Toronto (April 26, 2017) – Workopolis, Canada’s leading career site for job seekers and a provider of HR technology for employers, has analyzed data over a 12-month period to reveal how employers can optimize their job postings and hiring process. The analysis, which covered over 450 thousand job descriptions, 150 million job searches, 49 million job views, and eight million job applications, identified key job seeker habits and trends, including: the best time to post a job; the effect job titles have on conversion; the amount of time job seekers spend reading job postings; and what benefits they find most attractive.
“There are some very clear trends that have emerged from our analysis, which can help employers get more views to their job postings and then convert those views to applications,” says Marsha Forde, director of human resources at Workopolis.
The analysis determined that job seekers were most active on Mondays and in the month of January, making these the most effective time periods for job views and applications. Employers, however, most frequently post jobs on Thursday and in the month of September.
“By posting jobs in January instead of September, employers can expect up to 33 per cent more job views and 22 per cent more applications. The same kind of improvement can be expected by posting on Mondays, with up to 15 per cent more job views and 20 per cent more applications,” Forde says. “We also discovered that job seekers are more likely to apply to new job postings. In fact, after a job has been posted for three days, 45 per cent less seekers will engage with it,” she says.
Timing, however, is not the only factor in the success of a job posting, as titles qualifications also had an impact.
“Standard job titles and industry-specific keywords performed better than those with creative, harder to find, titles. Job postings with less qualifications also performed better. The takeaway for employers who are writing job descriptions is to clearly state what is mandatory and what is nice to have. Too many mandatory skills will scare people away,” Forde says.
The analysis also found that searches for “part-time” have almost tripled in the last five years, with searches for “work from home” doubling year over year.
“Young workers are looking for flexible work schedules, and for certain jobs, you can generate more applications by offering these kinds of perks and work options,” Forde says.
For more on how to optimize job postings, please see the full Workopolis report here.
Editor’s notes:
- Workopolis analyzed over 450 thousand job descriptions, 150 million job searches, 49 million job views, and eight million job applications.
- Posting a job on Mondays was found to increase job views and applications.
- Posting a job in January was found to be most effective for job views and applications.
- Job postings using standard job titles and industry-specific keywords performed better than those with creative, harder to find, titles.
- Job postings with less qualifications generated more applicants than those with a longer list of qualifications.
- Searches for “part-time” have almost tripled on Workopolis in the last five years.
ABOUT WORKOPOLIS
Workopolis is Canada’s leading career site for job seekers and a leader in HR technology solutions for employers. Since 2000, the company has helped connect employers and candidates through exclusive partnerships and community sites, social networking, and mobile optimization.
Canadian owned and operated, Workopolis is an equal partnership between Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation, and Square Victoria Digital Properties Inc., a wholly owned sub subsidiary of Power Corporation of Canada. The company is headquartered in Toronto, with additional offices in eight Canadian cities, including Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver.
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MEDIA CONTACT
For more information or to set up an interview with Marsha Forde please contact:
Sal Ciolfi Executive
Content Producer
416.957.8292
sal.ciolfi@workopolis.com
