Search.co.uk calls for improved treatment of job seekers

Leading online jobs advertising website Search.co.uk says the online recruitment procedures of many organisations are failing to treat job applicants with enough respect.

“A group of Scottish job seekers told me recently that they don’t expect a response any more when they apply for job vacancies advertised on most job advertising websites and most of their past applications weren’t even acknowledged. In fact, on average only 1 in 5 of recent online job applications resulted in any type of response.

That is a pretty sad indictment of those employer advertisers and their attitude to applicants. There is no excuse for not acknowledging job applications and keeping applicants informed at the key stages of the recruitment process,” says Peter Gillespie, Managing Director of Search.co.uk.

”With all the recent discussion about employer branding, it makes even less sense to create a group of disaffected applicants with a poor impression of your process and your regard for their effort in applying to them. People place more value on what employers do rather than what they say, and so ultimately employers get the reputation they deserve.”

“There’s no excuse as current online response management tools mean it can be as easy as clicking a button for an employer to acknowledge and respond appropriately to an application. So, why don’t more employers do it?

We’ve built openness, ease of use and transparency into all our own online response management processes for advertisers on Search.co.uk. To do otherwise is unfair on job seekers and reflects badly on the employers.”

Gillespie says that most organisations will tell you that their employees are their most important asset. If that’s the case, shouldn’t they be treated accordingly right from the very start?

“Job descriptions in many advertisements are also poorly worded. This leads both to applications from people who are not appropriate for vacancies and to well-qualified candidates deciding not to apply because they don’t understand the job requirements,” says Gillespie.

He recognises that some of the problems arise from the current strain on HR departments which are often being squeezed at the same time as they have additional pressure arising from cutbacks in other areas of the business. Bad recruitment procedures, however, can only add to the strain on an organisation.

In the current economic climate ‘running lean’ is the secret of success. That means every employee and, therefore, every new recruit has to have not just the capability and skills but the motivation to maximise their performance within the organisation.

Recruitment processes should focus on more than just simple selection. They should be seen as a way to communicate with candidates.

Every job applicant should know:

* Any information they provide is kept secure and confidential.

* What will happen next in the recruitment process.

* When they will learn the outcome.

* What the outcome is.

Search.co.uk has these steps built in to their online service for advertisers so every job seeker can be saved, initially assessed, acknowledged and responded to with a couple of ‘clicks’. There is no reason why other organisations should not offer the same, Gillespie explains.

“Quite apart from any poor experiences suffered by job applicants to any job vacancy being bad for an organisation’s reputation, it can start any subsequent new employees off on the wrong foot.

“Organisations which follow best practice, treating future potential employees fairly, will ultimately benefit from a more loyal and committed future workforce. And, they’ll enhance rather than damage that much talked about ‘employer brand’ and make it easier to attract future talent. That is the simple message we want to communicate,” concludes Gillespie.

Search.co.uk pioneers recruitment model of the future

For years employers had been paying for job adverts that were ineffective. Then Search.co.uk came along and shook up the online recruitment market with revolutionary ‘pay per response’ billing. Now others are finally following suit.

“Our model was designed to answer one simple question: Why should employers pay for job advertising unless it can be shown to attract genuine high-quality potential recruits?” says Peter Gillespie, Managing Director of Search.co.uk.

“We launched Search.co.uk because we believed job seekers weren’t receiving the best service possible and employers were frequently getting poor value for money from their campaigns. Recruitment was clearly lagging behind other forms of advertising.”

When selling products companies used to complain that only perhaps 10-50 per cent of their advertising was effective. What they couldn’t tell was which was the 10 per cent that worked and which was the 50 – 90 per cent that represented money down the drain.

Then the internet changed everything. ‘Pay per click’ epitomised by Google’s AdWords has become the norm. Companies now don’t pay for advertisements, but for results. The return on investment is measurable in terms of the customers who come to their sites and make purchases.

But, although recruiters embraced the internet quickly and wholeheartedly, job advertising charges stayed firmly stuck in the bygone age of print. Companies were expected to pay every time an advertisement appeared even if it didn’t produce a single genuine job applicant.

That was the case until Search.co.uk revolutionised the face of online recruitment with pay per response advertising. Employers are only charged for real, high-quality applicants. Advertisements are effectively free.

As Search.co.uk’s competitors have found out, this model is not as simple to set up as it might seem. Given the current state of the job market, for instance, generating large numbers of responses is often not too difficult. Many of those candidates, however, will not be appropriate for the position advertised.

To avoid employers having to pay for unsuitable applicants, search.co.uk developed a collection of sophisticated built-in online tools that guarantee candidates will be appropriate for the role. It also allows employers to put a cap on the number of applicants so they only have to pay for the first 20 even if they receive 100 responses.

In addition, with old-fashioned charging, companies had to pay every week or every month for advertising if they wanted to maintain a recruitment campaign. With Search.co.uk there’s no time limit. It doesn’t cost a penny to keep on advertising.

“It’s obvious to us that pay per response offers the best deal for job seekers and recruiters. So we’re delighted to see some of our competitors are beginning to provide something similar although they don’t all match our guarantees on quality,” concludes Gillespie.

Real Radio launches Scottish jobs service powered by search.co.uk

Scotland’s number one commercial radio station recently teamed up with the country’s leading jobs website search.co.uk to launch a dynamic new recruitment service for listeners.

Scotland’s number one commercial radio station recently teamed up with the country’s leading jobs website search.co.uk to launch a dynamic new recruitment service for listeners.

Initially around 1500 Scottish jobs were listed on Real Radio Scotland’s website and the new service has been promoted online and on-air on Real Radio, part of Guardian Media Group (GMG).

Regional managing director of GMG Radio Scotland and the north east Billy Anderson says the partnership with search.co.uk has allowed the station to create an “instant jobs resource” for listeners. It means we can add to what we already offer to include: “first-class career vacancies across the whole spectrum of the Scottish population that we serve”.

Real Radio Scotland broadcasts across the densely populated Central Belt including the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow where it is now the most popular station. It has been one of the great growth stories of commercial radio in recent years.

Peter Gillespie, managing director of Search.co.uk, says the new recruitment service perfectly illustrates the benefits of collaboration, for both parties: “We’re delighted bring our expertise and thousands of client job vacancies to this partnership with Scotland’s most successful commercial radio station. This collaboration provides an innovative way of providing listeners with a new added-value service, providing access to high-quality job vacancies across Scotland.”

These are offered through the Real Jobs website, at www.realradio.co.uk/jobs. There are over 1,000 Scottish vacancies across a very wide spectrum of industries, services and the public sector, from relief janitor to finance director and almost everything in between.

Gillespie says the partnership between Search.co.uk and Real Radio Scotland shows the way that what were single-media businesses can take advantage of their evolution into fully-fledged multimedia organisations: “Real Radio Scotland the broadcaster cannot be separated from Real Radio Scotland the website. The audience expects the highest quality from both.

“Our recruitment platform provides them with great functionality and user experience and our employer advertisers benefit from access to an additional pool of skilled local talent. Everybody wins.

“Other beneficiaries could be the people who listen to Real Radio Scotland through the website’s streaming service because they are outside the transmission area. Many of those will be homesick, but the Real Jobs service could put them just a click away from a paid return to the Central Belt.”