ukrecruiter newsletter

ukrecruiter newsletter - issues 121 to 140

Issue 121	Issue 122	Issue 123	Issue 124	Issue 125
Issue 126	Issue 127	Issue 128	Issue 129	Issue 130
Issue 131	Issue 132	Issue 133	Issue 134	Issue 135
Issue 136	Issue 137	Issue 138	Issue 139	Issue 140

Issue 121

Welcome to issue 121 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.

CONTENTS
* Reviewed Site (The AA Travelwatch)
* Job Board Review (GAAPweb by Lucy Walker)
* Review (UK-INFO Business by Chris Marsh-Bourdon)
* Don't Miss This (Online Job Index - Networking Event - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Subscription Form

-----REVIEWED SITE-----

http://www.theaa.com/travelwatch/travel_news.jsp

The AA site provides information on the lastest traffic and travel news. You can search the site by city/town, region (SE England, Midlands, NW England, etc) or by typing in a motorway or A road. A map of the area you have requested is shown with the emergency triangle sign signalling any areas where there are traffic problems. If you hover over the symbol with your mouse a pop up screen explains the traffic problem. Below the map is a list of latest traffic news detailing the nature of the delay and when the news was last updated. Where the delay is due to roadworks it states when the roadworks are expected to be completed. For other road problems such as accidents or events causing heavy traffic they often just show what time the problem started.

This is a very useful site to quickly check just before leaving the office for a meeting that you are driving to. If you see there are major traffic problems you can also use The AA's route planner to find alternative directions.

=====ADVERTISEMENT=====

HotLizard is the premier supplier to the recruitment industry for online recruitment software and excellence in recruitment web site design, development and marketing.

For more information, please contact Joanna Ratcliffe on 01635 527900 or email joanna.ratcliffe@hotlizard.net.

You can also view further information on HotLizard products and services at http://www.hotlizard.net

========================

-----JOB BOARD REVIEW (GAAPweb by Lucy Walker)-----

Job Board: GAAPweb
Site url: www.gaapweb.com
Unique visits to the website: 75,271 per month
Subscribers: 14,805
Page impressions: 714,134 per month These figures are from April.

Most advertised roles/industry sectors
Qualified and part-qualified accountants, finance directors, banking and finance specialists, accounts, bookkeeping and credit control staff.

What the site says
Financial Jobs Online Limited launched GAAPweb in June 1998. Since then, GAAPweb has built a reputation as the leading specialist job site for accounting and finance professionals. By focussing on the service offered to users and subscribers as well as to clients, GAAPweb has proved popular with tens of thousands of individuals looking to develop their careers.

First impressions
What Jobserve is for IT vacancies, GAAPweb seems to be for accountancy roles. Both sites are dominated by recruitment consultancy-placed listings and on sheer quantity of jobs lead their competitors. Like Jobserve, GAAPweb was launched in the early years of online recruitment advertising and has since experienced substantial growth.

A visit to the GAAPweb homepage presents a keyword search box and the choice to search permanent and/or temporary roles. There's a link to the Advance Search facility that adds salary and location to the criteria. I like the Quick Picks column that allows direct access to jobs based on factors such as level of entry and industry sector. Importantly the search engine is quick and jobs are displayed clearly enough.

Tools on offer
The site doesn't offer anything fancy. Beyond the search methods, there's a daily email service, a list of financial recruitment agencies and a page of links to professional bodies.

The advertising opportunities are limited - absent from the homepage but banners are available elsewhere on the site. It is also possible to advertise in the email service.

Strength & Weaknesses
The marketing approach seems solid: GAAPweb is extensively promoted in the trade press and achieves a fair presence on search engines - if it doesn't feature highly in the standard rankings, paid-for placement advertising is employed. Online linking strategies will have helped with the search engines as well as driving traffic in their own right.

It is basically a standard job board. Other accountancy and finance job sites do have more sophisticated offerings but I feel there is also room for GAAPweb's more straightforward approach.

Summary
Perhaps because it is now sufficiently established or because it has felt the pinch of a tighter market, GAAPweb has recently adopted a more flexible approach to direct advertisers. There are now greater promotional opportunities on the site. Interestingly this echoes the stand taken by Jobserve, formerly the sole preserve of recruitment consultancies.

Compared to newer sites whose urls are as specific as possible to their content, GAAPweb doesn't even mention jobs in its domain name. However, this is less of a problem as it has had time to establish a brand. On a final note, if you're wondering about the significance of the name, GAAP stands for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

Lucy Walker is the Online Media Manager at Park. "Park creates solutions that enable our clients to attract and retain the right people for their organisation." Lucy can be contacted on 020 7299 3049 or lucy.walker@parkhr.com

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========================

-----REVIEW OF UK-INFO BUSINESS BY CHRIS MARSH-BOURDON-----

Product: UK-INFO Business (2003) URL: http://www.192.com Cost: £179 + VAT plus delivery Content: 2.3 million company listings and details on over 6.5 million directors and company contacts

Have you ever needed to find out some information about a company but have been put off by the high costs of doing so? This may well be a tool that is cost effective enough to change your mind.

UK-Info (part of 192.com), claim this product is "The most definitive record of UK business on CD-ROM". This may well be true, but getting the data from the CD-ROM is not quite plain sailing. One of the problems is that if you run the CD on Windows 2000 you will need a patch from their website - why they didn't include it on the disk is baffling. I suspect they spent a large majority of their budget on getting the data and encrypting it, leaving the user interface almost as an afterthought. Logic and usability were not at the fore of this company's goals when developing this package. Help assistance in the form of printed and contextual documentation is very limited.

This aside, after several hours of playing, you start getting used to the package's individual quirks and you can start getting at what really matters; content. It can certainly boast this. Whether you wish to search on a list of directors, a rough employee size or contact details of a company - it can give you all this and a lot more. You can export this information into your favourite CRM applications (Outlook, ACT etc.) with a relatively simple process or you use the CRM database provided by the package. Exporting is limited to 15,000 records, but additional credits can be purchased from UK-INFO to allow further exports. If exporting is not an issue then you are free to view the information as often as you'd like. UK- INFO's competitors offer similar products at thousands of pounds rather than the fairly modest price of £179 plus VAT and delivery.

Conclusion: If you're prepared to spend a little time getting to grips with it and learn to work the rather quirky interface, it will prove an invaluable tool.

Reviewers Mark: 7/10

Positives: Superb content and relatively cheap

Negatives: Poor interface, lacks comprehensive contextual help, support comes at a charge and exports limited to 15000 records

Chris Marsh-Bourdon works for Pyplia Ltd who specialise in front office recruitment systems and solutions. You can contact Chris on 020 7324 6068 or by email on christopher@pyplia.com.

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========================

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, WEEK COMMENCING 23RD JUNE 2003, ALLJOBSUK.COM Each issue we bring you the latest statistics from alljobsuk.com showing the number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards. This week's total is 372,856 which is up 4961 on last week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 20TH JUNE, HITWISE.CO.UK Each issue we bring you the latest statistics from Hitwise, who monitor how 8.4 million UK Internet users interact with over 300,000 websites every day. The most visited recruitment sites visited by UK Internet users last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, GoJobsite UK, Reed.co.uk, Fish4Jobs, Total Jobs, Job Serve, Monster.co.uk, WorkThing, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and CWJobs.co.uk. For more information about Hitwise, visit www.hitwise.co.uk

THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON Unfortunately it's too late to register for this months's networking event (tomorrow night - Thursday 26th). We're having a break in July but will be back on Thursday 26th August. If you'd like to come along, it's free to attend, register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. You can also view photos of previous events on the site.

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT? Don't forget to visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. Current topics on the site include "website (creation)", "CV Overload", and not one, but three "rec 2 rec" threads. Visit the site; ask questions and give feedback!

Issue 122

Welcome to issue 122 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.

CONTENTS
* Reviewed Site (BBCi Travelwatch)
* Review of the UK Recruiter website
* Coaching Update
* Don't Miss This (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites - Networking Event - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Subscription Form

-----REVIEWED SITE-----

http://www.bbc.co.uk

After last week's review (www.theaa.com/travelwatch/travel_news.jsp) someone mentioned the BBC's regional travel pages to me. From the home page of the BBC website you need to find the local news site for your area. Enter your postcode into the "Where I live" box in the middle of the home page and click go. You should find a link to your local BBCi website. For example in my area it's BBC Berkshire ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire). Each BBCi has a travel news section where you can view up to date information on the road works and travel flow situation in your area. Each "incident" is listed with the location (normally the road name) and a description of the problem. The time when the problem was first reported is also listed. There are also travel cameras that you can view for some areas. Additionally for areas where they are alternative sources of transport (eg, the Tyne and Wear Metro) there is travel information available for these too.

Another useful site for checking what's happening on the roads before you leave the office.

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For more information Contact Helen on 01582 478 888 or email helen@recruitment-software.net ========================

-----REVIEW OF THE UKRECRUITER WEBSITE-----

http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk

This week I've decided to do a review of our own website. When we did a survey in the newsletter a couple of months ago it became apparent that a lot of our regular newsletter subscribers aren't aware of all the fantastic resources on the site.

Summary:
Basically the UK Recruiter site is an information resource for recruiters operating in the UK. It is completely free for UK recruiters to use the site. The site objective is to provide the most comprehensive set of information and links for the UK recruitment industry.

What's on the site:
* The most information rich part of the site is the "links to recruitment industry suppliers section" This is accessible from a drop down list on the home page of the site (there is also a links page at www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/director.htm). These links include the most comprehensive listings of UK Vacancy Boards and CV Databases, as well as links to companies who service the recruitment industry. These suppliers include advertising agencies, recruitment to recruitment suppliers and recruitment software companies. Because all listings on the site are free of charge the directory is probably the largest available on the internet.

* The Discussion Forum (www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum) was developed to give recruiters the opportunity to discuss issues relating to their jobs and the recruitment industry in the UK. It's very simple to use, you simply register by clicking on the "register" link on the top bar and complete the short form. To view the postings you need to click on the link to "UK Recruiter Discussion Forum" in the middle of the page. From there you get a list of the topics and can view messages in each of them. There is a link to "start new topic" to the right of the screen and if you want to respond to an existing topic you click on the "reply" link.

* The "Business Directory" (www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/recdir.htm) is a large resource of other websites that should be useful to UK Recruiters. This contains sub categories such as maps & routeplanners, search engines, internet groups and business information.

* Other resources. From the home page of the site you will also find links to other resources available. These include information on special offers and free trials available to recruiters, the dates of upcoming training courses offered for recruiters across the UK and "news and events".

The site is constantly being updated - a new company is added to the listing of suppliers nearly every day. If you've got any suggestions on how the site can be improved please email us.

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http://www.inHR.co.uk A recruitment website dedicated to providing good quality vacancies for HR professionals

* A comprehensive HR Directory * Up-to-date industry news * All the latest HR jobs

For more information contact Liora on 020 8347 7551 or email liora@inhr.co.uk ========================

-----COACHING UPDATE-----

At the end of May we offered some free coaching sessions to readers of the newsletter. Andy Smith of Ascent Life Coaching has already started sessions with our two winners. They are Alison Mulligan of Mansell Recruitment Group Plc and Jaime Maxwell-Grant of HBS Management Consultants. Once they've completed the coaching sessions they will be reviewing the process for the newsletter. If you're interested in finding out more about Life Coaching you can contact Andy at andy_smith01@hotmail.com or on 0845 6442752.

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, WEEK COMMENCING 30TH JUNE 2003, ALLJOBSUK.COM Each issue we bring you the latest statistics from alljobsuk.com showing the number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards. This week's total is 385,432 which is up 12,500 on last week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml. You can also view a chart and table of this data at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/alljobs.htm

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 28TH JUNE, HITWISE.CO.UK Each issue we bring you the latest statistics from Hitwise, who monitor how 8.4 million UK Internet users interact with over 300,000 websites every day. The most visited recruitment sites visited by UK Internet users last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, GoJobsite UK, Reed.co.uk, Fish4Jobs, Total Jobs, Job Serve, Monster.co.uk, WorkThing, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and CWJobs.co.uk. For more information about Hitwise, visit www.hitwise.co.uk

26TH AUGUST, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON After two networking events in June we're having a break in July. We'll be back on Thursday 26th August. If you'd like to come along, it's free to attend, register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. You can also view photos of the June event in Leeds on the site.

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT? Don't forget to visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. Current topics on the site include "best rec 2 rec job board?", "managed agency - cost effective?", and "Recruitment and Employment Confederation". Visit the site; ask questions and give feedback!

Issue 123

Welcome to issue 123 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.

I'd like to run a review of the "Qwiz Primary Skills Tests" in a future newsletter. The product allows recruiters to assess a candidate's ability to file, categorise and follow instructions and tests basic numeracy, etc. If you'd like to have a free trial of the product and write a review for us please drop me a note.

CONTENTS
* Reviewed Site (Company Annual Reports On-Line)
* Review (Updatejobs by Louise Triance)
* Article (10 Tips for Choosing a Job Board)
* Don't Miss This (Free place on "Secrets of Executive Search Experts" - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites - Networking Event - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Subscription Form

-----REVIEWED SITE-----

http://www.carol.co.uk/
CAROL is an on-line service offering access to the financial pages of listed companies in Europe and the USA. There are around 4000 companies within the database.

It is free of charge to view the information in the database but you do need to register for access. This can be done by clicking on the 'registration' link on the top menu.

Once you have registered you click "annual reports" on the top menu. You can search by keying in a company name in the free text box. You can also use the drop-down boxes to search for a company by sector, region and or stock exchange.The search results give direct access to companies' balance sheets, profit & loss statements, financial highlights etc. The depth of information is dependant on that provided by the individual organisation.

This is a very useful site for quickly collecting data on more than one company or if you are putting together briefing information for your candidates.

=====ADVERTISEMENT=====

HotLizard is the premier supplier to the recruitment industry for online recruitment software and excellence in recruitment web site design, development and marketing.

For more information, please contact Joanna Ratcliffe on 01635 527900 or email joanna.ratcliffe@hotlizard.net.

You can also view further information on HotLizard products and services at http://www.hotlizard.net

========================

-----REVIEW OF UPDATEJOBS - BY LOUISE TRIANCE-----

Updatejobs - http://www.updatejobs.co.uk
Contact: Morgan Lobb - 020 8977 9211 or morgan@updatejobs.co.uk

What is it?
Updatejobs, from Update Ltd, provides a service to help companies locate recruitment agencies for current requirements. Updatejobs identify an average of 20 vacancies each week of which 70% are permanent and 30% contract.

How it works:
Updatejobs employs trained consultants to contact UK based organisations to determine if they have any current job vacancies. Their focus is on IT, Sales and Engineering vacancies although they are expanding into other areas. Once they have details of a vacancy they email a brief containing job title, location, salary, agency fees and a full job description to their database of recruitment agencies.

The contact information for the client remains anonymous until an agency responds to Updatejobs - only the first 5 agencies responding are given the client’s contact details. Updatejobs then informs the recruiting company which agencies are working on their position.

Agencies do not have to pay a monthly or annual subscription, they buy credits to allow them access to the vacancies. An agency will only use a credit when they have been given the client’s contact details.

Updatejobs currently have 130 recruitment agencies signed up (increasing daily) including some of the largest agencies in the country as well as a range of the smaller specialist recruitment consultancies.

Costs:
Depending on how many are purchased credits cost from £30 - £75. Each vacancy "costs" one credit. The agency keeps the full placement fee.

Company Launched:
Update Ltd has been established since 1985 - to date they have provided agencies with over 20,000 vacancies. In January 2003 they rebranded and modified the service as Updatejobs. Since then they have provided agencies with over £1.8 million in recruitment fee's.

Who's in charge:
The founder, Anita McMahon, has over 20 years experience of the IT recruitment industry Kevin McMahon joined Update Ltd in 1995 with a sales and marketing background in the software industry and Morgan Lobb joined in 1987 and again in 1995 having worked for a leading hardware and software distributor.

Strengths & Weaknesses:
Using Updatejobs can reduce the time consultants spend canvassing companies. The service could be used by agencies with no New Business Consultants as well as those who want targeted vacancies. Updatejobs emails out all vacancies they locate to their database of agencies and agencies can select only the jobs they want to work on and have candidates for. This means they don't waste time taking job specifications for roles they can't possibly fill.

The service should be especially useful for small recruitment agencies where consultants just don't have the time or skill (or inclination) to spend time cold calling. However, at as low as £30 per vacancy the service would be a useful addition to any recruitment firm's vacancy generation system.

The main disadvantage that I see is that the client still has to deal with up to five recruitment agencies. For many companies this could take quite some time for each role. As a recruitment consultancy you want commitment and buy in from the client and a client dealing with four other agencies isn't ideal. The flip side of this is that the client can choose one or two of the five agencies and choose only to deal with them.

As a final note, this service is definitely targeted towards contingency placements rather than retained business for the recruiter.

Summary: If you are having trouble getting qualified vacancies within the sectors Updatejobs covers it would be worth contacting them and giving the service a trial. For a financial investment of a little as £30 each placement has got to be worth the money.

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========================

-----10 TIPS FOR CHOOSING A JOB BOARD-----

The IT Job Board have produced a white paper to give practical advice on recruiting staff online and choosing the right job board. Although produced by a job board I do not feel the white paper is biased towards their own site. The white paper contains 10 tips for choosing a job site which they've kindly let us reproduce here. You can also register for a copy of the full White Paper free of charge at: http://www.theitjobboard.com/n.php?k=whitepaper.

* Is the site clean and user-friendly? A site that candidates find easy to use will be visited more regularly. Try it for yourself and look for sites where you can search for jobs easily and register with little fuss.
* Ask for hard, accurate and relevant statistics, such as number of unique users and relevant applications. Look for measures such as Hitwise that are independent and rank the top sites by traffic.
* Make sure the job board offers an active 'jobs by email' service to alert potential recruits to new jobs. How many candidates are registered to receive jobs by email? Are they all relevant candidates?
* Think like a job seeker. If you are recruiting IT staff, go to the IT department and ask which sites they use to look for a job. How many relevant vacancies does the site carry? A site with few jobs will be visited by few candidates.
* Make sure you choose the right type of job board by understanding the different benefits of horizontal and vertical sites. Are you able to handle a large volume of CVs or would you rather receive a smaller number of more relevant applications?
* Which screening tools does the job board use? Make sure that it offers a straightforward system that highlights unsuitable candidates.
* Find out the company background of the web site. How long has it been established? Does it have experience in recruitment markets? Who are its partners?
* Make sure the site receives a high level of traffic. Is it reliable? Ask for statistics on down time - a site must be accessible a high percentage of the time or candidates will lose trust and look elsewhere.
* How is the site being marketed and where is its marketing targeted? How does the site attract the people you want? Make sure that it drives quality candidates only to the site
* How many vacancies are placed on the site by direct clients? This is a good indication of the reputation of the job board and its standing in the market. Ask to see some case studies of people who have used the site.

