Washington Post Realmatch Article

The Washington Post had written an article about Realmatch a couple months back and I wanted to show everyone the print edition.  I really loved the cover.

 

 

The Realmatch Job Widget

The Realmatch job widget is working for everyone really well.  If you haven’t seen it, it looks like this and comes in all kinds of shapes colors and sizes.  The widget can feature jobs in general, jobs by industry or even jobs in a specific geography.  This was expensive to build and it’s a bit pricey to maintain but its working well for everyone, here’s what it looks like: 

 

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It works for our Web partners

The Realmatch job widget provides partners with significant recurring revenue.  Users that click the links in the widget stay in the partner’s environment through a private labeled portal.  This is important to partners because they don’t want users leaving their site.  This is very different then the job widgets of many others providers where users are immediately directed to many other websites upon the first click.

 

It works for our employer clients

Because each widget is tailored to each partner, employers are extremely happy with the exposure and qualified candidates we drive to their jobs.  Science jobs are featured to science professionals in the Scientific American Widget.  Legal Jobs are featured to legal professionals in the FindLaw widget.  Seattle Jobs are featured to Seattle professionals in the Komonows widget. 

 

Realmatch release with some interesting stats

We published some interesting stats and stories a few weeks ago and I wanted to get that up.  All the survey results were published on Jim Strouds blog here.  The interviews were conducted by a journalist named Jennifer Leclaire –

 

POTOMAC, Md.,  Realmatch today announced the results of extensive market research into the online habits of job seekers and employers. With competition for employment and talent on the rise — and with layoffs making headlines across the nation, many job seekers are kicking online job searches into high gear hoping to land a steady paycheck.

 

Recent data from the Inavero Institute for Service Research concluded 50 percent of hiring managers use online job boards more than any other recruiting tool. In fact, these hiring managers revealed that 72 percent of the salaried jobs they needed to fill were posted to an online job board as part of the search strategy.

 

However, despite the prevalence of recruiters who say they are still heading online to find qualified candidates, job seekers are voicing frustrations with the status quo. Chief complaints include job board spam, irrelevant listings, confusion over keyword searches and a decreasing number of job postings.

 

“Whether a good economy or bad, online job seekers and recruiters voice similar complaints about traditional classified/keyword job boards,” says Rafael Cosentino, vice president of business development for Realmatch.com. “But recruiters and the online job board industry can learn plenty from listening to the frustrations of candidates and employers who are often desperately seeking to connect. We need to better serve the online employment market and stop fragmenting the market with 50,000 unconnected job boards.”

 

Job Boards that Stutter, results of interviews conducted by journalist Jennifer LeClaire

Jelena Woehr has a self-admitted pet peeve about mainstream job boards — she hates it when boards aggregate job listings from several sites and return pages upon pages of the same listing posted in several places. “Would it really be so hard to program these search engines to eliminate results that are exactly the same?” asks Woehr, a social marketer in Golden, Co. “Google does it, so why can’t job boards? It’s such a pain to see 60 results and then realize there are only six jobs fitting my search terms, but each is listed 10 times.”

 

Karen Whiting, an author and speaker based in Grasonville, Md., is frustrated with services like (a certain job board) that she says blatantly ignore the parameters of the job search. “Even though you request listings for jobs in the marine engineering field in the $90,000-plus range, they constantly send listings for sales positions and high school grads,” Whiting explains.

 

Don’t We Get Enough Spam?

A common beef with online job boards is spam. Job seekers are frustrated with illegitimate postings that only distract them from their mission, and blame job boards for allowing spammers and advertisers to clutter results.

Shannon Ramos cites spam e-mails for off-topic jobs, get rich quick schemes and search results that don’t match the parameters of her queries. But Ramos, a relief escrow officer and mobile notary public in San Dimas, Calif., has a particular beef with (a certain job board): “I don’t appreciate the tons of ‘commercials’ I have to say ‘no thanks’ to,” she says. “If I wanted to go to college or get a loan, I wouldn’t be job hunting.”

 

The Free Job Board Stigma

It’s one thing to be annoyed by irrelevant job listings when you are merely keeping an eye out for the next rung in your career. But when paying your mortgage depends on finding a new job, entering random words into an empty search box and hoping for the right match can be a daunting experience for the average job seeker. Allan Hess knows that feeling all too well. He is in the midst of his fourth time through what he calls “the mill.” Back in 1999 the free job boards were a blessing, he says, but today those same boards are riddled with spams and scams, he says.

 

“The boards have stooped to prostitute themselves to compete and generate revenue, so they seem to sell or allow junk to be sent out. Even while surfing the boards, you are now bombarded by ads from various schools, and for work at home gimmicks,” says Hess, of Marietta, Ga. Hess has held leadership positions in business development, marketing and sales in the I.T. industry. “All this is a distraction.”

