A brave new world in 2008?

2007 was the year of social networking, and such websites show no sign of receding in the recruitment sector in the next 12 months.  But what else can we expect to see maing the hi-tech headlines in 2008? Sue Weekes spoke to those whose livelihood depends on living near the cutting edge

Andrew Wilkinson, chief executive, TMP Worldwide (recruitment and communications agency)
It is tempting when considering digital trends to only look at what's new and exciting. But for many organisations, the challenges of the future are to conquer some of the basics. Part of this also means continuous assessment. Organisations which are not conducting an annual review of the quality and functionality of their digital recruitment communications could likely find themselves going backwards as technology overtakes them and leaner, smarter companies come to the fore. Visibility continues to be key and this means concentrating on search engine optimisation and marketing. Alongside this there will be significant developments in optimising the candidate experience. Companies such as HSBC are leading the way and have segmented their careers website into microsites, so that a commercial manager has a very different experience to a candidate who applies to work in a contact centre. With the advent of Web 3.0, this type of personalisation will be taken to a different level. Social networking sites are in the news, but whether it is right to conduct business through such social media is dividing the market. Virtual worlds, such as Second Life, provide an emerging opportunity. Clients will benefit from engaging with applicants in this way and also through the publicity that comes from being first-to-market. Likewise, online video games and mobile marketing are all new avenues to explore where early movers will gain the maximum recognition. Companies, however, are still nervous and often reticent to push the boundaries. They might summon up the courage and try something different for it to fail and then they get scared. If there is anything to learn about future technology — once bitten, twice shy is not something that you can be in digital recruitment communications.

Nick Goldstein, sales and marketing director, Jobtonic (online referral and reward company)
One of the key trends will be mobile. The increasing sophistication and penetration of 3G handsets will make it much easier for people to refer jobs to friends. We're already seeing developments such as Hutchinson 3 teaming up with Skype to offer Skype-to-Skype calls on mobiles. Technology will emerge that will allow us to extend our reach when it comes to referring jobs via a mobile handset to not just one person but several degrees more and, potentially, thousands of people. All of this activity is going to open up huge opportunities for recruiters. The use of social networks in recruitment will continue apace to target passive candidates but I'm not just talking about the likes of Facebook but also personal social networks. The 'widgetisation' [greater use of widgets] of the web will continue and we'll see more use of podcasting and video from recruiters. It's not just about posting job ads any more but selling your brand. I think those job boards, which I would term Web 1.0 boards, will also start to move into the social media space. We'll see more job boards embed technology such as skills matching capabilities into them and overall we'll see more sophisticated targeting to get the most relevant jobs in front of the most relevant eyeballs.

Bruce Stander, managing director, Optimal Internet (e-recruitment specialist and managed service provider)
Many agencies are going to be asking themselves how they can make technology work harder for them. The availability of more intelligent statistical data shows what sort of a return they are getting from their online systems. In a bid to be more competitive, alongside factors like the credit crunch we may face in 2008, they will have to be more careful with their budgets when it comes to online spend. Online solutions must focus on cost-effective coverage, targeted results and clear returns on investment for the recruiter. We see the need for improved candidate experience on websites being an area of particular focus. Creating a more interactive experience for them is key to attract, retain and convert candidates in a highly competitive market. Live help systems, for instance, that pop up when a candidate visits the site, can help to establish initial contact with them. It's a case of tying technology in to give an enhanced user experience, but also adding value for the recruiter. Come 2009 we could be looking at a radically different recruiting landscape, but in 2008, above all else, it is vital that technology delivers what it says it can. It's all about being on the cutting edge of technological developments but, crucially, it is also about being able to apply these to the benefit of both the client and candidate — it comes back to cost versus return again.

