Recently, the US-based search engine, Google, joined forces with organisations such as Actiris, the regional employment office in Brussels, and the Flemish Employment and Vocational Training Agency (VDAB), to launch a new job search function known as
Google for Jobs. A number of private-sector partners active in field of employment, vacancies and careers, such as Jobat and Randstad, are also taking part in this initiative.
By creating Google for Jobs, the internet giant aims to make searching for a job online a more streamlined experience. The intention is to present jobseekers with vacancies that are more relevant to them and to provide employers with candidates that are potentially better-suited to the position. Anyone using the search engine to find vacancies is immediately given access to new jobs. The unfilled vacancies displayed are listed and presented with the help of partner organisations such as Actiris, the VDAB, Jobat and Randstad.
After all, both employees and employers are increasingly looking for jobs and candidates online. For Actiris and the VDAB, collaborating with the most popular search engine in the world was also an obvious step, as both organisations were already fully engaged in the process of making their services available in digital format. The search results on Google list the jobs that have been published on the websites of its partner organisations and anyone actually wishing to apply for a particular position will be taken to the website where the vacancy is on offer.
A number of surveys have shown that nowadays, increasing numbers of people who are searching for a job only do so online and Randstad, one of the partners of Google for Jobs, calculated that 36 percent of its candidates are already using Google to search for a job, which is just below the figure of 39 percent of candidates who make use of conventional job vacancy websites and visit employment agencies.
Now that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the job market on a number of levels is becoming clear in this (post-)coronavirus era – the number of jobseekers has increased, while the number of vacancies has declined – Google for Jobs will help to ensure that candidates are more effectively matched with the vacancies available. At the same time, the COVID-19 crisis accelerated the uptake of digital media – employees started teleworking on a monumental scale, began holding meetings online and are now starting to look for jobs online, to an even greater extent than they did before. A digital initiative of this type will therefore be a useful tool that enables jobseekers to find work and allows employers to publicise their vacancies more quickly and efficiently.
More info on this initiative on:
https://jobs.google.com/about/
