The main challenge identified by recruiters last year was finding the good resumes in the haystack of resumes submitted by applicants--qualified or not. While the Web is renowned for its high-speed delivery of quantity, quality results are often harder to find. This two-part guide to effective Web site selection can help you optimize the time and effort you spend recruiting online.

Opportunity
Recruiting online can be faster than the traditional "smile and dial" technique, and perhaps less expensive per hire. But the reality of online recruiting is that it's not panacea; nor is it a passing fad.

Problem
Thousands of Web-based job sites--where to begin, which ones to use?

Solution

· Size. Is the sheer size of a particular Web site the key to effective online recruiting? Well, to quote our favorite attorney, "It depends." While size is not insignificant, usually the key to success for recruiters is to pick sites with the demographics that best match your requirements.

Many companies choose the largest sites because they are also the best known and, consequently, attract the greatest number of job seekers. Gabrielle Pineau, recruitment manager for Staples, Inc., primarily uses Monster, CareerBuilder and HotJobs, because they are so well known to job seekers. She chose those particular sites because she likes the services and the quality of candidates they attract. Other recruiters use the large sites because they are the ones management has selected.

One recruiter at a large computer company identified Monster and HotJobs as her only sources because "I get everything I need there." She limits her use to searching through the resume database, however, to avoid the avalanche of unqualified resumes she gets in response to job-postings. Pineau noted that it was "very different last year," when she needed to leverage every source available.

What if the large employment super sites fail to supply the best candidates for your positions? Unless a substantial portion of visitors are looking for jobs like yours, larger sites might not be as useful as a niche site with only a few thousand visitors who are exactly the right job seekers for your opportunities.

· Location. Judging by the visitor usage pattern at our site, Job-Hunt.Org, location is a primary criterion for job seekers. Thousands of localized job sites specializing in specific geographic areas have sprung up to meet this need. Sometimes, sites develop at the juncture of geography and industry/profession, such as the multitude of sites for IT/IS jobs that are concentrated in specific regions or states.

· Specialty. Where do you find a green-eyed, left-handed wallpaper hanger when you need one? Probably at one of the sites specializing in green-eyed people. While that site is fortunately fictional (I think), there are a number of sites specializing in people with unique, even obscure, skills who may not be readily available at one of the super sites. Thousands of small, niche sites have been launched over the past three years. However, given the recent tightening of the labor market, it's been harder for them to get the attention of both employers and job seekers, unless they offer other specialized services or information.

· Professional Associations. What if you aren't successful at finding or attracting experienced, green-eyed, left-handed wallpaper hangers at Monster or HotJobs or one of the other super sites? Before you spend hours "resume mining," or thousands of dollars on an ad in a major newspaper, look for a niche job site that only green-eyed, left-handed wallpaper hangers visit. But remember, it may not be a job site per se. There are numerous societies, associations, guilds, and Internet groups that address the professional and educational needs of your target audience. Many of these organizations offer job postings as a service to their members.

"We are a nation of associations," according to Sandra MacKay, a Boston-area technical recruiter. "Career-minded individuals typically join professional associations to further their careers, if not to stay current with the technology of their profession." While she may not be able to search through a resume database, she can usually post job openings and get relatively quick responses from qualified candidates.

For example, Ms. MacKay was unable to fill positions for experienced plastic mold makers using the large job sites since, as it turns out, these type of workers do not use employment sites like Monster. However, she found the Society of Plastics Engineers Web site (www.4spe.org) and a couple of other relevant associations, posted her positions and made several successful hires.

Nowadays an organization does not have to be large to maintain an employment section on their site. Smaller groups can purchase job searching capabilities from outsourcing companies like JobMark.com. JobMark creates and maintains turnkey job sites that fit into new or existing Web sites. Their diverse client base includes American Water Works Association (www.awwa.org), the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (www.nscs.org), a society for the top college students and graduates in the U.S., and the Printing Industry of America (www.gain.org).

Looking for an electrical engineer? Start at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers organization Web site (jobs.ieee.org). Need help in the HR department? Check out the Web site of the Society for Human Resource Management (www.shrm.org/jobs). Looking for trainers? Try the American Society of Training and Development at (www.astd.org/virtual_community/job_bank). Seeking tech types in New England? Scan the listings on CONE, Computer Organizations of New England (www.blu.org/cone/sig/index.html), a directory of New England computer user groups. Here you can zero in on the group you're trying to reach. You can also join their e-mail distribution list, and enjoy!

Check out our next issue for the second half of our series on successful online recruiting. We'll help you uncover trade magazine sites and portals, school and college sites, and user/interest groups. We'll also introduce you to the brass tacks of site pricing, flexibility and ease of use. Once you've read the entire article, you're likely to find it easier to choose only those golden Web sites that appeal to the qualified job seekers you want to target.