The traditional recruitment model (which still seems to be practiced by the majority of corporations) is inherently reactive, and this model is now being wrapped around new media. This model is geared to the active jobseeker, and seeks to lure the candidate to the corporate website, leaving the website to make the first “close,” which is whatever call to action the site’s technology will support - email, online application, resume upload, etc. This still misses the VAST majority of candidates - the passives.

John Sullivan wrote that the goal of the corporate website should be to have a “conversation” with the candidate to build a relationship that has the potential to grow into an employment relationship. Much like a courtship, it may START with a lure to drive this candidate to the corporpate website, but as the relationship starts, so it develops. If that lure is the promise of VALUE to the candidate in making that website visit, and that promise delivers, the relationship can develop and grow from there. So, what’s the promise?

Abount a decade ago, Korn Ferry surveyed employees who had voluntarily terminated their employment. The #2 answer was - “feel under-utilized.” That is fertile ground for employers to sow in order to reap passive candidate relationships. The corporate website should deliver information, news, ideas and the chance for the candidate to share and contribute to that knowledge, so that the candidate “becomes” a part of your community.

After health and family, perhaps our most valuable asset is TIME, for it cannot be recovered once it has passed. We’re so way past the honeymoon of a corporate website that we must now learn to view them primarily through the eyes of the visitor, critically assessing the value the site returns for the visit, and not simply ease of navigation and aesthetics. Ask, “Does our website deliver the goods, providing a strong return on the viewer’s time investment?” Once you can answer YES confidently, then should you begin to invest in driving traffc there.

Second, to Rob Humphrey’s comment; I first think of Mark Twain’s “Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated” quote. But the point is not whether you think a particular media is growing, shrinking or even “dead.” To write off any media completely is folly. The most successful recruiting strategies are those with the most tools in the toolkit, used by recruiters who have the best skill of matching the tools with the position.

It isn’t just about driving traffic to your website, it’s about driving the RIGHT traffic to your website. This is NOT rocket science, either. To do that, you must “be where the candidates” are, so you can reach out to them with strong messages that convey significant value for their answering your call to action.

There’s no need to make it any more complicated than that, which will leave you plenty more time to find out where YOUR candidates are (online, in print, even in person), and begin your relationship with them.

Our role as job boards is to bring the candidates and employers together. If the best place is the employer’s web site for that meeting to take place, then we should facilitate that, not make it more difficult or even impossible.