What Google Already Knows About Candidates Will Transform the Way You Hire Google for Jobs will actually make job boards and career sites much more effective.
By Jonathan Kestenbaum Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You've likely heard a bit about Google's splash into the deep end of the job search pool. As the recognized authority in search, Google is a natural to impact the way people find jobs. And Google CEO Sundar Pichai has long noted the company wants to use its deep experience in machine learning to make an immediate impact on people's lives. But, it will also transform the hiring practices of companies everywhere, especially small ones.
As countless industry pundits have stated, it's a game changer for job boards. While the Chicken Littles of the recruitment world have worried it's a job board killer, it will actually make job boards and career sites much more effective. And since that's how the majority of small companies hire their employees, it stands to reason it will seriously impact for the better those hiring -- you!
Related: Having Trouble Hiring the Right Employees? Maybe It's Your Tech's Fault.
It will expose you to more (relevant) talent.
Nexxt surveyed professionals and only 14 percent of them said they were actively searching for a new job. Those people tended to search and apply to jobs weekly, or even daily. Nexxt's VP of marketing, Joe Weinlick, wrote, "That means employers who rely entirely on job board advertising are not engaging with 86 percent of potential candidates. And yet, 58 percent of professionals are open to offers."
"At Nexxt ... we know our traffic spikes on Mondays," he added. "People come to work on Monday, tired and frustrated, and they decide to look at some jobs."
And when those jobseekers start searching, what search engine are they most likely to use? Google, of course. More than 77 percent of search traffic belongs to Google -- so most job searches already start on Google. Google for Jobs is designed with an intuitive interface to capture the specific requirements of job seekers through filters. Google analyzed millions of searches to apply machine learning to solve problems like "mismatch," says Jeff Dickey-Chasins, more commonly known as The Job Board Doctor -- "for example, a job seeker types in "server jobs Chicago.' Are they looking for jobs working in a server farm -- or front-of-house jobs in a restaurant?"
Related: 8 Reasons You're Losing the Best Talent to Your Competition
Let's face it, everyone knows how to Google, but most candidates aren't familiar enough with Boolean logic to refine searches properly. Now, in addition to avoiding "mismatch" when they search for positions, job searchers will be able to filter by location or area and even commute time. Further filters will be possible based on aspects such as job level; job experience; job title; nature of work such as full-time, part-time or remote; industry and job timeline.
With unusual benefits and locations (as compared to enterprise hiring managers), smaller companies may be able to come up in searches based on these filters, much like lesser known airlines come up in a Google Flights search.
It will make the job boards and your career pages you use more effective.
Google designed the search engine to work with, instead of competing against, other platforms. This will considerably streamline the job-hunting process for both jobseeker and hiring professionals. There are two parts to Google for Jobs. There is a schema to use for marking up your jobs and submitting them to Google and the Google for Jobs Cloud API.
Related: Your Company Can Compete With Companies Like Facebook for Top Talent. Here's How.
Both are available to both employers and job sites, meaning you can optimize your own jobs and if you use job boards to promote your jobs (and they choose to use Google for Jobs' schema or API, which many are likely to do as early results show much more relevant matching), jobs will appear much faster and relevant. Google provides detailed instructions and lists the benefits:
- Prominent place in search results: Your postings are eligible to be displayed in the dedicated Job Search UI, featuring your logo, reviews, ratings and job details.
- More motivated applicants: The new user experience enables job seekers to filter by various criteria like location or job title, meaning you're more likely to attract applicants who are looking exactly for that job.
- Increased chances of discovery and conversion: Job seekers will have a new avenue to interact with your postings and click through to your site.
Related: 3 Ways to Eliminate Hiring Roadblocks and Improve Workforce Planning
It will give you matching and tracking capabilities.
In small companies, there's usually not a huge budget to dedicate to recruiting and hiring. In fact, one out of three small to mid-sized companies do not currently have an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) in place. Many predict adding more sophisticated search to job listings is an avenue for Google to compete on a corporate level, and expose more companies to Google Hire (the company's ATS product). While the job postings will make it easier for candidates to find your jobs (and make their search results more relevant) it will also reduce the mismatched applicants many recruiters have to sort through. With a complementary ATS, the machine learning component could morph into predictive analytics in the very near future. According to Pichai, Google is determined to crack the code on matching available jobs with the right candidates.
Bottom line is the majority of jobseekers go to Google when they want to search for anything, including jobs. Just as the search giant understands consumer search, it's going to use that knowledge to transform the way hiring is done.
