Talent Management Processes

Corporate Careers Web Site Reaches IT Workers

by Taleo Research

Despite headline-grabbing layoffs and the dot-com meltdown, employment for Information Technology (IT) workers is still growing. Savvy corporations are responding with optimized, efficient corporate Careers Web sites.

Labor Market Stats

IT workers are in demand in all industries. In 2001, there were 6.6 million people in the U.S. working in an IT occupation, or about 4.6% of the population¹. While the majority of IT workers were employed by companies producing IT goods and services, such as computer hardware or telecommunications, one million work in other industries. Growth in IT employment is well off of its peak annual growth, which at times during the 1990s surpassed 10%, but is still increasing at a relatively healthy 5% annual rate.

During 2001, there were 101,000 dot-com lay-offs and 486,000 layoffs in computer and telecommunications companies². However, the job market rapidly absorbed many of the laid-off IT professionals, even while the economy was slowing. In 2001, monthly IT unemployment rates ranged from 1.9% in April to 5.5% in November, ending the year at 4.4%. The 2001 average for IT unemployment was 3.6%, dramatically higher than the IT joblessness rate of 1.6% for 2000.

Many companies continue to hire even while downsizing, particularly for some IT occupations such as security, enterprise applications and network management. As the economy picks up, competition for IT talent will tighten further. What are companies doing to prepare for the next round of the talent war?

Lead with the Corporate Careers Web Site

Leading corporations in America are using the Web to attract, convince, capture and process the best candidates quickly and efficiently. A Taleo Research study, Trends in Fortune 500 Careers Web Site Recruiting, found that nearly all of the Fortune 500 recruit through the company’s primary Internet presence, the corporate Web site³. The study found that 89 percent of Fortune 500 companies make the corporate Careers Web site a primary point of contact between candidates and the company. Not surprisingly, the IT sector leads the way, with 100 percent of computer hardware and software, IT services, and telecommunications companies reaching candidates through the corporate Careers Web site.

Nearly three quarters of the Fortune 500 use the corporate Careers Web site for tactical hiring purposes: 75 percent post job positions to the Careers Web site, while 74 percent accept online applications to posted job positions. In 2001, 34 percent of the Fortune 500 made an online response mechanism the only way to express interest in a job position seen on the corporate Careers Web site, up from 27 percent the previous year.

Powerful Tools

The Taleo Research study also found that the Fortune 500 is beginning to focus on optimizing the efficiency of the corporate Careers Web site. For instance, there is a growing trend to using interactive tools to increase the reach of a Careers web site: 20 percent of Fortune 500 companies exploit a jobseeker’s network of friends by allowing information from a job post to be sent to an email address; 13 percent provide candidates with a Job Agent for automated notification of future matching positions.

Companies in the IT sector were the pioneers of powerful Careers Web site features such as “Email to a Friend” and Job Agents. The next few years of the talent war will see forward-thinking corporations seeking new interactive technologies to enhance the jobseeker’s experience, improve the efficiency of the corporate Careers Web site, and form and maintain relationships with candidates.

Leading Fortune 500 companies are beginning to exploit interactive technology that creates relationships with candidates, before their competitors get to them. Companies that are several generations behind in online recruiting techniques are going to find it increasingly difficult to compete. Companies must be ready with an efficient and streamlined recruiting process. To win the ongoing war for IT talent, companies will have to continuously strive for a competitive edge.

¹Source: Digital Economy 2002, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, 2002
²Challenger, Grey and Christmas
³Trends in Fortune 500 Careers Web Site Recruiting, iLogos Research, a division of Recruitsoft. Available at www.ilogos.com