The Internet has always had the potential for radically changing the recruitment industry, but it is only now that the first signs of real and significant change are being seen. To put it bluntly, a straightforward job board posting which effectively uses the Internet to do the same job as paper, does very little to enhance the recruiting experience for recruiter or applicant. The only real benefit may be a lower cost per viewer of that job information or, through the use of niche job boards, a higher incidence of reaching interested and qualified applicants. Of far more importance to today’s job seekers, and therefore to employers is the use of blogging, social networking techniques and other initiatives grouped under the ‘Web 2.0’ umbrella. These techniques are enabling recruiters to find greater quality candidates and source those candidates in new ways.

Web 2.0

The term ‘Web 2.0’ broadly covers some of the new ways in which the internet is being used. In general the term denotes a more participatory element to web functions and content. No longer do you simply find a web page with the information you require, you add to that information, join the discussion, even take the content from that page and use it on a page elsewhere. Information no longer comes from one source - anyone can comment on anything - and it is up to the reader to decide what importance to attach to that information. Social networking sites such as MySpace, Bebo and even LinkedIn are part of this trend, offering the opportunity for everyone to publish information about themselves and meet other users online. However, according to Adele Poole at Hot Lizard, simply jumping on these existing sites is not the way for recruiters to drive value from Web 2.0.

“The movement has been spurred on by the likes of MySpace and LinkedIn,” she says, “but there is also the realisation that those spaces don’t actually deliver much to the recruitment industry - they’re too general. However, if you build you own specialised community using that kind of technology then that model becomes extremely valuable.”

The rise in corporate blogs - web pages where employees post reflections on their working lives - and employment related forums are testament to this. PwC and Cadbury Schweppes both have blogs and while offering the organisation an indication of how well they’re doing as an employer, they also provide an effective way for potential employees to meet the company and decide whether they would fit into their culture. Ms Poole notes the corporates are also investing in talent banking systems - systems which attract and retain potential applicants, keeping them warm for future opportunities and ensuring the employer’s brand is well maintained.

“To get the best out of the technology you still need to spend money,” says Poole, “There’s a lot of commoditisation of standard features but anything that adds value or differentiates you from the others puts the cost up.” Interestingly, one idea which seems to have fallen by the wayside is the idea that great candidates could be found among people who aren’t actively looking for work. Social networking sites certainly provide access to these kind of people, but they have not proved to be the great resource anticipated. Indeed there have been cases where recruitment messages have been less than welcome - delivering a consequent negative impact on the employer’s brand. “Any approach through these kind of sites has to be gentle,” explains Felix Wetzel of Jobsite, “If you don’t make that kind of consideration you can end up damaging your organisation.”

Longer reach

Alistair Cartwright, commercial director at Enhance Media, maintains Web 2.0 can provide access to candidates previously difficult to reach. “Ten years ago you had to think hard about how you would market to people from an ethnic background, to older workers or the younger generation,” he says, “Now there are websites targeted specifically at those groups.”

Cartwright believes the general job boards will become the mainstream media of the future, informing job hunters who is recruiting and where, while potential applicants will then use more specialists sites - either smaller job boards or corporate sites - to find out more and guide them through the application process. “If you stick to a job board alone you will only reach a marginal section of the population,” he warns, “Right now there’s an opportunity for corporates to take the lead on strategically placed websites - so few companies are taking advantage of these techniques those who do can market themselves to candidates their competitors have yet to contact.”

As the internet fragments and expands into ever more niche markets the opportunity exists for new innovations and services to grow which essentially link these areas together. Idibu.com offers recruiters the ability to use a single form to post opportunities across a diverse range of job boards and to monitor the response from each board. “There has been a proliferation of net systems,” says Steve Walker, Idibu’s founder and director, “Even though the internet is meant to be open and accessible developers create code in different ways so you still have incompatible systems. What we’re trying to do is knit those systems together.”

Specialist motor trade recruiters Perfect Placement have experienced great efficiencies and impressive response times using Idibu’s solution. “We can now post to 11 or 12 sites at once,” says CEO Lisa Unstead. “Because we’re a niche company our posts can be time-consuming to fill out, the categories and sub-categories are quite involved. Idibu made the effort to speak with our suppliers and have adapted the process to suit us.” As a result, a posting task that used to take more than an hour can now be carried out in under ten minutes. Testament to the effectiveness of the technique, Perfect Placement itself has filled internal vacancies within 48 hours using the same system. “We still advertise on Monster, Fish4Jobs and TotalJobs because of their presence in the market place,” notes Unstead, “But there are half a dozen more specialist sites we’ve used and that’s where Idibu has made a difference.”

Futurology

Looking to the future, Steve Walker explains one important facet of his company’s internet presence lies in APIs or Application Programming Interfaces. It is through these links that different systems on the internet can communicate with each other, sharing content and functionality. “With the right API our core technology can go into other systems and be used seamlessly,” he says, “You can start using the core product on job boards or corporate sites and use us as a Mash-up Technology.”

If the concept of a Mash-Up technology is getting too technical, it’s good to know Web 2.0 has also seen the arrival of more simple propositions. Zubka.com, for example, offers a space where registered users can make candidate referrals to posted vacancies. If a candidate is employed as a result, the referrer earns a fee - between 6 and 8 per cent of base salary. At the moment the highest fee achievable stands at £12,000 and over £1m worth of fees are waiting to be earned from the posted vacancies.

According to founder David Shieldhouse, the site has the potential to either blow open the recruitment market place or offer recruiters a great new way to source candidates. Indeed, the question has already been asked as to whether someone could make a living through working on Zubka alone. “Companies don’t have a problem with this because often their candidates come from personal recommendation anyway,” says Shieldhouse, “All Zubka does is take that referral process online and provide an appropriate financial reward.”

General v niche

One of Zubka’s strengths lies in the fact that while it is a general website - any vacancies can be posted and anyone can make a referral - it also provides an excellent niche marketing tool. If a candidate is sought within a specific industry the system will automatically inform all referrers with an interest in that area. As with LinkedIn and other networking sites, the value of the site and its ability to fill vacancies will grow as the number of site users grow. “The success is dependent on scale,” admits Shieldhouse, “You need a lot of referrals - so while five thousand users is great, you really want that figure to grow to be millions.”

There is no doubt that the way in which the internet is used in recruitment will continue to diversify and expand over the next few years and it should be remembered that this is still a relatively new medium through which recruitment takes place. While the idea of technology ‘Mash-ups’ is taking hold of the internet the idea of taking techniques from other industries and mixing them with recruitment practices is already high on the agenda for Felix Wetzel. “We already have high street retail experts offering advice on the design of our website,” he says, “Whenever I experience good customer service - in a shop or cafe - I think about how that experience could be delivered online.” At the end of the day, the result of this kind of new thinking and interplay of ideas will not just change the look and function of a recruitment website, it has the power to influence the way the industry itself operates.