What is the online recruitment market worth today?

The second largest market in terms of growth are professional networks such as LinkedIn, Viadeo, Xing and odnoklassniki.ru. However, the number of players in this field is much more limited, and recruitment is not their only activity, however LinkedIn receives over half of its revenue from recruitment activity. Their business model allows for both BtoC and BtoB services. This site has been growing rapidly for the past few years and is projected to keep doing so.

Aggregators and non-specialised recruitment websites have also increased their shares in the market. Google, Indeed and to a limited extent Facebook control this section of the market. Since only online recruitment websites offer specific key features, these alternative sites often result in the job adverts not being indexed properly.

Nonetheless many businesses have developed attractive and comprehensive career sites. Similar to marketing professionals, recruiters work hard to promote their corporate job sites.

When recruiters started to use the Internet for sourcing employees in the late 90’s, they were eager to speed up the process and reach more candidates. Recruitment professionals could not imagine back then how many options our currently diversified and complex online recruitment market would bring.

Nowadays recruiting implies posting job offers online. Depending on the job board you are using, job offers can be live within minutes: some employment websites check content and categorization manually for each vacancy while others have automatic processes.

When your job advertisement does not drive enough relevant applications, try and check categorization with every single criteria you have selected. This is of paramount importance, especially if you are recruiting abroad in a market you don’t know or a language you don’t understand. In a case like this, the customer service is your greatest ally.

If you receive too many applications, again the problem could be the criteria selected is probably too broad

A secure way to make sure you receive relevant profiles for your vacancies is to tap into a CV database. Today, Most employment websites offer a service like this but accessing it may include an additional fee.

Bear in mind that searching through CV databases is only the beginning of the recruitment process. Finding top talent is one thing, but securing hires is another. Recruiting means researching, but it also means marketing: you need to attract and retain the perfect fit for a position.

Has no one answered your job listing, even though the categorization has been carefully done? Has no one answered your email or returned your calls? If the job site provides statistics, try to see where the applicants lost interest and left. If the job seekers gave up after reading your job description, it’s probably not attractive enough. Also make sure your job ad can be easily found and accessed. Your job offer has to be easy to read, indeed many candidates stop reading an advert because it is not well written; use text boxes, header, add your logo, and make sure the advert is not too long. Highlighting monetary compensation and other benefits can also be benefitial. Make it easy for candidates and keep the application process simple; provide an email address or redirect them to your career site.

If candidates do not even read your job ads, that means they have probably read your competitors’ instead. Start acting like your colleagues at the marketing department: get the proper budget for your communications strategy and take action (recruitment events, employer branding, candidate experience, online and mobile recruiting etc.). The more profiles you need to hire every year, the more attractive and popular your employer brand needs to be.