SimplyHired Heads Downunder

Those of us in the online recruitment industry have been waiting the arrival of a major global player in the jobs aggregation space into Australia.

Simply Hired the Mountain View, CA-based jobs service has made the plunge. Not simply stopping with Australia they have also launched:

Canada (www.SimplyHired.ca), the United Kingdom (www.SimplyHired.co.uk), Australia (www.SimplyHired.com.au) and India (www.SimplyHired.co.in).

The aggregation market has seen a lot of small fish come and go, resulting in its general lack of success.  The idea’s a good one, though, and perhaps a larger player will be able to support this enterprise better than a smaller one.  The reason for my hypothesis is simply centered on the financial backing a bigger enterprise might have to promote the product.  Aggregation does not yield massive revenue without massive traffic. The difficulty is that, without promotion (and therefore funding), massive traffic is unlikely to occur.

Back From My Tour Of Europe

So I’m back from my tour.  I’ve slept, eaten an huge bowl of veges, and ready to resume where I left off.

Nothing catastrophic happened in my absence, but there are a few points I’d like to draw your attention to.

Firstly, a recent Seek survey indicated:

67% of jobseekers are concerned about their current job or career in light of the global economic slowdown according to research from SEEK Intelligence. In a sign that employee confidence is dropping rapidly, when asked the same question in August only 39% of respondents were feeling worried. 

59% of respondents are feeling less secure in their job now compared to 12 months ago, nearly double the number of jobseekers who felt this way in August (31%) 

71% of people think that it will take them longer to find a job now compared to 12 months ago, a massive jump from 39% when the question was posed in August and an even bigger increase from the 29% recorded in 2007

Happiness levels in relation to the respondent’s job continue to decrease, with only 22% of respondents describing themselves as happy (down from 27% in August and 29% in 2007)

These aren’t great results for participants in the survey - but I’m sorry to report that the leverage recruiters can receive from employee dissatisfaction is considerable, especially in a candidate-tight market.

Also, it is important for us as recruiters to keep a picture of the overall feeling of the market place.  If security is a key concern of employees, then this can be used as a selling point in the dance of wooing candidates into various positions.

Secondly, Thomas Shaw, owner of Recruitment Directory, and one of our regular contributors, recently acquired the niche job board digitalindustryjobs.com from its existing UK owners. Here’s to hoping he didn’t pay too much for this as the exchange rate of the pound in relation to the $AUD is not great. However the revenue potential when converted back could work well.

Thirdly, MyCareer is still A/B testing their job search functionality. This has been happening for a number of months now. A decision should be made sooner than later as jobseekers will start to get confused.

Finally.  Seek remains the market leader. Their key drivers remain consistent:

1. Grow Volume of job ads

2. Grow yield

3. Introduce new products

Why change the strategy when you have financial results like these:

$M

 

(Seek presentation to UBS conference)

And I swear, I’m not receiving cash for comments from Seek.  There’s not much I can give these folks a hard time about, though.   The praise I give them is well-deserved.

 

 

Seek Promotes Key Internal Talent

Seek has announced important internal promotions:

First-up, someone we are all familiar with in the blogashere, Carey Eaton. Carey was given the nod for the recently-vacant role of Chief Information Officer. Carey joined Seek nearly two years ago as Product Director after a very successful career in recruitment at Michael Page and then at News Ltd’s CareerOne, to name a few. Hope the pay rise is not already spent.

Joe Powell has been promoted from Sales Director to the newly-created role of Managing Director, taking responsibility for the employment business in Australia and New Zealand.

I haven’t seen the old Sales Director role advertised, stay tuned for another internal promotion.

Finally, nine-year Seek veteran Jason Lenga who is currently Corporate Strategy Director has been handed the additional responsibility for the corporate strategy of the new overseas investments in Brasil and Asia.

It might be a good idea for Seek to update its Board & Management page to reflect these changes.

Space Farming?

First LinkMe tested the waters by advertising their internal vacancies on Seek. These ads were swiftly removed by the latter.

Now this job listing on MyCareer (one of forty-four).

What’s interesting about this listing is that - Apply Now - the company placing this job on MyCareer on behalf of their client is a job board also.  See about us>

The official line is that job boards don’t allow other job boards to advertise on them. Why would a company facilitate the operation of its competitor?  Probably more to the point, however, why would Apply Now want to support its competition by giving it business?

Here’s an even stickier point.  While the principles of certain terms of business within the realm of the internet have yet to be precisely defined, it’s arguable that this sort of corporate behavior could be catagorised as Space Farming.

Fairfax has a clear policy on this subject.

* Third Party Advertising: Fairfax will not, under any circumstances, accept third-party advertising (also known as “space farming”) in any advertisement, including inserts, tip-ons, or other forms of separate publications inserted into or attached for distribution into the publication

Is Fairfax permitting this sort of on-selling of its advertising space? (Apply Now rates here)

The ‘Apply Now’ button links directly out to Apply Now’s external application form. Surely an employee at MyCareer had to notice something was smelly when they set this external apply link up??

Or with the cost cutting going on at Fairfax they might be grabbing any advertising dollars that come along…

Seek Self Service…

Seek is making it easier for your job ad. to be at the top of the search results list with its buy-a-Premium job ad. online service.  Naturally, however, a superior listing will come at a price.

“At SEEK we’ve developed an even faster, easier way to buy Premium Ads - you can now do it online.

And we’ve created a short video to show you how simple it is. Visit the SEEK Advertiser Centre to learn more about Premium Ads and how they can provide you with greater exposure and more applicants.

With 24/7 access, you’re now able to book Premium Ads online at a time that suits you. There’s no need to call us! (Unless of course you want to.)

Buying Premium Ads online gives you:

• Control & convenience - you can now buy Premium Ads at any time
• Real time access to availability - find the Premium Ads you need instantly

Please watch our short video and start booking your Premium Ads online today.”

What about my poor little standard job listing that keeps losing value and moving down the rankings?  Carey Eaton has previously argued that Seek Premium ads. are targeted at employers rather than recruiters.  This logic is flawed, however, if we consider the idea that it is more likely recruiters who will have the inclination to place their ads. in this self-service fashion.