A new look at how companies across the Middle East hire has shattered some myths about recruitment. The message from the survey is do not waste time on networking or building your LinkedIn profile because they do not work. Just 0.02% of candidates found a role through networking, while LinkedIn ranked a little better at slightly over 3%.
However, the majority of job seekers found an opening by applying to a corporate career web site. Two-thirds of jobs were filled this way.
Sourcing candidates
Here’s a list of the other ways firms sourced workers –
- Job boards – 29%
- LinkedIn – 3%
- Internal hiring – 0.73%
- Agency – 0.3%
- Referral from employees – 0.06%
- Networking – 0.02%
- Search engines – 0.003%
The figures show that job candidates are more than twice as likely to find a role by applying to a corporate career web site than any other route.
Job boards show good results for candidates as well – but overall nine out of 10 workers in the Middle East find a job though one of the top two routes.
The study by recruitmeent firm Cazar looked at more than 30 companies and 350,000 job candidates across 24 countries.
The report also highlighted :
- 274 candidates apply for each general vacancy
- 566 candidates apply for each senior role
- Senior job seekers look for work online more than other workers
- 98% of applicants for each post came from an online source
- Recruiting from a corporate source averaged 24 days, but agencies took 71 days
The research concluded that corporate career web sites were the best source of candidates, but just adding a career page to the site was not enough.
Talent pool
“Quality candidates have an idea of who they want to work for when they apply for a post and tend to go to a careers web site,” said Guy Ricketts, CEO of Cazar.
“That’s why a jobs page doesn’t work. The applicant wants to engage with the employer directly and good candidates are unlikely to respond to generic forms . They want to see information that is relevant to them.”
Another major takeaway from the report was that companies should build a talent pool from contacts , job applicants and former staff.
“Recruiting from a talent pool is cheaper and quicker than employing an agency,” said Ricketts.
“Recruiting times are also cut in half as the complete process takes place in-house. Outsourcing recruiting is slow and expensive in comparison.”
