Bribes, jobs and wine – not a good mix

There are two  jobs sites in NZ with critical mass – Seek and Trade Me Jobs. It’s a tough road to get to the top, and when Seek and Trade Me themselves have lost thousands of listings it’s even tougher to make things pay.

During these recession days  employers are realising that they don’t need to try hard to attract quality candidates, which means an advertisement on Seek and Trade Me is all they need to do.

New entrant MyJobSpace is doing the tough yards, and is tiny compared to everyone else. Here’s the market share of visitors – as measured by Netratings and charted in Trade Me’s newsletter to job advertisers.

So they need to go hard to get anywhere, but I feel that their latest attempt to woo customers is sailing a bit close to the wind.

I’ve copied below the text from a remarkable email that myjobspace is sending to contacts. The deal is that by committing your employer to a $365 annual fee you’ll receive a case of 12 bottles of wine. The first choice retails for $11 per bottle, so let’s call it $130 of wine.

Now most employers have rules against this sort of thing, and it creates a disconnect between what is best for your employeer in these cost cutting times, and what is best for the employee.

Imagine if we upped the ante – and added two zeros to each side. I’ll give you $12,000 worth of stuff if you sign a contract worth $36,500. New Zealanders, as inhabitants of the least corrupt country in the world,  would react pretty negatively to that offer. Companies and individuals should also do so to the wine offer.

I would be looking pretty hard at any money paid to this crowd if I were in a corporation. Sole traders are a different story – it’s their own money and wine to play with, but then I’m not a tax lawyer either.

So while myJobSpace needs to be aggressive, I feel they have gone too far with this. Shame.

an unashamable bribe!

A little while ago we spoke to you about your recruitment needs, you decided it wasn’t the best time for you to be using our site.

However in these times, more than ever, it’s critical to have the best people. There’s an old saying – “It’s easier to change people than to change people.” Anyone who’s not being positive, innovative, committed, or is under-performing must go.

Talking about being innovative and committed….. we came up with this unbelievable offer (well bribe really) that is an absolute first for NZ

If you decide to make the right choice and start advertising for the right person here’s what we’ll do;

We’ll send you a case of 12 bottles of wine when you join, you can chose from the following:

1. Wyndham Estate Bin 555 Shiraz 2006

2. Redwood Pass Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2008 – rated by Cuisine Magazine

3. Twin Islands Marlborough Chardonnay 2007 – rated by Cuisine Magazine

Tell us where to send it, and we’ll courier it as soon as we receive your one off payment of $365.00+gst for 12 months unlimited advertising.

Here’s the best part: the best guarantee you’ll hear all year! At the end of the 12 months of unlimited advertising, if you’re not completely satisfied with our service and jobsite, we’ll refund you in full, and of course the wine will be a distant hangover, which is all yours. If you hear of a better guarantee anywhere please let me know.

So if you’re looking for real value and ways to cut costs, our site is said to be the most cost effective recruitment tool available in NZ. We were also voted one the best sites in NZ at the NetGuide Awards.

This offer is strictly available until the end of June, with payment of $365+gst not required until 20 July. This can even be split over 3 payments of $135+gst. (July, Aug and Sept)

If you have any queries please call or if you’d like to go ahead please email: contactus@myjobspace.co.nz with JUNE WINE OFFER in the title, tell us the wine you’d like, the address for delivery of the wine, and a daytime contact phone number. We’ll do the rest.

Yours faithfully

Gary Collins
Managing Director
http://www.myjobspace.co.nz

PS. The first 15 to reply will also get a free priority listing which keeps your ad at the top of the page. Did you know that 82% of people don’t look at the second page of results. Valued at $95+gst †