Recession has HR Organizations Playing “Catch-up” with Candidates

Polls Show Job Seekers Adopting Alternative Search Methods Quicker than HR.


Cleveland, OH (PRWEB) July 20, 2009 –

While HR organizations have dramatically scaled back their recruiting in the economic downturn, many have learned they must embrace new recruiting habits now if they want to attract top candidates before the inevitable turnaround, according to NAS Interactive, a division of NAS Recruitment Communications.

At a recent learning event for HR professionals co-hosted by NAS and job aggregator SimplyHired, attendees were polled about their current hiring practices. Over 80% still relied primarily on the major job boards for posting job openings.

However, the habits of job seekers have dramatically changed. Studies by digital measurement giant comScore has found that 60% of all job searches today are being conducted through search engines and job aggregators, versus a total of 40% on the big three boards—CareerBuilder, Monster and Yahoo!—combined.

“Most HR professionals recognize how quickly the digital landscape is changing, and that they need to continually put new practices into play to attract top talent,” said Caroline Slomski, NAS Interactive Marketing Strategist. “It’s why our Social Networking Boot Camps and interactive media webinars prove so popular. But we don’t want clients to just follow the trends. We encourage our clients to put the kind of analytics in place that will help them understand what is working and what is not. Where are your candidates coming from today, versus six months ago? Which channels—both paid and unpaid—are bringing in the most completed applications? And how can you adjust your strategy so you can maximize your ROI?”

“There are so many opinions out there on what’s working and what’s not,” said NAS Vice President of Development Stephan Kruger. “That’s why every organization needs real data that tracks what media their candidates are attracted to, and how they respond with the employment message. It lets you react to changes in the landscape as they occur, so you’re always in the driver’s seat.”

NAS Interactives analytics tools, such as Total Source Tracker, can help organizations track candidates from all media - from initial click to completed application - so they can measure media efficiency and reduce overall advertising spend.

To find out more about NAS’ comprehensive array of Digital Recruitment Solutions, please contact Patty Van Leer at pvanleer@nasrecruitment.com.

NAS Recruitment Communications, part of McCann Worldgroup, delivers best-of-class HR strategy solutions for online and offline candidate engagement and specialized expertise in career websites, onboarding, employee communication and HR metrics. Creating Demand. Delivering Talent. Changing Lives.