The Quest for the Qualified Job Surfer: It's Time the Public Sector Catches the Wave

TLDR

Organizational use of Internet recruiting has dramatically increased in the last five years, yet little research guides the development of employment Web pages. The paper argues that public sector organizations should devote more effort to developing their own employment Web sites to supplement other recruiting activities. The authors present a model of job surfer behavior to inform Web site design and promotion decisions. Using the model, the paper offers several practice suggestions.

Abstract

Organizational use of Internet recruiting has dramatically increased in the last five years. However, there has been little research to guide the development of organizational employment Web pages. This paper first outlines the reasons why public sector organizations should consider focusing more energy on developing their own employment Web sites to supplement other recruiting activities. We then present a model of job surfer behavior that organizations should consider when designing their Web site and making decisions about how to promote it. Based on this model, we make several suggestions for practice.