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.

New Jobs on Search.co.uk – Update

Welcome to our first blog update highlighting new client job adverts posted onto Search.co.uk/jobs this week.

In line with our feeling of general optimism about the employment market, we are also seeing an increase in vacancy advertising volume and clients using Search.co.uk/jobs, with us reaching a record number of vacancies advertised in the past week at over 5,000!

Some interesting new job vacancies added this week include a Manager for Inverness’ new ‘Business Improvement District’ (BID), to work closely with local business owners to lead the development of Inverness City Centre – a fantastic opportunity for a strong business manager with a passion for developing their home city!

The University for the Highlands, UHI, are also advertising new job vacancies in their communications and Executive teams, for a Communications Assistant, Programme Management Officer and a Programme Management Administration Manager. These are alongside hundreds of other jobs advertised across the Highlands and northern Scotland on Search.co.uk/jobs and our sister site, Hijobs.co.uk.

RED Driving Schools are looking for new Driving Instructors to joins them across Scotland and the north west of England. They offer great training and once you have qualified you can go on to earn up to £600 per week! (I’ll avoid the ‘get motoring’ type jokes…..oops, too late).

Along with hundreds of other new job vacancies posted this week, there are some Insurance and Banking Team Manager roles with a major new employer about to launch into Glasgow and Newcastle. If you have experience in Call & Contact centres and Banking or Insurance, these roles really do offer an unrivalled opportunity to get in at ground level and help lead the development of a hugely exciting new bank in the UK. Just look for the ‘New.Different.Better’ branding on the site or look under ‘Banking Jobs’ or ‘Financial Services Jobs’ to find out more.

Hundreds of more new jobs will be on Search.co.uk/jobs in the next week so happy job hunting!

Jobs in Scotland – Banking on the Public Sector

Scotland’s Chief Statistician recently published an update on Public Sector Employment in Scotland and a quick review of the main points certainly makes interesting reading. The period of the research covers up to the end of ‘Q1 2009’.

Did you know that the public sector in Scotland accounts for 24.9% of all jobs in Scotland! An increase from 22.6% from as recently as Q1 2008. That’s a staggering 623,300 Scots working in the public sector.

Of this total, 81.7% of them work for public bodies which are under the control of the Scottish Government (the rest are under the control of the UK government). So, there’s no doubt who Scotland’s biggest employer is.

A key difference that’s played a part in this recent increase, relates to the massive upheaval in Scotland’s banking and financial sector. In effect, all those people working for RBS and LloydsTSB in Scotland now work for ‘public corporations’ – as we are their biggest shareholder. Hence, those same people now work in the ‘public sector’, according to government statistics. That’s around 44,000 new ‘public sector’ bankers, to you and me.

This continuing dominance of the public sector in Scotland’s economy also illustrates just how important the current decisions being made about investment in the public sector and future predictions of doom regarding job cuts across national and local government, really are.

However, if you’re looking for a job in Scotland in the current market – whether you’re in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen or Wick – with the current state of the ‘private sector’, the pull of the public sector is now stronger than ever.

Of course, you can view all local government jobs by simply clicking onto ‘search.co.uk/jobs’.