Britain scrambles for prisoners to solve ‘unsustainable’ worker shortage, but shouldn’t it have been the norm?

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Unsustainable. That’s the word the British Retail Consortium and the freight trade group Logistics UK used in their letter to British Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng. In their letter, the two groups paint a picture of a shortfall of roughly 90,000 lorry drivers — which will in turn put an incredible, unsustainable pressure on retailers and their supply chains. In lieu of Brexit and Covid-19 pandemic, they estimate that a total of 25,000 EU drivers have returned home.

But it’s not just the logistics and retail that are struggling — worker shortages are happening across the board. There were a record 953,000 vacancies in the United Kingdom on average over the course of May to July — the highest level since records began in 2001. And based on early survey figures by the Office for National Statistics, the amount of vacancies in June may have exceeded a record-breaking one million.

Prisoners to the rescue

Now the shops, farms and restaurants that are struggling to keep up with demands have turned to an interesting source of workers to help fill the void: prisons. Through the usage of ROTL (Release On Temporary Licence), prisoners in the latter stages of their sentence are permitted to leave for the duration of a working day to work outside of prison doors and be paid for the work. Between the months of October 2020 and March 2021, the scheme has resulted in 58,752 ‘working days’, according to a report. 

The scheme has been so successful, that there aren’t enough prisoners to go around.

ROTL is widely viewed as an excellent way for detainees to build up a habit of working as they look set to rebuild their lives. According to a Daily Mail report, the scheme has been so successful, that there aren’t enough prisoners to go around — as was the case for HMP Hollesley Bay in Suffolk. “They have got such a big demand for inmates at the moment that they’ve reached their quota and are not allowed to let any more out to go to work”, Tony Goodger of the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers told the BBC.

‘Under-utilised resource’

Keith Rosser

While several executives in several sectors continue to voice their recruiting displeasure, the question beckons: shouldn’t this type of recruitment effort have come much earlier? “Prisons are one area of under-utilised resource in the UK”, says Keith Rosser, chair of the Better Hiring Institute and the director of Reed Screening. “I chair a charity in Scotland that encourages employment for people with convictions. We have always promoted this as being good for business, not business doing good. I would argue for fairer hiring normally, not just in crisis situations like this one.”

I would argue for fairer hiring normally, not just in crisis situations like this one.”

And particularly when it comes to hiring prisoners — a diligent process is a must. According to Rosser, employers need to understand what the equivalents are to references. “Risk assessment on conviction information is also important”, he says. “Employers need to think about what convictions are or aren’t OK for particular roles. Moreover, they need to be clear on the core skills they need, including soft skills, and how they want to evidence this. Is it in interview, or references?”

“I hope that this doesn’t just become seen as the next cheap, disposable source of labour.”

Finally, while many organisations across various sectors may opt to work with prisons to fill the void, Rosser hopes it is part of a long-term strategy, rather than a quick fix. “I hope that this doesn’t just become seen as the next cheap, disposable source of labour”, he says. “And that UK employers will go about it purposefully and sustainably. That’s my main worry.”

Engagement issues: Europe has least engaged employees in the world

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Over the last decade, the overall sentiment to come out of the European employee engagement statistics has been largely positive. When Gallup started measuring the global number 2009, the average was 12%. In the 11 years since then, that number has gone up to 20% — albeit with the pandemic ensuring a 2% decrease from 2019 to 2020.

Gallup estimates that the lack of engagement costs the global economy a sum of $8.1 trillion, nearly 10% of GDP, in lost productivity each year.

In simple terms, engagement is a translation for what happens at work. “Employee engagement is not merely a measure of happy or generally satisfied workers who give a 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale”, Gallup’s researchers say. “Engaged employees act differently, going above and beyond to surpass expectations, and that gives their organisations a competitive advantage.” In total, Gallup estimates that the lack of engagement costs the global economy a sum of $8.1 trillion, nearly 10% of GDP, in lost productivity each year.

‘80% of the world is watching the clock’

But with a staggeringly low level (20%) of employees engaged, it means that the majority of workforces around the world are sitting, wishing, waiting and watching the clock. “Employees’ disengagement creates a drag on productivity, innovation and organisational change”, Gallup say. “If 80% of an organisation’s employees are not engaged at work, the organisation’s resilience during a crisis will be at high risk. Leaders won’t be able to consistently reach their goals — there is no way for a leader to be effective when their people aren’t paying attention to them.”

