June Michael Bernick, Milken Institute. Chase Norlin, Transmosis

Transcription

1 The Rapidly Expanding Industry of Private-Sector Internet Job Placement Sites and How California s Public Workforce System Can Better Link to These Sites June 2015 Michael Bernick, Milken Institute Chase Norlin, Transmosis Prepared for the California Workforce Investment Board Accelerator Program in conjunction with the NOVA Workforce Board

2 Table of Contents Introduction... 1 I. Internet Job Boards Appear in the 1990s... 2 II. Internet Job Boards Increase and Diversify by Sectors/Geography; the Job Aggregators Appear... 2 III. Internet Job Placement Sites Introduce a Range of Innovative Placement Strategies The generalist job boards and aggregators Sites targeting sectors/occupations or identified job-seeker populations Sites targeting internships/summer jobs Sites targeting college students and recent college graduates Sites targeting mature workers Sites targeting hourly jobs/lower-wage jobs Sites targeting independent contracting, freelance work or individual tasks Sites specializing in career resources/advancement strategies and opportunities Sites specializing in scoring/ranking Sites specializing in talent communities Sites specializing in video presentations by job seekers Sites specializing in recommendations/referrals Sites utilizing Tinder-like connections between employer/job seeker... 8 IV. A Dynamic Process of Sites Entering and Exiting the Job Placement Market... 9 V. Overlap with Internet Site Innovation Aimed at Improving the Hiring Process for Employers I. Limited Existing Internet Job Site Use by WIB Counselors II. Recommendations on Best Internet Job Sites by Business and Tech Columnists III. How Local WIB Counselors Might Address the Internet Job Sites Going Forward Attachment: The Range of Targets and Approaches Among the Emerging Internet Job Placement Websites [Graphic] i

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4 Introduction The growth of the Internet job placement industry has been explosive in recent years, with hundreds of major job-placement websites emerging, providing a wide variety of approaches. Among these websites are expansions and refinements of the job-board concept. For example, job boards are emerging that target: 1. specific sectors and occupations; 2. specific populations, such as workers with disabilities, college students, or mature workers; 3. internships, summer positions, or hourly/lower-wage jobs; or 4. independent contracting, freelance, and individual project work. Beyond the job-board concept, the new job placement websites are holding out the promise of improved placement opportunities for job seekers through career counseling/advancement strategies, scoring/ranking technologies, use of video presentations and referrals, creation of talent communities, and even Tinder-like technology, modeled after the popular social/dating site. Do these sites represent new opportunities for job seekers? Do they represent opportunities for the public workforce system in California? As part of our Accelerator project funded by the California Workforce Investment Board in 2014, we undertook first to categorize these sites, and next to analyze their potential value to the public workforce system. Part I sets out our categorizations. Part II then sets out the current utilization of these sites by staff local workforce investment boards (WIBs), and how these sites might be utilized by local WIBs going forward. 1

5 Part I: The Wide Variety of Approaches and Tools of the Internet Job Placement Sites I. Internet Job Boards Appear in the 1990s It wasn t too long ago that jobs were listed on 3x5 cards posted on bulletin boards at government employment offices and in daily newspapers. Today, it is still possible to find a few job listings in newspapers, but the job-search field has migrated to the Internet with an explosion of hundreds of job-search boards and job-placement sites. The first major job boards appeared in the mid-1990s. CareerBuilder.com was one of the first. Founded as Net Start in 1994, the site sold software that enabled companies to list job openings on their websites and process responses. In the next few years, the company shifted to listing jobs on its own website and purchased several competitor boards, including CareerPath.com and Headhunter.net. CareerBuilder.com grew exponentially in the next decade, as did another job board launched in 1994, Monster.com. Both continued to acquire competitors, add services, and diversify into new product areas. By 2012, Monster.com had 1 million job postings on any given day, and CareerBuilder.com, an even larger number at 1.6 million job listings. II. Internet Job Boards Increase and Diversify by Sectors/Geography; the Job Aggregators Appear Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com have continued and have been joined by tens of other job boards of significant size. Nearly all of these job boards allow job seekers to sort for openings by occupation, sector, geography, and other factors. However, there are also job boards now that focus on specific sectors, such as Dice (technology jobs) and Absolutely Health Care (health care jobs), as well as job boards that are distinguished by ties to local employers, such as local Craigslist sites. Further, the past few years have seen the growth of the aggregators, also known as the mega-boards, Indeed.com and SimplyHired.com. These mega-boards collect and aggregate postings from a wide range of employer websites, professional associations, independent job boards, and other forms of job listings. 2

