John Zappe on ERE wrote a great article titled “Is Print Recruitment Advertising Dead”, which one would think is a no brainer. Of course it is. You only need to look at the numbers. In the USA last year, the two biggest Job Boards “took in more job posting revenue than did all of the nation’s 1,400 or so daily newspapers.” This trend is reflected across the western world.
As John’s article states “The rapid decline in newspaper employment advertising coincides with recruiter sentiment that newspapers don’t provide the same value as online job boards, employee referral programs and, increasingly, social networks.”
While the topic is one that has been discussed for many years now, it clearly has not sunk in to all areas of the Australian market. Government, Education and Not for Profits spend an inordinate amount of money (in the hundreds of millions of dollars) each year on print advertising; a medium that isn’t easily measurable and anecdotedly delivers negligible returns.
So, whilst most of the corporate sector measure ROI and do not like to see money wasted, it seems that when it is a case of ‘other people’s money’ (i.e. tax payers $’s or donations) then they are happy to throw it at ineffective advertising channels compared to other more targeted options. A reason for this I have heard countless times by such organizations is that it is about making ‘an announcement’. I suspect that taxpayers would prefer to see less of these expensive announcements and more put online and channelled into areas that actually benefit the community. Actions speak louder than words, as they say.
While these institutions are all for stats and measurements, too many are not measured internally nor do they measure the effectiveness of their employment advertising campaigns. They are stuck in the old way of doing things and too many have so much invested in not changing. I will clarify here that not all government departments, educational institutions and not for profits are behaving in this fashion; however, the majority are yet to evolve. This is why we are still having this discussion and hoping to educate and steer them to move with the times.
All of us who are at the coal face and working in HR and Recruitment are pretty wised up to what works and what does not when sourcing talent, and we know that the online and offline vehicles available to us are growing in choice and decreasing in cost. It is an exciting time to be in these professions as we can deliver a lot of value to our organizations – if they let us. If our employers embrace and support us to move with the times and the marketplace, we can deliver them great talent to help drive and grow their organizations. They just need to be willing to listen and change. After all you never succeed if you never take a risk and try.
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