What do you think had been the most significant trend in ONLINE job search/ONLINE recruiting in the last year?
This is for a published annual report I do on Internet job search for a high-traffic Web site. The main audience is job-seekers, but I seek the recruiter/employer perspective as well. I'm defining "the last year" as Feb. 2011 through Feb. 2012.
Clarification added 3 months ago:
Some sample trends in past annual reports have related to job boards, social-media recruiting, the job-seeker's online presence, emergence of new tools and platforms for both recruiting and job search, talent communities, searchability, etc.
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Joseph A S.
Healthcare IT Director & Manager, PMO Start-Up & Direct, Relationship Building, System Evolution
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Four Trends:
1. Good for Everyone. Availability of less-time consuming online applications. For example, once you upload your resume, the employment section takes minutes to complete vs the 15 to 30 minutes required by the standard online applications. Plus you have the choice to import a linkedin profile. Check out Twitter for example and lucasfilm...I think. I assume that this improvement also provides advanced database-searchable or 'structured reporting' results for HR departments.
2. Good and Bad. The increased number of applicants across the board - even for disciplines where there's traditionally been a shortage - such as nursing. Good for employers as mathematically we can assume there are more qualified applicants, Not so good for employment seekers for the very same reason - there are more qualified applicants.
3. It Is What It Is. The growing inefficiency of the middleman. US-based and overseas recruiters who fail to understand the job description and require significant time: in-person meet & greet, two to four phone calls, multiple phone screens and several emails prior to submitting candidates for a contract/position.
4. And here's a trend that's affecting everyone - "Between 2009 and 2011, 88 percent of national income growth went to corporate profits, while just 1 percent went to wages, a stat that is “historically unprecedented"
Tim H.
President at eSearch Associates
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Certainly the decline of Monster.com and the rise of LinkedIn go hand-in-hand. However, it seems to me that LinkedIn may actually be waning a bit, in part because of their aggressive fee structure and the fact that there are simply so many other new tings popping up that there is no clearly defined "next great thing."
Monster is barely liming along now, and LinkedIn no longer offers recruiters the edge that it once did. That is, the playing field is relatively even in terms of the access recruiters have to candidates.
I think that one possible unfortunate trend may be the complete outsourcing of HR and/or recruiting departments to huge corporate recruiting entities that offer little value when it comes to truly getting to know individual hiring manager's needs. Along those lines, there seems to be a chase to the bottom with respect to cost, that it related to this outsourcing of HR services and offshoring of many other functions. The result may be short term "profits" that exist on the books in a way that yields big executive bonuses, but in the long run, I fear that such steps will ruin many solid companies. I can't speak specifically, but I have seen this happen to a company I once had a relationship with, and it was painful to watch.
Clarification added 3 months ago:
Just a side note, contrary to Mike Seidle's assertion, federal regulation is not the cause of convoluted application processes or applicant tracking systems. Not much has changed in recent years, and much of what led to tracking related to discrimination stemmed from court cases. (Though there were some laws as well.) Actually though, whatever the cause, the move toward using online applicant tracking systems was a huge improvment, no matter how annoying it may be to have to applying online. I was a recruiter for a very large company back in the days before they adobted such a system, and simply dealing with the daily flow of resumes was a nightmare. Can you imagine trying to give people a fair shot at jobs at a large corporation and trying to deal with thousands of paper resumes per day? I have struggled with some online systems, and I agree they can be a huge pain, but that is largely because some of the systems companies use simply aren;t all that good. They are still amazingly better than the processes companies had ten to twenty years ago.
Clarification added 3 months ago:
On the other hand, Mike is spot on about the value of Indeed and SimplyHired, and probably correct about where things are headed with respect to Google and Bing. (Intuitively, it makes sense.)
The challenge for both employers and job seekers is that there is no longer one "best" way to get noticed. It lends itself to both the value of building relationships with local recruiters, but also plays into the hands of big box search firms that can blanket the Internet with ads.
Linda F.
Recruiting Specialist at RFT Staffing
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It seems to me that the days of the 'confidential' job postings are on their way out. People still crave human interactions and it seems like the 'newness' of the big job portal websites are on the decline. LI seems to be a really good tool for communicating jobs that are open, new projects that will be ramping up hiring, relocation of businesses, etc. More and more do we see interactions between recruiters and job seekers, and I would bet, we see more hires because of it!
As a recruiter, I would much rather have insight into a candidates personality then go blind with just a resume. LI is a great way to communicate directly, or indirectly, with potential candidates!
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Joseph O.
