Are Generalist jobsites the future of online recruitment?

Generalists are evolving - find out how the generalist site is keeping up in the changing e-recruitment market

The story from our generalist sources is that they arenít just generalist anymore... they can include networks of jobsites, partnerships for specialised services, and communities with niche site offerings. They told Onrec how this, plus other specialised services and sophisticated software, gives them huge advantages:

Mark Smith from s1jobs.com explains: I think itís important to bear in mind that so-called generalist sites, or at least the best ones, see themselves as several niche sites joined together so that their users and clients can take advantage of the economies of scale that that brings. In particular, the ability to invest in marketing and site development is increased, so that more jobseekers are attracted to vacancies and recruiters can have access to state of the art online recruitment tools (ATS, interview scheduling, multi-site posting etc). Itís difficult for small niche sites to provide that level of service. Another critical point is that most companies actually recruit across several niches so generalist sites often suit them better. If youíre only looking for a chef with experience working on yachts then www.yachtchefjobs.com is probably worth a punt, but most companies will, on balance, tend to favour the big generalists.

Joe Slavin, fish4 CEO feels the label ígeneralistí is outdated: I think that the argument of a website being either generalist or specialist is a misleading one, probably started by specialist job boards. For example, when users come to fish4 and enter lets say London and Retail the jobs that are returned are no less specific or relevant than what a specialist site returns. So I think that the terminology is flawed and the sooner we move beyond it the better. Generalist jobsites have certain advantages over specialist sites most of which are linked to scale. Generalist job boards have only one brand to worry about, therefore can focus on building the right brand that appeals to both candidates and recruiters alike. I pity the poor marketing person who has to divide their budget between left handed C programmers.co.uk and jobs in warehousing in southwest derby.co.uk. Also it is easier to field a salesforce when your target market is a wider swath of employers than a narrow audience of just a few hundred employers.

The benefits of generalists, according to Corinne Dauncey, from TipTopJob is that: ìThey are particularly beneficial for those recruiters with vacancies from more than one industry sector. It means that they do not have to pay the high prices that the specialist sites propose and can benefit from multiple jobs posting cross-sector. Many recruiters find themselves in the dilemma that their vacancy falls into 2 sectors e.g. IT developer in the logistics industry. Therefore in order not to neglect any possible candidates looking for jobs, both sectors should be considered.î As Keith Potts, MD of Jobsite tells us: A generalist site provides candidates with variety, whereas a niche site highlights specialist vacancies in one industry. Both offer different advantages to recruiters and candidates.

New services from generalists
Generalists are now offering more than the above advantages to stay ahead of the competition. Corinne Dauncey says TipTopJob is part of a network of jobsites, comprising of 35 industry specific jobsites as well. This means recruiters benefit from receiving the general traffic TipTopJob gets, as well as the more quality, niche candidates that use the specialist sites. Keith Potts says generalist sites can provide extra services that niche sites might not be able to, for example Jobsite has Jobsite Personality Profiles which shows the candidate the best questions to ask in their next interview to find the right job for them. He says: ìThere is also a trend for generalist jobsites to diversify through partnerships with specialist recruiters and niche sites. This not only allows candidates to search for jobs across the board, but also to search for sector-specific vacancies. Jobsite, for example, has a wide variety of niche sites such as eMedCareers, Onlineinsurancejobs and EngineerBoard. Partnership is another way for generalist boards to include specialised services to cater to its candidateís requirements. Jobsite, for example, has partnered with Hobson Graduate and Euromoney Institutional Investor.î Keith Potts also points out that some candidates register with niche sites as they feel that they understand their industry better, and will have the best recruiters on there. From the recruiterís perspective, the benefit of having general and niche job boards under the same umbrella is that a larger number of candidates can be targeted more precisely with minimum effort.

Monster say their communities within their site were created from recruiter and jobseeker demand in many areas including technology, sales, accountancy, graduates, retail, sales and marketing, equality and diversity and many others. As a generalist site with a niche offering, Monster is able to offer jobs to jobseekers opportunities across the spectrum of all industry sectors. Companies can then also place ads on the specific community knowing they are advertising to an already captive audience who have an interest in the specific industry.

High expectations
Candidates and recruiters now have high expectations, as our contributors confirmed. Mark Smith says: ìCandidates now expect a huge range of services. They expect to be able to access vacancies and have vacancies sent to them via whatever digital medium they choose. For instance, s1jobs has 2 different sites - one designed for computer screens, the other for mobile screens, we deliver content via email, RSS and SMS. We also provide application and CV management tools and we will shortly be offering enhanced personalisation so that the user can turn the site into their own personalised online recruitment interface. Recruiters now have a huge range of tools they can choose from: full applicant tracking including applicant screening and ranking, interview scheduling, equal opportunity monitoring, sophisticated search tools for candidate databases, candidate alerts, and of course good old fashioned advertising.î He says the level of competition in the UK marketplace is very intense so thatís led to a lot of innovation and much more of an emphasis on providing recruitment solutions as opposed to simple advertising channels.

Keith Potts says there has been a lot of consolidation in the online recruitment market in the last year with sites like Jobsite partnering with specialist sites. Online recruiters have also been consolidating their recruitment advertising market share that traditionally belonged to print media, which has contributed to the success of the larger jobsites. As previously noted, he says most generalist jobsites now provide added value through ancillary services such as career clinics, blogs and personality profiling. His site, for example, also features RecruitRank, which recognises recruiter best practice. This tool enables candidates to have their say whilst giving recruiters valuable feedback on candidate management. In fact, last year, Jobsite hosted the inaugural RecruitRank Awards, where those agencies ranking the highest on RecruitRank during the year received an accolade for their outstanding customer service - all based on candidate feedback.

Increasingly, Monster says it is providing innovative functionality to meet the needs of current users, such as providing podcasts for the iPod generation particularly of interest to the graduate community. Monster also introduced new services to attract jobseekers, such as the recently launched public sector portal which will provide advice, information and jobs for the vast number of people looking for work outside the private sector.

Future outlook
Mark Smith sees the outlook as: Very healthy for the ones who understand the nature of the business theyíre engaged in, itís not just about having a well optimised website. Not surprisingly, given the nature if his site, Keith Potts believes the future of generalist jobsites lies in partnerships: By bringing generalist and niche sites together, candidates can get the service they require. The variety of sites means that candidates have more choice than ever - but they do not have the time to sift through masses of vacancies. That is why partnerships are the way forward - the generalist site will be the medium through which the individual jobseeker can access a tailored offering, but still benefit from the services offered by the larger sites. In the near future online jobsites will start to become more like online retailers, suggesting vacancies on the basis of past activity on the site.

Monster feels that the future of online recruitment is definitely about personalisation. It says it is constantly developing new services to provide tailored offerings to site users. With jobsites becoming increasingly more popular, jobseekers now expect a job board to help them find the perfect position as easily and quickly as possible. It says it is always looking for new ways to personalise the job search process, such as working with MySpace in 2007 to target jobseekers through their personal profiles.

Corinne Dauncey from TipTopJob summarises: There will always be a need for generalist jobsites as long as there are recruitment agencies and companies recruiting for individuals in more than one sector. They offer a larger, more general pool of candidates at a lower cost to niche alternatives. Even though we are seeing more and more specialist sites launching today and an increase in popularity amongst recruiters, there will always be demand for generalist sites, even if this does reduce slightly.

Written by Lauren Mackelden, (Lauren@onrec.com) ñ Features editor, Online recruitment magazine.

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