Retaining Job Applicants and Creating Value to Recruitment Processes : Information Behavior Theory and Service Design Perspective

Abstract

The digitalization of business processes has taken place expeditiously in the modern economy, especially over the last decade. In order for companies to be able to keep up with this change, their services are required to be assessed and developed accordingly to meet the needs of the modern day’s demanding service users. This fourth industrial revolution has shaped the methods of service provision alongside the expectations of service users. Opportunities brought by digitalization include faster processes, which are enabled by new technologies. Open and collaborative innovation ensures these opportunities.

The aim of this thesis is to understand the current digital recruitment process at The Adecco Group and to identify the gaps in the process from both the recruitment and applicants’ points of view. A conceptual framework has been developed to create a comprehensive understanding of the methods and actions required to reach an extensive customer understanding with the theories of information seeking, information retrieval, and service design in a digital environment focused especially on recruitment. These theories fill a research gap which has not been fulfilled before.

This thesis has been conducted as a qualitative study. Through the conducted interviews, the findings provide insights into the current recruitment process and pinpoint the aspects in need of development. Digitalization has shaped recruitment as a process, making it more agile and flexible than ever before. The applicants' need for information is now met before the applicants themselves need to search for information themselves.