SEEK leads advancements in the job seeking experience with the launch of two new technology products

Melbourne, 19^th November 2013 – Today SEEK, Australia’s leading employment marketplace, announced two major product developments for the site, spearheading the company’s intense innovation roadmap for the next two years. SEEK’s significant investment into its technology capabilities over the past three years has laid the foundation to now aggressively deliver enhanced user experiences, exemplified by these latest products.

“Our driving goal is to match more people with job opportunities than any other organisation. We’ll do this by offering the best personalised experience for finding job opportunities and candidates by drawing on our rich data and analytics to make the process more effective and efficient,” Michael Ilczynski, Managing Director of Product Development and Strategy at SEEK said.

The product developments launched today are part of SEEK’s major initiative to improve its search functionality and give hirers more ways to effectively target and connect with not only active job seekers, but also those people who are monitoring the market for opportunities. The Australian workforce is made up of 25% active jobseekers, and 47% who are monitoring which means 72% of Australian’s are open to new job opportunities.

Improved search

Job search is the fundamental activity on the site and SEEK’s ability to match job seekers to relevant opportunities is set to get more sophisticated with the launch of a world-class search platform, using technology that is already powering some of the biggest online platforms across the globe. The new job search enables a much easier, faster and transparent refinement of results to quickly pinpoint where the opportunities are, and are not.

By replacing its old search technology with EXALEAD CloudView, SEEK is now able to be increasingly responsive to the rapidly changing jobs landscape. Enhancements to the back-end – which influences the quality of search results – can now be made in real-time, resulting in a progressively more intelligent online job search process.

“At SEEK, we are changing the way people search for jobs and candidates through our unique matching experience,” said Ilczynski. “Having the best search technology is imperative to help us accurately understand people’s intent when they search, efficiently access and analyse our data and then deliver the most relevant matches for a world-class experience.”

Better targeting solutions for hirers

SEEK has also integrated two new features into its Jobseeker Profile product to allow hirers to make targeted and more personal connections with candidates they want to apply for their job.

When a hirer posts an ad on SEEK, they have access to a rapidly growing pool of active and monitoring job seekers, which as of today sits at around 1.6 million. With the new ‘Send Job’ feature, hirers can send their job ad directly to specific candidates they want to apply, and from December, they will also be able to send a personalised message to select candidates through the ‘Message’ feature.

“We have seen over 41,000 Send Job’s sent since we started trialling it in September, and it has been really well received by hirers and candidates alike. It’s totally redefining the way people think about and use SEEK.” Ilczynski said. “For hirers, it allows them to increase the effectiveness of their ad by making more meaningful connections with ideal candidates, ensuring more relevant candidates apply. Candidates benefit by being alerted to strong job opportunities while still protecting their privacy.”

Currently SEEK offers 20 free Send Job actions for every job ad placed. When Message comes available later in the year, hirers will be given five free Message actions for every job ad placed.

“Our big focus for 2014 is to harness the data behind the technology to deliver the very best experience for hirers and candidates. We want to be a partner for every company; helping them in their talent acquisition strategy by matching them to the right candidates and enabling them to connect in the most appropriate form. We also want to assist people in their career path, allowing them to discover great job opportunities they might not have considered before. That is why we continue to invest in creating a marketplace that helps match people with the right opportunities,” Ilczynski said.

ENDS

About SEEK

SEEK has evolved from being a domestic online employment site classifieds business, to the largest global online marketplace, operating in twelve countries. SEEK is a diverse group of companies, encompassing a strong portfolio of education businesses, SEEK Commercial and SEEK Volunteer, Australia’s largest single source of volunteer opportunities.

SEEK is the leading online employment site in Australia, responsible for 8 times the number of placements of SEEK’s combined competitors. The Group takes pride in supporting millions of people fulfilling their career opportunities as well as enhancing their job prospects through education. 

SEEK.com.au receives over 25 million visitors per month and the job seeking experience on SEEK is seamless across desktop, mobile and iPad. Currently over 46% of all visitors to seek.com.au are via mobile devices. 

Source: SEEK Omniture Data September 2013

Media Contacts

Caroline Shawyer

The PR Group

Mobile: + 61 (0) 401 496 334

Email: caroline@prgroup.com.au

Cristina Whittington

The PR Group

Mobile: +61 (0) 481 353 692

Email: cristina@prgroup.com.au