SEEK Limited revenue grew by 35%, registering a net profit of $89.5 million, a 62% increase from FY 2009. 

SEEK Employment’s (the job board business)  revenue grew by 1% from 170.9 in FY09 to  172.8 million in FY10, which is a small percentage, but it’s an impressive performance considering it is generated in the midst of the GFC. Revenue from SEEK Training grew significantly. SEEK Learning, in particular, performed very well with revenue increasing by 45%. Again the GFC has probably a hand in this, with many choosing to retrain and invest in education during the downturn. Overseas investment are also starting to pay dividends too.

Overall it’s an impressive performance, it’s almost as if SEEK can do no wrong.

So, what’s next for SEEK?

SEEK is banking its continued growth on the demise of print. Yes, all signs are advertising dollars will continue to migrate from print, but what’s left of the industry is proving to be quite resilient. In fact some sectors even preferred print to online. If print media, currently worth around $400 million, further bleeds its market share SEEK is unlikely to be the only beneficiary.

Besides competition from other job boards, social media and LinkedIn in particular is looming as a potential threat. If the view that job boards attract mainly active job seekers is strengthen further, then SEEK (and other job boards) will have a fight on their hands.

Networking sites will be less of a threat if the market decides that job boards have ‘reach’ beyond active job seekers. In this scenario, large resume databases will become critical. I believe SEEK’s working to revamp their resume database. The value of a resume database has less to do with technology (though important) but more to do with size. The best technology have little value if there are only a few resumes to search. With about 1 million plus Australian members, and the benefits of networking and referring built in the system, LinkedIn is in a good position.

In the near future, my call is job boards will have to go ‘social’ in some way or the other. Will SEEK go social? Time will tell, but it’s not too far-fetched to imagine that SEEK will adopt the Internet’s (perhaps a partnership with Facebook?) new found ability to connect and engage. SEEK has brand recognition and traffic, if any job board wanted to dabble with social media, they are the best equipped.

So the road ahead will have bumps. Which is not say SEEK Ltd is in dire straits. It has insulated itself from risk with an investment in education, a perennial recession proof sector. A stake in the international student market, the second largest export industry for Australia, will insulate the company further. Online recruitment is yet to mature in many Asian countries, so I’ll not be surprised if new acquisitions are made overseas.

SEEK have deep pockets. If anyone can find other income streams, it is well equipped to do so. What they do will have immense bearings for the job board model and the industry as a whole.

If social media is going to be part of your recruitment game plan, it’s worth noting that it’s currently the least trusted source of information amongst 14 measured by Edelman in Australia (refer chart).

Q. Please tell me how credible you believe each one of them is as a source of information about a company

Which means, for no particular fault of yours, many will treat your social media efforts with cynicism. It also means that you’ll need to work very hard to be noticed, be connected and stay relevant; for most it will mean long periods of time before any results can be seen.

The truth is there’s no shortcut to social media success. Trust needs to be earned.

How can trust in a low trust medium (social media) be earned by a traditionally low trust industry (recruitment) ?

I believe the medium rewards generosity. If you subscribe to the idea of openness, transparency and a willingness to give before you can ask anything in return, social media will open up endless new ways to connect and build relationship with candidates and potential clients.

I think we are on the cusp of a new era where recruitment outreach, especially the marketing and advertising component, will be defined by generosity. A change in mindset, more than anything else, is an essential first step towards social media success.

• Friendship at work: A fascinating look at Zappos’ work culture. Here’s an excerpt:

“ we’ve begun tracking employee relationships. When employees log in to their computers, we ask them to look at a picture of a random employee and then ask them how well they know that person — the options include “say hi in the halls,” “hang out outside of work,” and “we’re going to be long time friends.” We’re starting to keep track of the number and strength of cross-departmental relationships — and we’re planning a class on the topic. My hope is that we can have more employees who plan to be close friends”.

• Hiring to alleviate pain: Jason Fried’s views on talent management are often refreshing. Here’s a few more:

“ we hire late. We hire after it hurts. We hire to alleviate pain, not for pleasure. Who hires for pleasure? Any company that hires people before it needs them is hiring for pleasure. It’s an indulgence we’ve never allowed ourselves.”

