Human Systems Management 30 (2011) 243–259DOI 10.3233/HSM-2011-0753IOS Press

243

Managing recruitment and selection in thedigital age: e-HRM and resumes

Elfi Furtmuellera,∗, Celeste Wilderoma and Mary Tateb

aInformation Systems and Change Management, University of Twente, The NetherlandsbSchool of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract. Recruiters, in the business of screening job applicants, are increasingly dependent on information systems especiallydigital resume databases. However, the current literature does not provide a consensus on the requirements for resume contentfor digital recruiting. This research contributes to the understanding of the different requirements of recruiters for offline andonline resumes. We offer an analysis of the relevant literature; interviews with recruiters; and content analysis of the resumefields of 40 e-Recruiting sites. Based on this we identified a number of challenges in categorizing digital resume data and digitalmatching between resumes and job advertisements. We identify areas for further research on the maintenance and extension ofonline resume databases and derive recommendations for digital resume design.

Keywords: e-HRM, digital resumes, recruiter requirements, workflows

Elfi Furtmueller is an Assistant Pro-fessor at the Department of InformationSystems & Change Management at theUniversity of Twente (UT), the Nether-lands. Prior to joining the UT, sheworked at the Institute of Manage-ment, Innovation and Organization atthe Haas School of Business, Universityof California, Berkeley. Furtmueller’sresearch appeared in various interna-tional journals such as the Journal ofService Management, European Journalof Information Systems, Team Perfor-mance Management and International

Journal of Technology and Human Interaction; she currently serveson the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Management.

Celeste Wilderom is full Professor‘Management & Organizational Behav-ior in the Private and the Public Sector’(University of Twente, the Netherlands).She holds a Ph.D. from the State Univer-sity of New York, Buffalo (USA, 1987).She has extensively published in inter-national journals such as the Journalof Organization Behavior; Accounting,Organization and Society; LeadershipQuarterly, Management, Learning, Jour-nal of International Business Studies,Career Development International and

∗Corresponding author: Elfi Furtmueller, School of Managementand Governance, Information Systems and Change Management,University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Nether-lands. Tel.: +31 (0) 53 489 5468; Fax: +31 (0) 53 489 2159; E-mail:e.furtmueller@utwente.nl.

European Journal of Information Systems.Wilderom is a senior edi-tor of the British Journal of Management. She is also involved inthe Journal of Management Inquiry, and previously associate edi-tor of the Academy of Management Perspectives and the Journal ofService Management.

Mary Tate is BCA (Hons) ProgrammeDirector and Senior Lecturer at theSchool of Information Managementat the University of Wellington, NewZealand. Mary has an extensive back-ground in IT, with over 20 yearsexperience in service delivery, projectmanagement, website management, andbusiness analysis. Her research hasbeen published in various internationaljournals such as the Journal of theAssociation of Information Systems,Behaviour & Information Technology,Journal of Internet Commerce and Jour-

nal of Information Systems. She is the chair of several internationalconference tracks (PACIS, HICCS).

1. Introduction

In the world before the web good employee selec-tion was seen as the sine qua non of rational business;yet not all employees were selected in systematic orsmart ways. Increasingly, careful and efficient selectionof employees is seen as a critical task for organi-zations [21]. Although some selection aspects such

0167-2533/11/$27.50 © 2011 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved

244 E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes

as the employment interview have attracted muchresearch attention [22, 24, 33, 47], the management ofrequirements for digital resumes has received little aca-demic scrutiny [16]. The literature available on resumepreparation, construction, design and content, ande-Recruiting mainly originates from practitioner jour-nals [10, 20, 23] and books [5, 44]. As a result, manyof the recommended practices are not based on empir-ical research. It is no wonder then that there is littleagreement about which resume fields are essential foreffective selection procedures.

A further issue is that most available literature onresume design is focused on the United States [18, 39],with scant attention to other cultural contexts [16, 41].Organizations, recruiters and applicants frequently usedifferent terminology to mean similar things, leading todifficulties in interpreting and matching digital resumefields with the content of job advertisements. In thispaper, we discuss knowledge representation challengesin categorizing digital resume profiles. As Glynn andRaffaelli [17] state:

“In order for fields to flourish, there needs tobe some level of standardization (or agreed-upon principles) in practices, norms, con-ventions, or cognitive templates in order toenable communication, comparability—and evencompetition—among ideas and theories” (p. 6).

Additionally, compared to research into applicants’perceptions on e-Recruiting [13, 15, 29, 60], there hasbeen limited research on recruiters’ views as to theirrequirements for resume design [6, 9]. This imbalanceis surprising since (corporate) recruiters constitute theclients who usually pay for using online recruiting ser-vices such as Monster, Careerbuilder or Stepstone.

While Information Systems publications have inves-tigated e-Recruiting business processes [12, 31];architectures [30]; implementation [41]; usability [11,13], and general design aspects [8, 14]; we lack knowl-edge of the essential elements a that should be includedin a digital resume form. In a recent literature reviewon e-recruiting, Wolfswinkel et al. [54] argued the maininadequacy of current research is its non-theoreticalcharacter. In practice, many different terms are usedfor the same resume field descriptions across onlinecareer sites.

The purpose of this current study is to add to thee-HRM literature and specifically, the study of digi-tal resume management. We used multiple sources ofinformation, including a literature analyses [55], inter-views with recruiters and a systematic analysis of the

resume fields of the 40 largest Dutch e-recruiting sites toderive the critical fields required by recruiters for digi-tal resumes. We also examine issues related to matchingresume data with job advertisement data, and the pro-cesses required to maintain a standardised set of digitalresume fields. We discuss how digital resume fields andsearch functions may be complemented to improve theidentification of qualified candidates. This requires con-sistency particularly in the representation of candidates’biographical data.

The rest of this paper is structured as follows. We firstdiscuss gaps in the literature and present the researchmethods (literature analyses, interviews and resumefield content analyses on recruiting sites). Then, wepresent the results of the interviews and propose theessential components of digital resumes. We discussthe findings in light of previous literature, derive rec-ommendations for digital resume design, and outlineimplications for research.

2. Resumes and e-Recruiting

In the academic literature, several reviews haveappeared on personnel selection [2, 4, 21, 36]. Theyemphasize that biographical data in the form of resumesare the most commonly used information in person-nel selection. Some researchers even suggest that everyselection decision includes an evaluation of biodata[6]. Resumes generally represent a structured, profes-sional profile that showcases an applicant’s strengths,accomplishments, interests, skills, and work-relatedexperiences [39]. The pre-screening of resumes is akey phase in personnel selection processes. Recruitersuse resume information to draw conclusions about anapplicant’s work-related skills, abilities, motivation,personality, and job fit [6, 8]. The resume is thus acritical tool for evaluating the potential suitability ofany given applicant for a particular job, and it deter-mines increasingly often who is invited for additionalscreening [38, 45].

