Candidates apply without reading the job descriptions. You spend time weeding them out. Precious time.
Job seekers nowadays are confused with the million search results they get. A search for “retail jobs Amsterdam” will show retail jobs, tech support jobs, sales jobs, along with ads for tourists in between. Some of those jobs are in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and some are in Amsterdam, New York.
With time and financial pressure to get a job, most job seekers end up applying for all of them. This behavior takes a heavy toll on the employers’ side.
Big companies like Google is no exception. They receive around 3 million job applications each year. No one is winning, and Google decided to roll up its sleeve to fix the situation. The Cloud Jobs API was born to help job seekers find the most relevant jobs to their search criteria. As a result, companies’ hiring pipelines will be filled with the most relevant candidates for their jobs.
1—It all starts with the job description
The number one reason that makes the job search so complex is the job titles. One function can have different names in different organizations. “Customer support” can be “customer success” or “customer service.” Each of those can be followed by a wide range of nouns, from normal options like “specialist,” “representative,” “agent,” “manager,” to more adventurous choices like “guru,” “wizard,” and “ninja.” These nuances are just the beginning.
The number two reason for making job search even more difficult is the job descriptions. Despite lots of criticisms, the common job descriptions still live on. Many remain a laundry list where companies write what they don’t mean and mean what they don’t write. “5+ years of experience in JavaScript” usually just means “skilled in JavaScript.” It certainly includes cases like “1 year of experience, but learned JavaScript in 1 month and excelled at it in 6 months.”
To top this off, there is a level of seniority required for each job. It differs per company and might or might not be stated explicitly in the job description. Even when seniority is addressed, chances are things will still go wrong. For example, an assistant job supporting a senior role often includes “senior” or similar words in its description. Because of that, most search engines would think that the assistant job is senior and will show it to job seekers searching for real senior roles.
Decrypting job search
All these parameters together are too much for search engines to process. Even for Google, whose algorithm can detect that “jaguar” means the car, not the animal when you search for it. To up its game decrypting job search, Google decided to collect, analyze, and classify all jobs there are on the planet.
From this giant database, Google can now define which jobs are the most relevant to a job seeker’s search term. Even obscure jobs like computer repair – opening up a computer and going into the wires – was also surfaced by Google for Jobs.
Despite this smart algorithm, it’s best to be careful with choices like “ninja” the next time you open a job description. Tools like Textio have shown a strong connection between the wording of your jobs and the types of applicants you get. Words that you think are fresh and exciting might turn out to be stereotyping and alienating certain groups of candidates.
Just remember that Google can surface your job as a relevant result. But if potential candidates don’t see themselves in it, it’s irrelevant.
2—It all comes down to the commutes
How many times have you been in this situation: you are happy, the new hire is happy, until both crash into the reality of commuting?
Many job seekers underestimate the damage of long-distance travel to work. Besides the time wasted on the road and traffic jams, research has found stress and health risks associated with commutes longer than 90 minutes. What candidates deem “no problem” in order to get the job will snowball into the very reason that makes them quit it.
To prevent candidates from stretching themselves too much from the get-go, Google has added a location filter to their search results. Job seekers can choose “30 minutes” travel by “driving” and Google will show jobs that satisfy both conditions. This handy algorithm borrowed from Google Maps helps candidates find jobs within their reach and make the commitments they can keep.
3—It changes the future of job advertising
If Google for Jobs works and candidates only need to google to find jobs, will job boards become obsolete? The answer is “yes, but not now.” At the moment, Google is working with job boards instead of wiping them out. The cooperation is necessary to train Google’s machine learning to detect relevant job postings on a large scale. It also helps enrich Google’s job database with real-time search behaviors and search patterns. Further down the line, job boards as they are today will have little chance of survival. Companies need to rethink their job advertising strategy, starting with two fundamental points.
First, you will no longer have to post the same job to multiple job boards anymore. Google will be able to spot all duplicate postings of one job. Candidates will see only one post with the most complete description. You don’t need to aimlessly post jobs to job boards, hoping that they might reach the potential candidates. Now you just need to publish your job descriptions online, knowing that they will reach the potential candidates.
Second, it will be of utmost importance to put the best job descriptions online. It has been a common practice to post your jobs to industry-related job boards and relevant candidates will come automatically. Your job descriptions do not have to be great. They just need to be displayed in the right place. You can outdo competitors having the same job openings by pouring more money into job ads. That will change with Google for Jobs.
The only way to stand out is by having outstanding job descriptions.
As Google will show all jobs that meet candidates’ search criteria for free, the deciding factor is not “where your jobs are” but “what your jobs are.” The only way to stand out is by having outstanding job descriptions.
Think about the candidate personas you want to attract. What motivates them professionally? What can you offer? Lay all the details out in a clear structure so that Google can index them properly and bring them to the right candidates.
Your jobs will be found easier and easier by Google for Jobs. It is actually happening right now. If you are using Recruitee, all you need to do is to publish your jobs to your careers site. The more detailed your jobs are, the easier it is for Google for Jobs to pick them up. You can do that by simply filling out all the fields when creating a job in Recruitee.
As soon as your job is live on your careers site, Google for Jobs will index it automatically. To speed up the process, you can post your jobs to job boards like Indeed and Glassdoor right from Recruitee. The process takes only one click and it helps point out to Google that you are having new jobs for it. Here is an example of a job live on a careers site provided by Recruitee.
If a candidate is interested, they can click a search result, go straight to the job posting on a job board or a careers site, and start the applying process. As simple as that.
4—Google for Jobs gives you fewer candidates with higher quality
With the duplicate and mismatched results out of the picture, what job seekers get from their search is fewer options, yet highly relevant. The urge to “apply first, think later” to cope with the overwhelming amount of search results disappears.
Candidates know what they find is vetted by Google and is a good fit for their search criteria. As a result, companies will see a decrease in quantity going hand in hand with an increase in the quality of the job applications they get. The time saved from eliminating ‘spam’ candidates can now be invested in improving the candidate experience for those who are truly going for it.
Besides, there is no excuse for not treating your candidates properly with all the HR technology we have. A simple email to confirm every candidate’s application can make a difference, as Stephanie de Booij from Tiqets has found out, and it takes only one minute to set up with Recruitee. Starting from small interactions like that, you can build up a great candidate journey for those involved.
From what we have seen, candidates who have a good experience with a company are likelier to recommend their peers and friends to apply for that company, no matter if they are hired or not.
Ready, steady, go; in that order
With Google for Jobs, your candidate input will become more precise and targeted. It’s more important than ever to have the right structure to process these ‘hot’ candidates. This strong focus on efficiency has always been Recruitee’s goal. It has only become stronger:
We have expanded Recruitee to optimize the hiring process as much as possible – not only tracking applicants, but also employer branding on careers sites and job posting. Above all, we understand that each company has its own needs and its own set of tools. Hiring itself does not happen in silos. So we have Recruitee’s API open and maximize its integrations with most common tools out there: Microsoft, G Suite, Slack, and more.
This post was written Hagi Trinh, a recruitment writer at Recruitee.com. The team is working on the greatest hiring platform of all time… check it out at Recruitee.com and follow them @recruiteeHR
