R21 media
Recruitment in the digital age
UK’s largest
Online Recruitment
advertising agency
specialising in the
FE sector
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New Media Age: Hire Thinking
Author: Jennifer Whitehead | Source: NMA magazine | Published: 30.10.08
Top tips for SMEs when recruiting - how to tailor your strategy around the internet.
Recruitment advertising isn't going digital, it's well and truly there. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, as of the end of the last year corporate websites had overtaken local newspapers as the most common method of attracting candidates, used by 75% of organisations. The same research showed that recruiters prefer technology because it cuts costs, broadens their selection pool and speeds up hiring.
This means ad agencies specialising in recruitment have to change. They're now competing in a world where it's cheap and easy to advertise on multiple job boards, and employers expect to recruit staff at a much lower cost.
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A more cynical view about the digital developments in big recruitment ad agencies is that they're having to chose between evolution and death. With the general economic downturn meaning less competition for staff, companies don't feel the need to pay as much to recruit, at least in the short term. But it's also down to longer-term trends. Graduates are moving between jobs more frequently, meaning the cost of recruitment needs to fall.
Richard Collins, MD of Recruitment21, says, "Many traditional agencies are way behind the curve due to their business model. There's a lot more money to be made sticking an ad on the front page of The Times than on job websites, and they don't really look on the internet and job boards as a direct-response medium."