E-recruitment and the benefits of organizational web appeal

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

Computers in

Computers in Human Behavior 24 (2008) 2384–2398

Human Behavior

www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh

E-recruitment and the benefits of organizationalweb appeal q

Lori Foster Thompson a,*, Phillip W. Braddy b, Karl L. Wuensch c

a Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7650, Raleigh, NC 27695-7650, USAb Center for Creative Leadership, One Leadership Place, P.O. Box 26300, Greensboro, NC 27438-6300, USA

c Department of Psychology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858-4353, USA

Available online 8 April 2008

Abstract

This study examined the influences of website design on prospective job seekers. A total of 182participants accessed and reviewed an online job ad. Afterwards, they rated: (a) the attractivenessof the ad’s formatting, (b) the usability of the website, (c) overall evaluations of the organization’sweb appeal, (d) impressions of the organization, and (e) willingness to pursue employment with thehiring organization. Although both the formatting attractiveness and usability of online recruitmentmaterials influenced participants’ inclinations to pursue jobs, formatting was more important thanusability. Moreover, impressions of the employer mediated the relationship between satisfaction withthe website and willingness to pursue employment with the organization. Overall, this researchadvances knowledge by applying signaling theory to the web-based recruitment domain and by test-ing a mediated relationship implied therein. In addition, this is the first study to introduce relativeweights analysis to the recruitment literature.� 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Job seeker attitudes; Organizational websites; Relative weights analysis; Signaling theory; Websitecharacteristics; Web-based recruitment

0747-5632/$ - see front matter � 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.chb.2008.02.014

q Portions of this research were completed while the first two authors were affiliated with East CarolinaUniversity. This research was presented at the 19th Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial andOrganizational Psychology, Chicago, IL, April, 2004.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 919 513 7845; fax: +1 919 515 1716.E-mail address: [email protected] (L.F. Thompson).

mailto:[email protected]

L.F. Thompson et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 24 (2008) 2384–2398 2385

1. Introduction

The recruitment of high-quality employees remains a fundamental goal for organiza-tions. Now more than ever, researchers and practitioners recognize the need to understandthe manner in which prospective applicants are attracted to organizations and jobs (Lie-vens, van Dam, & Anderson, 2002). Meanwhile, advances in technology have transformedthe way recruitment can be handled, and the past decade has seen a marked trend towardInternet-based recruitment, especially among large, multinational organizations (Ander-son, 2003; McManus & Ferguson, 2003). Currently, however, little is known about appli-cants’ reactions to e-recruitment procedures because research has only begun to explorethis issue (Anderson, 2003; Cober, Brown, Keeping, & Levy, 2004; Williamson, Lepak,& King, 2003). The present study addressed this void by examining the degree to whichpeople’s perceptions of an online job ad’s format and usability forecasted their intentionsto apply for the position. We also tested whether impressions of the employer mediated therelationship between prospective applicants’ reactions to an organizational web page andtheir willingness to pursue a job with the institution in question.

1.1. Web formatting, usability, and the attraction of e-recruits

There has recently been a ‘‘headlong rush” to use the Internet for recruitment, withsome reports indicating that as many as 90% of large US companies are now recruitingvia the web (Anderson, 2003; Cappelli, 2001). Online searches have proven to be quitepopular among job seekers. When Feldman and Klaas (2002) asked graduate businessschool alumni to indicate which job search strategies had been most helpful in gettingpromising job leads/offers, Internet job hunting ranked second – behind personal network-ing but ahead of headhunters, newspaper advertisements, and a variety of othertechniques.

The popularity of web-based recruiting is perhaps unsurprising in light of the conve-niences it offers to applicants and hiring organizations. Online tools can be exploited todirect job seekers to suitable vacancies, and they can ease application logistics. Recruitsfilling out web-based forms presumably incur fewer costs (in terms of time and money)than do those mailing paper application packets. Further, organizations can utilize theInternet to sort through resumes and contact prospective applicants (Cappelli, 2001). Theycan also add recruitment pages to existing organizational sites to attract candidates byadvertising position openings and marketing themselves to job seekers spanning the globe(Galanaki, 2002).

