Whatjobsite Survey Results

June 2008: Have you ever used a niche job board to advertise a vacancy?

As a follow on from our May survey, we wanted to find out a little more about the 70% of our users who said they used more than on job board to advertise. So, in June we asked: "Have you ever used a niche job board to advertise a vacancy?" It was an exact tie with 50% saying they had used a niche job board to advertise and 50% saying they hadn't. This is a very encouraging sign. If selected wisely niche job boards can offer employers a very effective recruitment advertising tool. Find out more by reading our article "Generalist job sites versus specialist job sites."  

May 2008: How many job boards to use?

It's always a question: "How many job boards do you use to advertise your jobs?" In May we asked the whatjobsite audience to answer it. 30% of users said that they used they used just one job board; 50% of our users said that they used up to 3 job boards; 12% said they used up to 5 job boards; and 8% said that they used more than 5 job boards. 
While some research suggests that job seekers look at many job boards when they are hunting for a job, our users are increasinly aware that using more than one job boards greatly improves the chances of recruitment success.  

April 2008: What makes you choose a job board?

Price. Price. Price.... and products and services too. In March we asked our users to tell us what makes them choose one job board over another. It will come as no surprise that price was a leading consideration for just over 30% of our users. What is also significant is that, in this survey at least, products and services were almost as important as price at just under 30%. This is a significant change since our last look at this question back in September 2007.

Testimonials counted for 16% and customer service counted for just 4%. Disappointingly, in spite of all our yabbering on about choosing a job board on the basis of the audience it has, only 10% of those surveyed considered audience important when choosing a job board. With relevant audience being so low in consideration, it seems that we at whatjobsite have a lot more work to do in helping employers choose the right job sites for their vacancies.

March 2008: What makes you choose a job board?

Price. Price. Price.... and products and services too. In March we asked our users to tell us what makes them choose one job board over another. It will come as no surprise that price was a leading consideration for just over 30% of our users. What is also significant is that, in this survey at least, products and services were almost as important as price at just under 30%. This is a significant change since our last look at this question back in September 2007.

Testimonials counted for 16% and customer service counted for just 4%. Disappointingly, in spite of all our yabbering on about choosing a job board on the basis of the audience it has, only 10% of those surveyed considered audience important when choosing a job board. With relevant audience being so low in consideration, it seems that we at whatjobsite have a lot more work to do in helping employers choose the right job sites for their vacancies.

February 2008: Have you ever used a social network like Linked in to recruit?

There's a lot of talk about social networks and their importance in recruitment. Our February poll looked at the use of social networks as recruitment tools. Interestingly, more than sixty percent of our users had already used social networks to recruit. 38% had used them but without success while 22% of our users had successfully hired with social networks. A hefty 40% of our users said they had no interest in using social networks. Will we see these proportions change as social networks become ever more popular? We will definitely return to this question later in the year.

January 2008: How many new people are you hiring in 2008?

The whatjobsite January online poll attempted to find out about new hiring intentions for this year. Just over 67% of our users indicated that they would be hiring up to 5 new staff this year. A further 28% said that they would be hiring up to 10 staff. 2% said that they would be hiring up to 20 staff, 3% up to 30 staff. It'll be interesting to return to this question at the end of the year to see if the current economic uncertainty will have had an effect on these hiring intentions.

December 2007: What price a job ad?

Our December survey asked whatjobsite users what they thought was the right price for a job ad. Price, it seems, is not an issue for advertisers. 47% of our users thought £500 was a good price for a job ad. This compared with 23% who thought that a job ad should cost around £250, 15% who thought that £150 was a good price and 10% who thought £50 was a good price. Remarkeably, only 5% of our users thought that job advertising should be free! So, it seems that our users are strong believers in online recruitment and happy to pay for it.

November 2007: Writing Job Specifications

One of the most important aspects of recruiting online (or otherwise) is knowing what job you are hiring for. And one of the easiest ways of knowing that is to create a job specification. In November we asked our users the question, "Do you write a proper job specification when you recruit?" Well, whatjobsite users know what's what when it comes to recruiting. Just under 95% of them said they wrote up a job specification.  

October 2007: Confidence in the choices

During the month of October we asked whatjobsite website users the question, "Do you feel confident about choosing the right job site for your vacancy?" Just under 95% of our users said that they did indeed feel confident in choosing the right job site for their vacancy.

This is a wonderful result. The fact that employers are feeling increasingly confident in choosing the right job site is testament to the efforts of recruitment websites to explain what it is they do and do well. We hope, of course, that whatjobsite.com is making a small contribution to this growing confidence in online recruitment —or at least to that 5% who weren't so confident.

September 2007: It's all about the money.

In our September survey we asked users to tell us what they thought was most important for them when choosing a job site: price, product, user traffic, customer service, or testimonials from other clients. 45% of our users plumped for price being most important. 30% said that user traffic and audience was what they considered most important; 20% opted for customer service; just 5% chose products; and not a solitary soul in our sample thought testimonials from other clients were important in choosing a job site.

Just goes to show. It's all about the bottom line. Money does the talking. Still, it was encouraging to see that one third of all respondents said that user traffic was most important for them. The reality is, in our view at least, that the price of a job site is largely irrelevant if the site doesn't have the right audience for your job. But if you are choosing between two job sites with the right audiences, then opting for the cheaper one is clearly the best option.

August 2007: All hands to the pumps

The summer (even if the word "summer" seems a little cruel to describe the weather we are experiencing) is often the only time of the year when companies actually get some breathing space and get a chance look at those issues that don't concern the day to day.

This month we asked our users if they anticipated recruiting in the not too distant future. Over 45% of users said that they were looking to hire immediately, while another 43% said they would hope to begin hiring in the next month. Few users said they were going to be hiring later in the year. But that's no surprise really —with the costs of employing someone being what they are, small companies seldom want to even consider hiring someone until it becomes absolutely unavoidable.

July 2007: CV databases, to use or not to use?

The question we asked whatjobsite users this month was "Have you ever used a CV database to recruit?" Surprisingly, a majority of users (just over 57%) indicated that they had never used a CV database to recruit. With this in mind, in August we will be doing a special focus on using CV databases to recruit. Hopefully, we'll be able to help more of you feel confident in using CV databases to recruit. It's still wet and miserable, by the way. Perhaps next month our survey should ask "Have you ever seen the sun this summer?" 

June 2007: Bang for buck!

The question we asked whatjobsite users this strangely wet and miserable month of June was "Do you think job sites offer value for money?" There was nothing damp about the results. Just over 70% of our users said that job sites offered value for money. If only we could have as much faith in the weather!

May 2007: Nearly "douze points."

The question we asked the whatjobsite users this Eurovision month was "Have you previously filled a vacancy by using an internet job board?" And, mesdames et messieurs, we now have the results of the whatjobsite jury. They weren't far off the "douze points." Just under 80% of our users said they had filled a job using an internet job board. Of course, our audience might not be a valid scientific statistical sample; and our traffic might have been affected by our press launch this month; but even with these provisos taken into consideration, it's a good showing for online.

To find out more about whatjobsite and how we can help you in your recruitment needs, get in touch on +44 (0)207 193 9779 or email us via our contact page.

Our Services  |  Recruiters Zone  |  Blog  |  Contact us