2011 Online Recruiting Survey Results: Change…and no change

The more things change, the more they stay the same – except when they don’t. Now how’s that for equivocation?

The results are in for the 2011 Online Recruiting Survey, and they are intriguing. We had a record 323 completed responses (a 15% increase from Fall 2010!), from three categories: HR and recruitment professionals, job board operators and employees, and job seekers.  We used many of the same questions from the 2010 survey, so it was relatively easy to track changes over the past 9 months. Here’s a sampling of what we found:

• For employers with 250 or more employees, ATSs (85%) and social media (85%) were the top recruitment channels; for employers with less than 250 employees, social media and referrals led the list

• .jobs continued to draw meager interest from employers, with only 6% having purchased a domain

• Job boards saw the recession (40%), LinkedIn (40%), and price erosion (31%) as the top problems for their businesses; LinkedIn had risen in threat level since the 2010 survey

• Both the quality (72%)and quantity (46%) of candidates produced by job boards remained important to HR and recruiting professionals

• The top problem for HR and recruiters? Lack of qualified applicants

As one job board respondent said, “I think the only constant is change. New and existing job boards must adapt to changing technologies and customer behavior.”

Truer words were never written. Get the full 2011 Online Recruiting survey results here (free registration required).

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