With regard to attracting candidates, individual company web pages play a critical rolein the electronic recruitment process (Zusman & Landis, 2002). Organizations’ web pagescan provide candidates with the opportunity to learn about the institution (e.g., corporatevalues, benefits, and the like), search for and preview job ads, submit resumes, and/or fillout application forms (Lievens et al., 2002). Corporate home pages are therefore the firstplace many people look when evaluating potential employers (Cappelli, 2001). Even appli-cants using third-party sites (e.g., job boards and job search engines) are exposed to orga-nizations’ websites early in the job search process because third-party sites often linkapplicants to individual companies’ pages (Zusman & Landis, 2002).

Because prospective employees commonly encounter companies’ electronic representa-tions early in the job search process, organizational home pages should be designed with

2386 L.F. Thompson et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 24 (2008) 2384–2398

potential recruits in mind (Cappelli, 2001). In all likelihood, attractive formatting andstraightforward functionality (i.e., user friendliness) are two factors that will enhance awebsite’s appeal. Cober, Brown, Keeping et al. (2004) include website fac�ade and percep-tions of usability among the important drivers of applicant attraction in their model oforganizational website recruitment. Similarly, Cober, Brown, and Levy (2004) indicatethat website content is not the only important component of an organization’s recruitmentstrategy: Form (e.g., aesthetics) and functionality matter too.

Due to the importance of aesthetics, the meaning of ‘‘attractive formatting” has beenconsidered in the literature. Although some authors have suggested that bulleted text inlieu of paragraphs augments the attractiveness of an online job ad (Metz & Junion-Metz,1996; Zusman & Landis, 2002), research by Braddy, Thompson, Wuensch, and Grossnic-kle (2003) does not support this assertion: Two groups in their study who were exposed toeither bulleted text or text presented in paragraph format did not form significantly differ-ent perceptions of an organization’s recruitment image. Attractive formatting may beachieved, however, via bold colors and creative fonts (Metz & Junion-Metz, 1996; Zusman& Landis, 2002). Zusman and Landis examined a priori groupings of low, moderate, andhigh-quality organizational websites and found that moderate sites with engaging fonts,colors, and layouts were preferred to low-quality sites with limited black-and-white textin a traditional read-only paragraph format. More recently, Cober, Brown, Keepinget al. (2004) stated that unity and contrast are critical to website design. When componentsof a website are visually connected in a meaningful way, unity is achieved. Contrastinvolves maximizing the distinctness of design elements that are conceptually different.

A website’s appeal can also be enhanced by ensuring that it functions reliably and iseasy to use. Organizations should therefore provide tools for easy navigation and allowdirect access to the information the viewer wishes to see (Hannon, 1998; Zusman & Lan-dis, 2002). Research by Zusman and Landis has indicated that high-quality organizationalweb pages containing attractive colors, pictures, exciting/bulleted/concise text, and a toolbar allowing for easy navigation are preferred to moderate-quality sites simply character-ized by engaging fonts, colors, and layouts, but no pictures/navigational toolbar. WhenFeldman and Klaas (2002) asked job seekers for advice on how to make online recruitingmore applicant friendly, 2 of the top 5 suggestions focused on usability (i.e., improve pro-cedures for submitting resumes; make website navigation more user friendly). A study byBraddy et al. (2003) confirmed that navigational ease enhances the appeal of online jobads.

While the preceding discussion focuses on factors that influence the general appeal oforganizational websites, it is also important to consider which variables actually shapejob seekers’ application decisions. To date, ‘‘we know very little about which informationfrom Internet-based job sites applicants use and how they use that information to apply orto advance in the job search process” (Lievens et al., 2002, p. 587). The previously citedstudies by Braddy et al. (2003) and Zusman and Landis (2002) provide some initial insightsinto this issue. After viewing the low, moderate, and high-quality websites describedabove, Zusman and Landis’ participants rated their inclinations to pursue employmentwith the corresponding organizations. Although results did not reveal significant differ-ences between the high-quality and moderate-quality pages, participants expressed agreater willingness to pursue employment with the organizations characterized by moder-ate/high-quality pages compared to those represented by low-quality sites. Braddy et al.


found that people viewing easily navigated websites were more willing to apply for a jobthan were individuals using sites that were difficult to navigate.

In light of prior findings suggesting that website attractiveness and usability may shapepeople’s decisions to apply for jobs, the following prediction was tested:

Hypothesis 1. Perceptions of the formatting attractiveness and usability of onlinerecruitment materials will positively predict inclinations to apply for jobs that areadvertised on the web.

