How many organisations are really recruiting over the Internet, or is there a large element of hype involved? It certainly isn't hype, but there are three distinct factors at work that tend to disguise the real extent to which organisations are actually recruiting over the Net. The first is that Internet-based recruitment is almost totally invisible to people who are not exposed to it. If, as an individual, you don't surf the Internet, or visit other companies' Web sites, then you're not going to see much evidence of Internet recruitment activity. URLs printed at the bottom of recruitment advertisements say little in themselves.

Secondly, it's still very much a national, rather than an international, phenomenon. It's big in the US, getting bigger over here, and not even on the radar screen in several European countries - particularly those like France, where Internet access charges remain high for domestic users. And thirdly, there's still a bias towards technical roles, and roles generally performed by younger people. In part, this is because technical roles are more easily described; in part it's because they often have a computer-related aspect to them; and in part it's an unthinking assumption that nerds and younger people surf the Internet more than the general population. If you're not in the right labour market, you're not going to see what's going on.

The acid test is to expose yourself to the evidence, and judge for yourself. If you conduct exit interviews, ask where leavers actually saw the jobs that they are going to. Ask potential employees what sources of job openings they are perusing. Go on-line - check out what your competitors in your particular labour market are doing. It can be a sobering experience.

Fair enough, but why would I want to do it now? In most cases, the point should be to use Internet-based recruitment to supplement other approaches as a way of enlarging the catchment pool. Anecdotal evidence suggests that potential recruits don't see the duplication - they see the job advertised on the corporate Web site or The Monster Board (the leading recruitment Web site worldwide) and don't see the advertisement in the newspaper. And vice versa.

Where however specific skills are required, and where those skills socio-economically map onto the profile of a typical Internet user (which is widening all the time) then the Internet can - and probably should - take a more prominent role. The Internet is perceived as "cool" and so sends a positive message about the recruiting organisation; it's much cheaper than traditional media; the advertisement lead-times are shorter; and it also offers a way of attracting people who aren't specifically looking for a job and who might therefore never open the job pages.

But is that all it is - just another way to post an advertisement? At the moment, for most recruiting organisations, yes. Longer-term, the trick will be to exploit the Internet to add value to the recruiting process. Companies such as Restrac and Resumix already sell software that offers the ability to take responses from the Internet and digitally scan and process them for skills. This information can then be held in a "bank" for future reference so that no one has to trawl through a two-foot pile of applications on the off-chance that there's something there.

Other companies, such as psychometric specialists produce on-line questionnaires in order to add an objective assessment dimension.

Looking even further into the future, experts reckon that, in two or three years time, the average personal computer will come equipped with a video-conferencing capability. At a rudimentary, "add-it-yourself" level, this is here already: just visit PC World. Internet telephony is real. Now imagine conducting "first-cut" interviews over the Internet. That's where it's heading.

The skills necessary to exploit these technologies and the ability to use the Internet sensibly to add value to the recruiting process, can't be brought-in overnight. There's a learning curve involved. If you think the Internet really offers nothing to your organisation, continue to ignore it. But if you can see some advantages, but aren't sure, take the plunge. View it as a corporate learning experience.