As I mentioned last week, the results are in from the 2012 Job Board Industry Survey. With over 190 responses from every category of site, including aggregators, general sites, niche boards, and networks, I believe that there is  useful information for all. If you participated, you should have received an email from me with the complete report (and if not, let me know!). For everyone else, the report is free and available for download – just register here (you can also access early reports at the same time).

One thing that stood out in this survey was a renewed sense of optimism by job boards – and a recognition of the competitive forces at play in the industry. I expect to see many startups in the coming months as well as new initiatives from established players.  The trend toward integration of social media and recruiting into the job boards’ offerings has continued, as has the growth of niche and aggregator sites.

It will be an exciting year! Thanks to everyone who participated, and please – take a look for yourself.

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(Note: today’s guest post is by Dr. Charles Handler, of RocketHire. His firm focuses on employee testing and assessment.)

Job boards have served a very important function over the past fifteen years.  Try to remember what your job searches were like before you had the ability to find out about available jobs anywhere on the planet.  Job boards were on the front lines of a fundamental change to the way people are matched with jobs.

Unfortunately, the upside of job boards – instant access to jobs/talent across the globe – created a whole new host of problems related to the inability to filter and process the information that is generated.  While there have been efforts to solve this problem, it still remains an issue that, at its core, requires both efficiency and effectiveness.

The complexity of breaking a person and what he/she brings to the table down into a set of parameters that can be easily understood and using this information to help determine which jobs that person is best suited for is not an easy task.  In the past, job boards have done this via the collection of a variety of surface level data that is somehow compared to a relatively simple breakdown of job requirements.  The results of these methods have been a continued inability to provide accurate matching, a situation that continues to perpetuate the high levels of “noise” or inaccuracy associated with job boards.

Of course it is not all doom and gloom here, job boards do serve a very important purpose and to their credit they have continued to use technology and experience to improve their value proposition.

But I believe we are now at the beginning of a new era for job boards.  A combination of increased analytical ability and psychology is providing a new set of tools that can really allow job boards to crank up their efficiency and effectiveness.  What am I talking about here?

I’m talking about what I call “matching sites”.  Matching sites are  a whole new type of job board that use predictive assessments tools and technology in combination to help supercharge the process of matching job seekers to job opportunities.

One excellent analogy for the way these sites work is online dating sites. Both job matching sites and online dating sites work via the following process:

• Users are looking for a new situation of some sort.
• Users define who they are (and what they are looking for in some cases) based on the information requested by the system.  This is usually based on a profile creation process.
• Users search for matches to their needs via the comparison of their profiles to those of others stored in the database.
• Results are returned electronically with some basic information about why the match was suggested (alignment in key areas indicated to be of a high level of importance).

In online dating, all the matching process does is narrow down the database from millions to a few.  Once this initial match is made, it is still up to the individual to communicate and evaluate the effectiveness of the match (usually by flirting and then going on some dates).  Hiring is no different.  After the match is returned, the actual hiring process is used to evaluate mutual compatibility and to make important decisions about entering into a relationship.

We are about to see an explosion of these matching sites (or the addition of predictive assessments to some existing sites).  Why? Because the technology and the science are now available to meet an increasing demand for quality hires.  I believe we are finally starting to see a shift to quality over quantity.

Here are a few factors that I feel will impact the success of matches made using these sites:

1. Quality of the assessment tool included- It goes without saying that the better constructed the tool and the more research behind its effectiveness, the better the matching will be.

2. Thoroughness of the definition process used by the company side- One potential shortcoming of this method is that the company side profiles jobs based on the input of one or a few individuals.  If these individuals are off base with their data, the accuracy of the whole process is compromised.

3. Niche focus on one job or industry- Focusing on a niche allows for a deeper level of knowledge about what it takes to perform a specific job well and what predicts specific traits that lead to success.

4. Additional data collected- The quality, thoroughness and relevance of the non-assessment related data used as part of the matching process will also impact the accuracy of matches.

5. Ability to demonstrate that those hired using their system are “quality hires”- The more evidence that shows that matching impacts outcomes, the more effective the system at achieving its goals.