To date, there has been a dearth of research conducted to determine which aspects ofrecruitment websites most influence prospective applicants’ attraction to an organization(Cober, Brown, Levy, Cober, & Keeping, 2003). This may be due to the historical difficultyof assessing the relative weights prospective applicants place on various recruitment fac-tors when considering a job or organization in question. Asking applicants to self-report(e.g., rank) the importance of website features is problematic due to a lack of self-aware-ness (Judge & Bretz, 1992). While policy-capturing methodology overcomes this problem,it commonly requires people to make numerous judgments in response to various hypo-thetical scenarios and has been criticized due to the artificiality of the task and judgmentsrequired (Johnson, 2000). Multiple regression allows researchers to identify the recruit-ment factors (e.g., website features) that predict job pursuit intentions. However, betaweight comparisons do not necessarily provide information regarding the relative impor-tance of predictors due to non-zero predictor intercorrelations.

Johnson’s (2000, 2001a) relative weights analysis is a somewhat recent solution to thelong-standing problem of how to determine the relative importance of various factorsdriving job pursuit inclinations. A relative weight reflects the proportionate contributioneach predictor makes to R2 when considering both its unique contribution and its contri-bution when combined with other predictors (Johnson, 2000). Because they sum to R2, rel-ative weights can be expressed as percentages of the predictable variance, therebyproviding easily interpretable indices that are used to compare and contrast the influenceexerted by multiple predictors (Johnson, 2001b). Although this analysis has not been pre-viously applied to the recruitment domain, it offers a viable means for comparing the rel-ative importance people place on different website features when considering a prospectiveemployer. Because no past work has attempted to evaluate the relative importance of for-matting versus usability, the present study extends the literature by using Johnson’s (2000,2001a) relative weights analysis to investigate the following issue:

Research Question: To what degree do website attractiveness and usability differentiallyinfluence inclinations to apply for jobs advertised online?

Information concerning the relative importance of attractiveness and usability caninform practice by steering web design efforts in the most fruitful directions possible. Ifone variable emerges as relatively more important, then organizations should make thatvariable the priority when designing web pages to attract candidates.

1.2. Signaling theory and impressions of the organization as a mediator

As noted above, past research has demonstrated that website features can affect peo-ple’s inclinations to apply for jobs. The reason behind this finding, however, is uncer-tain, causing some authors to call for a greater emphasis on the cognitive processes


through which web-based recruitment features influence outcomes like attraction (Wil-liamson et al., 2003). Meanwhile, other authors ‘‘plea for more theory-driven researchin the domains of applicant perceptions” (Lievens et al., 2002, p. 595). Why might fea-tures as superficial as formatting affect significant decisions regarding whether to submita job application? Perhaps surface characteristics become important because they signalvital messages to applicants.

Selection procedures are commonly considered a critical source of information forapplicants; consequently, the image created by a selection procedure is believed to affectan organization’s ability to attract candidates (Mecan, Avedon, Paese, & Smith, 1994;Richman-Hirsch, Olson-Buchanan, & Drasgow, 2000; Smither, Reilly, Millsap, Pearlman,& Stoffey, 1993). Signaling theory, which applies this logic to the recruitment domain,asserts that job seekers form impressions of organizations simply based on their impres-sions of the recruiters who represent them (Rynes & Miller, 1983). This phenomenon arisesbecause people perceive recruiters as signals of how it would feel to work for a company.The signaling process can occur under various circumstances, but it is especially likelywhen applicants must make employment decisions based on little information about orga-nizations under consideration (Rynes, Bretz, & Gerhart, 1991). This is frequently the casewhen people are searching for jobs online.

Signaling theory implies a mediated model wherein: (a) impressions of the recruitershape impressions of the organization, and (b) impressions of the organization in turnaffect applicants’ inclinations to pursue employment. Research has supported the first link-age in this model. For example, Rynes and Miller (1983) examined this issue by askingparticipants to evaluate companies after viewing videotapes of recruiters portrayed as hav-ing either negative or positive affect (i.e., frequent smiles, good eye contact, encouragingnods, and knowledgeable demeanor). Results indicated that people not only formed morefavorable impressions of companies represented by recruiters with positive affect, but theyalso believed these companies treated employees better than those represented by therecruiters with negative affect. Studies such as this provide evidence that applicants per-ceive recruiter characteristics to forecast what it would be like to work for a company rep-resented by a particular recruiter.

