E-Recruitment Continues to Gain Ground in Germany

In order to attract new employees, companies in the German information economy are increasingly opting for e-recruitment solutions. While in 2016 almost 72 per cent of companies in the information economy (ICT sector, media service providers and knowledge-intensive service providers) used online options such as job portals, company websites and social media platforms to recruit staff, this figure increased to over 77 per cent in 2018. This is the result of a representative survey among companies in the German information economy, conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, in September 2018.

Almost all large companies with more than 100 employees and about 90 per cent of medium-sized companies with more than 20 employees are using e-recruitment solutions. However, e-recruitment recorded the largest growth among small businesses, with 73 per cent currently using e-recruitment – almost seven percentage points more than two years ago.

The most common use of e-recruitment is the posting of job advertisements on the company’s own website, with more than 58 per cent of companies trying to attract new employees this way. At the same time, about 52 per cent of companies in the information economy are using online job portals such as Stepstone or Monster. Social media platforms also saw significant growth in the area of personnel recruitment. While in 2018, 27 per cent of companies reported using these platforms for recruiting, this figure was still below 23 per cent two years ago.

There are, however, still clear differences when comparing the use of e-recruitment according to company size. While 72 percent of large companies, for example, use social media platforms to recruit personnel, only just over 21 per cent of small companies with up to 20 employees make use of this recruitment channel. In addition, since 2016 the usage rate has risen much more sharply for larger companies than for small companies. A similar development has been witnessed for the use of online job portals and the placing of job advertisements on the company’s own website.

Personal recommendation remains most frequently used recruitment channel

“Personal recommendations, however, continue to be by far the most frequently used channel for recruiting personnel,” says Dr. Jörg Ohnemus, deputy head of the ZEW Research Department “Digital Economy”. More than 71 per cent of companies currently use this recruitment method. This corresponds to an increase of eight percentage points compared to the levels recorded in 2016. In contrast to the positive trend in digital recruitment, the number of advertisements placed in print media appears to be declining, with currently 28 per cent of companies still posting job ads in newspapers and magazines. “It is interesting to note that the use of print media is declining not only among large and well-known companies, but also among smaller companies,” says Ohnemus.

In order to determine the significance of individual recruitment channels, companies were asked to assess the most successful channel currently available. Personal recommendations continue to be the most promising channel, according to 45 per cent of companies in the information economy. This corresponds to a significant increase of ten percentage points compared to 2016. Online portals, which came in second in the companies’ ranking, also recorded an increase, if only a minor one (plus 1.6 percentage points).

The placement of job ads on the company’s own website, on the other hand, no longer seems as successful, with only nine per cent of companies considering this to be the most promising measure. However, this decline can only be attributed to small and medium-sized enterprises, since large companies are reporting increasingly positive experiences in that regard.

For further information please contact

Dr. Jörg Ohnemus, Phone +49 (0)621-1235-354, E-Mail joerg.ohnemus@zew.de