In 2020, the highest number of unemployed people in Canada were out of a job for more than a year. Finding work for such individuals can be an arduous task for job sites. Firstly, recruiters do not generally gravitate towards the long-term unemployed. Organizations looking to strengthen their workforce will always prefer to have workers who have been active until as recently as possible. In fact, a lot of employers even look to poach workers who are currently employed. Secondly, the individuals themselves may not have the knowledge and expertise to work in organizations in which operational requirements are constantly evolving.
All these factors only add to the high unemployment rates across the country while negatively affecting the morale of such persons at the same time. While doing so may be tricky, job sites can use a few ideas to help these kinds of unemployed individuals, such as:
Enlisting jobs vacancies that prioritize competency
In what can be considered a vicious cycle, job-seeking candidates do not get hired due to a lack of recent experience. The cycle completes itself as not holding a job over a long-term starves such individuals of work experience. To solve this, boards must enlist more and more jobs on their online platforms which prioritize competency in workers. Such companies may or may not be overly concerned about a candidate’s recent work experience. Organizations that carry out blind-hiring drives should be listed on a job board’s website to help the long-term unemployed. Blind hiring is a recruitment process that intends to eliminate biases during a recruitment process. Companies such as HSBC, Deloitte, BBC, and Google are increasingly moving towards blind recruitment to get their hands on the best talent in the market. Job feeds in Canada can include such companies to help long-term unemployed individuals.
Improving choice of words on the job sites
We know that if a person is out of work for a long time, they may question their abilities and competencies. It is dangerously common for such individuals to get depressed and have other harmful tendencies due to a lack of self-worth. While listing open vacancies on their websites, job boards can be empathetic in their choice of words so that long-term unemployed do not feel worse about themselves. Job boards can make their sites more useable for such individuals in the following ways:
- Avoiding phrases such as “actively employed” or “only for the currently employed” in job postings.
- Reducing the number of search filters may require candidates to provide extensive details of their current employer.
- Incorporating screening methods that test a candidate’s skill levels.
These changes can be displayed on job feeds in Canada in uncomplicated ways (such as job posts made through XML feeds).
As you can see, it is not impossible for job boards to help individuals who have been out of work for longer periods. We at Propellum make sure that our postings on top job sites across the world, such as LinkedIn, Monster.com, and JobsintheUS.com, can be used by job seekers regardless of their employment status. You can contact us to know more about our job automation services.
