IT and e-recruitment - Online Recruitment Magazine Feature

By Lauren Mackelden, Features Editor, Online Recruitment Magazine.

IT was an early pioneer in the e-recruitment scene, and as it matures, our experts say there is a huge demand for IT specialists...

IT is one of the biggest industries in Monsterís 76 industry categories, accounting for 11% of the jobs posted on Monster.co.uk, says Alan Townsend, COO of Monster UK and Ireland. Keith Potts, Managing Director of Jobsite, says demand for IT staff is at the highest level for five years (Computer Weekly/SSL Salary Survey May 2007). Indeed, Dave Smith, MD of Careerbuilder.co.uk, reports that: ìEmployers are struggling to fill posts for IT and even the Government has admitted that the UK's major challenge for the future will be in IT skills shortages. In fact, 42% of hiring managers in the UK are finding it hard to find quality candidates. Competition to recruit the best talent is tough across all sectors, but with demand high, the opportunity for job seekers looking for a career in IT has never been greater. Those with the skills and experience in IT have the power and potential to find the job that could change their career. Traditionally, IT has been one of the country's best-paid industries, and the pressure is now on for organisations to find and attract the brightest candidates quickly.î Justin Hobday, Director of Harvey Nash says: ìOnline recruitment in the IT industry took off at a much faster pace than in any other market sectors as candidates within the sector are generally more comfortable with registering their details online and using job boards. The nature of job boards means they are particularly suited to IT candidates as they can match specific technical skills against given criteria and the interview screening process for many roles has less focused on cultural fit compared to other industries. For this reason some of the highest profile job boards were created for individuals in the IT sector much earlier on and in many more roles.î

Mark Edgeworth, MD of ITvacancies.com agrees in the popularity of IT joboards, but cautions against complacency: ìOnline recruitment in the IT industry is an expected and essential part of the recruitment process, rather than the ënice to haveí add-on that it can be in markets such as FMCG or Trades & Labour. The key difference is that online recruitment can form the entire recruitment process in the IT market whereas in other markets it is just an enhanced advertising medium. Clearly the IT job board market has a better chance of further growth than other sectors where the candidates are not office based or regular computer users but this also means that the IT job boards needs to offer something extra to make the process as attractive as possible.î

More contractual vacancies in IT

Richard Nott from CWJobs.co.uk believes a key difference in the online IT industry is that there are significantly more contractual vacancies in the IT sector due to the nature of the industry. He says: ìEmployees can often be hired on a more ad-hoc basis, subject to fluctuating corporate needs, leading to contractual employment being more common place in IT than in other industries. This has several repercussions on IT employees themselves, who, according toëUniversal McCanní found that jobseekers are aware of the need ëto create a brand for themselvesí as they are continuously conscious of their contract ending. The study found that whereas IT specialists in permanent roles behave in a very similar manner to typical job hunters, seeking roles as and when they please, IT specialists in contracting role are in a constant state of change and are job seeking on an ongoing basis.î

To address this growing niche market Jobsite recently launched PurelyIT.co.uk which extends employer access to key candidate groups by appealing to those who prefer an industry specific approach to their job-hunting. Any IT vacancy placed on Jobsite is automatically also displayed on PurelyIT, providing clients with even greater response from IT professionals. Keith Potts says this approach seems to be popular with recruiters as it allows them to reach those candidates who prefer the diversity of a generalist jobsite with those who are happier using a site designed specifically for their industry.

Efinancialcareers.com also reports financial technology specialists working on a contract basis, saying: ìIT contract positions paying 500 per day are often advertised for periods of as little as one or two days due to the fast moving nature of the industry and the immediate need from banks and other financial institutions to fill vacancies. The flexibility of online advertising for recruiters in this industry is now taken for granted. As a result, advertising for financial technology roles in the print media has become almost non-existent. Financial institutions expect speedy returns from recruiters, and online advertising has been able to help them deliver.î

Sandra Carosi, marketing Manager for CWJobs.co.uk says ìthere are key differences in the nature of the online IT recruitment industry which tends to be predominantly driven by consultancies rather than direct brands. These consultancies place great importance on the use of candidate databases as a means to fill relevant vacancies and so are extremely attracted to recruitment websites as a highly effective candidate search tool.

What are the benefits to jobseekers and advertisers?

Ray Duggins, MD of theitjobboard.com: ìThe online arena has enabled the leading recruitment specialists to develop large, sophisticated databases containing details of the UK's IT skills base. This means that employers looking for IT staff can make targeted approaches to IT professionals ñ for example feeding opportunities directly into the inboxes of potential candidates via email job alerts co-ordinated by a job board. Despite being so much more sophisticated, the whole process is also much faster. Advertisers no longer have to wait for the advertisement to appear in the next edition of the target publication before they can expect applications to start arriving - instead, everything is done in real-time, as soon as it is actioned. Another significant benefit to recruiters is that the cost of using a job board is significantly lower than the twenty percent of salary usually charged by traditional recruitment agencies.



In turn, jobseekers are able to search quickly and easily for positions of interest to them, and then apply for these directly and immediately online. As well as enabling IT professionals to also be targeted in their approach, online activity can be undertaken at any time - a key benefit in an industry where long working hours tend to be the norm.î

Mark Edgeworth sees the nature of the skills required in IT important to its success: ìThe ability to ëself serveí. As with other online services you have the opportunity to cut out the middle man. In some markets this is not desirable (where soft skills are more relevant) but in technical markets where the candidate is entirely aware of their own skill set and relevance to an advertised vacancy, the candidate can select their own opportunities where they have a good chance of success and donít need the sales skills of a recruitment consultant to add the extra service to make a candidate saleable. This also has the advantage, when agencies are involved in the process, of speeding up the matching process for recruitment consultants when a technical candidate applies directly for a particular vacancy via an agency.î

What has surprised you in the last year?

Alan Townsend feels there has been little surprise in the last year overall. He says: ìThe April 2007 Monster Employment Index showed that the IT industry experienced a minor increase in the number of job opportunities in the last 12 months, but nothing more. There are a consistent number of applicants for these jobs, but perhaps moving forward, the IT industry will have to think carefully about how they are going to attract the right talent needed to stay ahead.î Dave Smith comments that there is no question that hiring is difficult ñ not just in IT but multiple sectors: ìThere is also undoubted evidence that the internet works for recruitment. The most surprising factor for me is that the market is only growing at 20% year over year. According to IAB, employers and rec cons spent 215 million online in 2006. What is happening is consolidation of spend to a few generalists and a few specialists within each sector. Secondly, companies are getting more sophisticated about tracking results and return on investment. As this continues I believe the transition to online will occur at an even faster rate and the market will grow.î

Mark Edgeworth says his greatest surprise was the amount of new players in the IT job board market who are willing to undervalue this market by giving their service away: ìNone of the leaders do this ñ and that tells you all you need to know! We have also been surprised by just how candidate led the market was at the early part of 2007 which gave some agencies a really hard time.î Richard Nott also notes how candidates are changing the nature of the market: ìIn an industry such as online recruitment which is still in a massive growth phase, there are continuous changes occurring on a regular basis. In the past year alone, there have been notable shifts in the dynamics of the IT jobseekers market which has become much more candidate driven, with contractual labour rising in popularity over more traditional, permanent vacancies. Other changes are becoming evident in the ëtransferabilityí of candidate IT skills. This applies especially to IT people who are employed full time. Whereas IT skills are sometimes considered to be very prescriptive, residing within rigid boundaries, it seems that many jobseekers hold multiple IT skills. From a job board perspective, this makes jobs categorisation challenging and requires the adoption of a flexible approach vs sectorised. According to behaviour observed on CWJobs.co.uk, some IT candidates greatly value choice and volume of jobs as part of an effective job board service, and want to retain the freedom to customise their own searches to only the most relevant opportunities.î

Justin Hobday says: ìThe biggest surprise of the past year has been the change in attitude towards job boards and how the internet is increasingly seen as a positive experience. In our recent online recruitment survey, over 30% of respondents had found a job through the internet and this trend is set to continue.î

How do you see the IT recruitment market developing in the future?

Alan Townsend says: ìThe continued success of Web 2.0 and the ever-growing popularity of the web will lead to an increase in smaller companies, sole traders and contractors in the IT industry. The IT industry is one of the best sectors for keeping their skills up to date which makes them very marketable and quick to adapt to new changes. As technology is becoming more important to a range of businesses, Monster expects the need for IT skills to increase. The flipside of this however is that IT specialists will also be expected to increase their business and management skills in order to work in more varied environments. Monster is looking forward to the increasing opportunities being opened up to job seekers and employers by the Web 2.0 phenomenon.î Ray Duggins says figures from theitjobboard show more demand for CRM (Customer Relationship Management) skills which require IT professionals to develop highly-specialist niche skills such as SAP. He feels both these trends will drive the shape of the IT recruitment market as it continues to develop: ìHowever, overall, it is widely recognised that the IT recruitment market is currently facing a skills shortage with more jobs available than IT professionals to fill them ñ a trend that is set to continue, at least in the near future. Whilst it is critical that the industry addresses the issue, it also means that employers need to focus on staff retention, including recruitment policies, career opportunities, training, working environment and rewards and benefits ñ and this can only be good for the market in general. Finally, from a more generic perspective, as online recruitment continues to increase in popularity and the market place becomes more crowded, job boards will need to ensure they stand out from the competition. Candidates will expect and demand more from job boards who, in order to remain attractive and competitive, will need to listen to these demands and react upon them.î Dave Smith also sees opportunities: ìWe expect to see demand for IT and computer grads to increase, which will fuel the war for talent thatís already taking place. The recruitment market is an exciting place to be right now. Having launched in the UK at the start of this year, CareerBuilder.co.uk is keen to continue to invest in technology to improve the online experience for jobseekers. Weíre committed to continuing to build partnerships and maintain the momentum from teaming up with brands like Virgin Media and MSN.î

Mark Edgeworth predicts that the entire job board market is going back to being vertical market or niche focused: ìWe are seeing this with some of the generalist job boards already who are separating their brands into niche sectors which is a reverse of the trend we have seen over the previous few years.î

Justin Hobday also feels that the future of the IT recruitment market will also see social networking sites, such as linked-in.com, become increasingly important both for candidates and headhunters. He also predicts the quality of the human touch will still be important: ìIn attracting larger volumes of relevant people, the input of individual consultants will increasingly differentiate the quality of recruitment firms with the raised focus upon assessing candidates against the requirement of the client.î Alan Townsend sees more social neworking, saying that it is a great way to reach candidates online and Monster is working to create more personalised spaces on the website to enhance this opportunity for tech-savvy job seekers and employers. Sandra Carosi is also aware of the increased interest in more social interaction when looking for jobs, saying: ìThere are undoubtedly developments that are likely to occur in improving the logistics of the site usability. Such improvements could include increasing the sense of social interaction that currently presides on jobboards, making the whole online jobseeking experience less lonely. Direct employers and consultancies will, one day, be assessed and evaluated by jobseekers who will willingly share information with each other - a trait already present within the IT industry, where technical information is readily and frequently shared within forums and newsgroups.î She predicts that jobseeking will become an interactive, two-way process where reputations will be built and past records will be used as tools to help both candidates make informed decisions about employers, and recruiters to differentiate between large selections of qualified candidates.

Online recruitment has delivered the perfect job hunting package to IT specialistsÖ.. they are in short supply, have the skills and confidence to apply online, can choose permanent or short term contracts, and can get a job anywhere in the world at the click of a mouseÖ. the world is their oyster.