Recruiters are increasingly turning to the Web in order to compete in the "war for talent". This paper develops a conceptual framework comprising antecedents of websites' attractiveness and its influence on application behavior. We show the contribution aesthetics, content, navigation, interactivity and data security make to the attractiveness of a website. Furthermore, we state that employer knowledge serves as a partial mediator between a website's attractiveness and the application tendency. Employer knowledge, on the other hand, is directly influenced by the aesthetics and the content of the webpage.
Valuable staff is highly important for organizational success. Companies are therefore increasingly turning to the Web to compete in the "war for talent" [29,61].
In their study, Chapman and Webster [24] show that the Web is one of the most popular means when recruiting employees for various positions and across industry sectors. However, when making use of Web-based recruiting, companies have to take into account a great number of applicants who do not match the specific job requirements and/or do not fit into the company culture [24]. Hence, simply having a career website is not necessarily going to result in a successful recruitment. A career website needs to attract those potential employees that are best qualified while sending out the clear signal not to apply to unqualified applicants at the same time. So far, our knowledge about how to build such an attractive website and about its impact on application behavior is limited. Although first laudable steps to explain the effects of different website characteristics have been pursued [e.g. 35], we still lack profound insights into Web-based recruiting. Moreover, the role of employer knowledge in Web-based recruiting has been mostly omitted. Accordingly, we do not know how important prior knowledge about a potential employer is or in what way Web-based recruiting might contribute to building a strong employer brand. To address these research gaps and to provide guidance for future studies we try to contribute to the recruiting literature by developing a conceptual framework about antecedents and impact of website attractiveness and the mediating role of employer knowledge.
The structure of the remaining paper is as follows: As an introduction, the different types of Web-based recruiting and their advantages and disadvantages will be presented. Additionally, we will critically investigate the factors influencing a website"s attractiveness. Although current studies show that career websites play a major role in recruiting, little is known about their impact on potential applicants [26]. Thus, we want to contribute to current Web-based recruiting literature by developing a conceptual framework about the antecedents of website attractiveness, its impact on application tendency and the role of employer knowledge in this process. In this respect, we will take results from other studies into consideration and discuss them in detail. Based on our conclusions, we will present implications for research and industry at the end of this paper.
Web-based recruiting is the search for employees via the company website, job exchange or career portals, and resume databases [77]. Thematically, web-based recruiting belongs to the external recruitment since the main goal of career portals or an own website is to attract people from the external job market. It is, however, also conceivable to implement an in-house career portal, for example via the Web.
Company websites may present different kinds of useful information about the company and its available jobs [45]. The person interested in the job has the possibility to either apply via an online application form, via email or, quite conventionally, via mail. Just like in newspapers, different job offers from various companies are published in online job exchanges like www.monster.com or www.stepstone.de. Job exchanges also give applicants the opportunity to create and upload resumes, which can later on be found by various companies. Those companies often have to pay a fee for this service [44,45].
Companies can search for new employees in different ways [44]. Web-based recruiting, however, can offer advantages over the conventional forms of recruitment such as newspaper ads or employee recommendations. Some parts of the recruitment process can be automated which results in a shorter application process. This might save resources within the Human Resources Department [77]. The estimate is that the costs of Web-based recruiting amounts to only one twentieth of the costs of other forms of recruitment [21]. In general, the costs of an internet advertisement can be compared to the costs of a small ad in a local newspaper [43,44]. In addition to that, only one-time costs will arise for the implementation of a career section on the company"s website. However, Web-based recruiting not only helps the companies save money but the applicants will also be able to achieve a cost benefit. Through an online application or an application via email, they will e.g. be able to save the expenses for the application and its postage [44]. Moreover, Web-based recruiting has a better coverage and effectiveness than traditional recruitment forms [32,37]. Potential applicants are able to visit job-offering websites at any time and from all over the world [53,77]. That way, they can easily find detailed information about a company and its respective job offers. This makes a previous selfselection, i.e. an evaluation on whether a certain job opening is adequate or not, a lot easier for the applicants. Another crucial advantage of Web-based recruiting is its possibility to interactively present information. Stylistic means such as activating pictures and colors may emphasize important information [53]. In addition, it is easy to document the entire recruitment process [77]. Consequently, the whole application process becomes clearer and mistakes, such as not responding to an application, can be avoided.
