The Future Of Job Boards
February 24, 2009 by Geoff Jennings
We’d all agree with this: if any business or individual wants to communicate with other individuals or clients into the future, they will be required to do so via a means that is not static. By the term “static”, I mean the simple pronouncement of information, without adjacent means of interaction or relationship-building.
This statement applies to the recruitment industry as much as any other.
Moreover, this statement applies to job boards, as much as it applies to any other conduit of communication.
As it stands, the traditional method for recruiting is to place an ad. on a job board and wait to see what sorts of responses slink their way into your inbox as a result.
Usually the outcome is not pleasant, both in good and bad economic times. Let me extrapolate: in good times, desirable candidates are comfortable, entrenched in their positions and paid well. They’re confident. They don’t reach out and share because they see no purpose in it.
Contrarily, in bad times, EVERYONE feels the need to share, so recruiters are hit with a veritable onslaught of resumes, most of which read as though they are simply trying to meet the Centrelink requirement of having applied for a certain number of positions. All recruiters are familiar with the picture I have just painted, but nothing changes because:
1. The job board method is easy. It makes recruiters feel as thought they’re being effective (people like to feel like they’re making progress in their roles and duties)
2. Job boards are frequently underpinned by massive media companies, and we are accustomed to thinking these are the only agents of information dissemination.
3. We’re not creative or innovative enough to consider the situation from a different perspective.
But we’re going to have to. In much the same way as television, an historically static medium, has had to redefine its role by considering increased relationship-building and interaction with viewers, the recruitment industry needs to reconsider how it spreads its word.
Social media a godsend in this regard. It provides us with the means of providing information (eg advertising jobs), building relationships (with clients and candidates) and conducting forums for discussion (like this one) on how we can improve as an industry. With all this to offer, I cannot see space for the one-dimensional model provided by the job boards. In other words, I cannot see a role for job boards coming into the future.
This will no doubt be a hot topic at the HR Futures Conference ’09
As a regular user of social media, I also see its potential value for recruitment in the future, but I think that a major shift from traditional advertising is going to take a long, long time.
There are still many sceptics out there who believe that social media is a fad – and one could argue that social media is not yet mature or dependable enough to justify a full-blooded transition (eg. Twitter has had regular outages over the past two weeks, Facebook is still grappling with its terms of service).
I get the sense that recruiters, generally-speaking, are conservative, process-driven, motivated by monthly/quarterly targets, and strapped for time. Each of these characteristics conspire against a wholesale shift to social media.
Clearly, there are some professional recruiters who ‘think outside the square’ and who are actively engaging clients and candidates through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, but for every 1 of those professional recruiters, there are 5 who are content to take the path of least resistance – whack up an ad on Seek and see what comes of it.
It will take a major change of mindset among recruitment company owners/managers to move away from the tried-and-tested direct advertising model. It’s a significant shift and it won’t happen overnight. After all, we’ve all had success using Seek, so why would be change? Perhaps the financial crisis will be a godsend for those of us who are trying to convince people to try something different…
In the short term, CapitalJobs.com.au is hopeful that candidates and employers will see the value in moving away from the national job boards and engaging with more niche advertising offerings, where quality is better than quantity. This is a more subtle transition than dropping direct advertising altogether and is therefore more palatable in the short term.
But we’re also conscious of keeping our eye on future trends and innovating with social networking tools. We’ve just started syndicating our jobs via Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/canberrajobs. I’ll be interested to hear other ideas at Inspecht on Thursday.
Clayton Wehner
http://www.capitaljobs.com.au
Good points you raise Clayton. Look forward to further discussion at Michael’s conference.
You raise a couple of relevant points worth exploring. Over time we will indeed see job sites evolve, however I think there will always be a place for multiple job sourcing channels of which job sites, generalist and niche will play a role. Social networking and job opportunities sourced in this context will continue to grow and evolve which is also a positive thing – also potentially fraught with legal implications but none the less that is another issue in itself.
