Talent Management Processes

Sourcing Savings Through Careers Site Practices

by Taleo Research

Identifying and employing the highest quality talent is key to corporate success. Corporations have increasingly embraced the adoption of a corporate Careers website as a method to achieve that goal, and by implementing best practices, can optimize it to derive the greatest return. With specific Careers website best practices implemented, a corporation may gain financial benefits from direct cost reductions.

As outlined in the Taleo report, Value Creation Through Corporate Careers Websites, a dozen best practices contribute specifically to sourcing cost savings by enhancing the corporate brand, and driving more candidates to the Careers website and into the corporate candidate pool.

Searchable Database of Job Positions

The job search engine shoulders one of the major functions of a Careers website: to give every externally advertised vacancy in the company an equal chance to be exposed to qualified candidates. In 2002, 68 percent of the Fortune 500 maintained the list of open job positions on the corporate Careers website in a searchable database, searchable by job category, job location, or keyword, or any combination of the three. The increase over 2001, when 49 percent of the Fortune 500 maintained job postings in a searchable database of jobs, represents year-over-year growth of 39 percent.

A job database on the Careers website can incorporate sophisticated automated sourcing strategies. Using administrative screens, job positions can be posted, amended or deleted. Database rules can automatically remove a posting after a predetermined expiration date or when the job is filled, saving time and streamlining steps in the recruiting process. A central job database may also be the hub of a multi-posting strategy, encompassing the corporate Careers website, an Intranet for internal hires, and external job boards.

Job Agent

The implementation of Job Agent functionality has an especially strong impact on reducing duplicate expenses in sourcing budgets. During a visit to a company’s Careers website, a jobseeker may register with a “Job Agent” to be informed via email if a position matching his or her job skills and interest arises in the future. The Job Agent automatically notifies qualified candidates about new job openings that fit their skills and ambitions, encouraging them to return to the corporate Careers website to apply.

Job Agent technology makes the internal candidate database yet another source to be mined and cultivated. That places automated internal candidate database sourcing, through Job Agent technology, on the same footing as other sources. Comparing them side-by-side, candidate relationship database sourcing has a much lower sourcing cost per candidate than other, traditional sourcing media. A financial model for valuation of a candidate relationship database is in Economics of Candidate Relationship Databases.1

Staffing budgets can be positively and significantly impacted by the implementation of automated communications with targeted candidates. Job Agent functionality powers the recruiting process to move past a “one-off” activity in which each candidate is identified, screened and assessed, and hired or discarded. Duplicated sourcing costs can be eliminated. Use of Job Agent technology by the Fortune 500 has nearly doubled since 2001. Twenty-two percent of Fortune 500 companies have the feature implemented on the corporate Careers website in 2002, a substantial increase from 13 percent in 2001.

Driving Traffic and Enhancing the Corporate Brand

Other best practices contribute specifically to sourcing cost savings by driving more candidates to the Careers website and into the corporate candidate pool. Those best practices are:

  • Memorable Careers Site URL
  • Link from Homepage
  • One Click to Apply
  • Company Culture Information
  • Employee Benefits Information
  • College Recruiting Section
  • Urgent Jobs Highlighted
  • Email to a Friend
  • Anonymous Job Application
  • Saved Candidate Profile

Sourcing Cost Savings

Sourcing expenses are a major component of most staffing budgets. Features that draw more qualified visitors into the candidate pool produce direct ROI for sourcing budgets. Careers site features that convince desirable candidates that the company is an employer of choice positively impact branding and positioning. Savings on sourcing costs may be realized as a result of a practice that drives more traffic to the Careers site, easily captures information from hard-to-reach candidates (such as passive candidates), leverages initial contact with candidates for future communication, or encourages information capture from site visitors because of a user-friendly interface.

Large companies are revising corporate staffing department budgets with a view towards cutting costs and realigning goals. Creating a strategy for lowering costs while achieving corporate staffing goals requires knowledge, data and vision. The implementation of corporate Careers site practices that can directly reduce the sourcing budget while cultivating quality candidates provides a positive result.

1Economics of Candidate Relationship Databases. iLogos Research, 2002. Available at www.taleo.com