Recent developments in recruitment practices showthat job applicants, as well as professional recruitersand organizations in need of personnel, are increasinglyturning to the internet. Recruiters use it to advertise jobpostings and search applicant pools, while job seekersuse it to apply online [7]. In the last decade, e-Recruitinghas spread around the globe, and has become a leadinge-commerce application. Currently, 40,000 job boardsare live 24/7, and all Fortune 100 companies recruitvia the internet. The major advantages of e-Recruiting

E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes 245

services include cost savings, efficiency, and conve-nience for both recruiters and job seekers [4]. A numberof e-Recruiting sources are available for job seekersand recruiters, including online job boards, niche jobportals, e-Recruiting consortia and corporate careerwebsites. Online job boards act as recruiting interme-diaries between recruiters and job seekers [14]. Today,virtually every corporate website and commercial jobboard accepts online resume submissions via onlineforms and resume builders. Incoming resumes are rou-tinely stored in an internal database designed to beused specifically by automated candidate managementprocesses. These resume databases continue to gainpopularity, yet little research has been conducted ondesign, actual use, and impacts. In fact, online resumedata has been widely criticized for difficulties in clearand consistent interpretation [16, 42, 49].

While most professionals agree that resumes arevital, there is no consensus over resume design require-ments and the specific content to be included in resumeforms. This lack of consensus on what constitutesappropriate biodata for a resume is problematic. Ifbiodata is seen as including such things as interests,personality, skills, and values, it becomes difficult todistinguish biodata from other measures. In an attemptto clarify matters, Mael [32] provided a taxonomy ofbiodata items. He stated that the core attribute of bio-data is that the items pertain to historical events thatmay have shaped the person’s behavior and identity (p.763). This broad definition however does little to informresearchers about specific resume components. Rossand Young [39] conducted a comprehensive reviewof academic resume design literature including jour-nals, periodicals, and book publications. Their researchrevealed eight salient resume categories: (1) careerobjectives, (2) educational record-college, (3) educa-tional record-high school, (4) related work experience,(5) non-related work experience, (6) personal informa-tion, (7) professional and personal involvement, and (8)references. They derived 72 resume content items. Thisclassification provides a starting point for our inves-tigation, although some limitations of their researchshould be noted [37]. Ross and Young’s resume itemshave been tested only with recruiters in the recreationand leisure services industry, and it is unclear if theseresume items are similarly relevant for all the otherindustries.

While digital resumes have many advantages, thematching of job candidates to vacancies is still challeng-ing in the absence of some standardization in resumecontent fields. Initial evaluation of applicants, to filter

out those that are unsuitable without screening out goodcandidates, is still a time-consuming challenge. Inas-much as the Web makes it easy for job seekers to applyfor many jobs in a short time period [29], the conse-quence is that companies may be inundated with a largenumber of resumes, many from unqualified applicants[28].

Recruiters encounter different challenges whenworking with digital (online) compared to print (offline)resumes. Digital resumes can be used in automatedprocesses such as for example, automated storage,searching, pre-selection, comparison and ranking ofcandidates. Digital resumes may be easily transferableto other systems and it is relatively easy to update theircontent. Moreover, digital resumes offer the chance tosend automatic replies to applicants [31]. In offline orprinted resumes, consistent resume design is less of anissue; applicants have the possibility to fully customizetheir resumes [25]. However, in the initial screeningphase recruiters need to invest more time in interpret-ing print resumes. Also in the task of systematicallycomparing resumes’ contents [15, 49] recruiters needto spend more time when resumes are not standard-ized. While (standardized) digital resumes aim to offermore systematic and faster resume screening, achiev-ing this benefit depends on the way resume fields arestructured and classified, including the availability ofsearch functions that recruiters desire [16].

Internet research in recent years has offered newknowledge on effective searching: allowing targetedsearches on many internet services such as books, hotelsor restaurants. Pre-requisites for effective searching ine-Recruiting include the systematization of knowledgeof resume field representations as well as the structuringof job advertisement content.

A good match between a candidate and a job needsto be bilateral as it requires considering both applicantand recruiter preferences [2]. In practice, there is verylittle standardisation [26]. Digital resume applicationsare often designed independently, either internally byorganisations or by commercial job portal providers.Typically there is limited or no information exchangeacross the various providers, or between candidates andproviders.

This literature analyses of resumes, e-Recruitingpractices and pre-selection technology suggests thata more structured and sophisticated understanding ofonline resume design is needed. Such knowledge couldbe used to enrich resume form design. We address thefollowing research question: “What are the require-ments of digital resume forms from the recruiters’

246 E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes

perspective?” This main question is broken down intothe following three sub-questions:

1. Which fields in digital resume forms are signifi-cant from the recruiters’ perspective?

2. How can the fields used in digital resume formsbe systematically represented?

3. What workflow process can be used to utilise dig-ital resume fields and search functions to improverecruiters’ identification of prospective staff?

3. Method

The requirements for resume forms were developedusing a mixed methods approach; analyzing litera-ture; interviewing recruiters; and content-analysis of theresume fields of 40 e-Recruiting sites [35]. In order togain a better understanding of these requirements, wealso examined the designs of resume forms on leading-edge e-Recruiting sites based on both the literature andour interview data.

3.1. Interviewing recruiters

It has frequently been argued that involving end-users(such as users of e-Recruiting sites, that is, recruiters)in system design is a critical factor in the successfulimplementation and operation of information systems.IS researchers have claimed that the direct interviewremains the best technique for eliciting requirements[1]. In order to interview recruiters from a variety ofsectors and industries in the Netherlands we first deter-mined which specific companies were active at twocareer fairs, the Nobiles career event in Utrecht andthe Nationale Carrierebeurs in Amsterdam. Using thecontact data on the career fair websites, we emailed72 organizations (belonging to various branches) andrequested 30 minute interviews during the career fair.To encourage participation, we offered to share theresults of the study with the organisations that agreedto participate. The interviews were semi-structuredand included open-ended questions. Before the careerfair, the questions were pilot-tested with one recruiterand an academic who are both actively involved ine-Recruiting research, and the interview protocol wasrefined. Overall, seventeen recruiters agreed to be inter-viewed. The sample consisted of twelve females andfive males, with ages from 22 to 37 (average 30).Combined, they had between 1 to 15 years of profes-sional experience, with an average of 5 years. Four

of these recruiters worked in consulting firms, threein finance organizations, two for IT companies, twofor technical companies, and one each in trade, utili-ties, pharmacy, education, transportation and recruiting.Recruiters were asked which resume fields are impor-tant to them and which fields, search options andfunctions should be added to current online resumeforms. The typical interview was on site and took about25 minutes. In most cases it was not possible to extendthe interview longer since job applicants were waitingto talk with the recruiters. While a tape recorder wastaken to the interviews, the noisy career-fair environ-ment led the interviewer to take comprehensive fieldnotes during and after each interview.

3.2. Data analyses of e-Recruiting websites

In order to get a comprehensive overview of resumeforms currently used in practice, we analyzed the40 largest e-Recruiting sites in the Netherlands. Weselected these largest sites since they attract a wide vari-ety of different applicant groups, and therefore shouldcollectively represent best practice in resume design.We began by familiarizing ourselves with all the sitesby visiting them and carefully reading and comparingthe different resume fields used across the sites. We usedthe classification system from Ross and Young [39] as astarting point. Two coders then wrote down and codedindependently every resume category including fields,field type and input options. Emerging differences incategorization were discussed between the two coders,and new codes were added to supplement the Rossand Young framework where required. After the initialdevelopment of the resume coding categories, the fieldsfrom all recruiting sites were categorized and a resumeknowledge representation framework was formulated.

