I noticed in this week’s Legal Week – one of the leading Legal Industry online and print publications in UK – that at least half of the ads were placed by employers who stipulated ‘No Agencies’.
Post recession, employers in all industries are cost conscious and there is definitely a growing trend of employers advertising directly – using new online recruitment tools like job boards
Is this DIY approach something new or a growing recruitment trend?
Why Use Job Boards?
Job boards offer vastly reduced fees at not much more than the cost of a job posting.
The difference between paying a few hundred pounds and several thousand makes them certainly seem worthwhile on the face of it. But cost is only one consideration and how many job boards are actually making money?
Here are the key points to consider when looking at why companies use job boards and the benefits of using them.
Traffic and Visibility
Job boards that offer some human interaction with processing, matching, screening and filtering are basically just online agencies who have realized the need to diversify – nothing wrong with that. However, if employers believe that they can do the screening all by themselves then why use a job board? The answer is simple – increased traffic and visibility.
A single employer will never generate as much interest or traffic by advertising a role on its own website as it can by posting on a job board and benefitting from the extensive marketing campaigns they run to generate traffic and candidates. And being one of many employers on a single site also attracts a more diverse talent pool.
The point is that employers need to be active online within a similar pool of employers, to get as much traffic and relevant responses as possible. Recruitment agencies advertise roles that are at times entirely fictitious and the majority of the time the employer is just listed as a ‘well known corporation’, which does not really say anything and is certainly not going to attract those elusive high quality passive candidates.
Google & Job Boards
Interestingly, I was told last year by an Australian SEO consultancy that Google had virtually stopped indexing and was giving very low quality scores to job boards that launched into beta. Why – because so many never made it or were spurious at best. So, best to use established and respected sites that have high PageRank.
Tips for Employers
- Job boards generate more traffic than offline agencies
- Huge cost saving in fees
- Online management of candidates
- Employers advertise under their own name
- Manage all applications themselves, no hidden agenda
Agency recruitment is far from over but employers are far more discerning with their suppliers. Whether a global job board such as Monster, a large regional job board such as Seek in Australia or specialist international job boards such as twosteps (who list global legal careers) they can all provide far more exposure and more targeted advertising which leads to a richer and more accessible talent pool.
The Twosteps Law Blog 