The way employers in the eyecare industry attract and hire qualified employees has been revolutionized by recruiting candidates online. For organizations that need to hire quickly, online recruitment strategies offer scalable, cost-effective solutions for managing the challenges of recruiting.

With more and more people looking online for employment, eyecare organizations are moving away from costly, traditional forms of recruitment and shifting their concentration to recruiting online. The benefits associated with online recruiting are many, but for those employers still considering whether or not to engage in online recruiting, here are a few of them.

Lower Recruitment Costs
For any organization, hiring new staff is often an expensive and complicated process. This especially holds true for small and medium-sized organizations, which in the past haven't had the resources to conduct full-scale hiring initiatives in-house. However, relying on outside firms to hire on their behalf means paying a premium for those services.

A 2011 study published in The Wall Street Journal showed the average cost per hire for midsize U.S. companies was $3,632, whereas small firms paid $3,665 on average, including costs for recruitment firms and the like. Through online recruiting, however, these costs can be alleviated, since the average cost for posting a job online may only be a fraction of the cost associated with hiring through a third party recruiting firm.

Targeted Delivery
Effective recruiting amounts to effective marketing, and when it comes down to it, it's all about the art and science of being in the right place at the right time. With online recruiting, the level of exposure an organization can achieve is virtually limitless, provided the messaging is clear and the right avenues are being utilized. By posting your ad in the right place, your job opening can instantly reach thousands of qualified professionals in your field. Even search engines and other technologies allow targeting of specific types of users based on their online activity. This allows employers to identify and target the kinds of potential applicants they want, for a relatively small expense.

Quick Turnaround Time
As opposed to more traditional recruiting practices, online recruitment offers a quicker turnaround time when it comes to attracting, interviewing and hiring an employee. When an employer posts a position online, that position is immediately visible to thousands of potential applicants, and it will be available to them anytime, 24/7, even on a mobile device. Once an applicant finds a position they're interested in, applying is as easy as uploading a resume. This nearly instant response can turn a qualified applicant into a new hire relatively quickly, thus making online recruitment a fast, clean and mostly painless way to acquire new talent online.

Overall, the growing demand for a quick and cost-effective hiring method has transformed the way small businesses recruit and hire in almost every industry. The glory days of newspaper advertisements, "Now Hiring" signs in the front window, and word-of-mouth referrals are no more. The digital age is here, and it's not going anywhere, anytime soon.

 

Steven Squires is the director of marketing at Local Eye Site's headquarters in Raleigh, N.C. There he specializes in online recruitment advertising, digital marketing strategy, brand management, and career blogging. Additional editing was provided by Alex Slater, director of operations, Local Eye Site.