Digital Recruiting

Value of a BSI Kite mark for UK Online Recruitment?

[by Derek Pilcher - Managing Director -TheLadders]

As an organisation we've been involved in the early stage talks with the BSI around the introduction of a kite mark for the UK Job Board industry. It appears that they have reached out to the Govt Dept (BIS) for funding to support this process. Notable UK online recruitment luminaries are involved on the BSI Steering Committee, none other than Chairman David Hurst of onrec.com.

Nevertheless with all the good intent of this process, I'm a little confused as to the benefits. UK regulations around the jobseeker remain totally in the dark - governed by legislation dating back to 1973. Job Boards are still governed by the Employment Act of 1973 which classifies job boards as Employment Agencies under the guise of providing 'work finding' services and outlining that access to job vacancies has to be provided free. A mute point in today's world of choice to today's consumers.

What value does a BSI kite mark against today's outdated regulations really hold for UK jobseekers and recruiters?

As the world of online job seeking and in particular social networking grows by the day, how will the Govt legislate in this area in the future. Under the surface, all the key protagonists across UK online recruitment, understand that there needs to be, and will be, a full top to bottom review of UK online recruitment regulations, over and above the recent guidance that came as an off-shoot of the Agency Workers Directive - anticipated sometime in the next 18 months.

The key stumbling block appears to be how can BIS 'future proof' any revised regulatory guidance with the pace of technology development impacting and accelerating the efficiency of job seeking and recruitment in the UK. In addition will a Tory Govt be more pro-business whilst a Labour Govt remains staunchly socialist in its protection of the vulnerable UK worker?

How do Twitter, Linked-In and Facebook now feature into the mix against current UK specific regulations. They are all being utilised by recruiters looking to access targeted and relevant candidates segments? Are they to be governed as job  boards? What does the future hold for The Ladders.co.uk, Workthing+, Experteer and now Linked-In with their newly launched Premium model.

From what I can understand from speaking to colleagues across the UK Job Board industry, there appears to be a distinct lack of enthusiasm as to the benefits of a BSI Kite mark in today's world of mis-aligned regulations towards the UK Online recruitment industry…...and that’s being generous!

Derek Pilcher
Managing Director
TheLadders.co.uk
[email protected]

The truth is, nobody knows anything.

By Chris Muktar (Founder - Wikijob.co.uk)

Let me start by saying I'm a guest writer, so please be nice!

One of the things I have noticed lately is how the recruitment industry has changed not recently but over centuries. In biblical times, I imagine jobs were advertised by word of mouth, then signs for the literate, likely followed by job noticeboards and then local press, finally culminating with the internet in the last decade and a half, and moving towards social media in the next.

One of the most interesting problems we face when trying to sell social media is selling the concept. It's rare that a client actually expects that their social media campaign will generate any applications. Many are just sticking their toes in the water and seeing what happens. We tend to find that companies spend only 5-10% of their budget on new or innovative media, while focussing the remainder of their efforts on the old faithful. Not very adventurous, but very reasonable.

One of the most interesting stories is Milkround, who have been going for twelve years. They are, for the minute, considered to be the central core media of online graduate recruitment. Founded in '97, their struggle is similar to ours. While at WikiJob we are selling social media in the wake of traditional online job boards such as Milkround, they were selling the internet concept as a whole back when print and campus was the only way to advertise, and their struggle was probably even greater than ours. Interestingly, they have risen to change the industry, by providing a default channel and also by reducing the price per application that employers expect to pay.

At the beginning of the millennium, millions of pounds were burned on either advertising on or acquiring the wrong online job boards. Even the large agencies got bitten, and the demise of Barkers was at least in part due to this fact. It seems nobody knew anything, and it was just important to get involved in some way. Fast forward ten years, and I can see a slightly similar approach with social media. At least in our industry, the investment in social media has been more measured than it was a decade ago, with existing online job boards providing a good backbone for any campaign.

It seems once again that people aren't sure what to do. Is it Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn we should be advertising on? How effective are these channels? The message again seems to be that nobody really knows anything, and people just want to be seen to be doing something, regardless of whether it works or not.