The problem of the West

Western Europe has the worst employee engagement levels of the entire world. Though the western front saw an uptick from 10% to 11% in a year’s time, it scores horrendously low across the board. Of the Western European countries, Iceland, Malta and Denmark were the only ones to score the worldwide median of 20%. Luxembourg, Spain, France and Italy came away with the worst ratings, not even reaching the 10% threshold.

Source: Gallup

Meanwhile, Romania recorded the highest level of employee engagement (30%) throughout Europe. Kosovo, Estonia and Albania also scored above 20%. While the border that once physically and ideologically divided Berlin fell in 1989, Europe is still very much east versus west. To summarise the continent’s exact split:

Western Europe: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and theUnited Kingdom

Eastern Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Northern Cyprus (Territory of Republic of Cyprus), Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia

North and South America are more engaged

While the Global average lies at 20%, North and South America lead the way in the employee engagement column. The US and Canada are far ahead of anyone else, recording a 34% engagement rate. South America — or listed as Latin America and the Caribbean — saw the largest overall point change (-7%), but still recorded the second highest global employee engagement rate with 24%. Algeria, Italy and Japan are a tie for the lowest employee engagement levels, with only 5% of the workforce engaged.

The employee mental health trend

Gallup CEO Jim Clifton

Gallup’s research is not just limited to employee engagement levels — it gives a clear indication of how people are feeling overall. In 2020, employees reached record levels of worry, stress, anger and sadness. “Gallup has found that roughly seven in 10 employees are struggling or suffering, rather than thriving, in their overall lives”, Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup writes.

“Even if we return to pre-COVID-19 levels of these emotions, the trends are still concerning.”

“These problems existed long before COVID-19”, Clifton continues. “Gallup has discovered that negative emotions have been rising over the past decade. Even if we return to pre-COVID-19 levels of these emotions, the trends are still concerning. Measuring employee mental health is critical. Besides destroying lives, suffering can destroy the human spirit that drives innovation, economic energy and eventually, good jobs. This is likely tied to declining economic dynamism. Global GDP per capita is slowing — it has been for decades.”

Is Europe set for its own edition of The Great Resignation? Read our exclusive article with the insights of some of the continent’s smartest researchers. 

New McKinsey research identifies 56 foundational skills for the future of work

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Shifts in what is required of a workforce occur regularly. Whether it’s a groundbreaking innovation or a gradual change in the way products are produced — shifts are a part of society. Throughout the past COVID-related months, however, some sectors that were already at there risk of being displaced by automation have seen its demise being accelerated.

Governments and organisations everywhere face the task of devising curricula and learning strategies that will somehow future proof citizens and employees.

Automation is seen as the common threat for those types of jobs, as employees with tertiary qualification run the biggest risk, according to research conducted by McKinsey in 2020. Now, governments and organisations everywhere face the task of devising curricula and learning strategies that will somehow future proof citizens and employees.

That’s where McKinsey’s latest research comes in. McKinsey Global Institute’s main goal was to help definitions take shape and contribute to the future-proofing of citizen’s skills for the world of work. “It is hard to devise curricula and the best learning strategies without being more precise about the skills needed”, the researchers write. “It is difficult to teach what is not well defined.”

Foundational skills over specialisation

McKinsey identified a total of 56 foundational skills, which the company has dubbed DELTAs, that will benefit, well, everyone. “These skills showed that higher proficiency in them is already associated with a higher likelihood of employment, higher incomes, and job satisfaction”, the report reads. “Some work will, of course, be specialised. But in a labour market that is more automated, digital, and dynamic, all citizens will benefit from having a set of foundational skills.”

The three important criteria for work

Those foundational skills will translate directly to some type of fulfilment of three, main criteria. Firstly, they add value beyond what can be done by automated systems and intelligent machines. Secondly, they will be able to operate in a digital environment. And lastly, they will continually adapt to new ways of working and new occupations — something which has proven to be particularly apt in 2020 and 2021.

The 56 DELTAs

In an attempt to make it even more concrete, McKinsey accumulated a list of 56 ‘distinct elements of talent’ (DELTAs), which can be split up into four categories: cognitive, interpersonal, self-leadership and digital. “We call them DELTAs, rather than skills, because they are a mix of skills and attitudes. “Adaptability” and “coping with uncertainty” are attitudes, for example”, the research states.

 

Lacking digital skills

In the next phase, McKinsey’s researchers defined a ‘desirable level of proficiency’ for each of the 56 DELTAs and devised a psychometric questionnaire to assess the respondents. The results gave a clear indication as to where the current workforce lacks in DELTA proficiency. In the cognitive category, planning and ways of working as well as communication were marked as a relative weakness.