Job boards were themselves revolutionary at one time.  Now they are an important part of the hiring process but also serve as a limit to this process.  The next revolution is upon us now.  It is based on supercharged data analytics and predictive science.  We are at the very start of an age that promises to use these tools to provide unprecedented levels of accuracy to this phase of the job search process.  Note, I’m not talking about replacing human judgment or removing humans from the hiring process, but rather removing the noise that those running the hiring process have to endure.

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If you hire people, at some point you will have to hire for a position about which you know absolutely nothing.  Perhaps you’re hiring a chief technology officer, but your background is marketing and sales. Or you’re hiring a new accountant, and you only understand coding.

What do you do? Perhaps you turn to friends and colleagues who are more knowledgeable than you about a particular skill set. Or you figure out which certifications a ‘perfect’ candidate should have. Maybe you rely on a recruiter who specializes in that particular field.

Well, over the past decade, sites have sprung up (and disappeared) to solve your problem. I call them ‘skills testing’ sites, because that’s essentially what they do: they present the candidate with a series of questions, problems, and tests in order to evaluate their skills. Most have been targeted to technical folks.

The granddaddy of these sites is Brainbench. It’s been around since the late 90s and concentrates primarily on technical subjects (although it has tests for English comprehension, marketing, etc.). You earn a Brainbench certification, which you can promote publicly. As with many certifications, the value is often in the eye of the employer – some will care, some won’t.

Several new sites have launched over the past couple of years, including Gild, which (not surprisingly) focuses on technical skills testing. It’s set up with a social component, so that you and your friends can take tests, share results, and insult/brag at the end. Then there’s CodeEval. It has a more explicit link between your test results and the possibility of getting hired. It’s free for participants to get tested, but recruiters are charged to search the database. As with Brainbench, you can have a public profile – but you also have the option to set up competitions. Oh yes – it targets IT folks as well.

WorkForPie has a bit of a twist: it lets you build your own profile, show off your coding skills (yep, the site targets tech people – but just open source people), AND get scored on your proficiency. No money changing hands that I could see – just a bunch of open source developers showing what they can do.

Finally, there’s InterviewStreet. They say they’re the ‘best way to screen programmers’. Recruiters buy a certain number of tests; they send invitations to take the test to their job candidates; and then they get the results, along with comparative data. The site also includes job listings that candidates can apply to – using the tests, of course.

I believe there is value in these services – I could have certainly used them in my hiring days! But they still beg the question: if I don’t know anything about coding, how do I know if the tests are any good? I’m guessing that for that answer, I would have to turn to my friendly sysadmin or IT director.

Whoa – deja vu!

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The last 3 years have been full of advice for companies were struggling to survive. But what about companies that are growing? It’s been a while since I’ve written about the challenges of growth – so it’s about time.

Despite the flat overall employment market, some areas are experiencing growth and even shortages (think healthcare, technology, skilled trades, etc.).  Is your job site experiencing an uptick in business? Then here are some things to think about:

• Hiring: It’s like talking about oil to Exxon, but in fact, hiring is one of the hardest things you will do. Finding that right salesperson or tech genius or versatile customer rep is extremely hard. As we all know, it’s usually not so hard getting applicants – it’s hard getting the right ones. I’m a big fan of screening questions on the job application, and an initial phone screen. It also helps to know yourself and your company. What kind of person is going to thrive in your environment?
• Money: Isn’t it interesting how making more money always involves finding more money to spend? It’s not uncommon to have imbalances in cash flow and ongoing needs (like that new hire, for example). My advice: stay close to your bank. Don’t show up once a year. Make sure you know at least a couple of the key officers. Banking locally is also useful – a local bank is often more customer-focused, and more flexible. And, of course, don’t forget about non-bank funding sources, such as friends and family (although these sometimes come with strings you don’t want).
• Focus: It’s great when things are working – until they don’t. I am a pessimist – and that’s held me in good stead. Assuming the worst keeps your eyes on the core business. Don’t confuse ‘focus’ with ‘obsession’, however. Make sure that your core business is working – and then build some new business.
• Time:  Time is the biggest enemy of any business. Why? Because lack of it (whether actual or perceived) prevents you from paying attention, thinking ahead, problem-solving, and growing. If you’re running from one fire to another, you’re not a hero – you’re a goner. Make time for yourself and your coworkers to think about and execute on long-term projects. Make time to actually get to the root problems.
• Goals: Hey, just because business is booming doesn’t mean that goals should fly out the window. In fact, when money is pouring in, you really need goals to keep you moving forward. Why? Because lots of money also means lots of ideas that you wouldn’t have given a 2nd glance to a few months earlier now suddenly seem worthwhile. ‘After all’, you say to yourself, ‘we can handle a flop. We’ve got money in the bank.’ Wrong. Bad ideas always suck. Really.

