Jobs.co.za, South Africa's Job Portal - today announces the launch of their pioneering new Job Application Filter as part of their existing application filtering suite.


With the unemployment rate in South Africa currently at its highest in over 25 years it is estimated that around 1,0 million Job Seekers lost their jobs in the last year as a result of the recession, and with January and February typically known as the peak job-hunting season there is an abundance of skilled and un-skilled Job Seekers (both unemployed and employed) currently on the job market.


Before the recession, job seekers were careful not to apply for jobs that they were not suited to, however with so many desperate job seekers out there, companies are now being inundated with job applications, many of which are not suitably qualified or skilled for the positions they are applying for. Gillian Meier, CEO of Jobs.co.za says: "Many companies that we are servicing are desperate to have access to smarter filtering capabilities. In a recent survey conducted amongst South African employers and recruiters, automatic application screening and filtering tools were by far the most important feature on their recruitment wish lists."


Jobs.co.za already offers its clients the ability to apply a set of Q&A type pre-screening questions that Job Seekers are required to answer before they can complete the application process. The results of which sets the tone for exactly what the recruiter is looking for from the job applicant, thereby immediately initiating the short-listing process. In addition to the pre-screening questions, Jobs.co.za has just released its unique Job Application Email Filtering feature which has been designed to allow the recruiter the ability to automatically block (filter) unsuitable applicants from being sent to the recruiters email inbox. The applications still remain in the online application management suite for consideration; however the recruiter's mailbox is no longer bombarded with unsuitable applications.


To further reduce time spent on sourcing potential candidates, Jobs.co.za has improved the functionality of their matching tool. The system gathers information from the job advertisement and then runs an automated database search through active job seeker profiles for matching criteria such as current & target job titles, current and desired job categories, desired salary range, location and job type, and then presents relevant matches to the recruiter automatically in real-time as and when new job seekers enter the database.


Intelligent screening and filtering tools such as these are already very common features among most international job boards; however many South African service providers have not yet become as pioneering as their international counterparts. Continues Meier, "We are aware that a few of our local competitors do offer some kind of matching or profiling tools to assist recruiters in either better profiling the competencies of the applicant, or to bring potential matching candidates to the forefront, however we are not aware of any other local online recruitment solution provider that offers a range of screening, filtering and matching tools as comprehensive as Jobs.co.za."


Dionna, a US recruiter who has been recruiting for fortune 100 companies for the past 7 years as both an in-house corporate recruiter and on the agency side says that it is not unusual for companies to get hundreds or even thousands of applicants for one job ad of which only about 10% or less might be qualified for the position. Says Donna: "It is a horribly tedious process to wade through the hundreds of unsuitable applications which becomes a mammoth task for recruiters."


Meier says: "Recruiters and hiring managers are no longer interested in quantity applications, they want quality responses. Many of our clients would be delighted if we cut down the amount of time that they waste sorting through irrelevant CV's and applicants through the availability of screening and filtering tools. The local industry is extremely competitive, and with recruiters and employers often comparing us to larger job boards, it is essential that our strategy continues to not only focus on taking the job advertisement to the passive job seekers even from outside of our job board, but also that we focus on enhancing capabilities to filter out any unsuitable applications quickly."


While a number of smaller recruiters and employers might still be focusing on building up their CV database, the more established recruiters and employers will certainly benefit from the time and money saved on pre-screening candidates.