Well we are all benefiting from the recent VAT reduction and the rest of Darlings wonderful measures to repair our damaged economy – do you feel better off? Looking at the current job market businesses clearly are not yet feeling confident about reaching the end of the downturn.

But how does the current economic climate affect the job seeker?

Firstly it is very tough out their for many industries and roles. Does this affect online jobseeking?

Hell yes, it changes the entire seeking journey.  More and more job seekers need to search wider parameters. This means considering commuting further or considering jobs that are outside of the core comfortzone.

It puts the job seeker in a position to “browse” and the job search web sites are not great for browsing. This forces the user to perform more searches to find what they need.

The result is not just increased effort and frustration for the jobseeker, but job sites with over inflated search counts and page impressions. When looking at figures the advertiser must focus back on unique visits – which is a buck in the trend from looking at searches.

Why do clever, solid business decision makers frequently make a total hash of things when it comes to their website!

The truth is that great many of websites out there are products providing a function for a user base.  But at design / build time this is totally forgotten.

The discussion that is missed too early is,
“Which comes first for this site, usability / function or  look / feel.”

To put it a different way the question "is it a work of art to look at, or a product for people to use?".

For a recruitment agency website this discussion is probably going to result somewhere in the middle but closer to function that looks, such as:

·         Attractive, positive message showing us as professional

·         Clear information to attract clients

·         Easy to use to attract candidates to apply

I want to urge you all to consider this question and have clear business objectives for your website.

How pretty is Ebay or Google – are they works of art or fantastic usable designs?

Firstly, a thank you for everyone who has contacted me regards the last couple of posts. Your direct feedback is appreciated and will help mould future posts.

So our topic continues to discuss best practices for recruitment web sites. As promised last week, this post covers browsing jobs and Google.

So you have a funky website, your supplier sold you a “corker” with an array of search options to confuse your users and a great big “Search Jobs” button. Even better it is live on the Internet for 14 million online UK job seekers to use it.

What next? Well people visiting your site and using it would be a good idea. But where do they come from?

“Search engines like Google and Yahoo”,  I hear you chorus. Well yes, that would be great. Your website supplier may have even provided an “SEO” service (search engine optimization), they may have shown you how you can type your company name and office location into Google, WOW there you are on page one! The candidates will be rolling in!

Probably not, you need your jobs to be indexed by Google, as many pages as possible with job specifics clearly shown. 

Unfortunately from reviewing a great deal of recruitment agency websites more than half do not let Google read their job adverts at all. Out of the small fraction that does the jobs are badly optimized - too frequently all on one page.

The first problem is Google does not (typically) click buttons. It really likes to click hyperlinks, and (sorry to get techie) real HTML anchor tags not JavaScript functions. Go to your site - can you get to all your jobs by clicking normal links? On a PC in Internet Explorer put your mouse over the link and look at the bottom left of the window. Does it say JavaScript? If so Google will not click it, instead it needs to show the url for the next page.

If you have a large volume of jobs then consider providing some links on your site to segments of your job stock, such as all part time jobs or all jobs in London etc.

Best practice Rule 2 “Let Google browse your job adverts via suitable links to search results”.

So now Google can read your jobs – yes, but there are still a few more popular Gotchas that so many websites insist on implementing. I will keep this list short-ish today. We could go crazy here with loads of tips, maybe in a later blog post.

Best practice Rule 3 “Do NOT display all your full job adverts on one big page/s. Always put each full job advert on to a page of its own. The results page should link to this full page job advert (with a link! and no javascript!)”

Best practice Rule 4 “Always ensure the job detail page has a handy back navigation to the search results”

Best practice Rule 5 “Always display the job title and location and category on your search results page and on your job details page”

While we are at it Best practice Rule 6 “On the full job detail page have a clear and noticeable call to action, reading apply now or something suitable. Put this call to action button or link at the bottom of the advert and near the top if your design allows.”

This covers just a few of the basic "must do" points for your site to be more Google friendly. In a future post I will cover more SEO topics – let me know how techie you would like it to get (I can always invite our resident SEO guru to help author a post).

While considering Google it must be remembered that a great deal of job seekers are active browsers. By this I mean they are looking for a new job but their seeking range is wide not narrow. Frequently a complex search form puts this user off. They really benefit from some simple links to click, enabling them to browse a wider range of vacancies.

Research suggests that 80% of jobs seekers are pragmatic, only 20% are careerist – don’t make your site easy to search but really hard to browse! Help the 80% find a job on your site!

