CV-Library have done some research to investigate how candidates like to find job vacancies. Now, the first thing I’d say is that CV-Library are a job board. They are conducting a survey of job seekers using their site. They are going to find that these candidates use job boards. However, that aside I think the research is interesting and has some validity.
There is much talk of how recruiters (inhouse as well as agency) need to be embracing social media to attract candidates; both passive and active candidates. When you go to a conference there is a lot of talk about creating facebook groups, creating a talent pool on Twitter, getting all job vacancies on YouTube etc. I am also (far to often) hearing “are job boards dying?”.
Well, and this doesn’t surprise me, according to the research from CV-Library it appears that candidates do not perceive social networks as a highly viable means of applying for vacancies. The survey indicates job sites remain the top choice for candidates when applying for job vacancies; 53% of candidates prefer to search and apply for a vacancy directly through recognised job sites, followed by a job board service such as ‘Jobs-by-Email’ (25%), straight to recruitment agencies (12%), mobile phone apps (9%) and social networking trailing behind with 1% of the votes.
Don’t get me wrong – I know that people find jobs via social media. I absolutely believe it has a place in recruitment (and regularly share tips on how to use Twitter/Facebook, etc for recruiting). However, I’m just not surprised that many job seekers feel more confident using a job board to look for jobs.
The lesson – don’t ditch the job boards just yet!
The research is bound to be a bit skewed in favour of job boards given it’s commissioned by – a job board – but there are many good boards out there so there’s no reason why, as long as they exist and adapt that people need to flock to social networks in their droves.
In many instances what gives recruiters the impression that job boards aren’t working is when they run awful advertising, either cut & pasted job descriptions or copy full of grammatical errors like ‘Our client are looking’ and then wonder why the response is so poor. Like any advertising, recruitment needs to sell the company and the role and have some kind of allure. As long as there are recruitment consultants around who fail to grasp that very simple fact you will always hear the cry ‘job boards are dying, social media is where it’s at’. No, it’s not necessarily, some recruiters poor job ads have just migrated to a different pasture and the long term response will still be the same as it is on job boards – poor.
if you want decent candidates, run decent advertising.
I think we’re in for at least a year of surveys from Job Boards saying Social Media is not used for job hunting and surveys from Social Media companies saying the opposite.
The truth is out there somewhere but it is going to take a long time to work out what it really is.
All we can do in the meantime is hope for patience, balance and calm in the debate! Not likely though is it…..
Another factor – many job boards are changing, adding social features, and thus blurring the line between the 2 camps. But yes, job seekers will find jobs via SM and via job boards – I would, of course, argue that it is simply easier to use a decent niche job board to find the job. One man’s opinion.
Bang-on Al. The worst salesman for job boards is often, unfortunately, the quality of their advertisers.
Imagine how cheap and tacky ITV channels would look if they were filled with amateur advertising like there was in the 70’s. Great clients and great ads make any medium look better, but as long as the client is free to write their own adverts, the job boards will have to grin and bear it.
Mmm, I might write a blog about this.
Thank you Stephen. I tweeted this recently. I thought it was quite profound. Did it get retweeted? Did it heck!
“If tv advertisers cut & pasted product descriptions & put them on screen for 30 secs would you buy the product? Job ads need an allure too”
I don’t think we will see the job boards disappear, in favour of social just yet. Yes its a massively growing medium and yes a significant majority of the employment market are on Facebook, Linked In etc, but job boards still make it easy for the average job seeker.
Its also extremely easy for employers and agencies to buy adverts and ‘believe’ that they are targeting the right people. As Matt says, a good niche job board still offers access to relevant vacancies. yes the quality of copy is often poor, but that’s been the case in the 17 years I’ve been in this sector.
Remember there’s still a lot of direct employers who haven’t yet made the jump to a career website, let alone social; some are only just starting to advertise on job boards directly.
I think that as more recruiters and direct employers improve their websites, so that they can feed the social network and improve their direct candidate attraction and engage, we may see a change. How long will that take? Two, three, five years? That’s anyone’s guess at the moment.
Will be interesting to see what the NORAS survey has to say on other mediums used.
DJ
We are a way off from seriously comparing social media channels to job boards in measuring candidate attraction for the recruiter.
I recruit in Social Media and Digital – my candidate base is living in social media – yet still through 2010, Job boards were the primary source of my placements.
My overview feeling of this is: use Social Media for presence, reputation building, recommendation and referral – you’ll get great candidates through that for sure. But job board applications still fill my inbox every day at a rate 20:1 versus social media in overall applications, and probably 5:1 versus social media with actual quality applications.
Social media is another channel to source candidates. Not a replacement for job boards.