In the ever increasing online marketplace, we’ve seen huge changes in the way companies and Recruitment Agencies have looked at marketing their businesses over the last few years. Some large blue chip companies are now allocating more than half their annual recruitment marketing budgets to target online jobseekers. They are pushing their company brands across the online space with display type advertising in the form of skyscraper and banner advertising, all in an effort to build awareness of their employer brands and drive traffic not just to their main websites but specifically to their recruitment website.
The question I ask is... has the recruitment industry fallen behind?
Many large Recruitment Agencies and SME sites fail to achieve high job to application ratios and offer a poor online job seeking experience.
As recruiters, I’m sure you are spending money in the online space. Most of you will have dealt with job boards of some kind and have received response to your adverts in the form of candidate CVs to your inbox. Some of you may benefit from searching CV databases and headhunting your future candidates. These highly valuable services have a clear place within our market.
But, should it just stop there? Shouldn’t your online strategies include driving your target audience to your own website?
Many Recruitment Agencies have invested significantly in their website, but are they seeing the return? Do you know what is needed to get a better response?
It is commonly considered now that 50% of all job applications in the UK are done online.
Is it acceptable that these applications are all completed on other business’ websites rather than your own? If a jobseeker views the job on your own website and it is not ideal, they are more likely to look at other vacancies you have which may be ideal. They may return back to your site at a later date. This additional interaction is the key benefit to advertising your vacancies on your own website. It enables the jobseeker to interact with you in their preferred medium – online.
I see far too many recruiters with websites that leave a little to be desired. What does your website say about your business?
Whether you are an SME or a huge corporate business, are you really starting to think of your website as one of your most powerful marking tools, or do you just have a website because you think you have to tick a box?
A successful and powerful recruiter website does not need to cost high amounts – it just needs to be carefully thought out from the jobseeker perspective. Perhaps what is needed is a best practice to follow – watch this space!