Posting to a job board is easy – actually writing an authentic, relevant and engaging job ad to a targeted audience is not easy, evidenced by the many poorly job ads everywhere be it print, job sites or social networking sites. The content certainly needs to evolve!
Currently the large media players own the large job sites as you have highlighted, however we are seeing more niche players which is exciting as it offers more choice, more innovation, impartial content and a fresh view which is being embraced by various market segments.
It is my belief that Job Sites are not going away any time soon. Just like those that say the resume is dead (clearly it is not) I don’t see that happening for a long time either.
Great post Geoff – I think this may well turn out to be a hot topic for 2009.
The digital social network phenomenon came through a couple of years ago and many people nominally understood that there might be a game changer prospect in those sites because they knew that word of mouth was always a much better recruitment model than advertising.
In 2008 however, several critical weaknesses of the model came to light and that’s led to a split in the recruitment industry about whether these things are relevant or not. I thinl they are relevant and in 2009 we’re going to see a much greater understanding of the true value of these new models – breaking a couple of received wisdom notions is going to be required and there are some formidable barriers to adoption both on the jobseeker and employer / recruiter side.
To start off with, I might paint out what I see as the four weaknesses in the model before moving to the strengths.
The first is scale. On SEEK, I can distribute up to 300,000 a month to a massive audience instantly, no problem. On SocialNetwork, I can only distribute a very limited number of jobs to my ‘friends’ without having them cut me off for spamming them. For recruitment advertisers its very hard to distribute the ad volumes in the way that all my systems and consultants are used to.
The second issue is that of jobseeker control. As a jobseeker, I can go to SEEK and effectively control the ads I see and don’t see using search technology. On SocialNetwork, I cannot control what I see and don’t see – my friends do. The need for jobseeker control is a core psychological ingredient in effective job hunting. ie do you trust your friends to find your next job or do you trust yourself?
The third issue is related to the second and involves market access. As a jobseeker, you can effectively access the entire market for available jobs by using SEEK. On SocialNetwork, it is simply not possible to access the entire market without accessing the entire network. In other words, you are effectively making a decision to ‘miss out’ on opportunities by relying on a social networking website for your job hunting needs.
The final issue is that of availability / interest information. On a job board, advertisers know that all candidates who apply are both available and interested. On SocialNetwork they do not. The productivity cost of dealing with the job board model is simply much lower than that of the SocialNetwork model.
Where I think we’re heading in 2009 is that people will start to understand the true value of social network sites. I think two main changes in thinking are required here.
The first of these is to understand that websites are no longer simply destinations for content or traffic.
Social networking sites are not really that useful as destinations. All the numbers point to the fact that they’re struggling to monetise the traffic they’re receiving. Social networking platforms are simply not there to distribute content but to facilitate social interactions. This is a very different utility to the internet comparted to where it started as a content distribution service. The normal media rules of eyeballs and dollars simply don’t make sense on social networking sites because they neither distribute content themselves and nor are they monetisable within their own right. This new internet utility also feeds the misunderstanding that people have that social networking sites are threats to destination sites like SEEK.
The second mind shift involves understanding that the value of the social networks can actually be realised on other websites or indeed other user / customer interactions.
In the recruitment space you already can see how people are using these sites to dramatically increase the volume of information they use to assess a potential candidate or potential employer’s suitability. The participants in this information market place are not getting pure candidate information, skills information, availability information or job content information. They use job boards and recruiters for that. Socail networking sites are distributing new forms of information in the recruitment space that add value to existing information distribution, rather than subtract from it.
In the job board space you could see how someone entering the words ‘Project Manager’ on SEEK gives us very little to work with when it comes to delivering them a relevant list of jobs. However if we were to understand their social network and know that they live in Perth and have 40 friends in the mining industry, we could make a pretty good calculation that the Project Manager roles they’re interested in are not Banking projects based in Sydney.
In both these examples, using a social networking site as a destination on the internet is not a relevant activity for the jobseeker, the employer or indeed a job board. In neither example does one take market share from the other, in fact they both enrich the others’ value proposition to both jobseekers and advertisers.
