HOW DIGITAL PLATFORMS ARE HELPFUL

FOR ORGANIZATIONS IN RECRUITMENT

DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

THESIS
Submitted in fulfillment of the requirement of the degree of

MASTER OF COMMERCE
Maharshi Dayanand University

By
PRIYANKA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am the students of forth Semester take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude
and sincere thanks to Dr. Manoj who gave me this opportunity to embark on this
dissertation.I would like to express my sincere gratitude towards him for his constant
patience, motivation, enthusiasm and immense knowledge.

I am also thankful to the respondent of our questionnaires who gave their precious time to
accomplish my report. I would like to thank our parents for their wise counsel and constant
support. They were always for us.

Thank you everyone!

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapters Content Content Page
No. No.
Acknowledgement

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 E-Recruitment

1.2 Digital Platforms

1.2.1 Definition

1.2.2 Components of Digital Platforms

1.3 COVID-19

1.3.1 Impact of COVID-19 on Indian Economy

1.3.2 Changes occurred in recruitment due to

COVID-19

1.4 Why people shifted to online methods of Recruitment

during COVID-19

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

 3.1 Need for the Study

3.2 Hypothesis Formulation

3.3 Orientation of Research

3.3.1 Research Design

3.3.2 Sampling Method

3.3.3 Data Collected

3.3.4 Data Analysis

Chapter 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Chapter 5 FINDINGS

Chapter 6 CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 E-RECRUITMENT

E-recruitment is a new technologic means for selecting one of the companies’ most
crucial resources, i.e. human resource. This technological innovation improves the process
of recruiting knowledge sources by using the internet. it allows businesses to make cost
savings, update job offers and status at any time, to shorten the recruitment cycle time,
to identify and select the best knowledge potential out of a wider range of candidates and
gives the company an opportunity to improve its image and profile (Anand & Chitra,
2016).
If had to explain e-recruitment in simplest words, it is a process of recruiting candidates by
the use of internet to fill the various vacant positions of the company. This process is
believed to be integration and the use of online world to improve competence of
recruitment. Nowadays active job seekers prefer online methods over traditional ones
because of the advantages which come with it. Also online recruitments have forced
companies to build their image in online world better.

Most common types of online recruitment methods:

 Finding potential candidates on professional social media platforms (like LinkedIn)

 Interviewing candidates online through video conferencing
 Testing online with the help of surveys and questionnaires
 Advertise job offerings on online platforms
 Use of an applicant tracking system
Advantages associated with it:

 Online recruitment costs less to the organization as compared to offline methods.

 This platform is free of unnecessary intermediaries.
 It is time efficient, thus this process is fast.

Disadvantages which come with this process:

 Screening of each candidate and checking each resume is still not solved.
 It can only accessed with internet and knowledge about using technology and in
India there are still places with lack of awareness about internet.
 Organizations feel that they cannot solely depend on e-recruitment.
 People and organizations still prefer offline recruitment, even when e-recruitment
has so many advantages above it.

How e-recruitment started initially?

World’s first recruitment agency was started by Henry Robinson in the year 1653. After
this historical step a whole new industry RECRUITMENT is created thus making it 400+
years old. According to Yoder, “Recruitment is the process to discover the sources of
manpower to meet the requirement of the staffing schedule and to employee effective
measures to attracting that manpower in adequate number to facilitate effective
selection of an effective workforce”.

E-recruitment also known as online recruitment refers to using web-based resources,

cloud based recruitment software and other technologies to find/attract/interview/hire
new employees. The evolution of online recruitment was in 1994 when [Link]
came as an online platform with various online tools for organizations to connect with
the candidates who are potential and seeking job.

E-recruitment includes the entire process of finding the perspective candidates,

assessing, interviewing and hiring them as per the job requirement. Usually the job
vacancies are advertised on World Wide Web from where the applicant can find them.
1.2 DIGITAL PLATFORMS

1.2.1 Definition
Digital platforms have become a major mode for organizing a wide range of human
activities, including economic, social and political interactions. The rise of digital platforms
has transformed multiple industries such as transportation (e.g., Uber, Ola), hospitality (e.g.,
Airbnb), and software development (e.g., Apple iOS, google android). Enterprises that have
experienced digital platforms have achieved significant growth in size as well as scale. As a
result, digital platforms have become an attractive business model and strategy and also an
increase in economic growth for a number of sectors.

