Job Board Journalist: Forging Smart Partnerships
Partnerships are all the rage these days among job boards.
More than 700 meetings were held during just a day-and-a-half at the recent TAtech Industry Congress. Most if not all of those discussions were predicated on a growing perception among job boards that employers now want more than just a single shot solution, no matter how good it may be. They lack the time and patience to work with several vendors, so increasingly opt for a broader, more comprehensive portfolio of products and services provided by a single vendor.
But, here’s the rub. There are smart partnerships and … well, not such smart partnerships. The key to success, therefore, is knowing which is which for your site.
Smart partnerships have a number of attributes:
- They bring together organizations with the same level of commitment to implementing the partnership. Their resources and capabilities may be different, but they must have an equal measure of determination to see it succeed.
- They provide a fair distribution of revenue to both parties. Fair doesn’t necessarily mean equal, but when the distribution disproportionately favors one partner over the other, the lesser party is unlikely to give the partnership the priority it needs to succeed.
- They connect organizations of equal brand strength within their respective markets. Businesses with talent acquisition products or services of equal stature provide the most credible and appealing solutions for employers.
- They involve distinctly different talent acquisition products or services (either within one segment of the TA ecosystem – attract, source, recruit, assess, hire – or across two or more of them) and provide clear value to employers by being integrated into a single solution.
That last point creates an additional challenge to forging smart partnerships and subliminally most of us are aware of it. The customer – those recruiters out there who on any given day are juggling 20-30-40 open reqs – have the attention span of a gnat. Most simply will not sit still for an extended presentation on how these two or three or four products brought to them through the partnership of Company X, Y and Z will change life as they know it on their recruiting team.
So, what happens? We implement the partnership as an up-sell arrangement. In other words, we sell the same old one-shot product or service as before and only once that’s done do we offer the customer our partner’s product or service. That’s a partnership to be sure, but it’s not one that brings a truly integrated portfolio of products and services to the market. And that, in the end, is the definition of a smart partnership for job boards – it gives them a broad and credible capability that brands them as a talent acquisition solution provider.
How is that actually accomplished? All parties to the partnership must do the upfront work to fully integrate their products and services into a coherent package and then they must also brand, market and sell the package as a single solution. Yes, of course, the customer can select a subset of the whole, but the opening pitch is always the solution – the entire solution. That’s a smart choice for the recruiter, and a smart partnership for the job board involved.
Food for thought,
Peter
The TAtech Industry Congress
The TAtech Industry Congress was held on April 16-17, 2016 in Orlando, Florida USA. A record crowd of almost 200 executives attended the event. They came from Canada, The Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Virtually every segment of the talent acquisition solutions industry was represented, including:
ATS companies, recruitment marketing companies, job boards, aggregators, association career centers, job ad distribution companies, mobile app developers, recruitment advertising agencies, data and analytics companies and consultancies. They viewed keynotes, panels, presentations in three different educational tracks and held an astonishing 700+ meetings during the day-and-a-half conference.
The next TAtech Industry Congress will be held on April 22-23, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois, USA so mark your calendar now, and be there for the year’s largest gathering of your business peers. You’ll meet more new colleagues, hear more new ideas, do more networking and deals and have more fun than any other event you attend.
This Week on Jobboarders.com
At the Cybersoapbox, Do you think employers have an accurate view of the results job boards deliver, and if not, why? Bottom line success depends on recurring business, but do employers use accurate data when making their follow-on purchasing decisions?
At the Peer Poll, Now that hiring is picking up, do you plan to add staff this year? Reports now indicate that hiring is picking up, so will you add to your team to capture more of that business?
Jobboarders Book of the Month: “Finding Needles in a Haystack” by Wendy Enelow. If you’re rewriting employers’ job postings and need keywords, this three-volume set is the perfect resource for you. It provides over 25,000 keywords and keyword phrases, across 5,400 job and position titles in 28 industries and professions. You can order each book separately or the 3-volume set.. Get it in the TAtech Bookstore .
In Classifieds:
In Careers:
So visit Jobboarders today.
The TAtech Leadership Summit on Programmatic Ad Buying
June 1, 2016 | Chicago, Illinois USA
Why should you attend the TAtech Leadership Summit on Programmatic Ad Buying?
- Over half of all online advertising will be done programmatically by the end of this year.
- Attending the Summit will make sure you can put this powerful capability to work for your organization.
Why should you register right now?
- Seating is strictly limited to just 150 participants – the Summit is being held at the University of Chicago Business School, and the size of the primary meeting room size is fixed.
What does the Summit offer?
- An optional pre-conference workshop on the basics of programmatic ad buying for those who are new to the topic and those who would benefit from a refresher;
- An intensive, interactive conference on the latest developments, issues and opportunities in programmatic ad buying, presented by hands-on experts; and
- A rock bottom registration rate that ensures you’ll maximize the return on your investment of time and money.
Who should attend?
- Employers
- Agencies
- Job Boards
- Data & Analytics Companies
- Ad Buying Networks & Exchanges
Don’t miss either this one-of-a-kind conference – click here and register today!
Other Recruiting Events You Just Can’t Miss
The RecTech Conference
Revolutionizing Recruitment Advertising & Technology
June 13-14, 2016 | Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Whether your job board or digital media company operates in the EU or intends to, this is the only conference designed specifically for recruitment advertising leaders in that market. It offers both market-specific presentations on key industry trends and technology developments and a unique forum for peer-to-peer discussions on the opportunities and challenges they present.
Brought to you by TAtech: the Association for Talent Acquisition Solutions and Classified Intelligence / AIM Group, this event features speakers you can’t hear anywhere else, networking opportunities you can’t get anywhere else and business insights that are simply too important to pass up. And to make your attendance even more beneficial, fly in the weekend before the Monday -Tuesday conference and enjoy one of Europe’s special cities. Click here to register today.
TAtech Conference & Expo
September 19-21, 2016 | Las Vegas, Nevada USA
Are you tired of attending recruiter conferences where vendors are stuck in an exhibit hall and treated like second class citizens? Are you looking for an event that is specifically designed both to showcase your brand and facilitate your interaction with prospective customers? Then, don’t miss the TAtech Conference & Expo – a new event that’s all about your success.
Whether you exhibit or attend, this conference will maximize your ROI. It will feature Fireside Chats between industry executives and recruiters, three education tracks that are approved for SHRM recertification credit, a TA-only exhibit hall and the Awards Gala for the 2016 Recruiting Service Innovation Awards – the best party in the business. And, if you register by June 15th, your hotel room is free, so click here to register today.