I hope and trust that this year will be a prosperous, growing year for your site.

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I’m a very lucky guy. How so? I have the privilege of working with dozens of job boards and recruiting software companies. I’m not locked into a single site or sector – but I am continually focused on the job board industry at both the micro and macro level.  I don’t see everything, of course – but I am able to see a lot.

So….what do I see?

Change. The job board industry is going through the most significant amount of change, reorganization, and growth since its emergence in the mid 1990s. Acquisitions, expansion, evolution, failure – it’s all happening right now, and I expect the current pace of change to continue for several years.  To put it bluntly, we’re in the midst of a market ‘adjustment’ – and those always create opportunities (and danger).

What is driving change in the industry? Let’s take a look:

• Platform changes: The desktop has lost its grip on users, and mobile devices  have benefited. Tablets also seem to be replacing laptops (at least for some applications). More people are turning their homes into wireless networks that connect their computers to audio and visual devices (not to mention appliances). Even cars are connected to the net. So if you don’t have a keyboard, how do you search for your next job on a traditional site? Good question.
• Money: The recession is slowly (and reluctantly, it seems) fading away. In its wake are hundreds of companies with piles of cash and thoughts of acquisitions in their 12 month plans. Putting talented people and employers together continues to be lucrative – so investment and acquisition dollars are now chasing those companies in the online recruiting biz that actually make money. Ahem – job boards tend to fall into that category. If you’re a solid niche site with happy customers, you already have suitors knocking on your door.
• Pent-up demand: You could say this is the other side of the acquisition coin. Many job board owners had so much “fun” during the last 4 years that they’re ready to sell. These won’t be fire sales – but interested buyers will definitely find interested sellers.
• Social recruiting: All recruiting is social, of course – but ‘social recruiting’ now means recruiting with Twitter, LinkedIn, et al. I’d argue that social recruiting has put the ‘sexy’ back in recruiting, at least in the employer world. Smart job boards realized this and incorporated social tools into their offering. Those that didn’t are finding that their offerings aren’t ‘sexy’.  Social tools will continue to drive functional and technical changes in job boards.
• Job seeker expectations: Where are they looking? How do they conduct a job search? What makes them act (or not)? How much will they put up with to find the ephemeral ‘perfect job’? These questions drive the creation of hundreds of job sites every year – sites that answer these questions better than anything else (at least in their founders’ minds).
• Employer expectations: Why is applicant quality low? Why does hiring cost so much? Why does hiring take so long? Why change anything? These questions also drive the development of hundreds of ‘solutions’ every year. Sometimes, some of them work.

There you have it. The drivers of change as I see them. What did I miss?

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Per this week’s survey results from job boards, we’ve seen some changes over the past 12 months – not the least of which is increased optimism. Perhaps part of that is based on what HR and recruiting professionals are actually doing to find candidates. This installment of the survey results describes how things have changed (in some areas) during the last year. Here are some highlights:

• Social media (78%) and general job boards (74%) lead the pack as the tools used most frequently. (For comparison’s sake, last year had social media (70%) and company career sites (65%) leading the pack)
• Not surprisingly, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook continue to dominate the social media tools used – but company blogs have gained popularity (from 28% in 2010 to 29% this year)
• Niche job boards, company career sites, and social media are all slated for the largest increases in spending for the coming year (last year, SM, company sites, and referral programs led)
• The quality of the candidates is far and away the top deliverable respondents gained from job boards (as it was in 2010)
• .jobs saw a slight uptick in interest – from 13% in 2010 to 18% in 2011

Take a look for yourself (survey download requires free registration).

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“You say you want a revolution, well, you know, we’re all doing what we can.” – The Beatles

“We’re pinheads all, jocko homo.” -DEVO

These lyrics really get to the two extremes of what recruiters, employers, and job seekers think might happen with job boards. On the one hand, there are those who think job boards are on the way out, ‘devolving’ into lowest common denominator sites that carry fake jobs and offer little value.

