Internet for Dummies

The title of the post is meant to be a joke, and probably more to do with the person I sat next to on the flight back from Riyadh, than the recruiting issues I went there to discuss.

I spent a day working out an eRecruitment strategy for a large retailer across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is the largest market in the Mid East, with 25M population. A wealthy country spoilt by endless natural resources and the price of oil, often getting Saudi nationals into the workforce is the biggest recruiting challenge a company can face.

A key Saudi recruiter was trying to get to the bottom of how to get Saudis to apply for jobs on the Internet - especially for sales roles, which culturally are not that cool for a Saudi which I learnt today and found quite interesting.

Any pioneering users of recruiting technology will have faced the question: "do our candidates really use the Internet, will they apply?"

Well the signs here are good and getting better. The Middle East has amongst the highest growth rates in the world in terms of internet usage, 266% last year, whilst penetration is only at around 8-10%.

It was a great sign that a group of company Directors came in to work on a weekend today to work out how they were going to get the Internet to drive their recruiting program, but I wonder if enough education about how to use the Internet is happening across the region. I also question whether browsers are easy enough to use for those who have had only basic touch time with a PC.

These were really valid concerns for the group today, and whilst we all know retailers in particular now rely heavily on the Net for sourcing hires; more across this part of the world needs to happen in regards to languages, browsers and education of just how useful and simple the Net can be.

We decided to launch a bi-lingual (Arabic-English) careers portal, create CV kiosks and offer support to would-be candidates that may need support to make an application, to put some snazzy posters up in the shops to promote the site and to slip a promotional careers card into the bag of all Saudi national customers for 3 months along with their receipt. We're hoping a combined online/offline and customer visible approach will help to spread the word.

I guess this is viral marketing in a developing country (in terms of Internet usage) with a very Arabic flavour. I think it's a neat and practical approach, and really hope it works as well as we expect. As always, if you have any thoughts tips or practical experience to share then I'd love to hear them.

Ben.