Running WikiJob, we've always believed that social media, for the employer, has to be about one thing alone, and that is reducing the cost per application for online marketing campaigns. That means driving more applications and better applications, for less money. It's always been our tact to try and have some substance in an industry that's full of fads and innovative new-waves. Using this principle, we try and deliver better results than Milkround, Target and our other competitors. Most employers and agencies who were tracking their campaigns last year will know we did as we promised. So, we are trying to edge our way into the 'core media' territory. We have a little way to go to shake our new-kid-on-the-block image amongst some people, but we expect to keep and grow all our customers from last year.

Of course, I have no idea what is going to come along next, or what will work in Web 3.0. Probably geolocating social aggregating mobile in-brain job applying technology, who knows. I guess the truth is, nobody really knows anything.

Obama, dogma and the demise of UK Internet Advertising

*We welcome Richard Tyrie as our first Guest Author for quite a while for this post*

Councils told not to use websites to compete with local media

Secretary for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, has told councils not to undermine local media outlets by trying to compete for readers and advertising revenue with their own websites and publications.

So here we are, still basking in the immediate after-glow of the rousing Obama inauguration speech last week.  We heard about his plans for a new era of openness, transparency and trust in government (US government, anyway); a sole focus on policies that were beneficial to the electorate, and the scrapping of policies that were dogmatic and ineffective.  Fantastic stuff.  Whatever your position on OB, you can’t deny that his inspirational leadership style, and the spirit and substance of his plans (not to mention his oratory skills) will bring about significant change to the nature of government in the US.

And then we have our own government.   .

In the last fortnight alone, we’ve had the Heathrow third runway debacle;  the attempted draft bill to exempt MP’s expenses from Freedom of Information Act legislation, ergo: “we don’t want to tell you taxpayers what your £87.6 million pa is being spent on”, which, incidentally, our Gordon did a sharp U-turn on, following a *significant*  backlash by the internet ‘massive’ (way to go tweeps and facebookers..).  Now government has come over all ‘traditionalist’ with the announcement of the latest initiative from Ed Balls’ office telling councils “not to undermine local newspapers by competing for readers [with their own websites]”

WTF?  Do what?  Are you serious?

Err hold on a minute…   Last time I heard, the careers section of a local authority website was reported as being the most heavily trafficked section of all LG websites; in fact SOCITM (the society of IT Managers) reckon that the jobs section of a .gov.uk website is likely to serve four times more page impressions than the next most trafficked section of a local gov site (which, incidentally is the rather fascinating ‘planning application’ bit…)

 Speak to any local authority hiring manager that actually measures where their response comes from (there are a few out there - not many mind…) and they’ll tell you how little response they get from ‘trad med’.   What little response they do still get is precisely what they don’t want:  the same types they’ve always attracted (pale, male and stale are, I believe, the descriptors du jour amongst local government officers). 

The fact of the matter is, the local press just isn’t a practical, cost-effective solution any more,  nor does local press advertising generate even vaguely diverse shortlists. Local Governments historic use of press as a primary attraction method (and the subsequent nature of the local government workforce) amply bears this out:

1) The private sector (proportionally) hires three times more young people than local government  (Only 6% of a workforce of 2.2 million is under 25)

2.)Only 9 authorities (out of 336) have a workforce that reflects their communities in terms of ethnicity

3.) They largely attract ‘more seasoned’ applicants;  in fact 31% of the workforce is going to retire in the next decade (see point 1)

Oh dear.

So employers… no young people? Just loads of err ‘experienced’ people? Not enough applications from black and minority ethnic communities?  You betcha!

 Funny that, but then that’s the profile of local press readership..but then if you do what you’ve always done….

On the flip side,  we have the web, which is now making the majority of hires out there (London borough of Newham make 86% of all hires online now). Its proving to generate   a *massively* more diverse candidate pool – indeed, one LA reported over 1000% more interest from BAME’s (black and minority ethnic applicants) per pound spent compared to ‘traditional’ press advertising..

That’s a compelling business case for the web – non?