Additional literature supports the second linkage (i.e., the relationship between impres-sions of the organization and willingness to pursue employment) in the mediated modelimplied by signaling theory. For example, Gatewood, Gowan, and Lautenschlager(1993) asked participants to rate the images portrayed by various companies and thenindicate the probability that they would pursue employment with each organization.Results revealed that image was positively related to willingness to pursue employmentwith the organizations under investigation. The finding that organizations with favorableimages are especially attractive to candidates has led a number of researchers (e.g., High-house, Zickar, Thorsteinson, Stierwalt, & Slaughter, 1999) to apply marketing principlesto the recruitment domain.

Although the preceding research was conducted outside the area of web-based recruit-ment, we propose that signaling theory can be generalized to explain why superficial web-site features affect decisions to pursue an online job posting. Similar to when the medium isthe recruiter, applicants may make certain judgments about companies on the basis oftheir web pages. This may occur because applicants perceive the web page to signal thestandards of excellence they would experience while employed with the company. Asone of Zusman and Landis’s (2002) participants stated, ‘‘The presentation of the Web


pages (color, picture, options, etc.) definitely made my emotions towards the companiesdifferent” (p. 294).

In short, both signaling theory and qualitative excerpts from the literature imply thatimpressions of a hiring organization mediate the relationship between evaluations of theorganization’s web page and job seekers’ inclinations to apply for a job. The present studywas designed to test this hypothesis:

Hypothesis 2. Individuals’ impressions of an organization will partially mediate therelationship between their reactions to the employer’s web page and their intentions topursue a job with the organization.

2. Method

2.1. Participants

One hundred and eighty-two students enrolled at a large southeastern US universityvoluntarily participated in this study. The sample consisted of 74% Caucasians, 15% Afri-can Americans, 3% Asians, 2% Hispanics, 1% Native Americans, and 5% of participantswho self-identified as ‘‘other”. Approximately 66% of the participants were female, and themean age was 20.2 (SD = 3.2). Participants indicated that they spent an average of 9.0 hon the Internet per week (SD = 7.6).

2.2. Experimental stimuli and design

Participants viewed one of four versions of an organizational website supposedlymaintained by a fictitious company called ‘‘The Family Development Association”.Each of the four websites displayed identical organizational pictures and logos (seeFig. 1) and contained links to additional information related to the organization’s mis-sion, the services and resources it offered, and a job ad that broadly described one ofits openings for the position of an ‘‘Outreach and Program Development Associate”.To some degree, the advertised position was described as one that would be tailoredto the interests and skills of the employee selected for the job. It was designed to beflexible so that it would capture the interests of people with a wide variety of careergoals.

The four aforementioned organizational websites were equated with respect to informa-tional content, but they differed with regard to two dimensions referred to here as websiteusability and formatting. Usability reflected whether the job ad for the ‘‘Outreach andProgram Development Associate” mentioned above was easy or difficult to find. Specifi-cally, usability was operationally defined with regard to the number of web pages that aparticipant had to traverse (and the amount of time required) to locate the job ad. In someinstances, participants had to visit only a few web pages to locate the job ad (i.e., ‘‘highusability” websites), whereas in other cases, participants had to obtain a difficult-to-findfour-digit job code from the organizational website and in turn use this to access the tar-geted job ad. The effectiveness of the usability manipulation was confirmed by the resultspresented later.

Fig. 1. Screen shot of organizational web page viewed by participants.


Website formatting was the second dimension on which the four organizational web-sites differed. Specifically, some website job ads were presented in paragraph format, whileothers were presented using bulleted lists.

The manipulations of website usability and formatting as described above resulted inthe four organizational websites used in this study: one was easy to navigate and had ajob ad that was presented in paragraph format; the second was easy to navigate but con-tained a job ad that was presented in bulleted lists; the third was difficult to navigate andcontained a job ad that was presented in paragraph format; and finally, the fourth websitewas difficult to navigate but displayed a job ad using bulleted lists. Participants were ran-domly assigned to one of these four websites and then asked to locate and review theaforementioned job ad for the ‘‘Outreach and Program Development Associate” position.

With regard to our study design, this multivariate research included the following fivepredictor and criterion variables: (a) perceived attractiveness of the online ad’s formatting,(b) perceived usability of the website, (c) overall evaluations of the organization’s webappeal, (d) impressions of the organization, and (e) willingness to pursue employment withthe Family Development Association.