Applicants usually expect to have rather low chances to get a job by applying over a company"s website. In contrast to this, companies publish most of their job openings on their homepages. In order to address as many applicants as possible and to achieve a sufficient number of eligible applications, an attractive website is essential. A website is attractive when potential and eligible applicants think of it as being appealing and are able to recall the information presented on the website. In order to achieve this, one has to consider elements such as design/aesthetics, content, navigation, interactivity and data security.
Especially pictures, free spaces, fonts and colors are part of the design of a website [27]. As Braddy, Foster-Thompson, Wuensch and Grossnickle [12] show in their study, the design is of crucial importance when it comes to online job advertisements. Job openings presented in an appealing font and color and with a clearly arranged layout are found to be far more attractive than advertisements written in a continuous text in blackand-white (notice that the format of the text alone will not be able to improve the evaluation of the website).
In order to convey a consistent impression of a website, a uniform design is important [27]. This connects the visual components to each other, which again has a positive influence on the aesthetics [75].
A consistent impression of a company"s website can be created by connecting all design elements (color, texts, pictures) properly and harmoniously to each other. On top of this, the design elements used should correspond to the content of the website. Consequently, the career section should also match the other website components in order to create a uniform company website [27].
Together with the design, the vividness creates the overall impression of the website. The vividness describes the extent of features of a website, which are supposed to entertain the user [27]. Therefore, a website that is called vivid should appeal to several senses in order to provide a unique experience for the user [31]. The experience will become even more vivid by implementing pictures, music, videos and animations [27].
Steuer [70] defines vividness as the ability of a medium to construct a surrounding that is able to appeal to various senses with the help of features such as music or videos. Furthermore, he subdivides vividness into two dimensions: sensory width and sensory depth. The sensory width describes the number of senses that a medium can possibly appeal. The sensory depth, however, describes how precisely the different senses can be appealed.
While an appealing website will attract many applicants regardless of their personorganization (P-O) fit, a well structured content will enable self-election processes and by doing so mainly attract well fitting applicants [52]. Companies are confronted with the difficult task of encouraging adequate job seekers to apply while setting hurdles for inadequate candidates [35]. Adequate candidates have a high P-O fit, i.e. a high concurrence between the values of the applicant and the company [36,50]. In order to address adequate job seekers more precisely, so-called "Realistic Job Previews"(RJP) are an appropriate instrument. RJPs draw a balanced picture of a company, which shows both positive and negative aspects of the offered job [41,71]. Various studies assume that RJPs contribute to a higher job satisfaction, less fluctuation and better job performances [15].
Information is important for website"s attractiveness and relevance [74]. Salary, educational opportunities or location of the company should be part of the provided information [63]. Generally, two different kinds of information exist: information about the advertised job and about the company itself. Both types of information are important for the decision-making process of potential applicants [23]. Allen, Otondo and Matho [4] confirm the prominent role of information about both the job and the company. Thus, information presented on the website does not only have an impact on the existing image of the enterprise but also affects the positive perception of the website [4].
According to the Signaling Theory, job seekers have incomplete information about the company and the potential job. Thus, they will search information from every possible source in order to reduce uncertainty [69]. Barber and Roehling [7] confirm this argumentation, by showing that job seekers tend to compensate for missing information with personal assumptions. Hence, more information can make the company appear more attractive because it decreases the job seeker"s uncertainty [4,14].
Information focused on specific target-groups motivates potential applicants to think about their person-job fit [36,62]. A pool of qualified applicants is therefore rather the result of self-selection -in terms of refraining from applying on account of an insufficient identification with the job -than a result of increased applications on account of a higher job-identification [36].
On a company website, information about the company and its job openings are crucial and the company itself can arrange type and scope of the information presented [4] without having to stick to the expensive space and formatting rules of newspapers. Job seekers anticipate this and expect a higher degree of as well as more detailed information on a company"s website.