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========================

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

FREE PLACE ON "SECRETS OF THE EXECUTIVE SEARCH EXPERTS'" SEMINAR The Recruitment Academy are holding two one day seminars at the end of the month for their Secrets of the Executive Search Experts' course. The course is taking place in Bristol on 21st July and in Guildford 22nd July. This course normally costs £250 + VAT but they are giving away one ticket to a ukrecruiter newsletter subscriber. For a chance to win email secrets@therecruitmentacademy.com with the word "ukrecruiter" in the subject line. They'll be picking and informing the winner on Friday 11th July. For more information about the course contact Sefton Owens on 08702 400 994 or email sefton@therecruitmentacademy.com

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 5TH JULY, HITWISE.CO.UK Each issue we bring you the latest statistics from Hitwise, who monitor how 8.4 million UK Internet users interact with over 300,000 websites every day. The most visited recruitment sites visited by UK Internet users last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, GoJobsite UK, Reed.co.uk, Total Jobs, Fish4Jobs, Job Serve, Monster.co.uk, WorkThing, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and The IT Job Board. For more information about Hitwise, visit www.hitwise.co.uk

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT? Don't forget to visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. Current topics on the site include "Candidate control", "How could I improve my placements?", and "Free Job Boards". Visit the site; ask questions and give feedback!

Issue 124

Welcome to issue 124 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. We're always open to suggestions of sites to review in the newsletter or article ideas - please send me a note if you've any recommendations.

CONTENTS
* Reviewed Site (Age Positive)
* Recruitment Consultancy Web Site Review (Lorien Plc by 4mat.com)
* IT Strategy Clinic ("Autonomic Computing" by Ade McCormack)
* Don't Miss This (75% discount on JobJobbed.com - 10% discount on "Winning Competitive Tenders Workshop" - Networking Event - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Weekly Statistics (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites )
* Subscription Form

-----REVIEWED SITE-----

http://www.agepositive.gov.uk
If you are interested in finding out about the implications of the age discrimination directive and keeping updated on the current situation this is the official government website.

The site is split into a number of sections which are worth browsing. Of interest may be the section on legislation where you can find an overview with a questions and answers section. They also publish the "Code of Practice on Age Diversity in Employment" which is a voluntary set of standards. If you are looking for additional information there is a large links section.

In a few weeks time we'll be publishing an article from Fox Williams on the current state of the law with regard to age discrimination and the impact of the directive. This site is a good starting point in the meantime.

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Click here: http://www.gojobsite.co.uk/cgi-bin/campaign.cgi?tid=5381

========================

-----RECRUITMENT CONSULTANCY WEB SITE REVIEW, LORIEN PLC BY 4MAT.COM-----

Company Name: Lorien Plc Web Site URL: http://www.lorien.co.uk

Site description: Lorien Plc provides IT resourcing and consulting services to organisations to help them improve their performance. The company was formed in 1977 and includes a wide range of services to clients and candidates. The company targets corporate clients, and candidates mainly looking for IT recruitment.

Creative Design: The design is fairly non-descript and very simple. However, owing to the vast amount of quality information I can forgive this, as a snazzier design could detract attention away from the many excellent services detailed.

Ease of use: The site is quick loading. There is no time consuming introduction flash page to waste a visitor's time. The site provides an enormous amount of information and services. With so much to say, there could be a danger of a cluttered or disorganized site layout. However, the information is clearly and logically arranged with many internal links visible on every page. The different services are arranged in a series of content pages (which don't scroll, thus making it easier to read) outlining different features with links to find more information. The tone of the site compliments the logical layout: professional, straight forward and to the point.

Relevant content: The site has a large amount of relevant and helpful information about services provided. There is a concise section about the company itself, which is reassuring to read. This includes a brief history, though this has not been updated for 4 years, annual and interim reports of the company. There are also details of careers with Lorien, which are briefly defined, with the option of sending a cv and covering letter to apply. Unfortunately there are no external news articles and the news articles about the company are a year out of date.

Candidate and client functionality: The IT jobs online are clearly defined and easy to search for. There are testimonials from current candidates regarding Lorien, and there is a section detailing contractor benefits and advice, such as financial planning and legal advice.

The client section has even more services provided. Firstly it is easy to post a job by simply filling a form out online, though there are many other services for clients applying to contract jobs, permanent recruitment, executive search and selection, European markets, and resource management. There are also services providing training and research for clients, engineering solutions and specialized IT services. I was impressed that Lorien appears to cover a wide range of industries from general IT to Media and Engineering. There are glowing testimonies from corporate giants such as IBM, Nissan and Barclays.

Candidate and client marketing and retention: The candidate section is aiming for candidate loyalty, with a log-in feature. There are several interactive features, including games, and a jobseekers chatroom. There is CV advice and interview techniques. In short, this is one of the most fun and informative sites for candidates that I have seen.

Online marketing: The site is adequately marketed online and finding it is made easier due to the size and market presence of the brand and its coverage in other journals and magazines.

Summary: Lorien Plc has an excellent site which gives a firm impression of a company with a professional approach and years of experience. Perhaps a design update would make the site look a little more crisp and market leading but overall the site delivers well.

Giles Guest is Managing Director of 4mat.com, the UK's largest provider of recruitment web sites. You can reach him or his team at giles.guest@4mat.com or see their products at http://www.4mat.com

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Virtual Consultant created by Zero-One Design Ltd, is a dedicated website content management, and online database system. This powerful and flexible internet based database solution can be used as a search & selection website, a contact management database, or a full featured jobs board.

Check out all the latest Developments at http://www.zod.uk.com & http://www.v-consultant.co.uk ========================

-----IT STRATEGY CLINIC - ADE MCCORMACK-----

Regardless of whether your business is focused on the IT Sector, you need to be aware of the strategic implications of technology on your business. This occasional column will endeavour to demystify some of the more prominent yet esoteric terms.

Today we look at AUTONOMIC COMPUTING.

What is it? Autonomic computing essentially describes computers that can look after themselves. The term autonomic stems from our own autonomic nervous system, which regulates our bodily functions, such as heart rate and temperature management without our conscious involvement.

So autonomic computing refers to self-managing computers that require little or no human support. From a recruitment perspective this could well be the death of roles such as operator and system administrator. Ultimately this could dissolve all opportunities associated with IT support.

Businesses are looking to squeeze better value from their IT investment. There is a big focus on TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). Autonomic computing looks set to play a large part in reducing TCO, and so will look very very attractive to organisations with large IT infrastructures.

All the hardware vendors are looking at autonomic computing to varying degrees, with IBM seeming to play a lead role. Interestingly Microsoft is also interested, given its relatively small focus on hardware. Perhaps it is looking to develop the first autonomic games-console?! Most likely it is looking to weave autonomic computing into its Windows operating system. This will then extend this concept into the desktop, thus providing PC support staff with a lot of free time (to pursue other careers).

IBM has created a number of rules that define an autonomic computing system. These include the ability to reconfigure itself to reflect current usage and to constantly monitor itself for optimal usage. More sinisterly it must be self-healing and able to defend itself against threats. Combine that capability with the likelihood that in the future all homes will run off a network on which all your appliances are attached and it starts to look scary.

If your PC suspects you are going to replace it with a younger model, it could well keep you locked out of your home or interfere with the cooling element of your fridge thus impacting on the quality of your nourishment. Check out the film 2001 A Space Odyssey if you want to see autonomic computing at work. Interestingly the computer involved is called HAL, which is IBM if you move each letter along one letter of the alphabet.

How can I impress friends and colleagues?
Step 1 - Contrive the opportunity by stating to a potential victim "Isn't it amazing how modern technology is almost biological in its function?"
Step 2 - Wait for a quizzical "I'm sorry?"
Step 3 - Add, "Think of our nervous system, whose autonomic functioning ensures our heart beats without conscious intervention"
Step 4 - As Step 2.
Step 5 - Apply knock out punch "Well you are surely aware of initiatives by IBM and co. to establish autonomic computing as a model for reducing the overall IT department TCO?"
Step 6 - Look shocked, then smile and return the conversation to more mundane matters.

Auridian Consulting is focused on helping recruitment organisations exploit opportunities within the IT marketplace and get best value from their IT investment. Visit http://www.auridian.com/rec or contact Ade McCormack via ade@auridian.com. (c) 2003 Auridian Consulting

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Call Louise on 01635 254881 or visit www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/tests.htm
========================

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

75% DISCOUNT ON JOBJOBBED.COM
JobJobbed.com have offered ukrecruiter newsletter subscribers an exclusive deal. If you sign up before 31st July and you can have unlimited vacancy postings and access to the online CV Database for just £49 per month. This service is normally priced at £199 per month - and you can take up the offer for a maximum of 6 months. To qualify for the offer, visit http://www.jobjobbed.com/client/register.asp, register your company, choose 'Select more Services' from the Recruiter Menu and then enter the code UKRec in the offer code box at the bottom before proceeding. For more information call 0870 872 0303.

10% DISCOUNT ON "WINNING COMPETITIVE TENDERS" WORKSHOP, 2ND SEPTEMBER
LC Training & Excelerator Ltd have developed this one day intensive workshop aimed at managers and senior recruiters who need to understand the proposal process and enhance their ability to put together more powerful bids, thus increasing their 'hit rate'. The course runs on the 2nd September and costs £350 + VAT per delegate. However, they are offering 10% off the first 5 places booked if you quote "ukrec". For more information or to book contact Marilyn Davidson on 020 8857 2077 or email marilyndavidson@lctlimited.com

26TH AUGUST, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
After two networking events in June we're having a break in July. We'll be back on Thursday 26th August. If you'd like to come along, it's free to attend, register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. You can also view photos of the June event in Leeds on the site.

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT?
Don't forget to visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. Current topics on the site include "Temp/Contract recruitment versus Perm Recruitment", "Salary Comparisons?", and "Need research ideas?!". Visit the site, ask questions and give feedback!

-----WEEKLY STATISTICS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, WEEK COMMENCING 14TH JULY 2003, ALLJOBSUK.COM
The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 382,364 which is up 19,741 on last week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml. You can also view a chart and table of this data at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/alljobs.htm

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 11TH JULY, HITWISE.CO.UK
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, GoJobsite UK, Reed.co.uk, Total Jobs, Job Serve, Fish4Jobs, Monster.co.uk, WorkThing, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and CWJobs.co.uk. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

Issue 125

Welcome to issue 125 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.

Do you want fame and recognition as a recruitment internet expert? We're starting a new feature where each week we'll list 3 sites a reader couldn't live without with a brief explanation of why. If you want to take part simply send me a note saying what your three "favourites" are and giving details of why you love each of them

CONTENTS
* Reviewed Site (The Times Rich List)
* Article (Web Audit Report for UK Recruiter by ClearPeople)
* Review (NORAS Interactive by Damian Routley)
* Don't Miss This (REC Awards Dinner - Networking Event - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Weekly Statistics (National Statistics Online - Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites)
* Subscription Form

-----REVIEWED SITE-----

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,2108,00.html
This site is more for background research/knowledge than a specific business purpose. The Times Rich List is available in full from the website. You need to click on "Search the 2003 Rich List", leave the search boxes empty and click on the Full List button. Or you can search the list of Britain's richest 1,000 by name, by source of wealth or by keywords in the text of each entry. You can also view the top 100 in Ireland or Scotland, the 100 richest young people or the 100 wealthiest women.

If you feel you need even more information than The Times can offer you could also look at http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/. Every year Forbes produce a list of the worlds richest people. As well as figures for this year you can view the last 7 years. The level of information on these sites is amazing and some of the data fascinating.

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For more information, please contact Joanna Ratcliffe on 01635 527900 or email joanna.ratcliffe@hotlizard.net.

You can also view further information on HotLizard products and services at http://www.hotlizard.net

========================

------WEBSITE AUDIT REPORT FOR UK RECRUITER - BY CLEARPEOPLE-----

ClearPeople recently conducted an analysis of the UK Recruiter website. As the newsletter regularly reviews other websites I thought it might be interesting to see an extract of the 11 page report we received (because of space constraints I've missed out the sections on stickiness, marketing, keyword analysis, ranking reports and link checking).

Overall Evaluation: A website needs to make a good first impression or your visitors will leave immediately. The UK recruiter site achieves this by fulfilling the following criteria: the site has a professional layout, it has fast loading pages , the main links are accessible from most of the web pages and there is a consistent style for headers and text.

Design: The design is simple, professional and effectively targets the recruitment industry. The top section of the web site is well-laid out and the logo lends itself well to the design of the site. The homepage does require rework though in terms of the layout of menus and content. Further information has been provided below.

The colours are well used so that menu items in orange can be easily identified. The font size and style is easy to read and is suited to the style of the site.

Navigation: The overall navigation on the UK Recruiter site is successful due to criteria that the main navigation menu should be accessible at all times and it is easy to read and click-on.

The menu layout on the homepage should be redesigned so that users are instantly drawn to the main menus and the page should contain fewer separate menus sections (there are currently 4 separate menu sections on the site).

Content: There is an abundance of information available on the site which is relevant to the strategy of this site and to users' requirements. However the amount of information can be intimidating to a user that has to scroll a long way down to read the full content of some of the pages. The provision of links at the top of the page does help alleviate this problem.

Generally, the content should be displayed in a more concise manner and the text should be aligned so that there is a comfortable margin both on the left and right hand side.

It is also difficult for users to differentiate headings on pages from normal text. This should be improved either with the use of graphic headers or perhaps an alternative colour could be used (other than dark grey or orange).

* Discussion Board The discussion board is not only one of the most popular sections of the site (based on the provided user statistics) but appears to be an excellent tool to attract repeat visitors. Even though the discussion board could be seen as a separate area to the rest of the web site, the design should be more in line with the other pages. It is also difficult for a user to get back to the main site since no links have been provided.

* How easily can you find information? Finding particular information is fairly easy for a first time user. The addition of the search functionality allows users to search on particular keywords and gives them the opportunity to explore the site. Even though a site map has been made available, it is not effectively categorised.

* How good are the opportunities to make your comments / ask your questions? A feedback section is not available on the site but the contact us section is comprehensive and various parts of the site invite visitors to email the team with suggestions of links that need to be added and so forth.

ClearPeople provides quality, innovative and cost-effective technology services and solutions. ClearPeople has a multi-talented team with extensive industry experience and knowledge. Accredited project managers, professional designers and top developers will ensure that you get enterprise grade solutions even on a limited budget. For more information visit www.clearpeople.com or phone 020 7244 6538

As a result of this audit we at UK Recruiter are going to be making some changes to the site over the next few weeks. If you've any thoughts we'd be pleased to hear them.

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========================

-----REVIEW - NORAS INTERACTIVE BY DAMIAN ROUTLEY-----

Product: NORAS Interactive URL: http://www.enhancemedia.co.uk/norasinteractiveinfo.html

What it is: NORAS, the National Online Recruitment Audience Survey, is an independent survey of both horizontal and vertical job boards.

What the site says: "NORAS interactive enables you to build up queries via a simple drop down menu and then export the results for use in documents or presentations. NORAS interactive combines audience profile figures with E ABC audited unique user numbers, where available, to show you the size of the audience you are able to target through each job board. Using the system will allow you to identify the job board with the best target audience for your recruitment needs, whatever recruitment project you are undertaking."

About the product: NORAS started in April 2002 and is now in its second term. Enhance Media, the developers of this survey, can determine user demographics and unique user numbers based on qualitative research. The research surveyed the users of each of the included sites, and can establish relevance to the target market across a diverse range of topics (TV region, age, salary, etc, etc).

To make it more relevant for the end users, the most recent survey has been converted into an online tool that allows the recruiter to select job boards based on a series of criteria. This then produces a 'league' of the best sites, complete with an estimate of the relevant site users for the vacancy in question.

In terms of usability, NORAS interactive is simple to operate. Once clear of the password prompt, the user is free to search. An 'Advanced Search' option is provided for a more detailed forecast. For the majority, however, the quick search will suffice. This contains fields for selecting age, location, level of seniority, role, industry, and occupational classifications (ABC1). Laid out in the easiest format possible, the search function is easier than some job boards I have used! The option for entering 'Boolean' expressions (simply, 'and/or') will appeal to those who wish to narrow the search criteria.

Obviously the strength and validity of this research depends upon the number of sites that are involved. At present there are 20 sites signed up to take part in the next wave of NORAS and this increase should further enhance the product.

Cost: An annual subscription is £299 + VAT per organisation.

Summary: Having kept a close eye on the work that Enhance Media have been doing in the industry, it's interesting to note the sites that have signed up to NORAS. Similarly interesting are those that have not. For instance, Gojobsite was noticeable by its absence in the second survey and Monster chose not to take part on both occasions. For the sites that dominate the market, this research can be as useful for them as it is for the recruiters. An incorrect self perception in such a competitive market can mean failure. Obviously it comes at a price, so we could never expect sites run out of a bedroom in Chester to be included as the cost would outweigh the benefits. But for the sites that spend considerable amounts of money on marketing, what better platform to position your brand than an independent audit of the users? In terms of the industry as a whole, there are no benefits to be had from being on the outside of research such as this.

Damian Routley is TCS' media specialist. To discuss how they can provide recruitment solutions to your organisation, please call him on 020 7420 1800 or email droutley@tcstown.com

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========================

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

26TH SEPTEMBER 2003, RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY AWARDS DINNER 2003, MARRIOTT GROSVENOR SQUARE, LONDON
The Recruitment Industry Awards Dinner is taking place on Friday 26th September on the evening of the annual REC Conference. The Awards night celebrates the "best in the industry" and includes a champagne reception, gala dinner and entertainment. To find out more information on the awards visit the website at http://www.rec.uk.com/events/rec-awards.htm. To find out more about the conference visit http://www.rec.uk.com/events/Conference03.htm or call the Events Team on 020 7462 3280.

26TH AUGUST 2003, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
Our next event is just over one month away on Thursday 26th August. If you'd like to come along, it's free to attend, register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. You can also view photos of previous events on the site.

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT?

Don't forget to visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. Current topics on the site include "starting a new desk?", "salary comparisons", and "cv registration software". Visit the site; ask questions and give feedback!

-----WEEKLY STATISTICS-----

NATIONAL STATISTICS ONLINE
The employment rate for people of working age is 74.7 per cent, up from 74.5 per cent. This is the highest rate since spring 1990. The number of people in employment rose 101,000 over the previous three months to 27.91 million. . In summary average earnings rose by 3.4 per cent, up from 3.2 per cent in April. The data was updated as at 16th July 2003 and was from figures collected to May 2003. For more details on "work and joblessness" figures go to: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=12, and for "average earnings" figures go to: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=10

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 11TH JULY, HITWISE.CO.UK
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, GoJobsite UK, Reed.co.uk, Total Jobs, Job Serve, Fish4Jobs, Monster.co.uk, WorkThing, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and Work Train. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

ONLINE JOB INDEX, WEEK COMMENCING 22ND JULY 2003, ALLJOBSUK.COM
The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 407,392 which is up 25,028 on last week. For more information visit http://www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml.

Issue 126

Welcome to issue 126 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. Last week we mentioned our new feature where a reader shares with us 3 sites they can't live without - our first "my favourites" list is in this issue. If you'd like to let me know about your 3 favourites simply send me a note.