Please keep the emails and comments coming. 

In my last blog I talked about making the most from your online presence – which can be cost effective and delivery high yields. As promised this is the first in a series of posts about best practices for recruitment agency websites.

We review and support agencies across the UK of various sizes – some have thousands of jobs on their systems others have tens of jobs. Too frequently small companies with 30 to 100 jobs are sold a complex website offering their users detailed search options such as category, salary, location, hours and keyword search. Great isn’t it? Such a web site gives the user true search power to find what they are lookingfor- umm, in a word - NO!

The problem is the technology supplier is selling what appeals – the features and functionality of the big boys. To most small SME agencies this will look and sound the best thing possible – and in favour of the supplier probably the more expensive option.

The problem is no one is considering the user – the online jobseeker.

The key word that is missed is EXPERIENCE! What is the experience when I come across all these options?

Well I might fill in salary,location and some keywords and click search with a keen eagerness to find my next perfect job. Unfortunately more often than the user is faced with a page saying – “No results found”. This is a very poor experience and will probably end up with the user leaving the agency website for good!

Job seeking is highly pragmatic – the job seeker changes their expectation and ideal job throughout their job-seeking journey. Typically the search widens the longer they are seeking.

The online job search should provide the ability to get to the jobs that may be of interest quicklyand easily. Jobs should be returned when ever possible, there will be no application if no job advert is read.

The search complexity has to reflect the choice provided by the data. This is key to a positive user experience.

So the best practice rule 1:

“Only provide search options that will typically return jobs from the choice of jobs available – if all the jobs are in London then don’t ask the user to choose between London and Edinburgh”

This may seem obvious– but go and have a look at your site and your competitors sites – how hard isit to actually get the search to return jobs? You may be shocked!

Next time post–Browsing not searching and helping Google read your jobs

Over the last 12months we have looked at hundreds of recruitment agency websites some small some huge. The question that springs to my mind time and time again is – do you get any applicants via your own website? Is that number good and worth your efforts? Are your competitors getting 10 times as many?

Many of you can answer this question confidentially as you measure your sites success and make the most of each online jobseeker who crosses your digital door. Well done! But could you get more?

Unfortunately there are plenty of you who do not know the answer to this question. Why not?

I understand that running your website is not your core business (unlike mine!) but it is an asset that you may well not be making the most of. Many agencies take the time to upload their jobs to their site but how easy is to for a job seeker to find the right job and apply.

There needs to be a best practice to help agencies improve the return from running their website. But what is the best practice and is there a one size fits all lycra style solution?

I firmly believe the answer to this question is NO! There are a few vital statistics that will allow you to find the right fitting best practice…

1. How many jobs do you have for a job seeker to view?
   
2. How easy is it for a job seeker to apply?  
   
3. How much pre-application filtering do you need?

Over the next few months I am going to blog on specific key areas surrounding recruitment agency website best practices. Some will be high level and some will be down and out geek level.

Each one will consider the vital measurements where suitable so it is relevant to you.

And maybe, it will help you increase your return on running your website and drive more cash to your bottom line!

I fell over some oldresearch we read through in the early days of Allthetopbananas.com which youmay find interesting, especially in the context of online recruitment.

“80% of jobseekers arepragmatic vs 20% who are careerist”

What is does thismean? In the context of the research in full it means the work life balance iseven or balanced more towards life for most people.  The phrase work to live is the feeling for many people.

So for the majority ofjob seekers they are looking for a range of positions to best fit their skillset, their experience and their location to return the right level of salary vsresponsibility that they are aiming for in their work life balance. It was shocking to find that the pragmatic job seeker will travel on average a longer distance than the careerist (who probably just relocated with the go get'em attitude)

Do the job boards oftoday offer helpful tools for the pragmatic job seeker?

We are really keen onhearing your views on this area, please do comment or contact us. 

Already we find ourselves in June... wow this year is busily flying by. Now 6 months ago we had fun making a Lego viral promo video at Christmas, which generated a good response and some business.

So we decided it must be time for another one. But without xmas as inspiration what could our latest instalment be about?

Since our original product plan we always talked about the jobseeker adventure, so this time the video follows a theme along perhaps one of the silver screens biggest adventures ever.

I hope you enjoy “The quest for a new job” it was great fun putting together.

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!