The Elaboration Likelihood Modell (ELM) is a useful theoretical framework to explain how job seekers process information and received remarkable attention within recruitment research [35]. The ELM describes two ways of processing information [39]: the central and the peripheral processing. The central way is a rather cognitive processing of content-related arguments. In order to process these arguments, (already) existing information is taken into consideration [39]. Therefore, the receiver needs to be motivated and able to understand the message [35]. However, if a receiver is unable or little motivated to carefully examine a message, the peripheral way of processing is activated [39]. Here, attitudes and/or opinions are formed based on peripheral information such as aesthetics. The content of the message plays only a minor role. [39].
In contrast to the central processing, the peripheral processing causes a less intensive opinion formation and the information received will not be constantly memorizable [35].
In terms of a company"s website, the ELM implications show that aesthetical features of a website are more likely to support a peripheral processing and are therefore not able to convey the message of the career section [35]. This notion stands in contrast to other studies. In their study, Childers and Houston [25] conclude that aesthetical features can attract the attention of individuals to the website. Thus, information is memorized for a longer period. Zusman and Landis [78] conclude that pictures linked to the information support the processing of this information. Cober et al. [27] show that the overall impression of a website determines whether a user decides to concentrate on the website any further or not. These results are in accordance with the study of Coyle and Thorson [31], which states that a high amount of vividness on a website helps to generate a stable attitude. Dineen et al. [35] suggest that aesthetics can help the job seeker to process recruitment information just as aesthetics help the consumer to sort out certain advertisements and accept others instead. Studies by Allen et al. [5] and Rynes and Miller [65], however, show that information alone affects the potential applicant positively. Information about both the job and the company positively influence the website"s attractiveness [5,4]. In addition, the verbal protocol analysis by Barber and Roehling [7] proves that job seekers pay attention to the information provided in job advertisements.
Those divergent results can be explained by the fact that most studies focus either on the content or on the aesthetics of a company website. Yet, it is possible that one message can cause a central and a peripheral processing, for example if a website owns relevant information as well as an appealing design [35].
One can assume that job seekers are in the first place interested in the job openings of a website and that they are able to process this information. Therefore, it is likely that relevant information by itself can motivate the potential applicant to reflect on a website"s content intensively. The job seeker, however, will be able to memorize the information a lot easier and longer if the website links relevant information and appealing aesthetics. Unattractive aesthetics may result in a peripheral processing of the information [35] while an aesthetical website will foster a central processing route. Hence, a website with appealing aesthetical features and relevant information allows for a better self-selection and reduces the gap between perceived and actual person-job or P-O fit [51]. As a conclusion, one can state that a company website, which contains aesthetical features as well as target-group oriented information, appears more attractive. Moreover, the central route of processing due to aesthetics and content helps to build employer knowledge, leading us to propose, that:
Proposition 1a: The more aesthetical a company website appears, the more attractive it is perceived. Proposition 1b: The aesthetics of a company website influence the employer knowledge positively.
Proposition 2a: The more target-group oriented information a website contains, the more attractive it is perceived. Proposition 2b: Target-group oriented information on a company website influences the employer knowledge positively.
Speed can influence the applicants" perception positively [66]. Delays in the application process may cause the loss of the applicant"s interest [63] or could signal lacking competence of the company [63]. Especially for job seekers with little experience in the computer area, speed plays a crucial role during the application process [66]. If it takes too much time to get a response from the company, there is the risk that applicants will already have accepted another job offer [63].
Besides a quick response to application reception, a fast and easy navigation of the company website is fundamental. Palmer [60] defines navigation as a system that allows users to obtain information and to systematically move from one position to another.
Visitors of a website always want to know where they are, where they have been, and what further information they could get. Additionally, an unclear navigation structure can result in the applicant getting lost and therefore leaving the website before he has been able to find the relevant information. The "Two-Click-Rule" by General Electric states that it must not take more than two clicks to find the relevant information [40].
A quick and easy navigation simplifies the search for information on a website and positively affects how the website is perceived [28]. Braddy et al. [12] divided participants into two groups: One group tried to find a job opening on a website with easy navigation, the second group searched on a website with difficult navigation. The first group was able to find the opening quickly which left a positive impression on them [12]. Accordingly, we state that: Proposition 3: The easier the navigation of a website, the more attractive it is perceived.
