Our new research reveals a huge disconnect between how SMEs recruit and how jobseekers look for work. According to the Australia-wide poll, only 24 per cent of Australian SMEs advertise online, while 78 per cent of jobseekers say that they search for vacancies on the web. With two out of three business owners stating that they are finding it difficult to find and recruit good employees, the gap between jobseekers and SMEs needs to be bridged.
In a bid to address small-business recruitment challenges, we have released the Job Spotter app – it has been designed to close the gap between digitally minded jobseekers and SMEs who recruit offline.
Now, anyone can snap pictures of local window ads and upload them to the Indeed website increasing visibility and small businesses’ pool of potential talent. Jobseekers can then run a search for roles that have been uploaded from their local area, 66 per cent of Australian small businesses in the Indeed survey said that they still rely on word-of-mouth recommendations to recruit with the next most popular method being newspaper advertising (19 per cent). This not only reduces their pool of talent, but also increases the cost and the time it takes to fill important roles.
According to this survey, almost two-thirds of small-business owners say that it is difficult to find and recruit good employees, with one in five (22 per cent) saying that it is extremely difficult.
In addition, despite people now spending an average of 10 hours a day using smart devices, only 17 per cent of small businesses are utilising mobile advertising. Given the differences between the way SMEs advertise and the way that jobseekers look for roles, it is perhaps unsurprising that 71 per cent of job-seekers are not confident that they have visibility over the jobs in their local area.
While small businesses, particularly in retail and hospitality, are still using window ads to attract staff, the research uncovered that 75 per cent of the jobseekers surveyed would not walk the streets to look for work.
According to Indeed hard-to-fill data, some of the most difficult roles to recruit for in Australia include those you might expect to see in a shop window, e.g. nail technician (83 days to fill); pizza cook (80 days to fill); crew member/wait staff (69 days to fill); barber (66.88 days to fill).
Chris McDonald, Managing Director – Australia & New Zealand, Indeed
