Business Research Methods Choose Any Topic From Human Resource

Business Research Methods Choose Any Topic From Human Resource Business Research Methods: Choose Any Topic From Human Resource Management (HRM) Or Recruitment And â€" Essay Example > ALLWRITING. NET ORDER: BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODSTitle: The effect of electronic recruitment and selection on the productivity of human Resource management (HRM) departments of organizations. IntroductionThe internet has permeated every facet of business life including that of human resource acquisition, development and management. Increasingly, the internet and related electronic technologies are being used to advertise for positions, assessment of applicants, selection and recruitment of human resources. These technologies include emails, websites, resume banks, employment webpages, electronic scanning technology, applicant tracking system and internal databases of job seekers. According to Bartram (2000) the internet has already had a dramatic impact on the way in which recruitment and selection are carried out in North America and the impact is increasingly being felt in terms of changes in practice in Europe and Asia-Pacific. He further pointed out that this medium has enabled the widespread adoption of computer-based assessment and also predicted that it would replace paper as the default medium before very long. These assertions were made over five years ago. In between that time and now the internet population has witnessed a massive growth and the activities undertaken on it has also widened and become more diversified. Many workplaces in the world have also been connected to the internet. Given the ubiquitous role the internet now plays in the conduct of business activities, it would not be over-exaggeration to say that its impact is being felt worldwide. Presently, all aspects of human resource work in the area of recruitment and selection such as developing the requirements of a position, posting of positions, advertising of position, screening of resumes, interviewing, making the offer and even new employee orientation can be done from a computer and the internet. Galanaki (2002) has catalogued some of the benefits of online recruitment and sel ection as being more cost effective, worldwide coverage and therefore a better pool of human resources to select from. The rest of the benefits are reduced recruitment cycle time, higher response rate, a better quality of response, less effort in getting the desired results and lower administrative cost. A study carried out by Human Resource Management International Digest (2005)revealed that the use of electronic recruitment software known as Active Recruiter reduced the recruitment process from 62 to 42 days. Also, savings amounting to 54 percent of the total recruitment costs was realized. Despite these enormous benefits, the online medium itself also poses special difficulties and challenges to the human resource function. These include issues pertaining to confidentiality, authentication, equality of access to information, impersonation, and inherent abuse of the testing process and the control of assessment conditions. Kerrin and Ketley (2003) identified major challenges for implementing e-recruitment as (a) the cultural approach of the organization towards e-recruitment (b) the lack of knowledge of e-recruitment with the human resource (HR) community, (c) internet usage by the target prospective applicants and (d) commitment of senior management to e- recruitment. Interestingly, while these benefits and challenges are commonly acknowledged, few research work has been carried out to quantitatively measure their effects on the human resource function and productivity. Consequently, there is paucity of information in this area of human resource management to guide managerial decision making. This study is therefore being undertaken to help bridge this information gap. Specifically, it shall seek to measure quantitatively the effect electronic recruitment is having on the productivity of human resource management.