 

Over 3400 Human Resource professionals and recruiters participated in a recent survey which also reveals a high level of discontent with classified/keyword/pay-to-post job boards. Some of those survey results:

 

1. When posting a job online, the “pay to post” pricing model yields good results with consistent value.

– Strongly agree 13.3%

– Moderately agree 6.9%

– Undecided 13.7%

– Moderately disagree 33.9%

– Strongly disagree 32.2%

 

2. I would prefer a pay for performance pricing model online where I only pay if I find a suitable candidate for my job.

– Strongly agree 39.2%

– Moderately agree 22.2%

– Undecided 4.8%

– Moderately disagree 7.3%

– Strongly disagree 26.5%

 

3. Most online job boards have enough traffic to provide value to job seekers and employers.

– Strongly agree 6.1%

– Moderately agree 5.9%

– Undecided 22.2%

– Moderately disagree 22.6%

– Strongly disagree 43.2%

 

“We took a critical look at all the problems which plague legacy job boards from the job seeker and employer’s perspective. I’m proud of the solutions we offer to job seekers and employers”, says Cosentino of Realmatch.com. “Realmatch is listening, our matching technology produces relevant results for both sides of the table,” says Cosentino. “As Employers abandon the unnecessary risks associated with the “pay-to-post” pricing model in favor or risk free pricing models, job listings are disappearing from the pay-to-post job boards which were so popular in the past. As employers and candidates adopt new and better technologies like that of Realmatch.com and used across 1100 partner sites powered by Realmatch’s technology, finding a job and hiring a candidate

is becoming easier, less risky and much less frustrating.”

 

About Realmatch

Realmatch is a leading provider of online recruitment solutions for publishers, corporations, and staffing companies. Realmatch is also a founding partner in The Job Network LLC, the fastest growing recruitment advertising network in North America for newspapers and media companies. Realmatch powers the job channels of over 1100 partner websites each of whom is a leader in the industry or geographic market they serve. Realmatch management includes Internet, technology, and recruitment experts with many years of leadership. The company was co-founded by its chairman, Alan R. Schoenberg, founder and chairman emeritus of Management Recruiters International (MRI), the world’s largest recruiting franchising company with over 1,200 offices worldwide. For more information visit www.realmatch.com.

 

Fisher Communications partners with Realmatch

Another very noteworthy partnership just launched with Fisher Communications. They run a dozen or so local television stations and Realmatch will be powering the job channel on these sites.  The channels are already doing a great job matching local talent with local employers.  Here’s the whole release:

Fisher Communications Launches a Revolutionary Employment Marketplace Featuring Breakthrough Matching Technology
New Disruptive Technology and Pricing Model Replaces Antiquated Keyword Searching

FSCI announced today the release of a new online employment platform across 8 markets. The new employment marketplace provides job seekers, employers and recruiters that visit Fisher’s online sites, such as www.komonews.com, with a superior recruiting experience. The platform offers no-cost job postings and a continually updating results page that grades, filters and ranks candidates according to how well they qualify for a job. The technology behind this offering features a new profile-matching paradigm with a comprehensive taxonomy and proprietary algorithm eliminating the need for candidates to search through unwanted listings.

One of the largest complaints among online job seekers is the requirement to use keyword search technology which forces users to weed through hundreds of irrelevant job listings in the hope of finding one or two ideal opportunities. Fisher’s new job marketplace uniquely allows job seekers to see precisely matched jobs within two minutes, and allows them to remain anonymous while exploring new career opportunities. Further, match alerts are sent to users in real-time when a new job matches their profile and preferences.

Removing the risk of pay-to-post job sites
Unlike conventional job boards, Fisher has introduced RealMatch’s pay-for-performance pricing model that allows employers and recruiters to post jobs across Fisher Interactive’s sites and the entire RealMatch Network for free. Posted jobs are immediately matched with qualified candidates from across the entire network. Employers may view, at no charge, the profile of matching candidates; they are charged a nominal fee only if they decide to reveal the contact information of the matching and interested individual. Employers are also provided a free applicant tracking system to manage candidates throughout the hiring process.

“Fisher Interactive serves 9 markets and reaches some 2.7 million unique visitors every month,” said Nancy Bruner, vice president and general manager of Fisher Interactive Network. “We chose the RealMatch platform because it provides our audience with better technology and a more useful interface. It also allows Fisher to leverage and connect each of the Fisher Interactive media sites onto one employment platform.”

“Fisher Interactive reaches and serves a large audience of working professionals,” said Rafael Cosentino, vice president of business development for RealMatch. “Fisher’s professional audience now has access to matching technology which can connect them with the jobs and companies that match their skills and preferences.”

About Fisher Communications
Fisher Communications, Inc. is a Seattle-based communications company that owns and operates 13 full power television stations (including a 50%-owned television station), 7 low power television stations and 8 radio stations in the Western United States. The Company owns and operates Fisher Pathways, a satellite and fiber transmission provider; Fisher Plaza, a media, telecommunications, and data center facility located near downtown Seattle; and Pegasus News, an online start-up and hyper-local media pioneer based in Dallas. For more information about Fisher Communications, Inc., go to www.fsci.com.

Scientific American and Realmatch partner

Realmatch partnered with Scientific American and now powers the “Science Jobs” channel they provide the job seekers and employers that visit.  We are excited about this partnership because we already have a strong demand for science related talent.  The Sciam site has over 2 million users a month and from the minute we launched, the channel took off.  As always, job and profiles collected from this partner are shared with all 1100 partners.  This means if you post a science job on Realmatch, you will see candidate matches collected from all 1100 partners including the profiles of scientific professionals from Scientific American.  Visit www.sciam.com and click the “Science Jobs” link in the navigation.