6 III. Internet Job Placement Sites Introduce a Range of Innovative Placement Strategies Most distinctive in the past few years has been establishment of numerous job placement sites that focus on segments of the job seeker population and/or introduce a range of services beyond the general job board. There are sites, for example, that focus on internships for college students and on first jobs after college, as well as at the other end of the age scale mature workers. There are sites that seek to improve the placement process through use of talent communities, videos, referrals, and Tinder-like employer/job seeker connections. In the fall of 2014 we set out to identify and research in some detail a portion of these sites. We identified over 100 of these sites and separated them into 13 categories to highlight the variety of approaches. The categories are set out in the Internet Job Placement Site below (and as a full-page graphic at the end of the report). These categories are meant to represent the diversity of targeted groups and approaches, and many job-placement sites will fit into several categories. The graphic is not meant to represent all of the websites in each category, but only illustrate each category. 3

7 1. The generalist job boards and aggregators These are generally known in the public workforce community and are utilized. A sample of these sites is listed below. Dice is included for its high profile, although it is more of a specialty board and also included in the second category. 2. Sites targeting sectors/occupations or identified job-seeker populations These are sites that refine the targeting by sector/occupation or by identified job-seeker population. Examples of the targeting by sectors/occupations include MBA & Company and Doostang (focus on finance), Green Jobs Ready and Green Job Engine (focus on jobs in alternative energy), and Shiftgig, Proven, and Workpop (focus on restaurant/bartending jobs). Examples of targeting by job-seeker population include AkimboConnect (focus on workers with disabilities) and Hero2Hired (focus on military reservists). Further, sites such as AngelList and StartUp-Pair Up specialize in job placements with startup companies; StartUp-PairUp, for example, focuses on mothers looking for flexible jobs with startups. 4

8 3. Sites targeting internships/summer jobs These are sites that target internships or summer jobs. Most of the largest job boards (e.g., Monster, Craigslist) and the aggregators (e.g., SimplyHired, Indeed) have major sections on internships and summer positions, as do general sites such as Idealist (internships with non-profits) and Experience.com. However, several sites solely target internships, including InternBound, InternWeb, and CollegeRecruiter. Other sites target summer jobs, such as CoolWorks (summer and seasonal jobs) and SummerJobs. 4. Sites targeting college students and recent college graduates These sites target the college market and include career planning for college students and first jobs for college graduates. The college-focused sites, nearly all of which mix career advice and placements, include Koofers (connecting college students with businesses looking for employees or interns), Collegefeed (connecting college students to first job opportunities), and FirstJob (recent college graduates). 5. Sites targeting mature workers Sites looking at the other end of the age spectrum and targeting mature workers, include WorkForce 50, Seniors4Hire, and RetiredBrains. 5

9 6. Sites targeting hourly jobs/lower-wage jobs SnagaJob and Jobaline are major sites that focus on linking workers with hourly positions. AssuredLabor is a site that explicitly focuses on connecting employers and job seekers in mid- to low-wage jobs. While it operates in the United States, it is mainly in emerging markets, particularly in Latin America, utilizing a mobile platform. 7. Sites targeting independent contracting, freelance work or individual tasks Elance-Odesk and Fiverr are sites targeting independent contracting and freelance work. Elance- Odesk is a marketplace for freelancers, in which freelancers are connected to projects ( gigs ). Fiverr is a marketplace for services and tasks, through which services/tasks are requested and bids are made starting at five dollars (thus the site name). TaskRabbit focuses on smaller tasks and errands on a neighborhood basis. 8. Sites specializing in career resources/advancement strategies and opportunities Nearly all sites include job advice, but certain sites are testing more targeted career counseling for employed workers, as well as for unemployed workers, with a focus on career information by sector or company. Glassdoor claims a database of 6 million company reviews, which includes information on salary, working conditions, and employee insights aimed at providing workers with more complete information on how to advance. Climber is aimed at career advancement. It seeks to enable employed and unemployed workers to better showcase skills and connect with recruiters and hiring managers through resume building and strategizing for a monthly fee. 6

