Insider's guide to job boards
Ever wondered what a job board could offer you? We look at the workings of recruitment sites, explaining their services and potential advantages in finding new recruits.
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Learning Points
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"There are now 11 million people using the internet to search for jobs, which means that a whole generation are expecting to find their next job online. Our 2003 Workthing employment and recruitment study identified a huge uplift in the number of internet users in the three years to 2003," says Andy Baker, managing director of Workthing, a company that includes Workthing.com, one of the UK's major generalist commercial jobsites.
While, for some recruiters, there are still several unresolved issues concerning online recruitment, there is no doubt that the majority of organisations now include the internet as part of their approach to filling their vacancies. IRS's own research, published earlier in 2004, found that almost nine in 10 (84.8%) surveyed organisations are involved with electronic recruitment in some form or other (see Recruiters march in step with online recruitment).
The two main e-recruitment options available to employers wishing to attract initial interest from jobseekers involve either advertising vacancies on a commercial job board, or developing their own corporate website for the purpose. Of course, these two online methods are not mutually exclusive, and many organisations have a recruitment strategy that embraces both forms of recruitment advertising, as our case study on Lloyds TSB shows (see box 1).
The latest research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development1 (CIPD) reveals some interesting developments in relation to web-based recruitment, particularly in the case of employers' use of commercial job boards.
Presenting a "mixed picture" overall for online recruitment, the 2004 survey finds no increase in the proportion of organisations using their own websites to advertise vacancies compared with 2003, which remains static at 72%. Employers' use of commercial sites, however, has increased significantly, from around 15% last year to 40% in 2004.
What's on offer?
A job board is essentially a commercial website that advertises vacant posts on behalf of employers - usually, for a fee - and where jobseekers can search for new openings. Other front or "back-end" services provided in addition to this core service vary considerably from job board to job board. Add-ons range from employer chat rooms and careers advice for jobseekers to candidate management and screening systems at the more sophisticated end of the spectrum.
The guidance on internet recruitment2 outlines the range of services that an online recruitment site potentially makes available to the recruiter:
- a description of the employing organisation, ranging from a simple one-page summary to a detailed multi-page corporate description, including the corporate brochure and links to the organisation's homepage;
- a template within the organisation's webpage that can be edited by the organisation itself - as often as it chooses;
- additional banner advertising on the recruitment site homepages, directing jobseekers to the recruiting organisation;
- a customised graduate selection system, which makes the graduate recruitment process quicker and simpler; and
- a database that contains details of the employer's vacancies and which is constantly searched for matches with incoming CVs that have been posted by jobseekers.
Commercial job boards fall into one of two main categories: generalist sites that carry job advertisements for many types of roles within all the main industry sectors, and specialist sites that cater for vacancies within a specific sector (chemicals or engineering, for example) or for a specific section of the labour market (procurement specialists or IT staff, for example).
GAAPweb is a specialist job board for finance professionals, with around 4,000 live job vacancies on-site at any one time from around 320 client organisations. In June 2004 alone, there were more than 174,000 visits to the job board and there are also 18,000 email subscribers who receive a daily email that enables them to apply instantly for a vacancy.
According to Rob Schofield, GAAPweb's general manager, there are several potential benefits to be gained from using job sites.
"Reduced cost is one of the most obvious advantages but there are other key benefits, such as speed and efficiency and the ability to target the right audience. Online recruitment advertising also offers the capacity for more integrated management of the candidate application process and recruiters have much greater flexibility - for example, an advert can be changed and doesn't remain static as a printed version would."
Opinion on the effectiveness of using either a generic or specialist site varies, but one key point worth bearing in mind is the need to target the right candidate audience. The main criticism that has been voiced by many employers with experience of online recruitment is that the web can very easily generate too many unsuitable applications. If there is a specialist site that caters for the particular vacancy in mind, therefore, it is at least worth researching the size of its audience and the profile of its users to gauge whether or not it could provide a suitable portal to attract potentially suitable applicants.
The results from the National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS)3 provide a good indication of the level of job-board traffic for both generic and specialist sites, and table 1 shows an example of its findings. The figures reflect the number of unique users to each commercial site during one month, rather than the number of hits, as one individual could visit the same site on a number of different occasions and, thereby, inflate the results.
