Over the weekend I saw the thread below in a Facebook discussion. And it got me thinking.
It doesn’t surprise me that a “major” job board exec didn’t see this coming. The management of most big job boards have had their heads in the sands for a long time. If they don’t realize that employer tastes are changing, shame on them.
My message to this “major” job board is innovate or die. You can only rely on your brand name for so long.
The problem, from my perspective, is these big sites have neither the talent nor the foresight to see ahead at what’s next. I hate to brutal but that is the truth.
While there is still value (and money to be made) in niche boards that have specialized audiences, the major sites are now past their prime and fading slowly. They rested on their laurels for too long and failed to branch out beyond the job posting. They got fat and happy.
Selling job postings based on a large national audience is a boring business. Jobs are everywhere these days. They are a commodity with no real distinction. Competition for the recruiter dollar is fierce.
No job site (or any internet business) has a guaranteed future. I have seen sites come and go in the 17 years I have been in online recruiting. Things are “dynamic” as Steven Rothberg correctly mentioned.
If I were running a major job board today I would make it a priority to provide value for my customers…both seeker and recruiter. I would build tools and publish information that helped them get a job faster or connect with more quality candidates. I would educate them, I would make them want to come back to the site each day to get what they need.
What specifically would I do? Well, they’ll have to pay me for that. But here’s what I will give them for free.
The majors need to hire better talent if they want to be relevant in 5 years. They need to create a special team of people whose only job is to come with with new products and execute them. That could be an app, a piece of content, a new service, an online course, a new feature…whatever. They need their own ‘skunk works’ style development team of product people, marketers and developers.
Innovation aint cheap folks, get on it…
