Text your next employee

Dot com millionaire, John Witney, 39, who launched Jobserve, the first ever ëjobs by emailí service, looks set to once more revolutionise recruitment advertising with his new mobile text alerts service, Jobstel.

Launched on Tuesday, 4 May 2004, exactly 10 years to the day after the launch of Jobserve, Jobstel helps you reach the candidates youíre looking for by sending your job vacancy advertisements as SMS text messages directly to their mobile phones.

This is the first service of its kind to be free of charge for job seekers. ìThere are a few similar services already, but they are all premium rate services which cost job seekers up to fifty pence for each text message they receive,î says Witney.

You can advertise your job vacancy with Jobstel by simply texting the word ìadvertisementî, followed by your advertisement to the SMS short code 60011. This is a standard text message which only costs your usual text rate. Your advertisement will be texted to potential candidates with your mobile phone number appended so you do not need to include it in your text.

Perhaps surprisingly for someone who made his fortune from an Internet based jobs service, Witneyís new service does not require Internet access to use, everything can be done by text. ìWe do, of course, have a web site, www.jobstel.co.uk, and advertisers can submit their vacancies online, but it must be the only ëjobsí web site that doesnít actually have any jobs on it!,î says Witney.

Witney says that one of the great advantages of the new service is that it sends each new vacancy as soon as it is advertised. ìWith Internet based services candidates only get to see your advertisement when they log on, but with Jobstel it is literally in the palm of their hands within seconds!î he says.

Witney has come up with a unique ëpayment by resultsí method of charging for advertising with Jobstel. ìWhen you advertise a vacancy we will text you back the names and mobile phone numbers of up to thirty potential candidates. Each of these ëresultsí text messages costs just fifty pence so the maximum cost of an advertisement is fifteen pounds (including VAT). However. if there are only five results the cost would be just 2.50 and, of course, if there are no results there is no charge for the advertisement,î he says. ìYou donít have to fill in any forms or open an account to use Jobstel either because the costs are included in your mobile phone bill,î he adds.

ìHaving said that, advertising with Jobstel is currently free of charge anyway! For a limited period you can advertise as many vacancies as you like and you will not be charged for the results text messages you receive,î says Witney. The free trial period ends at midnight on Friday, 4 June 2004.

Witney is hoping that his latest venture will be as successful as his previous one. ìWho knows? Maybe weíll see the Jobstel logo on West Ham football shirts in ten years time!î he says, referring to Jobserveís current sponsorship of the team.

Employers or recruitment agencies who would like to know more should visit www.jobstel.co.uk, or speak to John Witney at Witney Communications Ltd. on 0870 350 0011.