NORAS is carried out by Enhance Media and ABC Electronic, a company that audits internet traffic. The survey aims to provide relevant information for recruiters so that they are able to make more informed decisions about which online recruitment site to use.
Who's looking?
The image of the average online jobseeker as being either a student or an IT person has changed quite markedly as the online recruitment market has matured. The NORAS study is based on the views of 12,500 online jobseekers and the findings show a mix in the profile of job-surfers, as tables 2a and 2b show.
For example, instead of being in their early twenties with little work experience, the average online jobseeker is 34 years' old, has been working for almost 12 years, earns £29,000 a year and has visited seven job boards in their search for a new employment opportunity. More than seven in 10 (71%) visitors to online recruitment sites are actively looking for a job, and almost one-third (29%) visit such sites on a daily basis.
The NORAS results reveal a diverse picture in relation to occupational group. The jobseekers in the sample are employed fairly evenly across all the main industry sectors, ranging from accountancy to aviation, and from telecommunications to travel. The only discernible variation in the proportion of jobseekers in each category could just as easily be attributed to the relative size of the sectors as any significant difference in the willingness to use the internet in their pursuit of new employment.
From the perspectives of equal opportunities and diversity, though, the internet still has its drawbacks. Internet access at home or in the workplace varies considerably between different segments of the population. Proportionately, lower-income earners, unemployed people, younger adults and working-class jobseekers are much less likely to have easy online access than well-paid people, those in full-time jobs and those in the middle classes.
For example, nine out of 10 (89%) of the most affluent households have home access to the internet, but only one in seven (15%) of the poorest households are online. More than eight in 10 (83%) of the 16 to 24 age group make use of the internet, compared with just one in seven (15%) of those aged 65 and over4.
Access is also a problem for those with low levels of literacy - the internet being primarily a written medium. Vacancies that do not require considerable levels of written communication may be put out of reach of many of their target audience if the web is the only means of advertising them.
In addition, individuals with disabilities can find access problematic. A recent investigation of a representative sample of 1,000 websites for the Disability Rights Commission found that eight in 10 (81%) sites failed to meet minimum international standards for web access by people with disabilities5.
Higher-level interest<
Another interesting development in the profile of online jobseekers has been the reported increase in the number of more senior people that are prepared to search the web for their next career move. The NORAS research found that 65% of respondents were educated to degree or higher degree level.
Execs on the Net (www.eotn.co.uk) is one commercial job board that has seen at first-hand a steady increase in the level of interest from online jobseekers at the upper end of the job market. So marked is the increase in volumes that the company is currently updating the site and its systems to cope with the huge increase in the number of people visiting the site and registering as jobseekers who wish to receive email alerts.
"The services we offer are two-fold," explains Paul Holmes, manager of Execs on the Net. "There is the job board part, where candidates can access vacancy details and apply online - and employers post their own vacancies online themselves - and there is also an executive job search programme for jobseekers, where we provide guidance and advice on finding a new appointment and link them to thousands of unadvertised vacancies."
Targeting the audience
A major concern of recruiters is that advertising vacancies online will generate an unmanageable number of applications. One possible approach to reduce the number of unsuitable applications is to use technology to halt the application process where an individual does not meet the essential criteria for the post. This requires additional investment in technological tools at the "back end" of the recruitment advertising process.
Online recruitment solutions provider Workthing was established by the Guardian Media Group in 2000 and consists of Workthing.com and its technology arm, PeopleBank. Andy Baker, managing director of Workthing, agrees that HR specialists' main reservation about using commercial job boards is a fear of being overwhelmed by the quantity of applications.
He says: "There are two elements that differentiate Workthing.com from many of the commercial job boards. We conduct targeted campaigns that single out the most promising pool of candidates and, secondly, we have the technological capability to manage the response. We also empower our client organisations to carry out the back-end of the hiring process through PeopleBank, our technology arm."
According to Andy Baker, these two factors work in tandem and are the essential criteria for an effective online recruitment strategy: "The striking feature of nearly all the big surveys is that, yes, online recruitment has penetrated nearly 90% of the biggest companies, but it is still in a relatively superficial way. Job boards and corporate websites are seen as fulfilling an online attraction role, with very few employers so far investing at the next level - that is, in the online tools to drive out inefficiencies from the process."