While respondents over 18,000 people in 15 countries scored high on digital fluency, they lack skills in ‘software use and development’ and ‘understanding digital systems’.

The biggest lack of proficiency, however, was found in the digital category. While respondents over 18,000 people in 15 countries scored high on digital fluency, they lack skills in ‘software use and development’ and ‘understanding digital systems’.

Education or adult-training reform

In its conclusion, McKinsey’s researchers call upon governments to review and update curricula to focus more on the DELTAs, and names education or adult-training reform as possible action points. “Many governments and academics have started to define the taxonomies of the skills citizens will require, but few have done so at the level described here”, the research says.  “Moreover, few, if any, have undertaken the considerable amount of research required to identify how best to develop and assess such skills.”

McKinsey found that modules that focused on self-awareness and self-management were 20 times less common than communication training.

While some fixes may be easier than others — some seem blatant. In an online scan of adult training programs, McKinsey found that modules that focused on self-awareness and self-management were 20 times less common than communication training. “That could be an urgent gap to fill to adequately respond to the wave of unemployment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic”, the research concludes.

Deel acquires AI-based digital bookkeeping platform Zeitgold in attempt to accelerate European leadership

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Deel is one of HR and recruitment’s newest unicorns. It is a global payroll solution for employees and contractors from around the world. Serving over 3,000 companies, ranging from SMBs to publicly traded companies, it has excelled at helping companies deal with the issues that have come with more international recruitment, and the subsequent spread-out remote workforces that came with it. 

In the past 12 months, Deel grew more than 1000% in revenue.

The company was co-founded in 2018 by MIT alumni Alex Bouaziz and Shuo Wang — who set out on a mission to solve a problem worldwide businesses found a daunting task: the ability to hire people from anywhere in the world. And do so easily. It may have very much been a case of the right company at the right time — but Deel is very much for real. In the past 12 months, Deel grew more than 1000% in revenue.

A new way of accounting

Zeitgold, in turn, was founded in 2015 by Jan Deepen, Stefan Jeschonnek and Kobi Eldar. With Deepen, Jeschonnek and Eldar at the helm, the company made waves in recent years with its AI-powered payroll and automated bookkeeping software for businesses and contractors. In its six years of existence, Zeitgold has built up an impressive track record within the German technology space.

https://youtu.be/kTkTD6eS8v0

The company prides itself on the notion that paperwork often ends up in a big pile — leading to important documents either being lost or misplaced. What Zeitgold did is take that once incomprehensibly badly sorted pile, and organise it. Built on a new way of accounting, several companies immediately saw results in the way documents were being handled and organised with their brand-new app.

“We’re taking Zeitgold’s best-in-class engine and plugging it into the core of our platform to help Deel supercharge its product offerings.”

In May 2020, Zeitgold raised €27 million of its own in a Series B round. In total, the company has raised more than €50 million over the span of six years. Now, Zeitgold will officially join forces with Deel. “With the addition of Zeitgold, we’ll accelerate even faster and reinforce our European leadership”, said Alex Bouaziz, CEO of Deel. “We’re taking Zeitgold’s best-in-class engine and plugging it into the core of our platform to help Deel supercharge its product offerings.”

How Jobs for Lebanon serves as a beacon of hope for a nation in economic turmoil

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While the explosions in the Port of Beirut were heard around the world, the economic downfall that preceded the August 4 explosions, is still a relative unknown. The current economic situation in Lebanon is, in fact, so bad that the World Bank dubbed the economic crisis ‘the one that had the largest and most negative impact’.

‘One of the most severe global crises episodes’

In June, the World Bank reported the latest edition of its Lebanon Economic Monitor (LEM). To call the report ‘worrisome’ would be quite the understatement. According to the report, the economic and financial crisis currently ongoing in Lebanon is likely to rank in the top 10, possibly top 3, in the most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century.

“The inadequacy is less due to knowledge gaps and quality advice and more the result of a lack of political consensus over effective policy initiatives.”

The report cites ‘continuous policy inaction’ and the ‘absence of a fully functioning executive authority’ as the primary threats for a socio-economic situation that has only worsened. “The inadequacy is less due to knowledge gaps and quality advice and more the result of a lack of political consensus over effective policy initiatives, and political consensus in defence of a bankrupt economic system, which benefited a few for so long”, the report reads.