“The digital platform handles end-to-end business processes for improving experience for
customers, employees and partners too.” Digital platforms cut across many traditional
organizational structures, policies and some technology investments to enable the new
things. They give organization a different talent model, a different mindset and a different
set of policies and processes.

“Digital platforms are online businesses that facilitate many commercial interactions
between two different groups- the suppliers and the consumers. In today’s time it become a
new approach in everyone’s life in many ways. Digital platforms provide value to everyone
an ecosystem while turning to the profit for the organization that created and maintains
through various models such as: - Advertising, subscriptions, pay as you go anywhere etc.,”

Examples of Digital Platform: -

 Social media platforms- Facebook, twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

 Knowledge platforms- Quora, Stack Overflow and Yahoo!
 Media sharing platforms- YouTube, Spotify and Vimeo.
 Service- oriented platforms- Uber, Airbnb and Grub hub.

1.2.2 Components of digital platforms

Another way to describe the digital platforms is by talking about essential pieces necessary
to create a successful digital platform. The key aspects of a digital platform are: -
  Trustworthiness and security- terms and conditions are necessary as well as privacy
protection and some assurances for the intellectual properties and data ownerships.
 Connectivity through the use of some APIs that allow parties to extend the
ecosystem of the platform and its capabilities.
 Facilitation of exchanges between users i.e., producers and consumers.
 Ease of use and immediate appeal for users.
 Providing value to the communities and as a function of the size of the community –
the bigger the community, the more value the platform can provide to all the parties
involved.
 Ability to scale without causing performance degradation.

Digital transformations look different for each company because every organization has
different goals in mind, but a tangible goal to seek through digital transformation is the
creation of digital platforms.

1.1 COVID-19

COVID-19, or Novel Corona Virus is a virus that effects the respiratory system in human
beings. It was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in 2020. The virus
started from Wuhan and spread all over the globe. Some of the most effected countries in
the world are United States of America, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, China, Iran, United
Kingdom, Turkey and Switzerland. The first COVID-19 case in India was found in Kerala on
January 30, 2020 and according to the latest data, there are currently more than 12.1
million people infected by the Novel Corona Virus in India and around 2.81 million deaths
reported from different parts of the country.

1.3.1 Impact on Indian Economy

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, most of the countries announced nationwide lockdown
which brought the world to a standstill in terms of economic and social life. In 2019, World
Health organization (WHO) rang an alarm bell stating the inability of the world to fight
against a global pandemic. WHO and World Bank predicted the impact of this pandemic to
be 2.2 per cent to 4.8 per cent of global GDP. IMF chief said, “World is faced with
extraordinary uncertainty about the depth and duration of this crisis, and it was the worst
economic fallout since the Great Depression”.
The impact of corona virus pandemic on India has been largely obstreperous as almost all
the sectors of the economy have been deploringly affected. This pandemic has transformed
into an economic and labour market shock which not only impacted supply (production of
goods and services) but also demand (consumption and investment). Lockdown and Social
Distancing are the only tools to fight against COVID-19 in a cost-effective way but it resulted
in productivity loss on one hand and caused a downturn in demand of goods and services by
the consumers which lead to a collapse in economic activity.

Some of the most affected sectors in the Indian economy are Travel and Tourism,
Hospitality, Aviation, Automobile, and Real Estate.

Of all the affected industries, the tourism industry seems to have taken the hardest hit all
over the world. In 2018, this industry created 87.5 million jobs which were 12.7% of the
total employment but due to COVID-19, it is estimated that around 40 million people will
lose their jobs which is an annual revenue loss of around 17 billion US dollars. The
precautionary campaigns and strategies like social distancing, community lockdown, stay-at-
home, travel restrictions has led to a sharp decline in hospitality industry.

