The recruitment industry, just like the rest of civilization, is constantly evolving. And as a job board owner, you might already be aware of this fact. However, what you may not be alert of is the extent of changes that the job industry is undergoing.
And that’s probably because you are too busy trying to keep your day-to-day job board operations running, taking care of every little detail, such as maintaining your job alert software or ensuring that your job board subscribers receive their daily job alerts. And focusing on details and missing out on the big picture can be disadvantageous for you in the long run. That is especially true now when the recruitment industry is poised to morph on an unprecedented scale.
So, check out these next-generation job-seeker and job market trends to set your job board up for continued success:
The rise of the generation Z
The global workforce has bid farewell to the baby boomer generation and is increasingly incorporating millennials. Soon, millennials will make up a majority of the US workforce. And in a few years, it will be time for generation Z to take center stage among the global working population.
In fact, generation Z workers are already entering the workforce today. And from the standpoint of a job board or a recruiter, how different are Gen Z’ers from millennials? Having grown up in different political, technological, and economic eras, millennials and generation Z’ers differ in many aspects. They have different values, priorities, and preferences. This means that they value different aspects of the products and services that they use, which includes job search services.
Gen-Z job seekers, being more technologically advanced than previous generations, demand a simplified job board user experience. They want their job application process to be as streamlined as possible. And the onus is on job boards to provide them with a partially, if not fully, automated job search experience. Your job board should be able to facilitate quick job searches, without compromising on search-result relevance.
One way to do this is to ensure that all jobs are well indexed and made easily accessible. Job fields must be regularly updated with the right information from the original job posting. This information can be clubbed with job tags to boost search engine algorithms. Job search tags are especially helpful when setting daily job search alerts and resume-matching criteria.
The growth of social and professional networking
An increasing number of job vacancies is being filled through social media and professional networking sites like LinkedIn. This phenomenon has grown to such an extent that it can potentially threaten the traditional job board industry. To compete with such platforms and other competitors such as Google for Jobs, you need to analyze why these platforms are gaining popularity for job searches. Then, you need to alter your approach accordingly, to meet the needs of the next generation of job seekers.
Employee referrals and interpersonal networking have always been an integral part of many organizations’ recruitment processes. Gen Z jobseekers leverage their social media activity to create professional relationships. They find organizations that fit their work criteria and engage directly with recruiters and hiring managers. Thus, by establishing a connection, job-seekers are able to stand out from the rest of the crowd due to familiarity and trust.
It’s no secret that recruiters are flooded by candidate applications on job board platforms. And because the application process is so simple with new technology, even candidates who aren’t eligible to apply, do so. This makes it harder for recruiters to find genuine applicants and they tend to busy themselves with referrals and other direct candidates. Generation Z’ers are aware of this behavior and they sometimes use job boards only to ‘shop’ for jobs. This means they use the job posting data from your job site to directly reach out to a particular recruiter over another social channel.
Think like a social network
To overcome this ‘shopping’ behavior, job boards must make it easier to connect recruiters and candidates over their portals. The following techniques can help your job board engage Gen Z job seekers better –
- Apply sifting techniques to understand whether or not an applicant matches the job description.
- Use keywords from the job posting to auto-match job seekers with recruiters.
- Based on the candidate’s application history, generate a score to pre-sort applicants.
- Create a chat system to allow recruiters direct access to the relevant candidates
Additionally, your job board can build a platform for candidates to demonstrate their skills by sharing achievements, projects, academic and professional milestones. These sites can also enable direct communication between candidates and recruiters to build familiarity and professional relationships, offering similar functionality to existing networking sites.
Use Data as a Marketing Tool
Generation Z’ers are driven by metrics and are comfortable viewing engagement analytics. They do this on a daily basis while using social networks such as Instagram and Snapchat. Every day, they receive real-time updates on how many people have seen/liked/shared their posts. Job Boards need to delve into this culture of providing analytics for each of their interactions.
Data is generated through every interaction on a job site. Here are a few metrics that are sure to keep jobseekers glued to your job board while they’re on a job hunt –
- Recent profile views
- Keywords that lead recruiters to your profile
- New job alert that matches your interest
- How many people have applied to this job before you
- How many applicants have the same skills as you
- Recruiters looking for candidates with your skill sets
By adding analytics to job boards, you can personalize the experience for job seekers. The data lets them understand what’s working and what’s not. By giving job seekers the ability to market themselves better, job boards keep them involved with the search platform.
The increase in role specialization and categorization
Another trend that recruiting agencies and job boards should look out for is the increasing areas of specialization and the consequent need for increased classification of jobs. As more and more jobs are becoming specialized, new job roles are emerging.
For example, increasing programming languages are emerging, vague terms like “software engineer” or “computer programmer” are being used less and less by job-seekers and employers. Instead, they now use terms like Python programmer, Java programmer, and other specific terms for identifying different job roles. As more new tools and technologies emerge, many job roles will also diversify.
What would that mean for your job board? It means you need to have job alert software that is capable of performing in-depth analyses of job postings. This software should be able to differentiate jobs from one another and categorize them as required. This will enhance the job board user experience by ensuring that all search queries return only relevant job postings. It makes the process of finding jobs more fulfilling and ensures that job seekers don’t get frustrated with irrelevant jobs.
And with so many job search options available to Generation Z’ers, they are very unlikely to forgive a bad user experience.
The need for premium job alert software and job board technology
Job boards must relook their current strategy in order to survive in the age of generation Z and evolving job roles. They must explore new ways to take a role beyond that of a job aggregator or a daily job alert provider.
You need to first automate basic operations like job aggregation with utmost focus on job data quality. Upon this foundation of being a reliable and consistent supplier of job data, you can build added functionalities to help you stay at the top.
The simplest and fastest way to automate your core job board operations is by using premium job board technology like that developed by Propellum. Propellum’s job wrapping solutions constantly gather up-to-date job postings from various sources and display them on job boards automatically.
Using Propellum’s job board solutions can ensure that your job board provides unparalleled job board user experience. Most importantly, Propellum frees you from the hassles of everyday operations, unlike other job alert software.
This frees up time and resources, enabling you to focus on the big picture. That way, you can be fully prepared for the upcoming generations of job-seekers as well as emerging job market trends.
