| During the past ten years, the Internet has become a powerful tool for recruiting employees. Job seekers utilize two online mechanisms when searching for jobs; online job boards and organizational employment websites. This study focuses on the latter by developing and testing a model to increase research and practical understanding of how online job seekers are affected by organizational employment websites. Data were collected from 104 participants who identified themselves as active job seekers. Each participant searched an employment website for a fictional company, Torison, that was developed for this study. After 30 seconds of exposure to the website, participant Affective Reactions were measured with an online survey. As the participants surfed the website, their Searching Behavior was recorded using a program designed for this study. After participants indicated their level of interest in the organization as an employer through an “Apply” web page, a second online survey was administered to measure Website Attitudes, perceptions of Usability, Employer Perceptions, and Organizational Attraction. The results for this study support the majority of the hypotheses. More specifically, the Affective Reactions users have after first seeing an employment website significantly affect both Searching Behavior and Website Attitudes. Website Attitudes in turn affect Employer Perceptions and subsequent Organizational Attraction. Perceptions of Usability were found to have an effect on Organizational Attraction, but not as hypothesized. A follow up exploratory analysis indicated that Usability may affect user perceptions early in their experience of an employment website through its effect on Searching Behavior and Website Attitudes. The implications of these findings for future research efforts and organizational practice are discussed. |
