Regional recruitment sites - different ways to succeed

Regional recruitment sites have done well this year, but via diverse routes. Here we look at how these sites have thrived, the challenges facing them this year, and how they will tackle them.

MyJobGroup.co.uk has been growing rapidly in 2008, and had great success with an innovative local advertising campaign. They say: ìIn November, we reported a growth of 350% on the total unique users across all our websites when compared to the same month in 2007. Last year also saw MyJobGroup.co.uk expand into the South East with the acquisition of LocalJobsGroup.co.uk, meaning that the business now operates over 100 local jobsites, each dedicated to specific areas in the U.K.
A major contributing factor to our growth has been the aggressive local marketing that we carried out across major cities throughout the year. This has included Tram, Taxi and Roundabout advertising right through to the high-profile sponsorship of Bristol Parkway and Bristol Temple Meads rail stations. In addition to offline exposure, we have also worked hard on our online presence. All of our jobsites are fully optimised for Google and other search engines, with the majority of our websites appearing naturally at the top for key terms used by jobseekers (for example ëJobs in Manchesterí and ëBirmingham Careersí).

MyJobGroup adds: ìAs expected, in 2008 we saw an increase in the number of new start-up businesses offering local recruitment websites. Whilst we see this as proof that local jobsites can and do occupy a significant share of the recruitment market, it is also a challenge to us as we understand how new and fresh our concept still is to a number of recruiters. With so many new entrants offering free trials but then under-delivering on performance, a key challenge for MyJobGroup.co.uk is to reinforce our position as the leaders when it comes to advertising vacancies on a local level, and to prove that our concept really does work.î

Felix Wetzel, Jobsite Marketing Director says: ìSimilar to the success of niche sector jobsites, regional recruitment sites are popular as they cater to those jobseekers who like to feel that theyíre receiving a tailored offering; e.g. just jobs within their local area. Many regional sites are also associated with local newspapers, which attract people who have built a relationship with, and have trust, in their local media brand.î

Jobsite has established a wide regional audience with various partnerships. Felix Wetzel explains how: ìJobsite.co.uk is the official partner across all Northcliffe Media recruitment platforms. All Northcliffe newspapers and circa 180 ëthis isí websites (eg. www.thisisbristol.co.uk) feature the Jobsite brand across all newspaper recruitment supplements, in paper promotion and web pages. This enables cross posting of job vacancies between the two sites, bringing together the benefits of Jobsiteís recruitment expertise, brand equity and multi-sector strength with the local presence, reach and recruiter relationships that Northcliffe Media have in some of the UKís key regions. Jobsite also has an exclusive partnership with the Berkshire Media Group (readership of over 450,000), meaning that jobs posted with the Bracknell News, Reading Chronicle and Windsor and Eton Express are also available on Jobsite.co.uk and the extended Jobsite network. With an average of over 40,000 new vacancies advertised each week on Jobsite and 4.5 million registered users, these partnerships give Northcliffe Media and Berkshire Media Group readers and advertisers on-going access to one of the UKís leading recruitment sites on which to search for new jobs or advertise local vacancies. Jobsite.co.uk recruiters also benefit, as their vacancies are automatically also cross posted to these regional newspaper sites, increasing vacancy exposure to relevant local job hunters, enhancing reach and potentially the number of successful placements. When combined with Jobsiteís other branding partnerships which include the Evening Standard, Metro (London) and London Lite these regional media partnerships give Jobsite a potential weekly online audience reach of circa 13 million representing a significant proportion of the UK working population.î

Another original regional approach is described by Matthew Parker, Group Managing Director of StepStone Solutions. He says: ìIn November 2008, StepStoneís e-recruitment solution underpinned a huge government initiative in Scotland, myjobscotland, the first single recruitment point for all local government jobs. This pioneering approach to recruitment was a significant milestone for the development of sharing across Scottish local government. For the first time ever, jobseekers in Scotland only had to visit one place to locate career information and job opportunities throughout the local government sector. The main secret to myjobscotlandís success was the collaboration between those involved in the siteís development, and the use of the latest e-recruitment technology to computerise the entire recruitment process. By doing so, the site not only relieved the administrative burden of processing paper-based applications but also improved candidate communication reducing the overall time and cost to hire.î