So there are a number of debates here – do social networking websites threaten job boards or complement them? How can the opportunities for more valuable information distribution be realised and monetised? And finally – and most importantly for you Geoff – I might also start a debate about whether these new models threaten not only job boards but recruitment agencies themselves as companies disintermediate both recruiters and job boards using these platforms.
I think two of the key reasons Seek will remain in such a strong position are;
1. In general people are less welcoming when approaching them through a Facebook or the like ( senior roles not so much, they are generally always pleased to hear from recruiters – but lets face it, that isn’t the bulk of Seeks market, it is more the bread and butter vacancies where they get their volumes from ) – generally people need to be in a job hunting mindset, and if not it is arduous and sometimes invasive into their space. If they apply through Seek it is like taking the first step and you are prepared to go for interviews, have your cv up to daye and leave your current role.
2. Time – put one ad up and the applications start. Networking sites are slow and cumbersome – If you had exact vacancies listed with an agency, in general you’ll find motivated candidates ready to go for interview before networking sites, and much much quicker. Seek is now a habit, and if you look for a job every 2 to 5 yrs, it will be the first medium you use
In general though, Seek also pump the most into advertising , visiting clients and raising profile, so regardless of whether we like them or not, they are putting a mountain of effort in consistantly to stay at the top, so reaping the rewards of their efforts
I am sure everyone will agree, that we are all currently witnessing a massive shift toward social networking.
I don’t think we have yet seen the huge implications surrounding Identity theft that Social Networks can expose Job Seekers to.
We may see allot more reported cases of ID theft over the coming years and as Carey pointed out, I think Job Seekers will retain the value in Destination sites, as they have more control of who is viewing their details!
I think that any business that does not evolve to blend with this new trend will undoubtedly feel the effects over time on their bottom line but, will Job Seekers stay on this heading for long?….Undoubtedly!
I think we need to look at the next generation of Job Seekers that are moving up the ranks…..all seem to be very internet savvy and understand that the future of Job Searching is Online.
Job Seekers seem to be the main drivers in dictating the direction for the Recruiters & Job Boards to follow, but are Recruiters listening? It makes perfect sense to at least attempt to communicate effectively with your target audience and in turn show the value in your product offering.
I know several, very busy Recruiters who have taken the time to get involved in Social Networking. I also know several recently retrenched Recruiters who still don’t know what “Twitter” is. Is it their fault?….YES!
Recruiters & Job Boards need to be involved & in contact with people like Geoff, Thomas Shaw & Phillip Tusing who are reporting on the Trends on a daily basis and can see what works and why?
I think for new start up “Job Boards” or “Recruitment Firms” it will be a major strategic move, to get the “Social Media” aspect of the communication working to the optimal level to have a chance. For some, in time, this may be the best decision and any time invested in these new and emerging avenues may see them hold fast in an economic downturn such as we are experiencing now.
Job Seekers will always make up their own mind on what is a suitable avenue for them to approach Job Searching. The hard part is educating the masses on what is currently available to them and how each facility has it’s place and its differences.
Recruiters will always take the fastest option to find talent, because they are target driven and need to produce results month to month. Traditional methods seem to be waring thin though….with increased costs, increased Job Seeker numbers and more applications to sift through.
nt3 have built one compelling, cost cutting solution to give Recruiters & Employers a fast effective “Targeted Search” facility that is free to access.
On the other hand, we have also listened to our Job Seekers and provided them with a facility that has their privacy as a top priority.
I still feel the value is in the service, no matter what the product. Good experiences will always return good results. I think Kelly at sixfigures is a prime example of value added performance. She is everywhere at the right time offering a good service….and genuinely wants the business….
Job Seekers cant ignore this and tend to change their initial opinions with positive service driven results from their experiences with a brand.
It’s a shoe in for SEEK being the number one player in Australia, but has time taken a toll? Will new, hungry players emerge that no amount of marketing will counteract….?
