How can job boards attract the good passive seeker in this climate of uncertainty

By Steve Evans, Mediafigures.co.uk

What's the silver bullet for attracting the passive job seeker online? Now more than ever, there is a distinct difference between the active and passive job seeker and I want to talk about some ideas for how job boards can attract and sell the concept of ìpassiveî seeker sourcing and headhunting services through their sites.

I thought about this a lot after digesting the most recent NORAS results (job seekers turn to the internet shock, again!!!), the focus and terminology, as always, is on ìlookingî. Nearly all of the emphasis in job board technology development and sales strategy in the past 10 years has been placed on the active seeker. That's fine when the market is buoyant - when, by increasing eyeballs onto a site you increase applications, job alerts and CV registrations - using these stats to drive advertising. And as I have said before, the job boards have had it relatively easy for the past 10 years, so not needed to change this model.

But how do you address the fact that not all of the best people will now be actively looking and your current business model focus is on the increased numbers of active seekers? I discussed before thoughts on the future of online recruitment and mentioned that we will begin to see a return of the traditional recruitment techniques in recruitment consultancies. Any decent headhunt business will point out that a lot of good talent will not be looking as actively as before for fear of the unknown in this current climate, happy to stay where they are, unless directly approached.

I think that there could be 3 immediate ways in which online recruitment could focus on increasing and monetising their passive candidate intake.

1. Create a discreet headhunt specific part of the site. Create a part of your site that is entirely discreet, where potential candidates can register to be headhunted for specific, relevant jobs, a ìmake me an offerî section. Candidates create an anonymous CV that highlights their skills, experiences and job demands. These guys can be promoted to a select band of DIRECT clients, who have paid through for this VIP service, to then contact them directly with their highlighted job (again opportunity for double dipping revenue options). I can see this working best for the niche legal, finance, etc sites.

2. Improve your relationship with your database. I am registered as a candidate with a number of sites to see how they work, I am always sold to, never advised. I would strongly recommend understanding your database and start to add value to them. Provide salary surveys, industry content, update on news, build trust (not just sending them emails which are not read). I would look at ways in which I could find out as much as I can, are they still looking, would they consider a move for money, what are their fears and concerns? Make some phone calls! That way if you can get to a point where you can know which jobs could be highlighted to whom at which point, not just blanket ads. Add value.

3. Effective in-contextual advertising. If have you have a job board linked to relevant content, this is a massive way of charging premium and really drawing in the passive candidates. If I am reading an article about recruitment aquisitions and a recruitment director role appears - I am more likely to view it, because of the relevance to me, the reader. I know that many of you reading this will say you are doing this (Emap, CMPi, Haymarket, Guardian, Haymarket and the rest), but I don't think that you are not doing it well enough. It needs to be manual, it needs to be sold, not promoted via an xml feed, it needs to be RELEVANT to the reader otherwise it is just another ad. I know this is not always possible with daily updates, but it can be done when sold at a premium for weekly positioned ads against content that resonates.

And I know all about the likes of jobfox or jobster screaming that one day we will all create active profiles to be hunted. But there are many reasons why it hasnít, and wonít work in the UK, which I am happy to talk about over a beer or two, but too much to go into now.

Again, as ever, hope this has posed provided some thoughts and your comments and feedback are welcome and appreciated. And happy to link up with anyone and talk about this in more detail.

By Steve Evans, Mediafigures.co.uk