Websites make searching for a job online a real challenge

More job seekers are moving online but the experience they receive from employment websites falls short of best-practice. Leading employment websites do not enable customers to efficiently locate appropriate jobs, which negatively affects the overall customer experience.

NORAS, the National Online Recruitment Audience Survey of over 37,000 job seekers, found that not only were more people searching online for jobs, but those locating jobs online were having more success in winning the job. The Survey also found that 73% of users visit three or more job websites with the average job hunter visiting more than five.

The Survey supports the view that the aggressive promotion of job websites and use of the internet by recruiters has driven job seekers online. Emboldened independent players use their internet nous to challenge traditional media firms for the attention of job hunters. With so many people visiting multiple job websites, the quality of customer experience will play a key role in determining the success of each website.

Users visit so many job websites that a failure to provide a quality customer experience becomes apparent. Most visitors conduct a job search so this tool is key to creating a positive customer experience. However, the recent Global Reviews Customer Experience Benchmark of eight leading job classified websites showed the Primary Search provided an experience of only 24%. A score of 100% represents a perfect customer experience.

A common shortcoming of the websites was a failure to balance between job seekers who want a quick search and those who want to conduct a more detailed search. Adam Goodvach, Director of Global Reviews, said: ìSeveral leading websites such as Fish4jobs and guardianjobs offer searches on their homepages that only allow users to input keywords and a location. This may suit a small group of job hunters but many want to be more specific in their searches to avoid being overwhelmed with too many matching results. Having to type in all the keywords necessary to conduct a specific search can be clumsy and time consuming.î

A better approach is offered by sites such as Monster, Jobsearch and Telegraph which provide more search fields but do not make any fields mandatory. The best websites also allow users to sort results from the Primary Search so that the results page delivers the most desirable jobs first.

Goodvach added: ìGiven the simplicity of many Primary Search engines, we expected to see a higher quality of Advanced Search engines. However, the quality of both engines was similar with sites likely to offer two weak engines. Job websites can do much more to improve the quality of their search engines and thereby set themselves apart from the rest of the market with this key tool.î

The 120 strong benchmark covered the process of searching and viewing job ads online. Reed.co.uk led the benchmark with 49% followed by Jobsite (46%) and Jobserve (42%). The benchmark was conducted in December 2006.