‘Triple-digit inflation rates’

Steadily, the country saw one systematic failure after another happen across banking, debt and the exchange rate. Toward the end of 2020, Lebanon’s currency (LBP), recorded a triple-digit inflation rate. And is usually the case with high rates of inflation, the poor and vulnerable are disproportionality affected. “Poverty is likely to continue to worsen, engulfing more than half of the population”, the December edition of the World Bank report reads.

Hope in economic turmoil

As the country sinks into one of the most severe global crises episodes in recent history, there is one thing providing hope to Lebanon. Or better yet, one organisation: Jobs for Lebanon. Keen to make a difference in his native country, Roy Baladi was one of 10 driven Lebanese who began building an online employment search site. Powered by the expertise and platform-building abilities of SmartRecruiters, it quickly amassed thousands of visitors and applicants.

Read more about the man who went from Wall Street to Lebanon in our exclusive interview with Jobs for Lebanon co-founder Roy Baladi.

In its 2020 annual report, Jobs for Lebanon announced it had created a total of 2,535 job opportunities — as we as amassed the exact sum of $564,409 for relief and operating costs. “We set a goal to source 1,000 jobs”, Baladi said. “We closed 2020 at 1,300, with almost 10,000 people having applied to them and estimate 150-200 people were hired already.”

‘Lebanon: an outsourcing hub for the world’

The role Jobs for Lebanon currently plays in the rebuilding of Beirut — both physically and economically — is insurmountable. But Jobs for Lebanon is far from done. “In 2021, we aim to secure employment for an increased number of people and small businesses”, Baladi says. “Beyond that, we’re expanding our footprint to make Lebanon an outsourcing hub for the world. And upskill and mentor Lebanese to prepare for the global job market.”

Want to know more?

Visit Jobs for Lebanon to post your jobs and hire from a deep pool of talented individuals. If you can offer financial, support, consider making a donation on the page. And if you are Lebanese looking for work, you are supported with thousands of jobs on the site.

‘Talent attraction is largely down to how well you treat the talent you have’

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According to a June 2020 report by McKinsey & Co, Germany’s, Italy’s and Poland’s workforce will have shrunk quite a bit by 2030. Though a decline of 13.5 million is expected across the entire continent, those three countries combine for a grand total of roughly 9 million. Moreover: the average hours work each week have decreased. Simply put: those who are working, are working less hours.

At the time of release, McKinsey’s report suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic ‘may lead to other preferences for both employees and employers’. More than a year later, that statement holds truer than most would have imagined at the beginning of the global pandemic: the future of work has changed rapidly over the course of the past year and a half.

The future of work challenge

Keith Rosser

If McKinsey’s prediction comes true, the groundhog day-like scenario where vacancies become harder and harder to fill may be here to stay for a little while longer. “COVID has accelerated a number of the trends that were being predicted”, says Keith Rosser, director of Reed Screening and the chair of the Better Hiring Institute. “It’s accelerated the demise of certain industries the creation of new ones, more flexible working, and different employer/employee relationships.”

“How people choose future skills, how this is trained, and how we bring this fragmented picture together is crucial.”

“One of the pressing challenges directed at the future of work is the future skills agenda”, Rosser continues. “Careers education is very dated, as is the way young people, professionals, and their advisors choose career paths and skills. How people choose future skills, how this is trained, and how we bring this fragmented picture together is crucial.”

Connecting with employees

The onus lies on talent leaders, recruiting and HR teams. Whether through acquisition or a focus on retention, they have to fight off other organisations in order to achieve any type of business success. And according to Rosser, the first two steps is all about how you treat the talent you have. “How employers connect with their employees and build a reputation on this is important, as is how they attract talent from under-utilised parts of the labour market.”

“We need to resolve those things to help usher in a new, future labour market.”

In all, Rosser sees much that structurally needs resolving. “There’s better protection for work seekers, the rise of Digital Hiring and the transformation in the temporary/flexible worker market. There’s ethical hiring — and much more. We need to resolve those things to help usher in a new, future labour market.”

‘Less barriers’

That future labour market will, if anything, have less traditional barriers. While working from home or hybrid working wasn’t on many agendas two years ago, remote hiring has suddenly become a possibility. And with remote hiring, more talent became available. Rosser believes the new trends born out of the COVID-19 pandemic will be the deciding factor in the recruitment of talent. “COVID-19 has eroded travel, physical offices, and even working hours”, he says. “The type of working world that emerges will be vital to the future war on talent.”

