From a recruiters’ point of view, most recruitment strategies in this day and age appear to be diverse – generally using a mix of both job boards and social investment. But in recent years, this mix has shifted in favour of social networking, with recruiters spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on sites such as LinkedIn. But with candidates shunning LinkedIn and continuing to prefer job boards when it comes to contacting and being contacted by recruiters, is this really the best investment?
Recruiters are acutely aware of the importance of constantly reviewing spend and which sources are currently providing the best return in terms of both the quality and quantity of candidates. At present, LinkedIn is the method of choice. But ask candidates which platform they most prefer to use and a disparity emerges. Obviously this raises the possibility that there are many candidates out there who are being missed.
The results are in
This was highlighted in the survey we published last month, where the findings revealed that on a national scale, less than a quarter said they would prefer to be contacted by recruiters via LinkedIn. The research of 1,000 people actively seeking a new job, commissioned by Laudale, a specialist recruitment and interim consulting business, dispelled the myth that LinkedIn has completely revolutionised the recruitment landscape.
When asked ‘how did you get your current/last role?’ an astonishing 58% said they used job boards whereas just 28% said they used social media platforms to land their most recent job role. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo were used by 43% of retail professionals and 22% relied on specialist recruitment agencies to help them land their current position. A further 15% said they went direct to a company’s website and 8% said they used local or national newspapers.
Where the candidates are…
In regards to the methods generally used most by retail professionals when researching a new job, the results again don’t fare too well for social media – just 10% said this is their preferred platform which they use to research new jobs. In stark contrast, almost half of respondents (47%) said they use job boards and 19% said they rely on search engines.
..and where they aren’t
Some of the most intriguing figures, however, came when respondents were asked to highlight the platforms they use the least. In this case, local and national newspapers were given the unfortunate honour of leading this particular category with 38% of respondents citing this as the least popular choice for searching for a new job.
As for social media? 18%. That’s right: 18% of active retail professionals said social media was the method they use the least when searching for a new job. Compare that to job boards – 0%. Correct. Not one respondent of the survey stated that job boards were the method they used the least; dispelling another myth – that job boards are dead.
And the future?
It is clear that social media has and will continue to revolutionise access to passive talent. A quick Google search for the phrase “job boards are dead” results in around 30k exact hits – which seems to reinforce the prevailing sentiment.
But why, exactly, does everyone seem so keen to write the obituaries for the entire job board category? It is clear that for anyone suggesting that job boards are dead should think again. Aggregators such as Indeed will let you set up email alerts based on location, job title or keyword and salary range, delivered daily to your inbox from virtually all job boards.
Nothing could be simpler than applying for a vacancy via a job board. You can browse thousands of great opportunities from the comfort of your home. When you spot a good match, it's just a case of sending off your CV. However, competition for jobs is fierce. Employers are often drowning in CVs and have little time to read each one in detail. Therefore, candidates need to make sure they are doing everything possible to ensure theirs makes the cut.
So, if you believe job boards are dead, take a look at these statistics and think again. Take a closer look at how job boards are evolving, just as social media is, to continue to meet the needs of candidates and companies alike.
