Redefining the Job Search Engine
What are job search engines doing for your organization?
The number of job search engines has exploded in the past decade. Increased efficiency, streamlined interfaces and vast amounts of listings have pushed the medium into the forefront.
Employers are focusing their attention on engines that utilize cutting edge ways of posting jobs and locating applicants. As a result, job search engine companies are changing the rules of the game.
A recent innovation in connecting employers to qualified employees is the Vertical Job Search Engine.
Vertical job searching, a departure from traditional search engines, offers its users the ability to locate jobs from numerous online resources. This allows employers to tap into a far wider pool of applicants. One such search engine, Indeed.com, advertises that it “gives job seekers free access to millions of employment opportunities from thousands of websites.” Over 1500 sources, including websites like Monster.com, are used to locate jobs.
Jobster.com, another vertical job search site, has an aggressive and unique approach to the job search engine. In addition to vertical job searching, Jobster.com also allows individuals to “explore what people are saying about their companies, and meet the folks who could be your future coworkers,” according to their website.
A spokesperson for Jobster explains the distinctive features that set their search engine apart:
“The search engine is just one feature that Jobster offers. While the search engine pulls similar relevant jobs as the competition, it is not a differentiator at this time. Some of our differentiators are: social networking ability, the ability to be referred into a job, and the ability to create a professional profile that will get you great results on a google search.”
“A 200% increase in site visits [has occurred] since the start of 2006,” added the spokesperson.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is another major component to the services offered by some job search engines. SEO works to achieve a higher ranking for employers on websites like Google.com. More importantly, employers can attract more job searchers to the employer's website.
In a recent interview with PR Newswire, Jobster’s President of Employer Services said, “Corporate career websites are an incredibly valuable resource for employers. Yet most companies have trouble converting site visitors into applicants, losing up to 95 percent of their website traffic.”
An employer can hire the services of Jobster to improve SEO and appear higher in Google searches. Additionally, Jobster will improve the appearance of firms' career websites to attract qualified employees.
Despite growing innovations in job search engines, employers still struggle in locating qualified candidates. A recent survey of hiring activities conducted by Careerbuilder.com found that the amount of time to fill a position is steadily increasing:
- 22% of hiring managers say that it can take up to 2 months
- 11% spend two to three months
- 10% spend over three months
To combat the long recruitment period, managers have been steadily shifting to the use of online resources to find job applicants. Nearly one third of hiring managers currently use online resources to find applicants, while only 23% use newspaper classified ads.
According to a survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2003, 19.3% of those looking for positions in management/professional careers used the Internet to search for a job. Internet job search rates were highest for people in ages ranging from 20 to 24.
Since 1996, online job sites have grown from approximately 1,000 to well over 30,000 in 2006. The growth will likely continue considering the dramatic increase in hiring activity on the Internet in recent years.