Choosing your job sites & formats

There are many different on-line recruitment channels today: - International, generalist, niche and regional job boards; social networking sites; special interest/content sites; etc. 

Within each of these, you are confronted with different ways of presenting your recruitment advertising: - standard text listing; listings with logo; display adverts; home page presence, banners; e-mail blast advertising; etc.  Choosing the right format will demand some market and cultural knowledge.  For example a standard listing in Germany will simply be drowned out by the mass of display adverts that this market demands.
A good basic test is to compare how many similar roles appear on each site and in which format.  Also, where do your competitors advertise?  However, in view of the time and linguistic barriers these tests throw up, this task is often best passed over to a specialist agency that knows this market or who can offer you such research in preparing a media plan for your international on-line recruitment advertising.

Knowing the target culture

It’s the proverbial ‘extra mile’, but knowing a little about the market and the culture of who you are targeting can pay dividends.  “Should the salary be mentioned?” - In the UK yes, in Germany it’s not really necessary; “Why am I getting so many applications from Spain that don’t quite match what we’re looking for?” - This is par for the course for Latin markets; “Why does it cost so much to advertise in Belgium?” - Belgium currently leads the table when comparing average job listing prices.

Conclusion

Clearly, there are many issues to consider when preparing an international e-recruitment campaign, issues that can make all the difference to its success.  The downside is that the research described above is resource-hungry, requiring time and the necessary skills to examine and negotiate with different markets.  As such, using specialised international e-recruitment agencies such as Aktor Interactive removes this resource burden and, by the same token, will turn your brief into successful international e-recruitment campaign with the addition of international media purchasing leverage and multilingual communication skills.

Whether an advertising agency, recruitment agency or corporate, please do not hesitate to contact us should you have a need to recruit internationally.