What HR should know about Google's new job search function

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Let's be honest, often times, the first thing job seekers turn to when looking for a new role is Google Search.

To make it easier for job seekers in Singapore to find employment opportunities from popular job listing websites, online classifieds, and companies, Google recently unveiled a new job search function in Singapore.

The function was first launched in the United States about a year ago. Since then, it has been rolled out across the whole of North America, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as parts of Europe (Spain, and United Kingdom). The launch in Singapore marks the first in Southeast Asia and the second in Asia, after India.

Built directly into Google Search, the function provides a comprehensive listing of jobs across the web. At launch in Singapore, it will consist of thousands of job listings from more than 1,500 sites, including MyCareersFuture.sg, FastJobs, JobsCentral, and more.

The new function will allow job seekers to enter various queries such as "part-time jobs", "software developer jobs", "HR jobs" or similar unique job-seeking queries, to pull out a special module that can be expanded to a more immersive experience.

Clicking on the listings opens an at-a-glance view of comprehensive information about the posting including job title, location, type of role (part-time or full-time), and several other important details - from summaries and links, to reviews and ratings of the employer, and even the commute time between the workplace and home. The feature will then direct people to the job listing page on the respective website to learn more information or submit their application.

Built to work both on mobile and desktop, job search comes equipped with a number of tools, making it easier for job seekers to find opportunities that fit their unique needs. Smart filters such as job type, location, posting date, or company type can also be added to allow for customised results. Job listings can also be saved or shared with friends and colleagues, and people can sign up for alerts to receive notifications when relevant new listings are posted for those searches.

The search experience is available in English on the Google app on Android and iOS, and in Google Search on desktop and mobile.

Joy Xi, product manager, Google Search, said, "Job seekers in Singapore already turn to Google Search when they’re looking for a job, and in the past year we’ve seen 14% growth in mobile searches for job and career queries compared to the previous year. In fact, many of these searches are happening on the go. Over the last year, almost fifty percent of job-related queries in Singapore were made on mobile devices."

What HR and recruiters should know

With all that said about the function, as HR leaders and recruiters, you probably have some questions in mind - mainly around how to get a job posting to show up, and if it will cost you anything.

The good news is - it's free to use. And, there are two ways to ensure your job posting shows up.

You can implement it on your company's career page yourself by following the instructions in Google's open documentation.

In summary, when creating a job posting, work together with your IT team to ensure the following:

• Ensure that Googlebot can crawl your job posting web pages.
• Ensure your host load settings allow for frequent crawls.
• Make sure you follow Google's guidelines
• Add job posting structured data to your web page
• Use canonical URLs on each copy of the page if you have several copies of the same job posting on your site hosted under different URLs
• Test and preview your structured data
• Keep Google informed via Indexing API or submitting a new sitemap

Alternatively, you can integrate with Google by using a third party job site. If you're already working with a third party job site, check to see if your job provider is already participating in the job search experience on Google.

Photo / Screenshot from Google's job search function