Local press is dying.  Its Darwinian; survival of the fittest; natural selection.  The truth is, inefficient, structurally weak, strategically adrift businesses die over time – and so they should.  Frankly, if they don’t move with the times, they should be left to wither..  trying to prop them up is analogous with US congress bailing out Ford or GM.  Utter madness. 

So when the Newspaper Society bleats on about how important local press is, in “ahem, providing a voice for local communities”, I suggest you get with the program Mr Balls, and see what’s really occurring out there.  Speak to local authorities.  See what’s happening.  We know it would be nice to keep the local press happy, but hey, this is about getting the right people to provide public services, not just currying favour with publishers with ever decreasing influence by ensuring them a few quid in advertising revs.

Do the right thing, and ditch the dogmatic stuff that isn’t in our interests any more..  Failure to do that, could mean you find yourself withering too, and probably quicker than you imagine.

 Richard Tyrie

Founder, Jobsgopublic

Spreading the Net

In order to keep debate as diverse as possible, we''ll be featuring posts by guest authors from time to time. First up is Russell Byrne of London Jobs

Spreading the Net

All this talk of Long Tails, YouTubes and Web 2.0’s has got me thinking. The internet is undoubtedly an exciting arena in which to work. Ok, it’s not Disney World exciting, but you know what I mean. By its very definition ‘New Media’ is going to be a place of innovation and expectation, and online recruitment is no exception. We frequently speak to agencies about the developments that we are working on, trying to find something to offer advertisers that is exciting, exclusive, and perhaps most importantly, effective. And rightly so. If we as an industry don’t push our collective boundaries what claim can we have to being a ‘new’ media; to being any different to the rest of the recruitment advertising fraternity?

Yet beyond Rich Media, Podcasts and HTML emails there is an opportunity for advertisers which is seldom explored; the option of extending their recruitment campaign onto non-recruitment partner sites. We have lost count of the times that we have been asked by the agency for a proposal on using Lifestyle sites, or local newspapers sites (etc) within our group. Yet the number of proposals to actually manifest into a cross network campaign remains a very solitary… one. I am not nearly so arrogant to suggest that I speak for every online media network, but I believe that the debate as evidenced by our inability to convert interest in execution is a valid one.

You see, it seems that advertisers who claim to be interested in reaching the holy grail of the passive job seeker are unwilling to commit the budget required to reach them and opt instead for the job board only strategy. With financial constraints being what they are, I can appreciate that. When the chips are down, would you rather look for a needle in a haystack or a needle in a box of needles? Are these advertisers missing out on the opportunity of reaching a gold mine of talent? Or are they maximising their budget by going to where they can be sure to find job seekers.

On the one hand, spreading the net in this way would massively extend the reach of an ad campaign and potentially attract a hitherto unexplored talent pool. But the cost associated with running a campaign visible and frequent enough to out-muscle the Display Advertisers who inhabit these sites is usually considerably higher than the kind of costs they would normally pay on a job board.

So should the advertiser remain within the confines of the Recruitment Platform? It might be more cost effective in reaching candidates, but in doing that would the advertiser have to forego the option of reaching that potentially highly employable casual browser who might be open to the suggestion of changing job and employer?

We are lucky to have the luxury to offer this. In my experience, asking a Newspaper Ad Director if we could move a recruitment ad out of classified and into run of paper would inevitably be met with hilarity. Or a beating. Client requirements were of secondary concern to protecting the micro-markets evolved out of decades of tradition. But even Newspapers are changing now, embracing the concept of ‘Cross Media’ in order to fight for survival in the advertising market.

This IS an exciting industry, one that is changing all the time and we have a fight on our hands to convince our advertisers that the many different strategies that we can suggest aren’t just innovation for novelty’s sake. Will 2007 be the year that Web Recruitment 2.0 explodes into the marketplace? One thing’s for sure; we’re sitting here with our blast goggles on and enough dynamite to do the job as soon as they are willing to go to war.

Oh who am I kidding, this is much more exciting than Disney World.

Space

Mountain

is a rubbish ride…