CareerBuildercom and Inavero Institute to Release New Comprehensive Study on Staffing Industry Clients and Job Candidates

CareerBuilder.com and Inavero Institute to Release New Comprehensive Study on Staffing Industry Clients and Job Candidates

CHICAGO, Aug. 20 -- CareerBuilder.com and the Inavero Institute for Service Research announced today they will release a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive staffing industry guide based on a nationwide survey spanning three years among more than 1,500 staffing industry clients and 8,800 job candidates. The study, scheduled to be published on September 26, 2008, will identify key opportunities and insights for staffing firms related to topics such as improving brand awareness, communication and the overall user experience.

A Guide to Staffing Industry Clients -- the study's first set of results focuses on perspectives from staffing industry clients across industries, regions and company sizes. Key takeaways include:

#1 Client Awareness of Staffing Firms

Staffing firms continue to face challenges in creating and maintaining high levels of brand awareness. Only two national staffing firms were able to achieve awareness with more than 50 percent of client participants in 2008, consistent with the previous two years.

"The staffing industry is very fragmented and often geographically or industry-focused," said Eric Gregg, managing partner of the Inavero Institute for Service Research. "The study findings signal the need for a greater investment in marketing and advertising to forge a recognizable and differentiated brand message."

#2 Capturing More Client Business

Fewer than 25 percent of companies nationwide currently utilize a staffing or recruiting firm to help with their human resources needs. While time savings and convenience ranked high for "pros" in working with staffing firms, clients pointed to candidate fit and personalization for opportunities to create an improved and differentiated service that garners more business.

#3 The Client Experience and Customer Retention

While the overall client experience with one's primary staffing firm continues to improve, 45 percent of clients have changed or seriously considered changing primary staffing firms in the past 12 months.

A Guide to Job Candidates -- the other half of the study details perceptions and opinions of the staffing industry through the eyes of job candidates. Key takeaways include:

#1 The Awareness and Perception Gap

Similar to staffing clients, staffing brand awareness is low among job candidates, as the average job candidate is only able to name one staffing or recruiting firm from memory. Additionally, 40 percent of job candidates can't name a single staffing or recruiting firm.

#2 The Staffing Firm Role in the Job Search

Only one-in-five job candidates utilizes a staffing or recruiting firm as part of their job search, though candidates typically put their energy into multiple resources, with the average job search consisting of four different resources.

#3 Through the Eyes of the Candidates -- Views of the Staffing Firm Experience

Job candidates indicate that there are several aspects that can be challenging when working with staffing or recruiting firms; more follow through and responsiveness to calls and emails ranked among the top ways for staffing firms to improve the user experience, according to respondents.

"Staffing firms deliver a great value to clients and candidates, especially critical in a time when companies are competing aggressively for high-skill labor and candidates are grappling with an uncertain job market," said Todd McCormick, president of CareerBuilder.com's Recruiter Business Unit.

"This guide is designed to identify opportunities to expand business and support the continued growth of staffing firms in the recruitment arena."

For more information on the study, to download a free executive summary or to get purchase details please visit: http://careerbuilder.com/staffingperceptions or call 800-960-5203.

Survey Methodology

The surveys were conducted online within the United States by the Inavero Institute for Service Research. The staffing industry client survey included 1,506 responses from professionals involved in their organization's staffing decisions. The study employed a random sampling methodology and was limited to organizations who had utilized a staffing or recruiting firm within the past 12 months. The study's confidence level is estimated at a 95% probability, with a sampling error of +/- 4.4%.

The staffing industry job candidate survey included 8,969 job candidates who reported being in the midst of a job search, or having completed a search within the past 12 months. The study involved two sources of respondents; an online panel, and CareerBuilder.com's internal database of job seekers. Where significant differences were found, the random sampling design of the online panel was utilized to eliminate potential bias from CareerBuilder.com's internal database. This study's confidence level is estimated at 95% probability, with a sampling error of +/- 1.1%.

About the Inavero Institute for Service Research

The Inavero Institute for Service Research is the staffing industry's premier client and employee satisfaction firm, analyzing feedback from more than 25,000 staffing industry clients and job candidates each year. The firm's client retention tools are utilized in more than 300 locations throughout North America and currently protect more than $2 billion in staffing industry revenue for their clients. For more information, visit http://www.inavero.com/.

About CareerBuilder.com

CareerBuilder.com is the nation's largest online job site with more than 23 million unique visitors and over 1.6 million jobs. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) , Tribune Company, The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) , the company offers a vast online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers. CareerBuilder.com powers the career centers for more than 1,600 partners, including 140 newspapers and leading portals such as AOL and MSN. More than 300,000 employers take advantage of CareerBuilder.com's easy job postings, 28 million-plus resumes, Diversity Channel and more. CareerBuilder.com and its subsidiaries operate in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.careerbuilder.com/.

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   Allison Nawoj
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   allison.nawoj at careerbuilder.com