9 new unicorns and €4.12 billion investment: Q2 ‘biggest ever’ for global work tech space

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Every 3 months, all eyes are on George LaRocque and WorkTech. As a leading market analyst and advisory services for HR tech and the future of work, WorkTech’s quarterly reports usually give a perfect idea about where the global work tech sector is with its analyses of venture capital investments.

History unfolding

Q2 in the global tech sphere was as historic as they come. While Olympic records are being shattered all over the place in Tokyo, the HCM (Human Capital Management), TA (Talent Acquisition) and TM (Talent Management) space has just demolished a record of its own. In Q2 2021, global investment in work tech ‘exceeded’ $4.9 billion (or €4.12b) across 91 deals. It became the biggest ever quarter for CV investment in work tech since George LaRocque and WorkTech started tracking deals in 2017.

Source: LaRocque

It comes on the back of what was a historic Q1, when the sector raised a total of $2.7 billion (or €2.27b).

It comes on the back of what was a historic Q1, when the sector raised a total of $2.7 billion (or €2.27b) and seven companies reached unicorn status: BetterUp, Ginger, Lattice, Modern Health, Nexthink, Papaya Global and Personio. In Q2, nine more joined: SafetyCulture, Loom, Degreed, Alan, Deel, Eightfold.ai, Visier, Handshake and Phenom People, to make it a total of 16 new unicorns in just two quarters of 2021.

Headlined by HCM

For both Q1 and Q2 — one sector clearly headlined: HCM. In Q1, the HCM industry was responsible for roughly 68% of the total money raised. In Q2, that number dropped slightly as TM saw its share increase, but HCM was still responsible for roughly 59% of VC investments in Q2, while Talent Acquisition’s total number came down to 20%, and Talent Management just slightly ahead at 21%.

HCM was still responsible for roughly 59% of VC investments in Q2.

Interestingly, the largest individual deal was recorded in the TA category. In May, Workrise (once known as RigUp), raised $300 million (€252m) to take its total value up to $2.9 billion (€2.32b). Workrise was founded in 2014 as a marketplace for on-demand services and skilled labour in the energy industry. Since then, it has broadened its reach to include wind, solar, commercial construction and defence industries.

And the US

As far as countries where the deals were made, the US continued to lead the charge in Q2 with 59 deals in the quarter. “The U.K. reported 7, France reported 5 and Estonia reported three. Germany, Ireland, Israel, and Scotland each reported two. The rest of the countries contributing reported one deal each”, as per the report. 

Why recruitment has a crawling problem

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To get the crawling pun out of the way: Spiderman isn’t everyones favourite superhero. With the issues around crawling (or scraping, as it is otherwise called), recruitment may have to opt for another superhero altogether. A crawler, in essence, is nothing but a program that automates the search and indexing of data, which can then be put to various and unique applications.

“Scraping or crawling is a process in which a bot visits websites in search of content it can use”, says Jelmer Zuidema, co-founder of Netherlands-based Roadtrip. “The most famous one is Google — they crawl your website to make sure they can present it in their search engine. But the way Google operates isn’t the problem, it lies with the way recruiting scrapers operate.”

‘They hold candidates hostage’

Recruiting scrapers don’t just look for any type of content, they’re probing for one particular thing: vacancies. “They look at your website and take anything they can use until they’re able to amass a relatively neat looking job ad”, Zuidema says. “Then, they essentially hold candidates hostage: if an applicant doesn’t fill in an e-mail address on their website, they can’t view the ad.”

“Some scrapers even add information to make a vacancy look more appealing. In many ways it is the purest form of clickbait.”

But that’s not where the problem ends, Zuidema argues. “Some scrapers even add information to make a vacancy look more appealing. In many ways it is the purest form of clickbait: the more people click on certain link, the better it is for them. Then, when that bit of wrong information continues to live on in virtual spheres for days, or sometimes even weeks — it all leads to one thing: more clicks.”

When it’s closed — it’s really not

In even worse scenario’s, jobs that have long been filled continue to roam around freely on scraping websites. “Just as changing something within a job ad is considered an update, the same applies to the closing of a job ad”, Zuidema says. “When you do close it, it’ll remain on open for a quite a bit of time on scraping sites. It all leads to you losing control over the display and performance of your ads.”

“You can opt for a paid collaboration with those scraping your jobs — though I would forget about this solution straight away.”