Challenges facing regional jobboards in 2009

Matthew Parker, Group Managing Director of StepStone Solutions says: ìA key challenge that has faced online recruiters over the last few years is increasing the quality of candidate applications as candidates can often apply for unsuitable positions costing them nothing in time or effort. Filtering out such applicants and only presenting recruiters with high-quality candidates is one of the areas in which recruitment technology, such as StepStoneís, can add huge value. Another underlying problem facing the public sector in particular is the ageing demographic of its talent pool. Local government will lose one third of its workforce over the next decade due to retirement and redundancies. With the proportion of potential employees in the under-25 age group at only half those of the economy as a whole, local councils and government bodies need to adopt the latest in technology and innovation to attract a new breed of talent. Overall, online recruitment solutions can present significant time and cost savings through the reduction of advertising and the use of recruitment agencies. In these times of economic uncertainty increased efficiency at every level is vital and online recruitment methods present an effective way of achieving this.î


Felix Wetzel, Jobsite Marketing Director says: ìDue to the economic downturn some candidates may start using generalist job boards instead of regional sites to find a wider selection of vacancies.î He says his site is: ìAlso seeing increased numbers of passive candidates who are speculatively looking to see what other jobs are around, just in case they should lose their current one. It may be that these candidates want to check the job situation in their local area first and as such regional recruitment sites would be a good way to do this. However, the search technology of generalist or sector job boards also allows candidates to check jobs within their local region so unless regional sites can start finding new ways to win over jobseekers they may lose them to the ëbiggerí job boards who tend to have larger promotional budgets to attract traffic. Regional recruitment sites associated with local newspaper brands should ensure that their jobs offering is very clear on the homepage to attract those users who are just coming to read the local news and perhaps hadnít been thinking about finding a new job on that site. We know that some jobhunters prefer to use a regional brand that they trust rather than a generalist site, as they feel that theyíre getting a more tailored offering. Regional partnerships allow Jobsite to reach these passive and semi-active candidates by the unrivalled regional presence it gives us, both online and now in print. It complements our strategy of going to where the candidates are and talking with them directly – not waiting for them to come to us. We can expect to see more partnerships between regional and generalist job boards in 2009 as they all strive to offer their candidates and recruiters the widest possible service in such a competitive market. Regional recruitment sites are successful as the vast majority of us still tend to live, socialise, buy homes and raise our families within a 20 mile radius of where we are born and 90% of jobseeking happens within a 15 mile radius of our home.î

Myjobgroup say the economic downturn will be a challenge in 2009, but still feel positive: ìIn our industry we have two sets of key stakeholders, recruiters and jobseekers. With redundancies on the rise, a challenge across the industry will be for jobsites to ensure that job opportunities are still at a level to satisfy demand. However, over the past few months we have seen that the squeezing of budgets is actually bringing in new recruiters who are now seeing how cost effective online recruitment is compared to more traditional forms of recruiting (e.g. local press, radio etc). This reason is just one example why we feel online recruitment (particularly local) will continue to prosper in 2009.î Matthew Parker, Group Managing Director of StepStone Solutions also sees good times ahead: ìOver the next few years, weíre going to see the online recruitment market soar with the proliferation of internet access. Until recently, low-skilled workers have rarely been recruited through online recruitment methods due to poor internet access amongst these demographic groups. At the same time, online recruitment can reach rural communities which were previously more difficult to contact. Areas such as the Western Isles in Scotland have undertaken a huge broadband drive to encourage the whole community to get online.î

Wherever you live, the benefits of regional recruitment sites are increasingly appealing to many recruiters and candidates, and many more may discover them in 2009.

Written by Lauren MacKelden, Online recruitment magazine