Traditional Online Job Boards Not Cutting It!!

Online job boards gained considerable popularity in the 90's, when companies such as Workopolis and Monster first introduced themselves. These job boards provided a platform where employers and job seekers could easily find hundreds of jobs at their disposal, all in one location.

This dramatically increased the reach for employers and opened up to job seekers more variety than ever before. It was also considerable cheaper for employers to recruit candidates. Before online job boards came into existence, it was said that the average recruiting cost for one applicant in the US was between $8000 and $10,000 – depending on the position. Whereas the use of online job boards in recruiting reduced this cost to $900 per applicant.

There's no doubt then why employers and job seekers both chose to accept this new method of recruitment as it was a cheaper and more effective alternative to traditional forms of recruitment, such as newspapers and trade journals.

If you fast forward back to 2009, online job boards are still widely used by individuals all over the world. Monster, for instance, receives about close to three million unique visitors a month and Workopolis receives close to four million visitors a month.

While these sites no doubt attract a large user fan base, it is interesting to note that much of their sites and the way they operate haven’t changed much since their induction. Both sites operate on a similar format: the job seeker searches for the jobs that match what they’re looking for and then the candidate is given the option to apply.

Usually, a candidate is redirected to the company’s website, where they are free to research any information they would like on that particular company and are then given the chance to apply. While minor changes may have been made to these online job boards, for the most part, the way they function and the options they’ve made available haven’t changed much considerable within the past 10 years.

PCMag.com recently gave a listing of the top 100 websites in the world, and interestingly – with four million visitors a month each – Workopolis and Monster didn’t make the list. PCMag, when writing this article claimed they selected the top 100 classic websites based on a number of factors, stating:

whether they are leaders in their field both in innovation and in the numbers of their readers and/or users. We also looked for sites that are either regularly adding cool features or started out so unimprovably perfect that they shouldn’t ever change.

Related sites that did however make the list include Indeed.com and LinkedIn. Indeed.com operates as an online search engine for jobs pulling in millions of listings from thousands of websites. LinkedIn on the other hand, acts as a social networking site for professionals, where individuals are able to get connections when looking for a job or business opportunity.

Workopolis and Monster are both leaders in their field with a large number of users, but I think PCMag hits it on the nose when stating what it takes to be one of the top 100 websites. They need to be a leader in innovation in their field or should be regularly adding cool features to their site.

As neither of these online job boards made the list, I’m guessing PCMag believes that neither of them started out as "unimprovably perfect" either. What was interesting was that the job sites that did make the list are changing the way online recruitment is being done and it is said that social networking is the next big thing in terms of finding jobs.

With the state of the economy looming into recession, the number of companies laying off employees has risen drastically. And with the number of employees being laid off, it makes sense then that four million visitors would frequent these sites monthly. However, it isn’t very effective though if nobody seems to be hiring.

Whatever companies are hiring seem to find other means of advertising their jobs and sites such as LinkedIn have been more effective in finding these job seekers jobs. Job seekers too have expressed their frustrations with traditional online job boards as many have little hopes of actually finding the job they’re looking for on these sites. Traditional online job boards such as the aforementioned need to find new ways to fulfill their ultimate purpose – to help find people jobs!

With little changes having been made over the past 10 years, it seems that what once was a novel approach to online recruitment isn’t as effective as one might have thought. These sites need to upgrade and keep in line with the economic times, because if one thing’s certain, these traditional online job boards aren’t cutting it.

External Links: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2328656,00.asp

Excited Recent Grad Turned to Annoyed Job Seeker: Frustrations with Online Job Boards

As a recent graduate receiving a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing Management, I was excited at the chance of being able to finally look for jobs that would start me off on my career. So as someone in my early 20s, with the benefits of technology taking over my life, I naturally looked to online job boards such as Workopolis and Monster to help me start off in search of my perfect job.

It took me a total of 2 hours and 35 minutes before my frustrations got the best of me and I realized that online job boards such as these weren’t going to get me the job that I wanted.

A couple of factors caused this frustration. Firstly, the search options that were made available often brought about the least desirable jobs I could imagine. As someone looking for an entry-level job in marketing, the prospects often ranged from door-to-door sales, to telemarketing ( and you can imagine how excited I got at the thought of going around door-to-door selling knives).

My ideal job would have been working within an advertising firm, learning from a professional what it would be like to create advertisements. Or at worst, acting as an account manager with the possibility of moving up within the company; but even that was pushing it. Even while entering “advertising” in the search features - where I requested the minimum educational requirement be an undergraduate degree - the door-to-door sales jobs never seemed to go away (even though the job description clearly states a minimum education of a high school degree).

Secondly, I had heard the expression that “looking for a job was a full-time job in itself”, but it wasn’t until I had started searching that I realized what that meant. I was amazed to learn that applying to one job could take me sometimes an hour to do, and the only thing that resulted from it was the dismissal of my application at the click of a button. If upon the small chance I was able to find a job that seemed desirable to me, I had learned that “apply online” held a much larger meaning than I quite literally thought it meant.

What it really meant was: (1) Open the link to the company website, (2) Search for the job AGAIN under the Careers Section to make sure it was available, (3) Go to the company profile to learn about the company, (4) Go BACK to the Careers Section and find the job (5) Follow ridiculously long application forms and finally (6) Apply. Who would have thought apply online really meant all that? The result was, as I mentioned, an hour of applying to a job to be screened out in seconds.

Suddenly, the thought of looking for my dream job had turned into a nightmare. Surely there must be easier and more effective ways of utilizing online job boards. Sites such as Indeed and Simplyhired.com are great for bringing about a large number of jobs, from a wide variety of job sites. But even that still doesn’t fix my frustrations with long application processes.

New networking sites such as LinkedIn are a great way to stay connected and find jobs…if you know the right people. But sadly, at my young age I haven’t had many chances to connect with many professionals. But maybe when I meet more people and gain more experience it’ll be more effective for me.

A new online recruitment system that I think may have cured my frustrations is called Jobtac. The really cool thing about the site is that they’ve drastically reduced the amount of time it takes to apply to jobs. By using a new approach which they call iapply, job seekers are able to apply to jobs in just minutes.

When job seekers join they create a user profile, which holds all the information an employer needs to assess them. This includes visual resumes, video resumes, references, availability schedule and whatever else you think an employer needs to properly assess you. When applying to jobs then you don’t need to separately upload your resume each time. It will just take all the information you wish to showcase for that particular job from your user profile and let you apply.

As well, each company posting jobs on the site has a company profile. This way, you don’t have to go to the company website and research everything about the company. All the information you need is at your disposal! This drastically reduces the amount of time it takes to apply to jobs by sometimes even an hour. They also have other cool features including a number of multimedia capabilities and a networking system as well.

This novel approach to traditional online job boards made applying to jobs considerable easier for me. Why would I choose to spend two hours applying to two jobs on Monster when I could spend 10 minutes? Combine this with a networking system as well, I may have just found the cure which will help me be able to return as an excited recent grad, once again.