Zuidema says organisations who struggle with the way their jobs are scraped may opt for one of many solutions. “You can opt for a paid collaboration with those scraping your jobs — though I would forget about this solution straight away”, he says. “Other options are blocking’s third-party posters, using LinkedIn’s or Indeed’s option for XML feeds, or offering the structured data Google for Jobs longs for.”

SmartRecruiters becomes latest HR tech unicorn after $1.5B valuation

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In physics, momentum is defined as the quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity. Or, if we go to a simpler definition: the strengt of force that something has when it is moving. If we were to put together a recruitment and HR dictionary, the SmartRecruiters logo would likely find its place right alongside that very same word: momentum.

SmartRecruiters is continuously ranked by analysts as a leader in both strategy and capability.

In the last 12 months, the company added 200-plus enterprise customers, saw its revenue grow by 50% and experienced 70%  bookings growth. All during a global pandemic. Moreover, SmartRecruiters was also recognised as a differentiated leader in enterprise talent acquisition by IDC and as a high performance, high potential category leader by Fosway. That in itself is nothing new for the company, as SmartRecruiters is continuously ranked by analysts as a leader in both strategy and capability.

HR tech’s latest unicorn was built with military precision

The past 12 months have been nothing short of using every magniloquence available in the English dictionary for the company founded by Jerome Ternynck. Years before establishing the world leader in talent acquisition software, Ternynck was a lieutenant in the French Army, where he led platoons of fourty-plus soldiers and was responsible for the initial 60-day training and formatting of newly enrolled soldiers.

SmartRecruiters CEO Jerome Ternynck

Years before to establishing the world leader in talent acquisition software, Ternynck was a lieutenant in the French Army, where he led platoons of fourty-plus soldiers.

With military precision, a heart in recruitment and soul in technology — Ternynck has spent eleven years building an incredible company. A company that can now officially be considered an HR tech unicorn. After closing a $110 million Series E round led by Silver Lake Waterman, with existing investors Insight Partners and Mayfield Fund also participating — the company is now valued at a staggering $1.5 billion.

‘200 engineers and continued innovation’

This latest round of investments has opened the door for SmartRecruiters to add 200 engineers, as the company looks to innovate across the board. The company nails it down to RPA, onboarding, conversational intelligence and recruitment marketing as key investment areas — beyond, of course, its continued quest to deliver Hiring Success to companies around the world.

“When you have the right recruiting platform and the right people, you achieve business success.”

“As the job market becomes more fluid and dynamic, companies need a competitive advantage when it comes to accessing the best talent”, Ternynck commented in the company’s official statement. “Never before has business success been so dependent on hiring success. When you have the right recruiting platform and the right people, you achieve business success.”

How the job advertisement market recovers from the pandemic

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An average person spends 90,000 hours at work. I.e. as much as the third of our life. Nowadays job seekers have to express unprecedented patience and persistence while looking for the most suitable options. At the same time, they have additional channels of information to do that.

How do job boards work?

The more traffic the job board receives, the higher number of applications for posted vacancies its clients might get. More applications – more chances to find a perfect candidate. Since posting is usually done on a pay-per-post basis, it makes the competition among the job boards more intense. The idea is simple: the website gets a sponsored job posting and delivers to it as many qualified applicants as possible. What could go wrong?

Let’s imagine the situation when the company didn’t receive any applications. There may be a thousand reasons why it happened. However, the first thing the client company would do is suspend cooperation with the job board. The latter will inevitably lose money. 

Minimising the risks

#1: Different traffic sources

First of all, they have to diversify traffic sources. Marketing experts do not recommend relying on a single one. For example, to expand the traffic network, job boards apply direct traffic, organic search traffic, job email alerts, social media traffic, referral traffic (e.g., Google for Jobs, Jobs on Facebook, LinkedIn), and job aggregators. Let’s not forget about paid traffic sources, such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads / Facebook Ads and job aggregators. All of them can add significant value and bring positive ROIs to the job portal if the initial setup is done correctly. 

#2: Cooperation with Job aggregators

Let’s take a closer look at the job aggregators. Jooble specialists consider them to be the easiest and the most reliable way to get a significant traffic volume at a reasonable price. Other paid traffic sources, such as Google AdWords and Facebook Ads also help obtain high-quality traffic, but they require specific digital marketing skills to set up campaigns, generating positive ROI.

According to Jooble specialists, it takes approximately 2-3 working days to integrate with the job aggregator.