CONTENTS
* My Favourites (by Camilla Woodhouse of Highfield Human Solutions)
* Article (Age Discrimination and the Law by Louise Fernandes)
* Article (Recruiting and Retaining Consultants in a difficult market by Ruella Crouch)
* Don't Miss This (Networking Event - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Weekly Statistics (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites)
* Subscription Form

-----MY FAVOURITES BY CAMILLA WOODHOUSE-----

http://www.google.co.uk - I've used most of the main search engines in my time, and this one is my favorite by far. You can search for sites in the UK as well as on an international scale, and more often then not, the ideal site is on the first page of results. For a laugh you can always try the "I'm feeling lucky" option. It also suggest correct spellings of words and sentences if it thinks you have them wrong (which is useful with my typing skills!).

http://www.hoovers.co.uk & http://www.hoovers.com - Although you need to pay to use the site in full, what you can use for free is brilliant for target company and business development uses. The site gives you headline information on some of the biggest businesses in the world, with a "snapshot" on what they do, basic financials and recent news reports.

http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk - A really useful site for the recruitment industry, telling you where to search for free salary surveys, the best job boards (and which ones give you free trials), where to go for candidate testing as well as general industry information. There is also a discussion forum that is easy to use and has proved really useful (it also lets me know that I'm not a lone recruiter).

Camilla Woodhouse is a Researcher for Highfield Human Solutions.

Submit your 3 favourites web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

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========================

-----ARTICLE - AGE DISCRIMINATION AND THE LAW BY LOUISE FERNANDES-----

Only the young and experienced need apply?

How many recruitment advertisements specify "enthusiasm" or "experience" to suggest that the target employee should be either younger or older? Although this is a common approach, due to the proposed legislation on age discrimination, both recruiters and employers will now need to rethink their recruitment strategies to avoid exposure to discrimination claims. At present, a voluntary Code of Practice on Age Diversity provides some practical guidance. However, from October 2006, age discrimination in employment and vocational training will become unlawful and regulations should be published in 2004, to enable employers and recruiters to prepare for their new obligations.

The Government consultation paper on this legislation emphasises that the aim of the proposals is consistency across all strands of equality legislation. The paper recognises the difficulty that age discrimination poses for both young and old people and recruiters and employers will be encouraged to draw on the full range of skills and talents available to them.

Employees, applicants and agency workers are among those protected by the proposed legislation, whether young, old or middle aged. Both direct and indirect age discrimination will become unlawful across the board. However, age-based decisions or strategies may be justified in certain circumstances. Any justification must be supported by evidence and employers and recruiters will need to refer to specific aims and the particular circumstances that makes the practice appropriate and necessary. Such aims include the health, welfare and safety of workers; facilitation of employment planning; rewarding loyalty or the need for a reasonable period of employment before retirement. For example, a refusal to recruit a 60 year old individual for a position that needed years of training could be justified, on the basis that the individual would be required to work for a reasonable period of employment before retirement.

Although the proposed legislation is potentially far-reaching, recruiters will be under no obligation to recruit, and employers will not be obliged to retain or train, those who are not competent or capable to perform the relevant role. Employers may also provide pay and non-pay benefits based on length of service and experience, even if these would otherwise constitute direct or indirect age discrimination. However, such decisions would remain subject to justification.

Compulsory retirement ages may also become unlawful under age discrimination legislation unless they can be justified in relation to specific aims and circumstances. The Government is currently considering a default retirement age of 70 which will not require justification from employers.

Unfair dismissal and redundancy provisions may also be changed to reduce age discrimination. Employees could therefore claim unfair dismissal at any age, but a dismissal on the grounds of retirement at any justifiable retirement age, or at the default age, would be fair. Calculation of the basic award for a successful claim of unfair dismissal would be based on service instead of age. Redundancy payments would also be changed to remove age based factors.

Employers and recruiters may feel that 2006 is literally an age away. However, with the regulations being published next year, familiarity with these provisions is vital if businesses are to prepare for the forthcoming legislation, and limit their exposure to claims for age discrimination.

Louise Fernandes is an employment lawyer at City law firm Fox Williams and can be contacted for further information on lfernandes@foxwilliams.com

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========================

-----ARTICLE - RECRUITING AND RETAINING CONSULTANTS IN A DIFFICULT MARKET BY RUELLA CROUCH-----

In the current economic climate finding talented people is an increasing challenge for business.

At present our own industry is short of many thousands of consultants, despite being a career that many of us describe as 'hardly rocket science'.

We need to face the facts. In a survey conducted by the IEC in 1999 the industry was short of 10,000 Recruitment Consultants. Last year it was reported that another 7,000 Recruitment Consultants had left the industry!

Some consultants are focussing on recession-proof sectors such as Education, Healthcare, Construction and the Technical sectors and the more stable markets such as Accountancy & Secretarial etc. If they are cross training from another sector they appreciate that basic salary / OTE may be lower, but are prepared to sacrifice this for stability.

Many are staying where they are due to the large number of redundancies which has made them reluctant to leave stable jobs even if they are unhappy.

Market conditions have also made consultancies re-evaluate the type of consultants they are looking for. However many have expected Account Managers to become Business Developers overnight. However unless they are in their early to mid 30's they have never worked in this type of market before!

So what can you do to retain and attract new staff? I hope the following '10 point plan' will assist you during the recruitment process. We've recently implemented it ourselves.

1. Conduct a swot analysis of your business - define your companies unique selling points and know how to articulate them
2. Look at your goals (mission/vision statement and informal goals) Are they consistent?
3. Talk to your teams - what is their perception of the organisation, how do they feel, what do they want? Create a sense of belonging.
4. Evaluate your successful consultants - why have they done well in this market?
5. Establish what you'd like to see more/less of
6. Evaluate your job descriptions - does this person exist? An interview process over time becomes diluted and it's easy to lose track of what you defined in the first place.
7. Evaluate your interview process - is it fast, effective, slick and aggressive. When interviewing utilise your most experienced/senior personnel early in the process. No one will sell the company as well as you.
8. Look at your induction / training. Provide career development plans, clearly articulate them and make sure they've been implemented.
9. Once employed set realistic objectives and review regularly
10. Manage expectations - and clearly explain the consequences of not achieving.

Ruella Crouch is a Director of Ruella James (www.ruellajames.com) a privately owned Recruitment Company operating within the UK, Ireland and Australia. By the way they are currently looking for 4 new consultants to run "very warm desks". For information call Dee Barclay George on 020 7290 6565.

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========================

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

26TH AUGUST, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
Don't forget we're having a summer break for July. If you'd like to come along in August, it's free to attend, register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. You can see photos from previous events

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT?
Don't forget to visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. Current topics on the site include "IT rec help", "cv registration software", and "recruitment coach". Visit the site; ask questions and share your knowledge

-----WEEKLY STATISTICS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, WEEK COMMENCING 28TH JULY 2003, ALLJOBSUK.COM
The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 409,824 which is up 2,432 on last week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml. You can also view a chart and table of this data at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/alljobs.htm

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 26TH JULY, HITWISE.CO.UK
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, GoJobsite UK, Reed.co.uk, Total Jobs, Fish4Jobs, Job Serve, Monster.co.uk, WorkThing, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and CWJobs.co.uk. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

Issue 127

Welcome to issue 127 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. In the next few weeks we'll be starting a series of reviews in the newsletter on the subject of CV/reference validation. If you know of a company who we should consider reviewing please can you send an email with details.

CONTENTS

* My Favourites (by Claire Fell of Security Vacancies)
* Job Board Review (Londonjobs.co.uk by Lucy Walker)
* Article (Anger Management by Lander Associates)
* Don't Miss This (Networking Event - Human Resources Leaders Forum - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Weekly Statistics (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites)
* Subscription Form

-----MY FAVOURITES BY CLAIRE FELL-----

http://www.alexa.com - Alexa.com is an excellent resource for checking site's rankings, links and status within their specific industry it will tell you how many hits a site receives and who links to them giving you an excellent perception of the quality of the site you are considering advertising with or helping you see who your competitors are advertising with.

http://www.agencycentral.co.uk - As the name suggests a great central point to discover jobsites and recruitment agencies in specific industry sectors. The site offers direct links and search facilities for both candidates and recruiters. It is really easy to use and because it is free to be listed they offer a comprehensive database

http://www.yell.co.uk - I am sure everyone knows this one but I have found no easier way of finding leads in certain areas or tracking down a company with very little information, you can search by location, section heading or company name and the full contact details of relevant companies are displayed.

Claire Fell works for http://www.securityvacancies.com.

Submit your 3 favourites web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

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WANT TO RUN PSYCHOMETRIC OR APTITUDE TESTS?

Call Louise on 01635 254881 or visit www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/tests.htm

========================

-----JOB BOARD REVIEW - LONDONJOBS.CO.UK BY LUCY WALKER-----

Job Board: Londonjobs.co.uk
URL: http://www.londonjobs.co.uk
Unique users: 202,169 (July, 2003)
Visits: 351,041 (July, 2003)
Page impressions: 4,662,156 (July, 2003)

Most advertised industry sectors: Retail, Public Sector, Accounting & Finance, Sales, Marketing/PR and Advertising, Hospitality & Tourism, Media & New Media, Administration & Office

What the site says:
"londonjobs.co.uk is a stand-alone job board offering a dedicated service to those looking to work in London. Bringing online the experience and knowledge of the London market from the Evening Standard and Metro and working with This is London London's No1 website (thisislondon.co.uk) and femail.co.uk to deliver effective print and online solutions to advertisers and a great experience for Job Seekers. londonjobs.co.uk delivers qualified job-seekers to your vacancies."

First impressions:
In the ad breaks on the London radio station that wakes me in the morning, you can't escape the chirping of comediennes Mel and Sue. However, the double act's dawn chorus is not promoting a breakfast of toasted 'Kingsmill' rather the job site londonjobs.co.uk

This is the revamped site from Associated New Media (the online division of Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the London Evening Standard and the London free morning paper, Metro). Formerly thisislondon.co.uk/jobs, it now has a snappier, more memorable url which also helps to improve the rankings on search engines.

There is now greater consistency between the site and the Evening Standard's recruitment offering. The Monday print pull-out supplement has been rebranded to londonjobs and carries the site address emblazoned across its front.

It's a very functional site. There's nothing too fancy about the design but its been thoroughly thought out: the job search box takes pride of place at the top of the page and because it's uncluttered the branded advertising opportunities, such as the banners and the 'Employer Partners' buttons, stand out. Advertising on the site is sold solus or as an addition to the Standard (at a cheaper rate).

Each job listing has a Position Overview box. This is a summary of information containing the employer's name, job title, salary and application details. If the job listing is written properly this feature shouldn't be necessary. However, if the ad is presented as an unformatted, unproofread bank of words as is, unfortunately, often the case for online ads, I'm sure it's a help to job seekers.

Tools on offer:
For the candidate there's a 'My Profile' area in which users can create email alerts, store searches and compose their CV. There are plans for a searchable CV database. Londonjobs have partnered with other organisations in order to provide further content: there are links to providers offering psychometric testing, training course and careers news (the latter thanks to the Standard and Metro's editorial). On the redesigned site, recruiters can place ads directly after paying by credit card.

Strengths & weaknesses:
The site's quick and easy to use. There are good touches such as the 'Mail to a friend' link on every job listing - creating a viral effect to increase awareness about the site - and Job of the Week, a service that really does ensure extra views of a listing.

Londonjobs are now taking full advantage of Associated Newspapers portfolio of products which gives them a real strength when marketing the site. The strengthening of the association with the Evening Standard and Metro is a key factor in the promotion. There's advertising running on the sites femail.co.uk, thisislondon, thisismoney and thisistravel. And as I mentioned earlier, there are also the radio campaigns which are live across a range of London stations. The url londonjobs.com has been acquired and the site is promoted on search engines and elsewhere online.

Summary:
The marketing activity has been working: it's generated an increase in unique users of over 63% since May. With July's unique user figure topping 200,000, londonjobs claims this makes the site number one for London in terms of traffic. Despite being a stand-alone product, the integration of the brand with the Evening Standard's recruitment supplement should help considerably to raise the site's profile. For many people location, rather than the specifics of what they do, can be the most crucial factor when they look for a job.

=====ADVERTISEMENT=====

Do you want to advertise here?

For information email or call 01635 254881

========================

-----ARTICLE - ANGER MANAGEMENT BY LANDER ASSOCIATES-----

Anger Management - It's all the Rage

Eminem's latest tour is named after it, - Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler are starring in a film about it, - and Ray from Big Brother is definitely going to be offered some - it seems that Anger Management is suddenly all the rage! But what is anger and how do we keep it under control? Well, let me start by telling you what it isn't. We all have to accept that some amount of stress and anger in our lives is a normal daily occurrence and not a pathological condition! Many people thrive on the surge of adrenaline which a certain amount of pressure and challenge can give - it can keep you focussed, be a great motivator and the trigger that provides that final big push to achieving target. It is when anger gets out of control and becomes destructive that the problems start -problems at work, in your personal relationships, and in the overall quality of your life.

This week we are going to look at what anger is and how to recognise it. Next week I'll be giving you some strategies to managing anger.

What is Anger? According to Charles Spielberger, PhD, a psychologist who specialises in the study of anger it is "an emotional state that varies in intensity from mild irritation to intense fury and rage." It's also a completely natural, human emotion and can be sparked by both internal and external triggers. You may be angry with a specific person (Such as a co-worker) or an event outside your control - a traffic jam for example. How many of us have seethed sitting in a queue of traffic - knowing that there is nothing we can do but getting angrier and angrier as every minute ticks by?

Expressing Anger Anger inspires powerful, often aggressive, feelings and behaviours, which allow us to fight and to defend ourselves when we are attacked and so it is not surprising that the instinctive, natural way in which we express anger is to respond aggressively. A certain amount of anger is necessary to our survival and is good for us - bottling things up can lead to all sorts of stress related problems.

Recognising Anger Unexpressed anger can create other problems. It can lead to pathological responses such as the passive-aggressive reaction (getting back at people indirectly, without telling them why, rather than confronting them head-on). You may recognise some of these traits with a particular client of yours that has stopped using your services for a reason that they've never expressed to you, or a candidate that never comes out with exactly what they're thinking. It could be the way that your boss deals with problems within the team, perhaps criticising you indirectly to others.

People who are constantly putting others down, criticising everything, and making cynical comments haven't learned how to constructively express their anger. Not surprisingly, they aren't likely to have many successful relationships. This can have a huge impact on a business, and especially on a team trying to work towards success.

Anger Management The goal of anger management is to control your emotional aggressive responses. You can't get rid of, or avoid, the things or the people that enrage you, nor can you change them, but you can learn to control your reactions.

Next week I'll be outlining some strategies to help you to manage anger.

Angela Cripps is from Lander Associates, who provide a complete range of tailored services from performance management, training and development and HR consultancy, to interim operations management and the production of effective tenders and proposals. Lander Associates is a leading performance development specialist for the professional recruitment industry Contact Angela at info@landerassociates.co.uk or by phone 01582 791838.

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

26TH AUGUST 2003, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
Have you registered yet for our August networking event? It's free to attend - register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. We've also got events planned for September and October and you can see photos from previous events on the site

17-19TH SEPTEMBER 2003, HUMAN RESOURCES LEADERS FORUM, TEWKESBURY, GLOS
The Human Resources Leaders Forum is a two-day networking and meetings event for human resources directors, with pre-arranged face-to-face meetings with suppliers serving the sector. It offers opportunities to socialise and to network informally with your peers. It is a select event with only 50 client delegates and up to 25 supplier companies attending. If you have any questions about the Forum please contact Helen Thomas on 020 8267 4391 or helen.thomas@haynet.com or visit http://www.humanresourcesmagazine.com/pdfs/brochure.pdf

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT?
Don't forget to visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. Current topics on the site include "candidate marketing", "psychometric testing", and "managed vendor arrangements". Visit the site; ask questions and share your knowledge

-----WEEKLY STATISTICS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, WEEK COMMENCING 4TH AUGUST 2003, ALLJOBSUK.COM
The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 396,305 which is down 13,519 on last week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 1ST AUGUST, HITWISE.CO.UK
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, GoJobsite UK, Total Jobs, Reed.co.uk, Fish4Jobs, Job Serve, Monster.co.uk, WorkThing, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and Work Train. Traffic to the sector has increased by 21% over the last 12 weeks. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

Issue 128

CONTENTS

* My Favourites (By David Gideon of Genesis Recruitment)
* Article (Anger Management Part 2 by Lander Associates)
* Article (CV Validation Services by Louise Triance)
* Don't Miss This (Networking Events - Softworld HR & Payroll - Recruitment Industry Awards - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Weekly Statistics (Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Search Terms - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites)
* Subscription Form

-----MY FAVOURITES BY DAVID GIDEON-----

http://uk.weather.com - It may seem obvious at present what the weather is going to be like. If you're less sure and want to forward plan I've found this site to be the most accurate of all the weather forecast sites. You can set it so you automatically enter the site with the weather for your region.

www.newsengin.com/neFreeTools.nsf/PercentChange/formPercentChange - This is a percent change calculator. You fill in one box with the figure you are starting with and put the figure it is changing to in the second box. The results tell you what percentage increase or decrease it is.

www.hotmail.com - Despite being a bit obvious this is a site I couldn't live without. It's great having an "anonymous" email address when I'm contacting candidates who are worried about having their email monitored at work.

David Gideon works for Genesis Recruitment

Submit your 3 favourites web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

=====ADVERTISEMENT=====

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Click here: http://www.gojobsite.co.uk/cgi-bin/campaign.cgi?tid=5381

========================

-----ARTICLE - ANGER MANAGEMENT PART TWO - BY LANDER ASSOCIATES-----

Anger Management - It's all the Rage

Last week we looked at what anger is and isn't and how to recognise it. This week I'd like to look at some strategies to help keep anger at bay.

Relaxation Simple relaxation tools, such as deep breathing, yoga, meditation and relaxing imagery can help calm down angry feelings. There are numerous books and courses that can teach you relaxation methods, and once you learn the techniques they can be called upon in any situation.

Cognitive Restructuring Simply put, this means changing the way you think. Angry people tend to curse, swear, or speak in highly colourful terms that reflect their inner thoughts. When you're angry, your thinking can become overstated and overly dramatic. Try replacing these thoughts with more rational ones. Instead of telling yourself, "oh, it's awful, it's terrible, everything's ruined," tell yourself, "it's frustrating, and it's understandable that I'm upset about it, but it's not the end of the world and getting angry is not going to fix it anyhow."

Remind yourself that anger is never a solution, is highly unlikely to make you feel any better and may actually make you feel worse. Logic will always defeat anger, because even when it's justified, it quickly becomes irrational - so use cold hard logic on yourself. Remind yourself that the world is "not out to get you," you're just experiencing some of the rough spots of daily life.

Problem Solving Sometimes, our anger and frustration are caused by very real and inescapable problems in our lives. Not all anger is misplaced, and often it's a healthy, natural response to the every day ups and downs of life. There is also a cultural belief that every problem has a solution, and it adds to our frustration to find out that this isn't always the case. The best attitude to bring to such a situation, then, is not to focus on finding the solution, but rather on how you handle and face the problem.

Make a plan, and check your progress along the way. Resolve to give it your best, but also not to punish yourself if an answer doesn't come right away. If you can approach the plan with your best intentions and efforts and make a serious attempt to face the problem head-on, you will be less likely to lose patience and fall into all-or-nothing thinking, even if the problem does not get solved right away.