Note that the effects of the website manipulations described above were not the focus ofthis study.1 Instead, people’s perceptions and reactions to the websites (measured on acontinuous scale) were the central predictors in our research hypotheses. Nevertheless,

1 The degree to which variations in the sites affected perceptions of web page attractiveness and other outcomevariables is not addressed here but was considered elsewhere using a subset of the data examined in the presentstudy (see Braddy et al., 2003).


the inclusion of several different organizational website stimuli in this research was consid-ered critical. Presenting a variety of websites to our sample encouraged variable reactionsto the company and its Internet recruitment ad. This helped prevent a restriction of rangeon the predictor and criterion variables of interest, which may have occurred if everyone inthe study had viewed the same website.

2.3. Procedure

Data collection took place in a research laboratory. The lab contained four IntelTM Pen-tium�-class computers, each within a cubicle that visually isolated computer users fromparticipants at neighboring workstations. All four computers were installed with Micro-soft� Internet ExplorerTM software. Data collection sessions included 1–4 participants,depending on the number of volunteers who signed up for each time slot.

Upon their arrival to the lab, participants were asked to use a computer to access andreview the Outreach and Program Development Associate job ad. Participants were led tobelieve that they were each assessing a different organization’s web page. They were toldthat both the company and job ad under investigation were real; however, names and webaddresses were changed to protect the organization’s anonymity. They were asked tonotify the experimenter (who remained in the lab for the entire experiment) once theyhad read the job ad. If participants did not find the four-digit job code needed to accessthe Internet job ad within 15 min, the experimenter gave them the job code and helpedthem access the job ad. After reading the job ad, participants were asked to imagine thatthey were qualified for this job, which was in their field of interest. They were then giventhe research questionnaire that is discussed next.

2.4. Measures

The research questionnaire collected information on demographic characteristics, aca-demic status, and past experiences with technology. It also used a 1 (strongly disagree) to 5(strongly agree) scale to solicit perceptions pertaining to the predictor and criterion vari-ables, which were measured via the items described below.

To assess reactions to the organization’s web page, the research questionnaire includedfive items. One of these items gathered specific opinions about the attractiveness of the ad’sformatting (‘‘The formatting of this company’s job advertisement was appealing”), onesolicited usability perceptions (‘‘I had a hard time accessing this company’s online jobadvertisement”, reverse scored), and the remaining three items gathered general impres-sions of the online job ad (e.g., ‘‘The Family Development Association’s online job adver-tisement was well-done”). The first two items were examined individually in the test ofHypothesis 1 and were also combined with the three general questions to form the 5-itemscale measuring organizational web appeal (a = .78), which was used in testing our secondhypothesis.

Next, a 5-item scale (a = .86) was used to assess the mediator included in Hypothesis 2,i.e., participants’ impressions of the hiring organization. An example item is ‘‘I wasimpressed with the hiring company”. Two of the items from this scale were drawn froma study conducted by Turban and Keon (1993).

Finally, a 3-item scale (a = .86), also adapted from Turban and Keon (1993), measuredthe criterion variable included in Hypotheses 1 and 2, i.e., participants’ inclinations to pur-


sue employment with the hiring organization. An example item is ‘‘If given a chance, Iwould try to get a job with this company”.

3. Results

3.1. Manipulation check and relationships with demographics

Consistent with the subset of data presented by Braddy et al. (2003), the results of thecurrent study showed that participants in the low-usability condition traversed signifi-cantly more web pages to find the job ad than did those in the high-usability condition(see Table 1). As shown in Table 1, it also took participants assigned to the low-usabilitycondition significantly more time to locate the targeted job ad, whereas those in the high-usability condition were able to find the ad more quickly. Taken together, these back-ground analyses confirmed that participants collectively experienced varying amounts ofnavigational difficulty.

Next, we examined whether various demographic groups differed with regard to the fivestudy variables of interest. Correlational analyses revealed that age was not significantlyrelated to the measures investigated in this study. Moreover, independent samples t-testsand a series of ANOVAs indicated that gender and ethnic subgroups did not maintain sig-nificantly different perceptions regarding the attractiveness of the online ad’s formatting,the usability of the website, overall evaluations of the organization’s web page, impres-sions of the organization, and intentions to pursue employment.