To control how many websites we needed to analyzeto reach code saturation for the resume fields, we doc-umented the progression of resume field identificationafter each website. Code saturation was reached afteranalyzing 14 e-Recruiting sites. In total, 114 resumefields were identified within the studied 40 recruitingsites, all of which have been used in at least one web-site. Of these attributes, 78 fields (68%) were identifiedwithin the first two websites. An additional 36 attributeswere identified in the next twelve websites. After thefourteenth website, no new fields were discovered (seeFig. 1). By achieving code saturation for the resumefields in our study, we believe our findings apply to thefull range of resume design practices in contemporaryDutch e-Recruiting websites.

E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes 247

Fig. 1. Data saturation of resume fields on general e-Recruiting web-

sites.

4. Results

In what follows we will describe first the resumerequirements emerging from the interviews withrecruiters. Then, we will present the results of thee-Recruiting website analyses and the relevant com-ponents of digital resumes. This analysis is integratedinto a knowledge representation framework [57] of datarequirements for digital resumes. This will facilitate thenext stage of development of a digital resume designontology. However, in this paper we have stopped shortof specification of a detailed ontology, as this is a tech-nical process with (likely) a different readership, anddifferent theoretical foundations.

Next we will discuss requirements for recruitingworkflows: to improve matching between resumes andjob advertisements. Finally we suggest areas for futureresearch into the maintenance and extension of resumeknowledge representation frameworks.

4.1. Recruiters’ preference

The interviews with recruiters were useful to gaininsight into their usage of e-Recruiting sites, and theirperspectives on important resume and search fields.Over a third of the interviewed recruiters identifiedapplicants’ education and years of professional workexperience as highly important resume criteria. Fur-ther, they frequently requested information on extraactivities, ambitions, desired job, personality, hobbiesand interests, phone number, and personal information.Approximately 25% of the recruiters were dissatisfiedwith the current e-Recruiting websites, and felt thatrather than there being missing data, there was too muchunnecessary data:

“There are too many fields in a resume. I only wantto know their name, phone number, education and workexperience” and “I see no need for additions because

then it would be even less manageable and would takemore administrative time”.

Another recruiter argued:“I only want to get to know about their past work

experiences: related to the prospective job: not paperfilling!” It was emphasized to us that resumes shouldbe easily readable.

However, some of the recruiters we interviewed dididentify additional data requirements. One recruiterwanted to know the reason why an applicant had leftthe previous job while another demanded knowledgetests:

“Before an applicant gets invited for a job interview,he has to do an analytical and mathematical test online,however first we always look through their resumes”.

Three recruiters requested the inclusion of phonenumbers so that they could talk to a potential applicantimmediately, before another employer made contact.Two recruiters found the highest education level veryimportant. Another wanted to know how quickly anapplicant had finished their formal educational trajec-tory.

Recruiters differed to some extent in terms of thecriteria they required for searching and filtering onlineresumes. The most frequently requested search filter(by almost 70% of recruiters) was years of professionalwork experience. More than half of the intervieweespreferred to search for job titles (or synonyms of thatjob title) when filtering applicant databases.

“Sometimes a job title has multiple meanings, like anarchitect can design buildings or computer software”.One-third of the recruiters preferred to search for appli-cants who lived close to the company location. Also, athird of the recruiters stated they usually searched foreducation level, e.g., highest degree obtained. Somerecruiters noted that they liked to search for industryor branch type. Three of the 17 recruiters explainedthat they wanted as many suitable applicants as pos-sible, and would then manually check all the resumeforms of the pre-filtered applicants. Six recruiters feltthat determining what resume design and search cri-teria are important largely depends on the vacancy. Inthis context, two IT recruiters noted additional crite-ria such as specific expertise or years of experiencewith a specific programming language would be useful.Two recruiters searched for applicants with a certaincareer level. One recruiter suggested they always fil-ter out applicants who are not actively seeking a job.Another recruiter requested the ability to filter out appli-cants who do not want to travel. One recruiter wanted tosearch for those applicants who had indicated a desired

248 E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes

salary level that was similar to the level offered by thehiring organization.

4.2. Website analysis

Three researchers carefully reviewed resume fieldoptions of the 40 largest Dutch e-Recruiting sites (for acomplete listing of these sites: see Appendix A). Wecompared the resume fields used in these sites withwhat we found in the resume design literature andwith the interview results. While the recruiting sitesin the study shared many features in their resume fieldsand subfields, they also differed in several areas, andin the labeling and extensiveness of fields they used.For instance, some sites include a field only for themost recent professional experience while others pro-vided the option to fill in multiple previous positions.Similarly, educational levels, skills, job titles and demo-graphic data were clustered in various ways across thestudied websites. Not all systems include all relevantfields suggested in the literature. Importantly, we foundthat many resume forms used variations of unstructuredtextboxes, checkboxes or select boxes for capturingdata. This meant that although required fields mightbe present, they would not be easily searchable usingcriteria relevant for recruiters, due to their unstructuredformat.

4.3. Digital resume design

Based on the literature analyses, the integration ofinsights from the interviews with recruiters and thee-recruiting website analysis, we derived the relevantcontent for digital resumes. Compared to previous lit-erature, two new resume categories have been added:career status and desired job; other salient resume fieldsare personal and contact information, education, workexperience, extra activities, skills and references. Inthis section, we present a justification for each cate-gory based on literature, interviews, or website analysis.In some cases, we returned to previous research, in aneffort to further explicate our findings. This allows us tocontextualize our study and to note where our findingsdiverge from those of previous researchers.

4.3.1. Personal and contact informationThe inclusion of personal information, such as age,

gender, ethnicity, marital status and a photograph isgenerally included at the discretion of the applicant[39]. In the research literature few employers have indi-cated that personal information is desirable in resumes.

Hutchinson and Brefka [23] found that inclusion ofpersonal information was typically considered unim-portant, and some respondents pointed out that suchinformation would be “struck out” for legal reasons.Holley et al. [20] found that more than half of theapplicants for Director of Personnel positions pro-vided marital status, and many chose to include theirage and number of children. They suggest prospec-tive employers are barred from requesting certain typesof information, and thus some may prefer not receiv-ing such information for fear of discrimination claims.Personal information is usually supplied by job appli-cants in order to enhance their chances of obtaining aninterview [34] despite the fact that such informationhas also been found to create discriminatory evalua-tions in pre-selection decisions [19]. Some applicantsfalsely believe that they are required to provide personalinformation in their resumes, unaware perhaps thatanti-discrimination legislation in many countries makesit illegal for employers to base hiring decisions onsuch information. Essential information in each resume,according to Ross and Young [39], is an applicant’s tele-phone number. This was confirmed by our interviews;three recruiters requested the inclusion of phone num-bers so that they could immediately talk to a potentialapplicant. The region where a candidate lives (duringthe time of the job application) is seen as important,while specific address, fax and social security numberare not important. Further, age, birth date and place,gender, marital status, number of dependents, militaryexperience, photograph and ethnicity were rated as notimportant by Ross and Young. Monsterboard.nl, thelargest Dutch e-recruiting site belonging to the largestUS-based e-Recruiting firm, does not require appli-cants to fill in personal information such as genderor birth date, but all the other Dutch e-recruiting siteswe analyzed require applicants’ gender and birth date.Stepstone.nl, a Norwegian site, even demands infor-mation about nationality. A Dutch public-sector site,‘werkenbijde-overheid.nl,’ asks for marital status. Sim-ilarly, one of our interviewed recruiters stated: “As arecruiter, you want to know everything you can aboutany potential applicant.” Yet, most resume forms letthe applicant choose to show or hide personal and con-tact information from potential employers. In case ofa fully anonymous resume (a resume without personaland contact information) recruiters can get into contactwith applicants by anonymous mail. Also, the applicantcan choose not to include their resume information inresume databases. In such cases, applicants can manu-ally send in online resumes when responding to a job

E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes 249

advertisement. ‘Nuwerk.nl’ gives the option to explic-itly include or exclude selected companies from seeingthe resume profile. In this way, applicants can be confi-dent their current employer cannot find them in a poolof job seekers. We conclude that since employers areprohibited from selecting employees based on gender,birth date, nationality or marital status, online resumeforms should ideally not even ask for this personalinformation.

