The next Big Idea! in online recruitment?

Simultaneously searching thousands of job adverts becomes reality this week as a new search engine for job-seekers starts to attract considerable interest. Jopit.com has revolutionised the way that candidates search for jobs online and is generating rave reviews from both candidates and recruiters alike.

London, England March 24, 2004 -- This week sees the full-scale launch of Jopit (http://www.jopit.com), a new search engine for recruiters and jobseekers that promises to revolutionise the online recruitment marketplace. One of the earliest sectors to embrace the use of the internet, the global recruitment market could now be turned on its head if the concept of a search-engine for jobs proves popular with job-seekers. Results from the beta-testing of Jopit are highly encouraging, generating rave reviews from candidates. As it gains popularity with jobseekers, it could become the next ìBig Ideaî that encourages a new wave of recruiters to embrace the power of the internet for generating candidate shortlists.

Like most successful internet concepts, the idea behind Jopit is remarkably simple. Candidates want one place on the net where they can go to search the whole of the world wide web for their next job ñ getting results back in a matter of seconds. Compare this to the frustrations of spending hours surfing the net for suitable opportunities and the attractions of Jopit become clear.

- Searching thousands of job boards becomes reality -

Anyone seeking a new job - or involved in the recruitment industry ñ is going to be affected. For the Jopit technology has the potential to change the way that candidates search for their next career move, by allowing them to simultaneously search thousands of corporate websites and internet job sites. A process that would take jobseekers hours of surfing can now be achieved in just seconds using the Jopit search engine (dubbed a ìjob engineî) ñ and as an added bonus, the end result is a better set of job matches too. Candidates are presented not only with the best jobs from the leading job boards, but also all the jobs hidden away on companiesí own websites.

So will Jopit lead to the demise of job boards like Monster and Jobserve, or will it strengthen the online recruitment market further still? Given that online recruitment is now a $billion industry, the answer will have major implications for investors and recruiters alike.

- A substantial increase in the number of online applications is expected -

According to Jopitís founders, by improving the search experience of job seekers Jopit will increase candidatesí success in finding appropriate jobs and so will boost the number of applications generated online. In other words, so long as major careers sites continue to grow the number and quality of adverts on their job boards, they will benefit from a major new source of free traffic and job applications. Jopit candidates will be able to track down roles on these sites that they might otherwise have overlooked.

Asides from candidates and job boards, the other beneficiaries will be corporate recruiters and recruitment agencies. To date, considerable investment has been channelled into developing dynamic careers sections on companiesí websites. Corporates and recruitment agencies tend to post many more roles here than they advertise externally, and in many cases have built advanced application procedures to manage the volume of applications that they aspire to achieve.

Company websites, however, are currently candidatesí least-used source of new job opportunities*, owing simply to the time it takes to research and surf around all the possible company careers pages out there on the net. So recruitment results from company websites have, to date, been disappointing.

- The quality of job postings will be the key success factor in achieving top rankings -

By searching thousands of corporate websites and recruitment agency sites, Jopit could fundamentally change this dynamic. The quality of individual job postings will be key to achieving top rankings on Jopit, so attractive job postings on corporate websites could become the most highly-ranked search results. The flood of free candidates that this will bring recruiters is likely to greatly enhance the ROI of developing corporate careers pages. Niche job-boards will also benefit from a traffic boost, where they have a high proportion of the relevant jobs for a particular search term.

Overall, though, the most notable winner will be the job-seeker ñ who will save on hours of frustrating job searches and be able to focus more time on applications rather than simply tracking down appropriate roles. If this means a large proportion of job-seekers start going through the Jopit channel, the repercussions for the industry could be significant.

* source: Top-Consultant.comís annual Recruitment Channel Survey
(http://www.top-consultant.com/recruitment_report.asp)