Better Communication Angry people tend to jump to-and act on-conclusions, and some of those conclusions can be very inaccurate. The first thing to do if you're in a heated discussion is slow down and think through your responses. Don't say the first thing that comes into your head, but take a more measured approach and think carefully about what you want to say. It's only natural to get defensive when you feel that you are being criticised, but don't fight back. Instead, listen to what the underlying message is. It may take a lot of patient questioning on your part, and it may require some breathing space, but don't let your anger let a discussion spin out of control.

Using Humour Humour can help defuse rage in a number of ways. It may well take the edge off your fury; and can always be relied on to help ease a tense situation. However, don't try to just "laugh off" your problems; rather, use humour to help yourself face them more constructively. More importantly, don't stoop to sarcastic humour; that's just another form of unhealthy anger expression.

Changing Your Environment Sometimes it's our immediate surroundings that give us cause for irritation and fury so give yourself a break. Make sure you have some "personal time" scheduled for periods of the day that you know are particularly stressful. Take a walk - it may sound obvious but make sure you take a break during the day and don't skip lunch - stress levels can be increased through lack of food. Look at alternatives - if your daily commute through traffic leaves you in a state of rage and frustration, give yourself a project to research a different route - one that's less congested or more scenic.

Remember - you can't eliminate anger-and it wouldn't be a good idea if you could. Life happens and there will always be events, people and situations that will make you angry; sometimes justifiably so. Life will be filled with frustration, pain, loss, and the unpredictable actions of others. You can't change that; but you can change the way you let such events affect you. Controlling your angry responses can keep them from making you even unhappy in the long run. If all that fails then to quote Franklin D Roosevelt "When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on!"

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========================

-----ARTICLE - CV VALIDATION SERVICES BY LOUISE TRIANCE-----

In a few week's time we are going to be starting a series of reviews of organisations that do CV Validation and reference checking.

Recruit with Confidence (RwC), commissioned a survey of 1,200 British companies and organisations in October 2001 which found that only 2% of employers make other than the most cursory checks before appointing new staff to positions of trust and responsibility. Research conducted by The Association of Search and Selection Consultancies (ASSC) found that a quarter of all job applicants lied during the job application process and an InfoCheck Study revealed that out of 1,000 short-listed applicants more than one third had lied or exaggerated on their CV.

Some employers might not be too concerned that a job seeker has "improved" their qualifications or removed a short term contract from their CV and changed the dates of other jobs to cover up the omission. However, lying about a job title, professional qualifications or withholding information about director disqualification can lead to the wrong person being employed for a role.

The problem may lie either in companies being unaware of the benefits of CV validation, in having too few resources available to vet CVs or, in a candidate's market, being too keen to a fill a post. With overworked HR departments or recruitment consultancies that do not offer this value added service CV validation can easily be overlooked. Companies content themselves with a basic reference checking procedure.

Little CV checking has occurred historically in the UK with the recent notable exceptions of verification for those working with children or in the healthcare industry. However, CV checking has been established in the US for many years and is now becoming more popular with UK corporates.

Services offered by CV validation companies include verifying that school details and higher-education qualifications, confirming dates of previous employment, reasons for leaving and the gaps between previous spells of employment, checking for county court judgements and if they are registered as a disqualified director.

All CV validation companies should request permission from the job seeker before conducting the validation and at this stage candidates with something to hide may withdraw from the process. At this stage you may also find candidate's ask to re-check their CV for themselves. They would prefer the embarrassment of having to amend details rather than having their lies discovered.

We have asked four CV validation companies to review CVs for us and report back on their findings. The companies we are looking at are RWC, NDF Associates, CV Check and ResumeCheck. If you know of another UK company we ought to review drop me a note.

=====ADVERTISEMENT=====

WANT TO RUN PSYCHOMETRIC OR APTITUDE TESTS?

Call Louise on 01635 254881 or visit www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/tests.htm

========================

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

THURSDAY 28TH AUGUST, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
Have you registered yet for our August networking event? It's free to attend - register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. It's a great opportunity to talk with suppliers, clients and recruitment peers,

THURSDAY 18TH SEPTEMBER,THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
We've changed the date of the September networking event to the 18th (a week earlier than previously planned). If you'd like to come along simply register at http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk

24-25TH SEPTEMBER, SOFTWORLD HR & PAYROLL, NEC BIRMINGHAM
Softworld HR & Payroll showcases software solutions that "will help you improve efficiency, profitability and competitive edge" As well as the exhibition there are also free conference sessions and keynotes. You can register at http://www.softworld.co.uk/hrp or telephone 07000 763 896.

FRIDAY 26TH SEPTEMBER, RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY AWARDS, LONDON The Recruitment Industry Awards Dinner is taking place on Friday 26th September on the evening of the annual REC Conference. The Awards night celebrates the "best in the industry" and includes a champagne reception, gala dinner and entertainment. There are seven award categories and almost all now have finalists. To find out more information on the awards visit the website at http://www.rec.uk.com/events/rec-awards.htm. To find out more about the conference visit http://www.rec.uk.com/events/Conference03.htm

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT? Don't forget to visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. Current topics on the site include "web based recruitment software", "broadbean and castlelinks", and "it/accounts job boards". Visit the site; ask questions and share your knowledge

-----WEEKLY STATISTICS-----

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 8TH AUGUST, HITWISE.CO.UK
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, GoJobsite UK, Reed.co.uk, Fish 4 Jobs, Total Jobs, Job Serve, Monster.co.uk, WorkThing, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and Work Train. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SEARCH TERMS, IN LAST 3 MONTHS
Hitwise are now making available information on the most popular recruitment search terms used across the top 70 global search engines. These are successful search terms (i.e which resulted in a click- through to a recruitment site). The top 10, based on a 12 week rolling period, are: jobs, job centre, jobcentre, graduate jobs, job search, job centre plus, jobcentre plus, reed, www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk and jobs uk. The most popular term, jobs, represented 11.72% of successful searches.

Issue 129

Welcome to issue 129 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.

CONTENTS
* My Favourites (By Tim Dawson of CareersInRecruitment.com)
* Article (Review of Vacancy Finder by Louise Triance)
* Article (Quick Tips to Improve your Online Job Adverts by Tony Restell)
* Don't Miss This (Networking Events - Recruitment Industry Awards - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Weekly Statistics (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites)
* Subscription Form

Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs.

-----MY FAVOURITES BY TIM DAWSON-----

http://yell.com - Great site for finding business numbers. You can search by company name, business type and area and it always brings up the right results. Saves money by avoiding 192 (or 118500 as it is now): sounds tight but over a year in a busy office the amount spent can really total up!

http://www.amazon.co.uk - A massive amount of information available on whatever you want to buy. Cheap books and DVD's available with feedback from previous purchasers. They even have a second hand area now where you can trade in old books and buy nearly new ones for about half price.

http://www.the-recruitment-industry.com - Working within the Recruitment industry you need as many resources as possible to keep up to date with what is going on out there, this site provides the industry with a directory of agencies giving in-depth information about their culture, location, size etc.

Tim Dawson is Director at www.careersinrecruitment.com

Submit your 3 favourites web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

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Still not convinced? Then test search our CV database instantly at http://www.cv-library.co.uk/search

For just £40.00 per month you will have full access to the CV Database, the ability to setup watchdog filters to receive CV's, and you can post unlimited vacancies to our successful jobs board, which is integrated with all the top AMS posting services.

For more information visit http://www.cv-library.co.uk/cvdatabase or contact us directly on 01252 810992 or sales@cv-library.co.uk

========================

-----REVIEW OF VACANCYFINDER - BY LOUISE TRIANCE-----

Vacancy Finder - http://www.vacancyfinder.co.uk
Contact: Don McIntosh - 020 8549 7333 or info@vacancyfinder.co.uk

What is it?
VacancyFinder identifies where the latest vacancies are appearing (and disappearing) on the websites of selected Corporate employers.

How it works:
VacancyFinder have identified a database of UK corporate firms who list vacancies on their websites. There are currently nearly 2,500 companies in their database and this figure is added to each week. VacancyFinder use a scanning tool to retrieve new vacancies from each site as they are added. These vacancies are checked by "Editors" who code them by job title, industry, location, etc and enter them into the VacancyFinder database. The database is updated each day.

There are around 4,250 permanent, full time vacancies in the database at present. Each day as new roles are added (on average over 100 each day) old ones are removed. The archive of non-current jobs is also searchable for subscribers (this currently stands at about 9,500 jobs).

Recruiters can search the database by various criteria (including job category, region and industry sector) allowing you to easily locate the most relevant vacancies for your specialism/candidate database. You can also browse the database or set up searches with the results emailed to you at a frequency you specify.

Costs:
Currently VacancyFinder are offering an introductory rate of £300 per month with a minimum of a 3-month commitment.

Company Launched:
Vacancy Finder was launched in May 2003 as a service of FirstLink GB Ltd. However, work has been in progress since mid 2002.

Who's in charge:
Don McIntosh. Don's background includes 12 years' experience of running conventional recruitment companies with over 4 years experience in e-recruitment and internet recruitment portals. Don was the original Chairman of the AOLR (Association of Online Recruiters).

Strengths & Weaknesses:
The site is very straightforward to use. From the listing of current vacancies you can quickly link through to the corporate website and/or vacancy page for the job you are looking at. VacancyFinder are also creating a company profile for each organisation in their database (such as number of employees, year of establishment, sales turnover) and as this develops it will become a useful tool for recruiters.

One of the features I'd like to see on the site is the ability to search and browse by salary band. For those recruiters who only work above or below a certain salary this would speed up the process of finding new jobs to work on.

Whilst the service is still in it's infancy and the number of subscribed recruiters relatively low you shouldn't have to worry about being the nth person to call up about the same job (although there's nothing to stop recruiters browsing any of these corporates websites themselves). As the site grows and more recruiters sign up corporates may tire of being told "I saw your job on VacancyFinder". I suspect a few companies may ask to be removed from the database down the line.

Summary:
At £300 per month most agencies would want to place at least one candidate a quarter in order to feel they are getting value for money. It's such a simple site to use and developing at a great rate it'd be well worth looking at for recruiters needing more vacancies for their candidate database.

=====ADVERTISEMENT=====

WANT TO RUN PSYCHOMETRIC OR APTITUDE TESTS?

Call Louise on 01635 254881 or visit www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/tests.htm

========================

-----ARTICLE - QUICK TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR ONLINE JOB ADVERTS - BY TONY RESTELL-----

One of the most frustrating things about running an internet job site is seeing two advertisers trying to recruit the same types of candidates - but getting totally different results. One does fabulously and the other gets just a handful of shortlist candidates. Why? Because one advertiser writes punchy job ads and the other doesn't.

The good news is that improving your ad copy skills is something you can work on. To help recruiters get the most from their advertising spend, we wrote a checklist of 4 rules for online recruiters, summarised below.

Rule 1: Your "headline" is the single biggest influencer on the performance of your ad. Have you written a killer headline? Something that makes your advert stand out from the dozens of others that are competing for a candidates' attention?

Rule 2: Your first goal is to sell the candidate on wanting the job Does the first paragraph of your ad make good candidates want to apply before they've even read the rest of the advert? IT SHOULD DO! Imagine that your ideal candidate has called you up on the phone out of the blue. What would be the first things you would say to them to make them want to stay on the line and learn more about the job? What would you say to sell them on the role? These sales points are the very points you should be making right at the beginning of your ad.

Rule 3: Be specific but selective about "must-haves" Have you restricted "must-haves" to half-a-dozen objective / measurable requirements? You absolutely must do this, both to attract the best candidates and to put off as many of the poorer candidates as possible.

Rule 4: Test, Learn, Test Are you using tried and tested formulae from previous campaigns, and monitoring the results of each campaign? This is the beauty of internet recruiting. You can experiment with different styles of ads, track the statistics and shortlist candidates generated by each, and then over time learn what works best in attracting your audience.

For a more detailed understanding of these rules, watch our free training video online at: http://meta.unit.net/topconsultants/04062003/index_trials.html

Tony Restell is a founding director of www.Top-Consultant.com, a career site for Management Consultants. As a premium site, Top- Consultant advise advertisers on their ad copy, and so these lessons have been derived from literally thousands of online recruitment campaigns. email: tony@top-consultant.com

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

THURSDAY 18TH SEPTEMBER, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
We've changed the date of the September networking event to the 18th (a week earlier than previously planned). If you'd like to come along simply register at http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk

FRIDAY 26TH SEPTEMBER, RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY AWARDS, LONDON
The Recruitment Industry Awards Dinner is taking place on Friday 26th September on the evening of the annual REC Conference. The Awards night celebrates the "best in the industry" and includes a champagne reception, gala dinner and entertainment. There are seven award categories and almost all now have finalists. To find out more information on the awards visit the website at http://www.rec.uk.com/events/rec-awards.htm. To find out more about the conference visit http://www.rec.uk.com/events/Conference03.htm

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - CURRENTLY OFFLINE. Due to some problems with our ISP the discussion forum is currently offline. We'll keep you updated.

-----WEEKLY STATISTICS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, WEEK COMMENCING 18TH AUGUST, ALLJOBSUK.COM
The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 401,017 which is up 13,589 on last week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 15TH AUGUST, HITWISE.CO.UK
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, GoJobsite UK, Reed.co.uk, Fish4 Jobs, Job Serve, Total Jobs, Monster.co.uk, WorkThing, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and CWJobs.co.uk. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

Issue 130

Welcome to issue 130 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. We've reached a milestone this week with over 15,000 subscribers!

CONTENTS
* My Favourites (By Stephen O'Donnell of Alljobs Limited)
* Article (CV Validation/Reference Checking Organisations - NDF Associates)
* Article (Choosing Job Boards by Damian Routley)
* Don't Miss This (Networking Event - Human Resources Summit 2003 in Berlin - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Weekly Statistics (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites)
* Subscription Form

Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs.

-----MY FAVOURITES BY STEPHEN O'DONNELL-----

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk - This site provides the most up to date unhyped information on all UK based media, from the technical aspects of broadband and telecommunications, to cable and digital TV providers and advance news of insider TV happenings, soaps, reality TV etc. The forums are extremely busy. This site is much more interesting than most people would admit to.

http://www.babelfish.altavista.com - I often need to translate (very roughly of course) foreign text. Sometimes CV's, often foreign websites. This invaluable resource allows me to read world news directly from the country where it's happening. As my wife is Italian, I can also find out exactly what she is swearing at me!

http://www.companies-house.gov.uk - Very few people know this site exists, and just how much you can find out about any UK company for free. Essential, if you need to know more about potential clients or suppliers. Many people would be surprised if they looked up their own company.

Stephen O'Donnell is Director of Alljobs Limited

Why not submit your 3 favourite web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

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========================

-----CV VALIDATION/REFERENCE CHECKING ORGANISATIONS - NDF ASSOCIATES BY LOUISE TRIANCE-----

Company name: NDF Associates
URL: http://www.ndfassociates.co.uk

Contact: Neil Fawcett or Paul Freeman, 01423 529333, admin@ndfassociates.co.uk

What the company says:
"We are a specialist consultancy dedicated to taking the risk out of recruitment by conducting verification and validation of the Curriculum Vitae of employees or prospective employees on behalf of their employers."

Customers:
Work with all types of organisations and recruitment agencies.

How it works:
Basically they examine a job applicant's CV and check it for material accuracy. They check the accuracy of referees, conduct credit checks and check for disqualified directors. As an umbrella body for the Criminal Records Bureau they can obtain Criminal Records Disclosure for those organisations entitled to it. Verifications are always conducted with the consent of the subject. They provide clients with a written report, together with evidence to support the validity or otherwise of the applicant's identity, residence, education, qualifications, professional body membership, employment history, current directorships.

Costs:
The service is bespoke, therefore precise costings are dependant on the exact requirements of clients. A standard verification would normally be charged in the region of £145 to £195 dependant on volume. Criminal Records Bureau checks are conducted for the current rate plus an administration charge of £10.

Company history:
NDF Associates has been established for a little over 20 months. The founding partner Neil Fawcett retired from the Police Service after 30 years of service.

Analysis of service:
As with all the CV validation companies we are reviewing we asked NDF to verify a short CV for us. The CV had two main lies on it. As with all the companies we reviewed, NDF requires the candidate to sign authorisation before conducting a verification.

The report from NDF Unique Features was made up of 3 pages of "verification report" and six pages of back up correspondence (copies of reports from the subject's school and previous employers). The report was split into two columns, the left hand one showing the CV details as provided by us and the right hand one showing the results of the verification. Both of the lies were identified (along with a few genuine mistakes the candidate made on his CV). There was lots of additional detail provided including the names and addresses of contacts who verified information on the CV. Full addresses and phone numbers were given for each employer and educational establishment.

Summary:
The presentation of the report was clear and easy to read. Whilst the discrepancies were all included in one column of the 3 page report I would have preferred to have them highlighted so they were visible at a glance. NDF's report was very thorough and the inclusion of the documentation from schools and employers provides extra backup that some clients may find useful. If you want to see a copy of a sample report you can view it at http://www.ndfassociates.co.uk/mockreport.htm

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The ukrecruiter newsletter now goes out to over 15,000 recruitment professionals in the UK. What better place could you advertise?

For information email louise@ukrecruiter.co.uk

========================

-----ARTICLE - CHOOSING JOB BOARDS BY DAMIAN ROUTLEY-----

...making sense of the statistics

This morning I received an email from a site that shall remain nameless inviting me to register my company's details and offering me the solution to all my recruitment needs, professing they are "a leading online recruitment website". Surprising therefore, that I had never heard of them. Neither had Google - even when I searched using their full URL. On further analysis, the quality of the roles advertised was abysmal - some without response details and some even without job titles. Basically it was a very poor site. This concerned me. If a client has a bad experience of advertising on the web, they will become hesitant to do it again. The Industry will suffer. How can we prevent this?

Online recruitment advertising is growing. According to a recent piece of research commissioned by Workthing, there are now 11.1 million online jobseekers, an increase of 76% since 2001. Similarly, 47% of recruiters are planning to increase their spend in online media over the next 12 months. And the number of UK job boards still seems to be on the increase. Informed choice and site evaluation has never been more relevant. For the last two reviews I have looked at online tools that assist recruiters with where they place their roles (Jobsitetracker.com & NORASi). It seems only logical, that I now offer advice on the things that we ask of sites and what to look out for when choosing them.

Job boards can provide us with both the number of people that log on to their site (unique users) and the number of times in that period that they return to the site (visitor sessions), this can then be broken down by each subsequent area of the site. For example, a horizontal job board may produce great responses in service-related sectors but in industrial sectors it may not be as effective. We can get this information from the sites - although how willing they'll be to divulge it is another matter (see below).

Once armed with the number of relevant people looking at a site, we can start to apply some further analysis, and build a clearer picture of the job board. The Internet is the most quantifiable advertising method available. Websites track every minute detail of user behaviour - when, where and for how long they spend on the site. Similarly, they can track how many people applied online for any advertisement. Obviously, some applicants prefer to apply by post or make initial telephone contact so these figures don't tell the full story, but they do give a good estimate, especially when compared to other boards. A good site should be able to yield about 1 application for every 3 unique users - Totaljobs in June, for instance, had 724,354 uniques and produced 214,071 online applications.

