While early “career centers” on the Web were often little more than blurbs, including a few photos and an e-mail address to send resumés, today Internet recruiting has evolved into a sophisticated interactive engine with the ability to automate virtually every facet of the hiring process.

Software providers have developed tools that enable clinical labs to prescreen applicants online, take resumés, and automatically redistribute applicant data into company databases, and automate the process of in-house referrals with Web portals.

Meanwhile, others have created diamond-in-the-rough talent-search software, which can be customized to search the Web for ideal, passive job candidates based on what those candidates post on industry blogs, mailing lists, journals, industry association sites, etc.

These new tools, along with ever-increasing reliance on the Web by businesses, has elevated Internet recruiting, and, according to some surveys, has made it the No 1 recruitment tool for employers. A survey of leading companies in the United States, released in February by strategic management and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, found that 51% of all new-hires in 2005 made their first contact via the Internet, with the greatest number of those hires coming from employers’ own Web sites.

“The Internet has transformed the way American employers attract and hire employees,” says Richard Cober, PhD, team lead on the Booz Allen Hamilton survey. “As we look at 2006, employers are giving serious thought to how the Internet can be better used for driving applicant flow.”

Here is an overview of tools for labs to consider when using the Internet for recruiting lab professionals:

Web Site Prescreening Software
Prescreening software packages enable labs to custom-design online questionnaires featuring basic job requirements and are a great time-saver for both parties. Employers can automatically separate the wheat from the chaff, and potential applicants learn very quickly whether or not they are actually qualified for the job being advertised.

The University of California, San Diego, (UCSD) (www.ucsd.edu) uses prescreening software online to separate valid applicants from those who are not qualified for jobs in the university’s clinical lab and other departments. Before contacting an applicant, the UCSD knows if the candidate is legally employable in the United States, whether or not the candidate has proficiencies with specific equipment, and similar preliminaries.

Good Samaritan Hospital (www.goodsam-md.org), based in Baltimore, and The Reading Hospital and Medical Center (www.readinghospital.org) in Wyomissing, Pa, also use thorough prescreening software.

Web Site Resumé Inhalers
Web site resumé inhalers are often components of larger, automated online recruiting software packages. Essentially, inhalers work by autoextracting resumés from a company e-mail box or other online storage space, and then mapping the mined data into the company recruitment database.

Main Sequence Technologies’ inhaler (www.pcrecruiter.com/products_inhaler.htm) is specifically designed for such a task and is preprogrammed to recognize the resumé formats of leading job boards and resumé banks. The software can also be programmed to recognize custom formats, including forms downloaded from a lab’s Web site or resumé formats of an e-recruiting partner. The inhaler can also be configured to send an automated e-mail response to the person who submitted the resumé.

Job Boards
Some labs have used free Web site job boards, including Google Base (www.base.google.com), with success. The reason: Google Base enables the employer to embed key words and phrases in its posting that describe the job being offered, and key words and phrases that help describe the characteristics and qualities the employer is seeking in applicants.

Talent-Search Software
Because many of the best candidates are already working happily at other firms, some software solutions providers offer packages that scour the Web for top talent based on the online articles they have written, postings they have made in newsgroups, positive comments that have been made about them by journalists or their colleagues, and their memberships in industry trade groups and associations, for example.

Software in this category includes AIRS Oxygen 6.0 and ZoomInfo, which is a search engine that specializes in tracking possible candidates online. While a basic search is free, ZoomInfo charges a premium to recruiters who want to conduct extensive searches.

In his book, Postcards From Space: Being the Best in Online Recruitment and HR Management, Peter Weddle offers various ways to use everyday search engines to find passive candidates. For example, a person trying to recruit someone who is working for a specific lab could conduct a Google search to uncover postings to forums, discussion boards, newsgroups, and other sites by the employees of that lab.

Web Site In-House Referral Portals
“The best people I’ve hired came through somebody I knew—a referral,” says Jason Goldberg, CEO of Jobster, a job board that uses referrals as its primary method of matching jobs with candidates. “The job found them.”

A lab can create its own referral portal at its own site with products like Referred Hire, from Interview Exchange (www.interviewexchange.com/static/newsL27.jsp;jsessionid=1424BAB004884C56B88F31BFC2749331). The software essentially creates a secure domain on a company Web site where employees can log into to recommend friends and professional acquaintances for current openings.

Mayo Clinic (www.mayoclinic.org/jobs-dlmp-rst) uses a different approach. With sites in Rochester, Minn, Jacksonville, Fla, and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz, Mayo posts a “send-this-job-to-a-friend” button with every job listing. The result: Any time a well-meaning friend stops by, the job offering can be e-mailed to someone who is looking for that type of job.

Courses in Online Recruiting
Job boards sometimes offer training in online-recruiting techniques as an enticement to get employers to use their services. JobsInTheUS.com, for example, recently opened JiUS University, which features a series of courses to help recruiters get up-to-speed on the latest that online recruiting has to offer. Its “Internet Recruiting 101” course offers the top 10 tips for using online job boards. “IR 201” focuses on writing and formatting eye-catching job postings, including the most effective usage of html, graphics and photos. And “IR 301” focuses on industry-specific recruiting tips.

The Top 30 Job Boards
Approximately 40,000 Web sites are currently involved in Internet recruiting in some way, and Weddle conducted a survey last year of 15,000 users of such sites—both employers and job seekers—to ferret out the best.

The result of Weddle’s efforts, the 2005 Users Choice Awards, can be found on his Web site (www.weddles.com/recruiternews/issue.cfm?Newsletter=151). His list features 30 top sites in all. The top five are A/E/C Job Bank, America’s Job Bank, Best Jobs USA, The Blue Line, and CareerBank.com.

3. The University of California San Diego uses pre-qualifying, pre-screening software online.

4. The Mayo Clinic posts a “send-this-job-to-a-friend,” automatic emailer button with every job listing.

Joe Dysart is a contributing writer for Clinical Lab Products.