4.3.2. EducationA significant number of researchers [3, 5, 9, 25] agree

with our interviewed recruiters that educational expe-rience is an essential component of a good resume.A recruiter may use this section to match particularjob requirements with the educational accomplishmentsof applicants. Applicants’ competencies may be fur-ther judged on the basis of the reputation of schoolsattended (e.g., a prestigious private school versus aregional or state university) and the field of study.Moreover, it may be possible to infer the degree ofmotivation of the applicant from the duration of theirprogram of study. Degrees received and the dates theywere awarded should be included under the educationsection in reverse chronological order. The most suit-able education to be included in resumes should beeither university/college or high school level. Crosby[10] suggests that high school educational informa-tion should be included for applicants who apply forinternships or student projects, and by recent grad-uates. However, Hutchinsons and Brefka [23] arguethere is little value in listing high school informationunless it is the applicants’ sole educational experienceor directly related to the open position. Researchershave frequently suggested the inclusion of grade pointaverage (GPA). This might be due to recruiters’ beliefsthat a GPA reflects in part on the candidate’s intelli-gence, motivation, and other abilities needed on thejob [40]. For experienced professionals, recruiters placemore emphasis on relevant previous work experience[23]. Ross and Young differentiate between collegeexperience and high school experience. Overall, col-lege experience, field of study, internship experience,major area of study, type of degree earned and date ofgraduation were all rated as very important. The nameof college/university attended, honors and awards, par-ticipation in campus organizations, GPA in major, GPAoverall, list of college courses taken, transcripts, par-ticipation in athletics and class rank were rated assomewhat important. In contrast to college and univer-sity history, name of high school attended, and other

information from the applicant’s high school record,such as participation in athletics and GPA were rated asnot important [40].

4.3.3. Work experienceIn the work experience section, job titles, major

duties and responsibilities of the jobs listed by the appli-cant can be compared with the requirements of the jobto which a candidate applies [46]. Ross and Young[39] found the following parameters very important:job responsibilities, dates of employment, position title,achievements and accomplishments, reason for leav-ing, name of employer, name of supervisor, part-time orfull-time status, location of employer and salary. Sim-ilarly, Cole et al. [9] found that hiring managers findinformation provided by job candidates about individ-ual job achievements, holding a supervisory position,full-time work experience, and internship experienceto be significant. Although some researchers [10] rec-ommend to include full- and part-time job information,and non-related work experience in resumes, Ryan [44]suggested the inclusion only of work experience that ismeaningful and directly relevant to the position sought.In organizations where work is accomplished by net-works of project-based teams, and by people who canadjust to more flexible assignments, the tradition ofclearly defined jobs with position titles that conveymeaning outside particular work groups and compa-nies is rapidly eroding. Hence, it is important to havedescriptions and titles for job openings that will beunderstood by employers. In our recruiting websiteanalyses, we found some sites only require applicants tofill-in their most recent or current work experience. Thisfinding corresponds with our interview results. Fourrecruiters mentioned that resumes should be easily read-able and not be overloaded with information. If a siteenables the filling-in of multiple experiences, then themost recent or relevant work experience that is relatedto the desired job should be clearly indicated. Thenthe applicant’s prior responsibilities and achievementsshould be identified.

Moreover, based on the literature, recruiting web-sites should include a checkbox so applicants can seeif a job is full-time or part-time. Both literature andour interviews underline the high importance placed onjob titles. Current recruiting websites force recruitersto fill in several different but synonymous different jobtitles since parts of many job titles very often applyto similar work (software engineer, software developer,programmer).

250 E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes

Also, many job titles (like architect) can have multi-ple cross-domain meanings, e.g., a building architect ora software architect. It is therefore very important thatjob titles are clearly defined [16] and recruiting sitesshould take synonyms into account. We recommendedthat professional or occupational associations shouldbe more engaged in standardizing and categorizing jobtitles.

4.3.4. Extra activityCole et al. [9], Brown and Campion [6] as well as

the recruiters involved in this study consider extracur-ricular activities the third most important section of theresume. These activities include memberships in pro-fessional societies, holding elected offices, voluntarycommunity activities [39] and engagement in univer-sity or social clubs. The number and type of activities(i.e., professional vs. social) and the number of lead-ership positions held influence their picture of anapplicant’s leadership capabilities, interpersonal skills,and motivational qualities. Given that most entry-levelapplicants’ prior work experience is either limited ornon-existent [9], recruiters are likely to focus more onan applicant’s academic qualifications and extracurric-ular activities. Ross and Young [39] label this category“personal and professional involvement”, and find itshould include, in order of importance: certifications,professional organizations, community involvement,professional presentations delivered, professional con-ferences attended, and professional publications. All ofthese resume content items were seen as very importantby our interviewees. Hobbies are considered only some-what important in Ross and Young’s study while four ofour 17 recruiters considered hobbies highly important.The resume design literature suggests an applicant’sprior positions held in association with extracurricularactivities to be very important for inclusion in resumeforms. Collecting information about these extracur-ricular activities could be more structured in onlineresumes, for example by enabling applicants to fill ineach experience separately, as they do in the educationand work experience sections. For each experience thespecific date (for a publication or presentation) or period(for community involvement and memberships) shouldbe stated.

4.3.5. SkillsThe online resume forms of the 40 Dutch recruiting

sites require applicants to fill-in only a fairly standardset of generic skills. For instance, in regard to computerskills, only working knowledge of Microsoft Office

elements such as Word, Excel or Powerpoint are specif-ically listed in the online resume forms. These skill listsshould be extended in order to more comprehensivelyreflect an applicant’s computer skills. For instance, pro-grams like AutoCAD, Photoshop, or Sketchup or otherindustry specific software and programming languagesshould be included.

An indication of level of experience (beginner,intermediate, advanced, expert) would strengthen theusefulness of the skills section. Two of the IT recruiterswe interviewed stated that information on applicants’detailed programming languages and experience levelis needed. Skills databases need to be integrated withhuman resource information systems in order to system-atically match language skills, software skills, businessskills, law skills, project management skills, etc. with agiven vacancy.

4.3.6. References in resume formsRoss and Young [39] identified references from pre-

vious employers as very important. They saw referencesfrom teachers; reference letters attached and referencesavailable on request as somewhat important, while ref-erences from relatives were not seen as important. Asan alternative to including references in the resume,Besson [5] suggested a separate list of references shouldbe sent to the prospective employer only when the can-didate becomes a finalist for the position. In our websiteanalyses, only one of the 40 websites asked applicantsfor references, and none of the interviewed recruitersexpressed the need for references1 on the initial appli-cation.