1.4 WHY PEOPLE SHIFTED TO ONLINE METHODS OF RECRUITMENT

DURING COVID-19

In the midst of corona-virus, the world is facing uncertainty in all industries, and recruiting is
no different. Covid-19 has affected business processes worldwide, with hiring being no
exception. The pandemic made it critical for companies to modernize their recruitment
processes rapidly and innovatively.

Many organizations have moved from physical to virtual hiring by leveraging the right
technology. Recruiting strategies have and will continue to change in order to keep up with
the shifting ways we work and live. In order to forge clear, productive path forward,
companies must be ready to have a strategic recruiting strategy in place and be ready for
the future of recruiting.

How recruitment has evolved

A generation ago, companies posted jobs and got people inb the door, their new hires
fulfilling tasks within the first days of employment. Today, the dynamic of employee-
employer relationships has shifted. Employees are increasingly eager to reach the next stage
of their careers sooner. They want to know what is expected of them, what skills they need,
and how they can move forward. Employers are in search of the best possible talent rather
than someone to manage a task list. Employers are seeking employees who provide added
value and a return on investment.

During the 1990s and early to mid-2000s, recruiters would sift through endless resumes
and/or newspaper classifieds. However, in order to find these best possible hires, employers
have had to evolve their recruiting strategies. Even 10 years ago, when technological
advancements like video conferencing were not as widely used, the hiring process looked
much different than it does today. Recently, recruiters and hiring managers have taken a
marketing approach to remain competitive and snap up the best talent before their
competitors do. Becoming a high - volume recruiters with a successful track record is almost
as competitive as seeking top performers.

Many of the recruiting tactics that are widely used today include:

 Video interviewing
 Automation for communications, tracking, and interview scheduling
 Social media and campaigns.

Before video interviewing was available to talent acquisition managers, interviewing and
hiring were typically restricted to candidates within the hiring manager’s radius. As these
recruitment methods grow in popularity, combined with the fact that many companies have
introduced ‘work from home’ policies, finding and hiring top talent across the globe is
becoming much easier- allowing their candidate pool to grow.
 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Eris Çunaku (2019) undertook a study on Human Resource Technology and suggested that
organizations must outsource their HR practices. This will help them reduce their cost and
workload. The researcher stressed the importance of the HR professional's role. The
researcher said HR professionals reduce the stress of the CEO or Business Manager as the
administrative tasks such as rewards, payrolls, benefits, etc. are performed by HR
professionals on the behalf of the management.

Risa Singh (2016) reports on a study into the Impact of E-Recruitment on Human Resource
Supply Chain Management. The study states that most important task of the HR managers is
to find the right person for the right job and position but the main challenge faced by the
managers is to locate and reach out to the right people and motivate them. Moreover, job
portals are more significant source among job seekers over company’s own website. The
researcher also suggested that an organization must target right people for recruitment as
“the future success of the company is predominantly based on the success of human
resource efforts, which evolves through the identification and attraction of quality new
employees generated from recruitment process”. There must be a wide geographical reach
to find right people as people are becoming more web literate and nowadays, web surfing is
a lot easier and cheaper with the growth of broadband.

Tanushree Chattaraj (2016) studied the role of web technologies in the MSMEs and found
out that they have started to involve web technologies in their recruitment processes. They
believe that web based recruitment depends on corporate brand presence and it enhances
the chances of sourcing through internet. The utilization of web based technologies in
recruitment process also depends on the business type. Changes in annual turnover also
impact recruitment strategies as a god increase in the turnover will surely have a better
impact on the recruitment strategies.

Dr. Ankita Jain, Ankita Goyal (2014) has found in her study that E- Human Resource
Management is a process in which all the HR plans, policies and practices are undertaken
through internet medium. Here, the job seekers can also attach their curriculum vitae and
application forms and recruiters can easily get the details of candidates. Also, online
recruitment helps the organization to make a cut on cost and time taken to choose
candidates.

Sarah L. Bicky and Linchikwok (2011) has undertook a study on social media can be used as
a recruiting tool. The survey was through an e- mail invitation which was sent to the
department head or the secretary of the selected programs, and asked to forward that e-
mail to their undergraduate students. These some of new steps was taken to see and
understand how effective social media is as a recruiting tool.

