle East and North Africa.
Masoud Golshani-Shirazi, vice president of human resources at Aujan Coca-Cola Beverages company, said that social media now forms a central part of their recruiting strategy, with a quarter of their senior hires for 2013 sourced through LinkedIn.
