Online sites offer hope in bid to net jobs

By ADAM GIFFORD

One of New Zealand's largest online job sites, nzjobs.co.nz, has experienced a sharp increase in traffic since it signed a content agreement with Telecom Xtra.

General manager Louise Thornton says the site has been getting about 30,000 hits a month since it was launched in February but traffic has shot up since the click-through buttons were added to the Xtra site on December 3.

"The counters have been going crazy," she says.

The Internet is becoming an increasingly important part of the labour market as employers cast far and wide for suitable staff, and job seekers search for the position that best suits their skills and ambitions.

Internet job searching was pioneered by employers and recruiters seeking people with computing and information technology skills, who were likely to have access to the Internet and have a highly developed sense of their own worth.

In New Zealand, IT specialists such as Candle (www.candlenz.co.nz) and Icon (www.iconrec.co.nz) have incorporated the Web into their recruitment strategies.

Now general sites such as nzjobs are making a mark.

It's a stand-alone division of the country's largest recruitment advertising agency, Haines Recruitment Advertising Ltd.

Louise Thornton said Haines looked at more than 50 recruitment sites around the world "and took the bits we liked."

"We wanted to keep it as simple as possible so it's for ordinary users, not Net-heads. Once you're on the site, within two or three clicks you're looking at jobs."

Extensive search options are also available. Haines places about 2000 job ads in the print media each month. About 10 to 15 per cent of those are also being put on the Web site, and Louise Thornton wants to increase that percentage significantly.

A casual listing costs $250 a month, although regular clients can pay $2500 a month for an unlimited number of placements.

"We build a mini-Website for the company, so if someone comes through from nzjobs it looks like their site, with their branding and type-faces."

If a job is likely to attract overseas interest, there are links to Government sites with immigration information. About a third of inquiries come from overseas. The site is set up so jobseekers send e-mails directly to the potential employer or the recruitment consultant who has placed the ad.

Louise Thornton says nz.jobs helps employers to set up the back-end systems needed to respond quickly to inquiries.

Looking for work can be an emotional process, so "it's important that using the Website is a pleasant experience for the jobseeker."

Another stop for jobseekers is Work and Income New Zealand's site at www.winz.govt.nz. It is not as functional as the nzjobs site, but it could save the unemployed the bus trip to the Work and Income office.

A new arrival is Tauranga-based e-jobs.co.nz. Director Joanne Ostler says that going on to the Internet seemed a logical shift for her company, People Power, which in the past has combined market research, recruitment and human-resources work.

"There is enormous potential," she says, "and real cost benefits for individuals and business."

PICTURED: Adam Gifford