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Reversing
the persistently long downtrend, the year 2002 has been a good year
for the e-recruitment market. Besides witnessing a growth of 80-100
percent (estimated to be over Rs 20 crore), the market has also
stabilised. Growing at 100 percent, the players, which have emerged
as the clear winners were—Naukri.com, JobsAhead.com, Jobstreet.com
and Monster.com. Today, each one of them is aggressively making
strategies to grab the maximum share of the growing Indian e-recruitment
market.
Experts
point out that the improved health of the economy will mean an increased
opportunity for these players, in terms of new verticals and newer
markets. To cash on the emerging opportunities, the jobsites are
busy formulating their “innovative services” model strategy.
Says Arun Tadanki, country manager of Monsterindia, “The online
job market will continue to grow faster than the conventional recruitment
market (between 80-100 percent growth rate), and will eat a sizeable
share of traditional channels like newspaper recruitment advertising.
From an estimated Rs 25 crore in 2002, the online job market is
expected to reach Rs 45 crore this year.” If this proves correct
then it will be phenomenal progress, defying the trend of the dotcom
washout.
Survival
strategies
While
2001 was a gloomy year for the e-recruitment market, year 2002 brought
them back in business. Monster continued its profitable streak,
registering quarter-on-quarter growth. Naukri invested to ramp up
its business model, increasing its workforce and enlarging its bouquet
of products. Says Sanjeev Bhikchandani,CEO of Naukri.com, “We
nurtured our brand by using innovative low-cost ways and introduced
a highly successful relationship management programme with HR managers.”
The company also launched the Naukri.com magazine (a 48-page weekly
that consists of a compilation of the best jobs on the site, along
with relevant editorial). According to Bhikchandani, the purpose
of this magazine was to expand the product portfolio of the company
and capture share of print recruiting advertisements as well. Bhikchandani
feels that the need for print media is not going to die soon. As
a matter of fact, even today a dial-up surfer has to spend a hefty
amount. At Rs 20 a week, he can actually save money.
JobsAhead
has launched two new database products, Marksman and Textstar, which
provide an intensive search experience for HR managers. Nilanjan
Roy, senior manager of corporate marketing at JobsAhead, says, “This
is expected to help HR managers search the hidden résumés,
which might get lost in such an extensive database of résumés.”
Recently
JobsAhead also clinched a deal with the Indian Armed Forces. As
per the deal, the company can use the Armed Forces database of experienced
technical and management professionals who have retired. “I
believe these professionals are in demand in almost all sectors
and that is why HR managers will gain from our website,” he
adds.
Interestingly,
the pricing strategies of most jobsites is almost the same. The
solutions are generally kept at a low price.
Changing
market equations
Shrinking
recruitment budgets have forced many e-recruitment companies to
innovate new solutions, which are more modular and cost-effective.
Return on Investment (RoI) plays a critical role in today’s
investment decisions and the same stands true for the e-recruitment
market too.
Globally,
e-recruitment firms are realising that they cannot have a “one-size-fits-all”
approach in such competitive times. Today the client asks for highly
customised solutions. Take the case of Monster.com, which has introduced
this concept in the US market in order to provide flexibility of
local focus for local clients. This is good value for local candidates
who are not willing to move out. For years, Monster has offered
all its customers an annual license to its national recruiting database.
Through this, it aimed at attracting small and mid-size businesses
by segmenting the price and license options. However, the company
is yet not ready to experiment in the Indian market. According to
Tadanki, in India the e-recruitment market is still at a nascent
stage and smaller compared to the huge online job market of US.
“Considering the market size, it makes hardly any difference
to segregate the offerings,” he adds.
In
India, the focus of investment is more on brand building to acquire
new résumés and more job-seekers. Monsterindia has
identified four industry segments that the company plans to focus
on, for résumé and client acquisition. In a month’s
time, the company plans to launch a separate campaign for these
areas. Though Tadanki refused to comment on the segments, he mentions
that these new verticals would fetch a good amount of money for
the company in the next three years.
Besides,
there has been continuous focus on technology investments, which
will decide who gains the majority share. Tadanki says that Monster
invests more than $40 million (more than the total turnover of all
local jobsites in the Asia-Pacific) every year for continuous upgradation
of services and to provide the highest standards
of security for the data. The focus is on providing
various tools to employers and job-seekers to find each other, as
per their individual requirements.
For
ensuring a wider reach across the country, the companies are looking
at establishing sales and marketing offices. Naukri, which has 14
offices in 12 cities, is planning to expand to about 15 cities in
the next six months. “These marketing offices help us service
our customers better. Having 9,500 clients, much of our revenue
comes from repeat customers,” says Bhikchandani. Last year,
Naukri achieved sales of nearly Rs 9.5 crore and is looking at a
target of Rs 20 crore for this financial year.
Another
very interesting trend noticed in the e-recruitment space is the
changing scope of these jobsites—from just sourcing resumes
to long-term initiatives like ‘launching brand campaigns’
for their prospective employees.
The
future
Experts
believe that increase in Internet population, growth in sectors
like software and a change in the mindset of the audience will drive
the future of the e-recruitment market. Currently, bulk of the Internet
recruitment business comes from software companies as most of the
software professionals seek jobs through the Net. As the penetration
of Internet grows rapidly, the profile of the job-seekers will expand
and that will drive the demand from traditional sectors like manufacturing
also.
The
Internet population in India is estimated to touch 50 million users
in the next three years. Research indicates that 25 percent of all
Internet users search for jobs online which is a good sign for the
business. In terms of changing mindset, a large number of companies
have still reservations about the power of Internet to help them
in recruitment. In the next two years, as more and more employers
taste success with their Internet recruitment efforts, the mindset
of the late-adopters will change and the market will explode.
The
verticals, which will witness a growth are IT and IT related categories,
Banking and Financial Services (BFSI) segment. “The Indian
e-recruitment market will grow to Rs 250 crore by the year 2007
and there will be further consolidation in it, with one or two jobsites
dominating the category,” points out Tadanki.
In
addition, contrary to popular belief, placement agencies will benefit
from the growth of jobsites to provide value-added services to their
clients. Earlier e-recruitment was considered as a competition by
placement agencies, today there is a change in the market perception.
Placement consultants can immensely benefit through this mode on
account of faster reach, and also fast-mover advantage.
JOBSITES:
THE SUCCESS FACTORS
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Value-added services
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Increase in number of products
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Modular, cost-effective, customised solutions
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Relationship management programme with HR managers
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Focus on brand building
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