4.3.7. Career statusWe found that recruiters want to be able to filter on

a range of criteria such as whether applicants are cur-rently available to start a job and are eligible to work inthe country; years of experience, education level; careerlevel; current or last job title(s) and employer. Theseissues are covered by the field career status. It can beused as a search filter. Updated information on the cur-rent career status of registered applicants is importantso that recruiters who use digital resume pools can firstinvest their screening time in candidates that are cur-rently available. When recruiters use resume databases

1This might be a Dutch bias since the Netherlands lacks a cultureof making and conveying and using reference letters in HRM-typematters, unlike most Anglo-Saxon countries where those letters doplay a role.

E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes 251

to first filter for the best-fitting applicants for theiradvertised jobs, several routine challenges arise. It isoften the case that the applicant has by this time founda job elsewhere, or found the company or job descrip-tion unattractive; and consequently does not respondto the recruiter’s invitation for an interview. Naturally,applicants are more likely to apply to job advertise-ments when they know the job description and thehiring company [50]. This implies applicants need totake a proactive role, and decide for themselves if theywant to be regarded as a candidate by specific hiringorganizations [48].

4.3.8. Desired jobThe resume field desired job is important for

recruiters who use digital resumes, as they need to knowhow likely it is that a specific applicant will take aspecific job in a specific organization. Some of our inter-viewees noted they stopped using resume pools due tolack of applicant responsiveness and because they werenot convinced that applicants actually desired to workfor their organization if they only appeared as latentjob seekers and did not apply directly for a specificadvertised job. Ross and Young [39] showed that spe-cific information on an applicant’s career objectives isvery important. They suggest including in resumes abrief but specific objective statement, identifying thetype of position the candidate is seeking. This couldbe either job focused or career focused. However, ourinterview results and the website analysis show that thisis not likely to satisfy recruiters’ needs. Recruiters needmore detailed information about applicants when usingresume databases. Yet, applicants do not always directlyapply to recruiters’ specific job advertisements; whenrecruiters use resume pools they assume the proac-tive role in searching for suitable candidates. In thiscase they desired an extra resume category, which welabeled “desired job” indicating the fit between the can-didate’s aspirations and the advertised job. Selectionresearch not only concentrates on person-job fit; butother fit constructs such as an individual’s compatibilitywith his or her organization, work group, and supervi-sors [27, 43]. In our proposed “desired job” category,the applicant should at least fill-in the date when heor she is available to start a new job, preferred jobtitle(s), job status, industries, companies, salary, andhours per week he or she wants to work. Also, loca-tion is important: some recruiters mention wanting tobe given information on the work commuting distancefrom the applicant’s home address, or eventual need

for relocation, in order to judge the feasibility of hir-ing the candidate. If a website also offers internationaljobs, the desired salary should take currency issueswhen relevant into account (for example, by allow-ing site users to select the required currency from alist).

5. Synthesis

The following Fig. 2 triangulates our findingsfrom literature, interviews, and content analysis ofe-recruiting websites. Our use of multiple, indepen-dent data-gathering techniques give us considerableconfidence in the robustness and completeness of ourframework.

6. Challenges and limitations of intelligentmatching

We now illustrate the challenges encountered ineffective matching of resume and job ad content. Fig-ure 3 below shows data from a typical applicant profileand job ad. The classification of various attributes (i.e.,education, languages, skills, etc.) should enable intel-ligent matching. However building up an ontology forapplicant and job ad descriptions is complex. The exam-ple shows that the description in the job ad requiresa candidate who speaks at least one Eastern Euro-pean language; the applicant profile lists Romanianunder languages indicating a fit with the job ad. Theskills ontology therefore needs to be build up the waythat languages are classified, e.g., in Eastern Europeanlanguages (or Slavic), Germanic, Roman, and Indic lan-guage families. Classifications of the Japanese family,for example, range from one language (a language iso-late) to nearly twenty. A major current problem is thatapplicants tend to fill in concrete details in resumes (spe-cific school attended, concrete field of study) wherease-recruiting systems structure data according to broadcategories for skills, education level and type.

As most search is keyword based (also not con-sidering homonyms, i.e., bank = financial institution,bank = an applicant’s name), matching results betweenapplicant and job profile remain unreliable.

In order to allow matching systems to improverecruiters’ work routines, classification difficulties needto be addressed. Continuing our illustration, the job adexcerpt requires skills in object-oriented programminglanguage; the applicant filled in the online resume that

252 E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes

Fig. 2. Resume design framework.

E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes 253

1. No matching possible if classification Electrics is similar to Electrical Engineering is missing. 2. No matching possible if classification Romanian is Eastern European language is missing. 3. No matching possible if classification Java and C++ are object-oriented programming languages is missing. 4. No matching possible if classification CATIA und AutoCAD are CAD skills is missing.

++

Fig. 3. Excerpt for an applicant profile and a job ad.

Fig. 4. Example classification of IT skills.

he had skills in Java. Here also the IT skill ontologywould need to know that Java belongs to the object-oriented programming languages so that this candidateis identified by the recruiters’ search query.

Another example (Fig. 4) on classifying IT skillsshows C++ as a subset of both programming languagesand object-oriented languages, so that applicants withC++ skills would be returned by searches on eithercategory.

7. Developing workflows and maintainingresume content data

Enacting useful applications of online resumes byrecruiters requires more than just a knowledge represen-tation framework. The framework must be sophisticatedand able to support a network of inter-related clas-sifications [58]. A process is required for structuringand classifying unstructured job and applicant data in

254 E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes

conformance with the knowledge engineering frame-work [56]. Finally, since any classification system willbe incomplete, a workflow is required enhancing theframework as part of its ongoing use. Most currente-Recruiting systems, however, have no automated cat-egorization, and no easy ability to add new knowledge,and therefore search queries can lead to dissatisfy-ing results. Manual classification is prevalent whichrequires HR assistants to classify job advertisementsinto job category, branch, type of employment andregion. More sophisticated classifications into detailededucation type or job-related experience and skills havenot been accomplished by most systems yet.

A further challenge is the maintenance of the knowl-edge representation framework in response to new jobsand other categories. Although our research into therequired fields for digital resume design was compre-hensive and drew on data from multiple sources, it isinevitable that new fields, or new categories for exist-ing fields, will continue to emerge. New courses anddegrees, and new technologies and programming lan-guages need to be able to be incorporated into theframework.

The framework must be adaptive and extensible. Inprinciple, the following workflow process is requiredto maintain the framework. If applicants suggest newterms that the system does not know these should be putinto a separate group. The different context suggestionsshould be socialised by subject matter experts usingcollaborative processes involving users and developers.The disputed terms can then be incorporated into theexisting framework, or used as a basis for extensions tothe framework. A categorization processes for unknownterms that enables them to be added to the struc-tured content system is essential for the success of anye-Recruiting field framework.

8. Discussion

When applicants send print resumes to an organiza-tion, usually recruiters assume that the applicants areeager and willing to take the advertised job [12, 36].With digital resumes this is often not the case. It is easyfor applicants to send their resumes to many differentorganizations with little effort and cost.

