I was fortunate enough last week to talk with Peter Clayton of Total Picture Radio about my post a few weeks ago. We talked about the non-death of job boards, Monster, LinkedIn, matching, .jobs, and a bunch of other things. I think you will enjoy the conversation. Click here to listen (click on the Podcast player, on the right side of the page).

[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.].

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?

[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.].

As another year draws to a close, it’s time to take a look back at the year that 2011 was (man, that was truly an awkward construction, eh?). As usual, there was much sturm and drang about social media, the lingering recession, and the Iowa caucuses – no, wait, that’s another post. At any rate, here are the things I thought were most notable:

1. Job boards did not die: Yes, the combined power of thousands of bloggers and SM evangelists simply could not bring down the 100K+ or so job boards around the world. In fact, the publicly-held boards seemed to recover nicely as the year progress (er, maybe not Monster’s stock). Well, hope springs eternal, right? Maybe in 2012?
2. LinkedIn got serious about making money: Nothing like an IPO to focus a company’s attention. LI settled down to creating more recruitment products for its audience of employers and recruiters to buy, and it continued working on the 1-5% of its users that actually visit the site monthly to pay for that privilege. LI is not going away, folks – and that means you, job boards.
3. Monster fought back: The job board monolith made several key moves in 2011 that kept it in the game and growing. First, they launched a Facebook offensive via their BeKnown app (tens of thousands of users and climbing). Next, they introduced SeeMore, a database-bridging search tool aimed directly at the LinkedIn threat. I expect to see more initiatives in 2012 (once they get past that stock thing, that is).
4. Matching sites proliferated: Taking their place alongside well-established job-matching sites such as RealMatch and JobFox were new entrants: VentuRocket, Grex, Direct Approach Solutions, JobHat, Geekfinder – the list goes on and on. Have any of them solve the precision issues that have historically plagued matching sites? Stay tuned.
5. Mobile kept growing: It was no surprise that mobile continued to make significant inroads into the online recruiting space. According to Beyond, 77% of job seekers were using mobile in 2011. Is your site ‘mobilized’?
6. The .jobs universe fizzled: 2011 should have been the year that the .jobs universe grew. Perhaps it did, but the adoption rate among companies I surveyed was still below 15%. Legal issues may make this a shrinking universe.
7. Money started moving: As John Sumser pointed out in a recent post, acquisitions  increased in the online recruiting space – and that shouldn’t change in 2012. As we inch our way out of the recession, a combustible combination of pent-up demand, smart use of technology, and pre-emptive strikes against competitors will keep the pipes full.
8. Temps became the new perms: The recession left considerably fewer jobs in its wake – and more of those left were filled by temps. This drove up business for staffing firms, freelance sites such as oDesk and eLance, changed hiring cycle patterns throughout the industry.
9. TheLadders said ‘adios’ to $100K only: In a move that probably surprised no one, TheLadders moved away from its long-held position and embraced jobs under the $100K mark. But it’s still not a job board, right? At least, that’s what its ads say…
10. Indeed targeted employers: After years of saying it worked with job boards rather than against them, Indeed began directly competing for employer dollars. Monster was not amused

[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.].

Last week I read a post about how social media killed job boards (yes, again!). Whether or not you agree with the argument (and as you can surmise, I don’t), the piece inadvertently brings up a larger issue: are job boards still relevant to job seekers? After all, this is all about the job seeker, right? Many social media evangelists would have you believe that job boards (employment hubs, job sites, whatever you wish to call them) have as little meaning for the average job seeker as the (gasp!) Sunday classifieds.

Which made me wonder – how do you determine the relevance of a particular job hunting tool for the average job seeker? Seems like these metrics might make sense:

• Usage by job seekers: job boards consistently end up in the top 3 recommended tools for job seekers to utilize during a job hunt. Traffics stats from both general and niche job sites bear this out.
• Usage by employers: job boards account for 12-30% of external hires for employers – exceeded only by referrals for most organizations.
• Multiple delivery methods: job seekers can discover jobs via online search, automated job matching emails, text messages, Tweets, and probably a few more I’ve missed.
• Multiple levels of engagement: job seekers can post ‘anonymous’ resumes; fully public resumes; profiles that can be matched to specific types of jobs or employers; direct email or phone interaction with employers; interaction on company career ‘micro-sites’ (that are managed by the job boards) via email, Twitter, etc.

The bottom line on whether job boards ‘die’ is relevance and usage  (not how many articles are published by social media evangelists). If job seekers continue to rely on and regularly use job boards, then they will, by definition, thrive. If the same job seekers no longer find the job sites useful or relevant – and thus no longer use them – then the job boards will die.

It’s that simple.

And yes, you can probably guess what I think will happen!

[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.]

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).

[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.]

