Key Concepts

Finance figures of SEEK
- 40% growth in revenue on 2012 results to A$620.2 million
- EBITDA growth of 24% to A$239.6 million
- NPAT growth of 8% to A$141.1 million [excluding significant items]
- Declared fully franked total dividends of 22c per share, a 27% increase on 2012.




Factual figures of SEEK
- SEEK is accountable for over 70% of online job ads
- SEEK enrols approximately 50,000 students, whilst providing education to another 20,000 students per annum.
- 30 million monthly visits within Australia
- 330 million monthly visits internationally

Future Focus of SEEK
- The focus of the SEEK management team is to continue to evolve their products and services to streamline the search & matching of a career, education and volunteer opportunities, ensuring SEEK to be the most effective and efficient search engine. 
These future goals underpin continued strong growth in the companies financials.

Placement strategy of SEEK
- The company have intentions of being the number #1 online employment website globally. 
- SEEK's goal is to help facilitate an unrivalled share of placements for recruitment agencies, corporations and small/medium sized enterprises. 
- Providing jobseekers with an easy to use, efficient job search & application hub. 
- Within a 12 month period, SEEK helped to facilitate a total of 26% of job placements in Australia alone, allowing SEEK to surge forward to be the clear market leader. 
- When compared with all other online competitors, (jobsearch.gov.au, careerone.com.au, mycareer.com.au, linkedin.com) SEEK accounts for ~8 times the number of placements.
- Ultimate goal is that the answer to all employment & recruitment related questions will be "SEEK"
 - When asking all jobseekers where did they find their last job .. ?
the answer will be SEEK
 - When asking all recruitment agencies, and small/medium enterprises where did they source their last candidate ... ? 
the answer will be SEEK.

Ease of access to SEEK
- To ensure the SEEK web platform will be able to facilitate the influx of users, the support crew at SEEK have made improvements to their products and services.
- SEEK apps are now installed on over 2 million tablet and mobile devices
- SEEK tablet and mobile specific websites underwent an overhaul

Interesting readings from SEEK
- One of the many interesting concepts I found whilst reading through the financial reports of my company, is an initiative called the 'workplace giving program'. SEEK recognise the significance of positively contributing to the community in which it operates. Through collaboration with the Australian Charities Fund (ACF), seven charities were specially chosen by employees to make up the workplace giving program called 'Bright Futures" in where SEEK matches employee donations to any given charity to a capped amount.
- SEEK Green is a concept where the company is dedicated to minimising it's environmental impact, and creating sustainability. SEEK Green promotes good behaviours through initiatives, and implements improvements in the areas of waste reduction, recycling, cleaning, energy.

It's time to list my three favourite blogs; here they are in no particular order

1. Jade Thomas  and her company Beyond International Limited
I found Jade's blog extremely informative on her company. I like how Jade's kept up to date with Beyond Internationals latest news, her introduction about the company was very thorough and gave me a sound understanding about the company and all the aspects they cover. It was really interesting to know that most of the Board of Directors have all been there since the beginning, and it was also interesting to learn that due to underperformance restraints that B.I had to restructure the company. What I liked most was Jade provided further information on television shows, and miniseries that Beyond International distribute throughout Australia and New Zealand, that connected me more to the business through familiarity and mental availability. Great blog, I really look forward to learning more about the company.


2. Ben Patchett     and his company Asciano
I found that Ben's blog was effectively well written about his company. Ben provided fantastic news updates on his company, including news about delays to a port in NSW due to equipment damage, an update that I'm sure many people would be interested in knowing, also that his company will be cutting jobs due to upgrades in their profit targets, yet another fact that I'm sure people will be interested in. Ben is very thorough when reporting about his companies financial difficulties, as well as providing information on his companies future investment plans. I appreciate that Ben had difficulties reading some parts of his reports, but was able to source information externally to help decipher his reports, and enable him to read other companies reports with ease. Upon reading Ben's blog about Asciano, it's really difficult to believe that he doesn't work for the company, as he has provided extremely thorough and extensive insight into the workings of the company. I look forward to learning more about your company in the coming weeks.

