OCTOBER 17, 2005

The New Jobs Domain

Goodbye, .com. See you later, .org. For employers looking to reach job seekers, there's now a less crowded route on the information highway. A new domain, .jobs, shortens the distance, allowing for a more expedient and arguably more pleasant online experience for job seekers.

The road less traveled
The concept is relatively simple. Instead of relying on the standard routing for a corporate career site, which even under the most ideal circumstances requires a job seeker to first visit a company's home page and then click through to a sub-site, a company can now streamline the process.

When a company utilizes .jobs, the domain changes, which means so does access to job information. Instead of locating position listings at www.mycompany.com/careers, job information is now available at www.mycompany.jobs.

" It's a non-stop connection between the job seeker and the job offer," says Tom Embrescia, chairman and CEO of .jobs.

Although it sounds easy as a few keystrokes, a lot of work has gone on behind the screens to make .jobs an online destination. After five years of waiting, this past May, Employ Media, the parent company of .jobs, was given the green light from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the public benefit organization that oversees the Internet.

In June, .jobs was officially launched at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) 57th Annual Conference & Exhibition. On September 9, .jobs went into the route, which meant that from that day forward, companies with registered names could light up their sites.

A dot on the horizon
To date, thousands of companies have registered .jobs domains. Embrescia says registrants include the biggest companies in the world. Indeed, a partial list of employers that have registered, available at the .jobs site, includes giants like Apple Computer, American Express, Federal Express, Charles Schwab, and General Motors, among others.

What's more, many companies are electing to register multiple sites in order to further streamline the recruiting process. One multinational corporation, for example, has registered more than 150 separate names, which identify different business sectors and geographic locations.

Nevertheless, although registration is ahead of projections, Embrescia indicates there is more work to be done as far as educating companies about the benefits of using .jobs.
" Our challenge is to communicate to people what this is and how it is different," he says.
Improved method

Embrescia cites better functionality as the key benefit. Pointing out that there are basically three ways of recruiting, word of mouth, on the Internet via company sites or job boards, and through newspaper advertising, he says .jobs simplifies use of the Internet.

" It's like you wrote a book about your business and Chapter 7 was the recruiting section. This takes you to Chapter 7 right away. It's a CD vs. an 8-track tape player," Embrescia tells HRWire.

Although he recognizes there will always be a place for classified print ads, Embrescia views the Internet as the primary vehicle for reaching job seekers. "If you're an HR person, if you're not recruiting on the Internet, you're going to get left behind," he says.

As such, Embrescia sees .jobs as a best of practice opportunity, intended to enhance Internet recruiting. "You want the best tools available. You want a direct route. You want a home landing page," he says.

Maximizing the opportunity
With this in mind, Embrescia recommends that companies use .jobs as the home page for their job sites.

The primary reason is that it's easier for the job seeker. But it also enables search engines to find company sites, which, in effect, is free advertising.

" You want to publicize it as much as you can," Embrescia explains.

Registration process
The .jobs domain is strictly for corporate employment. That is, an organization can only use .jobs to link job seekers to internal career opportunities.

Monster Worldwide, for example, which has registered, can only use its .jobs site or sites to advertise jobs within the Monster organization, not as a vehicle to list jobs for other employers.
The only exception to date has been www.katrina.jobs. Embrescia explains that an exception to policy was made in order to facilitate the job search for hurricane survivors. Katrina.jobs was given to and is powered by CareerBuilder.com. According to Embrescia, this, however, was a unique situation.

Employers that want to register must use a corporate name, or a form of that name. For example, Prudential Insurance Company could register www.prudential.jobs.

Registration is available through a certified network of re-sellers, which can be found at the .jobs site. Fees are approximately $120 annually per domain. A validation process ensures that a company is doing business under the name or portion of the name it submits.
Domains are now being offered on a first-come, first-served basis, says Embrescia, which means companies with generic names should take note. For example, www.best.jobs could theoretically go to any employer with "best" as part of its corporate name. "There's a sense of urgency for companies to move," Embrescia says.

Driving the process
The large companies, it seems, are moving, at least in terms of registering their domains. Embrescia sees those organizations as the ones that will lead the way. Once their sites are up and running and they start promoting their new domains, other employers will take notice and come on board. At least that's the theory.

Nevertheless, Embrescia is a bit concerned about the chicken/egg issue. If a company registers a domain, but doesn't have a career site available at that location and a job seeker gets "the page cannot be displayed" message, the entire concept could be compromised.
Therefore, he advises companies to be prepared. He cites Deutsche Bank, www.deutschebank.jobs, as an example, noting how its site was live the very first day.
" Ultimately, we'll be another way people will find jobs when we get critical mass," he says.
Meanwhile, Employ Media plans to communicate succinctly with employers about the benefits, first around the country and then around the world. An alternate route for reaching job seekers is now available.

" I own a highway," says Embrescia. "I own a license, and companies can invest in this license."

Contact: Tom Embrescia, CEO and chairman, .jobs, 216/426-1500, tom@goto.jobs.
Online: .jobs, http://www.goto.jobs/.
© 2005 Thomson/West