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Universal Jobmatch was a British website for finding job vacancies. The site was developed in a collaboration between the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Monster Worldwide, an American provider of employment services that operates Monster.com, a global employment website.[1]

History

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The concept

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The website replaced the JobCentre Plus' Job Search Tool and Employer Services Direct, which were part of the Directgov online system set up in the UK's New Deal employment system. The service was introduced as part of a Government project to enable the DWP to monitor client's jobsearch activities directly, and as part of its "Digital By Default" agenda to migrate more British citizens to subscribe to an online process when claiming both unemployed and in-work benefits.[2] The service was switched prematurely live through an AlphaTesting System in November 2012, and was commended as being a perfect system by Secretary of State for Work and Pensions George Iain Duncan Smith in November 2012,[citation needed] but remained a work in progress. At the same time that Universal Jobmatch was switched on, the DWP closed its existing processes supporting Job Search and Employer Services Direct, migrating its customers to the new system, and reported that 460,000 employers were posting jobs and the site was receiving over 6 million searches per day. By February 2013 there were 2 million registered users.[3]

Early teething problems

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Early controversy arose due to some of the people who registered with Universal Jobmatch being targeted by dubious organisations and individuals in financial scams.[4] Channel 4 News ran a feature, in December 2012, which explained how this new government service was being used to obtain personal details of jobseekers.[5] Instead of resolving this issue, Monster (which operated the system on behalf of the DWP), required all users, when creating an account, to accept a number of terms and conditions of use,[6] including the clause that they "don't accept liability for loss or damage incurred by users of the website".

From January 2013, Universal Jobmatch stated regularly on their relevant web pages that users should "never ever give out things like scanned passports, national insurance numbers or bank account details until a job offer has officially been made".[7][8][9][10] The site was also made a lot more user-friendly and less verbose in mid 2013.[4]

Tender controversy

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On 12 February 2014, it was revealed in a Freedom of Information Act request[11] that Monster did not win the Universal Jobmatch tender, falling into last place on value and second to last place on evaluation scoring,[12] until the service was put back out to tender.[13]

The Government paid Methods Consulting Limited and Jobsite UK (Worldwide) Limited £950,000 compensation,[14] who should have won both tenders, when the new contract was awarded.

Concerns were raised as to how Monster's "satisfactory" evaluation score and high bid in the first tender, resulted in a near-perfect evaluation score in the second tender and a bid of under half the original which in turn made them competitive. Allegations of insider dealing and corruption were made because of this.[12]

Mooted demise

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According to a report in The Guardian in March 2014, leaked documents from the DWP indicated that the government had formulated plans to scrap Universal Jobmatch when the contract for the site came up for renewal in 2016, due to the numbers of fake and repeat job adverts posted to the site and because of cost concerns.[15]

Replacement

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On 26 April 2018 a message was placed on the home page saying the service would be replaced by "Find a job" on 14 May 2018.[16] Users were advised to save their information by 17 June 2018 as logins would not be moved to the new system.[17][16]

Who could use it and why

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There was no requirement for jobseekers to register with Universal Jobmatch. Anonymous searches could be made by people looking for jobs, and applications could be made directly to companies that had posted their contact details. However, as of 1 March 2013, JobCentre Plus advisers could, if giving a good reason, require Jobseeker's Allowance claimants to use the site through a JobSeeker Direction. If they refused to comply, they could be recommended for a benefit sanction. A decision-maker took the final decision over whether benefit should be removed, which as a consequence of the UK Government's Welfare Reform Act 2012, could lead to a loss of state benefits for up to 3 years.[8][18][19]

Registered users had the option to allow the DWP to have access to their account to allow the department to monitor their activity. Whilst this was not mandatory, some claimants were threatened with benefit sanctions for not doing so.[20]

Hacktivists

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Hacktivists created an plug-in addition for the Google Chrome browser to allow the automatic distribution of CVs to any recruiters through Universal Jobmatch.[21]

References

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  1. ^ "Joint letter from Neil Couling (Head of Jobcentre Plus, DWP) and Sal Iannuzzi (CEO, Monster)".
  2. ^ "DWP's Digital Strategy" (PDF). gov.uk. December 2012.
  3. ^ "Universal Jobmatch service getting '6 million searches daily'". Chartered Management Institute. Archived from the original on 2 November 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  4. ^ a b "Universal Jobmatch: How On Earth Can It Work?". Ipswich Unemployed Action. 15 November 2012. Archived from the original on 6 November 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  5. ^ "Universal Jobmatch Alternative - We Respect Your Privacy". Universal Jobmatch Plus. Archived from the original on 27 September 2015.
  6. ^ "Universal Jobmatch jobs and skills search -". direct.gov.uk.
  7. ^ "JobSeeker's Allowance (JSA)". www.gov.uk.
  8. ^ a b "JobSeeker's Allowance (JSA)". www.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 11 October 2015.
  9. ^ "Safer Jobs". safer-jobs.com. Archived from the original on 6 November 2015.
  10. ^ "Universal Jobmatch jobs and skills search - Help". direct.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 29 January 2018.
  11. ^ "Universal Jobmatch procurement (first tender)". whatdotheyknow.com. 19 March 2013. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014.
  12. ^ a b "Universal Jobmatch – Tender Scam - Ipswich Unemployed Action". Ipswich Unemployed Action. 12 February 2014. Archived from the original on 3 March 2014.
  13. ^ "Universal Jobmatch procurement (first tender) - a Freedom of Information request to Department for Work and Pensions" (PDF). 19 March 2013. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 March 2016.
  14. ^ "Contact (for personal messages only, not advice or guidance)". refuted.org.uk. Archived from the original on 17 February 2014.
  15. ^ Malik, Shiv (16 March 2014). "DWP draws up plans to ditch ridiculed jobs website". theguardian.com. Archived from the original on 19 March 2014. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  16. ^ a b "Universal Jobmatch (homepage)". Universal Jobmatch. Archived from the original on 11 May 2018. Retrieved 11 May 2018. Universal Jobmatch will be replaced by the Find a job service on 14 May 2018. Important: If you have an existing Universal Jobmatch account it will not move to the new service. Save any information you want to keep, like your CV, cover letters and application history by 17 June 2018.
  17. ^ "Adzuna Wins Contract for Universal Jobmatch service – Blog". www.adzuna.co.uk. 20 March 2018.
  18. ^ "JobSeekers required to use Universal Jobmatch". Department for Work and Pensions. 4 March 2013. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  19. ^ "Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) - GOV.UK". Archived from the original on 11 October 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  20. ^ "Log on or stop signing on, Iain Duncan Smith says in warning to job seekers". Metro (British newspaper). 20 December 2012. Archived from the original on 6 November 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  21. ^ Alex Hern (7 December 2013). "Jobseekers' site spammed with CVs by activists". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 16 September 2016.
[edit]
  1. https://www.gov.uk/jobseekers-allowance
  2. https://www.gov.uk/jobsearch
  3. https://jobsearch.direct.gov.uk/Home.aspx
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