An article this month in Onrec ‘Networking, niche sites strong favorites among recruiters’ looks at the success of niche job sites and social networking sites. In the past they may have been considered the poor cousins to the big generalist job boards, however things have changed. Print is no longer a contender and the generalist sites are just one of many channels available to today’s savvy advertisers.
Even though the job market has slumped, the majority of businesses still believe that there is a talent shortage and that the impact on their business is an issue, according to the Randstad 2009 Employment Trends Report.
The most successful businesses know that the key to growth and success is employing and retaining top talent, which is not necessarily an easy feat. Six Figures wrote an article ‘Getting Talent On Board’ recently published by Anthill that explored the importance of this for all businesses, irrespective of the global financial crisis.
“Attracting and retaining talented employees is vital to the success of any business. A bus depot provides an unusual yet powerful analogy of what businesses can be doing to increase talent attraction and retention of top performers.”
So whilst the generalist job sites are great for those high volume and often low skill roles, the niche sites and social networking sites are delivering the goods when it comes to quality applicants. Generalist job boards have been around well over a decade now and will always be a staple for advertisers; however, they are now only one of the many candidate sourcing channels available.
Sourcing talent today is far more strategic and time consuming than in the past. In order to attract the best talent, savvy advertisers understand that there is often more involved than posting a job ad on a generalist site and selecting the best candidates from this one source. With all the great social media tools available and the emergence of niche sites, such as the executive job site Six Figures for $100K+ jobs and contracts, advertisers can much more easily connect directly with top talent.