10 9. Sites specializing in scoring/ranking These sites both seek to help employers manage the hiring process by sorting/ranking the surplus of job seekers and to help job seekers demonstrate their exemplary skills to employers. Pymetics and MindSumo are focused on college students: MindSumo offers students opportunity to display skills in solving problems; Pymetrics analyzes prospective workforce fits through neuroscience-based games and puzzles. HireArt, which focuses on white-collar individuals, asks workers to answer problems and demonstrate skills through video presentations, thereby rating applicants for employers. 10. Sites specializing in talent communities These sites seek to create ongoing engagement between employers and potential employees, as well as between communities of job seekers. Ascendify helps companies, such as the shoe company Zappos, to create a platform by which persons who want to work there can connect to the Zappos website, demonstrate their ideas and passion for the company product, and learn about job openings. Findly seeks to link companies with job seekers and other potential workers to engage with on an ongoing basis for an employment fit. 11. Sites specializing in video presentations by job seekers The majority of emerging job placement websites today utilizes some form of video presentations by job seekers. HireArt, for example, rates job seekers in good part by video presentations, and sites such as Workpop and Hoofers encourage video use. CareerSushi and Careerflo are sites that are trying to stand out by building video profiles. TaketheInterview and InterviewStream are interview platforms for employers that are seeking to improve and streamline the video presentation process. 7

11 12. Sites specializing in recommendations/referrals As with video presentations, many sites in these other categories offer opportunities for job seekers to utilize recommendations from co-workers, former co-workers, and acquaintances. RolePoint and ZALP are two firms with software products aimed at assisting employers in maximizing referrals in general and referrals that lead to hiring in particular. 13. Sites utilizing Tinder-like connections between employer/job seeker These are sites by which employers and job seekers can quickly see if there is interest on each side, and if so, can connect to discuss opportunities further. Blonk, for example, advertises itself as Tinder for Job Recruiting. Employers and job seekers can swipe through profiles and when they say yes to each other, they can begin a text message conversation. Jobr also utilizes the Tinder-model for swiping left or right for job connections. 8

12 IV. A Dynamic Process of Sites Entering and Exiting the Job Placement Market In our overview of Internet placement sites, we should add two further points about the categorizations. First, as might be expected, the job placement market is a dynamic one. During just the three months in which we undertook the research for this project, three of the websites we identified Emjoyment (a Tinder-like matchmaking site), YesGraph (a firm specializing in referrals through social networks), and Readyforce (an intern matching site) discontinued operations and announced re-structuring. This restructuring will continue to occur as a significant number of the placement sites set out in the attached Internet Job Placement Site graphic are not able to find revenue sources while other sites continue to enter the field. 9

13 V. Overlap with Internet Site Innovation Aimed at Improving the Hiring Process for Employers Second, at the same time that there has been this explosion and diversity of Internet sites aimed at job seekers and job placement, there also has been a parallel explosion in Internet sites and software aimed at improving the hiring process for employers. Bullhorn, Jibe, Jobvite, Smartrecruiters, HireVue, Accolo, Ascendify, TaketheInterview, Zao, HiringSmart, and InterviewStream are just a sample of the hundreds of sites and software now being marketed to employers to better manage their hiring processes. Similar to the explosion in Internet sites for job seekers, the Internet sites aimed at employers include a range of approaches and numerous competitors for each approach. Though these sites look to employers as their main customer base, rather than job seekers; there is an overlap between these sites and the job placement sites. We have included a number of them in our graphic and categories above. InterviewStream and TaketheInterview, for example, both offer a product to employers to improve the hiring process. TaketheInterview states to employers that its unique platform enables your recruiting team to engage candidates and hiring managers in ways not possible before, while InterviewStream states that its platform helps companies generate great candidate experiences and remarkable returns through Web-based video screening, interviewing and preparation. Both look to employers as customers. However, both also offer a service to job seekers to make video presentations not possible through many of the job board processes and we include them in our video category. Similarly, Ascendify offers a hiring platform for small and mid-sized employers to manage their hiring processes that includes the innovative use of talent communities and of referrals. Ascendify s clients are employers. However, we include Ascendify in our talent communities, as well as in our referrals categories, for job counselors and job seekers can go to and utilize these approaches. Again, the Internet companies selling hiring management tools to employers also are contributing to the development of placement approaches for job seekers. 10

