Issued by the Online Recruitment Marketing Council in the UK

This is the assertion of Peter Zollman, CEO of ClassifiedIntelligence llc, the leading consultancy for internet and interactive classified advertising in the USA, during his talk to a meeting of the Online Recruitment Marketing Council (ORMC) in London this week. Zollman is a speaker and commentator of international reputation on the migration of job, auto and property advertising from the press to the Internet.

Zollman explained to ORMC members ëfollowing the trend in the USA - tremendous cost-pressure in the Public Sector will create change in spite of the conservative approach of many UK HR managersí.

He went on to say, ëPublic services in the UK, as in the USA, are major employers and recruitment costs are enormous. Newspapers and trade press have so far been able to charge high rates to carry vacancy advertising as there were few alternative media for employers. Online job sites have now put an end to their virtual monopoly. In the USA we have seen a migration of recruitment advertising from trade press ñ perhaps as much as 10 percent of the advertising that used to appear in newspapers. The UK is likely to follow a similar path. Advertising for recruitment, autos and property is likely to migrate online. However, the UK press has taken a much more aggressive posture about online classified adverts, with regional alliances such as Fish4 jumping to a strong lead, and nationals like the Daily Mail group also developing a broad presence.

ëPublic services will save costs with online recruitment advertising, and newspapers must continue to offer effective services to compete. The recent launch of NHS job website will have a significant impact on newspapers and trade magazines, which largely carried all of that advertising before. Other Departments and local councils etc. will seek to take advantage of similar services. Newspapers, trades and major job sites like Fish4 and TotalJobs will fight to grow market share, and even broadcasters may jump into the fray. It will take years before it is all sorted, and job-seekers will face a wide range of choices until the winners emerge. I doubt that one single jobsite will ultimately win out among a diverse workforce of 5 million. Press will still have its place, but it will be diminished in importance, and will lose pricing power as competitors gain strength among job-seekers. Trade press is likely to be eliminated from this market entirely during the next several years, except online.

Pressure for HR managers to revise recruitment methods will also come from an increasingly internet-astute British public.í

Paul Howells CEO of www.eteach.com the largest UK teachersí jobsite and member of ORMC, commented ìwe estimate that more than half the Local Education Authorities in England and Wales are already using online platforms to help recruit and manage permanent and temporary staff. We know that using online recruitment technology is already saving schools thousands of pounds.

ìThere remains some scepticism within the UK Public Sector, as a result of the low traffic and basic functionality of their own on-line job pages. But this is changing as the benefits of Eteachís online advertising service, with its massive visitor numbers, becomes more apparent.

ìHis point that all public sector jobs will be online by next year is a little off the pace ñ I would say that most if not all public sector jobs are already online ìsomewhereî, whether those job ads are being seen at all is the question. We have found that operating a hybrid model that combines online efficiency with offline presence through newspaper listings and local bulletins to be the most effective solution.î

If you would like to find out more about the Online Recruitment Marketing Council, (ORMC) email info@ormc.org.uk.
For more information on the ORMC see