Future Of Job Boards - Is It Social

Online community is a bit of a buzzword at the moment and I reckon it’s important we begin to define it in the context of recruitment. Why? Because recruitment is moving rapidly into an almost entirely online workspace. This being the case, whatever is a hot topic in the internet generally, becomes a hot topic for us. More importantly, though, we need to understand this concept in order to shape how we respond to it.

Here’s where I break it down for the readers: There are two main components to the notion of community. These are: a) common interest b) communication. So, a community is a place where people with a common interest meet to exchange knowledge, discuss ideas or get to know one another.

The demands of our lives are such that, with regard to communication, interactivity is vital. It allows us to achieve all three aspects of communication in one shot. In doing this, we can make informed decisions about WHOSE information we need access to and WHAT sorts of things we want to know. Interaction gives us this. It permits us access to a subtext in the discourse of a particular communication. It does this through commentary, but also through circulation on social networks.

Okay, so where does this leave job boards?

Over the short term, what this means is that job boards will attempt to integrate some form of interactivity into their sites. Sites such as TribeHQ have already begun to do this.

In the long term, however, job boards will not serve the functional requirements of our society. Lacking some of the basic elements of community, they will not be able to satisfy the need to streamline information resources, and they will not provide the social proof required to verify the validity of their advertisements. Seek already have difficulty with this and dedicate a large amount of resources to preventing (sometimes unsuccessfully) fake job ads.

‘Future of the traditional job board’ was discussed together with Thomas Shaw and Diane Lee at the ‘Recruitment Rumble’ recently. Listen to the recording here.

Global Economic Depression

Mental health is not something we tend to talk about all that often. I mean, if we have the flu, most of us are quite comfortable with ringing in sick, and some will even bring the gory details of their illness into work with them when they recover (please note: I’m not mentioning this by way of endorsement. I don’t like the words “mucous” or “diahorea” and I hate more the anything the phrase, “it was coming out both ends”).

But what about if we’re feeling bad. Emotionally, I mean? Are we happy to give the boss a call and say, “You know, I’m just not coping with life, I feel as though I’d rather die than face people today and really, I’d like a few days off to recover”. Even if this is the truth, I’d be willing to wager most of us would be keen to avoid the stigma attached to being mentally unwell.

So what’s happening in recruitment offices where you are? How are recruiters coping with the decline in revenue, with job losses and with the constant looming threat of job losses? Is morale high? Are you all bonding as a result of the common enemy - lack of income? Or is it every person for themselves out there?

Perhaps a more important question: How are recruitment companies dealing with a workforce who may be suffering higher rates of depression, lack of morale and motivation and an increase in anxiety as a result of economic uncertainty? Are you offering counseling or, at least, support? Or is this something not at all of concern for you - you’re just focused on getting through this thing at minimal cost?

Tell me your stories (gory details and all - just don’t mention the “m” word:)

HR Futures Conference Take-outs

My wife, she’s always saying how much she loves a good wedding. Once an invite comes in the mail, she gets excited and speaks of nothing else until the day of the event. And then after; after she wants to debrief about it…how did I like the bridal dress, what about the food, wasn’t the food just delish. All that. Me? I’m not big into weddings.

But I love a good conference.

Last week I attended Michael Specht’s HR Futures conference. The event was a one-day intensive get together, with a focus on directions for HR and recruitment. Industry experts like Thomas Shaw from Recruitment Directory, spoke about Web 2.0 in recruitment. It was great to get together with some of these folks, many of whom were nothing more than blogs on a screen before I had the chance to meet them.

Anyway, just as my wife likes to debrief about her weddings, I like to break it down about conferences. (I promise, what follows will not include an assessment of anyone’s outfits!)

1. Social media in recruiting is on the radar: the take-home story on this is that most folks acknowledge the social media form of recruiting is the way into the future

2. Enterprise Wikis will form the future of content collaboration within an organisation

3. Blogs/comments should be seen as a vehicle for discussion for an organisation not something to fear. The term “social proof” was kicked around a bit by me. This describes validation from sources outside an organisation. I’m not keen on the word “proof” now. It denotes something definitive. I prefer the term “social-evidence”.

4. Job boards have some work to do to be part of the social recruiting platform.

In all, a good show, with heaps of blog-fodder. Stay tuned as I unravel, in blogs to come, some of the predictions about future directions in recruitment.

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

Where’s The Value?

Where has the value gone out of the recruitment industry?

Recruiters are offering a Christmas half-price special to their clients. Job boards are offering free ads. Jobserve think they are back in the Bobby McGee’s happy hour days and is offering 2 for 1 deals.

My concern is that, while this might all be fun and games for clients of these businesses, what happens in the cold, hard light of January?  Are job boards and recruiters who have decided to go down this track of devaluing the service they offer going to wake up with a major, throbbing headache after the Festive period has ended?

Let this stand as a warning, guys:  it’s gonna be pretty difficult to contact clients in the new year and tell them that your service is no longer free or half the present price.  Christmas doesn’t reduce your costs, and it does not alter how you go about searching for applicants.  Don’t let the silly season force you into dropping your pants.

Things Are Not Always What They Seem…

You might recall my article on the launch of RecruitMeNow.com.au back in April. Also, this article JOBX and Recruitment Academy Plugging Leaky Bucket.