Job aggregators introduce a different perspective. They are created for the job search and targeted to both blue- and white-collar job seekers. According to Jooble specialists, it takes approximately 2-3 working days to integrate with the job aggregator. Most job aggregators offer flexible campaign setups and could be integrated with such programmatic advertising platforms as Appcast, Joveo, OnRecruit, etc.

Job sites integrate with job aggregators via XML or JSON feeds. When the integration process is over, they start getting qualified applicants to the job listings. The application flow of a candidate from a job aggregator looks as follows:

The ultimate winner of the application process is the job board. Sometimes the job advertiser is even unaware that the original candidate came from the job aggregator. At the end of the day, it doesn’t even matter, as long as the client is satisfied with the cooperation. The job aggregator remains an intermediary that helped the job board deliver the application to the job advertiser.

#3: Direct Buying and Programmatic Job Advertising

There are two standards of buying traffic from job aggregators: direct buying and programmatic job advertising. Both standards provide either a CPC (cost-per-click) and CPA (cost-per-action) options.

Direct Buying

Direct buying is a traditional way of buying targeted traffic directly from the job aggregators. It’s a classic approach involving human communication, negotiations. You need an in-house team of experienced digital marketing professionals for this. Jooble experience of direct buying says leading market players prefer to interact with job aggregators directly and control the buying process manually.

Programmatic Job Advertising

Programmatic job advertising is a programmatic job ad management designed to help job boards and agencies optimise their recruitment media performance through a single, centralised command centre. They may choose between direct buying or programmatic job advertising standards. It depends on the aims of the job site. ]

How COVID-19 outbreak changed job advertising industry

In spring 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak shook the whole labour market. As a result, the number of advertised jobs around the world decreased by 50%-70%. Talent acquisition leaders had to optimise their expenditures and switched from the traditional pay-per-post mode to the pay-for-performance channels. Due to substantial budget cut-off more companies switched to the marketing models that assume minimum risks for them.

‘Quality not quantity’ has become an expected outcome of the pandemic.

Although such strategies are more time-consuming and difficult to track, clients are ready to sacrifice time to save more money. Furthermore, they agree to lose awareness among users to engage targeted audiences as much as possible. ‘Quality not quantity’ has become an expected outcome of the pandemic. 

For example, some companies chose programmatic advertising platforms and focused on sponsoring specific job categories or hard-to-fill roles only. Some of the marketing professionals cut off many unreliable and ineffective traffic sources to optimise the marketing budget.

How is the situation now?

According to Jooble data, the job board markets have been recovering in most countries. For example, over the last 6 months, the share of paid jobs in G-7 countries has risen by almost 15%. Among the leaders are the United States, Germany, and Italy with nearly 30%, 17%, and 15% respectively. We haven’t got back to the good old pre-pandemic days yet. 

However, it’s becoming clear that businesses are ready to allocate marketing budgets on sponsored vacancies. Companies have become more certain about the future and want to hire. On the other hand, Covid-19 has made some crucial changes in the industry. For example, now clients prefer playing safe and choose marketing campaigns on a pay-per-performance basis. Moreover, some countries, such as the USA are experiencing a worrying tendency with an assumable labour shortage. People are becoming less likely to accept what the job market is offering right now. Therefore, to reach the goal of providing clients with a good amount of suitable applicants, job boards have to diversify their traffic sources and prioritise the concept of data-driven decisions. 

Will ‘The Great Resignation’ blow over to Europe?

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The United States is caught up in an en masse departure fiasco. In April 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded the largest spike to date in the total number of people who quit their jobs, with just under 4 million US workers saying sayonara to their respective employers. In May, that number decreased slightly (3.6 million), but still remained much higher than its 2020 counterpart (2.2 million).

In all likelihood, 2021 will record the largest number of resignations the United States has ever seen.

Some sectors stand out, such as retail trade and accommodation and food services — but the departures are happening across the board. Industries such as arts and entertainment, construction, manufacturing and education have all nearly doubled in their quit levels compared to last year. In all likelihood, 2021 will record the largest number of resignations the United States has ever seen.

’41% plans to quit’

In 2020, Microsoft surveyed more than 30,000 workers worldwide, in an attempt to find out what the consensus was among them. It painted a picture of a largely disjointed, unmotivated workforce — and one wherein 41% considered either quitting or changing professions altogether. Meanwhile, five percent more (46%) is said to ‘make a major pivot or career transition’.

Source: Microsoft

Will Europe suffer similar fate?

