The People Bulletin

The UK’s online recruitment market is estimated to be worth nearly £400m a year, as recruiters continue to shift their advertising budgets from traditional media to digital formats.

The benefits of recruiting via the internet are well known: last year, Personnel Today found that nearly three-quarters of HR professionals felt online recruitment was more effective than other methods, and more than half felt it reduced time to hire¹. There is also a useful summary on the BIS website².

But whilst the HR profession has been at the forefront of change, the choice and complexity of services can leave even the most experienced online recruiter struggling to perfect their campaign.

A simple return to basics will ensure efficient, high-performing recruitment activity, executed via the most appropriate and effective online channels.

Selecting a job board

The choice of online recruitment services is vast: generalist, niche, regional, special interest. The list goes on.

But before you start looking at individual services, try and think like a jobseeker. If you’re recruiting an accountant in Bristol, where might your ideal candidate start?

For many, the answer will be a search engine and, for most, that means Google. You can quickly build a good impression of which job sites are relevant for your organisation and its vacancies by running a search: ‘accountancy jobs Bristol’ should do it.

Consider search results both in terms of natural listings (i.e. those which Google deems to be most relevant) and sponsored or paid-for results. Once you’ve decided which sites to look at in more detail, you’ll usually find information about products and costs online, but you might not always find all the details you need. So, whether you choose to dig a little deeper online or pick up the phone, having a simple checklist of what you want to find out will help.

Here’s what you should consider:

Who uses the site?

Job boards should be able to give you a breakdown of who uses their site. Most online recruitment services offer some form of jobseeker registration, so data on candidate demographics and preferences should be available. If it’s not offered to you, ask for it.

From salary range, industry and location to details on diversity and education, you should quickly be able to build a picture of who uses which site. What’s more, by knowing overall traffic performance (typically measured in visits and unique users), you’ll be able to measure the performance of one service against another.

And to make sure a site will continue to drive traffic once you’ve posted your vacancies, always find out what a job board is doing to promote itself to your target audience.

How does the site perform?

The advent of digital advertising has introduced a new level of performance measurement when it comes to advertising. A positive return on investment (ROI) is key to any successful digital campaign, from brand promotion to recruitment advertising.

Calculating an accurate cost-per-hire for all job boards you use should be your ultimate aim, but you should start by estimating a cost-per-application. 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.

Furthermore, a healthy range of testimonials – particularly from similar organisations to your own – will provide strong evidence that the site works effectively and with a high level of service.

How much does it cost?

First of all, 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 only offer a two week posting, whilst 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.

As with any purchase, you should expect to benefit from discounts for bulk purchasing and, again, ask for prices for similar bundles of products from each supplier you talk to.

And remember, most job sites offer more than just job posting: make sure you assess other products and services offered which may help you to run an efficient campaign, whilst fulfilling other strategic objectives.

For instance, if you have a strong employer brand or a particular creative theme you wish to promote, find out about branding opportunities, costs and performance. And, if your recruitment activity includes searching candidate databases, ask about the number of searchable CVs and for a breakdown of the database.

How can you get the best results?

Before you post your vacancy, remember: you’re writing a job advertisement, not a job specification.

It might sound obvious, but people consume content online differently to how they do in traditional media, scanning pages rather than reading them. Keep the details of your vacancy relevant and to the point, using short sentences and short paragraphs.

And, if you find your ad is not generating the level of response or the type of applications you’re looking for, remember most job sites will let you edit the job description whilst it’s live, so you can tweak your ads for maximum impact.

Here are some tips for effective job posting:

• Create your job ad specifically for the web – don’t just copy and paste the job specification and hope it’ll sell itself.
• Be as specific as you can with your job’s key details: job title, location, salary, work hours.
• Detailed and spell-checked job descriptions receive a better response in terms of both quality and volume.
• Remember, jobseekers online often search using keywords: make sure you mention the key skills you’re looking for in your job so your ad will be returned in results.

Finally, some job boards include basic screening questions as part of the job posting process and, in a jobs market seeing more applications than ever before, using this facility can be crucial. Word your questions carefully and you can make sure your applicants have the skills and experience you’re looking for, saving you and your staff time.

[1] www.personneltoday.com/articles/2009/09/02/52040/online-recruitment-tops-employers-list-for-filling-jobs.html

[2] www.dius.gov.uk/higher_education/widening_participation/professional_recruitment_guide/recruitment