If you were to rewind five years, SEEK would have been perhaps the best indicator of all work available in the Australian market. SEEK was the preeminent employment marketplace used by companies, recruiters and workers.
While still a very significant player in the employment industry today, SEEK’s influence has diminished somewhat. Let’s take a look at why that is, as well as what it means for job seekers and companies looking to hire talent.
What Has Changed?
SEEK Pricing Model Shift
In December 2019, SEEK rolled out changes to its pricing model. Previously SEEK job ads charged only for the space and position an ad occupied. Subscribers could pay more to upgrade their advertisement to ‘StandOut’ or ‘Premium’ and increase visibility for the ad.
Now SEEK has moved to variable pricing; charging more for an advertisement that delivers higher value to the advertiser. Using AI driven technology, SEEK measures the ad value for advertisers based on candidate location, availability and average salary for the role. Put simply, subscribers are now paying more on average to advertise on SEEK’s job board.
One of the outcomes of SEEK’s variable pricing model changes has been that we are now seeing less of the total jobs available in Australia appearing on SEEK than we previously did. While job sites such as SEEK, Indeed, CareerOne etc are still important to the employment marketplace, recruiters have shifted to advertising a smaller percentage of the roles they have available on job boards.
This shift in the employment market has coincided with the increasing importance of LinkedIn.
LinkedIn’s Growing Significance
While LinkedIn competes in the job board space via its advertisements, their ‘open to opportunities’ feature gives them star power. This feature allows candidates to express their openness to job opportunities either just to recruiters or to all LinkedIn members. This means that many times exceptional candidates are being head-hunted by recruiters before they’ve even started looking for work.
How These Changes Affect Companies
The employment marketplace has evolved and traditional methods of simply advertising available roles on job sites are no longer as effective as they once were. Job sites still remain a great way to attract potential candidates, however if you want to maximise your chance of hiring the best candidates, this requires that you actively chase and reach out to talent directly. If you want to increase your odds of securing the best people for the job, then its highly beneficial to seek expert help.
How These Changes Affect Job Seekers
These changes also have significant ramifications for many job seekers. You’ll still be able to find a decent array on jobs by searching on SEEK, but gone are the days in which you could expect to be viewing the majority of available jobs in your industry.
LinkedIn is now one of the most beneficial avenues for you to find work. Be sure to spend time ensuring your LinkedIn account highlights your skills and career achievements. It needs to be professional looking and up to date. Consider LinkedIn as your online resume. There is a great advantage to using the ‘open to opportunities’ feature of LinkedIn which can be used discreetly so that only recruiters see that you’re considering moving jobs.