Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers
In recent years, the practice of using corporate Web sites to recruit job applicants has increased steadily. Despite this trend, however, studies show that approximately 75% of job seekers find the sites too complicated to use successfully (Brown, 2004) and that more than 20% have rejected job opportunities based on poorly designed Web sites (Pastore, 2000). To address this problem, joins Internet marketing and employee recruitment research to offer six development implications for creating an effective "e-recruitment" source on a corporate Web site. Based on a job marketing approach to the recruitment process and consumer behavior research on persuasive communication and decision making, we present considerations important to creating an online recruiting Web site that effectively influences the search decisions and behaviors of a target market of desired job candidates.
Swot Analysis of "Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers" written by Steven D. Maurer, Yuping Liu includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sites Job facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Talent management and Communication.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sites Job, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sites Job operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sites Job
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Communication field.
4. Making a Communication topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Sites Job
Strengths Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sites Job in Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sites Job are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Sites Job has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Communication industry
– Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Sites Job to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Communication industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Sites Job to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Sites Job in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Sites Job is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Sites Job is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Sites Job has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Sites Job is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Communication segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Sites Job digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Sites Job has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sites Job has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Organizational Resilience of Sites Job
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Sites Job does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Diverse revenue streams
– Sites Job is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Weaknesses Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Communication strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Sites Job has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Sites Job even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sites Job products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sites Job needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Sites Job is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Communication segment. Sites Job needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Sites Job to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Sites Job has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Sites Job needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers, in the dynamic environment Sites Job has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Sites Job has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Sites Job, firm in the HBR case study Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Sites Job is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Sites Job 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Steven D. Maurer, Yuping Liu suggests that, Sites Job is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Opportunities Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Sites Job can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Communication industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Sites Job can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sites Job can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Sites Job in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Communication segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Sites Job can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Sites Job can develop new processes and procedures in Communication industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Sites Job has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Sites Job to increase its market reach. Sites Job will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sites Job has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Sites Job to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers case study. Sites Job can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sites Job is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Sites Job can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Communication segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Buying journey improvements
– Sites Job can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Communication industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Sites Job can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Sites Job can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Threats Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers are -
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Increasing wage structure of Sites Job
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Sites Job.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Communication field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Sites Job can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sites Job is facing in Communication sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Sites Job needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Communication industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Sites Job with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Sites Job demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sites Job can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers, Sites Job may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Communication .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Sites Job high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Environmental challenges
– Sites Job needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Sites Job can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Communication industry.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Sites Job will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Developing Effective e-Recruiting Web sites: Insights for Managers from Marketers is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Sites Job needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.