Naveed r. Khan, Marine Awang, Arsalan Mujahid Ghouri (2013) studied the significance of
e- recruitment. In his study, he examined the relationships between the recruitment
sources, job seekers. The findings of this study showed that internet is the most preferred
source to search the jobs among other recruitment sources. In addition, it also suggested
that effectiveness of e- recruitment also depends upon the placement of advertisement and
salary.

Aakash Gopalia (2012) has undertook a study on the advantage of using internet to select
people. Online recruitment and selection process reaches many industries and students.
This method of recruitment helps to reduce admin cost, reduces time in hiring etc., Online
recruitment helps to share speedy information, company reputation and improve the
quality of candidates. It has been clearly seen that internet recruitment is effective and
saves the time and cost too.

BMC Medical Research Methodology (2020) undertook a study on social media work as a
recruitment platform for a nationwide online survey related to COVID-19 knowledge,
practices and beliefs. In their study, they found out that the social media or digital platform
advertisement campaign was an effective and efficient strategy to collect the large scale of
data within a shorter period of time. The aim of the study was to describe the methodology
of recruiting a nationwide sample of adults residing in United States for participation in a
survey on COVID-19 knowledge and outline the preliminary findings for recruitment.
Through this study, the researchers analyzed that the social media campaign act as the
capacity to capture the whole data that is valuable for the planning, recruitment,
development and implementation of health communication campaign. A total of 6602
participant responses were recorded with representation from all U.S. The advertisement
cumulatively reached 236,017 individuals and resulted in 9609 clicks. Implementation of
male-only advertisement improved the cumulative percentage of male respondents from
approx. 20 to 40%

Iza Gigauri, found out the influence of COVID-19 on Human Resource Management and the
response of their companies. In their study they found out the main focus of HRM during
COVID-19 pandemic and there organization responses to the crisis. They estimate the level
and magnitude of challenging companies have been facing in terms of HRM and the
consequences or changes that are expecting to be initiated. The researchers aimed to
explore affected activities of HR managers, that the current process occurring is very
complex. So they are leading many positive and negative outcomes. The HR management
makes a significant contribution by introducing online HR process, training their employees.
And company should develop their human resources. The crisis management dictates the
companies to cut costs on training sessions and other development sessions. Thus, it is
important to find the right balance between cutting costs due to recession. Otherwise
effectiveness and efficiency cannot be achieved.

Arvind Mallik & Ms Arpitha Patel (2020) found in their study that social posting or digital
posting in COVID-19 recruiting era has sparked long-term changes in the recruitment
process to every business corporations. Organisations old recruitment strategy will not
work; we will be forced to reinvent new recruiting strategy. The researchers analyzed the
fact that social media recruiting is a new HR approach to better attract active and passive
job candidate. They are also reflected the point that it will be important to establish long
term strategies for greater resilience and to apply lessons learned for COVID-19 pandemic.

In the study of Robinson (2009) he suggested on managing in turbulent times and keeping
their employees focused and engaged in times of change. Some tips are given by the
researcher like telling the employees the expectations of their organisations and make sure
that the employees have the right materials and equipment, and give their employees the
opportunity to do their best. Employee engagement can be used as a mediator to develop
the attitudes and intention and behaviour of employees, towards a better work
performance.

In her study, Nahida Sultana observed that very few numbers of recruiters prefer the
traditional means or word of mouth for recruitment. It is also observed that online
recruitment has many advantages, some of which are fast speed, less cost, time efficient,
high reach, increasing organizational performance. Another finding concludes that the
recruitment has been improved most in the screening stage. The researcher suggested that
the organizations should be concerned about how they could use online recruitment in
other stages too. Also necessary steps should be taken wherever necessary.