The avenues that Social Networking can Open Up is astonishing, like this comment about http://www.nt3.com.au by John Sumser on Twitter Yesterday http://twitter.com/JohnSumser/status/1372337877
Please feel free to follow nt3 on Twitter – nt3_CV_Search
John Summer actually said this in his blog post…
http://www.johnsumser.com/2009/03/090323-future-is-now-links/
“Australian newcomer nt3 features a pay per use model for recruiters. Search the resumes, pay for contact info. The approach has failed before, is this the time?”
As soon as the resume is loaded into a database, it is outdated. The approach you are taking with nt3 will fail.
With weekly improvements being rolled out from LinkedIn and VisualCV, small resume databases will not be able to keep up with technology improvements or marketing $$
Identity theft is an issue, but this can be solved by giving the job seeker ability to register via OpenID and trusted authentication API services like OpenSocial and Facebook Connect.
To Industry Observer, …… nt3, unlike most, is a private business with no debts and can’t really fail….and is a secondary business to the other one I own….
I dont need to rely on our website to produce huge income to stay operating.
With new Development currently underway with even further advancement in “Targeted Search” capability ….. and the integration of JobAdder & Post Jobs Once together and the facility for Job Seeker to apply direct to job ads with their Word Doc CV or nt3 profile, may see an edge over other systems.
I am not sure of any other systems before nt3, that have offered Recruiters & Employers free access to search & the ability to message any Job Seekers of interest first to check they are still active and available before they need to pay.
I am sure you will point them out to me…….
nt3 will also be offering a $30.00 Premium, priority Job posting option with “Share Links” on all Job ads and optimisation to upload to “Twitter” also to hopefully take advantage of job posting traffic from JobAdder & PJO to generate some revenue.
The fact that Recruiters have an option to “Search the database free”, “Post Unlimited Free Job Ads and only pay for what they want to use on nt3 is refreshing….don’t you think?
If it does not work…….at least I can say I gave something a try instead of sitting back “Observing” what everyone else is actually out there doing!
I feel it is important to provide the industry with choices….and I stand by our product as I know how in depth the infrastructure is & that it is a high quality, needed service in the industry that protects Job Seekers privacy and personal information from “Observers”.
Time will tell I am sure MR Observer…….but for now…..we will continue!!!!
To “Industry Observer”
John Sumser also said – and this is where I am at……..
Lean Startup
“The Lean Startup is a disciplined approach to building companies that matter. It’s designed to dramatically reduce the risk associated with bringing a new product to market by building the company from the ground up for rapid iteration and learning. It requires dramatically less capital than older models, and can find profitability sooner. Most importantly, it breaks down the artificial dichotomy between pursuing the company’s vision and creating profitable value. Instead, it harnesses the power of the market in support of the company’s long-term mission.” (How to Build Companies That Matter)
I think nt3 site is a joke, look at your myspace page
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=419984852
You think it is professional to have spam across your page? Are all the friends fake profiles?
Tiffany Hoilday
VEVE GLAMOUR SWIMWEAR
Marcia Brazil
Hippo went into Administration yesterday. Anyone want to buy 100,000 candidates?
http://www.recruitmentdirectory.com.au/Blog/hippo-appoints-administrators-a140.html
Hi Stan
I would say, spamming crap is the biggest issue with Social Networking Sites over exclusive Job Hunting Sites…
This is the whole point of having Destination Sites….
I would suggest your frustration are with http://www.myspace.com and not with the http://www.nt3.com.au service offering.
Your are open to the whims of others that want to attach themselves to your page.
Thats why we built a stand alone service so people would not be subjected to that kind of crap.
Do you have any doubt’s about the actual nt3 service, or do you just want to be noticed?
No one currently looking at alternative Employment wants to have their current Employer, stumble across their Profile, with pictures, networks and video attached to help their boss identify you easily.
