Firm Size and Internet Recruiting in Canada: A Preliminary Investigation

Abstract

Introduction Firm size is an important variable in organizational research. There is support for the impact of firm size on human resource (HR) activities such as executive compensation (Kostiuk 1989), employee absenteeism (Barmby and Gesine 2000), training (Black, Noel, and Wang 1999; Snell 1992), staffing (Snell 1992), working conditions (Belfield 1999), and HR outsourcing (Marquis and Long 2000; Occhiogrosso 1998). In addition to the research just cited, firm size has been shown to impact on recruitment practices (Barber et al. 1999). Research has found that recruitment among large firms tends to be more formal, bureaucratic, and resource intensive than for small ones. In contrast, small firms are more likely to use internal recruitment sources, such as employee referrals and networking (Barber et al. 1999; Bartram et al. 1995; Marsden 1994). Three important differences between small and large firms provide a partial explanation as to why their recruitment practices differ. First of all, large firms typically have more job openings then small firms and therefore hire larger numbers of candidates. Second, large firms have to contend with a greater number of candidates because of their brand recognition in the marketplace. Third, large firms have more money for recruitment. Despite the different recruitment practices between small and large organizations, both types of firms have started to utilize the Internet as a recruitment source. Internet recruitment involves the use of the Internet as a channel through which jobs are posted and information is provided with respect to the application process. Internet recruitment can be implemented from a company website, through the use of an Internet recruiter (for example, Monster), or through some combination of the two. Therefore, this study focuses on both channels (company website and use of Internet recruiters) as both are important in the assessment of recruitment differences across firm size. Although there is a dearth of research on Internet recruiting, this recent technology quickly has become a growing practice for many businesses and has become a popular tool for job seekers to search and to apply for jobs (iLogos Research 2000, 1998; Nesbeitt 1999). A survey by Statistics Canada (2001) found that approximately 30 percent of Internet users used the Internet (within the month prior to the survey) to search for information on work and employment. Useem (1999) reported that positions advertised on the Internet represent a wide range of occupations from senior executives to religious ministers. Relative to the newspaper, Internet recruiting has three major benefits, namely lower costs, faster posting and candidate response times, and the potential to reach a broader audience of active and passive job seekers (iLogos Research 1998; Nesbeitt 1999). For example, a 30-day job posting on an Internet based job board can be as little as 10 percent of the cost of a three-day advertisement in a national newspaper. This study will address the extent to which small and large firms differ on several key aspects of Internet recruiting, namely the existence of company website, use of the website in recruitment, awareness of Internet recruiters, usage of Internet recruiters, and differences across functions and management levels. Hypotheses Large and small firms differ in many ways that relate to Internet recruiting. In addition to greater technical resources, large organizations are more likely to have greater financial resources to support a website (Kowtha and Choon 2001). Moreover, since large firms tend to have multinational or multidivisional organizational structures compared to small companies (which tend to have more basic organizational structures), their websites are more likely to be operated from another division or country. Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed: H1: A greater percentage of large organizations will have their own website versus small organizations. …