Chris Forman, chief executive, AIRS (human capital solutions provider)
With applicant tracking offerings maturing in the UK and North America markets, recruiting technology innovation is starting to focus on the realm of candidate sourcing. From eHarmony-style job search/matching sites that purport to offer a next-generation job board to candidate sourcing systems and social networks like AIRS SourcePoint, ZoomInfo or LinkedIn, the focus of venture capital, new market entrants and new releases from existing players is candidate sourcing. The smart recruiting executive, however, will be sure to balance these new tools with the ability of their recruiting organisations to understand and deploy these new technologies. In many organisations, posting is synonymous with sourcing. If that is the case in your organisation, be sure to lay a solid groundwork of training, performance measurement and clear workflow processes before introducing these new and extremely powerful capabilities.

Colin Minto, director, Bornto (recruiting technology specialist)
Next year will be a year of developments in existing recruiting technology and the continuing emergence of new innovations. With regard to existing technologies, I believe job boards will concentrate on providing additional support to the end-user recruiter with tools to increase the relevancy of the candidates they provide. This, of course, could lead to cost increases, but I am certain most recruiters and employers prefer quality over quantity. Identity fraud is a huge topic and concern at present, so CV databases will introduce further mechanisms to secure the personal details of registered job seekers. The multi-posters, led by Broadbean, will enable recruiters and employers to benchmark their return on investment, so better decisions can be made as to which job boards to use. Applicant tracking system (ATS) vendors will continue to add value to the direct employer recruitment process and break records in terms of the amount of employers signing up to use their solutions, which should be monitored closely by recruiters. I foresee issues with social networking platforms in terms of their recruitment aspirations because people engage with these platforms for social reasons and there have already been reports of dissatisfaction that users are now becoming targets to various advertisers. A simple solution, however, exists, and that is for the operators to seek opt-in and provide advertisers once again with quality not quantity. I say this to many people in the industry. We live in world without technological boundaries where any potential recruiting technology that could be dreamed up probably exists and in the 5-10% of times it doesn't, I guarantee the component parts do and it is purely a function of time and money before they are launched.

Tim Richards, managing director, Bond International Software (human capital software provider)
The use of Web 2.0 and social networking sites will continue to impact recruitment although they will have their up and downsides. As an employer, I can perform an internet search and find far more people than I would by simply searching on a job board. I can also check out a potential candidate's personal profile, see who their friends are and even check out what they do at the weekend. It is at this point I may start to discriminate whereas in the past, I would have taken people purely on merit. So is this discrimination actually stopping me from finding good people or is it helping me weed out the bad ones? Next year may reveal the answer. When it comes to recruitment systems, it is also getting easier for us to integrate with and perform skills searches across the likes of Facebook and Bebo. We'll see the use of more intelligent searching to take the burden away from the recruiter of having to make detailed criteria-based searches. Advanced searching techniques will also be used to find talent outside of core databases. Finally, a major development in the market will be dashboarding, providing an interactive, tailored and real-time summary of all aspects of the recruitment campaign, including information on vacancies, agency fees and return on investment (ROI). Making such a facility more widely accessible will help manage recruitment and, importantly, measure it more effectively.

Armando Ruffini, chief executive, Zubka (online referral and reward company)
Professional and social networks are going to become increasingly important for accessing people. Job boards only provide access to those who are actively looking for a job. Social and professional networks provide access to the passive candidates and it is going to be all about distributing jobs to candidates via these networks. So we're going to see more distribution models with widgets used to help get the jobs out there. Facebook opened up its platform earlier this year and we've just seen the launch of OpenSocial. Developers can now write applications for sites such as LinkedIn and this opening up of the networks will provide powerful tools for recruiters. Job boards haven't really evolved much since they launched and they encouraged a spray-and-pray approach with people sending CVs out indiscriminately. We're moving away from this and social and professional networks will allow recruiters to build a talent pool of candidates who more closely fit their criteria — that talent pool will also be live and on-demand. Internal referral systems are also going to be a more-used channel to access candidates.

CommentsPost a comment

Specifically for 2008: if your jobs are not searchable within Google, Yahoo!, and the other major search engines you're missing over 35 million searches a month (source: http://www.jobs2web.com/job-optimization/jobs2web-statistics). Just as search engines are the top source of inbound candidates for job boards, so should they be for employers. Peter Brasket co-founder HotGigs, Inc./Jobs2Web.com
Peter Brasket 14 Dec 2007

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