Another 30 days, another month of excitement in the online recruiting world! This is the stuff I thought worth noting:

• CareerBoard has a new director of sales: CareerBoard has appointed Dennis Liniman as their new Director of Sales. He’s been with the company since 2010, and is now on the hook to double job postings in the next year. Good luck on this aggressive goal!
• SmartJobBoard releases a new version: The latest version of this low-cost (and popular) job board software package includes: user login via Google accounts; ‘autocomplete’ in forms; and a Form Builder for the site administrator. Good to see this package continue to revise and expand.
• LinkedIn acquires a social CRM company: LinkedIn expands its offerings to employers by purchasing Connected, a social-flavored contact management startup, adding to a previous acquisition of CardMunch. Apparently they like the flavor of CRMs.
• BranchOut finds a job board partner:  The Facebook employment app BranchOut has partnered (somehow – the press release was vague) with CareerBuilder. Take that, Monster!
• USAJobs.gov says goodbye to Monster: USAJobs.gov is moving to an inhouse database system – and in the process leaving their long-time partner Monster, possibly as a result of past data breaches. Monster fights back.
• CareerBuilder is targeted for discriminatory job postings: Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y) sent a letter to CareerBuilder’s CEO asking him to stop the practice help wanted ads discriminating against the unemployed. The National Employment Law Project unveiled examples of ads posted on the site that offered opportunities only to those who had a job.
• New job board for teen hackers: Teens in Tech, a network of support and events for young entrepreneurs, has just launched the Connect site, what 18-year-old founder Daniel Brusilovsky called “a social network meets resource center for young entrepreneurs”. As I’ve said before, there is a job board for everyone.

[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.]

What exactly is happening in the job board and online recruiting world? Well, to paraphrase Neil Young, ‘job boards never sleep’ (okay, yes, that was awful!), so here’s a quick roundup of some industry tidbits:

• JobTarget continues growing: The software company is adding a satellite sales location in Windsor, bringing its total employee count to 90 or so.
• Dice Holdings authorizes stock buyback: Dice has okayed the buyback of up to $30 million of its stock – a move designed to offset stock issued for employee compensation.
• EEOC is looking for a few bad ads: Those ads that are targeted only to employed job seekers? Probably a good idea if your job board passes on them – they may garner attention from the EEOC.
• To heck with resumes, says VenturRocket: Yes, another day, another startup – and this one favors ‘clouds’ of skills over a resume. Stealing a line from TheLadders, they says the ‘job market is broken’. We’ll see.
• Will LinkedIn hook up with Facebook?: In what is probably Monster’s worst nightmare, rumors are flying of a possible cooperative venture between LinkedIn and Facebook.
• The face behind the words: Ever wonder who tweets for CareerBuilder? Well, me neither – but I still found this article interesting.
• The eHarmony of job sites?: It’s another matching site – but it’s getting (critical) exposure in the New York Times. Might go somewhere.
• Job boards are dead – or not – or kinda: An interesting discussion from TruLondon.
• Monster pumps up BeKnown: In tandem with the Facebook F8 developer conference, Monster adds new features to BeKnown.
• Next step – Malaysia: CareerBuilder has purchased JobCentral, a Malaysian job portal with over 200,000 registered users.

And that’s all the news that’s buzzing…for now.

Ever wonder how the financial markets might affect your job board? Well, wonder no more – Monster, Dice, and 51Job all experienced double-digit drops in the wake of S&P’s downgrade of the U.S. government. (And this was after reporting some very strong Q2 earnings a week ago). Kind of makes you glad you’re not a publicly held site, eh?

Let’s not forget another disruption: LinkedIn added the ability for employers to insert a LI ‘Apply for this job’ button to their openings. It doesn’t play well with ATSs (yet), but it’s another sign that LinkedIn is really another (very big) job board. Which means it will continue to be competition for just about every other job board in some form or fashion.

Still not shell-shocked? Well, let’s see: ICANN told the .jobs folks that indeed they actually overstepped their charter by creating the ‘.jobs universe’ – but that story isn’t over yet, I’m guessing. And let’s not forget that Monster moved its 6Sense technology into the cloud – a smart move that may signal a new direction for job boards in general.

So what’s the purpose in regaling you with all of this? Simple – there are things that affect your job board that you simply cannot control. Kind of like life in general – you can (and should) plan ahead, but don’t sweat the stuff you can’t affect.

Conversely…there are things that you can control, like:

• the technical quality of your site (search tools, speed, accuracy, etc.)
• creating services that your clients actually want and use
• the quality of your job seekers
• the way you present your services (think: branding)
• your own openness to new platforms and technologies (do you have a mobile app for your site yet?)

It’s worth reminding yourself that job boards can be very efficient, effective tools for connecting candidates to employers – but they can also be supplanted by other tools and techniques (just ask Athenahealth). There is no special protective halo that will ensure job boards’ survival for another 15 years. If your board works, it will survive. If it doesn’t, it won’t.

