New Web site powerful recruiting tool for N.D.

Since the year 2001, North Dakota has had one of the lowest annual average unemployment rates in the nation. Unlike most of the country, our economy is growing at a steady pace and businesses here are demanding one thing: employees.

Job Service North Dakota can play a valuable role in helping fill this need. The new and improved FindJobsND.com Web site we recently launched gives employers a powerful new recruiting tool.

FindJobsND.com is a place where employers and job seekers can connect, whether to find employees or jobs. Recent improvements to the Web site have helped us attract more job listings and an even larger labor pool from which to recruit talented employees and improve businesses.

Because of the site’s new capacity, people looking for jobs in North Dakota need to visit only one Web site, FindJobsND.com, where they will find job openings from corporate Web sites, educational institutions, government agencies, hospitals, newspapers, private job boards and other sources. This is made possible by the Job Spidering feature that searches for job listings on other Web sites and publishes the details of those external listings at FindJobsND. com.

One of the most valuable aspects of the site is the “virtual recruiter.” This allows employers to flag specific skills they are seeking in a job candidate. The “virtual recruiter” then pre-screens resumes and notifies employerswith new postings that fit their selected requirements.

A welcome new benefit for employers is the elimination of the need to sift through hundreds of resumes from applicants who don’t meet minimum job requirements. By registering on FindJobsND.com, the virtual recruiter can fulfill this function of hiring automatically.

The same features work for job seekers as well. Job seekers can identify the type of job they are interested in by choosing a salary range, industry, location and job type. The Web site then forwards them all new job postings that meet these predetermined criteria.

The most important function of FindJobsND.com is its global reach. This is North Dakota’s premier career Web site. North Dakota’s unemployment rate was 2.9 percent in May. We have 14,000 available jobs featured on our Web site today. Clearly, if we are going to meet the demand for workers, North Dakota employers must recruit beyond our borders.

FindJobsND.com can play a vital role as our state’s “super store” for people throughout the nation and world who are shopping for good career opportunities. And, unlike most Web-based career services, a Job Service representative is only a phone call away from anyone who wants one-on-one customer service.

Job Service is partnering with the North Dakota Department of Commerce to promote awareness about this powerful new site. But ultimately, our strength is in the numbers. Meeting the demand for employees will require a team effort.

I urge employers with job openings and people looking for new career opportunities to register on the Web site. The more jobs and resumes we feature, the more attractive the Web site will be for job seekers. As interest and awareness grows, traffic to the site will increase. Ultimately more successful matches will be made between businesses and the employees they need.

(Daley is the director of Job Service North Dakota)

Tags: jobservice, website, jobs, northdakota