Workthing+ - what I saw

With the recent launch of Workthing+, the “is it right to charge candidates?” debate was certainly re-ignited (read some of it here on Recruiting Futurology). I wanted to step a little away from that particular cut and thrust and, having tried to give it a bit more time to look at all that’s on offer, give my take on the Workthing+ offer itself. It probably is worth stating for the record though that I have no problem with anyone charging for a service, whatever that may be - I actually kinda prefer that sort of transparency because it allows you to make an informed decision about the value for money you receive, and because you’re paying you are more bought into realising the full benefit of any facility – in short, putting more onus on you to make it work for you.

OK – to the site/facility. My first observation is that there’s a hell of a lot they’ve bundled in. Loads of good stuff. From psychometric tests to a job seekers wiki/forum, to CV builders and activity planning. It’s all pretty nicely set out too (although some of the interface/navigation needs to have some “rough edges” smoothed – that’ll come with feedback and bedding down though), and whilst it’s hard for me as a non-job seeker to give the time and dedication necessary to really use all the facility to test what works for me and what doesn’t, I take my hat off to the boys and girls at Trinity Mirror Digital Recruitment (TMDR) for what they’ve got in place for launch.

If I’m going to be picky I’d have to say that I’d like to have seen more rich media throughout (videos and the like) to really engage the user, elements that would help establish a richer brand personality. The functional rather than experiential approach, I might even go as far as to say “flatness”, is typified by the home page “animated” element that would have been infinitely better had it a voiceover audio streamed with it – but all of this is easy to enhance and I’m sure is on a to-do list somewhere at Workthing+ HQ.

But there was one resource that I felt they’ve missed a trick by not making a consistent element within their own site. They have the facility to have your CV reviewed (a crucial part of the full service offer), but accessing that bounces you to a 3rd party site which kinda breaks my "in-site experience". It got me starting to wonder whether a 3rd party was suddenly going to start pitching me about writing my CV from scratch having already handed over my sign up money. Don't get me wrong - it's far far better to have it than not to have it (however broken it makes my journey), but if Workthing+ is setting up as a one-stop-shop then I feel it needs to look like that in every sense.

But all that said – I applaud the team at TMDR for stepping beyond ‘same old same old’ within the job board market. They have created something that I found to be very comprehensive and certainly doesn’t do the Workthing brand anything but good IMHO.

And one thing I particularly like, in a sad “I’ve clearly been hanging around this industry for far too long” kinda way, is the fact that Workthing started off all those years ago as a site that was intended to be an online careers advisory service first and a job board second. Over the years that got diluted as whoever owned it went for the mainstream “job board business model” – how wonderfully retro for Workthing+ to have effectively come full circle with TMDR, all be it with a changed business model that better reflects how the Internet has evolved over that time. Some good ideas just need time and business belief to prove themselves, here's hoping Workthing+ is given that second time around.

Comments

[Gareth Lloyd]

Alex, thanks for taking the time to give such considered feedback; as you say, it’s only through feedback that we can continue to develop Workthing+.

Your observation about it taking “time and dedication” to get the most out of the system is absolutely correct. As we all know, it takes serious time and effort to conduct an effective jobsearch, so we’ve built something that is designed to help the committed, engaged jobseeker; rather than the casual browser. Hence our “serious tools for serious jobseekers” tagline.

The level of interactive and rich media content in the system is already significant, and we’re already producing more content to increase this further – as we recognise that this is a key facet in delivering career management services online.

It’s so encouraging to hear your enthusiasm about the initiative; and we’re excited to be doing something that is, as you indicate, both ground-breaking and yet also leverages the heritage of the Workthing brand.

Gareth Lloyd, on behalf of the Workthing+ team

[Alex Hens]

update on this - Workthing+ are making a pledge:

"we’re so convinced that Workthing+ can get you back to work, that we promise if you haven’t found employment after six months’ membership, we’ll give you your money back."

read more here: http://blog.workthing.com/2009/06/the-workthing-promise.html

I think that's approaching things well - because there's also an element within this of putting the onus on the user to actually utilise the facility - so it's a win win whatever. A beautiful example of clear mutual benificiality (or something like that).

Nice one