A few weeks ago, Peter Gold blogged about his recent experience in Canada regards positive customer service. Such a tale is quite refreshing when we constantly are bombarded with examples of how not to treat customers.

The recruitment industry is a busy market place where good manners and care about customers will go a long way. Every business should strive to generate an 'experience' for their customers which leaves the individual 'warm', 'pleased' and at its best 'delighted'.

As so often is the case, people are the key for a business to achieve. However, this challenge is deeper than having a successful recruitment process delivering the right employees. Company culture and leadership is also key!

Many companies, who attempt to deliver quality service, still have leaders and decision makers who fail to live up to the objective. In today’s high-paced business world, with multiple communication channels and where faceless websites or emails deliver immediate messages, the temptation to rush on to the next customer is very high. The importance of treating your clients with respect and care is easily compromised by short term focus on the bottom line and cost efficiency.

This short sighted approach can have very serious implications – customer retention is key to successful business. Customer relationships and increased retention have huge returns. If you delve into the world of CRM, there are many cases studies showing 5% increases in retention boosting profits by 30% to 60%! It is a simple concept wrapped up so often with many business buzz words – “Keep existing customers happy, they will come back and they will spend more”.

This is true for all levels of business; one man bands, SMEs and global enterprises. I have recently been on the receiving end of both extremes of customer service by competing global giants – Microsoft and Apple (yes I know - Geek!).

I purchased an Xbox Elite when it was released at a high price. A few months later they reduced all the prices. Instead of leaving me disappointed with not waiting, they gave me a choice of £120 of games for free – I was delighted. So MS did well what about Apple?

I purchased a nice new shiny iTouch a week or so after release. This week, Apple released a software update for the iTouch – if I buy one today in the shops, I would get extra features including email, mapping etc.  I need not worry; via the Internet I can update the software on my iTouch and get the same features as if I were to buy one today (for less money!). But, and here is the big but, instead of delighting me and retaining my future business, they decide to squeeze more money out of me. I can download the update but only at a cost of $20. I am left outraged and determined never to spend money with Apple ever again!

Perhaps Apple can risk this, based on having the market leading product and apparent arrogance that they will remain at the top? Who knows, maybe I will forget all about this experience when the next toy comes out! But maybe I, along with thousands of others, will not?

I was recently in a discussion where it was suggested that the humble CV has not changed in 100 years and surely it is time for the CV to embrace the digital Web age.  I quite like the idea that we are now ready for CV 2.0 (Well we have Web 2.0, so why not CV 2.0?).

While is easy for a video CV evangelist to make broad statements that the CV has not changed in 100 years, how true is it?

So I turned to today's modern-day oracle of all knowledge – Google. After quite a while searching using many different approaches, my Google search skills were exhausted. I could not find the answer to the question of when the CV was adopted, or who is credited with its invention. Some details were found, however, which I found thought provoking...

The “Hidden Job Market” was first talked about around 1950 to describe the then-thought 70% of jobs that were filled without ever being advertised.  This was credited to Dr Bernard Haldane, an American who, reading various Bios, changed the recruitment process to the more skill based process of today. His company, which many of you know today, may well be the first Recruitment Agency similar to the those of today.

I turned my search away from Google and went to newspapers. I read through a 30 year old Birmingham Post; the common call to action was "Apply for Application", referring of course to an application form. So does this mean the common use of the CV is under 30 years old (a far cry from 100 years?) Surely not. No, the CV was requested but only from the odd white collar (top brass) position advertised in the paper. So I turned away from a local rag in search of old paper copy from national broadsheets.

The Times would have been great, but The Scotsman has digitised its paper from 1817 to 1950 and made it searchable online! The search was not hugely successful; I could hardly find any job advertisements, but did stumble across perhaps the most famous recruitment drive ever, "Your Country Needs You!"  Even without the picture of the military man pointing, it is a mega-powerful emotive statement. On the BBC site, I found the equivalent posters for World War One. Maybe this is the first national recruitment drive? Without a doubt, one of the most effective!

Back to the millennium and CV 2.0. It could be argued that CV 2.0 is already here! In 2004, European Parliament developed and promoted a standardised CV model known as the Europass. The Europass integrates with HR-XML standards. So we already have an official standard and it supports electronic structured transfer!

I have looked at the Europass examples and I think there is quite some way to go yet. The real CV 2.0 needs to make the recruitment process easier and recognise how the recruitment process has changed with the advent of the Internet and digital filtering. I somehow doubt this will come from a governmental committee, so where will it come from?