jobs.ac.uk, one of the leading international job boards for careers in academic, research, science and related professions, today announced the results of its survey of recruitment trends across the academic, research and science sectors.
The survey of over 170 organisations revealed that the use of job boards has become an essential HR practice, with 64% of respondents citing them as their preferred method for recruiting academic, research and science staff.
Key findings
- 58% of respondents said they have either reduced or no longer use print advertising
- 71% of respondents prefer specialist job boards to generalist job boards
- When choosing a job board, sector specialism (72%), pricing (59%) and audience size (43%) were cited as the most important factors
- 50% of respondents said they use social media to recruit with LinkedIn being the most popular platform
- 97% are increasing employee count in the next 12 months
- 30% of respondents cited reducing costs as the top recruiting priority
- Only 24% of respondents use applicant tracking systems
The survey also found that the battle to attract the best talent continues with employers citing a lack of skilled candidates as the biggest recruitment challenge. Respondents also reported reduced recruitment budgets, a high competition for talent from other employers and too many applicants as key problems.
Commenting on the findings, Carl Freelove, Marketing Manager at jobs.ac.uk, said “The numbers in the survey clearly demonstrate that job boards, particularly, specialist job boards, are still an important part of the recruitment mix. The research also indicated that a lack of skilled or quality candidates was the biggest challenge for recruiters, which is supported by the majority of respondents using specialist job boards, such as jobs.ac.uk, to find more relevant, better quality jobseekers.
To read the full results of the jobs.ac.uk recruitment trends survey, please download the report for free here