3.2. Influence of formatting attractiveness and usability

Hypothesis 1 indicated that perceptions of formatting attractiveness and usabilitywould predict inclinations to pursue employment. To test this hypothesis, responses tothe ‘‘willingness to pursue employment” scale were regressed onto the first two items fromthe ‘‘organizational web appeal” scale. The two predictor variables, which were not signif-icantly related to each other (r = .10, N = 182, p = .18), were significantly associated withthe criterion of interest: our multiple regression analysis revealed a value of R2 = .19, F (2,179) = 20.68, p < .001. Both format attractiveness perceptions, r0 = .41, b1 = .40,t(179) = 5.83, p < .001, and the usability perceptions, r0 = .18, b2 = .14, t(179) = 2.12,p = .036, had significant partial and zero-order correlations with willingness to pursueemployment. Hypothesis 1 was therefore supported.

Table 1Effects of website usability manipulation on ease of accessing job ad

Measured variables High-usability Low-usabilityM (SD) M (SD) df a t p d

Web pages accessed prior to job ad 10.20 (13.78) 50.34 (42.33) 108 8.47 <.001 1.26Minutes elapsed prior to job ad 2.48 (2.90) 7.05 (5.03) 149 7.53 <.001 1.10

Note: Within each usability condition, the data were collapsed across the two text-formatting levels.a The degrees of freedom within groups were adjusted downward, and a separate variances test was employed

when the two conditions failed to demonstrate homogeneity of variance. The number of web pages accessed priorto the job ad was not recorded for the first ten participants; thus, N = 172 for the first dependent variable, andN = 182 for the second dependent variable.


To address the research question posed earlier, we examined the relative influence ofwebsite attractiveness versus usability on inclinations to apply for jobs advertised online.Johnson’s (2000, 2001a) relative weights analysis was used to determine the manner bywhich participants arrived at overall judgments concerning their willingness to pursueemployment with the Family Development Association. Table 2 shows the relative weightsof our two predictor variables (see Johnson, 2000, 2001a; for computational details). Theseresults indicate that when considering the likelihood that they would pursue employmentwith the Family Development Association, participants put more weight on the attractive-ness of the online job ad’s format (85.7%) than on usability (14.3%). In accordance withthe guidelines set forth by Johnson (2000, 2001a), a bootstrap procedure was used to helpinterpret these differences. A total of 300 random samples (with replacement) of size N

were taken, relative weights were calculated for each sample, and the standard deviationsfor the 300 sets of relative weights were computed. These standard deviations, which rep-resented the standard errors of the relative weights, were then multiplied by ±1.96. Theseproducts were added to our relative weights to construct 95% confidence intervals aroundboth, thereby allowing us to interpret the differences between the relative weights of thepredictors. As can be seen in Table 2, participants considering the possibility of employ-ment with the Family Development Association saw formatting as significantly moreimportant than usability, as indicated by the fact that the confidence intervals aroundthese two predictors did not overlap.

3.3. The mediation model (signaling theory)

Our second and final hypothesis predicted that signaling theory would explain the rela-tionship between website design features and inclinations to pursue employment with theFamily Development Association. Specifically, we expected participants’ evaluations ofthe hiring organization to partially mediate the relationship between their impressionsof the organization’s web page and their willingness to apply. A path analysis was utilizedto test this prediction, and the results revealed that all four of the requisite conditions formediation outlined by Baron and Kenny (1986) were satisfied. In the context of this study,these conditions were as follows: (a) participants’ evaluations of the website were corre-lated with their willingness to apply (r = .59, N = 182, p < .001); (b) perceptions of thewebsite’s appeal were correlated with impressions of the hiring organization (r = .66,N = 182, p < .001); (c) willingness to apply was significantly predicted by the impressionof the hiring organization when controlling for the effect of the evaluations of the website’sappeal (b = .63, N = 182, p < .001); and (d) the partial relationship between evaluations of

Table 2Weights reflecting the relative importance of web page format and usability on assessments of whether to applyfor a job advertised online

Predictor SE Relative weight percentage (%) 95% Confidence interval

Format attractiveness 9.54 85.7 67.0–104.4Usability 9.54 14.3 �4.4–33.0

Note: Johnson (2000, 2001a) can be consulted for an explanation of the calculation of raw relative weights.Relative weight percentages were computed by dividing individual raw weights by their sum and multiplying by100.