If you recruit into one sector and use a horizontal job board you can, however, be misled by this. Most sites can break down the number of uniques and the number of applications by sector to give you a truer picture of their effectiveness. I was interested to see, therefore, that Totaljobs, who have one of the most advanced tracking systems available, were "unable to break-down the number of unique users by industry".

So far, we've been able to demonstrate the quantity of expected applications, but what about the quality? This is a major problem for many recruiters - applications from overseas candidates who are not eligible for employment and speculative applications from blatantly under qualified candidates causing an excessive administration overhead. There will always be a number of these applications (the Internet being truly global), but by understanding the metrics and applying them to choose only sites of the highest integrity, you will minimise this.

Combine this information with the site's marketing activity (including whether or not you can find them on a search engine!), their current advertisers (including whether you can find any similar advertised roles) and whether your client/recruiting line manager/etc has heard of them, and you should be well on your way to an effective online attraction strategy.

To obtain a copy of The Workthing E-Recruitment Study 2003, priced at £195 (inc VAT), please contact Matt Nash on 020 7669 5142.

Damian Routley is TCS' media specialist. To discuss how they can provide recruitment solutions to your organisation, please call him on 020 7420 1800 or email droutley@tcstown.com

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Call Louise on 01635 254881 or visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/tests.htm

========================

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

THURSDAY 28TH AUGUST, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
Unfortunately it's too late to register for the networking event this week. However, we are running one in Setepbmer - see below!

THURSDAY 18TH SEPTEMBER, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
Have you registered yet for our September networking event? It's free to attend - register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. It's a great opportunity to talk with suppliers, clients and recruitment peers.

8-10TH OCTOBER, HUMAN RESOURCES SUMMIT 2003, BERLIN
The Human Resources Summit marks its 10th anniversary this year. There are only 50 supplier places and 90 delegates places made available for 2003. For more information visit http://www.summit-events.com/PAGES/HR_framesett.html

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - BACK ONLINE!
Sorry there have been problems with the discussion board. If you notice any strange happenings or glitches with the site please drop me a note and we'll try and sort them out. Current topics on the site include "The Dreaded Gate Keeper" and "Web based recruitment software". Visit the site; ask questions and share your knowledge: http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum.

-----WEEKLY STATISTICS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, WEEK COMMENCING 25TH AUGUST, ALLJOBSUK.COM
The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 399,123 which is down 1,894 on last week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml. You can also view a chart and table of this data at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/alljobs.htm

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 22ND AUGUST, HITWISE.CO.UK
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, GoJobsite UK, Fish4 Jobs, Reed.co.uk, Total Jobs, Job Serve, Monster.co.uk, WorkThing, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and CWJobs.co.uk. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

Issue 131

Welcome to issue 131 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.

CONTENTS
* My Favourites (By Dan Atkinson of Accite Executive Research)
* Article (CV Validation/Reference Checking Organisations - ResumeCheck)
* CV Database Review (JobJobbed.co.uk by Theresa Andrews)
* Don't Miss This (Recruitment Society Event - Networking Event - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum) * Weekly Statistics (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites)
* Subscription Form

Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs.

-----MY FAVOURITES BY DAN ATKINSON-----

There are a million and one sites out there to help the researcher. I'm not going to mention the obvious, Google, so here are three other gems from my collection.

http://www.ukphonebook.com - 118? No way mate - rather not pay if it's all the same! This phonebook site is what it is - what more do you need? Can be a bit heavy on the pop ups so be prepared.

http://www.softwaremag.com/SW500_2002/SW500.cfm - Software Magazine 500. Total trade secret here but the IT world's flat anyway so I'll tell you. Absolute genius site for knowing which software companies to target - not perfect but it's free, and still in my opinion better than all the paid for directories in the UK for identifying enterprise software vendors with premium personnel.

http://www.kompass.com - Kompass. Great for some things, trash for others, particularly if you're the reckless sort and don't qualify the contact names given first. But a superb starting point, especially for international searches. Premium content may be pricey but it can provide a great toe hold in to a new market.

Dan Atkinson of Accite Executive Research

Submit your 3 favourites web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

=====ADVERTISEMENT=====

Comprehensive list of training courses for recruiters.

The UK Recruiter web site lists recruitment specific training courses by many different training providers.

Visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/training.htm

========================

-----CV VALIDATION/REFERENCE CHECKING ORGANISATIONS - RESUMECHECK BY LOUISE TRIANCE-----

Company Name: RésumeCheck URL: http://www.resumecheck.com

Contact: Gary Taylor or Richard Murphy, 020 7732 8872, gary.taylor@resumecheck.com

What the company says: "RésumeCheck offers companies the opportunity to outsource all or part of their staff reference checking. With a range of services geared to help companies reduce the sometimes hidden costs of client management time, administration, processing. We provide a proactive CV Validation reference checking service, testing not just the applicant's integrity but also the competency of individuals, thereby minimising the costs of failed employment"

Customers: All businesses catered for including Local Government, Schools, Banks, Insurance, Television, Telecoms, Recruitment Agencies/ Consultants etc.

How it works: The service is basically an outsourced reference checking function. They offer a bespoke or off the shelf service. Applicant information checking can include employment history, academic qualifications, professional memberships, verification of work permits and comprehensive credit checks

Cost: Outsourcing solution services are based on individual companies requirements and needs. Price starts at £30.

Company history: RésumeCheck was founded in 2001. Gary Taylor, Richard Murphy and Michael McGovern are the three partners in the business. Gary Taylor heads up the sales & marketing department. He has over 20 years experience within the personnel publications and recruitment advertising industry. Richard Murphy has recently come out of retirement to join ResumeCheck. He has thirty years experience working in the financial fraud sector. Mike McGovern MICM, a member of the Institute of Credit Management has 15 years experience in general underwriting and reference verification.

Analysis of service: As with all the CV validation companies we are reviewing we asked ResumeCheck to verify a short CV for us. The CV had two main lies on it. As with all the companies we reviewed, ResumeCheck requires the candidate to sign authorisation before conducting a verification.

The report from ResumeCheck was made up of 4 pages of "background reference check report", 4 pages correspondence with schools and employers and a 1 page document giving information on the address details for our subject. The report was split into sections laid out as per the CV we sent to them with a summary on the first page showing where there was an area for "concern/discrepancy". The candidate we sent to ResumeCheck had one job which could not be verified as they had worked for a subsidiary of the company on their CV. This meant ResumeCheck couldn't say if the dates and job title for that job were correct (which they weren't as this was one of the "lies" we'd included), if this had been a real reference checking scenario we'd need to go back to candidate and get better data on their career history. ResumeCheck did find the second lie which related to academic achievement plus another discrepancy that we hadn't purposely added to the CV. The report gave additional detail of who was the contact at the educational establishments and companies contacted.

Summary: I found the report fairly easy to read and having the overview on the first page made it very easy to identify discrepancies without having to get into detail. The inclusion of the completed reports from schools and employers was also useful to have. If you want to see a copy of a sample report you should email gary.taylor@resumecheck.com

This is the second in our series of reference checking reviews. If you'd like to see last week's review go to http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/recnet.htm

=====ADVERTISEMENT=====

Totaljobs Direct - a new buy online solution from totaljobs.com. With our new credit card payment system you can now advertise your vacancy on totaljobs.com in minutes. For just £200 (including VAT) your advert will be placed on the site within 90 minutes and remain there for 28 days.

It couldn't be easier, just follow these three simple steps: 1. Enter your job advert 2. Review the advert 3. Enter the credit card details and submit.

Visit http://www.totaljobs.com/direct/. Or if you would rather speak to one of our consultants and get them to post your job for you then call us on 020 7769 9200 ========================

-----CV DATABASE REVIEW BY THERESA ANDREWS - JOBJOBBED.CO.UK-----

URL: http://www.JobJobbed.co.uk

Sectors: Generalist site divided into 48 sectors. Target Candidate Level: Apprenticeships to Senior Executive positions. Site Launched: 2002 No of CV's held: 26,000 clean and live CV's and 29,000 vacancies posted on their site.

Geographical split of candidates: Currently 24% of traffic is from the USA and 73% from the UK. There are plans in the next week to split the site URL so only UK candidates CV's will be held on the .co.uk site. They currently have candidates from USA/Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as the UK

Sector information: Candidates are asked to register in up to four sectors and therefore the percentage split by sector is hard to calculate. Their main channels are: "IT", "Engineering", "Admin & Secretarial", "Telecoms", "Banking & Finance", "Customer Service", "Aviation, Automotive & Motor Trade", "Healthcare" and "Public Sector".

How to subscribe: Companies wishing to subscribe can do so by phone, email or post. To buy a service you simply click onto "recruit more services" and then you can buy on line. There is a contact page under "more information" and this allows you to speak to someone directly about your needs.

Feedback after registering: After registering your company you will receive an email acknowledging receipt, an ID and an invoice.

How is the database cleaned? Job advertisements run for 28 days. CVs on the Database are regularly cleaned on an automated on going basis. If messages are not replied to after 3 mail outs the CV is automatically deleted.

Costs: There are a variety of packages you can subscribe to: recruiter packages start from £99 a month and go up to £299 a month. Services included in the various packages are: Unlimited Vacancy Adverts, CVs via email, hyperlink to own web site, CV database, banners, corporate profile page. Individual job postings from £50 for 28 days. All vacancies posted are on site for 28 days.

Who's in charge: Rupert Ellis, Managing Director. Rupert Ellis set up Candidate One recruitment service 5 years ago. He decided to set up JobJobbed in order to service the increasing demand for on line recruitment services.

Summary: For the purposes of this review I searched the database for Executives within the construction industry. I found it easy to navigate through the site and a variety of services are offered. However, as candidates can sign up for up to 4 sectors you do need to look through the results of the search quite carefully to weed out speculative sector placing by candidates. Some of the candidates I found were not construction executives, so had either misunderstood the sectors or were prepared to move sector, although around 70% were on target for the search criteria. Each candidate puts their entire CV online so the level of detail is great and they are laid out in the same JobJobbed format. I found the search facility OK - you can search by key word, sector, location and or salary.

Overall marks out of 10: 7/10

Recommendation: I think this is a simple site to use and competitively priced. Apparently, the search facility is being improved upon and will become more sophisticated in the near future.

Theresa Andrews is a freelance researcher. She can be contacted at t_h_andrews@tiscali.co.uk

=====ADVERTISEMENT=====

Do you want to advertise here?

The ukrecruiter newsletter now goes out to over 15,000 recruitment professionals in the UK. What better place could you advertise?

========================

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

9TH SEPTEMBER, CUTTING-EDGE VOLUME RECRUITMENT IN 2003, THE RECRUITMENT SOCIETY, LONDON
"What can organisations learn from the processes B&Q have developed". This is the subject of the next recruitment society event. The speaker is Mike Cutt, Director of Human Resources at B&Q. Members can attend for £10 and non members for £20. For more information visit www.recruitmentsociety.org.uk, email admin@recruitmentsociety.org.uk or call Richard Taylor on 020 7439 6288

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM
We're currently in the final stages of testing a new discussion board that we are hoping to launch very soon. Current topics on the site include "IT REC help", "whotochoose.com" and "client meeting". Visit the site; ask questions and share your knowledge: http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum.

-----WEEKLY STATISTICS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, WEEK COMMENCING 1ST SEPTEMBER, ALLJOBSUK.COM
The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 397,869 which is down 1254 on last week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml.

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 29TH AUGUST, HITWISE.CO.UK
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, GoJobsite UK, Total Jobs, Reed.co.uk, Fish4Jobs, Job Serve, Monster.co.uk, WorkThing, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and CWJobs.co.uk. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

Issue 132

Welcome to issue 132 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. If you'd like to take part in a survey we're running on the subject of credit checking and bad debts within the recruitment industry please visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=27360256088

CONTENTS
* My Favourites (by Jonathan Powell)
* Article (CV Validation/Reference Checking Organisations - RWC Plc)
* Article (E-cruitment is revolutionising the Recruitment Industry by Michael Stamp)
* Don't Miss This (New Discussion Board - Networking Event - National Online Recruitment Awards 2003)
* Weekly Statistics (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites)
* Subscription Form

Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs.

-----MY FAVOURITES BY JONATHAN POWELL-----

http://www.europages.com - A great site with a wealth of information about businesses right across Europe. Fully searchable and fast too.

http://www.onesource.com - A source of whole heaps of useful information about companies in the UK and Europe. The UK stuff is very comprehensive, the European stuff could be improved further but it is getting there.

http://www.supplychainrecruit.com - A niche job board for purchasing, logistics and supply chain management. Great source of candidates that avoids wading through endless resumes from people that don't match the job spec at all.

Jonathan Powell is Director of http://www.millarbrunswick.com

Submit your 3 favourites web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

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Whether its our candidates, or the team of people we have here for you to work with, Jobsite always offers you the best people for the job.

Visit http://www.gojobsite.co.uk/cgi-bin/campaign.cgi?tid=6115 for more information.

========================

-----CV VALIDATION/REFERENCE CHECKING ORGANISATIONS - RWC PLC BY LOUISE TRIANCE-----

Company Name: Recruit With Confidence Plc (RWC plc) URL: www.rwcplc.com; www.backgroundchecking.com

Contact: Nick Harness, 01628 488224, nickh@rwcplc.com

What the company says: "RWC prides itself on its accuracy and levels of service. The returned reports have also been designed with the client in mind and we can change these to meet any requirements, the current format is such that any discrepancies can be found in one place, the summary page. The most important area is speed of turn round, (we have a 48hr service available), and accuracy of information received."

Customers: Clients cover all industries and all sizes from major corporate companies to SME's, and from IT companies to recruitment consultancies.

How it works: RWC plc checks the backgrounds of pre-employment candidates and existing staff to make sure they are trustworthy and have the qualifications they claim to have. The client chooses the level of bespoke background check required and faxes back a questionnaire form and the CV to RWC. Within five days a written report is returned to a named contact within the client.

Costs: From £50 to £300 dependant on the level of background check required.

Company history: RWC was formed as a business in 2001. Steve Bailey - CEO is a Certified Accountant with a highly successful 28-year career in Technology based businesses specialising in outsourcing of services to the HR arena.

Analysis of service: As with all the CV validation companies we are reviewing we asked RWC to verify a short CV for us. The CV had two main lies on it. As with all the companies we reviewed, RWC requires the candidate to sign authorisation before conducting a verification.

The report from RWC was made up of 5 pages. The report was split into sections laid out as per the CV we sent to them with personal information on the first page. The employment history feedback gave each job with dates, job title and comments from the employer. In this comments section any discrepancies were identified. Both of the lies were identified although RWC weren't able to establish the "truth" about an educational lie (as the University said no further details could be given without the authorisation of our candidate). There was additional detail provided as to who the contact was at the educational establishments and companies contacted.

Summary: The summary page provided was at the end of the report. Whilst I'm sure regular users would get used to flipping to the back page to see what discrepancies were found on the CV I would have preferred this information to be immediately obvious right at the start of the report. RWC don't provide "backup" information (ie, copies of verification document from previous employers) as standard although this information is available to clients' if they want it. How you like the data presented by a CV validation companies is going to be a matter of personal taste, however, I personally found this the most difficult of the reports to read. If you want to see a copy of a sample report you should email nickh@rwcplc.com

This is the third in our series of reference checking reviews. If you'd like to see previous reviews go to http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/recnet.htm

=====ADVERTISEMENT=====

Do you want to advertise here?

The ukrecruiter newsletter now goes out to over 15,000 recruitment professionals in the UK. What better place could you advertise?

========================

-----ARTICLE - E-CRUITMENT IS REVOLUTIONISING THE RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY - BY MICHAEL STAMP-----

This article is the first in a series on e-cruitment. In future issues of the newsletter Michael will be looking in more detail at how you can use the internet to best advantage in today's recruitment marketplace.

Online Recruitment has many advantages for the modern recruiter. It makes the process of finding candidates and new business opportunities quicker and cheaper. The one drawback, however, is that online recruitment can appear to be a daunting subject.

The Internet, in fact, has completely revolutionised the role of the traditional recruiter. Gone are the days where cold calling and candidate networking were the only option available to identify new potential candidates. Now it's about searching through hundreds of thousands of CV's placed on personal web pages and browsing online corporate staff directories. With billions of personal and corporate websites available to browse and over 7 million new pages being added every day, the internet can also provide vital business intelligence information for all sectors of the market place.

In a candidate starved market, the internet can prove a valuable resource for finding potential candidates that are not necessarily looking to change their current jobs but would be open to the 'right' opportunity. Alternatively in a candidate rich marketplace, we can use the internet to find relevant 'live' job vacancies where companies have advertised directly on the web. You can also use the internet to find information on company's financial results, their budget information, who has recently been appointed and business wins and losses. In fact, with the right search techniques, you can normally find exactly what you are looking for.

It is true to say that the Internet is a goldmine of valuable resources that will increase the performance of any recruiter that understands how to find it.

There are many web techniques that can be used for finding accurate information that will be invaluable to a recruiter. Let's take a look at what the industry jargon means and exactly how we would use it to identify potential candidates and generate new business.

'X-raying' is a technique achieved with the use of some simple search commands in many of the major search engines. Much of the information on a large website reside on pages that are not linked to the home page, therefore are effectively invisible when you visit the site. Search engines may find all pages on a website, regardless of where they are linked and therefore when you x-ray a website you may see web pages that would be otherwise unobtainable or invisible to you.

'Peeling Back' is a process that can be used whenever a web page is found that contains information that is of interest to you. One of the first things to understand when you first start searching the web is how a web site is structured. It is similar to the way you would save your documents on your computer; a collection of folders each containing related documents. If you 'peelback' a web address, which basically involves you deleting the last part of the web address up to the last forward slash ( / ), this will show you all of the information that is contained in that folder.

'Flipping' is used to find the relationships between web pages based on how they are hyperlinked together. The theory is that many people create home pages, alumni pages or brief listings about themselves and link those to the sites that are significant to their experience, including companies that they have worked for and professional associations that they are members of. Companies may have page links to their customers or business partners.

These techniques can significantly reduce the time and effort involved in identifying relevant information from the billions of publicly accessible web pages. Whether you are looking for candidate CV's, staff lists, conference attendees or users groups, advanced internet recruiting is definitely the way forward.

Precise details on how and when to use these techniques will appear in future issues of the newsletter.

Michael Stamp is Managing Director of www.recruitmate.com, The online recruitment data mining tool for the global recruitment marketplace. If you have any questions regarding this article then you can contact him on mike@recruitmate.com

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - NEW SITE!!
We've moved to a new discussion board. This one is more straightforward to use and shouldn't have any of the "glitches" of the old system. It's at the same URL - http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. If you've been using the old forum, unfortunately, you'll need to register your details afresh. If you want to view posts from the old forum you can still go to http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl for the next few weeks.

THURSDAY 30TH OCTOBER, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
If you can't make it along in September why not come along to our October event. Register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk.

NATIONAL ONLINE RECRUITMENT AWARDS, 20TH OCTOBER 2003
The countdown has begun for the third annual National Online Recruitment Awards (NORA's), which are hosted by AlljobsUK.com in association with 4Mat.com, on 15th October. Nominations are invited through http://www.AlljobsUK.com where entries can be submitted up until 19th September.

