Online Benchmarking of Job and Career websites
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The first job search usually leads the applicant to the advertised company website. There, the company can present itself as an attractive employer, inform about all job and career options; and at the same time communicate its own culture, thoughts and processes. In order to measure the quality of their offers, ten major German companies assigned Psyma Online to have their job and career sites fully checked by their visitors. The results were compared with one-another in the form of a benchmarking.
Is an acceptance quote of 70% good or
bad?
“What we still need are references regarding other companies
we are in direct competition with to get the best employees”, observed
Helmut Lehner, internet co-ordinator of Siemens AG, when he saw the
results of an adhoc online survey, which Psyma Online had completed at
the end of 2002 regarding the job and career website of Siemens.
The online survey should supplement the results of established market study investigations and own usability tests. This should be done in order to co-ordinate the offer on the job and career web pages to the needs of the visitor. “We wanted to obtain the concrete opinion of our own internet visitors”, explains Helmut Lehner. However, it was not easy to evaluate the results because a standard of comparison was missing: Is an acceptance quote of 70% good or bad?
A multi-client survey
The benchmarking idea was developed from this situation: If one were
able to meet a group of companies around a table and to jointly agree
on a uniform questionnaire that would be put online on all job and
career sites at the same time, one would have a basis for a valid
comparison.
Psyma Online received the order to find out the interest in a common benchmarking for large-scale German companies. Willing participants were quickly found and after a work meeting in summer 2003 the first wave of on-line job and career benchmarking took place in spring 2004. Ten German groups participated: Adidas-Salomon, Allianz, Audi, BMW, Commerzbank, Deutsche Telekom, DaimlerChrysler, Infineon, Merck and Siemens. For each company 400 people were asked, therefore 4000 opinions were obtained all-in-all.
Direct and concrete
Feedback
The visitors to the website filled out the questionnaire
when leaving the respective website, giving concrete feedback on their
experiences. They were asked, for example, what was the reason for
their visit, which aspects were important on the job and career
website, and naturally, as the core of the investigation, how they
evaluate the web page.
The study is conceived as an open benchmark, i.e. all results are exchanged between the participating companies. Only this openness makes mutual learning possible! On the other hand, the results of the survey are not published due to a confidentiality agreement signed by all participating companies. The survey should be used exclusively to serve the internet department as a way of improving the quality of the internet site.
What does a job and career website
therefore have to achieve?
What is important for the visitor to the
website and what is not? How are the different sites evaluated?
- The first requirement for success on the internet is the wording, which addresses the needs of all the different target groups – pupils, students, graduates and people with job experience.
- Mostly, information about available positions and about training and entrance possibilities are requested.
- According to the findings, job search engines that function well, a search for locations of jobs on offer and the possibility for online applications are important to the visitor of the website.
- Positive evaluation was also given to those sites which offer a personal contact possibility to the company.
- The total evaluation shows us that the visitors are 70-80% content with regard to the job and career site content, comprehensibility of the text and usability.
- Interactivity and entertainment value are considered to be non-user friendly. However, users did not see this as a central requirement. In sub-areas, particularly with the technical stability of the online tools, great deficit became apparent.
- Special interest was also gauged in on-line application. This possibility is increasingly welcomed, however, the usability and technical availability are criticised.
Learn from each other
Will all websites look the same in the
future as a consequence of benchmarking? Very probably not. In the long
run each company on the market acts in the framework of its own history
and values, structure and its communication strategy. In this context,
the aim should be to offer the best possible solution. If one can learn
mutually from each other, then so much the better. The internet does
not keep secrets. Those people looking for jobs proved this openness in
their evaluations. Helmut Lehner is looking forward to the further
development: “We are curious as to where we will be ranked within the
second wave starting in February 2005”.
About Psyma
Online Website-Benchmarking
For three years Psyma-Online
has been accomplishing online website benchmarking surveys in various
industries. Through this the user structure, website requirements and
site acceptance can be compared, ‘best practices’ can be determined and
direct recommendations for action can be derived. This allows
competitors to have an idea of their position within the competition.
In addition, they have the possibility of profiting from individual
solutions from other companies