As far as websites are concerned, the applicant not only has the opportunity to contact the company in case of questions, he also has the opportunity to apply online or take part in an online assessment test [55]. Besides type and scope, the speed of communication is a major part of the interactivity, for example in terms of a quick acknowledgement of the receipt of an application [55]. This is in accordance with the definition by Blattberg and Deighton [11] who define interactivity as direct and honest communication between a company and an individual, independent of time and space.
Concerning the impact of interactivity, empirical studies come to divergent conclusions. Coyle and Thorson [31] did not find a positive influence of interactivity on the perception of a website. McMillan and Hwang [56] come to different results. They confirmed that interactive websites increase the activity and the processing of information. This can positively affect the subjective perception of the website. Liu and Shrum [54] found that an interactive online experience attracts far more attention and facilitates the cognitive processing more than traditional media.
A possible reason for divergent results is that interactivity is often defined on the basis of the mere presence or absence of certain features [49,68,70]. However, simply adding some applications does not guarantee a high degree of interactivity [68]. Interactivity is rather determined by the actual use of the present applications and by how easily a person navigates the website [72]. Until interactive applications are finally used, their mere presence does not influence the user"s perception [68]. If a job seeker, who is looking for contact information, reaches one website with five and another website with two links, it is probable that not one of the five links but one of the two links will lead to the information requested. Although the five-link website is more interactive according to a quantitative definition of interactivity, the job seeker will find the website with two links more interactive [57]. However, taking controversial notions about interactivity into consideration, we propose that: Proposition 4: The more interactive a company website is, the more attractive it is perceived.
Data security is of main concern for website users [48]. Here, the concern in terms of personal information relates to the perception of procedural justice or -to be precise -to the perceived fairness of the process: the lower the concern about personal data, the higher the perception of procedural justice [8,9,38,76]. Harris, van Hoye and Lievens [45] showed that people are generally reluctant to reveal work-related information because they perceive an absence of data security. Alge [3] reveals that simultaneously to a decreasing intrusion of an individual"s privacy, the perception of procedural justice increases. Thus, worries about personal data have an impact on the perception of the procedural justice. Furthermore, this can cause a reaction of the applicant [9]. The impression of being treated unfairly can cause negative actions such as the rejection to apply or a negative evaluation of the company [46]. Moreover, the job openings could possibly get less attractive [46]. Therefore, we propose that: Proposition 5: The higher the security of data is perceived, the more attractive especially inexperienced users will perceive the website.
A number of factors influence the application decision. According to Gatewood et al. [42], the job seeker is initially evaluating available information from various recruitment sources. In this respect, an attractive website is very important since it often establishes a first contact between the job seeker and the company [78]. The website can furthermore assist to clarify unknown characteristics of the company such as professionalism, organization or intelligent technologies [4]. Thus, a company"s website is able to contribute to the first impression essentially.
From an applicant"s perspective, means of recruitment are often representative for the whole company [65]. Regarding a company website, this means: the more structured and organized the website of a company appears, the more will the job seeker assign these characteristics to the company itself [13].
The means of recruitment should be positively recognized in order to attract the job seeker"s attention and to present employment opportunities [7]. With regard to the company"s website, it is therefore important to offer sufficient information as well as an appealing environment to the potential applicant. That way, the job seeker will perceive the website as positive and will develop an interest in the offered job.
Summing up, one can say that the impression of a company website is a crucial factor in the applicant"s decision-making process [78]. Various scientific results are in accordance with this view. Zusman und Landis [78], Braddy et al. [12], and Barber and Roehling [7], for example, showed that aspects such as aesthetics, easy navigation and offered information could contribute to the attractiveness of a company website and thus influence the application behavior.
Proposition 6: The more attractive a company website is perceived, the more it influences the application decision of the applicant.
Brand-Equity-Theory explains how the intention to buy a product is influenced by the knowledge about the (corporate or product) brand [4,16]. According to the Brand-Equity-Theory, there are two main dimensions of the company brand: familiarity with the company and the image of the enterprise [4]. The familiarity with the company describes the ability of a job seeker to recall the name of the company in question easily. The image of a company is shaped by perceptions, features and associations, which persons link to the company brand [47].