Cover letters say it all. They immediately tell you if someone wants this job or just any job. And cover letters make something else very clear: They tell you who can and who can’t write. …… Another rule of thumb: When in doubt, always hire the better writer.

• Social Media Siesta: John Sumer is experimenting – he’s cutting his social media activities; here’s his adventure so far.
• World Cup Flexibility: Every time a major sporting event comes around, talks/advice on the importance of having flexible workplaces comes up. Good, but why only every four years, why not more frequently? Anyway, good luck to the Socceroos!
• VIDEO: A delightful visual rehash of Dan Pink’s excellent talk on motivation.

Starting in 1989, Ross Clennett, APRCSA, worked for 15 years as a recruiter in London, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne. He has been a regular writer about recruitment and the Australian recruitment scene since 2001. He runs Australia’s only online training and professional development membership site for recruitment company owners and managers.

1) Believing the claims that technology vendors make and undertaking few, if any, background checks of these claims with other recruiters who are actively using the vendor’s product

2) Charging into an online community and participating without first observing the community etiquette

3) Using social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook without a strategy and then stopping after 2 weeks declaring ‘it doesn’t work’

4) Thinking that technology that enables them to ‘find more candidates’ is automatically going to solve their ‘candidate shortage’ problems

5) Using a social media network or technology product and only learning 10%-15% of what there is to know about using that network or product

6) Not being aware of what information is listed under their own name when a simple Google search is conducted using that name

7) That all candidates and clients use technology and the Internet the way they do

8 ) If it’s free it must be crap

9) If it’s expensive it must be good

10) Thinking that it’s all a fad and nothing’s really changed from the way recruitment was in 1993

Smart recruiters understand that using social media networks and technology effectively enhances their overall productivity, enabling them to accomplish more each day, leading to more jobs generated, more placements made, more invoices sent and more income earned.

Successfully assisting more clients find better employees and more candidates find better jobs and in the process, enjoying your work more and making more money – what could be better?

For more information or to subscribe to Ross’ weekly newsletter, Insight, please visit www.rossclennett.com

A year ago we briefly explored the uptake of social media to source talent. Overall, we found, organisations were slow to adopt social media; only a minority (35%) used it in some form or another to recruit new staff.

However, the picture is slightly different when we separate usage by different groups – recruiters, HR/Internal recruiters and Business Owners/Line Managers. The assumption that recruitment firms are generally oblivious to social media is not entirely accurate. It turns out agency recruiters are embracing social media at a much higher rate than their corporate and HR counterparts. A majority (53%) said they used social media in some form to source candidates. In comparison, 79% of corporate recruiters had not not used social media to source talent.

The latest survey by RCSA appears to complement our findings.  The RCSA’s sample size is not large, but it reveals some interesting insights into the adoption of social media by recruitment firms. It appears that many recruitment firms are either actively using social media or are very positive about its adoption in the future.

How Social Media is Used: Not surprisingly, the RCSA survey found that social media is predominantly used for sourcing candidates; 45% of recruitment firms say they used it for ‘candidate sourcing’ (refer chart 1). Given that the popularity of LinkedIn amongst recruiters is well documented, it is highly likely that recruiters equate the use of LinkedIn as synonymous to using social media. Still, it appears recruiters are a lot more savvier than the credit they get.

Interestingly, 20% of recruiters are using social media to source new clients, while 27% gather new information. Much of the discussions in the recruitment sector focuses on using social media to source talent, often ignoring its value in identifying new clients. To a large degree candidates are bought using middle-men like job boards, but clients need to be earned.  My hunch is in the near future references to social media will increasingly be about its application to client outreach as much as it is about sourcing candidates.

Sourcing candidates: While Job Boards continue to play a dominant role in the sourcing of candidates, social networks sites featured prominently as a sourcing channel (refer chart 2).

Part of the reason job boards continue to be relevant is because they do all the hard work in acquiring candidates. Recruiters buy candidates data in bulk and do the sorting, a process practiced effectively for years. However, attention cannot be bought when it comes to social media. The onus is entirely on recruiters to figure out what works.

There is little doubt that recruiters are either actively using or dabbling in social media. Increased activity, however, does not equates to better results. It’s clear that once the dust settles the next phase in the social media journey will be about getting results.

(note: chart 1 & 2 from RCSA survey)