On the other hand, there are those who think that only a revolution (think ‘social media’) can save the industry. Tear down the barricades and march in the street!

Me, I’m more a Darwinian kind of guy – job boards are evolving. Some will do so successfully (and thrive). Others will fall off the evolutionary ladder and end up in the dustbin of history. I know there will be a whole lot of morphing going on. That conventional job board you knew (and sometimes loved) picks up a new Web 2.0 skin, adds a bunch of content, and calls itself an employment portal. That blue and white aggregator suddenly decides to act like a job board. And that monstrously big job board starts popping up in places like Facebook.

So, if I’m right, then what are some of the ‘evolutionary’ behaviors we should see?

• Platform mobility: Sites have to function equally well on desktops, notebooks, cell phones, tablets, and whatever comes next (job hunting from your car’s WiFi-ed display, anyone?)
• Diffusion: In other words, less site-centric behavior, and more focus on getting jobs to candidates, wherever they might be. Or, for that matter, candidates to employers.
• Redefining the mission: Job boards morph into ‘candidate acquisition tools’. As always, they exist to connect job seeker to employer – but they have more than one tool in the hypothetical belt.
• Hyper focus: Knocking niche up another notch, with granular focus on candidates not only by job title and skill set, but also with regard to where they are in their work ‘lifecycle’. Getting ready for the first job? Transitioning? Moving up?
• Generational understanding: Hey, after the last stock market crash, many baby boomers are going to take a raincheck on retirement – so what does that do to the Gen X / Y / etc. behind them? Does the traditional ‘one size fits all’ approach to recruitment really make sense in this scenario (actually, did it ever?)?
• Technology:  Sites that survive will invest – significantly – in technology. Sites that don’t survive – well, they didn’t.

The thing about evolution is that it happens slowly and is by definition an adaptive process. That means that other things that are flashier and noisier can seem more important, more vital, more, well, revolutionary.

Yet what often happens is the revolution falls apart and others swoop in to pick up the nuggets of ‘usefulness’ left behind. I think smart companies instinctively know this – thus the saying ‘it hurts to be bleeding edge’.  Consider the iPad: tablets had been around for quite some time, but Apple improved the hardware and software, applied their marketing genius – and suddenly tablets were ‘the new thing’. Revolution? Nope, more like evolution.

Now (with apologies to DEVO and the Beatles) I will return you to your regularly scheduled program….

The best time to think about what to do when sales go down…is when sales are up.

Huh?

Consider this: when sales are up, you have better cash flow. You aren’t frantically trying to do something – anything – to generate sales. You don’t have creditors breathing down your neck (probably). And – most importantly - you’re thinking about the future, not worrying about whether or not you can make it through another week.

Most of you are seeing increasing sales right now. That’s good. Most of you went through some challenging times over the past two years. The fact that you survived is a big plus for you and your organization. But as you and I know, the world goes on, whether you’re paying attention or not. So now is the time to analyze your sales efforts and prepare for the day when your sales go down.

So let’s take a look at some steps you can take to prepare yourself for the (inevitable) day when sales don’t do what you expected them to:

• Know where your sales come from: Do you track back all sales to their source? Most of us say we do, but we don’t. Even if you can’t manage this on an ongoing basis, take a certain time segment – say, 1-month samples at 3 different times in the year – and track every sale back to the source. You may be surprised by what you find.
• Find out what your customers really think: Don’t send them a survey filled with slanted questions. Instead, give them plenty of chances to tell you what they think about your services. Is a salesperson annoying? You want to know. How about the effectiveness of your ATS integrations? The sexiness of your site? Believe me, it’s worth digging until you get the answers.
• Who is really making the buying decision – and how does it happen?: Is your sales operation really just an ‘order-taking’ operation? Do you actually know who pulled the trigger on that last ‘buy’ decision? Do you know how they found out about you? What made them decide on you instead of ‘Brand X’? If you don’t know why your customer uses your job board, you’re screwed. And you have to know how the decision is made, or you’ll always be blindsided when they decide NOT to use you.
• Always be expanding: If you’re not adding new sales prospects every day, you’re in trouble. Really. Okay, maybe you miss a day here and there – but on average, you should be adding a certain number of new leads to your pipeline all the time. How many? Depends on your site, your goals, and your resources.
• Always be curious: No matter how good – or bad – it is, take some time out every week to poke around. Read TechCrunch or ERE or any of a hundred other sites that cover developments in the tech, recruiting, HR, and general world. You’re going to learn something – and if you pick up even 1 good idea a month, that increases your chances of creating a new revenue stream.