In particular when recruiters use digital resumepools, several challenges arise. Recruiters mayget frustrated if they have identified a seeminglyperfect candidate but potential candidates with active-appearing resumes appear nonresponsive due to

changed circumstances in their career status. Severalof our interviewed recruiters noted that resume pro-files get easily out-dated. Recruiters had experiencedmany “hits” which suggested suitable candidates, onlyto find that while initially a profile seemed suitable foran advertised job, due to changes in the applicants’career experiences and interests they were no longeran effective match.

Previous research suggests that registered users ofe-recruiting services are not long-term active users.Usually, job searchers tend to look through the pub-lished job ads, fill in resume forms and apply to thee-listed jobs. As soon as they have found a new job, thereis very little reason to return to a career site again. Andit is difficult to design the technical features of onlineservices and simultaneously lead new social practicesfor ongoing communications [51].

Due to the exchange-based nature of recruiting ser-vices, large numbers of e-recruiting initiatives fail [15].Many providers try to solve this dilemma by accu-mulating masses of resumes, (i.e., registered applicantprofiles) so that simply more suitable profiles for thesame job advertisements appear to be available. Theproblem of outmoded profiles is, however, not solvedthis way [49]. Many of the applicants have alreadyfound a job or their contact data has changed. There-fore, a major design challenge is to implement featuresto motivate applicants to keep their profiles up-to-date.Some research suggests additional features to encour-age stickiness and return visits; such as enhancing theplayfulness of the site, or implementing skill competi-tions and the ability for applicants to rank themselvescompared to other registered applicants on the site [14].Effective management of online resume data could alsofacilitate regular prompting of applicants to confirm iftheir details are correct and if they are still job-hunting.

When recruiters receive print resumes, after an initialscreening they reply with a rejection or an invitationto submit more documents for additional screening oran invitation for an interview or further testing. In theoffline context, the applicant is usually removed fromthe pool of applications after their application has beenconsidered, although some organizations keep resumesstored for later possible job interviews.

In the digital context, resumes can be stored lifelong.In order to get a systematic overview of the availablecandidates, one needs to build in a ‘career state’ entry:to flag the willingness of a person to interview at somepoint (e.g., available on a specified date, currently notavailable, or latent job seeker, that is, open for joboffers however currently in a job). By paying more

E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes 255

attention to practice-oriented resume design, recruiters’time investments would decrease considerably. Simi-larly, automated rejection mails to unsuitable resumeprofiles can enable efficient communication. Finally,system designers are challenged to create private-information space into the applicant profile base(for applicants; friends of applicants and for HRrecruiters).

We expect future e-recruiting services to includesocial network functionalities among registered users:In order to build trust as well as ward off the fear thatpersonalized resume data will be misused.

9. Contribution to research and practice

This study’s analysis of the relevant literature; inter-views with recruiters; and content-analysis of theresume fields of 40 e-Recruiting sites contributes to theunderstanding of varying requirements of offline andonline resumes. Second, we shed light on some of thechallenges of online matching of resume data to jobrequirements, and maintaining a structured frameworkfor resume data.

We suggest processes for structuring and matchingjob and applicant data, and discuss approaches for main-taining and extending the framework. Third, this studyhas resulted in a number of design recommendations.Fields that could result in claims of discrimination,for example, age, gender and marital status should beexcluded from digital resume databases [19, 39]. Fur-thermore, the equivalency of job titles is complex andrequires ongoing input from professional and occupa-tional associations to ensure consistent classification.Information about extracurricular activities needs to bemore structured, and more similar to job information.Skills classifications need to be integrated from a num-ber of disciplines, including language, software and,business.

We propose two new resume fields specificallyrelevant for effectively working with digital resumedatabases: career status and desired job. We recommendusing fewer open text-field options in online resumeforms and instead a focus on “select” fields which canbe classified for matching job ads and resume profiles.Needless to say, textboxes do not support structuredsearching or automated pre-selection and filtering ofcandidates. Still, textboxes have been found useful forscreening after an initial assessment (i.e., first screen-ing of the hard facts required for a job) has taken place.In order to lower the time spent in pre-selection pro-

cesses, various phases in the selection process need tobe integrated as discussed earlier in the literature [18].Our interviews suggested that in a first level selection,recruiters usually do not require all resume content data;there is no need for most of the unstructured informationin textboxes or specific street address of an applicant.Basic initial information which is required includeseligibility to work in the country, availability, educa-tion level, skills and years of work experience. If thesefirst-level selection criteria are assessed positively, asecond level selection should take place (showing spe-cific resume details of applicants, that is, textboxeswhere applicants express their talents in writing, whichalso allows recruiters to assess their level of writingfluency). This second-phase may need to include moreunstructured written information. Alternatively, uponthe initial pre-selection round a phone interview or otherselection techniques may take place.

A major challenge in resume design is to estab-lish a standardized vocabulary for resume fields. Ourstudy clearly revealed that the currently used onlineresume forms use many different synonyms for thesame resume field. For instance, some portals ask appli-cants to fill in their earliest possible starting date, othersthe earliest beginning date or job enter date – termswhich obviously relate to the same construct. And someinformation services request applicants to fill in an exactday of the month whereas others require filling in ‘startmonth’ and year.

This research provides a springboard for sematicweb applications that will enable the implementation ofintelligent, adaptable and extensible e-Recruiting por-tals and applications. This has great potential to bringproductivity gains in this specific aspect of the e-HRMindustry.

10. Implications for future research

The challenge remains to classify resume infor-mation across sectors, countries, languages and lawsaffecting the job search and hiring process. Clearly,both research and practice would benefit from a moreunified or standardized language for digital resumeforms. However, this knowledge source is complexto develop, and would require various syntheses fromareas as broad as Linguistics, Human Resources,Computer Science, Information Systems, and even Psy-chology. To date, there appears little knowledge sharingacross organizations and research disciplines when itcomes to e-Recruiting portal design [54]. Researchers

256 E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes

from technical disciplines (Information Systems,Computer Science) and social sciences (HumanResource Management, Psychology) have workedindependently from each other. Fortunately, in the pastdecade, scholars have started to undertake joint inter-disciplinary efforts to understand the phenomenon andits multilevel implications within and across organi-zations; leading to several special issues on e-HRMbetween 2004 and 2010 (e.g., The International Journalof Human Resource Management, 2009).

Clearly, more technical research is needed in thee-HRM domain to develop an adaptive e-recruitingontology that can learn new skills such as appli-cants’ various computer or language skills. In order toenable effective matching, comprehensive skill ontolo-gies need to be agreed upon within the recruiting sector.Research suggests that better taxonomies would pro-duce better selection decisions [16, 52].

As educational programs and skills change over time,skill ontologies for resume fields would need to allowlearning from new users who fill in new skills which thesystem did not know before. Yet, different users willlikely interpret skill levels differently. Therefore skilltests may need to be included when filling in resumeforms. This would provide a more objective comparisonof resume content data. An intelligent resume screeningsystem could aid in the recommendation of applicants torecruiters [53]. Also workflows for using, maintaining,and enhancing resume databases need to be developedin order to enhance recruiters’ effectiveness in usingsuch systems.

This study is not without limitations. Quantitativeresearch involving a larger sample of recruiters wouldbe helpful for identifying essential and nice-to-haveresume categories in a more comprehensive way. Fur-thermore, our suggested resume content fields mayneed revision depending on emerging novel job clas-sifications and industry types in a growing universeof e-Recruiting services. We focused exclusively onanalyzing Dutch e-Recruiting sites and interviews withDutch recruiters. Resume preferences and resume fieldsmay be categorized differently in other cultures outsidethe Netherlands.