Workthing.com, therefore, has industry channels that drive jobseekers to search for jobs according to sector job group. "If an employer has a vacancy, the job board's technological tools enable it to "cut and slice" the candidate database and target the most suitable field of candidates with a highly branded message from the recruiting company," he explains.
Another sifting mechanism introduced by Workthing is a bespoke psychometric test for specific recruitment campaigns, developed by PSL, an occupational psychologist consultancy. "The online tests helps ensure that, of the thousands of applications we might receive for one vacancy posting, only a manageable number of the most suitable ones make it to the face-to-face assessment centre," says Andy Baker.
"Other sifting mechanisms for the online recruitment process include 'killer questions' or automatic filters that will halt the application process if they are answered incorrectly - for example, if a jobseeker does not meet the essential criteria in terms of work experience or qualifications."
Rob Schofield of GAAPweb does not consider that there is any greater risk of recruiters being overwhelmed with largely unsuitable applications from online recruitment advertising than from placing offline job advertisements. "In contrast to print advertising, recruiters can use application management tools to filter out unqualified or unsuitable applicants. This must be quicker than reading through a pile of CVs and covering letters. Also, with a specialist job site like GAAPweb, clients might receive quality over quantity. Remember, you only need one good candidate to fill your vacancy."
His advice for recruiters is that they should include as many qualifications and requirements in the job advertisement as possible to encourage self-selection on the part of applicants.
A word of caution
Not every recruiter likes to use online screening tools, some believing that it could result in some people being unfairly excluded from the process through the use of key words and not allowing for enough in-depth assessment of their experience.
On a logistical level, however, many employers are aware of the need to manage the online recruitment process in a systematic way, and appreciate that disregarding applications from individuals who do not meet the essential criteria in terms of a relevant degree or amount of work experience is no different to sifting paper-based CVs. It is the assessment of those areas that are not based on simple, directly job-relevant, factual information where subjectivity is more likely to creep into the process.
"Screening does throw up a number of ethical issues that need to be handled very sensitively," advises Mike Hill, chief executive of Graduate Prospects and prospects.ac.uk, the official graduate careers website. "There is one cautionary tale from a recruiter where the technological tools had been installed to screen applicants but a number of complaints were received because, seconds after submitting their online form, unsuitable applicants received an email stating that 'after careful consideration' their application had been rejected. More care should be taken at the filtering stage to encourage the applicants themselves to think more carefully about whether the job is suitable."
Drafting the job advertisement
Just as the content of a printed job advertisement is a key factor influencing an individual's decision whether to apply for a vacancy, so is its online equivalent. The main reason that the potential exists for a recruiter to be overwhelmed with irrelevant applications is that it is often extremely easy to apply for positions online. It is, therefore, essential that, as a first step, the job advertisement is drafted to act as a first-line filter, and clearly states the essential criteria for the job, as well as other key information. This will hopefully encourage self-selection on the part of many unsuitable jobseekers if they are not prepared to move to a different part of the country, or work for less than a certain salary level.
Execs on the Net acts as a hosting service for vacancies only, and does not undertake any sifting or screening of CVs for client organisations. Its manager, Paul Holmes, has some advice for recruiters planning to attract applicants via online advertising channels. "Treat the online advertisement as you would a printed job ad. We know from feedback from candidates that the more information they receive on a vacancy, the more informed their decision is on whether to apply," he says.
According to Rob Schofield of GAAPweb, online recruitment advertising allows employers to advertise much more comprehensive job descriptions than in printed form, where there are strong space and cost constraints on doing so. "Adverts should include as much relevant information as possible, particularly job title, details of the roles and responsibilities involved, location, company name, salary and benefits," he says.
There are different "rules of thumb" for advertising vacancies online as opposed to placing job advertisements in traditional print media, in Andy Baker's view. "The main mistake that companies make is that, because advertising online is much cheaper, the quality of the job advert is not important," he says.