So, I hope your sales are up – and you’re getting ready for the next downturn!

This may be heresy – but sometimes I think more communication isn’t necessarily better.  To wit: here in the U.S. Midwest, we are experiencing – depending on your news source – an unprecedented number of floods, a stunning increase in storm-related deaths, or just another summer season. Which is correct? Try the last one; we in face are having a very typical, average, not at all unusual summer here despite the killer tornadoes, floods, locusts, and other such. So why does it seem like everything is so incredibly awful? Because we actually know about it.

Go back even 50 years, and chances were you wouldn’t know about every natural or man-made disaster. No Twitter, 24-hour news channels, Internet – some places still didn’t have television! So if the disaster happened to you, it was a bad year. If it happened elsewhere, well…it didn’t affect your perception of how things were.

This is a very long preamble to the real subject of this post: BIG CHANGES IN THE JOB BOARD WORLD. (Notice those fear-inspiring uppercase letters?) Let’s take a look at some harbingers of doom:

• Google PANDA yanks search engine rankings up and down, based on (we think) duplicate content. Yep, it affects job boards.
• LinkedIn adds (or is said to be adding) an ‘Apply’ button to job listings – making it just like a job board.
• The .jobs Universe still isn’t dead.
• Dan Schwabel says job boards are dead – and that LinkedIn will replace them.
• Monster is failing to close deals because of the Federal government’s hesitancy
• Aggregators say ‘take a hike’ to many job boards.

You get the picture. But ask yourself: if you didn’t know about the above, would it affect your business or your decisionmaking? I doubt it. After all, Google has arbitrarily done things in the past – and in a world ruled by Google (as it once was by Microsoft), you simply adapt. Aggregators? Hey, if you’re ‘hooked’ on their traffic, you should already know you’re vulnerable. LinkedIn adding an Apply button? Ahem – I think we all saw this coming, didn’t we?

Yes, it’s fun to follow every scrap of news, to ruminate on how XYZ Company’s ‘revolutionary’ service might affect your own business – nothing wrong with that. But be sure to put on your ‘long term perspective’ glasses before you act. Focus on your customers. Focus on solving problems. If you do that, you’ll be the one making news – and making your competitors nervous.

One of the first business lessons I learned many years ago was that it is often better to have many smaller customers than fewer large ones. At the time, I was learning the ropes from a battle-hardened magazine publisher. He said (in reference to my naive comment that I would rather have Microsoft as an advertiser than a dozen smaller ones), “Where are you when your big customer decides to ‘shift focus’? Your loss will be 100% of income, rather than 15% or 20%. How long does it take to find a replacement for your big customer? How much time does that big customer suck up? And how much more does that big customer demand?”

Needless to say, I ignored my publisher’s advice, chased after the big customer, got them – and then lost them a year or so later, when they, ahem, ‘shifted focus’. Ouch. Hurt my pride and my pocketbook. (And no, the short term gain was not worth it – I spent months rebuilding my ad bookings).

Job boards face similar dilemmas. Do you get in bed with a major aggregator or ad network? Focus on the top 3 employers in your niche? Create ‘sweetheart’ deals for the biggest spender? The lure can be powerful, especially as we come out of a challenging recession.

Sometimes the answer is ‘yes’ – but it’s best to think about all aspects of the deal, not just the nice payoff you may get up front. For example, if you rely on AdSense to generate revenue, can you live without it if the ads go away? If you focus on the biggest employers, do you have the bandwidth to take care of your other clients – or do they fall by the wayside? What’s the expected life of the deal (because, as we know, nothing lasts forever)? Is the ‘big deal’ a gateway to more clients at a higher level – or an end in itself?

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, there are a lot of changes happening in our industry – and some of them will be surprises. Possibly unpleasant. My advice? Examine your potential ‘deals’ carefully. Look at what your potential ‘partners’ do – not what they say. And remember – there is power in numbers. The more customers you have (and the happier they are), the safer you are.