11. Conclusion

This paper addresses and synthesizes requirementsof online resume forms into a knowledge framework.We conducted interviews with 17 full-time recruiters,and content analyzed the resume forms of the 40 largest

Appendix A

Largest e-Recruiting websites in the Netherlands

http://www.hrlog.nl/2008/10/06/hrlog-top-40-3e-kwartaal-2008,

retrieved sep 4, 2011

# url

1 http://www.monsterboard.nl/

2 http://www.nationalevacaturebank.nl/

3 http://www.intermediair.nl/

4 http://www.totaljobs.nl

5 http://www.jobbingmall.nl/

6 http://www.randstad.nl

7 http://www.volkskrantbanen.nl/

8 http://www.uitzendbureau.nl/

9 http://www.jobtrack.nl

10 http://www.jobrapido.nl

11 http://www.nuwerk.nl

12 http://www.tempo-team.nl

13 http://www.vacaturekrant.nl/

14 http://www.stepstone.nl

15 http://www.werk.nl

16 http://www.studentenwerk.nl/

17 http://vacature.overzicht.nl/

18 http://www.werkenbijdeoverheid.nl

19 http://www.zoekbijbaan.nl/

20 http://www.bijbanen.nl

21 http://www.luba.nl

22 http://www.adecco.nl

23 http://www.stageplaza.nl/

24 http://www.content.nl

25 http://www.werkenbijhetrijk.nl

26 http://www.vitae.nl

27 http://www.studentenvacature.nl

28 http://www.studentjob.nl/

29 http://www.megajobs.nl

30 http://www.maandag.nl

31 http://www.inoverheid.nl

32 http://www.mediavacature.nl/

33 http://www.stagemotor.nl/

34 http://www.yer.nl

35 http://www.careerjet.nl

36 http://www.loopbaan.nl/

37 http://www.gemeentebanen.nl/

38 http://www.brabantzorg.net/

39 http://www.zorgselect.nl/

40 http://www.eenbaan.nl/

Dutch e-Recruiting sites which provided insights intobest practice in content items used in resume forms.These current practices were compared with extantresume design literature and concepts emerging from

E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes 257

interviewing recruiters about their everyday profes-sional experience. This research is useful for managersand designers of online resume forms, recruiters, appli-cants and academics engaged in e-Recruiting research.We synthesized and explained the content of the mostsought after relevant digital resume fields by recruiters:career status, desired job, education, work experience,extracurricular activities, skills, personal informationand contact information. This research provides twonew resume fields beyond what is found in the exist-ing academic literature: career status and desired job.Both of these categories provide useful information forrecruiters using resume databases for searching andmatching. “Current career status” makes it virtuallyeffortless to quickly sort out applicants that are not suit-able for the open position, and “desired job” gives therecruiter information as to whether an applicant wouldbe actually interested in an offered job. Further, wehave represented the fields in a structured way that willenable design and development.

Despite the popularity of e-HRM [18, 41], the fullpotential of online recruiting is not being realized dueto ongoing difficulties in matching and searching onresume fields. Filtering resumes and identifying suit-able applicants, let-alone suitable applicants that areactually interested in the position, remains the samelabour intensive, hit-or-miss process that it was in pre-digital times. In this study, we identified some of thereasons why this is the case, and proposed some solu-tions.

The knowledge representation framework and theinsights gleaned from this exploratory study may aid inimproved design that will enable recruiters to harnessthe business potential of the online resume databases inthe future.

References

[1] R. Alvarez and J. Urla, Tell me a good story: Using narra-tive analysis to examine information requirements interviewsduring an ERP implementation, Data Base for Advances inInformation Systems 33(1) (2002), 38–52.

[2] N. Anderson, Applicant and recruiter reactions to new tech-nology in selection: A critical review and agenda for futureresearch, International Journal of Selection and Assessment11(2-3) (2003), 121–136.

[3] H.M. Augustin, The written job search: A comparison of thetraditional and a non-traditional approach, The Bulletin 54(1991), 13–14.

[4] D. Bartram, Internet recruitment and selection: Kissing frogs tofind princes, International Journal of Selection and Assessment8(4) (2000), 261–274.

[5] T.J. Besson, Resumes, 3rd ed., John Wiley, New York, 1999.

[6] B.K. Brown and M.A. Campion, Biodata phenomenology:Recruiters’ perceptions and use of biographical informationin resume screening, Journal of Applied Psychology 79(6)(1994), 897–908.

[7] P. Cappelli, Making the most of online recruiting, HarvardBusiness Review 79(3) (2001), 139–146.

[8] D.S. Chapman and J. Webster, The use of technologies inthe recruiting, screening, and selection processes for job can-didates, International Journal of Selection and Assessment11(2-3) (2003), 113–120.

[9] M.S. Cole, R.S. Rubin, H.S. Feild and W.F. Giles, Recruiters’perceptions and use of applicant resume information: Screen-ing the recent graduate, Applied Psychology-an InternationalReview 56(2) (2007), 319–343.

[10] O. Crosby, Resumes, applications, and cover letters, Occupa-tional Outlook Quarterly 4(2) (1999), 2–15.

[11] B.R. Dineen, J. Ling, S.R. Steven and D. DelVecchio, Aestheticproperties and message customization: Navigating the darkside of web recruitment, Journal of Applied Psychology 92(2)(2007), 356–372.

[12] R.L. Dipboye, G.A. Fontenelle and K. Garner, Effects of pre-viewing the application on interview process and outcomes,Journal of Applied Psychology 69(1) (1984), 118–128.

[13] D.C. Feldman and B.S. Klaas, Internet job hunting: A fieldstudy of applicant experiences with on-line recruiting, HumanResource Management 41(2) (2002), 175–192.

[14] E. Furtmueller, C. Wilderom and R. van Dick, Utiliz-ing the Lead User Method for promoting Innovation ine-Recruiting, in: Handbook of Research on E-Transformationand Human Resources Management Technologies, T.V. Bon-darouk, H.J.M. Ruel, E. Oiry and K. Guiderdoni-Jourdan, Eds.,Information Science Reference, Hershey, New York, 2009,251–2273.

[15] E. Furtmueller, C. Wilderom and R. van Dick, Sustainablee-recruiting portals: How to motivate applicants to stay con-nected throughout their careers? International Journal ofTechnology and Human Interaction 6(3) (2010), 1–20.

[16] E. Furtmueller, C. Wilderom and R. Mueller, Online Resumes:Optimizing Design to Service Recruiters, Proceedings of theEuropean Conference on Information Systems (2010), paper53.

[17] M.A. Glynn and R. Raffaelli, Uncovering Mechanisms ofTheory Development in an Academic Field: Lessons fromLeadership Research, Academy of Management Annals 4(1)(2010), 359–401.

[18] H.G. Gueutal and D.L. Stone, The Brave New World of e-HR:Human Resources Management in the Digital Age, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 2005.

[19] M.M. Harris, F. Lievens and G. van Hoye, “I think they discrim-inated against me”: Using prototype theory and organizationaljustice theory for understanding perceived discrimination inselection and promotion situations, International Journal ofSelection and Assessment 12(1-2) (2004), 54–65.