3. Melinda Lynagh  and her company Ainsworth Gaming Technology
I found that Melinda's blog was extremely informative and provided great insight into her company. Melinda provided informative insight into the background of all the Board members of her company, and what I found most interesting that the founder of Ainsworth Gaming Technology, Len Ainsworth is also the founder of rival company Aristocrat Leisure, a company being looked after by Iris. Like I said, I found it really interesting that these two companies are complete rivals, and that in Jan 2014' Ainsworth Gaming Technology triumphed over it's rival Aristocrat to gain the rights to sell pokie machines in the state of Mississippi. Melinda has provided thorough and well supportive answers from the questions in the study guide, which has helped me gain a better understanding of some of the areas of my company. It was interesting to read about the concepts of her company, especially the employee's and their workplace, with the company stating their commitment to providing gender equality, and stamping out unethical behaviour through support and complete confidentiality in the "whistleblower" policy. I now understand that Ainsworth Gaming Technology are in charge of all new and existing licensing laws throughout certain countries. I really enjoyed reading about Melinda's company, and look forward to learning further about it.

SEEK - A little knowledge about a company we use so often, however know nothing about it's humble beginnings

Good morning!

It's on a gloomy, wet Monday morning like today, that I toss up the options of burying my head into studying accounting to gain qualifications that will enable me to get a decent job somewhere down the track, or whether to go online, apply for a few jobs in my area, see what jobs are available now and take the easy road.

So let me ask you this question, where is the first place you think of when you hear the words "apply for a new job" or "job hunting" - I can almost guarantee you would've answered SEEK.

It's just that simple these days! Gone of the days where seeking employment involved actively going out, job hunting. Dropping countless resumes and run-of-the-mill cover letters into each and every organisation you came across, face to face interaction, the countless "sorry we're not hiring at the moment" or "we'll keep your resume on file" - honestly the knock backs are enough to make you give up.

But times have since changed, and companies probably find it quite rare to have somebody walk in off the street to hand in their resume, because let's face it, do we really have time for that?

So how have we come so far? How are we able to know about these job vacancies at the click of a button, how come we can almost pick and choose what job or industry we want to work in and what ever happened to the mundane resume drops?

SEEK happened.

From it's humble beginnings, founded in Melbourne 1997, SEEK evolved from a domestic online employment classifieds business and has revolutionised the way we now look for jobs, with over 6,000 employees globally, 30 million monthly visits, displaying 70% of all online job advertisements, it's no wonder that SEEK is the leading employment website in Australia, and largest online global marketplace operating in 12 countries.

However what most consumers don't realise, is that SEEK offers much more than just a place to 'seek' employment. SEEK is a diverse group of companies, coming together to create a hub of education and opportunities;
SEEK learning was designed to assist job seekers in gaining further qualifications by providing vocational education through partnerships with 19 leading universities and colleges. Areas of interest included; creative, business, health, people, technology and building. Job seekers have the option to study in class, via distance or online with the ability to attend TAFE or university to complete their selected qualifications.
SEEK commercial is the online source of business and franchise sales, as it allows consumers to browse through extensive lists of business and franchises for sale, whilst providing in site and knowledge to consumers about the steps of buying, types of business and buying a franchise/business.
SEEK volunteer is the single most largest volunteer website in Australia. Offering those looking for volunteer work an extensive range of opportunities, including event, student, corporate, environmental and emergency options. These options aren't prejudice to age either, with options for kid friendly, high school aged and even options for volunteering as a group.

Is it any wonder that with all that SEEK covers, we no longer have to go far when seeking employment, seeking to buy a business or seeking volunteer work? SEEK has taken the hard work out of seeking, even revolutionising it's websites to allow seamless streaming between mobile, laptop and tablet allowing consumers to seek anywhere, anytime, any way.

Good evening everyone!

Well - here it is, my first blog. Who would've thought that in school, use of social media and blogs would be encouraged?!

Personally, I think it's fantastic.

So watch this space, the company I've been assigned to research is Seek. Awesome! I know the ins and outs of Seek due to overuse of it lately, so it'll be great to get behind the scenes and find out a bit more about a company we know nothing about, but use so often.

Thank you, and keep watching.