-----WEEKLY STATISTICS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, WEEK COMMENCING 8TH SEPTEMBER, ALLJOBSUK.COM
The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 389,099 which is down 8,770 on last week. For more information visit http://www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml.

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 5TH SEPTEMBER, HITWISE.CO.UK
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, Jobsite, Total Jobs, Reed.co.uk, Fish4 Jobs, Monster.co.uk, Job Serve, WorkThing, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and Work Train. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

Issue 133

Welcome to issue 133 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. Don't forget to send us your favourites - simply send email me what they are and why you love them.

CONTENTS
* My Favourites (by Regan George of OS2i)
* Article (Still Chasing the Statistics by Lucy Walker)
* CV Validation/Reference Checking Organisations (CV Check)
* Don't Miss This (Discount on Accelerated Recruitment Skills course - Networking Events - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Weekly Statistics (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites)
* Subscription Form

Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs.

-----MY FAVOURITES BY REGAN GEORGE-----

http://www.archive.org - Websites frequently change or go off line, archive.org is a digital library that recognises a site has changed or has gone off line and stores the sites before the change. An example: if you have a client that used to publish vacancies on their site but have taken them down archive.org will have stored the original vacancy data.

http://www.erexchange.com - Is the worlds longest running Recruitment Forum. If you are looking for certain skilled candidates it’s almost a certainty that by searching the forum archives you find previous discussion giving you information on where to find these candidates on the Internet. They also publish great articles/white papers on recruitment.

http://www.flipdog.com - Is a great source of free vacancy leads for Recruiters worldwide. Using search spiders they collect the career / job sections off corporate websites from around the world. With 10,000+ UK vacancies you can search under key words, industry sectors etc . You can also search for vacs in bizarre countries like Angola, Greenland, Virgin Islands etc.

Regan George, Director of www.os2i.co.uk

Submit your 3 favourites web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

=====ADVERTISEMENT=====

It couldn't be easier, just click on the link below and then follow these three simple steps: 1. Enter your job advert 2. Review the advert 3. Enter the credit card details and submit.

http://recruiter.totaljobs.com/pgl/ccp.asp?page=ukrecnews_tjdirect Or if you would rather speak to one of our consultants and get them to post your job for you then call us on 020 7769 9200 ========================

-----ARTICLE - STILL CHASING THE STATISTICS BY LUCY WALKER -----

In issue 130 of the newsletter, Damian Routley in his article on 'Choosing Job Boards' touched on a pet subject of mine. He noted that one of the leading generic job boards was unable to provide unique users figures for specific sectors of the site. I wanted to draw this point out further and talk generally about the lack of quality information available for what is a highly-measurable medium.

This has been the age-old bugbear for anyone who spends time evaluating job sites. However, online advertising is no longer new and such paucity of data is no longer excusable. Eight years have passed since Jobsite's inception (one of the earliest recruitment sites to be launched, they've now come full circle by dropping the Go- prefix and reverting to the original title) and even Workthing, who came late to the party, have been in existence for over three years. A number of pro-active people at job boards have made improvements: numbers of applications for a vacancy are now freely quoted; stats on the number of searches in a sector or under a keyword are becoming the norm; sites are no longer simply concerned with getting the recruiter to sign up but are now ensuring campaigns are optimised to achieve the best performance.

Yet, I still speak to sites (and sites that are well-established and carry big-name advertising) that quote me the number of hits they receive. And they're not using the word as a more well known synonym for page impression (the latter referring to each full page that is shown). They mean each element on a page that is loaded when the page is accessed which includes images - therefore one page impression may contain many hits. This is the highest figure they have and so they quote it but it's useless. Another example of traffic figure deficiency is that often sites can't provide data on both unique users and visits. As Damian succinctly explained three week's ago: unique users are the number of people that log on to the site and visitor sessions, the number of times in that period that they return to the site. Whilst this information is useful independently, together it provides a clearer picture of the site's usage. Frequently I find visit statistics are masqueraded as unique users figures. But normally unwittingly so. Moreover, different sites use differing measurement techniques producing wildly disparate results - serving to undermine the statistics themselves.

I didn't think the industry today would still be dealing with many of the same issues that we had at the beginning. For many months I've been asking sites for testimonials on the number of hires advertisers have made from their site: on the whole the information I've received back has been sketchy. There is a plethora of reasons why it's difficult to obtain these figures. However, it is the responsibility of everyone - recruiters, recruitment advertising agencies and recruitment consultancies as well as the site's themselves - to help provide them. Such data is one way of demonstrating they're delivering the quality as well as the quantity. There's a real need for greater clarity and transparency and these figures can help, alongside studies such as NORAS.

Here's hoping I'll now be deluged with testimonials from job boards on the numbers of successful hires they've made. If such information is readily available, it can help everyone make informed buying decisions.

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-----CV VALIDATION/REFERENCE CHECKING ORGANISATIONS - CV CHECK BY LOUISE TRIANCE-----

Company Name: CV Check Limited
URL: www.cvcheck.net (under development)

Contact: Katie Turpin, 07041 571181, admin@cvcheck.net

Customers: Financial Services, IT & Telecommunications, Manufacturing, Executive Recruitment, Local Authority and Educational Establishments

What the company Says: "CV Check offer factual, independent, pre-employment screening services for employers and recruiters. No longer do employers have to rely on 'gut feelings' or bland references when appointing new staff. Our verification checks can unearth half-truths, downright lies and false qualifications. CV Check are fully compliant with Data Protection Legislation and also operate as an Umbrella Body for the Criminal Records Bureau."

How it works: Checks are only conducted with the candidate's full written consent, obtained using a special consent form or included within the client's application form. Instructions can be emailed/faxed/posted to CV Check including candidate consent and their CV or application form. Reports are normally delivered within 10 working days (subject to third party responses) and interim reports are available after 5 working days.

Costs: Standard reports range from £115 + VAT to £305 + VAT per candidate, however, fully tailored solutions are available upon request.

Company History: Independent Company Established in 1997. Katie Turpin, Managing Director & Owner, has a systems analysis / programming background

Analysis of service: As with all the CV validation companies we are reviewing we asked CV Check to verify a short CV for us. The CV had two main lies on it. As with all the companies we reviewed, CV Check requires the candidate to sign authorisation before conducting a verification.

The report from CV Check was the most concise at just one page. The report was laid out in a similar style to the CV we sent to them. Below each job or educational section there was a "CV Check Summary". This stated where the details were confirmed or inaccurate. Inaccuracies were identified in bold type. The other companies involved in the reviews verified details from the last three employers whilst CV Check only did the last two. Both the lies we put on the CV were identified with the true information provided.

Summary: Despite being the shortest of all the reports I've seen so far I found this the easiest report to read. However, there was no additional information (ie, who the contact was at previous employers, etc). CV Check seem a very flexible organisation so I'm sure that could be made part of the service offering for companies who like that level of detail. A copy of every enquiry response, signed and dated at source, is retained by CV Check for inspection by the client if required. CV Check also had the quickest turnaround time of the companies reviewed (although this wasn't one of the assessment criteria we were using). If you want to see a copy of a sample report you should email admin@cvcheck.net

This is the third in our series of reference checking reviews. If you'd like to see previous reviews go to http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/recnet.htm

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-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

£50 DISCOUNT ON ACCELERATED RECRUITMENT SKILLS COURSE, 23-24 SEPTEMBER
Lander Associates are offering an introductory discount to ukrecruiter subscribers for this two day course. The course enables new recruits to very quickly become highly productive. Normally costing £495 per person, ukrecruiter subscribers can book for just £445 (£50 discount) by calling Angela Cripps on 01582 791838 or email angela@landerassociates.co.uk quoting reference ukrec.

THURSDAY 18TH SEPTEMBER, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
Unfortunately, it's too late to register for this event. However, you can come along to the one in October...

THURSDAY 30TH OCTOBER, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
Why not register for our October event? It's free to attend - register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. It's a great opportunity to talk with suppliers, clients and recruitment peers.

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT?
Don't forget to visit the new forum at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. It's a great place to get advice from other recruiters and to keep up to date with what's happening in our industry

-----WEEKLY STATISTICS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, WEEK COMMENCING 15TH SEPTEMBER, ALLJOBSUK.COM
The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 389,751 which is up 652 vacancies on last week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 13TH SEPTEMBER, HITWISE.CO.UK
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, Jobsite, TotalJobs, Reed.co.uk, Fish4 Jobs, Monster.co.uk, Job Serve, WorkThing, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and CWJobs.co.uk. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

Issue 134

Welcome to issue 134 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.

CONTENTS
* My Favourites (by Marcus Lorenzo of Highfield Human Solutions)
* Article (Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 by Dave Gurney)
* Article (Researcher's Tip Number Seven, By Chris Malcolm, deAnsa)
* Don't Miss This (ATSCo Charity Ball - NORA Finalists Announced - Networking Event - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Statistics (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites - "Favorite" Recruitment Sites)
* Subscription Form - Advertising Information - Unsubscribe Instructions

Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs.

-----MY FAVOURITES BY MARCUS LORENZO-----

http://www.ukphoneinfo.com/section/home/introduction.shtml - Very useful when you get call-ins from new clients, as it allows you to find out the location of any phone area code before you propose trekking there for a meet, whilst seeming knowledgeable.

http://www.metacrawler.co.uk - MetaCrawler is straight forward in that it's a business search engine that is less clogged than Ask, MSN etc. with consumer sites.

http://www.concierge.com - Concierge is great for finding the exact location of that villa in a bizarre village in Provence in which you've just booked your 2 week holiday (on the web!). European route planning made easier. I'd also combine it with http://www.Opodo.com great for hotel booking around Europe.

Marcus Lorenzo is a consultant at http://www.highfielduk.co.uk

Submit your 3 favourites web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

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========================

-----ARTICLE - PRIVACY AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS REGULATIONS 2003 BY DAVE GURNEY-----

The Data Protection Act 1998 is a law that we are all aware of, but still many recruiters are not managing their data in a way which is in line with the requirements of the Act. Furthermore, are you ready for handling your data in such a way that you will not fall foul of the new rules on direct marketing to be introduced through the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, which come into effect on 31st October 2003?

Let's first review some key points of the Data Protection Act 1998ž”?•mEsÎ@á\>i¡V§ëWä`øô‰öP¶€ÉÔprotects personal privacy and upholds individuals' rights * It applies to anyone who handles or has access to information about individuals * Those who record and use personal information must be open about how the information will be used * Personal information should not be kept for longer than is necessary to satisfy the purpose(s) for which it was originally collected

Jean Davidson of DPA Solutions, the Northamptonshire-based Data Protection Act Consultancy, suggests that CV data controllers should: * Be transparent as to how CV information will be processed when it is first collected. * Set out in "terms and conditions" how third parties can process CV information. e.g. recruiters who have paid for access may keep a copy of a CV in their own files or databases and may not be readily aware that a position has been found. * Delete any CV'S upon request from the jobseeker. * Contact the jobseeker on a regular basis to confirm whether the jobseeker is still looking for work and that information provided is still accurate.

The new Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations re-enforce the long held principles under the Data Protection Act of 1998. Key points of these Regulations include: * Information held can no longer be used for direct marketing activities unless you have obtained the explicit consent of the individual involved * Businesses must retain control of their information and the consent that they have to use it * The data controller needs to ensure that they have agreed, with the candidate, the purpose for which it may be held * Companies should always be able to show a valid reason for retention. If you don't manage this process effectively, then you might find that you are outside of the rules.

The potential impact on a Recruitment Agency for not complying with its obligations could be devastating. The 1998 Act has arguably given the Information Commissioner the "bite" that the previous (1984) Act did not. Businesses can face fines and orders to rectify or even destroy any non-complying information. Furthermore, individuals now have the right to seek compensation for any damage or distress a business's non-compliance may cause. Remember, if you e-mail someone who has not agreed to receive emails from you in advance of it being sent, then you could be sued and / or charged.

Most Recruitment companies have databases of thousands and even tens of thousands of CVs. These companies will find it difficult to ensure that their database complies with the restrictions of the DPA as time progresses. It is likely that all Recruitment companies, regardless of size will need to create 2 databases - one for "Pre-Nov 1st" and one for "Post-Nov 1st". As new CVs arrive "Post Nov 1st", they must be handled in the prescribed manner. However, it will be difficult to manage this effectively, as it is an on-going process and will take a huge amount of administration time. In summary, we all have a responsibility to treat personal information with respect. Let's make sure that we all comply with the Data Protection Act and the new Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. The first step is to prepare our databases in readiness for 31st October.

Dave Gurney is Marketing for Probit-e and can be contacted on 01280 701375. Their product, CypherBaseTM, can be purchased from www.probit-e.com or www.amazon.co.uk for just £495 + VAT per 50,000 CV's contacted. It has been purpose built to help recruiters comply with the new regulations. More information call 0870 7490028

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So, don't wait! Buy Now!!! FREE SHIPPING!!! The brand new PLACEMENT 2000 two disk DVD set is an outstanding training option -- visit http://www.pl2000.com to find out why!

========================

----ARTICLE - RESEARCHER'S TIP NUMBER SEVEN, BY CHRIS MALCOLM, DEANSA----

After a short break Chris is back, once a month, giving a quick tip on managing a successful research project.

Alternate ways to find that candidate

In many industries worldwide it is getting ever more difficult for a researcher to even identify a potential candidate, and sometimes almost impossible to separate the really good ones from the pack. Most of the people we are looking for though, have a business interaction with someone else. For example the swaps trader at investment bank "A" will probably know who at investment bank "B" is his/her counterpart. Or the buyer at hardware store "C" will certainly know who is the salesperson at supplier "D" will be. Use the logic of thinking through to who the person you are looking for would deal with on a business basis. Remember to take things one-step further. That same buyer at store "C" will also have a view on who is the best salesperson that he/she deals with. Now you really do have progress. Not only a qualified name researched but an industry recommendation. Your client will be pleased to know that not only do you have a good sounding candidate but in this case one that brings an account with him/her.

deAnsa is a research company for headhunters, executive search consultants and recruitment professionals who require target specific research to find the right candidates on a worldwide basis. They can be contacted on +44 (0) 7074 449 449 or by e-mail at enquiries@deansa.com.

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WANT TO RUN PSYCHOMETRIC OR APTITUDE TESTS?

Call Louise on 01635 254881 or visit www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/tests.htm

========================

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

FRIDAY 17TH OCTOBER, ATSCO VAMPIRE BALL, LONDON
The fourth ATSCo charity ball, to be held on 17th October, will have a vampire theme and should be attended by over 450 guests and feature for the first time the ATSCo Member of the Year Awards ceremony. The ball, to be held at the Dorchester Hotel, will feature an auction, casino and Radio 1’s Mary Anne Hobbs as DJ. The Dorchester will be a gothic manor for the evening and hordes of the undead will be on hand to entertain the guests. For more information contact ATSCo on 020 7937 5026.

NORA FINALISTS ANNOUNCED
The shortlisted finalists for the National Online Recruitment Awards have been announced and can be viewed at http://www.alljobsuk.com/awards/Norafinalists.shtml. Judging will start to take place now and the winners in each category will be announced on 20th October 2003

THURSDAY 30TH OCTOBER, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
Why not come along to our October networking event? It's free to attend - register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. It's a great opportunity to talk with suppliers, clients and recruitment peers. Photo's from the event last week are also on the site

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT?
Don't forget to visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. Current topics on the site include "standard contract of employment", "are you an expert on spam?", and "curse of friends reunited". Visit the site; ask questions and share your knowledge

-----STATISTICS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, WEEK COMMENCING 22ND SEPTEMBER, ALLJOBSUK.COM
The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 389,751 which is up 652 on last week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml.

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 19TH SEPTEMBER, HITWISE.CO.UK
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, Jobsite, Total Jobs, Reed.co.uk, Fish4 Jobs, WorkThing, Job Serve, Monster.co.uk, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and TES Jobs. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

"FAVORITE" RECRUITMENT SITES, AUGUST 2003, HITWISE.CO.UK
These are the top 10 sites ranked by the percentage of people visiting the site who then bookmarked it: www.faststream.gov.uk (5.14%), www.careers.civil-service.gov.uk (4.98%), www.agencycentral.co.uk (4.94%), www.brookstreet.co.uk (4.71%), www.jobs1.co.uk (4.10%), www.lgjobs.co.uk (3.94%), www.anderselite.com (3.75%), www.jobsword.co.uk (3.68%), www.careers.lon.ac.uk (3.60%) and www.thetimes-appointments.co.uk (3.42%). The ranking doesn't take into account the number of visitors - to see the overall rankings in the employment category contact http://www.hitwise.co.uk.

Issue 135

CONTENTS
* My Favourites (by Mike Trenery of Staffing Relationship Management Ltd)
* Article (Restrictive Covenants On Staff by Louise Fernandes)
* Article (IT Directions by Ade McCormack)
* Survey Results (Credit Checking and Bad Debts)
* Don't Miss This (The National Graduate Recruitment Exhibition - Networking Event - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Statistics (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites)
* Subscription Form - Advertising Information - Unsubscribe Instructions

Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs.

-----MY FAVOURITES BY MIKE TRENERY-----

http://housecall.trendmicro.com. Viruses constantly hit recruiters and it's hard to keep on top of it. Trend Micro have an online virus scanner. If you think that you have a virus you can visit the site and run the online scanner to check your system. It's up to date, free and very convenient.

http://toolbar.google.com. Recruiters that browse the web regularly are constantly plagued by pop up windows. Install the Google Toolbar onto your machine and it provides instant searches with your preferences. The best feature is that the toolbar will automatically block pop up windows.

http://www.auctionstealer.com. If you buy stuff on ebay then Auction Stealer is for you. It's free and will help you win your favourite items at rock bottom prices. No one knows you are going to bid on an item so the price is not pushed up early and then 10 seconds before the end of the auction; auction stealer places your bid for you and snatches the goods.

Mike Trenery is Sales Manager of http://www.srmvitae.com

Submit your 3 favourites web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

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To order, e-mail arbp@prodigy.net or fax your order to 001 503 214 6496 or phone 001 888 391 3384.

So, don't wait! Buy Now!!! FREE SHIPPING!!! The brand new PLACEMENT 2000 two disk DVD set is an outstanding training option -- visit http://www.pl2000.com to find out why!

========================

-----ARTICLE - RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS ON STAFF BY LOUISE FERNANDES ------
Scared of losing valuable clients and colleagues? Competition from former employees can pose a serious risk. Equally, recruiters can find their candidates are not entirely "free agents". In the current uncertain market, every employer is doing its utmost to retain its business and workforce. Restrictive covenants (also termed "post termination restrictions", "non-solicitation" or "non-compete" clauses) are used to limit and protect employers' interests.

When placing individuals, recruiters should check candidates have no restrictions on their future employment. If they do, they may need advice about the restrictions. Recruiters, too, could be liable for damages or injuncted if they encourage a candidate to breach obligations to a former employer.

Restrictive covenants will only be enforced by the courts if employers can prove they are no wider than necessary to protect their legitimate business interests. These interests may include protecting confidentiality, client connections or the stability of the workforce, all of which are central to recruitment decisions. Restrictive covenants can protect an employer by preventing former employees from working in certain competitive businesses, within a defined area (for example, London), with certain clients and for a specified period following termination.

