Reducing Recruitment Spend

An Ask the Expert feature with Attract HR

Employers are beginning to catch on to the benefits of being found online. Darren Revell, CEO of Attract HR, tells us how to exploit this recruitment revolution using LongTail search engine optimization.

“Research shows that 38 million people in the USA and over 40 million in Europe use career-related searches every day”
-Darren Revell, CEO of Attract HR

In 2007 U S employers spent the equivalent of $ 10 0 + billion with the recruitment industry. In addition $ 800 + million was spent with job boards. Around 90% of this amount was spent by recruiters, a figure totaling some $ 720 million.

So how do employers gain a strategic advantage and also reduce their recruiting costs? We do not recommend competing with recruiters for job board advertising space, rather we recommend that you learn about how the Internet functions for recruitment. Fifteen years ago, when the first job board came to market, it used word of mouth, existing customers (all recruiters) and advertising in trade publications to promote business. Today, little has changed, they still largely rely on their biggest clients (recruiters) and, worse still, they use pay-per-click advertising on Google and the like. What few have done is fully exploit the 'natural' or 'organic' search, marketing based on recruitment-specific search engine optimization, to target traffic from job seekers. Even fewer use LongTail search engine optimization (LTSEO). This is 'a sleeping giant' of a service, largely untapped by any one company or sector, but which has the power to cut recruitment costs by as much as 70%. Recruiters, job boards and employers work on a level playing field when looking to gain results from LTSEO. There are no barriers to entry and it is the equivalent of the recruitment gold rush.

What is LTSEO?

At some time or other we all use the Internet to search for a service, a product or information of some kind. Attract's research shows that 3 8 million people in the USA and over 40 million in Europe use career-related searches every day. In the case of searching for jobs, this should mean jobseekers search Google, Yahoo or MSN for terms like 'nursing jobs'. However while in the US there are some 100 million searches for 'n ursing j obs' in Google alone, the LongTail examples lead into potentially billions of examples of searches. M oreover these LongTail exam ples give you the best return. Sound complicated? Well its not, its really simple in fact all you have to do is have the spiders index your jobs. It could not be simpler.

No longer does the typical Internet user need to get bogged down with page upon page of irrelevant results by using generic searches. What they have now realized is that by using more literal search terms, based on what exactly matches their needs, the quality of result has real value to them. As a result, most Internet users, what we deem an aware market, are now only searching for exactly what they want, where they want it. Today's career seeker using the Internet is now more likely to search for the job title and the relevant geographic location they wish to work in such as 'nursing jobs in Portland', and it is these types of terms that are defined as long-tail searches.

Essential rules

Optimize your career pages.
99.5% of all employers' career pages reviewed by Attract have no preparation and/or presence on the web when it comes to search engine recognition.

Give them what they want.
There are 3.8 million people in the UK who run career related searches per day. Showcase the vacant jobs so they may be found or at least encourage them to register now for jobs you will have later/next hiring cycle.

Allow all communication styles.
Most career pages reviewed by Attract HR have limiting text-only files. We live in the media age. Access to video, audio, presentation tools and multiple communication styles are everywhere. One size does not fit all when it comes to communication.

Build future talent pools.
Encourage people to register with your recruitment team, not only for hire now, but in the future. When using tools like those on offer from Attract HR, you can then store, retrieve, communicate, network and ultimately hire people over the short, medium and long term.

In summary, there is no valid reason not to promote employment within your company directly to those who are seeking employment. The power of the web makes it possible for you to achieve the balance of quality/quantity of talent upon demand.

Darren Revell is CEO of Attract HR an international provider of end-to-end solutions and services for recruiters, HR experts and professional service providers. The development philosophy of Attract HR enables minimization of the risks that linking technology and business strategy together can bring. The company's ultimate mission is to increase performance, enhance the functionality and/or improve the most advanced web tools to deliver measurable results to our customers. For further information contact rev@attract-hr.com or visit www.attract-hr.com.

Online recruitment myths

Shedding light on some popular misconceptions
We don't have the volume of jobs required.
The volume of hires you make in one year will have an impact on the way Google and its peers treat you for highly competitive markets. It is the combination of the search words used that holds the key. For example, in Google, at the time of writing this article, there were 9.1 million web pages for nursing jobs in the Google index but for ' RN jobs Dallas' there were 115. At this level of competition, even the smallest of hospitals or hospices could compete.

By going online, we will receive many irrelevant job applications.
This does not happen. By the nature of how people search for jobs using the exact job title, term or phrase in combination with specific location choices, we can demonstrate to you that optimizing your job descriptions will reduce irrelevant applications.

We can't compete with recruitment agencies and job boards.
Why would you want to? Recruiters have their place in the market, as do the job boards. All we are suggesting is that you don't waste money and time. Recruiters are essential for temporary hires, the law and time honored payment of the employee dictate this. Some job boards have such a high volume of accurate return that the fee is only charged at the point at which you receive a relevant application. We just ask that you look to your own website to build relationships with people directly, instead of passing them to an industry which will charge you a fee, and an environment where your needs are placed on display with endless competition.

What do LTSEO results look like?

The following results have been measured from recruiters' websites, job boards and employer career pages.
Trend 1. 60-90% of people who use generic search terms don't register for employment.
Trend 2. 70% of people who have used an LTSEO search register for work and the accuracy/quality of the individual is high.
Trend 3. LTSEO produces consistently higher levels of quality applications than other forms of web promotion.
Trend 4. LTSEO and normal SEO consistently produce results at the lowest cost/highest yield.
Trend 5. LTSEO will produce anywhere from 100 to 100,000 more times the results than generic web searching.