I remember in 1992 when the "world wide web" (the term internet had not been invented yet) was touted as a game changer for recruiting. And it was true.....for a time. There was Monster, then Careerbuilder but two was not enough, the job board industry realized that they could carve up the universe into bite sized pieces and convince recruiting departments that they had to be part of this movement in order to get closer to the talent they seek.
And millionaires were made.
Today, we've seen a proliferation of niche job boards (to the tune of over 45,000 available) and the promise of the web (automate and create efficiency) has all but gone by the wayside.
Allow me to explain via example:
I have an Oracle DBA position I need to fill in Omaha, Nebraska. I'm going to pay this person $105K a year. Ready - go find them on the boards.
I have to search;
1. at least one BIG BOARD (my hiring manager wants to know I'm doing my job and if I'm not searching one, I'm failing according this dinosaur)
2. DICE - this is where the Techies live
3. The Ladders or 6-Figure jobs - I'm paying $105K remember?
4. Omahatechjobs.com - Don't know if this exists but it probably does - you get the point
5. OracleDBAgurus.com - Ditto
6. my own network of DBA's - none of whom are in Omaha nor want to relocate in November
7. yada yada yada
Get it? By creating access to the universe, the world wide web put talent at our fingertips. By carving it up into tiny chunks (and charging us to look at every chunk) the job board industry has accomplished three things;
A. Made a TON of money in the last 5-7 years - all from Corporate America's recruiting budgets
B. Created a confusing and frustrating world for Job seekers
C. Reduced the efficiency of Corporate Recruiters (see example above)
Thanks!
But why has this happened? Basically it's a technology issue. We are still using the same technology (keyword search and boolean search strings matching two really poorly written documents - resume and job description) that we used in 1995. Because if you have "too large of a database" of people, your technology can't get you closer to the right person. Thus, you divide up the database into micro-chunks (over40jobs.com, mommyjobs.com etc.) and the simplistic technology we have can get you closer to the right population.
Capiche?
The "Yeah So" part.
SO, the solution to this unsustainable model is to remove the invisible barriers, the walls so to speak, put around the sub populations and use evlolved technology to do the parsing of talent.
The "Result" part.
The results would astounding;
1. Single place for Job Seeker to go to be found for a job by any company according to their personal desires and work styles.
2. Single place for recruiters to go to search and pull back "interview-ready" talent; pre-interested, pre-qualfied and perfect for the job you have today or will have tomorrow.
3. No more post and pray - searching becomes first action because it works.
4. Dramatically less cost to Recruiting Departments - DRAMATICALLY
5. Dramatically more efficiency and ROI or Recruiting Departments
6. Lots of niche job board owners in the database looking for jobs.
It's time we put technology to use for Recruiting. Not the same technology re-branded or bundled into an "algorithm" but something really different, really simple and really NEW.
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