In an exclusive interview with Whatjobsite, Richard Nott of CWJobs talks about the rebranding of the veteran IT recruitment website and the changing nature of the job board market.
Whatjobsite: CWJobs are about to go through a rebranding. This is always a significant event for any business and something that is not lightly done. Can you tell us a little about the logic behind the move?
Richard Nott: The site branding had been in place for nearly six years and, on the internet, that is a long time. It was time for a refresh. At the same time, we wanted to better tailor our communications to our two different audiences of job seekers and recruitment advertising customers. This means improved functionality including search and navigation as well distinct community areas for jobseekers and recruiters. Under the new branding, job seekers will experience an orange CWJobs messaging while clients will experience a blue: each knows exactly where they are. We hope this improves our communications and helps us deliver the best for the IT sector.
Whatjobsite: We understand that along with the branding changes you will also be rolling out some exciting changes for the self-service recruiter. Can you tell us what this involves?
Richard Nott: That’s right. We will be making some changes to our echannel. Obviously, some clients want a more account managed service while others are happy doing everything themselves online. What we are trying to do with our echannel update is to give these self-service clients more control over what they buy and how they buy it, as well as more choice about how much contact they have with our account managers. They’ll be able to buy a wider range of products online that the current recruiter area allows.
Whatjobsite: With the new branding, will you be changing your marketing strategy in any way?
Richard Nott: We look at our marketing strategy all the time with the intention of ensuring that we continue attract the best IT talent to CWJobs. That’s what ensures recruitment success for our clients and ensures that they remain loyal to us. What we have done over the years works and is robust. And while we are always looking for ways of improving our offering to job seekers and clients, there’ll be no gimmicks around the brand relaunch: we’ll continue to do what do well in increasing our penetration in the IT sector. To use the old phrase, “It’s an evolution not a revolution.”
Whatjobsite: CWJobs is part of the Totaljob Group which was recently aqcuired by Stepstone. What do you think this means for the business?
Richard Nott: It’s great news for the business. Axel Springer, the parent company of Stepstone, has a firm commitment to businesses that work in the digital classified space. They have a strong presence and dedication to the digital recruitment sector across Europe. It’s great to be part of a firm that feels as passionate about digital classified as we do.
Whatjobsite: This acquisition is not an isolated case. In recent times there have been some other big purchases in the classified space. And this is after many year of little or no such activity. What do you think is the reason for sudden uptick?
Richard Nott: I think it is indicative of the times we are in. Things have been quiet in the sector —more for macroeconomic reasons than anything else. We have been in the worst recession in living memory and people have been keeping their hands in their pockets. But we are now beginning, hopefully, to come out the other side and the whole area of digital recruitment has great potential. People want to be involved in that space and the opportunities it contains.
Whatjobsite: Many say that social media recruitment is killing or will kill job boards. How do you respond to that?
Richard Nott: People have been saying job boards have been dying for the last thirteen years — as long as CWJobs has been around. There have always been detractors. In reality, social media is just another channel for recruitment. And rather than being a threat to job boards, I feel it is an opportunity for us. It won’t put job boards out of business but will, rather, enhance them.
Whatjobsite: If social media isn’t going to kill job boards, how do you see the future for the sector?
Richard Nott: From a trading perspective we have seen growth over the last couple of years. Like everybody else, we dropped off quite a lot in 2009 as a result of the recession but we have made strong gains since then. Things are improving month on month. And we feel we are in a strong position now because we have built up a lot of job seeker and client loyalty over the last few years.
I view the future in very positive terms. I attended a conference recently at which a market analyst revealed that some 50% of businesses were still to migrate their recruitment online. Now, obviously, I wouldn’t imagine that statistic applies to recruitment consultants — I think they are 100% online — but for direct clients it does bear out what we are seeing. Clearly, the market has huge potential and a lot of growth in it. That is a wonderful opportunity for us.
More generally, the CWJobs rebrand is about enhancing our offering to the IT sector to ensure we’re always focussing on what we do best – delivering high calibre IT candidates to the industry.
Richard Nott is Website Director at CWjobs.
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