Values and ethics in e-recruitment : A study of how employers can capture values and ethics of job applicants

Sammanfattning: Due to the rapid advancement of internet, many organizations have adapted to e-recruitment, also called web based recruitment, in order to save money and time. The process when recruit via internet allows the employer to be specific of what qualifications that a new employee shall have. Hence, the e-recruitment system searches for suitable candidates from the database, where job applicants have filled in their profiles. In spite of the advantages of e-recruitment and the easy way for employers to find applicants with right experience and education, little research has focused on personal attributes like values and ethics among job applicants. Researchers agree though that values and ethics of employees that appeal the employer, can favor the organization and its performance. The purpose of this study is to create an extended framework of e-recruitment that takes ethics and values in consideration during the recruitment process, so they match the organization. This study is of qualitative character and is based on four case studies where one employer with recruitment responsibility from each organization participates. Through interviews, they give their point of view regarding e-recruitment and the process, including what they seek for when recruiting new employees. Our findings show that the whole e-recruitment process is characterized by values and ethics, even if it is not explicitly mentioned. Also, the more customer focused organizations are, the keener of capture the ethics and values of job applicants in an earlier stage in the recruitment stages are they, which they do by meeting a larger group of candidates. The international organizations sort out candidates in a more rough way before meeting fewer amounts of candidates.