RecruitMeNow claims to be “The first exclusive Recruitment Industry job and candidate board“.  I like that, a niche job board, a job board that knows what it’s about.  Straight to the point.  No nonsense.  This sort of self-knowledge gives me tingles.

I thought I’d do a little update on RecruitMeNow.  It’s been a while, and I’m always interested to see how new sites are progressing.  The site looks good (certainly a relief after my interlude with Groovy Jobs).  Just mucking around, I typed in a search for ‘Accounting’.  This is what I got.

Not one job in the recruitment industry…

I didn’t sleep well last night.  It was one of those hot nights, where the air is steamy.  Plus I went over my coffee quota during the day.  Point is, I’m a bit hazy-brained this morning.  But why would the site claim to be exclusively for jobs in the recruitment industry, but deliver a search result like this one.  Have things changed?

Doncha just get sick of things not being what they seem?

Jetsetting…

The blog might take on an international flavor over the next few weeks.  In the tradition of the middle-class male, I’m off on a European tour.  In between cups of cafe au lait, I’m gonna have a look at what’s going in Paris and a few other cities in Western Europe. There’s some pretty interesting stuff happening over there in regard to online communication and recruitment and I hope to bring you news about my many adventures.

Au Revoir!

JJJ - News Or Propaganda?

Jobadder recently made the claim in their blog that JobsJobsJobs are currently #2 in terms of job applications per advertisement. (see article here) It is a claim that has not been supported by data. To begin this blog, I would like to challenge Jobadder to present the data supporting their claims. Without valid data, the claims are nothing more than the opinion of Jobadder.

Opinions are acceptable and necessary in their proper place, but should not be represented as fact sans supporting evidence.

Okay. That’s off my chest. Let’s move on to the next point.

You may have noticed that the tone of this blog is a tad more serious than usual. That’s because I get cranky when folks send me marketing emails that are nothing more than hype. It interferes with my sense of intelligence. Take for instance the newsletter I received yesterday from JobsJobsJobs - the one that’s piggybacking the unsubstantiated claims by Jobadder that we discussed at the outset.

First up, JobsJobsJobs make the claim that recruiters want competition within the job boards. They then make an appeal that recruiters should “drop the other contenders and let them run their print businesses” so that maybe, just maybe you will have the competition that you have asked for.” I hate tautologies. If recruiters drop the other contenders, JobsJobsJobs will have a monopoly, and there WILL BE NO COMPETITION.

JobsJobsJobs goes on to ask us to forget about traffic volumes, and assess the success of a job board according to applications per ad. They acknowledge this formula does not account for the quality of applications, but write the problem off by contending that quality is difficult to quantify because of the varying demands of different companies. To dismiss this vital flaw in the traffic vs job application per job debate does not satisfy me, nor should it satisfy other folks who are interested in participating in the debate.

The newsletter from JobJobsJobs goes on use of traffic volumes to demonstrate their growth. Please - don’t patronise your clients by dismissing the use of traffic volumes on one hand and use it to demonstrate your strength in the next breath…

The use of spurious claims by Jobadder, together with a bit of chucked around logic, make the recent newsletter by JobsJobsJobs nothing more than meaningless propaganda.

It is the application rate that matters!
Our focus at jobsjobsjobs is to increase the value that our advertisers get for their investment – we’re here to help you make money – and that means increasing the volume of ad response that you get.

Earlier this month Jobadder, a leading multi job posting solution provider, ranked jobsjobsjobs.com.au as the #2 in terms of job applications per advertisement – well ahead of two very well established competitors. (see article)

The head of one of these competitors recently stated that half of their traffic comes from overseas – which re-enforces the point that volume of traffic to a site can create false perceptions of value.

The critical measure is volume of ad response per advertisement.

We recognise that there are other factors that are important to advertisers such as quality of applications but this is difficult to assess given that what suits one company may not suit another.

The Recruitment industry has wanted competition for many years. The recruitment industry recognises that two well known major players have more interest in protecting their print revenues (why wouldn’t they?) and have not provided the competition that you want.

At jobsjobsjobs we believe we have shown that we can deliver more than them – though it is still early days. We have enjoyed strong support from hundreds of recruiters – but now is the time for all recruiters to put their support behind jobsjobsjobs, drop the other contenders and let them run their print businesses and maybe, just maybe you will have the competition that you have asked for.

From Strength to Strength…
It has been a massive three months for traffic for jobsjobsjobs.com.au. Since the last quarter of 2007 we have grown over 69%.

Seek In The Black

I couldn’t help but see the parallels here, between the company that is the leading job board in the Australia and New Zealand market place, which turns over in excess of 200million dollars per annum, and which is advocating the use of the black screen for Earth Hour on the 29th of March. I had a chuckle to myself about the irony in this, then moved on mentally to congratulating them for tapping such a wealthy and politically concerned target market - and for looking out for the environment, of course.

Jobfox.com and MyCareer in bed together!

Cashed- up US job board Jobfox.com with candidate/ job matching technology has reportedly struck a technology deal with Fairfax’s employment website Mycareer.com.au

“Jobfox will also grow internationally after completing a strategic co- branding alliance with Australia’s Fairfax Digital, a multimedia company that owns the national job board MyCareer. In the agreement, Jobfox’s proven technology will be incorporated into MyCareer in early 2008.”

The proof will be in the pudding if this helps Mycareer close the gap between itself and Seek