THE NETHERLANDS:

New E-recruiting service for oil and gas

Jan W. Scholten, Worldwideworker.com, the Netherlands

For a company starting a project in the present climate of careful investments, it often is a challenge to operate within the framework of partners, host country, shareholders, employees and many other factors, such as environmental groups, competition and swinging oil price. The preparation phase for any new development, therefore, is often long. In-depth reviews are required for changing requirements or conditions during the development phase, etc.

As a result, when a project is approved and the long preparation phase is over, things have to move fast. Many companies only realize at this point that the necessary human skills are not available to carry out the project. And with recent downsizing and re-structuring, often there is no personnel department to handle the recruiting. In addition, advanced technology demands new skills.

Worldwideworker.com has developed a service utilizing new technology to assist companies in finding the right person in minimal time. Using the Internet, in parallel with a unique web-based database, it is possible to notify thousands of potential job seekers of a new position, within minutes of receiving advertisements. Next, the first applications will arrive within hours.

Since the technology is web-based, it can be accessed from anywhere in the world. All users – companies and individuals – work with the same unique database. This is a big difference from the more traditional recruiting, where the database can be accessed only from the local office network, and must be copied around the world.

For example, in October 2000, an Asia-based service company was establishing a team of 20 experts for a green field development. The company approached Worldwideworker.com for recruitment advertising. Ads were placed within two hours on Worldwideworker’s web site, with job titles covering the full spectrum of the lifecycle of a project, including project manager, geophysicist, drilling engineer and logistics manager. Immediately the e-mail notifications were sent out to the registered job seekers in the database.

Within hours, the first candidates had submitted applications on-line. The applicants were filtered using web-based technology, thus saving the client time. From the first day, the resumes were received in the client’s office by e-mail. Final candidate selection was begun, and only two weeks later, the company had received 1,098 resumes. Applications were closed at that time.

The figure below shows the process, compared with traditional recruiting. The time line shows the reduction in candidate identification is about one month. The comparison with traditional recruiting shows the dramatic reduction in time for the company to receive the first qualified resumes – this occurred on day 1 instead of day 28. Costs were several hundred dollars, instead of the several thousand dollars normally associated with print advertising.

Time line comparing online vs. conventional recruiting indicates that the online method reduces candidate identification by about one month.

When a company posts an ad, a notification is sent to all job seekers that have expressed an interest in the type of position posted, assuring very targeted marketing. Another benefit with the e-mail notification is that it is very easy to forward to colleagues or friends

Future developments are expected in the area of selection and communication with candidates. The final selection process is one in which both time and cost can be further reduced. Tests are being conducted with tools, such as on-line questionnaires for interviewing candidates, that would facilitate this process.