Using NORAS for jobboard research

The NORAS 2010 results have been out for a few weeks now.  You've probably come across the NORAS before, but if not they are "the largest piece of online recruitment research in the world and helps identify where to find the most relevant candidates online."
 
This year the survey includes research taken from 95,000 candidates spread across 62 job boards.
 
It's the largest number of job board's they've ever had in the research and does cover a large number of the most well known sites.  However, you do need to bear in mind it doesn't cover ALL the main job boards.
 
Anyway, having got all that out the way, it's still data well worth a look at.  Once you've registered (free) you can search by industry, job function, salary and region to find out which is the best job board on which to advertise your vacancy. 
 
I did a search for where to advertise a Financial Accountant role in the South East region.  The results showed me that totallyfinancial was first (7% of users matching my criteria), ICAEW Jobs second (4.9%) and GAAPweb third (4.3%).  Whilst I'm not expert in recruiting financial accountants this looks like it's on the right track.
 
However, when I searched for a Marketing role in FMCG at £45k the results were a little poor; GrocerJobs and Top Consultant.  Now, I would have actually thought of GrocerJobs myself... but the results told me that only 0.3% of the jobseekers on GrocerJobs match my criteria.  Eeeek not so keen now!
 
Anyway, I guess that some sectors aren't well served by any job board, and you do have to take into account that not all job boards have taken part in the NORAS.
 
Even in light of that I'd suggest the site is worth a visit when looking for somewhere to post a role you've not worked on before. 
 
Also, you should really check out the results booklets when they go online as these have always been pretty interesting reading in previous years. 

Comments

[Simon Brook]

I think all the results re marketing in FMCG show is that there are very few marketing roles in the sector! If you search solely by industry sector the results seem inline with what you would expect (i.e. dominated by foodmanjobs and grocerjobs).

As far as I know, the booklets aren't being produced this year - which is a shame.

[JamieL]

I see a number of major issues with Noras:-

1. The data subset is so small it’s not precise enough. i.e. 500 surveys on a Job board out of 100,000 visitors are not likely to be accurate.

2. Many of the major sites refuse to take part for two primary reasons:-

a) Passing on of intellectual information to competitors

b) Potentially Mickey Mouse candidate traffic figures because sites can state own estimates rather than independently verified data, hence making poor sites look better than they are.

Point b) illustrated by Guardians withdrawal from Noras http://www.ri5.co.uk/site/news/article/guardian-jobs-opts-out-of-noras/

As in Louise’s own example in the article, In effect by supporting NORAS, the grocer Jobs site could potentially lose out on an advertiser looking to fill FMCG roll, which in reality they are good at, yet the survey indicates that only a small number of users would be suitable. – This comes back to issue a) the data set being too small to accurately reflect the strengths of the site in question.

I don’t see any point in a website joining this survey as it could do them more harm than good depending on the survey results.

In all, I guess at least Noras are trying to do something to bring clarity to the market, but frankly this isn’t it and I believe the entire concept has limited life span as a result.

JamieL

[James Swift]

I think it's a good idea in theory but in practice, it just doesn't add any value to us. Quite misleading and innacurate information. To fully appraise a sector, role or site, the best way to do it is spend time investigating yourself and not this quick-fix!

[Alex Hens]

I'm afraid NORAS has always been flawed (and often been commented on as such - certainly since its early years). Or at least the way the information is promoted as anything other than "of interest on a general level" is what's really wrong with it truth be told.

It just doesn't take very long to pull it apart when you get down to any specifics I'm afraid, however you have to give credit to the position it has/had built in the market. And I've spoken to media reps who know first hand that some Agencies (and therefore you'd assume direct clients too) take the NORAS badge as some kind of arse covering stamp of quality control, therefore they feel it is indeed worth the pixels it's displayed on.

But in short - I'm with James & Jamie.

[dom sumners]

i like NORAS and can get useful stuff out of it. But it is no way shape or form a useful media planning tool. or media comparison tool. for reasons stated above. It is useful-ish for typical user and candidate behaviours.