RAPPORT
WWW.RECORDINGACHIEVEMENT.ORG
Issue 1 (2015)
engage in targeted searches by means of search
filters. Furthermore, since the information in the
profiles is partially administrative by nature, the
degree of reliability is considerable.
Causes of skills mismatch
According to a simplified view, the lack of skills by
graduates and the quality and the reliability of
university credentials are the main obstacles to fill
vacancies with the right employees. First, the
universities may underprovide those skills which
are most demanded by firms. Second, young
graduates may lack the skills certified by their
diplomas and resumes so that employers have to
work hard to de-codify their credentials in order to
select the appropriate candidates.
Unfortunately, the picture is more complex than
this because the potential availability of the
graduates with the right skills does not necessarily
imply that the firms in need will be able to find
them and to exploit their skills even if they hire
them. This may happen for several reasons
concerning mainly information gaps but also HRM
practices (CEDEFOP, 2012; Adams et al., 2000).
These are partially determined and constrained by
firms’ (interrelated) characteristics such as their
size, ownership structure and managerial
organization (Barber et al., 1999). An inefficient
match between demand and supply can also arise
due to the lack or inefficient functioning of those
tools and actors, i.e. LMI’s, which should facilitate
the matching through the provision of information
and job placement services (university job
placement offices, public and private employment
agencies), notably, by means of online CV
databases.
The task of investigating the causes of the skills
mismatch is not a simple one. Both demand and
supply factors appear to play an active role that
may be difficult to disentangle. Instead, more
viable is the task of finding out how specific tools
and actors such as AlmaLaurea, improve the skills
match.
Method
charge of HRM functions whereas in small firms
this percentage is only 22%.
Company characteristics: The size distribution of
the firms is as follows. 8.7% of the recruiters
worked for small firms, 61.8% for medium firms,
and 29.5% for large firms. Since, for some firms,
more than just one recruiter was interviewed and,
most important, since we were interested to get
information based on recruiters’ perceptions and
views, in most of the analysis of the data our unit
of observation is the recruiter. 50% of the firms
belong to the service sector, 47% to the industrial
sector and only 1.5% to the agricultural one.
76.6% of them are localised in the north of Italy,
15.1% in the centre and the remaining part in the
Mezzogiorno of Italy (south and Islands).
Procedure
During November and December 2014, 1,138
companies that recently used the AlmaLaurea
placement services for graduates’ and young
graduates’ recruitment were invited to complete a
survey via e-mail. In order to collect as many
opinions as possible, for some firms involved,
more than one recruiter was contacted.
Consequently, the total number of recruiters
involved increased to nearly 4,000. The data was
collected by means of an online survey, which was
used to cut costs and data collection time. The
survey procedure also included three e-mail
reminders. The response rate was 22.5% of the
firms involved (256 firms interviewed and, on the
whole, 276 recruiters’ opinions).
Measures
In the survey, recruiters were asked to rate
various aspects representing AlmaLaurea’s
contribution to the recruitment process.
Phase of use: This aspect reveals the phase in
which recruiters use the AlmaLaurea service: in
the pre-selection phase (prior to an interview),
interview stage, or final decision stage. Multiple
items could be selected by recruiters, which were
asked in how many instances in each recruitment
stage they utilized AlmaLaurea.
Participants
Recruiter characteristics: In total, 276 individuals
in charge of the recruitment process were
interviewed, equally distributed between male and
females. Almost half of them were in charge of
HRM and the remaining part either were the
owner/CEO of the firm or were in charge of other
managerial functions. Their average age was 42
years; 56% of them held a university degree and
24% an upper secondary degree. Of course, this
distribution by position occupied within the firms
varies a lot according to the size of the firms: in
large firms, 73% of the recruiters were also in
Recruiters’ satisfaction with AlmaLaurea: This
aspect consists of the following six items: ease of
use, time required to find a suitable candidate,
quality of the profiles, reliability of information, and
validity of information. These items were rated on
a 10-point scale, ranging from “extremely
unsatisfied” (0) to “extremely satisfied” (10).
The performance of AlmaLaurea compared to
other recruitment tools. Here, the utili ty of
AlmaLaurea was compared to the following other
recruitment channels: Cliclavoro (portal of the
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