VietNamNet Bridge – The biggest problem for all businesses in the post-crisis period is the personnel shortage. But for human resource consultancy firms it is the right time to do business. That explains why online HR consultancy websites have been mushrooming recently.

Businesses and workers in big cities are familiar with these websites www.VietnamWorks.com, www.kiemviec.com, or www.talentnet.vn, and they have got used to submitting applications for jobs online instead of presenting a thick file of documents at the employers’ offices.

The online recruitment has been welcomed by all , especially young people who have good foreign language and computer skills.

In general, new websites are aimed at businesses or employers and job seekers. Especially, the administration boards of some websites even encourage prestigious businesses to place free advertisements on their websites, in an effort to attract more visitors.

However, the solution has been described by HR experts as the “double edge sword”. Once the images and brands of big clients appear on the websites of small HR consultancy firms, this will help polish the images of the latter and help it attract new clients. However, free advertisements also mean that the service providers will incur losses. Meanwhile, if they cannot provide high quality services, clients will leave never to come back.

Since HR consultancy websites have been mushrooming, the competition is fierce.. According to Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon, the websites not only offer free advertisements for a certain period, but also try to sign contracts with partners at the fees lower by 30-50 percent than the initially quoted fees.

However, many employers say they only work with already established HR firms rather than the small ones, because it is less likely to find good candidates through the latter ones. Therefore, many new HR consultancy firms appear everyday, but their lifespan tends to be short . This shows that there is a big difference in the service quality within the online labour market,

It usually happens that the same employers look for workers through different websites. It is partly because the enterprises have urgent demand for employees, and partly because many online job services offer free advertisements.

Meanwhile, in the context of the strong development of Internet, service providers have to heavily invest in enhancing their IT resources and upgrade their websites regularly. They have to build up blogs and social networks of their own, upgrade their means of online interaction and integrate the tools for sharing information and images. Many websites even try to satisfy specific requirements of big enterprises in order to retain clients.

HR consultancy firms not only seek candidates among those who have resigned from their previous jobs, but also “hunt heads” among the people, who are still working for other companies. In general, they are all highly qualified workers desired by every company .

It takes about 2-3 months, or sometimes 5-6 months to find candidates for companies’ key posts . Of course, the fee for the service is also very high. Sometimes, the fee that employers have to pay is as much as 2-3 month worth of the worker’s salary

Source: Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon