Niche is nice

By David Somerville, Online Marketing Manager, Interactive Recruitment & Training Ltd

According to research published earlier this year by recruitment consultants Angela Mortimer, the average cost of recruiting a new member of staff weighs in at a hefty 5000. With many companies being even more budget-focused than ever, this potential cost, coupled with other factors, mean that recruiters are under even more pressure to make sure they employ the right staff.

The first hurdle in the quest, before the process of interviewing even starts, is finding a selection of quality candidates to choose from (big emphasis on the word ëqualityí here). Naturally recruiters will get online to look for the right person for the job, but at this stage find that they are faced with a choice of thousands of potential sources. Those looking to find people in specific industries and job roles need not panic too much these days however, as there is a solution to their plight ñ the niche job board.

There are niche job boards covering nearly every possible marketplace ñ from dentistry to rugby ñ all of which have the sole aim of offering both job seekers and employers a service that is specific to that industry.

Despite the fact that new niche job boards are being launched every week, niche isnít new. Interactive Recruitment & Training have been running successful niche jobs boards since 2000, with the launch firstly of AviationJobsearch.com, followed by TravelJobsearch.com, CareersinRecruitment.com and InAutomotive.com.

The reason for the growth and success of job boards, such as those run by Interactive Recruitment & Training, is the obvious benefits they offer over the ëgeneralí counterparts. Niche job boards should offer recruiters a selection of ëqualityí candidates to choose from. With the job content of these sites being specific to the industry this is therefore reflected in the users that the site has. Job seekers looking for jobs within the aviation industry for example, will tend to use resources that are specific to the aviation industry. This means that those submitting CVs and registering for job alerts are going to be the types of people that are relevant. With AviationJobsearch.com, for example, the site receives nearly 50,000 unique visitors every week and a healthy percentage of these go on to directly apply for the jobs advertised. Recruiters advertising on niche sites can be confident that ëwastageí is low.

This level of ëqualityí of candidates is also reinforced by requiring job seekers to go through an online screening process when registering. Regular cleaning out of inactive CVs also helps greatly in this area.

Despite quality being key, it is possible to find niche job boards that do offer quantity as well. AviationJobsearch.com for example offers recruiters 80,000 CVs across the aviation industry, with an average of 2,500 being added every month.

When it comes to applications however, niche job boards pride themselves on being able to deliver small amounts of quality and targeted applications to clients, as opposed to bombarding them with thousands of irrelevant applications.

Another huge advantage of the niche site is that it can split an industry into separate categories, given the recruiter and even easier job of attracting the right sort of people to apply for its vacancies. AviationJobsearch.com. for example, has 46 different categories which cover the whole gamut of the aviation industry. If an employer is looking for a ëlicensed base maintenance engineerí they can advertise in the relevant section, as opposed to being in an ëengineeringí category which they would get with most ëgeneralí job boards.

Many of AviationJobsearch.comís clients will only consider using niche job sites, especially if they are looking for staff with specific skills or experience, as they report they do not get the quality of candidates by using general job boards.

Having numerous categories within a single industry can also help the recruiters when it comes to searching through CVs, as sites will ask job seekers to indicate their areas of specialism.

Using established niche job boards, such as AviationJobsearch.com, can also provide recruiters piece of mind in knowing that they are dealing with a company that is well known within a specific industry and therefore attracts the right sort of candidate.

They can also offer a much greater knowledge of the marketplace, which in turn equates to helping employers get the most out of their recruitment advertising. AviationJobsearch.com and the other Interactive Recruitment & Training job sites offer account managers for a more managed experience and have yearsí of experience within the sectors they deal with.

Clients can be safe in the knowledge that the account manager is experienced and knows what they are talking about. This is particularly useful if they are looking to recruit specifically skilled individuals, for example an aviation engineer with the right qualifications for the right type of aircraft.

Industry-specific account managers are not just processing orders, as can be the case with some general job boards.

The importance of niche job boards for recruiting is not limited it seems to the UK. Recruiters from across the globe are realising the importance of niche job boards in sourcing quality candidates from the UK to fill their vacancies. For example Australian automotive recruiters, Autopeople, have been using InAutomotive.com to source skilled people to work across all aspects of the automotive industry Down Under.

This international demand has been most noticeable recently in the Middle East, with clients using all of Interactive Recruitment & Trainingís niche websites to source any job roles from automotive car sales staff in Yemen to avionics engineers in Dubai. The international aviation industry is a particularly big fan of using niche job boards in the UK. Some of AviationJobsearch.comís clients include airlines such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways, who have a large recruitment need for cabin crew, engineers and ground staff to go and work in the UAE.

It is predicted that the level of niche job board usage in the aviation industry by international recruiters is set to escalate over the next few years, with the huge increase in airlines for countries such as India and China. This demand means that overseas countries are looking to fill skilled positions, such as pilots and engineers, with experienced staff from the UK and could potentially have a detrimental effect here. With other industries set to expand in these countries at the same rate, it is therefore likely that other niche job boards in the UK could also be in for some foreign interest.