The Future Of Job Boards

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