Let me leave you with this very interesting analysis by Glen Cathey of Boolean Black Belt. He compared social media, search engines, ATSs, job boards, and internal talent databases for their effectiveness in locating talent. Job boards came out looking pretty good – easy to search, lots of depth and focus.

But you know what? Your clients won’t know that unless you tell them. So…read about the disruption, work on the things you can control – and make sure your clients know exactly how good you really are.

Monster has made a big splash – and some waves – with BeKnown, its job seeker app for Facebook. It’s the latest (and boldest) move into social media for the job board, and I think it has some lessons for all of us. So without further ado, let’s begin:

1. Pick your fights: Monster very wisely did not attempt to launch anything for LinkedIn users. I suspect they understood that: a) LinkedIn would fight back; and b) there was very little competition in the Facebook pond. Yes, BranchOut was already there with roughly 1 million users – but Monster knew it could dwarf that number very quickly. Smart move.
2. Think like a user: Sure, I like beating up on Monster like everyone else (it’s tough to be #1 but that’s the price they must pay). Yet I have to admit that when I set up the app for my Facebook account, it just made sense. It was straightforward, easy to use, and (gasp!) kind of fun – everyone likes to get a badge, after all. It’s exactly the kind of app I can imagine a lot of non-techie, regular folks using – the kind of people, in fact, that do use Facebook. It ain’t perfect, but what is? I give the Monster design team kudos for this one.
3. Be strategic: Monster is not naive – they know that Facebook may decide to move into the jobs sector at some point. But Facebook has many irons in the fire right now, including a not-so-distant IPO. They don’t live and die by recruiting in the same way that LinkedIn does – so Monster has time to grow, develop, and nurture BeKnown. For Monster, Facebook is just a better place to be social.
4. Know what you want: BeKnown is not just an app that Monster created so they could be ‘social’. It’s not eye candy, and it’s not a marketing gimmick. It’s a tool designed for a channel that Monster doesn’t own, to acquire new users and bring past users back into the fold. It’s a tool to grow their most valuable commodity: job seekers.

There have been and will continue to be other forays by job boards into Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media channels. StartWire is keeping pressure from the job seeker side as well – take a look to see how they ‘think like a job seeker’.  And…be sure to keep learning from others’ mistakes – and successes.

Any job board operator will tell you that one of the toughest things about keeping your site running well is ensuring that you have a steady flow of the right kind of candidates. What exactly is the ‘right kind of candidate’? Well, this would a candidate that is qualified for a particular job AND responds to that job. If you have enough of these candidates, your employers will be happy and they will pay to use your site.

Problem is, finding these candidates is easier said than done. The time-honored technique of driving up your site traffic in hopes that a percentage of visitors will be the ‘right kind’ is – at best – wasteful. It wastes your resources (why bring janitors to your site when you wanted aerospace engineers?), and it wastes your employers’ resources (by having cull unqualified candidates). Niche sites in particular have been more inventive, promoting themselves wherever they find their candidates gathering – or even creating a gathering place for the candidates (i.e., the proverbial ‘career hub’). Some partner with professional associations, or appear at industry trade shows. These are all good techniques. But I recently saw two examples of a new method for finding the ‘right kind’ of candidate.

Top Prospect tackles the problem by focusing on the friends of candidates. You sign up (using their LinkedIn and/or Facebook login) in order to: a) help your out-of-work friends by finding them jobs, and b) making some cold hard cash when one of your referrals is hired. Top Prospect conducts some behind-the-scenes technical work to match your LinkedIn and Facebook friends to various open positions – then they tell you about the match. You decide if you want to make the referral. The hiring party doesn’t know you referred the candidate – just that it came from Top Prospect. If they’re hired, you get money.

This has the potential to work well if: a) there are enough open positions that at least a few of them will match up to your friends; and b) if your friends are the kind of people an employer might want to meet. If your personal network is loaded with buddies from prison and the fast food place you worked in during high school, you may not get your referral dough.

A similar model is being used by Job Fox with its Boost service. It allows recruiters to build ‘networks’ of contacts based on their specific criteria – but if you’re lazy, JobFox will ‘autobuild’ a network for you from its database of 7 million candidates. Boost includes a ‘spiff’ option that lets recruiters offer cash for referrals.

In a way, you could say that Top Prospect and Job Fox have tackled ‘job matching’ by using the most powerful software available – the human brain. If you have a big enough network and are willing to spend some time, you can earn a little spending money for matching your friends to their jobs. Wait - did I say ‘a little spending money’? Ahem. Top Prospect talks about $20,000 a match. Even if you take that with a shaker full of salt, I’m betting that the average fee is at least a few thousand dollars.

Greed (and of course the desire to help friends) can be a powerful focuser.