This in not such a big issue if you are currently unemployed, but the prime example of the impression an Employer may get by finding you on Social Networks was pointed out nicely by Stan on the nt3 Myspace Page.
I set my Myspace Page up ages ago….and as a new business owner, trying to navigate the Trends of Social Media….I just wanted to spread the word about nt3 to as many people as possible….so I accepted friend requests from everyone and I will continue to do so…..(Except Thomas Shaw)
So if you are a Job Hunter and If you are Socially Networked….and wanted to let others know you are on the hunt, and they visit your pages and see that you are networked with unlikely characters – (Possibly not you intention, but you are open to scrutiny on Social Networks….) You may be creating the wrong impression and as a result, miss opportunities that pass you by…..
So how do Job Seekers, approach Recruiters & Employers that may not be advertising (And trying to cut costs themselves) without going to a huge amount of effort?
How do Recruiters & Employers Approach Job Seekers that they may not find by advertising?
It makes scene to have a facility available for you to promote you skills (FREE) without running the risk of being tripped up by your networks…..and offers you a professionally formatted CV to take with you fro free for your efforts.
I know CV writing professionals that charge Job Hunters up to $350.00 to do you up a nicely presented CV……ans some I have seen are not even as good as what Job Seekers get on http://www.nt3.com.au for free!!!
Some very savvy Recruiters are using http://www.nt3.com.au to match candidate skills to their clients needs. They identify the skills of the candidate, print of or send the restricted version of the Job Seekers Profile to the Employers…and get the thumbs up and interest in the Job Seeker skills before they pay to release the Job Seekers Details……Even before they need to go and spend money on a Job Ad! (But that is also free on nt3)
Its a no brainer if you are a Recruiter or HR Team Member….
I invite some of you to Register on nt3 and have a look around and provide feedback in this forum. I can delete you info from the system at your request after your evaluation…..
Please bare in mind that we are currently undergoing some new Development to change the candidate registration process to make it faster and less time consuming…..
We are also integrating JobAdder & Adlogic to provide Job Seekers with more Job Postings to apply to…..
I wont say to much more at this stage…but the service will be much better and even more advanced in search capability in a month or so. (Details will be released on completion)
Here is some blag on ID Theft and why nt3 is a smart choice if you are a Job Hunter.
http://www.nt3.com.au/recruitment-training-australia/docs/nt3%20-%20Don%27t%20Risk%20Identity%20Theft%20-%20Use%20an%20nt3%20Profile.pdf?goback=.hom
I am not saying that nt3 is the only alternative for job Seekers…..and they should not use other means to find work….but it is a great way to promote your skills, directly to the Recruiters & Employers, who are not getting hit with upfront costs to find you!
I think it is too early to write the obituary of job boards. If numbers are anything to go by, Australia is currently witnessing a ‘golden age’ of job boards. Around, 245 job boards exist in Australia and new ones are added every day http://destinationtalent.com.au/job-board-report.html . Sure many job boards go ‘belly up’, but that’s more to do with a company’s business practices and harsh economic conditions than an inherent flaw of the job board model.
Having said that, I am a firm believer that social media is disruptive to the status quo and will play an increasing role in recruitment. The thing with social media is, you cannot buy ‘attention’ or ‘traffic’, as easily as you can do with job boards. Key ingredients for effectively using social media – authenticity, community, collaboration, and transparency are still almost non-existent in most companies. It is also time intensive, and requires a significant cultural shift within companies. Done well (geoffjennings.com is a case) it can pay huge dividends. However, for every company who excelled in using social media there are hundreds who aren’t.
On the other hand, social media has opened up a whole new world for job seekers to brand themselves and seek employment; a group that has not been entirely well served by job boards. I believe that there will always be employers who are willing to buy ‘candidate traffic’ at an attractive price. If job boards have anything to worry about, it’s retaining the attention and trust of job seekers who are suddenly rich with options.
This is a very interesting discussion and in many ways the views I have read all have some credence.