In another study, it is found that in the present scenario the usage of internet is increasing
rapidly by all the sections of society. This has thus given chances to various online
recruitment platforms and sites like [Link], [Link], [Link] etc.
Opportunities like these are used drastically in today’s times. Also in the study it is found
that all the respondents were aware about online recruitment and how to access them.
The research paper by Mike Abia and Irwin Brown highlights the problem of diversity in
understanding e-recruitment that is beyond theoretical knowledge. The study highlighted
the problem of diversity in understanding of e-recruitment that goes without explicit
attention in literature and proposed that identifying and labelling the varied
conceptualizations of e-recruitment can be part of better articulation of the diversity. Taking
note of conceptualizations provides practitioners with a tool to enhance productivity while
allowing researchers to have more focus in their research.

According to Neeral L. Shah et al, overall applicants liked the easy usability, readily and
quickly available information of the app on online recruitment during COVID-19 period.
Invites were sent 48h prior to the interview day. It is also revealed in the study that app had
a moderate effect on the rank list of applicants. But it was helped by the addition of
Smartphone app which provided an innovative source of information for applicants.
Furthermore they suggested that by integrating new technological methods the experience
could be enhanced.
 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 NEED FOR THE STUDY

After going through the different studies on e-recruitment and its benefits which are
conducted earlier, the researchers felt a need to make a fresh study linking online
recruitment process with COVID-19. Also, while reviewing the literature, the need for
the study is summarized in the following points:

I. The literature reviews which were studied by researchers were all from the
researches before the corona virus pandemic hit our country and the current
study specifically focuses on the present period i.e. pandemic.
II. The previous researches were not under the circumstances where the options for
offline methods of recruitment are completely closed and the organizations as
well as the candidates can only rely on online methods.
III. This study also focuses on the problems which came when offline methods were
used and e-recruitment is able to solve them now.
IV. To study the impact of COVID-19 on online recruitment and how this pandemic
has changed the recruitment process for forever as it become more digitized.

3.2 HYPOTHESIS FORMULATION

3.3 ORIENTATION OF RESEARCH
3.3.1 Research Design
A research design is a framework or blueprint for conducting the research. Research design
in this research was flexible enough to provide details of procedures and method applied for
collection and interpretation of relevant information. Therefore this descriptive research
design specifies the details of research.

The universe for the purpose of this study was to know how digital platform are helpful for
organization in recruiting during covid-19 pandemic.

3.3.1 Sampling Design

The current study is based on primary data collected from personal interview and through
questionnaire and secondary data is collected through previous record. A well- structured
questionnaire was designed to collect the information from the respondent .We have sent
questionnaire to 120 peoples, out of them some have not responded, some have filled
wrong etc. ,so we have shortlisted 100 responses and analysed the data from those 100
responses. The questionnaire was designed to conduct a study to find out various
recruitment methods practice before and during the covid-19 pandemic.

3.3.3 Data Collection

The information was collected on the basis of both Primary data and Secondary data.
Primary data was collected from various responses as filled in by the respondents in the
provided questionnaire. The data was collected from people who were in the search of job
opportunities to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of online recruitment methods
and platforms providing the recruitment services.

A thorough literature review has been done to identify various sources of Secondary data
related to recruitment, e-recruitment methods and platforms. Apart from this, various
publications, journals, published statistics, annual reports, documentary films and news
were referred to. The internet was a constant source to gather information related to the
topic. The published data as well as the collected data were gathered to address the
research problems.

3.3.4 Data Analysis

After receiving the responses on the questionnaire, 100 responses were shortlisted and
categorized into various categories. The data was collected, sorted, analysed and studied
deeply. The data was interpreted using various mathematical tools such as percentages and
statistical tools such as mean, median, mode, correlation, etc., for better understanding of
the viewers or any secondary user of the data. The data was then put in charts, tables, bar
diagrams, etc., and were inter-linked for better understanding and concluding the
responses.

CHAPTER 4:

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

4.1 INTRODUCTION

I have collected primary data from those people who got unemployed during
pandemic and secondary data from google sites which helped me a lot to
know how digital platforms are helpful in recruiting during pandemic.

4.2 INTERPRETATION

I am expecting that this research will be helpful for those people who lost
their jobs because of COVID-19. With help of this research we came to know
that there are usability, readily and quickly information are available for
online recruitment and smartphones app also help in online recruitment.