Online Recruitment in the City - Feature from Online Recruitment Magazine

The City may be tightening its belt, but this only means they are looking even more to online recruitment to increase efficiency, say our experts.

Kevin Rolfe is managing director of Independent Magazines & New Media. He says there has been a great deal of negative press re job cuts in the city over the past couple of months, due to the threat of a slowdown as a result of the recent credit crunch. He continues: ìSpeaking from my seat as the MD of two job boards in the London market, I can see no evidence of this as yet. Londoncareers.net and our most recent site launch, canarywharfcareers.co.uk are seeing jobs in the financial sector from both recruitment agencies and direct clients being posted onto our sites in ever increasing numbers. Indeed if this wasn't evidence enough, application levels to jobs in this sector are also showing strong increases despite the warnings of a downturn. Bonus time for the city is nearly with us once again and although levels of bonuses may not be as strong as last yearís records, they will no doubt have an effect on job movement/churn as they have in prior years.î

ìRecruitment in the City has changed and continues to change quite dramatically, according to Melissa Buxton, head of product & marketing at GAAPweb. She says: ìFirms have traditionally relied on advertising and recruitment consultants to find employees, but more are moving towards using online jobsites for varied reasons. Jobsites, especially ones that are targeted towards a specific audience, allow for more cost effective advertising and a higher engagement of a brand with that particular segment.î Justin Hobday, director at Harvey Nash feels that online recruitment has become increasingly important in two distinct areas - niche markets and at the junior level. He says: ìIn niche markets such as compliance, prospective candidates have been brought together by on-line websites that promote specific news to that community. In some of niche markets websites advertise roles directly to the target community. At a junior level, there are some generic websites which may attract some candidates although at present the main success routes are within the middle and back office functions.î

Does the City have specific requirements?

Melissa Buxton sees a change in emphasis from the attraction of a big name to the training provided as key in appealing to jobhunters: ìWhen supplying the Cityís financial organisations we have certainly noticed a difference in the way they recruit. Up until recently City firms have tended to rely heavily on their company brand to attract potential candidates to them. We predict, however, that this is set to change in the coming year as candidatesí priorities move away from the prestige of having big city name on their CV. Recent studies have shown that the key for attracting candidates is to demonstrate a commitment to their training and development and to offer a clear path for progression through the company. Potential for training ranked above salary and benefits, and far above a companyís brand image, as the main consideration for candidates as they look for a new job. Training is not just for the benefit of the candidates. This year poor supervision of staff topped the reasons for inefficient working practice that cost companies 80 billion. This year training needs to be top of the agenda for everyone.î

She says large city firms will no longer be able to take for granted that their brand image will win them suitable candidates for their roles: ìWith candidates thinking more about the full scope of their career as soon as they start out, firms will need to ensure theyíre offering a full development path. What we do know about the City is that it attacks problems head on and usually with impressive creativity so we await with interest the response to this new trend.î

Harvey Nash is a leading supplier of talented people within the City financial services community, says Justin Hobday. He says they use on-line methods as part of their search processes where appropriate, although this is still not highly effective for front office roles: ìVery few clients use pure on-line recruitment methods yet. However, our survey has shown this channel is set to grow immensely over the coming years.î

What are you looking forward to in the future?

Kevin Rolfe believes that online recruitment continues to provide both the recruiter and job seeker with the perfect environment to communicate with each other, no other media can do this as well. He predicts that ìFunctionality will of course change next year as job boards become smarter at capturing candidates and recruiters alike, content and the way in which it is displayed and delivered will play a major part in the development of job boards. Virtual trade fairs, streaming videos and mobile search will play an ever increasing role in engaging recruiters and candidates in 2008 and our own developments into these areas are already at an advanced stage. I am convinced that 2008 will be strong year for city recruitment levels as commercial developments in this area come to fruition, so convinced am I that at the start of next year this company will launch two new web sites citycareers.com and recruit-tv.com. Both will play a part alongside other job boards at putting recruiters and candidates in touch with each other in new and interactive ways. The City has always adopted new technologies and will continue to do so, those aiming to work in this area are well versed with on line screening, CV posting and on line application. On line recruitment is at the forefront of most recruiters minds in this specialist area and of that of candidates seeking to engage them.î

Justin Hobday believes that ìMore and more candidates will see the benefits of going on-line to seek a new role as the market evolves. The challenge is to understand how to access candidate communities effectively and inexpensively, whilst retaining an exclusive look and feel to the online process.î GAAPweb say they already have a deep engagement with their candidate base but they want to continue to develop this for the benefit of both candidate and client. For big city companies, GAAPweb can help them reach suitable candidates quickly and easily by simply finding out what our candidates are searching for and targeting them accordingly. By finding out exactly what roles people are interested in, we can send out bespoke emails tailored to specific candidate groups and help city firms receive more relevant, high quality CVs.î

Everyone seems unanimous that online recruitment is now an integral part of recruitment in the City. The way firms sell themselves to candidates, however may be changing. The draw of a big name may not have the cachet that it used to have, and savvy young professionals are now looking to the bigger picture, such as training. Successfully targeting and interacting with suitable candidate communities will be key to attracting the best. It will be fascinating to see how new ways of reaching these potential candidates succeed and develop.

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