The difficulty of finding jobs for young people is the result of the comprehensive result of social structure, economic environment and supply and demand in the job market, but recently some voices have pointed the finger at recruitment platforms, believing that it is the platforms that “set up obstacles” that lead to employment difficulties. This article will start from business logic, deeply analyze the business model, cost structure and challenges faced by recruitment platforms, and explore the real reasons why it is difficult for young people to find employment, as well as the role of recruitment platforms in it.
Recently, an issue sparked discussion on social networks, “Is it because of recruitment websites that young people can’t find jobs?” ”
We might as well start with basic business logic and see if this statement is tenable.
The core business model of the recruitment platform is matchmaking. Enterprises can recruit people, job seekers can find jobs, and the platform can continue to be profitable. The platform’s revenue mainly comes from enterprises, and if companies invest money but cannot recruit people, they will not pay for a long time.
Taking BOSS Zhipin as an example, the company’s annual revenue in 2024 will be 7.356 billion yuan, and the platform will generate 1.84 billion achievements (i.e., resume exchanges) throughout the yearThe cost of each effective job search lead on the platform is less than 4 yuan。
This also means that on average, if a company obtains 50-100 job clues and then arranges it for an interview, it can get an entry (in fact, it is not that much), then the average cost of using BOSS to recruit people is only 200-400 yuan.
Another calculation method is to look at the average customer unit price of BOSS Zhipin, and the average annual consumption level of enterprises on BOSS Zhipin is 1,100 yuan.
Whether it is based on the cost of effective job leads or the average annual unit price, the level is far lower than that of Europe and the United States, far lower than the price of headhunting services with an annual salary of 25% of candidates, and far lower than the cost of hiring an employee.
From this perspective, the platform is not about “setting up barriers” but about “lowering the threshold”. The key to whether a company recruits is whether it has the budget to hire people, not whether the platform “collects tolls”.
1. The capital bureau is still the traffic bureau
The problem is not groundless.
In recent years, the influence of the “anti-capital” narrative has become a buzzword.
Young people’s anxiety about employment has been fueled by a small number of anxious bloggers and has become a torture of recruitment platforms.
For example, a blogger said in a video that now using recruitment websites “a person has not yet recruited, so he has to spend one or two thousand first”.
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However, judging from the actual HR feedback, this move is obviously of the nature of traffic.
Due to the poor information between job seekers and recruiters, job seekers do not fully understand the actual situation and mistakenly believe that companies must spend thousands of yuan to start recruiting. In fact, under the relevant content, a number of HR said, “The normal job posting price ranges from dozens of yuan to one or two hundred, and normal enterprise recruitment will not buy all the props like bloggers.”
Attracting traffic fans through content, which translates into attraction to advertisers, is already a well-known business model for social media platform bloggers. The background shows that the price of a single advertisement of relevant bloggers reaches tens of thousands of yuan.
Analysts familiar with the recruitment industry tell us that paying for job postings is the norm. Since the days of newspapers, companies have paid to publish job postings.
In the Internet era, with the development of technology, recruitment websites will also provide recruiters with more value-added services to improve quality and efficiency. For example, batch communication of job seekers recommended by algorithms, hunting activities for senior talents, etc.
The analyst gave an example that the current business products of job boards are much like games, and the investment on the platform is determined by the company’s budget.
“For example, if you play Honor of Kings, you can play it for free, or you can buy some skins and props to make the experience better. Some players may spend dozens a year, and some players can spend tens of thousands a year.”
Specifically:
1. After the company completes the job posting, there will first be a free candidate list, and you can freely view the job seeker’s micro-resume, chat, and reply.
2. When a company wants to obtain better candidates and conduct a search, it will trigger a paid list. This part of the service is actually an online version of the previous offline headhunting service, and if enterprises choose offline headhunting services, they need to pay more money.
3. When the company wants to obtain more exposure, communicate with job seekers in batches, and other rights, it can purchase corresponding props.
For what netizens are concerned about, whether there is a problem of “low consumption”, it is completely non-existent.
Since many current recruitment platforms adopt a pay-as-you-go model, there is no concept of threshold price when recruiting enterprises. Enterprises with a small number of recruitments can purchase job posting rights ranging from dozens to hundreds of yuan individually, while enterprises with a large number of recruitments can purchase tens of thousands of package services in batches.
2. The two ends of the recruitment platform are difficult
For recruitment platforms, while ensuring that enterprises recruit people efficiently, they must protect job seekers from being harassed, which is essentially balancing “trust” and “efficiency” in the cracks. If you only favor one side, the experience of the other party will deteriorate rapidly.
This is why platforms are often complained about “job seekers are too difficult” and “HR is too difficult” at the same time. But the real contradiction is not in the platform itself, but in the structural problems of the labor market: there are many jobs, but few good jobs; There are many people, but not many people are willing to do it.
Recently, BOSS Direct Recruitment launched the “weekend” job screening function, which aroused heated discussions among netizens. Many users call it “finally waiting”, and there is no need to ask “is it a weekend”. This change is ostensibly functional optimization, but in fact it reflects the structural contradiction between job supply and job seeker expectations.
From the perspective of enterprises, it is a natural demand to recruit fewer people and work more, especially small and medium-sized enterprises that are still struggling on the survival line. Small and medium-sized enterprises contribute the largest number of jobs.
Another example is an HR complaint: “It’s too difficult to recruit people on the platform, and it costs money to reply.” ”
But when we look at these recruitment contents in depth, we will find that most of these positions are concentrated in sales, telemarketing, general workers and other fields. The commonality of these positions is: high demand, low salary, and poor stability, resulting in generally low willingness of job seekers. In order to obtain more clues, HR often needs to chat frequently, but this kind of behavior is also easily judged by the system as “harassment” and restricted.
On the other hand, for popular positions that job seekers pay more attention to, such as market, product, technology, and design, the platform does not set a threshold, and many even support free release. The platform itself does not have a “card person”, but the poor information makes job seekers mistakenly think that the platform is creating obstacles.
In the final analysis, what really affects communication efficiency is the attractiveness of the position, the willingness of the recruiter to invest, and the degree of matching between the two parties.
Of course, having said that, even if you take another 10,000 steps back, since the recruitment platform is an intermediary and collects matching service fees from enterprises, it is not just an information porter. Platforms have the responsibility and ability to ease the structural tension between job seekers and recruiters. Connection is the first step, and reconciliation is the long-term way.
