A recent
Hudson survey of job seeker opinions is getting plenty of
coverage around town today. You can read a detailed breakdown of the study
here on Shortlist but there are a couple of very interesting points that I wanted to comment on..
.
- Job Seekers want more details in job ads.
"It showed a growing frustration with job ads among candidates, with 45%
of respondents saying they lacked sufficient detail for the candidate
to make a decision. This included vague descriptions of roles, omitting
the employer's name and lack of salary information."
There are only 3 reasons I can think of that might explain why a recruiter wouldn't write a detailed, descriptive job ad. (i) You don't know much about the job (ii) you are too lazy to spend the extra 5 minutes (iii) you are being driven by unreasonable KPIs that don't give you the time you need to write a good ad.
If you are guilty of (i) or (ii) then the good news is you can easily turn this around. You will make more placements and more money by spending the time to understand your roles and write detailed ads.
If your problem is (iii) then go and find yourself a new job. There are plenty of them going..
- Your web site is critical to your success. "The research showed that more than half of all candidates (55%) now go
directly to a company's website during their jobsearch process."
Intuitively you would expect that people check out your web site when they are considering working for you or using your agency, but did you realise it was more than half? These findings should spur all recruiters and employers to re-examine their web sites. What does your web site say about you? Would you work for you based on your web site?
- Poorly written job ads are harming your future chances with today's passive candidates. "Nine out of 10 (88%) candidates used the major job boards as a research
channel during their job search process, and 83% also used newspapers."
When writing your job ads bear in mind that job seekers and future job seekers are using your ads to research the job market. In so doing they are forming opinions about you.
- Niche job boards are vital. "54% of candidates used specialist industry job search sites as a research channel."
Are you using specialist niche job sites to advertise your roles? This report proves that the global move to specialist job sites is alive and well in Australia. There are some great specialist job sites in Australia and you owe it to yourself to try them.
How do you go on these 4 points?
