By Gerry Crispin, CAREERXROADS 2000
Despite some marketing pundits' views that internet consumers can't
discriminate good sites from poor ones, Mark Mehler and I are encountering
more and more well informed job seekers among the audiences we speak to as
we wander about. Their "discriminating palate" for a well designed job area
is improving and, as they encounter sites with interactive capability, ease
of use and community building features, they are hungering for more. While
researching Careerxroads 2000 we took a quick look at every company site
listed in Fortune magazine's annual list and found very few whose staffing
area could pass muster. (As a trivia note, we found only 381 of the 500 with
a staffing page and 50 did not have a web site!).
Here are three elements that resonate well with job seekers:
- Refer a Friend: Convenience is the key. When a job seeker looks at the
text of your opening and realizes it isn't on target, is there an
alternative to moving on or is there a convenient button at hand other than
"apply"? A "refer a friend" button located within reach of each position is
a start. If clicking the button opens an e-mail message with the job
description automatically inserted along with a header "Thought you might be
interested in this...", you'll be rounding third and some incentive that
captures the email, interests and provides you with an ability to thank the
referral party (and use them again) is a home run every time. Sites that
outsource a referral capability to third parties without a customized
feature described above and no acknowledgement may be doing more damage than
they can imagine. First, it sends an impersonal message and more
importantly, several of these services capture the e-mails for their own
uses and resale.
- Future Orientation: What conclusions would you draw from a web site that
openly describes its business plans for growth and links the text directly
to possible future openings by skill and location? Inviting visitors to
provide their e-mail address and their indication of interest in being
informed about specifc openings as they are approved will convert a much
higher percentage of passive job seekers. Promising to inform those who
express an interest within hours of the openings approval...and then doing
it differentiates the "reactive" recruitment approaches from a "planned"
employment processes. Corporations with this capability are reaping the
benefits of just-in-time recruiting at lower cost.
- Interactive Self-Assessment Tools: Contrary to some surveys that suggest
job seekers are not into "screening," we believe they are desperate for
tools that help them determine their "fit" in an organization. The key is
THEY want the results. One way "tests" (and we include standard applications
with little or no feedback in this group) are, we believe, a long-term
loser. Self-screening tools can help reduce the problem of having to manage
large volumes of data from less qualified candidates and help target stars.
Interesting examples range from TI's "Fit Check" to Ernst & Young's
"StrategEY". (Pay particular note to the fact that Ernst & Young discloses
exactly what they do with the data).
Our comments above are a just a few of the features that will eventually
comprise an employer's fully integrated employment process. More employers
everyday are realizing that designing their online staffing site to handle
most candidate transactions is the route to success.
One issue we would like to hear about from you is the subject of internet
access for people with disabilities. We are actively interviewing
individuals and companies, cataloguing benchmarks and resources and, we plan
to share as much as possible later this year.
Gerry Crispin, SPHR & Mark Mehler
CAREERXROADS 2000
"Where Talent and Opportunity Connect on the Internet"
shakerad@pipeline.com,
mmc@careerxroads.com
http://www.careerxroads.com
732-432-9172 or 732-514-4638
Education * Corporate Learning * Consulting
