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?