In response to an upsurge in work-from-home (WFH) recruitment positions following COVID-19, Google have repeated their advice on how companies and recruitment agencies making use of Google Jobs Search (aka Google for Jobs) can markup their jobs to highlight WFH positions.
*** Update (5th August 2020): Google now have sent out the email to recruitment companies and websites in the UK.
Given the COVID-19 impact on businesses and employment, Google continues to see job seeker interest in work-from-home and remote job opportunities. We want to make it easier for job seekers to discover these relevant employment options.
In response to this, we have launched the work from home jobs feature in United Kingdom.
***
Anyone checking Google's Job Posting structured data docs may have noticed that Google have added a bunch of extra information to make it clear for companies how to mark up WFH jobs.
As first reported in the SEO industry news site Search Engine Roundtable, Google also recently pushed out an email notification promoting the ability to mark up fully remote jobs by using the jobLocationType property.
Structured Data
Adding "jobLocationType":"TELECOMMUTE" should theoretically add a label to job listings stating that are work from home.
[...] We encourage you to annotate all remote jobs by specifying jobLocationType:"TELECOMMUTE" in any job postings that allow for 100% remote work. Implementing this markup can expose a "Work from home" tag next to that job posting, to improve visibility for interested job seekers.
It should be noted that in Google's more detailed instructions they make it clear that there are actually three properties that enable sites to help Google understand whether a job is work from home or not.
They are:
jobLocationType:applicantLocationRequirements:jobLocation:
jobLocationType:
Use this property to specify that the job is a Work from home job
applicantLocationRequirements:
Use this property to specify geographic location(s) in which employees may be located for work from home jobs. At least one country is required.
jobLocation:
Use this property to specify where the job can be physically performed. You don't need to use this property if there isn't a physical location where a job can be performed (for example, an office or construction site).
What do work from home jobs look like in Google Jobs Search?
Work from home jobs were marked up as per the below screenshot when we tested:
It is possible that this may be updated in the future to place more emphasis on work from home.
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