Software technology has come a long way in the last few years. Unfortunately Australian job boards are still using technologies and concepts introduced many years ago. Many things are being done today purely because they are the accepted norm and because it is easier not to change. Some things have to change however and in this three part post I will outline three things I believe job boards must address.
1. Replace third party pop up job application forms with web services.
Pop up application forms have become a
lantana-like blight on Australian job boards.
A pop up application form is a third party application form that appears when the user clicks "Apply Now".
Third party application forms are used by recruitment systems and job posting systems as a way to capture the job applications and put them directly into the client's recruitment system. Many major recruitment and job posting systems (including JobAdder) rely on this method to get applications into their systems.
Pop up application forms achieve the result, but they are often poorly formatted, intrusive, confusing, over complicated and can be blocked by browsers.
The good news is that the alternative is elegant and quite simple. The way this process should work is that the job board should capture the job application through their own standard application form and then make those applications available to the client's (approved) recruitment system via web services.
Clearly there need to be strong approval and security measures in place but this is not difficult to do.
There are 2 companies we have worked with recently that have candidate related web services in place or are developing them.
Bond Adapt allows third party systems such as job uploaders to submit job applications directly into their system on a client's behalf. The system is well documented, straight forward to implement and works well.
Jobserve Australia is working to implement web services so that they can capture job applications natively and then make them available to the client's recruitment systems.
I strongly encourage all job board owners to be looking closely at implementing job application related web services and eliminating third party pop up windows. The end result will be more efficient third party integrations, reduced application drop outs, increased user retention and an improved job seeker user experience.
