Top 100 Electronic Recruiters

IBN: Defining Excellence in Electronic Recruiting

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The 1997 EERI Awards

(February 05, 1997): A central component of developing the 1997 Electronic Recruiting Index was a detailed and disciplined review of the 3500 Websites in the Recruiting Industry at the end of 1996. Each site was reviewed against 10 criteria and given a grade.

At the very top of the heap were 100 sites that demonstrated Excellence in the Electronic Recruiting Industry (EERI). The Top 100 fit (sometimes neatly, sometimes not so neatly) into 15 categories. In each category, we have named a "Best In Class".

The award process was juried by a team of seven reviewers and four judges. A more condensed, text only version of this list is also available

The Web has rhythms and sensibilities of its own. Most businesses that venture online prefer to move within their exisiting competencies. New Generation Recruiters are a class of companies that demonstrate the market shattering potential of this new medium. They range from a Real Estate company to a Television station to a liquour distributor to a well known web directory service. Each entrant in this category represents a successful twist on non-Web operating assumptions. They may be the places that invent the future of Recruiting.

New Generation Recruiters

We're terribly excited about the possibilities of Network Recruiting. Essentially, companies band together under an umbrella and optimize the synergy of the whole. So, Entertainment Recruitment Network is a collection of Hollywood companies who consolidate their Electronic Recruiting efforts under one banner. What makes the arena interesting is that a band of small to medium sized companies can position themselves as an effective competitor with a larger entity.

It's somewhat contrary to standard Recruiting practice with its focus on exclusivity and secrecy. The best players in this game use the resources of individual member companies to develop a pool of tools and candidate information that no individual player could develop on its own.

Recruiting Networks

It's easy to forget the there are non-American players in the game. Some of the major innovation in the industry happens overseas and is then appropriated in the States.

International Recruiting

In the battle for Recruitment advertising dollars, existing print publishers have a great deal at stake. One way of viewing the newspaper industry is that all of the black ink comes from Job ads. The strength of each of these Enterprises is their regional flavor (geographic or professional). The weakness is almost always the current business model. In general, we expect to see lots of expensive experimentation in this segment.

Print Publishers

In evaluating the various (over 1600) corporate HR sites, we found many dismal failures and some bright spots. Generally speaking, there is a qualitative difference between Recruiting done by technical firms and non-technical (service and manufacturing) companies. This discrepancy reflects both the demographics of the Web and the pace at which the various Industrial sectors embraced the technology.

So we split both corporate HR efforts and third party recruiters into Technical and Non-Technical sectors. The best recruiting sites, determined by our reviewers and juries were:

Corporations, Technical

Corporations, Manufacturing and Services

Recruiters, Technical

Recruiters, Non-Technical

Often the very best place for a job hunter to begin using the net to find work, the Educational Institutions are an interesting category. Some are direct activities directed by career resource offices; some are commercial operations that provide services to colleges and universities; one used to be a part of Stanford's operations and appears to be becoming commercial. If you want to build traffic to your website, being listed with these high visibility services is critical.

Educational Institutions

An easier overall category to define, Industry suppliers are the firms that serve Recruiting companies and Recruiters. We've placed these firms in the sidebar (on your left) for future reference.

Industry Suppliers

It's simple. Fish where the fish are. These sites are not usually technical wonders. Rather, they offer Recruiters and job hunters the opportunity to meet on professional turf. Where the "Master Sites" usually emphasize size and breadth, the Niche sites have employment advertising and resume data as a sideline. They are focused on the their particular professional niche.

This group is particularly interesting from the perspective of the Newspaper and web-publishing industries. Employment advertising and placement fees can be a very solid source of income for small well targeted niche publications.

Niche Markets

Master Sites are the current backbone of employment advertising distribution on the Web. The 1997 Electronic Recruiting Index covers and compares their features and pricing in great detail. If you are trying to Recruit new employees (or find candidates), you are going to have to wrestle with your use of these sites.

The competition is extremely fierce in this segment. It's liable to get more so. Basic features usually include job hunting advice, pointers to other HR and Recruiting resources, job posting, corporate profiles, banner advertising, posting to other services (USENET), automated job matching "agents" and (occasionally) effectiveness reporting for advertisiers who use the service. These are the "one size fits all" offerings. Sometimes, a meager graphic interface hides a powerful recruiting ability. We particularly emphasized recruiting effectiveness when selecting this premier group from the 150 (or so) competitors in the niche.

If you are looking for the visionaries in Online Recruitment and Employment advertising, you'll find most of them here. The men and women who found and staff these websites are pioneers. The perspective of each site varies (sometimes significantly).

In general, this group represents a microcosm of the idea that the market is the best source of innovation.

Master Sites

Margaret Riley's Job Guide is like the first Lewis and Clark maps of the great Midwest. We've given her a separate place in the hierarchy of EERI awards.

Pioneer's Award

Riley Guide, The

We'll be announcing two additional categories of award: Job Seeker's Tools and The Best in each Category. One site insists on "sticking to its knitting" and only functions as a job seeker's aid. In spite of its emphasis on the San Francisco Area, Job Smart wins our nod as the best Job Seeker's tool on the Web. If Margaret Riley's Job Guide is the map, Job Smart is the user's manual.

Best Job Seeker's Tools

Job Smart

Most "Master Sites" include some form of access to resumes. There are a few standalone Resume databases that simply provide resume storage and retreival.

Resume Databases

This list of 15 categories and 100 Recruiting Websites are the 1997 Excellence in the Electronic Recruiting Industry (EERI) award winners.

1997 Electronic Recruiting Index

(January 20, 1997): Over the past 75 days, we've been slaving over the new edition of the Electronic Recruiting Index. Yesterday, we shipped the finished product to our (very patient) prepublication customers. The book is a wonder to behold in two volumes. It includes:

Detailed planning for placing online Employment ads
A section written for managers of Internet Projects
Pricing comparisons of 75 key Recruiting sites
A detailed analysis of the Top 100 websites
A Directory of over 5800 Online Recruiters
A solid look at the Recruiting Industry in 1996
Forecasts and Trends for 1997and beyond
The Impact of Demographics on Recruiting
Motivations and Entry costs for the Various Market segments

If you are:

In the business and considering a change in strategy,
Considering entering the business, or
Trying to stay abreast of the changing landscape

You need to give this report a solid reading.