14 Part II: Use of the Emerging Internet Sites by the Public Workforce System in California I. Limited Existing Internet Job Site Use by WIB Counselors Accompanying the identification and categorization of sites, we next turned to their current use by local WIB staff in California. We started with an online survey of job counselors with the NOVA and Contra Costa WIBS to learn about which of the job placement sites they utilized. We also did phone interviews with several job counselors with the Solano WIB. Twenty job counselors associated with the NOVA and Contra Costa WIBS responded to the online survey that started with the following two questions: Which Internet job placement sites have you utilized in the past three months? and Of the sites utilized, which has proved most effective? The results are summarized below. Of the more than 100 Internet job placement sites noted in Part I above, only 27 sites received any mention, and only 6 sites were cited by 4 or more of the counselors. Among the sites utilized, 12 were cited as most effective but only 4 sites received more than one mention (counselors could vote for more than one site in this category). Internet Job Placement Sites Utilized in the Past 3 months Of the Sites Utilized, Which Has Proved Most Effective? Indeed (16) Craigslist (9) Craigslist (15) Indeed (8) LinkedIn (7) LinkedIn (5) CalJOBS (5) CalJOBS (3) Simply Hired (4) Monster (4) While a small sample size, the survey is consistent with what we heard in other informal discussions with WIB job counselors throughout the Bay Area. At the same time that the Internet job placement websites are rapidly growing in number and diversity of approach, they are not being used widely by job counselors associated with the public workforce system. The major job aggregators, Indeed and SimplyHired are used by these job counselors, as are LinkedIn, CraigsList, and CalJOBs. But the great majority of the Internet job placement sites are not on the radar of these counselors. 11

15 Three questions on the survey also sought to probe as to whether the counselors thought that certain sites might be more valuable for the long-term unemployed among their caseloads. These questions brought very few responses. The two questions that asked about the use of sites enabling job seekers to demonstrate skills and the sites that enabled job seekers to draw on recommendations, brought few responses, and mainly a check of the box, no experience with these. We further explored the interface between the public workforce system and emerging job placement sites in structured interviews with job placement managers at the Solano WIB. The Solano job managers identified eight Internet job placement sites that staff had utilized in the past year. These sites were mainly the largest established sites identified by NOVA and Contra Costa job counselors (Indeed, Linked In, Craigslist, Monster), as well as the major sites SnagaJob, Glassdoor, and Wullo. None of the other hundreds of other specialty sites by sub-population or approach were mentioned. The job managers did not single out any of the sites they used as most effective for their job seekers. They noted that staff drew on the different sites, depending on the skills, interests, and geography of the job search. The job site itself was only a first step. Making use of any site required such strategies as tailoring the resume to the job advertised, prepping for interviews, and following up on interviews. The job managers further saw none of these sites as clear fits for the long-term unemployed among their job seekers. The long-term unemployed in general needed more help in refreshing networks, in confidence, and in keeping up with the changing job search skills. But among this population existed the same wide range of skills and interests as the broader population of job seekers. Perhaps the main finding that came from the interviews centered on the job managers description of their counselors as overwhelmed by the large number of Internet job placement websites and unable to keep up. They, like the counselors at NOVA and at Contra Costa WIB, welcomed suggestions on how to utilize these sites. 12

16 II. Recommendations on Best Internet Job Sites by Business and Tech Columnists There have been several articles in the past few years in business and computer journals seeking to advise job seekers and job counselors on which Internet job placement sites are best to use from among the hundreds of sites. Articles purportedly identifying the best job search websites have appeared in Forbes, PC Magazine, and Quintcareers. In nearly all of these cases, the best job search sites are the ones with the largest number of users. The lists bear strong similarities. Indeed.com, Monster.com, SimplyHired.com, and Glassdoor.com make most of the lists, as do Idealist.com and Internships.com. The Forbes list, compiled by its career columnist Susan Adams, focuses on 10 sites: the job aggregators, Indeed.com and SimplyHired.com, chosen for the ability to do a job listing search quickly and efficiently ; Monster.com, because it is packed with free advice about job search basics like resume and cover letter writing ; Idealist.org, for non-profit jobs and Internships.com for internships; Glassdoor.com for career information, and LinkedIn, USAJobs (federal government job website), and the Wall Street Journal career advice page. As a tenth entry, Ms. Adams groups the specialty job boards, noting Dice.com, and MediaBistro.com, as examples. The Forbes List of The 10 Best Websites for Your Career (2013) LinkedIn Indeed.com SimplyHired.com Monster.com Idealist.org Internships.com USAJobs Wall Street Journal career site Specialty sites (i.e., Dice, MediaBistro) The PC Magazine list of fifteen entries, compiled by Eric Griffith and Jennifer Bergen, overlaps the Forbes list in including the well-known sites Indeed.com, Monster.com, LinkedIn, SimplyHired.com, Glassdoor.com, MediaBistro.com, Dice.com, Idealist.com, and Internships.com. It also includes other sites ranked among the largest in terms of users: CareerBuilder.com, Craigslist.com, TweetMyJobs.com, and Snagajob.com. The only two on the list that are not so widely known among the general public and the public workforce system are Proven.com and HiddenJobs.com. 13