This also applies to the recruitment context. The development of company-specific features is of major importance in order to create trust and credibility [2]. When it comes to deciding which job to accept, applicants take especially those impressions into consideration that they have gained while observing a company"s way of recruiting. In order to evaluate potential employers, applicants use all available information (e.g. by newspaper ads, websites or job fairs [42]. That kind of information is called the employer knowledge or employer image [30]. As it has already been noted with regard to the Brand Equity Theory, it is of major importance to connect unique images of the company as an employer to current, potential and former employees [73]. One can conclude that a positive image as an employer can increase an enterprise"s attractiveness. This manifests itself, for example, in the size of the pool of applicants [10,19]. Therefore, we state that:
The employer knowledge has a positive effect on the application decision.
One supposes that websites positively influence the behavior of the applicants through detailed information. By offering various positive job information as well as values and features which are not directly communicated through recruitment ads, highinformation forms of recruiting such as job and career websites have an impact on the potential applicants [22]. The huge amount of available information catches the applicants" attention and increases the perceived reputation of the company [19]. On account of those effects, such as an increase of the company"s reputation and of the job information, a positive overall effect on the image or employer knowledge is probable.
Taking into consideration the definition of media richness by Daft and Lengel [33], who state that media richness is the ability of information to change understanding within a time interval, one can argue that existing misunderstandings in terms of characteristics of a company can be changed and adjusted by means of media with informational content (websites). Finally, this results in a higher familiarity with both the message and the company [33,67]. Hence, one can assume that the attractiveness of a website can positively influence the image of the employer. Moreover, by directly addressing applicants, one can create positive attitudes towards the company [58] as well as a unique image [1,2,47]. In conclusion, we propose that:
Proposition 8: The attractiveness of a website has a positive effect on the employer knowledge.
This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the role of a company"s website in the recruitment process by presenting a model and its corresponding propositions. The model argues that factors such as aesthetics, content, navigation and data security will make a website appear more attractive. By doing so, orientation on the website is facilitated and relevant information is found more easily. Thus, the user of the website has the possibility to make a well-grounded application decision. Furthermore, we state that the image of the employer serves to a certain extent as a mediator between the attractiveness of the website and the intention to apply. The aesthetics and content of the website are also directly affecting the image of the employer.
In order to establish a theoretic basis we applied marketing theories. The ELM was employed in order to describe the effectiveness of aesthetics and information on a company website. We were able to show that the ELM also applies to the recruitment context. Appealing aesthetics and relevant information for the job seeker may activate both a peripheral and a central processing and therefore be able to support the job seeker in his decision on whether to apply or not.
Our review shows that the relevance and the quality of the information gained through interactive applications play a major role. However, one needs to keep in mind that if a website has too many interactive elements, it could challenge the perception of the user too much and the central processing of information could hamper. As a consequence of this, users could possibly be distracted from central information and process the content rather peripherally. This is more likely to happen among inexperienced users, who can easily be distracted and who are generally facing problems in processing information through interactive applications [55]. Hence, with regard to a company website, it is important to scrutinize which interactive applications will actually be useful for the job seeker. Simply adding applications will not guarantee a perception of interactivity and may even be counterproductive.
Furthermore, we show that speed and an easy navigation can contribute to the attractiveness of a company website. It should, however, be noted that these factors are especially important for job seekers with little computer experience [66]. Therefore, the company has to figure out which applicants they want to address with a certain job opening. If computer knowledge and internet skills are not required, it can be reasonable to simplify the navigation of the website with support during the online application process.
Additionally, the perceived security of personal data and the perception of procedural justice play a major role for the application process. If a potential applicant feels treated fairly, his application decision may be positively influenced [9]. Conversely, an applicant who does not feel safe or thinks that he is being treated unfairly will possibly refrain from an application.
