---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 06:55:55 -0400 From: ahusselbee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "INTERNET:[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Recruitment on the Web I'm pleased that the "no jobs" theme has turned into "recruitment on the web". Both Craig Pickup and Michael Saunby have made pertinent observations on the current State of the Art. I did spend a certain time following up on web based jobsites as part of a recent project. The study criteria used were I.T. jobs in English and French. I.T. because this is the cutting edge of all internet recruitment currently and English and French because of my language limitations. I did pick-up on call centre type jobs as well although I didn't specifically target these. There is a general tendency across Europe and the States for trade press magazines to publish their job ads on the web as well as the National press. Amongst the I.T. trade press this is approaching 100%. Certain representative institutions are also advertising jobs (such as the IEE who represent over 130 000 engineers across Europe)and , of course, companies especially the I.T. suppliers themselves.. We shouldn't forget candidate research which is carried out through using the relevant usenet newsgroups although this is not part of the subject and perhaps we can discuss this in another "chain".. I haven't done any research on the Regional press nor on other language web sites. The driving factors are the pro-active presence of intermediaries(third parties), reduced "time to market" , the reduced cost, the improved search techniques and the increasing number of people who have internet access. This gives a wide variety in quality and success rates. Just to give an example, Microsoft are currently recruiting over 80 % of their intake via email applications (States) which reduces to over 40% here in Europe . I wasn't able to obtain the percentage of applicants applying directly from the web based advertising. These are ball park figures which are not quotable as regards the source and, of course, depend on the context which Michael mentioned( duplicate sends from mail, fax and email likely).. However, it is perfectly clear that Microsoft view the website as a more dynamic advertising medium which, in no way will replace the classic advertising channels. Why? Simply because job advertising is also company advertising and everybody reads the trade press and the National press (when they have the time 8-)) . When applying the same search techniques to other job types (librarian) the number of jobs advertised online falls dramatically however and , I imagine , so does the success rate of companies using this search medium. Who is advertising? Well, it certainly isn't the HR department of the larger companies as most IT recruitment passes through the I.T. department , . Smaller companies tend towards subcontracting the candidate search requirement anyway and third parties(agencies) are far more dynamic in this area than the companies themselves. What are the trends? With the availability of search engines which can be site implemented (such as Excite) it can be anticipated that more and more trade press sites will have reasonable facilities for job search. It can also be anticipated that the job ads that are on company websites will be reproduced on corresponding trade websites. It can also be anticipated that current job advertising budgets will be reduced if companies are able to recruit personnel via more economic channels than trade magazine (etc) advertising if these budgets are dissociated from the general advertising budget of the company. However, there are limitations to the current size of these sites. Try using the monster board ( http://www.monster.com ) . Also Jobserve seems to have reached an optimum size with ads now lasting only five days and certain search parameters returning over 1250 contract/permanent jobs. Although looking for a job/contract via web and usenet advertising cannot be classified as teleworking, it is telesearching and teleadvertising which will lead to more awareness of the possibilities of working at a distance. It is here, in the web based job/contract advertising, that an effort may be made to encourage employers(agencies?) to be more open to off-site working.I still don't think that there is any point in setting up an exclusive website where only teleworked jobs are available unless this is first of all a trade based website such as the programming jobs website in the States. OBTW on another point concerning the I.T. recruitment agencies and contract or freelance work , it is interesting to note that this is very much an anglo saxon phenomenon . I was not able to determine whether the concept of I.T. agencies (who essentially "recruit" contractors or freelancers) exists in other European countries, and to what extent they exist (market size, number of companies, number of freelancers). For example, in France, all agency type work is covered by the existing infrastructure of SSII (societe de service en ingenerie informatique) which correspond to the systems houses on the UK market.. There are now two websites for "independants" (freelancers) although of limited success due probably to the pricing strategyand marketing aims, but there is no specialised freelance agency activity. Alan Husselbee email [EMAIL PROTECTED] PS I have unfortunately missed some very interesting developments over the last two weeks. My hard disk blew up (not due to etwforum overload). 8-)) # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # Before posting to this list please look at the list rules: http://www.eto.org.uk/discuss/rules.htm # - # - # - # - # - # - # - # - # - # To leave the list, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] saying leave etw-forum as the first line of your message (*not* as the subject). # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
