I wonder whether this is going to become a common practise for all StepStone sites (though, I don’t think this would be the case in an immediate future). Michel Rijnders over at HRlog.nl writes that the Dutch version of the job board coloss gives their clients the possibility to pay for job postings, either in a traditional pay-to-post manner or via a pay-per-click or a pay-per-application model.

Prices vary from 0,35 Euros to 0,70 Euros per click (depending on the researched profile) or 250 Euros per application.

My guess is that StepStone is making some kind of a trial among the companies to find out whether this coul be a pricing model for other sites of the group as well. The Dutch portal is, however, not the most frequented of their sites (according to Rijnder’s research in Q1 2008 and Q2 2008, they didn’t even figure in the Top10).

Using the the pay-per-click option will be a good deal for firms that have limited recruiting budgets: according to the findings I made with regard to the number of views on job ads, there are about 200 - 300 per position - depending, of course, on certain factors such as the required candidate profile and the notoriety of the company that is recruiting. So even if the price os based on the highest rate (0,70 Euros/ click), the overall budget will be around 210 Euros. Compared to a standard listing (495 Euros at the moment), that’s peanuts.

I’m curious to see what happens with StepStone’s pricing in the future. I will observe this closely, of course. Stay tuned.