Evaluations of Organizational

Website

Impression of the Hiring

Organization

Willingness to Pursue

Employment

.66**

.18*

.63**

Fig. 2. Mediated relationship between evaluations of the website and inclinations to pursue employment. Note:The direct and indirect effect coefficients were .18 and .42, respectively. The indirect effect coefficient wascomputed by multiplying the path coefficient between the impression of recruitment image and the impression ofthe hiring organization (.66) by the path coefficient between the impression of the hiring organization andwillingness to apply (.63). *p < .01, **p < .001.


the website’s appeal and willingness to apply, holding the effect of the impression of thehiring organization constant (b = .18, N = 182, p = .008), was smaller in magnitude thanthe zero-order correlation between the evaluations of the website’s appeal and willingnessto apply (r = .59, N = 182, p < .001). Fig. 2 offers a graphic representation of the relation-ships mentioned above, which provided support for Hypothesis 2.

4. Discussion

Despite the rapid growth of online job postings, there is a great need for more researchdirected toward e-recruitment (Rozelle & Landis, 2002). The present study began toaddress this deficiency and demonstrated several noteworthy findings. First, although boththe formatting attractiveness of online job ads and organizational website usability appearto shape prospective applicants’ intentions to pursue employment with a given organiza-tion, the former predictor is more important than the latter. As an anonymous reviewerpointed out, one can perhaps use Tversky and Kahneman’s (1973) work on memory toexplain the importance job seekers place on visual appeal. Their work indicates that peoplerely more heavily on, and exhibit preferences for, stimuli that are easily accessible in mem-ory. Similarly, job applicants may place more weight on, and exhibit preferences for,attractive websites if they remain more accessible in memory than unattractive websitesmaintained by competing organizations.

Second, our results demonstrated that impressions of an organization partially mediatethe relationship between the organization’s web appeal and job seekers’ willingness to pur-sue employment with the institution in question. This finding indicated that signaling the-ory can be generalized to the domain of Internet recruiting, thereby addressing the call fortheory-driven research in the area of e-recruitment. It also helps explain why features assuperficial as a web page’s aesthetic appeal may affect a decision as significant as whetherto submit a job application.

4.1. Limitations

It is important to attend to several limitations when interpreting the pattern of findingsdescribed above. First, the sample investigated was largely female, which may limit thegeneralizability of our findings. It is encouraging to point out, however, that there were


no apparent gender differences with regard to the measured variables examined in thisstudy.

Second, our reliance on a student sample may also restrict this study’s external validity.However, it should be noted that many organizations implement online recruitment forthe express purpose of attracting passive job seekers and young graduates (Galanaki,2002). In addition, a number of jobs are filled using college recruitment tactics, such asthe placement of recruiters on campuses (Rynes & Boudreau, 1986). Thus, the sampleunder investigation may share some important features with individuals whom organiza-tions spend significant resources trying to recruit.

Third, we should emphasize that signaling theory predicts that peripheral features of arecruitment medium, such as website design, may have more influential effects on individ-uals’ organizational perceptions when they have little knowledge of a hiring organization.Though in many cases applicants applying for jobs online will not have access to a lot oforganizational information prior to starting their job search, they may generally havemore organizational information than did participants in the current study given thatwe used a fictitious organization and website. At present, it is most appropriate to gener-alize the current findings to job seekers who lack prior knowledge of a hiring organizationof interest. Because an organizational website is the first place many job seekers go to learnabout a hiring organization (Cappelli, 2001), this type of scenario is not necessarilyuncommon.

In reality, deciding whether to apply for a job is a matter most people take seriously.Considering the high stakes associated with this decision, actual job seekers are probablymore motivated and attentive to their job searches, compared to participants taking partin an experiment. Actual job seekers may be especially apt to use any available informa-tion to sincerely try formulate judgments about a prospective employer. If this holds true,website usability and attractiveness issues could be even more salient to actual job seekersthan they were to our participants. In short, it is important to point out that our data mayprovide a conservative estimate of the phenomena of interest when they occur in the ‘‘realworld”.

4.2. Practical implications

The research-practice gap still exists in personnel selection, particularly in the area ofapplicant reactions to online recruitment (Anderson, 2003; Lievens et al., 2002). Althoughe-recruitment has seen phenomenal success within a very short period of time (Galanaki,2002), the scientific literature offers little information regarding why this tool has been suc-cessful and how practitioners can best exploit online resources to attract new employees.