Information offered on the company website is pivotal when directly addressing job seekers with a high P-O fit. RJPs are one way to convey information. Thus, potential applicants have the opportunity to find out by themselves whether there is a high P-O Fit or not. The more realistic the presentation of the job and the company is, the easier it is for a potential job candidate to compare the job requirements to his skills and preferences. This gives him the possibility to apply only for those jobs that offer a subjective fit. The level of the fit between company and applicant or, more precisely, between the job expectations of the applicant and the offered benefits has decisive consequences. The P-O Fit causes a multitude of positive organizational effects such as a better performance and a stronger loyalty towards the employer [20,59]. Moreover, a high P-O fit is related to the so-called "organizational citizenship behavior". This describes voluntary behavior patterns such as voluntary support among colleagues, which are not explicitly mentioned in the job advertisement and which are beneficial for the company [17]. The N-S Fit (Needs-Supplies Fit) on the other hand, causes job-and career-related patterns such as job satisfaction or satisfaction within the given career opportunities, etc. [17]. These results are linked to the long-term performance of the company or the business unit [51]. As a consequence of this, it is obvious that all forms of recruiting will have to ensure a P-O Fit and an N-S Fit.
Besides the attractiveness of the company website, the reputation of the enterprise is also crucial for the application decision. On one hand, the company website influences the attitude towards a firm. On the other hand, the image of the company has a direct effect on the application decision. Here, the results are in accordance with the Brand-Equity-Theory. Job seekers relate the image of the company to unknown characteristics of the company and the job. On top of this, the image of the enterprise is also able to influence the quality of the pool of applicants. If a company is known to be rather selective in terms of their applicants, they usually have more applications from qualified applicants since these applicants can expect a positive feedback [64]. In summary, one can say that the content of a company website and the image of the company are two major components which influence size and quality of the pool of applicants. Aesthetics, navigation and interactivity mainly contribute to the attractiveness of the website. These factors can either help the applicants to find the information required and/or assist the applicants in processing the information.
It is of interest for future research to show the reasons/criteria which make a job seeker visit the website of a certain company. The weight of the individual criteria could also be an interesting starting point for future studies. Can a website that is easy to navigate also be perceived as interactive? Would job seekers refrain from applying if they perceived a high P-O Fit but also a low data security? In addition to that, there is still a lack of knowledge about which group of persons sets most value on which factors.
Another point to investigate would be the question of the extent to which one can assign the design criteria of company websites to online job boards. In this context, it would also be interesting to investigate the impact of the company image on the application decision.
For practical work, our paper makes several implications. Professional and wellarranged company websites for example, can help the applicants to find the information they are really looking for and interested in [55]. Therefore, the arrangement of a company website should be uniform and easy to navigate. The problem of many company websites is that they were initially created to present the products and/or services of the company. This can create confusion among applicants looking for job openings on the company website. In order to avoid this confusion, the career section of a website should be easy to find and should fit the overall picture of the website. On top of this, the user should know at all times where he is located at on the website and how he can navigate to other sections [26].
When creating an online application process, a company should be aware of its targetgroups [55]. In case a company is looking for applicants with knowledge in the computer and internet sector, it is not necessary to offer extensive online instructions or support throughout the online application process. In such a case, the company should rather provide a basic support in terms of the application [9].
Moreover, target-group oriented information, e.g. in the form of RJPs, should be provided on the company website. It is also possible to offer a self-test that will additionally facilitate the self-selection of the job seeker. Thus, the job seeker is able to discover a probable P-O Fit by answering questions in the first place [34]. This, in turn, can have an impact on the quality of the pool of applicants.
With job seekers having different preferences concerning information [36], a company website should contain both information concerning the P-O Fit (for example corporate culture, work atmosphere, etc.) and information concerning the N-S Fit (such as rewards and benefits of the company). This is important because some job seekers make their application decision based on the P-O Fit, others based on the N-S Fit [36].
The (virtual) environment is a decisive factor for the way information is received and evaluated [6]. According Coyle and Thorson [31], attitudes towards websites are far more positive when the design of those websites is vivid. For that reason, it is important for a company website to contain vivid elements. Pictures and articles describing the daily routine of the employees or a video showing parts of the future job are just two examples of how to implement such elements. It is also advisable to give the job seekers the opportunity to communicate among each other, for example via newsletters informing about current job openings, a contact email address or a chat.
In order for the job seeker to feel safe and treated fairly on the company website, the privacy policy of the company should be published on its website. The privacy policy tells the job seekers what will be done with their data in detail [9].
Besides an attractive website, the image of the company is also decisive for the application decision. For that reason, companies should not exclusively rely on their recruitment techniques. Allen et al. [4] show that even if job seekers had unlimited opportunities to find information, the image of the company would still play a major role during the application decision.