The Europe-US relationship has always been a tricky one. In many ways, one will always be a couple of years behind the other one. Whether in the adoption of new science, tech — or discussions about work. The discussions of who is running behind who will likely continue to exist for as long as we all live. But as the US goes through its own tsunami of quits, the question does beckon: will Europe follow in its footsteps, and suffer a similar fate?

“When you compare the labour markets — the UK is the one European country that is most similar to the US.”

Bas van de Haterd, renowned tech, recruitment and labour market expert based in the Netherlands, reckons the UK may be the one country where the great resignation will be felt most. “When you compare the labour markets — the UK is the one European country that is most similar to the US. Even though it has much better social services”, he says.

‘It’s un-European’

Wim Davidse, another renowned European expert about all things flex, HR and work, thinks Europe will see some commotion, but nothing as large-scale as in the United States. “The past few months, recruiters have complained en masse about the lack of candidates for vacancies”, he says. “But what always happens toward the end of a recession — people aren’t quite ready to make the leap. But as the light slowly turns green, more job changes are going to take place.”

“In the US, they’re now finally getting used to something resembling a social safety net.”

Meanwhile, Van de Haterd sees two major reasons for why Europe might not follow in the US’ footsteps. “A permanent contract still has some value in Europe, while in the US, indefinite contracts are generally worthless — so the leap isn’t quite as big”, he says. “And in the US, they’re now finally getting used to something resembling a social safety net. A safety net we’ve had for a long time in Europe.”

“A Great Resignation would seem very un-European to me.”

Personio recently conducted a study among Dutch workers which had ‘US-like results’, wherein it found that 46% of those surveyed planned to quit in the next six months to a year — five percent higher than the global percentage. “We all know, though, that expressed intentions aren’t quite the same as the actual act of quitting”, Davidse adds. “I do expect to see a larger increase of people quitting than what we’re used to, mainly due to a COVID and Zoom-related tiredness, managers that have been found out — but a Great Resignation would seem very un-European to me.”

 

Google for Jobs overhaul announced: direct apply button will have ‘a huge impact’

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Launched originally in May of 2017 in the United States, Google has spent quite a bit of time rolling out its Google for Jobs platform in various other areas around the world. Though it has been around for a little longer in North American, South America and Africa — Europe had been left behind a little bit in terms of an en masse adoption. The Netherlands became the ninth European country to board the Google for Jobs train as recently as August 2020.

But it hasn’t been an easy process. In 2019, Google was reported to face an EU antitrust probe over Google for Jobs, ‘due its dual role in the job search process as both player and referee’, as EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager bluntly put it. Not much news has followed since then, but formal EU antitrust investigations can take years to complete.

‘It just plainly sucks’

Based on thorough research, Google has now set out to make changes to the service — in the hope that it will enhance its job search experience. “Right now, it just plainly sucks”,  Chad Sowash commented on Chad and Cheese’s The Shred. As far as the changes go, job suppliers will now have to take a multitude of new things into account when integrating their job ads into Google for Jobs.

The first change revolves around verifying that no ‘scammy or spammy’ job posts are present on job sites. “These are job posts that don’t represent a real job opportunity. Make sure that you only markup pages with a single and actionable job opportunity”, the company adds in its official statement. Tying into that: expired job posts should be removed, the company warns, and old jobs should never be masked as new ones.

Google looks to combat anything that hinders a good user experience.

In general, Google looks to combat anything that hinders a good user experience. “According to our users, sites with poor user experience are those that ask for user information when it is not necessary, have poor quality pages (for example, excessive or obstructive ads), and/or have complex application processes (for example, lead to many redirects)”, the company adds. “Poor user experience also reduces application completion rate.”

‘A massive impact on the TA industry’

Coincidentally (or not), the major change to come out of Google’s new plans is all about application completion rate. In an attempt to ensure a short and straightforward application process — Google will integrate a direct apply property on certain job postings. Websites that allow the user to complete the application process on-site, or only asks users to apply and provide user information once — will earn the sought-after direct apply property.

“This gives aggregators and job boards a chance to actually outperform ATS providers in getting organic traffic by offering a better user experience for the job applicant.”

“This is huge”, recruitment tech expert Alexander Chukovski was quoted on The Shred. “This feature could be a killer or saviour of all job boards and aggregators: is your job a direct apply, or not?”, he says. “This gives aggregators and job boards a chance to actually outperform ATS providers in getting organic traffic by offering a better user experience for the job applicant. This is a huge change and can have a massive impact on the talent acquisition industry.”