E-careersite Manager

"Arcadia have drafted in an e-tail Guru for their new web assault" announces Retail Week.

"Dominic McBrien, ex-Microsoft, ex-X-Box live(!), has joined the fashion giant to oversee all aspects of the e-commerce side of the business.  An Arcadia spokeswoman (thought they'd all left) said its Miss Selfridge web site, for example, was now generating higher sales than its flagship Miss Selfridge store on Oxford Street."

Now, I assume that Oxford Street is still doing well so this means that the fact the website is doing better is a good thing.  And quite often retailers quote their website as their single biggest 'store' by revenue which is not much of a surprise.  So, assuming a sales figure of £10m, at a net profit of 5% gives them £500k.  £100m gives them £5m.

In some cases, massive investment, big returns, dedicated teams of people, e-commerce Directors (costs covered by the outgoing IT Director maybe?) etc.

So how does the humble little career site compare?

I know of many retailers that are still spending £1m+ with recruitment agencies and in some cases £5m+.  A lot of cost straight from the bottom line which converts up to massive revenue figures to make that much net profit.  How many tins of beans does Tesco have to sell to pay for £5m of recruitment agency spend?

Of course, some agency spend is necessary and delivers high quality, share lifting, revenue generating individuals but these are in the minority and are generally at the very senior level and is not where the bulk of agency spend is taking place.

A fantastic career site, fully optimised, supported by attraction campaigns for both active and passive candidates, extensive use of social media, online networks etc, underpinned by a decent applicant tracking system, will in itself form a vital part of an online recruitment strategy designed to attract and hire top talent at minimal cost.

But, all of that is a full time job for someone with some pretty special skills at, a reasonable cost.  Don't see it happening in many places for a while though!