"The recruiters who are most successful in attracting quality applications are those who think carefully about what the vacancy bulletin should say and understand the importance of having a strong online employer brand, as well as offline presence. Most job boards don't charge on a 'per space' basis, unlike printed media, and so it is possible to have a good amount of interesting information about the role profile and the organisation. On job boards, smaller, less well-known companies can appear on a level playing field alongside the top recruiters. This gives them a real opportunity to stand out; something that is extremely costly for them to achieve in print media."
The future is online?
According to Andy Baker, recruiters have no choice but to include online advertising channels as part of their recruitment strategy. In his view, the relatively low barriers facing start-up e-commerce companies eager to gain a foothold in the job-board market mean that it is quite likely that it will remain fragmented, as has the recruitment agency industry.
Certainly, on the graduate recruitment scene, the internet is set only to increase in significance for jobseekers, and, therefore, also for graduate recruiters. "We keep expecting the rise in the number of unique users to plateau, but it hasn't so far," says Mike Hill of prospects.ac.uk. "In the last four years, our number of unique users has risen from 70,000 to 400,000 per month. This is because every new cohort of undergraduates is that much more internet-savvy than the last."
Rob Schofield is also confident that online recruitment will quickly become central to most employers' resourcing strategies. "Large employers prefer to use a mix of methods for attracting candidates, and this seems like good business sense to me. A smaller organisation could manage the whole of its recruitment - up until interview stage, of course - online, and I am confident that this is the way it will go. Online recruitment is so easy to try that I would encourage every organisation to give it a go - entry-level prices are so reasonable that there is nothing to lose and so much to gain."
It would no longer seem possible for the majority of employers that are serious about maximising their appeal in the ever-tightening labour market to completely ignore the internet. The best solution is to take a strategic approach to its use, and incorporate whatever online recruitment methods - be it commercial job boards, a corporate careers website, or both - are considered the most appropriate to the organisation's long-term resourcing needs.
Andy Baker views the growth of corporate careers websites as a positive development for online recruitment, which is why Workthing has incorporated them into its own offering with PeopleBank. "These two online recruitment advertising portals are natural bedfellows," he says. "Job boards and recruiters' own websites should form an integral part of an employer's candidate attraction strategy.
1.Recruitment, retention and turnover 2004, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2004, www.cipd.co.uk.
2.Recruitment on the internet, CIPD Factsheet, www.cipd.co.uk/.
3.NORAS winter 2004, Enhance Media, www.enhancemedia.co.uk.
4.Source: Office for National Statistics, www.statistics.gov.uk.
5.The web: access and inclusion for disabled people, Disability Rights Commission, 2004, www.drc.org.uk.
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Lorraine Crawford, head of recruitment services at major financial services company Lloyds TSB, is a firm advocate of online recruitment advertising. "We use a range of the bigger job boards to advertise vacancies, such as Workthing, Monster.com and fish4jobs, but we also use a number of specialist sites to attract auditors, financial consultants and marketing people, for example," she explains. The use of commercial internet sites forms only one part of the "recruitment mix" at Lloyds TSB, but is still an integral part of its overall resourcing strategy. "We use a range of recruitment media to attract candidates, depending on what is most appropriate for that particular vacancy and location," says Lorraine Crawford. "It would not make sense to rely wholly on online channels in some parts of the country, for instance, so we have to think very carefully about our target audience." Lloyds TSB uses the different media portals for its recruitment advertising in a complementary way. For example, one current recruitment campaign for local branch roles uses small press advertisements and "banner advertising" on some of the major commercial job boards to drive applicants to a dedicated campaign website called
In her view, the general job boards have so far proved more effective in attracting candidates than the specialist ones, but it is still quite early days to evaluate how the "number of clicks" on a particular site translates into successful recruits. "This is partly because we use so many different advertising channels to attract candidates, and they may have come through more than one on the journey to selection," she explains. The main advantages of using job boards, in Lorraine Crawford's view, are cost-effectiveness, the speed in reaching applicants and the immediacy of being able to update vacancy details. |
Source: NORAS, winter 2004.
Source: NORAS, winter 2004.
Source: NORAS, winter 2004.
This article was written by Rachel Suff, a freelance employment researcher and writer, rmsuff@dsl.pipex.com.