[20] W.H. Holley, E. Higgins and S. Speights, Resumes and coverletters - What do HR managers really want? Personnel 65(12)(1988), 49–51.

[21] L.M. Hough and F.L. Oswald, Personnel selection: Lookingtoward the future–remembering the past, Annual Review ofPsychology 51 (2000), 631–664.

258 E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes

[22] A.I. Huffcutt, J.M. Conway, P.L. Roth and N.J. Stone,Identification and meta-analytic assessment of psychologicalconstructs measured in employment interviews, Journal ofApplied Psychology 86(5) (2001), 897–913.

[23] K.L. Hutchinson and D.S. Brefka, Personnel. Administrators’preferences for resume content: Ten years after, Business Com-munication Quarterly 60(2) (1997), 67–75.

[24] A.J. Kinicki and C.A. Lockwood, The interview process -An examination of factors recruiters use in evaluating jobapplicants, Journal of Vocational Behavior 26(2) (1985),117–125.

[25] S.B. Knouse, Impressions of the resume - The effect ofapplicant education, experience, and impression management,Journal of Business and Psychology 9(1) (1994), 33–45.

[26] K.S. Koong, L.C. Liu and D.L. Williams, An identificationof internet job board attributes, Human Systems Management21(2) (2002), 129-135.

[27] A.L. Kristof-Brown, R.D. Zimmerman and E.C. Johnson, Con-sequences of individuals’ fit at work: A meta-analysis ofperson-job, person-organization, person-group, and person-supervisor FIT, Personnel Psychology 58(2) (2005), 281–342.

[28] I. Lee, Evaluation of Fortune 100 companies’ career web sites,Human Systems Management 24(2) (2005), 175–182.

[29] I. Lee, F. Dehkordi-Vakil and T. Kaul, Evaluating job appli-cants’ perceptions of corporate career web sites, HumanSystems Management 27 (2008), 321–330.

[30] I. Lee, An architecture for a next-generation holistice-recruiting system, Communications of the ACM 50(7)(2007), 81–85.

[31] B. Lin and V.S. Stasinskaya, Data warehousing managementissues in online recruiting, Human Systems Management 21(1)(2002), 1–8.

[32] F.A. Mael, A conceptual rationale for the domain and attributesof biodata items, Personnel Psychology 44(4) (1991), 763–792.

[33] M.A. McDeniel, D.L. Whetzel, F.L. Schmidt and S.D. Mau-rer, The validity of employment interviews - A comprehensivereview and metaanalysis, Journal of Applied Psychology 79(4)(1994), 599–616.

[34] S. McIntyre, D.J. Moberg and B.Z. Posner, Preferential treat-ment in preselection decisions according to sex and race,Academy of Management Journal 23(4) (1980), 738–749.

[35] J. Mingers, Combining IS research methods: Towards a plural-ist methodology, Information Systems Research 12(3) (2001),240–259.

[36] C.J. Monahan and P.M. Muchinsky, Three decades of per-sonnel selection research: A state-of-the-art analysis andevaluation, Journal of Occupational Psychology 56 (1983),215–225.

[37] M.D. Mumford, Construct validity and background data:Issues, abuses, and future directions, Human Resource Man-agement Review 9(2) (1999), 117–145.

[38] C.L. Reeve, S. Highhouse and M.E. Brooks, A closer lookat reactions to realistic recruitment messages, InternationalJournal of Selection and Assessment 14(1) (2006), 1–15.

[39] C.M. Ross and S.J. Young, Resume preferences - Is it really“business as usual”? Journal of Career Development 32(2)(2005), 153–164.

[40] P.L. Roth and P. Bobko, College grade point average as a per-sonnel selection device: Ethnic group differences and potential

adverse impact, Journal of Applied Psychology 85(3) (2000),399–406.

[41] H.J.M. Ruel, T.V. Bondarouk and J.C. Looise, E-HRM: Inno-vation or irritation? An exploration of web-based humanresource management in five large companies, ManagementRevue 15(3) (2004), 364–380.

[42] A.M. Ryan and R.E. Ployhart, Applicants’ perceptions ofselection procedures and decisions: A critical review andagenda for the future, Journal of Management 26(3) (2000),565–606.

[43] A.M. Ryan, M. Horvath and S.D. Kriska, The role of recruit-ing source informativeness and organizational perceptions indecisions to apply, International Journal of Selection andAssessment 13(4) (2005), 235–249.

[44] R. Ryan, Winning Resumes, John Wiley, New York, 1997.

[45] P.R. Sackett and F. Lievens, Personnel selection, AnnualReview of Psychology 59 (2008), 419–450.

[46] J.F. Salgado, Some landmarks of 100 years of scientificpersonnel selection at the beginning of the new century, Inter-national Journal of Selection and Assessment 9(1-2) (2001),3–8.

[47] F.L. Schmidt and R.D. Zimmerman, A counterintuitivehypothesis about employment interview validity and some sup-porting evidence, Journal of Applied Psychology 89(3) (2004),553–561.

[48] E.F. Sinar, D.H. Reynolds and S.L. Paquet, Nothing but ‘net?Corporate image and web-based testing, International Journalof Selection and Assessment 11(2-3) (2003), 150–157.

[49] A.D. Smith and W.T. Rupp, Managerial challenges ofe-recruiting: Extending the life cycle of new economy employ-ees, Online Information Review 28(1) (2004), 61–74.

[50] H. Sylva and S.T. Mol, E-Recruitment: A study intoapplicant perceptions of an online application system, Inter-national Journal of Selection and Assessment 17(3) (2009),311–323.

[51] I. Szmigin, L. Canning and A.E. Reppel, Online commu-nity: Enhancing the relationship marketing concept throughcustomer bonding, International Journal of Service IndustryManagement 16(5) (2005), 480–496.

[52] V. Terzis and A.A. Economides, Job Site Evaluation Frame-work (JSEF) and comparison of Greek and foreign job sites,Human Systems Management 24(3) (2005), 223–237.

[53] C. Viswesvaran, Introduction to special issue: Role of tech-nology in shaping the future of staffing and assessment,International Journal of Selection and Assessment 11(2-3)(2003), 107–112.

[54] J. Wolfswinkel, E. Furtmueller and C. Wilderom, Reflecting one-Recruiting Research Using Grounded Theory, Proceedingsof the European Conference on Information Systems (2010),paper 52.

[55] J. Wolfswinkel, E. Furtmueller and C. Wilderom, C. Usinggrounded theory as a method for rigorously reviewing litera-ture, European Journal of Information Systems, in press.

[56] M. Zeleny, Knowledge as a new form of capital, part 1: Divisionand reintegration of knowledge, Human Systems Management8(1) (1989), 45–58.

[57] M. Zeleny, Knowledge as a new form of capital, part2: Knowledge-based management systems, Human SystemsManagement 8(2) (1989), 129–143.

E. Furtmueller et al. / e-HRM and digital resumes 259

[58] M. Zeleny, Management support systems: Towards integratedknowledge management, Human Systems Management 7(1)(1987), 59–70.

[59] S. Zhao and J. Du, The application of competency-based talentassessment systems in China, Human Systems Management30(1) (2011), 23–37.

[60] R.R. Zusman and R.S. Landis, Applicant preferences for Web-based versus traditional job postings, Computers in HumanBehavior 18(3) (2002), 285–296.