CAREERS MEDIA: Online recruiters poised to overtake traditional head-hunters, says IDC survey

Traditional recruiting agencies face the challenge of moving to "Internet speed" to keep up with online competitors if they are to survive, according to a report by the IDC. The Internet has significantly changed the Australian recruitment landscape and has quickly become an invaluable channel for employers and job seekers, the report said. It estimated that spending on online recruitment advertising in Australia last year totalled Adollars 14.7 million. That figure is expected to grow to Adollars 329.3 million in 2004. The figure included not only spending on Internet job listings, but also on banner, button and other types of ads such as corporate profiles and microsites that are purchased by recruiters to attract attention to their recruiting campaigns. IDC Australia's senior analyst Internet and ecommerce Lisa Shishido said to survive and thrive, traditional recruiting agencies would have to adopt technology that could make their business more efficient and be more "proactive about communicating their value proposition to clients". "The days of agencies that are simply resume-shufflers who view candidates as walking invoices are over," she said. "The opportunity lies in harnessing the power of Internet technology to make business more efficient. "The Internet's impact on the Australian recruitment market to date has been mainly on the initial stages on the recruiting process - posting vacancies and identifying and accessing candidates. "However, a handful of Web-based end-to-end solutions that attempt to manage the entire process have recently emerged." He added there was tremendous opportunity in offering business services related to online recruiting, and vendors that can offer a winning combination of content, tools and services to employers and job seekers would prevail. "For example, the large number of employment sites currently competing for a limited pool of advertising dollars means that most are finding it a challenge to make profits as they face the pressing question of when and how they will reach profitability," Ms Shishido said. "However, the opportunity lies in beating or outlasting competitors to become one of a small handful of sites that will eventually dominate the market, reaching critical mass in users and advertisers and branching out to create other revenue streams."

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