Employers need to be smart in how they use job portals

Celeste Sirin

Job portals are beginning to see the advantages of assisting their clients to package, position and elevate their employer brands - creating more awareness within active candidate markets and curious passive candidate markets.

Leading job portals will soon be providing companies with the opportunity to proactively make their company value proposition more readily available and accessible to the candidate public. Candidates have been starved of critical information regarding potential employers and specific job value propositions that will assist them in making incisive decisions; information at their finger-tips is what candidates are looking for in order to support their thinking when reading and applying for jobs online.

Companies that take advantage of this and ultimately disrupt this space will be the ones who lead in aggressively defining their competitive edge and unique differentiators and reap the rewards, i.e. securing critical talent. Capitalising on this opportunity can give employers the perfect vehicle and platform to showcase their compelling employer brand and excite candidates about working for their company. Job portals that recognise this competitive advantage and embrace this opportunity will be sure to get more feet through their door.

Perfect environment

This is also the perfect environment for recruiters to lay down the foundation in educating, informing and exciting their audience about the employer as 'a great place to work', simultaneously with or before embarking on a recruitment drive. A lot can be said about rolling out unique differentiators to the candidate public, with a view to creating intrigue, excitement and huge opportunities before looking at resourcing, be it on an immediate requirement or an exercise of pipeline fulfilment.

The secret is to create a presence and build on this by ensuring that the information does not remain static, is fresh, updated and informative. Let's face it - industry leaders are reinventing themselves on an ongoing basis. This exciting innovation and progression needs to be shared with work-seekers.

With the growth of job portals and social media channels, companies have a fair amount of platforms from which to choose and if clever will utilise these channels which best suit their target audience. The problem for both the job seeker as well as the recruiter is that one often finds it quite daunting upon entering these sites, as they are often presented with difficult navigation.

Whether you are an employer looking to fill a scarce skill within your organisation or a work seeker looking for job opportunities, the experience might not always be great. The ability to navigate around these channels/sites, accessing relevant information easily and painlessly is ultimately what your audience is looking for.

Composition of content

Upon the work seeker finding their perfect job in question, often the content of the advert is badly written, without much thought process given to the composition of the content including selling points of the employer and role. In addition to this one often finds full, lengthy and detailed job descriptions posted that look indifferent from other adverts.

Bad mistake, especially when people are faced with so much information coming at them at one time through various electronic platforms. Serious attention needs to be given to the quality of online recruitment advertising that is presently taking place within the recruitment industry.

Recruiters, whether they are recruitment agencies or corporates, are making little effort in differentiating the employer and taking time to creatively compose exciting, thought provoking and unique ads. Little time is given to constructing compelling employer value propositions, outlining why the employer stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Companies that realise this have a better chance of winning talent over. Short, punchy, informative company and job value propositions coupled with role requirements (not long-winded obvious key performance areas) will be noticed more readily and receive a better response both in quantity and quality.

Start educating

Take the time, do not merely 'cut and paste' - start educating the candidate public about your company's structure, accolades, achievements and growth prospects with cutting edge differentiators. This will impress and be noticed by candidates.

The temptation of candidates overlooking one ad and moving to the next is unlikely if the ad hits them fair and square between the eyes with exactly what the company and role is offering them. In instances where recruiters are unable to mention the employer in the advert, the essence of the job value proposition is even more crucial in gaining attention.

Companies need to realise that the online job portal/social media space provides all employers with the same opportunity to reach their market. To stand out and gain attention employers need to be smart in how they use this online space. Don't get sucked in to using old recruitment advertising philosophies merely because it is easier.

It is, however, comforting to note that a handful of leading job portals have recognised the need to change the conventional outlook and mindset of their customers. Foremost they are starting to consult with their customers on building their employer brand awareness and providing a platform for employers to embed creative, exciting and compelling employer and job value propositions in their adverts.

With passive resourcing being the future trend in sourcing scarce skills, companies that take advantage of this will no doubt win the attention of potential candidates.