A community divided?

Nov 20 2001 by Brian Amble Print This Article

You want to reach a pan- European audience? Your problems are over.

Internet recruitment is a fantastic tool - there are no geographical

boundaries, it’s open and available to everyone and it’s the one

true international, all- embracing medium we have. Amazing!

Or so everyone thought it would be a few years back. But it

transpires that many recruiters are still sceptical and lack the hard facts that

would make them more comfortable in committing their pressurised budgets

to the web.

Those that have leapt in have certainly provided everyone else with

valuable lessons learned. They have discovered what others feared - that

different nationalities and cultures, living and working in different markets

use the Internet in very different ways. Their attitudes to job hunting on the

web vary. Their barriers to usage also differ.

These issues merely scratch the surface. What’s been the impact of

the web on traditional European recruitment media? How has the traditional

employment marketing mix changed? And how do you formulate a global

recruitment strategy when you’re suddenly without defined anchor points?

Many clients are asking for advice on these issues - understandably

keen to put some science into the planning process. So, taking the bull by

the horns, we decided to find out exactly what’s going on not just in the UK,

but across Europe - to track current Internet recruitment usage and to create

a template which will help our HR clients put together high impact

recruitment strategies. The kind of information we needed, though, didn’t

exist. There was plenty of sound bites about the domestic market - but there

was no comparative pan- European on- line recruitment study available.

‘Euro Facts 2001’ was born out of this need for a

clearer understanding of where we are and where

we’re going. We partnered with The Guardian to

develop the survey and through the Bernard Hodes

Global Network and Guardian European media

partners, we created an in-paper questionnaire

which was carried in seven major publications

across five key European markets.

We crossed our fingers hoping for a

good response and weren’t disappointed. Almost

5,500 replies came flowing in, balanced across five

countries. 58% of respondents were from a Services

background, 23% in Primary/ Manufacturing and

19% in the Public Sector. The majority of respondents

were aged between 25 and 44, with 71% of them

male, 28% female and a worrying 1% unsure.

What did the results tell us? A lot more than

we expected, actually. And not just about attitudes

to Internet recruitment, but also how potential

candidates currently search for jobs, how they

expect this to change, and an insight into some

very interesting cultural differences.

First let’s look at Internet usage. Across the

survey, 58% of Internet users had already used the

Internet for job hunting - and currently ranked this

sixth in their top ten reasons for logging on. Over

60% of respondents felt they would use the

Internet for job hunting in the future and the UK

had the highest incidence of Internet job hunters -

78% of respondents, followed by Ireland, then

Germany, France and Spain. So there’s no doubt

that web recruitment activity is on the increase

right across Europe.

Not surprisingly the overwhelming majority use

national newspapers to find career opportunities and

felt they still would in the future. All of these stated

national press as their most valuable source of job

leads - however only 35% of total respondents rated

national press as their most valued source and

respondents felt strongly that they would use job

centres far less in the future. Germans stand out

from other nationalities in their love of job fairs and

these continue to grow in popularity.

Of course it’s still early days, and only 3%

agreed with the statement that, ‘the Internet is the

only source you need to find the job you want’.

True convergence between the two media appears

to be emerging in the UK - an impressive 82% said

that they expect to use national press in the future

and the exact same percentage said they would

also use the Internet.

So what can we glean from these statistics? It’s

not so much that candidates are migrating to the

web - more that they are integrating their sources

and combining techniques.

So the key implication for recruiters is the need

to roll out multi- media campaigns and not simply

rely on one or the other. Of course, in the future

the importance of the Internet as a job hunting tool

is set to grow. However, its rate of growth and

place in the employment marketing mix will vary

country by country. Essentially, the Internet is one

of a growing number of channels to the market -

not the only channel.

The highest expectation of future Internet use

was in Spain, where web recruitment is less mature

than in the UK or Germany, and from our

respondents, currently appears to have the lowest

current usage. This could be telling us that

expectations are highest where there is less maturity.

One pattern we can see emerging is that our

respondents are quite loyal to their preferred

method of job hunting - those that used trade press

felt it was the most valuable, those that used local

press felt it was most valuable. This may seem

blindingly obvious, but it does tell us that candidates

will stay with their tried and tested method of job

hunting and luring them away from their preferred

route will take time, creativity and effort.

We asked our respondents what they felt were

the barriers to Internet usage. It came down to two

main issues: cost and speed of access.

It’s not so much that candidates are migrating

to the web - more that they are integrating

their sources and combining techniques.

... the watchword here seems to be,

when creating a campaign or a

dedicated recruitment site, try to make

life as easy as possible - and be selective

about what’s included in your message.

This was consistent across Europe although most

notable in Spain. Information overload was also an

issue, along with many respondents’ inability to

easily find relevant information. So, the

watchword here seems to be, when creating a

campaign or a dedicated recruitment site, try to

make life as easy as possible - and be selective

about what’s included in your message.

How respondents actually use the Internet

when interacting with recruitment sites varies.

Simply wanting to find out ‘What’s in the market’

ranked highest for all nationalities, except in the

UK, where the number one activity was more

clearly focused - ‘Find a new job’.

For Germans, actually logging on with the intent purpose of finding a new job ranked a relatively lowly number

four, more affirmation that you need to tailor your approach depending on the marketplace. So if Germany is one of your key markets, where most recruitment web users are casual onlookers, you may need more hits to get your hire.

In terms of whether people know what they’re looking for, or rather stumble and fall into your recruitment posting, 53% of respondents found information about recruitment websites from articles in newspapers and magazines. 44% followed up web addresses from ads in traditional media and 40% also said they found their way through search

engines. 35% mentioned word of mouth. So, ask your job board about their PR programme and how many positive column inches they receive - not just about their advertising.

Opinions about the Internet were not all

positive - only 24% of all respondents thought it a

good medium for providing relevant job

vacancies, but 53% agreed that it’s easy to apply

for jobs on- line. Just 31% agreed ‘the job lists on

the Internet are usually current and up- to- date’ -

cynicism may already be taking hold - perhaps

worth noting by on- line media owners!

So, despite the added power of the Internet

in assisting job hunters across Europe, there is an

element of ‘could do better’. Recruiters still need

to tailor their messages to individual markets be it

on- or off- line, to fit each culture.

And if you think it’s complicated now,

the digital age will see the convergence of TV and

mobile Internet media, substantially shifting

the employment marketing mix even further.

Still, no- one fancied a quiet life, did they?

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