Challenges of Online Recruitment and Selection in United Nations Humanitarian Agencies in Nairobi

Abstract

The objective of the study was to identify the challenges of online recruitment and selection in the United Nations humanitarian organizations in Nairobi. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey research design. The target population was United Nations humanitarian agencies in Nairobi which were 15 in total, however only 11 questionnaires were collected from the respondent agencies. Data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences and the finding represented using tables with descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation. The research finding showed that majority of the agencies used online recruitment and selection as a form of acquiring manpower to the agencies. The research findings also indicated that corporate website was the method of online recruitment and selection that most the agencies had embraced with a representation of 73%.This lead to the conclusion that social network sites were less used as they only had a representation of 1%.The finding of the study also indicated that there were challenges that the agencies faced as they carried out online recruitment and selection as 64% of the respondents indicated that they faced challenges. These challenges include; budget allocation, strategic prioritization, globalization and equal employment opportunity/Government regulations. The study found out that, other challenges that affected online recruitment and selection were human factors. Some of these factors were training on online recruitment and selection, technology adoption level by the organization, management instruction and preference, language barriers, timelines and deadlines. The research recommends that the agencies should embrace the use of social network site such as LinkedIn to increase the pool of applicants. The study further recommends that the budget allocation should be increased as this would ensure that the funds were sufficient for software upgrade and for training programs to ensure that the man power was well informed and equipped with necessary knowledge and skill.