Employment Market Shake-up.

I’m an optimist.  Can’t help it.  It’s part of my make-up.  I don’t hold a high regard on always being happy, though.  I reckon you need bad times to challenge your strength, just like the immune system needs the odd germ to strengthen it.

There is a fair amount of talk at present about the state of global financial health.  Most of it’s pretty dire.   As a result, companies are getting nervous about their economic well-being.  Staff are lying low and getting on with the job.  There are lots of stats, not facts.  I’m going to regurgitate a few, and would ask that you decide of your own reading of them.  I’ll give you my opinion at the end.  But as I warned you…I’m an optimist:

According to Seek.com.au the Australian employment market has eased further in October.

Despite much speculation however, there were no signs of an abrupt response to the deepening global financial crisis that might signify a developing recession.

Nationally the SEEK Employment Index (SEI), which measures the ratio of new job ads on seek.com.au to job applications via the site, fell by 4% in seasonally adjusted terms, suggesting jobseekers may have witnessed increased competition for fewer available jobs.

However, despite the global financial crisis deepening, this rate was consistent with the average rate of decline seen since December 2007 (4.5%).

However, Seek Ltd themselves have downgraded their forecast for profit growth to zero. Net profit after tax, which last year saw a 37.4% rise to $76.3 million, is now forecast to be flat.

News Corp has flagged job cuts, after reporting a 29.6 per cent drop in first quarter profit and it’s likely that Fairfax is also felling the pinch…

So what does this all mean for the online recruitment market.  Here’s what I reckon…Seek will have to make some changes they might not otherwise have considered.  Strategies must change, even if a little.  Will this open up opportunities for niche job boards to gain a foothold in the market?   Possibly.  And if this happens, what a great opportunity is a recession (no Keating comparisons, please).

Point is, sometimes nothing beats a good old dose of the flu.

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.

 

 

Search Seek On Google

This Onrec blog has commented previously about Seek’s relative lack of search engine optimisation.  However, I s’pose this doesn’t matter if you get a job search box in Google’s organic search results.

Let’s say you type in ‘Accounting’ into this search box, you will then be presented with a list of jobs from Seek with the term ‘Accounting’ in them. Click away…

When you search MyCareer or other job boards they don’t get the same celebrity treatment??

2008 SARA Finalists

Seek has announced the 2008 finalists for the Seek Annual Recruitment Awards (SARA).

The winners will be announced on September 19th with an invitation–only cocktail ceremony.

Who’s feeling popular today?

Job For Simon

Let’s find a job for Simon. Have you met him yet? Simon Baker. Ex-CEO and MD at realestate.com.au (also known as the REA Group)? Ahhhh. Now the coin’s dropped. I think we both heard it make a clunk sound at the bottom of your skull.

So, here’s the thing. A few weeks ago, the folks at REA decide that they could not agree to differ with Simon. He’s taken to a hotel room, and told the grim news that his services would no longer be required. Bummer. No chance to say goodbye to collegues. No gold bloody pen - or watch. Betcha he didn’t even get one of those snazzy red polo tees.

Bummer.

I don’t need to go into how this was an appalling way to treat an employee of seven and a half years (and third largest shareholder). I wanna look to the future. What’s next for a man of Simon’s experience and achievement?

Perhaps his services are required at a couple of of under-achieving job boards - CareerOne and MyCareer. Perhaps this Midas could deliver them their gold - superiority over Seek.

Seek Delivers

There’s good money still to be had in the traditional job board model. If you are Seek. They finished the financial year with total sales up 34% to $210.2 million. Nice.

Not hard to see why. Even their competitors are advertising with them…

Welcome To The New Facebook

This is not an audition for the television show, “Grumpy Old Men”, believe me. But, I logged onto my Facebook page (as you do while at work) and discovered they have revamped the whole thing. Just when I was starting to get used to the way it works…

Why don’t they do like Seek and adopt the ‘don’t fix it if it ain’t broke’ policy?

Your thoughts?

Andrew Bassat On The Seek China Strategy

Seek.com.au co-founder Andrew Bassat discusses the China strategy at the recent Australia-China Business Week Forum.

Will larger numbers of jobseekers and advertisers mean larger returns??  

Recruitmenow Splashes In Seek’s Pond…

Recruitmenow, a new player in the job board wars, was recently launched by JobX and Recruitment Academy.

It was pretty cheeky of them to place this advertisement on Seek. The advertisement was not a call for staff, but a blatant attempt to poach Seek advertisers and job seekers.

It’s not logical to present yourself to the public as a valid alternative to the market leader, but then to use the service provided by that market leader to disseminate your message.

If this is your future marketing strategy Recruitmenow, then you better bring along your life jacket as Seek’s pond is very deep…

Gen Y’s Think-Outside-The-Square Marketing Approach…

Check out this video. It serves as a reminder of how we should all be approaching marketing in our businesses.

Adam Davis is an internet marketer who has turned his experience of setting up a business into a riveting narrative - reminiscent of reality TV. This serves numerous functions. Firstly, it promotes his business. Secondly, it promotes him (who’d have been talking about him otherwise). Finally, it acts as a template for the use of new media in marketing.

It’s also pretty entertaining.

I’d hire him.

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