17 The PC Magazine List of The Best Job Search Websites & Apps (2014) LinkedIn CareerBuilder.com TweetMyJobs.com Proven.com Indeed.com Glassdoor.com Dice.com Internships.com Craigslist.com Snagajob.com HiddenJobs.com SimplyHired.com Monster.com Idealist.com The Quintcareers top 10 list overlaps with Indeed.com, CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, and SimplyHired.com. It adds CollegeRecruiter.com, Jobing.com, Net-Temps.com, LinkUp.com, US.jobs, and JobCentral.com. The overlap of the best job placement sites with the largest can be seen by comparing the above lists with the Top 15 most popular job websites, as identified by ebixmba.com in December The following are the 10 job website leaders in views, ranked by ebizmba.com according to estimated unique monthly visitors: The 10 Most Popular Websites (Dec. 2014) as compiled by ebizmba.com Company (Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors) Indeed.com (36,000,000) Monster.com (23,000,000) Glassdoor.com (21,000,000) CareerBuilder (20,400,000) SimplyHired (12,000,000) AOL Jobs (10,000,000) JobDiagnosis (9,500,000) Beyond.com (4,750,000) ZipRecruiter (4,500,000) USAJobs (4,250,000) The business and media press, then, give us insights on website popularity, but not much more. We learn which websites have greater use and/or which are most widely known; but not much else about effectiveness. 14

18 III. How Local WIB Counselors Might Address the Internet Job Sites Going Forward So how might local WIB counselors address the Internet job sites going forward? Working with the NOVA WIB staff, Ms. Lisa Rijhwani and Ms. Jennifer Cheyer, we focused on four ways that hiring practices are changing and that the Internet job sites can help respond to the new practices. These four ways are: Heightened role of referrals Video presentations Talent communities Opportunities for job seekers to demonstrate their skills By focusing on these hiring practices, we see that rather than asking which is the best Internet site, job counselors might look at sites that best help address these practices. Returning to Part I, we find that there are sites that specialize in these approaches talent communities that try to build communities among job seekers and between job seekers and companies (Ascendify, Findly), video presentations (CareerSushi, HireArt), referral-oriented (Zalp, RolePoint), and skill demonstration (Mindsumo, Pymetrics). To a greater extent, though, more and more sites are incorporating these approaches as part of their range of services offered to job seekers. Workpop.com,for example, targets restaurant positions, and incorporates video presentations and referrals. LearnUp targets entry-level positions in retail and related fields, and incorporates tests for job seekers to demonstrate skills. In fact, these four practices are likely to be incorporated in part or in full in most Internet sites in coming years. The aggregators Indeed.com and SimplyHired.com, as well as the other larger generalist job boards, can help job seekers identify job openings that they otherwise would not see. Even more effective in most cases, the specialty boards (Dice, Proven, Doostang) can help in identification of job openings. Beyond the job identification, WIB staff will want to experiment with the four approaches noted above. The use of these approaches needs to be tailored to the individual job seeker. Some job seekers will excel in video presentations, others in skills demonstration; still others in a combination. Some of the sites are aimed at a younger demographic (CareerSushi, HireArt, Mindsumo) that may not be a good fit for more mature workers. The NOVA WIB has found LinkedIn talent groups and specialty groups to be effective, as well as other talent communities. It has recommended using sites such as Quora, LinkedIn groups, or industryspecific groups to promote talent communities. NOVA also has found meetups, hackathons, and professional associations as effective ways of demonstrating skills. As local WIB job counselors in California go beyond the well-known Internet job placement sites, their experimentation will be of value to the wider system. The links of these sites to the public workforce system are likely to be multiple. They will be in addition to, rather than a substitute for the one-to-one assistance that is the foundation of the public workforce system. 15

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