This study begins to address the research-practice gap by providing the following data-driven advice for organizations wishing to attract more and better applicants. Althoughwebsite formatting may seem superficial, its importance should not be underestimated.According to this study, companies should spend at least as much time and money makingtheir recruitment sites visually appealing as they do ensuring their sites are easy to use.According to Cober, Brown, Keeping et al. (2004), unity and contrast are critical aestheticproperties that web designers need to pay attention to. With regard to usability, organiza-tions can make their websites easy to use by placing their job ads no more than severalclicks away from their home pages. For example, an organization may consider including


a link to ‘‘employment opportunities” on its home page, which in turn takes applicantsdirectly to a list of available job positions.

At present, it is not difficult to find organizations that would benefit from this advice.Even a cursory review of companies’ web pages reveals considerable variability in theattractiveness and user friendliness of recruitment sites available to prospective employees.Although website design may seem like a frivolous or unnecessary expense to some orga-nizational decision makers, the empirical link between recruitment sites and applicantattraction suggests otherwise. As shown in this study, web design can have implicationsfor recruitment in the near term. As such, it may also have implications for workforcequality in the long term, since large applicant pools allow organizations to be highly selec-tive when hiring. Thus, decision makers responsible for resource allocations should viewtheir organization’s web page as an important communication, recruitment, and publicrelations medium worthy of investment.

4.3. Research directions

In addition to its practical implications, this study offers avenues for further research inthe area of Internet recruiting. Future studies should be conducted to examine the bound-ary conditions of our findings and consider additional variables that may influence appli-cants’ decision processes during web-based job searches. For instance, it is important tobetter understand what types of attributions job seekers make about companies when theyperceive various Internet features and characteristics. Perhaps user friendly recruitmentsites prompt particular assumptions (e.g., ‘‘the application process will be straightfor-ward”) while well-formatted sites induce other beliefs (e.g., ‘‘employees at this companyare pleasant”, or ‘‘this is a prestigious organization to work for”). More research is neededto shed light on the cognitive processes activated when applicants view websites during thejob search process.

Studies examining individual differences in reactions to recruitment sites would also behelpful. Experience, work values, or other individual differences may predict which partic-ular website features are considered appealing and easy to use. Additionally, research isneeded to determine whether the importance of user friendliness and formatting changesas a function of other variables, such as prior knowledge of the company, job level, theprovision of particular benefits, or other website features.

Historically, researchers studying recruitment and job choice have used policy-captur-ing methodology to compare the influence of various job or organizational features onapplicants (e.g., Aiman-Smith, Bauer, & Cable, 2001). The present study utilized John-son’s (2000, 2001a) relative weights analysis instead. This allowed us to describe the rela-tive influence of website formatting and user friendliness during the recruitment ofprospective employees, while avoiding some of the problems inherent in policy-capturing(e.g., numerous judgments of hypothetical scenarios). To our knowledge, this is the firstapplication of relative weights analysis to the recruitment domain.

In the present study, relative weights analysis provided a useful mechanism for describ-ing the explained variance in participants’ job pursuit inclinations. Specifically, it allowedus to precisely communicate (a) the percentage of explained variance that was attributableto perceived formatting attractiveness as well as (b) the percentage of explained variancethat was attributable to perceived usability. It should be noted that the predictors in ourstudy were not significantly related to each other. Relative weights analysis becomes a


particularly powerful technique when predictors are correlated (which is not uncommon inrecruitment research). Considering the power of relative weights analysis, other research-ers interested in online recruiting, and recruiting in general, may wish to incorporate thisanalytic technique as an alternative to policy-capturing and as a supplement to multipleregression. Such an approach could advance the field toward a clearer understanding ofthe relative weight individuals place on various website characteristics when consideringa hiring organization.

Finally, there is a need for longitudinal research investigating the effects of website char-acteristics over time. For instance, studies examining whether website formatting and userfriendliness predict actual job applications and acceptance rates would be a valuable addi-tion to the literature. These and other longitudinal initiatives would prove informative,thereby narrowing the gap between the science and practice of online recruitment.

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank William F. Grossnickle for his assistance with this study.

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E-recruitment and the benefits of organizational web appeal