Do Irish people really search for jobs on job-sites any more? Well here are the official stats:
- Google.ie
- Google.com
- YouTube
- Yahoo!
- Wikipedia
- Windows Live
- Blogger.com
In looking at these official rankings, one has to seriously ask: when I post a job to a job-site, will people actually read it? Do Irish people, with over 430,000 on the live register (14%) truly look for jobs on job boards? Sadly, the answer seems to be no. It seems more people watch webinars than look for jobs on paid-for job-boards, as GoToMeeting.com ranks above all but 4 of the job boards listed. (Is that all you recruiters watching our webinars then?!)
So where do they start looking? They may begin to look on job boards, and then realise that each of these are filled with multiple agencies representing exactly the same job specs. They then send their CV to the agencies (probably between 3 and 5), and then they stop looking on traditional job sites. These applicants are typically very active job seekers, and some will apply for every role in their field (and even some way out of their league – you know the ones, I’m sure you’ve had loads of them!). This means greater amounts of Recruiters’ time is spent filtering through useless CV’s, and not on finding the perfect candidate.
To interpret these statistics, we have to look at the game-changing psychology of job hunting. People use the internet more and more to do their research. Irish people are joining LinkedIn in droves (Ireland has the third highest penetration of the working population on LinkedIn in the world), and are finding jobs using social networks. Many semi-active job seekers will research job openings but never apply, choosing to research what they’re worth and only becoming an active job-seeker once they realise there are better offers out there.
Active job-seekers are applying directly to their desired companies too, finding their careers sites and submitting their CV’s. This directly threatens the viability of Recruitment agencies. The once steady flow of quality active applicants for roles is drying up, and the ones that are applying aren’t going to be the ones accepted by your client.
This is where Recruiters in Ireland have to take a step up and realise that their industry is changing. The roles are getting harder to fill, and your clients ever more dissatisfied. Posting the same job spec to every job board in the land and pray that the right-enough candidate sees it, unfortunately won’t cut the mustard any more.
If you want to learn how to source the best candidates for even your most difficult-to-fill roles, and stop wasting money advertising on job boards with no return, then you should attend the Blue Belt in Internet Recruitment course. You’ll learn how to find the candidates that tick every box of your client’s criteria, you will find not just active candidates but passive ones as well. You’ll get to grips with the changing dynamics of Recruiting in Ireland today and ensure that you don’t just find your candidates jobs, but keep yours too. Click here for more information on the course.
Are you surprised that even Bebo gets more hits per month than most job boards? Tell me, who do you know that uses Bebo as a social network these days? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!