Strong covenants should match the seniority of the employee, consider the nature of the business requiring protection and ensure the extent of the restrictions is not excessive. Some restrictions can have the indirect effect of preventing an employee from getting another job in his field. For example, a covenant may restrict a recruiter from working in the City. The courts may not uphold this if the recruiter's experience and skills are specific only to placing banking and finance candidates in the City.

If restrictive covenants are well drafted and enforceable but a former employee breaches them, a strong letter to the employee may be enough to stop the competitive activity. An employer could obtain an injunction against a former employee and his new employer (and his head-hunter) to prevent further competition. However, legal action can be both costly and time consuming.

As an employer: Employees are far less likely to breach covenants if they are clearly enforceable, so employers should address the need for protection at the beginning of the employment relationship. Restrictive covenants should be included in the contract of employment, tailored to the employee's position and the nature of the business and regularly updated to ensure enforceability.

As a recruiter: Check your candidates' current contracts and discuss the risk of legal action by a former employer. Investing in legal advice should provide both employers and recruiters with valuable protection in this minefield.

Louise Fernandes specialises in employment law at City law firm Fox Williams and can be contacted for further information at lfernandes@foxwilliams.com

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========================

-----IT DIRECTIONS - ADE MCCORMACK-----

Regardless of whether or not your business is focused on the IT Sector, you need to be aware of the strategic implications of technology on your business. This occasional column will endeavour to demystify some of the more prominent yet esoteric terms.

Today we look at UTILITY COMPUTING.

What is it? Think utility. Water, gas and telephone are all utilities. What characteristics do they share? Well they are plumbed to your door and the amount you pay for them is proportional to your usage. And so it is with utility computing. Think of it as 'IT on tap'. IBM is driving the marketing behind this model of computing. Let someone else fret about technology management. In theory utility computing allows the customer to focus on the outcome, eg. processed payroll, rather than the payroll processing.

Why do I need to know about it? Utility computing might well be of interest to: * Small to medium sized businesses that may not be enjoying the economies of scale * Any organisation that has an infrequent need for large surges of computing power. If this model catches on then end-user organisations will cease to be a target for IT vendors. Has anyone tried to sell you an electricity pylon lately?

This concept has only just hit the streets. It is very attractive to 'tin shifters' like IBM. This model shifts the model from buying IT assets to renting IT power. The hardware vendors, through pushing utility computing are migrating their customers away from a 'big ticket' purchasing model (unattractive in this cash flow conscious economy) to a continuous 'smaller ticket' revenue stream (attractive in this cashflow conscious economy).

Pitfalls * Beware of being locked into a single vendor, even though it is their problem to deliver at the end of the day. * Keep a close eye on the mounting costs, small continuous charges can soon mount up. Ask any mobile phone user.

How can I impress friends and colleagues? Step 1 - Contrive for the impressee to receive a phone call during your meeting, which happens to have an IT theme. Step 2 - Magnanimously encourage them to take the call, regardless of their protestations. Smile confidently throughout the call. Step 3 - Once the call has finished, cut through the "post- interrupting phone call apologies" with "I have a vision for IT" Pause for effect. "Why can't IT be more like the phone? Telephony is critical to our business, but we are not in the business of maintaining telecoms equipment. One day companies like ours will treat IT as a utility." For maximum effect tilt head to the right and look up to the left. Step 4 - Ask the impressee what their thoughts on this are?

NB. IT managers should think twice before employing this tactic on Board level management.

-----SURVEY RESULTS (CREDIT CHECKING AND BAD DEBTS)-----

Thank you to all of those who completed the survey in Newsletter 132. Below is a summary of the responses.

Customer Creditworthy? Only 45.5% of respondents take out credit reports on new and existing businesses. Those that do not take out credit reports state the main reason they do not is that they are too expensive.

Getting Paid 57.1% of respondents usually receive payment within 1 to 2 weeks after their agreed payment date, with a further 28.6% receiving payment 1 to 2 months after the agreed payment date. The reason for this late payment is mainly felt to be the nature of the recruitment industry as a whole.

What do you do about late payment? 63.6% of respondents do not charge any interest on late payments. Those that do charge interest mainly use their terms and conditions to determine the level of interest to charge. 59.1% of respondents would consider the use of a third party to collect the unpaid invoices but only once all other avenues had been explored. The preferred third party is a Solicitor.

Summary Over 50% of respondents are risking a bad debt before they even supply staff. Over 85% of respondents are not paid on time. Of these 63% do not charge interest which, under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, you are entitled to. Finally 59% of respondents will use a solicitor to recover the debt.

FTS Credit Services are offering ukrecruiter members a special price for 4 full credit reports of only £10.00. For more details contact Jason Darvell AICM (cert) on 0845 108 0524, email jdarvell@ftscredit.co.uk or visit www.ftscredit.co.uk

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The ukrecruiter newsletter goes out to over 15,000 recruitment professionals in the UK. What better place could you advertise?

For information call 01635 254881

========================

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

11-12 NOVEMER, THE NATIONAL GRADUATE RECRUITMENT EXHIBITION, NEC BIRMINGHAM
This event, organised by Venture Marketing Group and supported by The Guardian runs four times a year thoroughout the UK. It's a job fair where recruiters can meet with graduates across a variety of disciplines at one location. For more information visit http://www.gradjobs.co.uk or call Rob Spurgeon on 020 8394 5267

THURSDAY 30TH OCTOBER, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
Why not come along to our October networking event? It's free to attend. Register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. It's a great opportunity to talk with suppliers, clients and recruitment peers.

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT?
There has been a flurry of activity on the discussion board. New topics on the site include "Salaries", "Do recruiters burn out?" and "Is our industry stagnant?". Visit the site; ask questions and share your knowledge Visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum

-----STATISTICS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, ALLJOBSUK.COM
The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 407,532 which is up 17,781 on last week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml.

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 26TH SEPTEMBER, HITWISE.CO.UK
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, Jobsite, Total Jobs, Reed.co.uk, Fish4 Jobs, WorkThing, Job Serve, Monster.co.uk, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and TES Jobs. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

Issue 136

Welcome to issue 136 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.

CONTENTS
* My Favourites (by Alex Dooley of Eclipse Resources)
* Article (A Searching Strategy by Mike Stamp)
* Opinion (The Growing Importance of Executive Assessment by Kevin Kerrigan of SHL Group)
* Don't Miss This (Networking Event - Personnel Today Awards 2003 - The National Engineering Recruitment Exhibition - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Statistics (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites - "Favorite" Recruitment Sites)
* Subscription Form - Advertising Information - Unsubscribe Instructions

Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs.

-----MY FAVOURITES BY Alex Dooley-----

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/ - Yahoo News keeps you up to date with the goings on in the UK and around the world. Split into "latest news", "top stories" and then sections for entertainment, business etc it's an easy site to use and always seems up to date.

http://www.viamichelin.co.uk - This route planning software will ensure you never get lost on your way to a client again. Also means that you can send directions to candidate's so they have no excuse for being late for interviews.

http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/books.htm - I've only just found this page on the UK Recruiter website which is a listing of books for recruiters. Useful books for new starters in the industry as well as some for us established consultants.

Alex Dooley is a Consultant at Eclipse Resources.

Submit your 3 favourites web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

=====ADVERTISEMENT===== Here you will meet giants.

Whether its our candidates, or the team of people we have here for you to work with, Jobsite always offers you the best people for the job.

Visit http://www.gojobsite.co.uk/cgi-bin/campaign.cgi?tid=6115 for more information. ========================

-----ARTICLE - A SEARCHING STATEGY BY MIKE STAMP-----

Searching the Internet is a hybrid skill. It is part creativity and part science. While riding upon the surf, your search success or failure depends upon your sector knowledge, internet search technique, experimentation, creativity and luck. Combine this with a clear and methodical approach and success should quickly follow.

Different search engines find different information on the web, so to utilise your web searching to the maximum, you must first learn which one to use. There are hundreds of search engines available on the Web, however, 2 or 3 dominate the Web researcher's world: www.google.com, www.altavista.com and www.alltheweb.com

These engines have references to an immense number of web pages and they provide us with the ability to tailor our searches so that we can find what we are looking for in our results.

Defining a process The degree of disorganisation on the web means in general, that the average user of a search engine will often settle for what they can get rather than what they actually wanted. To improve the odds of searching success, a clear definitive plan or a search strategy is needed. Having a strategy will make all the difference between regular search success or failure. Here is a strategy in six basic steps.

1.Determine the type of information you need. Determine the type of information you are trying to find (CV, staff directory, client vacancy, case studies for example) and then try and pinpoint the specific skills, company or job title you are trying to find

2.Create a list of potential search terms. Search terms are those specific words or phrases that best describe the person or company that you are trying to find. The free text nature of the internet and lack of controlled vocabulary that is used, means that you must posses the widest range of potential search terms possible.

3.Choose specific search tools that will retrieve the type of information you want. Successfully searching the Internet is dependent on you choosing the right search tool for the job. Search tools fall into three main categories. Search Engines, Metasearch Engines and Directory Search Engines.

4.Construct a search string and conduct your search. These are the words or strings that you actually type into the search engine to control the results that are returned. You can search using a combination of individual keywords or phrases that best match your criteria. Ensure that you make the best use of the Search Engine's advanced features, allowing you to search for example, for keywords in the title or in the url of a web page.

5.Evaluate your results. Even the most carefully constructed search terms will often retrieve irrelevant information or results with thousands of hits. If you cannot find what you want in the first 15 or so results, then move straight on to the next step in the process. Also don't be surprised if occasionally you click on a promising looking link to find that the page has been moved or deleted.

6.Revise your search terms if necessary (and it probably will be). Subtlety change your search terms using deferent combinations of words and phrases and you will in turn get different sets of results, Add or remove words that you feel may be influencing your search negatively.

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-----OPINION - BOARD GAMES - THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF EXECUTIVE ASSESSMENT BY KEVIN KERRIGAN OF SHL GROUP-----

The majority of firms believe recruiting for board-level positions is now more difficult than ever. Results from the recent Cranfield University/Daily Telegraph Recruitment Confidence Index revealed that around 58 per cent of employers expect to have problems hiring at board level this year.

Companies are missing out by focusing too much on track record - just because an individual succeeded in one organisation doesn't necessarily mean they will in the next. Word of mouth is still a far too common way to find non-executive directors, yet no company would appoint people to other posts in the same way.

Whatever your method of choosing candidates, psychometric assessment methods can ensure that the right people get into the right jobs, and the financial pay-off from avoiding poor recruitment and placement substantially outweighs the cost of the assessment process. Assessment should be used for the following instances:

1. Appointment of a New Board Member

The Board's performance is largely dependent on the capability of its members. Clear position descriptions should be written for all board members based on a thorough position analysis. This should lead to a person specification which defines the personal capabilities required for the job. The definition of these capabilities should take into account, for example, the required background knowledge and experience, appropriate decision-making style, fit to the board culture etc.

The process of assessing a candidate for an executive board level typically requires the completion of interviews, tests and simulation exercises relevant to the person specification. Detailed reports should be written against the agreed person specification before the best-matched candidate is selected.

2. The Ongoing Appraisal of Individual Board Members

Performance reviews should focus on the behavioural performance of the individual director. It's important to distinguish between performance factors which may be beyond the director's control, and the measurable behaviour of the director against the agreed performance criteria.

3. The Ongoing Appraisal of the Board as a Total Entity

The appraisal of the board as a total team entity is difficult to assign to any single member of that team. On the face of it, this looks like an area of responsibility for the Chairman, but raises the question of the objective evaluation of the Chairman's own contribution.

Truly objective reviews can only be achieved with the help of a specialist external third party, which would work closely with the Chairman in evaluating the board's process of governance and which would have credible impartiality.

Of course, the process of assessment, evaluation and appraisal can provoke anxiety, fear and resentment. However, much depends on how it is done. If the process is relevant, fair and diplomatically handled, then participants come to value the process even where it may reflect developmental issues for themselves. More importantly, I believe that Britain cannot afford not to neglect assessment if boards are to exercise their power to the maximum benefit of all stakeholders in the company.

Kevin Kerrigan is UK MD of SHL, provider of psychometric assessment and development solutions. Operating in 30 countries, SHL supports organisations in the selection, recruitment, promotion, succession planning and development of talented people at all levels and across all sectors. For more information call 020 7419 7000 or visit www.shlgroup.com

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The ukrecruiter newsletter goes out to over 15,000 recruitment professionals in the UK. What better place could you advertise?

For information email louise@ukrecruiter.co.uk or call 01635 254881

========================

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

THURSDAY 30TH OCTOBER, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON Why not come along to our October networking event? It's free to attend. Register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. It's a great opportunity to talk with suppliers, clients and recruitment peers.

27 NOVEMBER, PERSONNEL TODAY AWARDS 2003 The Personnel Today Awards are taking place at Grosvenor House, London on Thursday 27th November. The theme for the evening is a "carnival atmosphere". For more information, to view the shortlist, or to book at table for the evening visit http://www.personneltodayawards.com

28-29 NOVEMBER, THE NATIONAL ENGINEERING RECRUITMENT EXHIBITION INCORPORATING THE NATIONAL CONSTRUCTION RECRUITMENT EXHIBITION, NEC BIRMINGHAM This job fair, organised by Venture Marketing Group, In association with the Daily Telegraph targets all engineering and construction graduates and professionals across a variety of disciplines. For more information visit http://www.gradjobs.co.uk or call Scott Bannerman on 020 8394 5201

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT? Don't forget to visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. Current topics on the site include "£30k start-up funds. Need 2 consultants. Best Strategy?", "Software - Cheap and cheerful", and "Tony Byrne DVDs". Visit the site; ask questions and share your knowledge

-----STATISTICS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, ALLJOBSUK.COM The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 419,972 which is up 12,440 on last week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml.

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 4TH OCTOBER 2003, HITWISE.CO.UK The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, Jobsite, Total Jobs, Reed.co.uk, WorkThing, Fish4 Jobs, Job Serve, Monster.co.uk, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and TES Jobs. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

"FAVORITE" RECRUITMENT SITES, SEPTEMBER 2003, HITWISE.CO.UK These are the top 10 sites ranked by the percentage of people visiting the site who then bookmarked it: UJ Jobs Guide, Agency Central, Teacher Training Agency, Civil Service Recruitment Gateway, Michael Page, Brook Street, Capita RAS, Anders Elite, LG Jobs and JobsWord. The ranking doesn't take into account the number of visitors - to see the overall rankings in the employment category visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk.

Issue 137

Welcome to issue 137 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.

CONTENTS

* My Favourites (by Sean Gannon of Jackson Rundle Associates)
* Article ("Are Your Advertisements Letting You Down" by Tracey Dunn)
* Opinion ("Lack Of Equal Opportunities In London" by John Howard Nesbitt)
* Don't Miss This (Win a Power Canvasssing CD - Networking Event - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum) * Statistics (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites)
* Subscription Form - Advertising Information - Unsubscribe Instructions

Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs.

-----MY FAVOURITES BY Sean Gannon-----

http://www.startups.co.uk This site has improved a lot over the years. With most recruitment professionals believing that they can, or will start their own business, this is a good place to get not only loads of advise but inspiration such as Top 50 entrepreneurs, business cases for different industries and a popular forum

http://www.thistlehotels.com As a recruitment to recruitment company, it's essential that we meet all our candidates face to face. Rather than use noisy coffee bars where there is a chance of a candidate being spotted, we tend to use hotel lounges which are no more expensive. Thistle don't always have the best service but they seem to have a hotel in every major location certainly across London and the South East.

http://toolbar.google.com/ Although nearly everyone uses Google, I don't know how many utilise this excellent tool. Basically it downloads in seconds and sits right at the top of your browser. This means that no matter what page you are in you can conduct a search without having to go to the actual search page. I believe that Yahoo and others also do it but I feel Google is the best.

Sean Gannon is a director at www.jacksonrundle.co.uk

Submit your 3 favourites web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

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-----ARTICLE - ARE YOUR ADVERTISEMENTS LETTING YOU DOWN BY TRACEY DUNN-----

How many times have you looked at your advertisements either on-line or in the press and cringed with horror? How many of you bother to think about how an advertisement will sell the job and therefore attract quality candidates? This article gives a few simple tips on how to make an advertisement work for you - rather than against you.

Headlines

We all know that there are two types of candidate - those who are actively seeking a role and the "scanners" - those who may not be actively looking but will scan the ads and respond to those that grab their attention. If an ad doesn't grab the attention in the first few seconds then everything else that has been written is a waste of money - a sobering thought when you think of column centimetre rates. The best headlines contain implied promises, warnings or questions so consider phrases like "Improve your study package"; "Travel the world"; Don't miss out; or Ready for a Board Role?

Body Copy

Once you have the readers' attention, you need to keep it by creating both interest and desire. The candidate will want to know how this move is going to specifically benefit him/her, so sell the benefits - travel, on the job training, study leave, discounts, profit related pay, temp to perm opportunities, prospects etc. . Imagine you are talking to a candidate selling the role - you have to create the interest and desire to make that candidate really want to go to the interview - it is exactly the same with advertising. The ad also needs to be personal - so talk to the reader. Instead of saying "the successful candidate will..." use "you will..." The former tends to suggest that they will just be one of many people considered for the job; the latter suggests that they are already half way there

The Call to action

Did you know that 95% of advertisements do not have an effective call to action? And by that I do not mean simply telling the reader what to do next but rather why they should do it and selling the benefit. A recruitment advertisement aimed at candidates with the line "so call this number now and find out how we can help you with your career enhancement requirements" may be seen by many of you as a call-to- action but where is the benefit to the candidate? What is so different about YOU? Consider the same advertisement which has the sign off - call this number now and receive a free CV Guide or a free report on answers to killer interview questions- isn't that a little more impressive?

Look at how you look!

Have a good long hard look at how your ads look to the outside world. I have lost count of how many times I have looked at recruitment consultancy websites and job boards and been appalled by the quality of advertising from spelling mistakes and poor grammar to badly sold jobs and no-call to action. Think how much more quality response there would be if you were trained more effectively in writing an advertisement - it's food for thought!

Tracey Dunn, a partner of PR consultancy BlueSky, works with Lander Associates, a leading performance development specialist offering a range of services for the professional recruitment industry. Together they provide training in advertising skills tailored for the recruitment sector. Call 01582 791838 or email info@landerassociates.co.uk for more information.

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========================

-----OPINION - LACK OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES IN LONDON BY JOHN HOWARD NESBITT-----

Try Finding A Job with U.S. companies in London when you are 48, American and Black.

Diversity Practices & Equal Employment Opportunities (for all) are alien concepts in the City of London amongst major U.S. Companies located in the "City". I know this after spending 10 long months on a tragically farcical job search with U.S. companies in London. Amazingly, in London the American companies I visited were (and are) the very same ones that preach diversity and inclusion in the U.S.A., but do not export this practice to their London locations. These U.S. companies in the "City" do not have Human Resources/Recruiting staffs that look at all like what they look like in the States-their staffs in London are almost totally white and young. When I entered those firms for my interviews, I felt I had entered a time warp and had been transported back to a period and place when the whole corporate terrain was entirely lily-white; a time when Black people were perpetually locked on the outside with our noses pressed against the glass window of the corporate office--- looking in at the unattainable.

