The survey queried HR professionals on the differences between organizations that utilize a ".jobs" domain compared to companies without such domains. Respondents from high-tech organizations and organizations with large staff were more likely to have a ".jobs" domain.  Yet overall, the Internet is used by most organizations as their primary method for recruiting.

According to the survey, the three most commonly reported techniques or strategies used by respondents from all organizations to engage passive job candidates were viewing membership directories for associations and trade groups, scanning social networking sites, and mining industry-specific blogs, discussion forums, newsgroups or list-servs.

"The Internet has opened up a whole new set of opportunities through which HR recruiters can and are creatively sifting," said SHRM President and CEO Susan R. Meisinger. "Who would have thought, for example, that social networking sites like MySpace – often used as social hubs by so many young people – would become a rich source of background information for job recruiters?"

Organizations with a ".jobs" domain reported they had better outcomes in recruiting due to advantages such as direct navigation and ease of use. In addition, they were more likely to use tracking software that allows the electronic management of an organization's recruitment efforts.

But overall, old-fashioned recruiting techniques still work. HR respondents from all organizations (.jobs and non-.jobs organizations) said that in addition to national online job boards such as Monster.com and Hotjobs.com, their most reliable sources for quality job candidates are employee referrals and internal job postings.  

The most common metrics to measure efficiency of e-recruiting efforts from all organizations (.jobs and non-.jobs organizations) were time to fill outstanding job vacancies, cost per hire, number of outstanding job vacancies, employee referral rate, and first-year turnover.

The surveys were emailed to 3,000 randomly selected SHRM members and yielded 450 responses. In addition, surveys were sent to 1,050 organizations that use a ".jobs" domain and yielded 152 responses. The survey results examine differences among .jobs and non-.jobs organizations by organization staff size and employment sector.

The 2007 Advances in E-Recruiting: Leveraging the .jobs Domain survey is available to SHRM members.