The surge in e-recruitment in recent years has meant that most jobsites have had to improve their game, according to Cathy Richardson, regional director for the south east of England at the Institute of Recruitment Practitioners (IRP) . “Many of the major job boards, such as Totaljobs and Jobsite, have responded to the increased competition by offering more creative advertising campaigns and commercial deals for repeat business,” she notes.
There are some innovative developments in the job-site market. European online job-board business Stepstone, which has more than 10 million visits and 89,000 job listings each month, recently launched a job app for Android smartphones. The app enables the job seeker to search for jobs within a set radius and see where the company is located on a map. Stepstone also offers a candidate tracker system, which allows employers to post listings on multiple job boards and automatically updates candidates on their application progress.
Many job sites are also offering a more targeted approach to sourcing candidates. Totaljobs, for example, which attracts around 3.4 million jobseekers each month, targets and emails specific groups of jobseekers by region, sector or skillset. The careers website also publishes monthly traffic figures and carries out ABCe audits. As with print, online costs for jobsites can vary dramatically from £99 for a single, unbranded post on Totaljobs.com to a premium featured job with an embedded video.
Before you start negotiating, however, it’s worth remembering that, in addition to the previously mentioned, generic job sites there are plenty of more specialist sites for specific industries/career sectors, such as Caterer.com for jobs in the catering sector and, of course, PersonnelToday.com for HR-related roles.
When it comes to comparing costs, it’s usually fairly easy to work out which job site is offering the best rate by looking at overall traffic performance – typically measured in visits and unique visitors, says Mark Rhodes, marketing director at online jobs board reed.co.uk. “A positive return on investment (ROI) is key to any successful digital campaign, from brand promotion to recruitment advertising,” he notes.
“First, find out the cost of a job site’s most basic product – usually a single job posting. In this way, you have an instant cost comparison, although you should review precisely what you get for your money.” For instance, one job site may offer only a two-week posting, while another offers an advert that’s live for six weeks. “What’s more, armed with information about applications-per-job, you’ll have a simple way to calculate a cost-per-application,” Rhodes adds.
Make sure that you also assess other products and services offered, such as branding or iPhone apps, which may help you to run a more broad and efficient campaign. “Calculating an accurate cost-per-hire for all job boards you use should be the ultimate aim, but you should start by estimating a cost-per-application,” Rhodes advises. “Job sites should be able to disclose the average number of applications received per vacancy, and many will be able to break this down by industry sector and even region.”
With so many different e-recruitment options available, it is vital to ascertain which will be most effective for your company and the designated role before you start your campaign.
There are hundreds of job sites on the market but some of the major ones include:
reed.co.uk
careersandjobsuk.com
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