89% of Jobseekers want to have their say...
July 2, 2007 2:30 PM
This week at Jobsite we're busy starting to prepare for the 2007 RecruitRank awards which will take place in London in November.
Set up 18 months ago, RecruitRank was born out of some Jobsite research we did, which revealed over 50% of people hated job seeking. In particular, the lack of respect from recruiters and poor communication were real bug bearers, so we decided to do something about it and RecruitRank was created.
Hosted on the home page on Jobsite, RecruitRank is basically a free confidential online forum for jobseekers, which invites jobseekers to feedback to recruiters on their experience every time they apply for a job. What's great about RecruitRank is that it not only allows people to feedback confidentially to their recruiter, but also to share their experiences with fellow job seekers through our daily ranking system (which lists the ten best recruiters every day according to your feedback), providing a trip advisor type recommendation system.
As the awards now enter their second year, we've had 200,000 pieces of feedback, some of which has made a real difference, not just to job seekers but to our recruitment agencies. Some of our recruiters such as Cranleigh, Celectus, ICQ and Network have really listened to the feedback you've given them and changed part of their businesses to give you a better experience.
At Jobsite we believe that feedback and communication is going to get more critical as we get use to the interactivity possible with Web 2.0. Research we've just completed reveals that 89% of job seekers now want to talk about their job seeking experiences, which is great for anyone looking for advice. However, hand-in-hand with becoming more vocal about our experiences is a responsibility to provide constructive feedback, so that the companies and brands we're dealing with can genuinely identify what the problem is and what they can do to make the experience better.
As part of this process, I think we also need to question whether the problem is something we can also impact. For example, if you haven't been successful going for a number of jobs, you probably need to ask yourself to what extent is there a problem with your recruiter and to what extent is there a problem with your CV or the types of role you're applying for. Finally, remember, it's also important to feedback on the good things and what companies, brands and recruiters get right so they can go on giving a great experience.
So in the spirit of things let me know what you think!
Comments
Hi Keith. As a recruiter I support the efforts of Jobsite to encourage feedback and share information that will further improve the understanding and experience of recruitment for all concerned.
You mention that "feedback on the good things and what COMPANIES, brands and recruiters get right so they can go on giving a great experience" but
RecruitRank and much of your focus to date is specifically aimed at agencies.
One of the major complaints from candidates is the lack of (quality) feedback. Company reps don't always provide recruiters with specific feedback despite our protestations.
So, I think it is important to have a similar EMPLOYER RANK/RATING - this will address the root of the problem and also provide a valuable guide to candidates who may be considering a career with said companies.
We are all in this together so let's have balance and equality in the process - there must be a number of employers who advertise directly on this website?
Georgie Girl - July 12, 2007 10:03 AM
Hi Georgie Girl,
Many thanks for your comments on RecruitRank. We are indeed developing code which will improve RecruitRank and these additions will be available shortly. This includes RecruitRank for corporates, the addition of a further question and also the ability for recruiters to "reply" to candidates via the system.
These changes have come about from extensive user surveys and we are very excited about them.
So..watch this space.
Keith
Keith - July 13, 2007 1:25 PM
As a responsible recruiter I have found Recruit Rank to be a frustration! We do indeed want feedback to help us improve our services BUT when there is feedback from the disgruntled candidate who is unhappy that he was not selected for (say) a Pro Engineer CAD job - even though (he is proud to tell us) he has 4,000 hours using a totally different and unsuitable CAD system - we have no way of getting back to him to further clarify. (We always make clear the reason when we advise that he has not been selected - but some just get disgruntled anyway).
And some of the comments we have seen are simply not true. I am not sure the system is 'policed' sufficiently to ensure that only genuine candidates leave comments - it is open to abuse. I am disappointed that Jobsite have not made provision for direct redress to any unhappy candidate. (We have actually not had very many - but we don't want ANY)
Malc Seaman - August 14, 2007 10:14 AM
Hi Malc,
Many thanks for your comments. You will be pleased to know we have been developing a function on RecruitRank that enables you, as a recruiter, to respond to candidates' feedback. This is expected to be available at the end of September. This has come about due to feedback similar to yours from others clients and we're happy to take on board suggestions for improvements to any of our products.
I can appreciate that as a recruiter you can have a difficult job of carefully balancing the needs of your clients and those of the candidate. We hope this new function will improve the communication between candidates and recruiters, enabling constructive feedback and resolution to any issues that remain.
We are very excited about these changes and look forward to them coming in.
Keith.
Keith - August 17, 2007 3:29 PM