Think micro - 11/2001

Every month businesses come up with new and profitable ways to use the World Wide Web. Practices once thought innovative and ground-breaking are being discarded as time-consuming and gimmicky. But one technique introduced three years ago has only come into its own in the past year, and is only now really taking off as recruitment agencies and employers alike see the huge benefits in terms of time and money saved.

A microsite, generally speaking, is a separately promoted part of a larger website, designed to meet separate objectives. Typically, a microsite uses the same server as its hostsite and reflects its design and branding. In recruitment terms, agencies and their clients are waking up to the possibilities offered by a specific clientís campaign microsite linked to the agencyís main site. The microsite - sometimes referred to as a minisite - offers the best alternative for employers who want to recruit over the Internet, and for the agencies who want to retain their relationship with those employers without relinquishing their more traditional methods.

One of the first companies in the field to recognise the benefits of microsites was 4Mat.com, a firm specialising in the creation of recruitment websites. Managing director Giles Guest explained: ëA microsite is, strictly speaking, a website which is built and dedicated to a specific and particular recruitment campaign. From a clientís perspective it provides better informed, and thus better filtered applications. From a consultantís point of view itís streamlined, provides better hooks into an account, and reduces the administrative burden. From a candidateís point of view it saves time - you donít have to work on covering letters and print off copies of your CV - and because it offers more information about the company the applications are self-filtered.í

ëThe information aspect and the increased campaign profile are the key advantagesí, he continued. An ad in the Sunday Times, for example, can only give so much information and competes with many others. But with a microsite: ëthe more information you can give the more filtered the responses will be, the more interested the candidates will be, and the more opportunity there is to sell to candidates.í Fundamentally, it makes filling a vacancy easier. But, he warned, it is vital that companies approach the issue strategically. As one of the pioneers of the microsite, 4Mat.com is able to offer sound consultancy on setting it up and using it, and will train recruitment consultants and put up a profit and loss sheet to prove its worth.

ëSome people tend to view this as a small item, and so think it can be handled by a junior,í he said. ëThatís not the case at all - this mustnít be done on the cheap: itís about using the web to make money and is a really valuable part of the business.í And as a warning to agencies who donít come up to speed on the importance of microsites he pointed out: ëThere are very few companies who really do it well. At a rough count there are microsites for about one in ten of agency clients - that means that nine out of ten are ripe to be handled by an agency which can do it properly!í

One agency which is clearly ëdoing it properlyí is Eden Brown. About a year ago, Eden Brown ran its first microsite campaign, for client London Electricity. It was so successful that a second is planned to run shortly, and Eden Brown is in the process of planning several more microsites for other clients on its own soon to be upgraded site.

Chief executive Ian Wolter has been impressed by the concept of microsites from day one. ëThe reason I first wanted to use them was to do with advertising costs,í he explained. ëIn order to get a big response in the trade magazines you need thousands of pounds worth of advertising. You also need to get enough words into the ad to get people intellectually committed to the jobí.

ëWith a microsite, the way I envisaged using them, is rather than having a whole page in for example New Civil Engineer, I thought we could have a matchbox sized ad on three separate pages, just as a teaser, with the last one giving just the URL of the microsite. Then on the microsite itself, you have room for all the pictures and copy you need. Of course it only works economically if you have the wherewithal to have the microsite done inexpensively, but I thought it was a nice, exciting, different way of doing things.í

The site Eden Brown ran for London Electricityís graduate recruitment campaign was set up to resolve response handling issues. ëLE spends tens of thousands on advertising in a big drive,í explained Mr Wolter. ëYou need a call centre full of people to handle that level of response. We had the call centre, but didnít want to turn over its entire staff to that one job for a whole week - the cost to LE would have been huge!í

Instead, they put the application form on a microsite, and responses arrived on the EB Access database, effectively cutting out three or four hundred 30-minute telephone conversations. ëIn that respect it worked beautifully,í said Mr Wolter. But the online form had an added benefit, he explained. Both EB and LE are strongly active in the field of diversity, and ask applicants to fill in voluntary diversity monitoring forms. The volume of response is typically less than a third, too small a sample for meaningful diversity statistics. ëItís not something we have formally assessed yet,í said Ian. ëBut it would appear that applicants are far more likely to fill in the questionnaire if itís part of an online application form, and itís fairly easy to process them.í

A firm convert to the use of microsites in recruitment, EB has left the original LE microsite up as an example, and is upgrading its own website to enable more microsites, more cheaply - the plan is to have a minimum of four running at any one time.

www.4mat.com