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96% of Recruiters source Candidates through mainstream Job Boards

Posted By: Thomas Shaw, 10:30pm Wednesday 04 November 2009    Print Article

The RCSA has just released the latest Quarterly Business Manager Survey results for the 3rd Quarter 2009. Contained within the past 2 surveys, is a question regarding the "media used to source candidates". Although the survey is only a small sample of Recruitment Agencies across Australia & New Zealand, I have grouped together the past 2 survey results, to better represent any trends over the past 6 months.

I would encourage the RCSA to continue to refine the existing sources (grouping Social Networking sites) and expand to include Resume Databases, Print Media etc.

The majority of respondents (96%) source candidates through mainstream job boards followed by networking events (76%) and in-house & niche job boards (69%).

However, the RCSA statistics only show the "media used to source candidates". It is unknown if these candidates turned into successful placements or if the agency correctly identified the original candidate source. There is a considerable (placement conversion) difference in comparing the Source of Talent 2009 survey to the RCSA survey results.

3rd Qtr 2009 - 201 responses, data collection began early October 2009 and completed 16 October 2009
2nd Qtr 2009
- 184 responses, data collection began early July 2009 and completed 30 July 2009







Source of Hire: Employers vs Recruiters, Source of Talent 2009 survey

There are distinct differences between how employers and recruitment firms source talent. Employers have a high dependence on internal recruitment teams. Anecdotal evidence suggested that internal recruiters are mainly former recruitment staff from agencies. For both employers and recruiters, job boards remain the main source of talent.

Agencies rely on job boards more significantly with 40% of talent coming through online job boards, while corporations are significantly lower at 24.35%. Recruiters seem to be a lot savvier with social media and networks than employers. Social media climbed up to rank as the 12th most successful source of talent for recruiters. In the case of employers it remains at the bottom of the list, with only 0.24% of total hires coming through from social media or networks. Overall, employers make better use of their corporate website than recruiters. Websites ranked no 3 for employers while it stands at no 5 for recruiters.







Article URL: http://www.recruitmentdirectory.com.au/Blog/96-percent-of-recruiters-source-candidates-through-mainstream-job-boards-a291.html

Article Tags: rcsa rcsa.com.au candidate sources sources of talent survey talentsource.com.au job boards social networking niche job boards networking events referrals statistics ih-house job board refer a friend business networking sites trade magazines virtual communication channels rcsa quarterly business manager survey

Comments Hide Comments (7)

Feel free to join in on the conversation. All comments are moderated before publishing. Comments posted by subscribers don't necessarily reflect the views of Recruitment Directory.

 Ann Nolan (9:23am Friday 06 November 2009)

Interesting stats and not quite sure of what the sampling demographics were or indeed if a random sample of employees was used however my experience from other SME is that they are using social media now not mainstream job boards.

As in social media I mean Twitter, LinkedIn and FB in particular. I know a few instances of where SME were seeking staff and rather than go to often costly recruiters they simply tweeted or posted their need for someone among their online network. A week later staff were employed. In time I can really see social media becoming a real threat to mainstream job boards.

I'm still amazed that SEEK and CareerOne have no strong Twitter presence for example. It's arrogance on their behalf I am sure and possibly mistaken belief that they should continue to do what they do and then no one can enter their patch. Problem is the patch is shifting - rapidly and with it all that fantastic talent.

Ann
http://www.bricksandclicks.com.au


 Thomas Shaw (1:34pm Friday 06 November 2009)

Hi Ann, the survey was taken by RCSA member companies. I would assume this being the owner/manager who has access to financials and the like. Download and read the survey results (see link in the blog post)

3rd Qtr 2009 - 201 responses, data collection began early October 2009 and completed 16 October 2009

2nd Qtr 2009 - 184 responses, data collection began early July 2009 and completed 30 July 2009

The latest Nielsen NetRatings statistics show that job boards are increasing readership. Not decreasing due to social media channels. See my previous blog post for the latest Job Board Statistics - Oct 09

There are plenty of Australian Job Boards on Twitter, have a search for #jobs

Cheers. Thomas


 Kelly (4:09pm Monday 09 November 2009)

Hi Thomas thanks for the data and post very interesting indeed. I must admit I am very shocked when I learn of recruiters that just use one main job board for candidate sourcing. It does not seem to be a strategic way to source talent for your clients yet is very common. Granted they use candidate referrals and so on however for many it’s their primary candidate source. What are your thoughts on only using only one job site exclusively? Kelly


 Thomas Shaw (5:16pm Monday 09 November 2009)

Using one job site exclusively can isolate your talent pool. If you look at the survey the other way around - it shows opportunities for recruiters to take advantage of the other mediums.

I don't believe recruiters understand what other mediums (or niche job boards) exist in the industry. It's a pity, because niche sites do work.


 Lachlan McNeill (8:21am Tuesday 10 November 2009)

Obviously the figures show that 96% of agencies post adverts on the main jobboards, not that this is where candidates come from or whether this is their only channel. It is simply logical if you are using other channels or even the press to put an advert on SEEK, etc. as well because people will often check there for details.

If you are spending $2 - 3k for a one advert in print, it is a nobrainer to cover this for the following month with a few extra dollars on the jobboards. If we received less than 10% of the press response, it would still make sense.

On the odd occasion when we have used print or twitter and not Seek, we have received calls saying "I looked on Seek and couldn't find anything". The only time we don't is when it is a graduate role (flooded) or a bit covert.

If a company offered a jobboard with adverts for $1 and automatic loading, they would have huge uptake - would this make it the most effective? I don't think so.

Would you use it? ...Probably.


 Kunal Malhotra (9:09am Tuesday 24 November 2009)

Re Graph 8: Source of Hire

One thing I'd like to clarify is how do you attribute 16-17% of the hires to an internal recruiter / 9% to recruitment firms, without also attributing them to another source?

Does this mean essentially, we don't capture the source of over 25% of the hires correctly?

Or does this mean that 25% of the candidates are passive ones, which are either headhunted by an internal recruiter or by an external search firm? But then again, where did they locate these candidates - networks, Linkedin, blogs... where?


 doureally needtoknow (3:34am Sunday 14 February 2010)

If you take the results as being accurate, online job boards are the only medium worth utilizing. "Other events", an incredibly vague and somewhat pointless category scores much better than the much hyped social network sites. For me, I'll stick with SEEK.


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