Software Tester & Employee for the 21st Century
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Nowadays it seems that most companies require applicants to apply via their own corporate online job board. I know that Burger King, Culver's, Dairy Queen, Walgreens, and Walmart accepted paper and phone applications up through 2005, and since then it's been only online applicants for them. Even smaller firms such as local utilities require applicants to send their information via the job portal, e.g. Taleo or Brass Ring. Most positions on the aggregate job boards such as Monster and Indeed are re-posts of positions from the corporate job boards. There are still some chains which still accept paper applications, e.g. Subway, Noodles, and Farm'N'Fleet. It seems that all applications for salaried positions are online only.
Clarification added 3 months ago:
Mike Seidle nailed it. I appreciate him telling us about the proposed schema for job vacancy search results.
Mohamed Atef E.
HR Manager | HR Generalist | Founder of the UAE Human Resources Professionals Group | Professional Member At SHRM
its Linkedin coz its allow to discover inside connections when you're looking for a job or talents
Links:
Mike S.
Director of Development at DirectEmployers Foundation
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Katharine -
I am a little biased, but I think the big story is the dramatic fall of the old guard job boards (Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs) and the rise of new job search players LinkedIn, SimplyHired and Indeed.
Another story is how Federal regulation is making it difficult for job seekers to apply for jobs online due to the convoluted application process in most Applicant Tracking Systems (the software that most companies use to accept online applications).
Finally, you have what I think is the biggest story no one really covered: Google, Yahoo, Bing and the US Department of Labor published a standard for marking up internet job posts via Schema.org. This will make it easier for search engines to understand and rank job posts... and it also makes it easier to more accurately machine read a job posting. As applicant tracking software and job boards (we were one of the first to support the new standard with us.jobs) begin supporting the standard, I would not be surprised to see more and more applicants finding their jobs on Google and Bing.
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i think that online seeker job in social networking such linkedin or facebook (with branch out) growing and growing. But for me linkedin is the most worth because it has many trust proffesional and companies join in linkedin..
Sahar A.
Diversity& Inclusion|Leadership training|Social Media Marketing|Social Media Training|Public Speaker|Culture Competence
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I would say the online self branding I know many people that the better they self branded themselves online with great profiles and blogs establishing their authority and credibility online, the higher they ranked for certain keywords, the easier they were found by recruiters, even the passive job seekers were picked by recruiters as they raised their awareness towards their skills
LI is increasing more and more ways and applications for job seekers at different range of prices while still maintaining great services on a free platform
Online job applications are on the rise where companies are using mire and more HRIS and ATS to pre-qualify candidates which is easier then getting hundreds or thoudands of irrelevant resumes through job boards like Monster
Recruiters are shying away from job boards as career builder and Monster because of the high cost and utilizing more and more social media marketing
To be honest, job boards such as Monster are not as "dated" as has been suggested. I work for Boston Globe Media (which is partnered with Monster), so I see things firsthand (and what I see is VERY positive).
In actuality, Monster is adapting very successfully to the times - branching out into social media with Facebook/Twitter job feeds and their own initiative called "BeKnown."
They provide customized media plans for advertisers (not just job postings) and brand boosting opportunities.
Finally (and most impressively), they have updated their resume database to a model known as PRS (Power Resume Search), the technology behind which is at least a generation ahead of their competitors. All other older, outdated search tools can only find resumes based on keywords (which inherently presents a wide host of problems – “PT” could return results for a physical therapist, a part time (PT) clerk, or any number of results including that particular letter scheme). It cannot distinguish among job titles, skills, industry, education, etc. Therefore, the search results are not targeted, and certainly not qualified.
Power Resume Search, on the other hand, understands concepts and contexts, and bases matches on actual relevant experience, talent, education, and more. It automatically sorts, scores, and ranks candidates based on EXACTLY what the employer needs, and completely avoids those aforementioned problems. It was named one of the top 10 HR Products of the Year by Human Resource Executive magazine last year, so the ROI has been very positive!
Not too get overtly "sales-y," but anyone who would like to see a free demo of that product can feel free to call me at 617-929-8851. I'd be happy to set aside some time to "show you the ropes."
-Jim
Dr Giles B.
Director at Quarto Perspective
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Katherine,
With the rise of additional online tools, there has been to a degree a move away from some of the traditional online areas such as job boards, though this may also be due to a dilution as much as a formal move.
Certainly there has been more use of areas such as linkedin/facebook/twitter, which provide as much of an opportunity as they could a problem.
They allow additional ways for job-seekers to be visible, but potentially mean an increased number of ways they need/can interact and also mean that info posted has the potential to be around for life/their career. It likewise allows employers/recruiters more access to info on candidates though means there are potentially more places to look.
Giles.