I think relevance of job boards as a sourcing channel will be driven by the level of sophistication of the people doing the sourcing. In my experience, there are only a handful of recruiting agencies and employers that give their recruiters the time and professional development that allow them to develop multi-channelled sourcing strategies when recruiting.
Another trend that will affect the relevance of job boards is the increased uptake of multi- posting service providers like @Jobadder, which save time and give advertisers greater distribution of job listings. Having run recruiting agencies in the past I am acutely aware that recruiters unfortunately often take the easiest path and that is to pop an ad on SEEK the ‘availability engine” and filter the response to that ad. What we noticed was often the candidate that the recruiter was interested in was currently in their database anyway. Now, as we know from experience the easiest path is not always the path that gets us the result we are looking for, in fact more often than not it doesn’t.
I take the view that the traditional job boards like SEEK in Australia will always be included in a multi channel sourcing strategy and other channels like referrals, niche boards, social networks, CV databases etc will compliment the majors.
However, the pleasing thing to report is that we are witnessing recruiters and HR folk are proactively accessing other tools to compliment what they’ve been doing historically which was list an ad on a job board and prey for the right candidate to arrive on their doorstep. We are seeing the evolution of the social recruiting phenomena, that is using social media tools like blogs, social networks, referrals, video etc to connect, inform and engage with talent. My view is that this will be the trend going forward. A great example is this blog that @geoffjennings uses for his recruiting business.
2009/10 will be interesting but for now, @careyeaton your job seems pretty secure
@rigesyounan
i still believe that the shift away from job boards will be a long drawn out process, if a process at all. consider how long it has taken to get the candidates from the newspapers to the interent? now most folks i speak to regard me as a freak because i twitter. which is right and wrong. right in that yes, i am freak – fair call and its a cross i bear, but wrong in that expanding social networks are becoming more and more mainstream. bethatasitmay, the shift from jobboards where i can load up a resume and ping it to 50 jobs at the click of a button (or close to) to more labour intensive and cerbrally challenging processes will take time. i’m lazy, the general punter on the street is lazy and status quo rules (not the band).
so i watch with interest more or less form the sidelines. and leave you with something an online expert said to me more than a year ago:
“if the recruitment agencies and the corporates got their shit together they could take down the job boards overnight. problem is, neither of these things will happen.”
prophetic? probably!
And not a mention of the aggregators! It seems to me that generalist aggregation sites like http://www.jobsites.com.au/ and niche ones like http://www.westjobs.com.au/ offer jobseekers a one-stop-site where they can often find many more jobs than they could on any of the majors – yes even (shudder!!) Seek. A lot of the jobs they list from the more obscure boards or company sites might never otherwise be found by jobseekers.
Re Mike Hawkins closing comment about recruiters and corporates “getting their shit together…” – don’t hold your breath – corporates generally dislike recruiters and use them grudgingly.
“Social media” is the catch phrase of the moment and is differently interpreted depending on who you talk to. In the context of this post it might be good to define social media more tightly.
Are blogs social media? Is facebook social media ? Is Twitter social media?
For a corporate recruiter are blogs, facebook, or twitter more effective than job boards in reaching job seekers?
I would argue no. I would argue heck no!!
Aside from the obvious scale and volume advantages which Carey mentioned, we must recognize that job boards are specialized digital market places that are essential for businesses today.
Print is a static medium that cannot evolve because it’s offline and we are living in an online world.
Job boards are digital media. The next stage in their evolution is obvious. How hard do you think it is for job boards to become more “social” ?
A New Group on LinkedIn in may be appropriate
Please feel free to Join the “Job Board Owners Network”
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1785816&trk=anet_ug_hm
Only Job Board Owners will be accepted as Members….
Correction… the best “job board owners network” is run here http://jobboarders.com/
It features job boards from across the globe, with indepth discussions, trends, and a place to sell/buy job boards.
Are you a Twat if you don’t Tweet.
There’s beginning to be too many Social sites. There will probably be a new one launched next week.
I’ll stick with the Job Board, thank you.