RAPPORT
WWW.RECORDINGACHIEVEMENT.ORG
Issue 1 (2015)
The International Journal for
Recording Achievement,
Planning and Portfolios
Using an online labour market intermediary for the
recruitment of graduates: The recruiter’s perspective on
AlmaLaurea
Lievens, Ronald. Tilburg University, Netherlands
Ferrante, Francesco. University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Italy
Abstract:
This paper addresses the evaluation of an ePortfolio platform by organizations for recruitment purposes.
The aim was to assess the contribution of online labour market intermed iary AlmaLaurea towards
enhancing the quality of the information and subsequently facilitating more effective recruitment
practices by organizations in Italy. An online survey was distributed among 276 recruiters who used the
AlmaLaurea service for recruitment purposes. Results show that recruiters mostly use AlmaLaurea in
the pre-selection phase of recruitment, that they are satisfied with the ease and speed of use, validity
and reliability of information, and quality of the profiles. Furthermore, they ran k AlmaLaurea as a
relatively effective tool in the spectrum of a wide range of available recruitment tools. Certain
mismatches between what recruiters seek for in candidates and the extent to which they find these
characteristics in AlmaLaurea profiles were identified, most notably related to hard-to-verify information
(professional ambitions, soft skills, knowledge on sector of the firm). Implications of these findings are
discussed.
A recent study on online job search reported that
unemployed workers who search for jobs online
obtain employment 25% faster than their offline
searching counterparts (Kuhn and Mansour,
2014). This finding supports the utility of online job
search, which has become a commodity in
contemporary labour markets. Kuhn and
Mansour’s study did not provide conclusive insight
in the exact dynamics responsible for the
apparent effectiveness of online job search. They
raise several explanations, speculating that their
reported findings can be attributed to the
significant uptake of internet use and connectivity,
consequent new low-cost channels of interaction
between job seekers and firms, and an overall
improved design of online labour market
intermediators (LMI’s). Online LMI’s facilitate,
inform, or regulate the matching of workers to
firms (e.g. Monster and LinkedIn).
In the literature, studies which offer robust
empirical su pport for the dynamics which explain
the utility of online LMI’s with respect to labour
market matching are few and far between (Kuhn
and Mansour, 2014). This can be attributed to the
complexity and diversity of labour markets, among
which there is considerable variety with respect to
market segmentation and educational attainment
levels. Few studies exist which evaluate the
capability of online LMI’s to enhance the job
matching process in targeted areas.
One study in particular succeeded in providing
evidence for the utility of a specific online LMI by
focusing on the job market for graduates in higher
education. Bagues and Labini (2007) investigated
the labour market outcomes of graduates using
the AlmaLaurea platform. AlmaLaurea is an Interuniversity Consortium, founded in Italy in 1994, at
the University of Bologna. It is a bottom-up
initiative that now involves 72 Universities and
more than 90% of Italian graduates.
The
AlmaLaurea database comprises over 2 million
resumes which are made accessible to recruiters.
In 2013, the service sold over half a million
resumes to recruiters. Part of the information
contained in the resumes is based on
administrative data (certified by the universities)
and the compilation of the resumes is compulsory
in the large majority of universities, thereby
avoiding problems of self-selection, which may
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