In a word, England's equal and fair employment laws need to be strengthened and monitored and enforced vigorously to prevent other very talented minority professionals who have the right (by marriage) and privilege to work in London from enduring an unwarranted and unjustified unemployment nightmare. In the U.S. by contrast, Federal Laws and States Laws prevent a lot of issues around employment discrimination. Specifically, U.S. Federal Laws-- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 --prohibits employment discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces these laws. The EEOC provides oversight and coordination of all federal equal employment opportunity regulations, practices, and policies. Additionally, each State has laws on the books about employer discrimination.

In the State of New Jersey, for example, the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) prohibits employers from discriminating in any job-related action, including recruitment, interviewing, hiring, promotions, discharge, compensation and the terms, conditions and privileges of employment on the basis of any of the law's specified protected categories. These protected categories in New Jersey are: race, creed, colour, national origin, nationality, ancestry, age, sex (including pregnancy and sexual harassment), marital status, affectional or sexual orientation, and a host of other categories. In the State of Missouri, discrimination in employment because of race, colour, ancestry, religion, national origin, sex, disability or age (40-69) is prohibited-this statue covers private employers with 6 or more employees; the Missouri statue also bars employment agencies from withholding full and equal services, or by filling job orders with discriminatory provisions.

I could have done with some of those various American laws during my fruitless job search in London!

John "Jack" Howard Nesbitt has been involved in recruiting since 1977 when he joined Chemical Bank in New York City as a Recruiter focused on minority recruitment. He has lived in Welwyn, England for almost a year. He's now Director in HR-Staffing at Monsanto. He can be contacted at johntorrance_nesbitt@hotmail.com

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The ukrecruiter newsletter goes out to over 15,000 recruitment professionals in the UK. What better place could you advertise?

For information email louise@ukrecruiter.co.uk or call 01635 254881

========================

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

*****WIN A POWER CANVASSING CD***** We've got together with Koach to offer 3 lucky readers the chance to win a copy of their new "Power Canvassing CD". This CD, normally costing £49, "will empower you with new knowledge and understandings of how peak performers have mastered their cold calling attitude and exploded their sales performance". The CD is completely free to the first 3 people who are "picked out of the hat" on Friday 17th October. To win a copy of the CD please email david@koach.info with the subject line "ukrec CD". We'll publish the names of the winners in the newsletter. For more information about the CD go to http://www.koach.info

THURSDAY 30TH OCTOBER, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON Why not come along to our October networking event? It's free to attend. Register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. It's a great opportunity to talk with suppliers, clients and recruitment peers.

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT? Don't forget to visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. Current topics on the site include "Contract Recruitment", "Pharma (in mainland Europe)", and "Summer Boom?". Visit the site; ask questions and share your knowledge

-----STATISTICS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, ALLJOBSUK.COM The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 401,247 which is down 9725 on last week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml.

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 11TH OCTOBER, HITWISE.CO.UK The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, Jobsite, Total Jobs, Reed.co.uk, Fish4 Jobs, WorkThing, Job Serve, Monster.co.uk, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and TES Jobs. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

Issue 138

Welcome to issue 138 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.

Congratulations to Louise on the birth of a baby boy called Mackenzie. During her absence I am managing the newsletter and her email for her. If you phone her don't be surprised to hear a male voice. It's not Mackenzie it's me. John

CONTENTS
* My Favourites (by Steph Sheppard, www.highfielduk.co.uk)
* Recruitment Consultancy Web Site Review(www.michaelpage.com by Giles Guest)
* Article (Researcher's Tip Number Eight by Chris Malcolm)
* Don't Miss This (The Recruitment Society - Networking Event - Careers and Jobs Live and Thegradfair - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Statistics (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites)
* Subscription Form - Advertising Information - Unsubscribe Instructions

Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs.

-----MY FAVOURITES BY STEPH SHEPPARD-----

www.britishcompanies.co.uk - This lists web links and addresses of top British Companies in each sector. When researching a new sector it has proved invaluable because it also provides links to association web sites which all helps provide that background to lend credibility to any search

www.fasttrack.co.uk - this is the site that gives information around companies listed in the fast track 100 survey prepared for the Times and sponsored by Virgin. The site also gives profiles on the top 100 IT companies and the top 100 unlisted companies and top 100 profitable companies. In each section in provides a useful snapshot of the company with brief financial summaries and profiles.

www.darwinawards.com - Not always in the best taste the darwin awards can provide some light entertainment.

Steph Sheppard is a researcher at www.highfielduk.co.uk

Submit your 3 favourites web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

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========================

-----RECRUITMENT CONSULTANCY WEB SITE REVIEW - WWW.MICHAELPAGE.COM BY GILES GUEST------

Company Name: Michael Page International Web site Address: www.michaelpage.com

Site description Michael Page International is a leading professional recruitment agency that focuses on the global placement of candidates. The company was formed in 1976 and is listed on the London Stock Exchange with over 2300 employees and 106 offices in 16 countries worldwide. The company recruits within a number of markets: accounting and finance, banking and finance, marketing, retail, sales, legal, technology, human resources, engineering, taxation, corporate treasury and consultancy / strategy / change.

Creative Design The web site is clearly laid out with key links immediately identifiable. The design is attractive without being garish and does not detract attention away from the information and services on offer.

Ease of use The site is quick loading with no irritating flash splash page. The wealth of information provided is clearly and logically laid out with internal links visible on each page. The different services all have their own pages making navigation simple; you always know where you are within the site. The only negative aspect is that you have to scroll down to get to the bottom of many pages which is becoming unpopular and is not good design practice for the sake of a couple of sentences. Overall however, the tone of the site compliments the logical layout: professional, straightforward and to the point.

Relevant content The site provides a lot of helpful information that supports and explains the services provided. There is a concise 'about us' section which is informative and provides details on the companies aims, history and investor information. The section also includes a 'media centre' designed for the use of journalists; however, the last press release mentioned is over a year old. This seems to be a major oversight on their part - especially as this is one of the key ways prospective clients use a site to judge a company. The oversight is made worse by the highly visible link to obtain press releases and a 'register to receive releases' link.

Candidate and client functionality The job search functionality is the main candidate functionality. The search is easy to use and a 'quick search' is provided on the homepage, making it easy for candidates to get results fast. There is a lot of support information for those applying - CV advice, salary advice etc. It is very easy to apply for jobs.

The client section is also easily navigatable. However, the site only allows jobs to be posted by employers after a meeting with a Michael Page consultant. As a business decision it seems sound but maybe the ability for existing clients to post a job online would be a good idea. Advice for the recruiter is also provided.

Candidate and client marketing and retention The site offers a 'my page' facility which aims for candidate loyalty. It is a log in feature that allows applicants to access their job application history, saved searches etc. in a secure environment. A job alert service is also available, and as an extra bonus 'my page' tailors itself to the candidates details so they only see relevant content and are spared being bombarded with unnecessary information.

Online marketing If searching for Michael Page directly, the site is easily found due to their size and market presence. However, if searching via generic keywords such as 'recruitment' they are not listed. I would guess that due to their coverage in other types of media, as well as their brand presence that the majority of candidates search via the company name. That said the lack of online marketing shows a definite gap in their online strategy and one they should really address.

Value to user / Summary I found the Michael Page web site to be an excellent recruitment site that gives a firm impression of a company with a professional approach and a wealth of information to share. Not perfect and a few recommendations for improvements but overall a definite 'thumbs up'.

Giles Guest is Managing Director of 4mat.com, the UK's largest provider of recruitment web sites. You can reach him or his team at giles.guest@4mat.com or see their products at www.4mat.com

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For information email louise@ukrecruiter.co.uk or call 01635 254881

========================

*****RESEARCHER'S TIP NUMBER EIGHT, BY CHRIS MALCOLM, DEANSA*****

Once a month we give a quick tip on managing a successful research project.

Number 8 Should I double-check my research?

Years ago we were engaged to research and find investment banking analysts with expertise in shipping, so we immediately started to call Scandinavia, the home of world shipping and English language skills - perfect! Before long we had filled our quota and happily turned in our work to the client. A full half of our candidates were immediately turned back by our client as unacceptable.

Our error? We had asked each person directly if they were a shipping analyst and each had answered in the affirmative. What we had not realised is that they had omitted to mention that their departments were very small and rather than being a specialist, each covered a number of areas as a generalist. Plus I think there may have been an eagerness to be interviewed for a City of London based position.

Our solution? Back into the market we went this time asking if they analysed automotives as well. The overly keen that said yes were dropped from our list! To this day we insist that every potential name is asked twice to describe their job and this is after we have been told by an independent source that they are the correct one.

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For more information visit http://www.cv-library.co.uk/cvdatabase or contact us directly on 01252 810992 or sales@cv-library.co.uk ========================

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

*********SPECIAL OFFER - REDUCED PRICE, NO TRAVELLING************* WEDNESDAY 3RD DECEMBER FAST-TRACK TELECOACH Attend a recruitment training course without having to travel! Ukrecruiter has got together with Recruitment Training Productions to offer a very special price for their telecoaching sessions. For £39.50 per person (usual price of £59) you can attend one of the following sessions 1. Earn More Money by Negotiating like a Champion, 4:30pm 2. Win any New Client by Overcoming the Toughest of Objections, 6pm For more information or to book your places please call 01727 37 00 41 stating the reference UKREC. Note that this offer is limited to one place per subscriber.

THURSDAY 23RD OCTOBER, THE RECRUITMENT SOCIETY, HARROGATE Come and hear Craig Murray of HR dept at BAe Systems talk about "Building a unique partnership : the role of HR management". Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate 6.00 - 7.00 p.m. This is a fringe event, free to all attendees at CIPD Conference. For more details call 0207 439 6288 or email: admin@recruitmentsociety.org.uk

THURSDAY 30TH OCTOBER, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON Why not come along to our October networking event? It's free to attend. Register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. It's a great opportunity to talk with suppliers, clients and recruitment peers.

SUNDAY 2ND & MONDAY 3RD NOVEMBER, CAREERS AND JOBS LIVE AND THEGRADFAIR, LONDON OLYMPIA. Open 10.30am - 5pm on Sunday and 9.30am - 4pm on Monday, entry free. Organised by Jarvis Exhibitions, Bruce Birchall: Tel: 020 8464 4129. For more information see www.jarvis- exhibitions.com or email: jarvisexhibitions@btconnect.com

WEDNESDAY, 12TH NOVEMBER, THE RECRUITMENT SOCIETY,LONDON Come and hear from John Rawlings, Lee Hecht Harrison about "The increasing role of outplacement in job sourcing" at Lee Hecht Harrison, 25 Bucklersbury, London EC4N 8DA. It costs £20 for non-members, £10 for standard members and free for silver & gold members. For more information phone 020 7439 6288 or email admin@recruitmentsociety.org.uk

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT? Don't forget to visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. Current topics on the site include "Average Salary ", "Can you recommend a Cold Calling Course?", and "Training & Development recruitment". Visit the site; ask questions and share your knowledge

-----STATISTICS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, ALLJOBSUK.COM The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 427,628 which is up a huge 15,655 on last week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml.

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 18 OCTOBER 2003, HITWISE.CO.UK. The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, Jobsite, Total Jobs, Reed.co.uk, Fish4 Jobs, WorkThing, Job Serve, Monster.co.uk, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and TESJobs. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

Issue 139

Welcome to issue 139 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.

CONTENTS
* My Favourites (by Jaime Maxwell-Grant of www.hbsolutions.co.uk)
* Article (The New Religious Discrimination Law by Louise Fernandes)
* Article (Search Engines or Directories? by John Triance)
* Don't Miss This (Careers and Jobs Live and Thegradfair - The Recruitment Society - Winning Competitive Tenders Workshop - Networking Event - Fast-Track Telecoach - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Statistics (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites) * Subscription Form - Advertising Information - Unsubscribe Instructions

Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs.

-----MY FAVOURITES BY Jaime Maxwell-Grant-----

www.mailwasher.net - Mailwasher from this site is by far and the best piece of anti-spamming software that I have come across so far. It allows you to preview all your e-mail accounts from the server they sit on before downloading them on to your machine. It then gives you a facility to "Bounce" messages as if your e-mail address did not exist, thereby automatically deleting you from many spam lists.

www.safer-networking.org/index.php?lang=en&page=download - This provides Spybot Search & Destroy software. The software found and deleted about 30 such program that had installed themselves on my machine without my knowledge. Spybots are programmes that are hidden away on your machine by people who want to record a variety of information without you knowing about it - they can dramatically slow down your machine and of course there are huge security implications!

www.streetmap.co.uk. The most useful map software in the UK. In my experience it is far superior to multimap, and has printer friendly options (a button in the bottom left of the page) and so on. I use it all the time!!

Jaime Maxwell-Grant is a consultant at www.hbsolutions.co.uk

Submit your 3 favourites web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

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-----ARTICLE-The New Religious Discrimination Law by Louise Fernandes----

OH MY GOD - NOT MORE LEGISLATION!

Many recruiters are aware of the constant developments in employment law. With only two months to prepare for the changes, one area that needs to be addressed by both recruiters and employers is religious discrimination.

This December, it will become unlawful to discriminate against workers or job applicants, or subject them to harassment, because of their religion or belief. This will cover most areas of employment, including the recruitment process. If candidates have the necessary skills, but are denied jobs because of their religion, this will constitute direct discrimination. Any company policies or practices which are detrimental to individuals with a particular religion or belief, will constitute indirect discrimination, if there is no justification.

In limited circumstances, it may be lawful to treat people differently if it is a "genuine occupational requirement" that the individual must be of a particular religion or belief (for example, the position is for a religious organisation). However, this distinction will not always be justifiable and the nature of the work must be considered carefully.

Advertising may also fall foul of the new legislation. Some recruiters use widely read publications to advertise positions. Others focus on niche areas to limit the potential applicants. This, however, may constitute indirect discrimination. An advertisement placed only in a religious magazine may discriminate against those who, for religious or belief reasons, would not read that publication.

Recruitment processes often also include a social event or a "drinks stage". However, this may potentially discriminate against a candidate who cannot drink alcohol on religious grounds. Certain religions may also restrict working hours, limiting what may, for example, be undertaken on a Friday. Recruiters may need to address both issues when arranging the interview and selection process.

Applicants who have religious requirements should be encouraged to identify them during the recruitment process so that they are not subjected to any disadvantage. However, the focus should be on identifying candidates with the appropriate skills. Personal questions which may be irrelevant and imply potential discrimination on the basis of preconceived ideas should be avoided.

However, the recruitment process is only one area of employment affected by the new legislation. Employees of different religions may have additional requirements relating to their dress, diet, leave entitlement and prayer time. Religious discrimination will therefore impact greatly on both recruiters and employers and all aspects of employment will need to be reviewed to limit any exposure under the new legislation.

Louise Fernandes specialises in employment law at City firm, Fox Williams. You can contact her for further information at lfernandes@foxwilliams.com

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-----ARTICLE--SEARCH ENGINES OR DIRECTORIES? BY JOHN TRIANCE-----

Google is a search engine, Yahoo is a directory - but what is the difference? First of all let's look at the similarities. In both cases the user types in key words and phrases, presses the search button and it gives a list of links to pages all over the world wide web. They do this by accessing their large databases of links which are stored with associated key words and phrases.

So if they basically do the same job are we even interested in how they differ. Yes we should be, at least for the more difficult searches.

They differ in how their databases of links are built up and how the links are classified. Search engines use computer programs called spiders to browse the web looking for pages to add to the database. They accept suggestions from people who register their sites with the search engine in question. But they don't stop there. Every page they visit, they store a link to it in their database along with any key words and phrases they come across. They then look on the page for links, follow each link in turn and repeat the process for every page they encounter. This process goes on day and night, seven days a week. Being a mere computer program the spider doesn't understand what is on the page so it will add the page to the database even if it contains nothing of value and it will often end up with inappropriate key words and phrases.

On the other hand, with a directory, pages are only added to the databases after they have been approved and classified by a human being. Since human beings don't work such long hours as spiders there is sometimes a delay in getting new pages added to a Directory. But the ones that have been added should be of some value and should be correctly classified.

So what is the effect of all this on you, the user. 1. The search engines cover far more of the web. 2. The directories have filtered out much of the chaff for you 3. The directories can provide you with lists of links by category (e.g. business magazines)

This last one is the key benefit of directories. It would take a long time to come up with a list of business magazines, say, using a search engine.

The best known directory is Yahoo. Many people use it just like a search engine but if you scroll down Yahoo's home page you can see a list of categories: Art & Humanities, Business & Economy, etc. You can click your way through successive layers of these categories down to say "Directory > Business and Economy > Employment and Work > News and Media > Magazines" where you will find a list of magazines relating to employment and work. Alternatively you can use the search box to find the category you want. In addition to the general directories such as Yahoo there are a lot of subject specific directories. Our own ukrecruiter site is a good example of this, providing links to sites that are relevant to UK recruiters. It always makes sense to use such specialist directories when you can, to avoid being dished up with a mass of irrelevant links.

Search engines also provide you with a lot of irrelevant links. This doesn't matter if the link you want is at (or near) the top. The best search engines, such as Google, are good at sorting the most popular links to the top.

In summary if you want to find a single mainstream site your best bet is a good search engine. If you want a list of sites in a given category you should try a directory. If you want a single less mainstream site then use a search engine if you can think of any key words that distinguish it. If you can think of a category that it falls in then a directory should be more effective.

John Triance is New Media in Business's internet specialist. For more information consult www.nmib.com or email john@nmib.com.

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The ukrecruiter newsletter goes out to over 15,000 recruitment professionals in the UK. What better place could you advertise?

For information email louise@ukrecruiter.co.uk or call 01635 254881

========================

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

13TH NOVEMBER, 10% DISCOUNT ON "WINNING COMPETITIVE TENDERS" WORKSHOP LC Training & Excelerator Ltd have developed this one day intensive workshop aimed at managers and senior recruiters who need to understand the proposal process and enhance their ability to put together more powerful bids, thus increasing their 'hit rate'. The course runs on the and costs £395 + VAT per delegate. However, they are offering a 10% discount if you quote "ukrec". For more information or to book contact Marilyn Davidson on 020 8857 2077 or email marilyndavidson@lctlimited.com

THURSDAY 27TH NOVEMBER, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON Why not come along to our November networking event? It's free to attend. Register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. It's a great opportunity to talk with suppliers, clients and recruitment peers.

WEDNESDAY 3RD DECEMBER FAST-TRACK TELECOACH Recruitment Training Productions are offering a special price for their telecoaching sessions. For £39.50 per person (usual price of £59) you can attend one of the following sessions 1. Earn More Money by Negotiating like a Champion, 4:30pm 2. Win any New Client by Overcoming the Toughest of Objections, 6pm For more information or to book your places please call 01727 37 00 41 stating the reference UKREC. Note that this offer is limited to one place per subscriber.

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT? Don't forget to visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. Current topics on the site include "Psychometric Metric Tests for Sales pros", "Big Billers" and "Induction Training" Visit the site; ask questions and share your knowledge

-----STATISTICS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, ALLJOBSUK.COM The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 429,612 which is up 1,984 on last week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml.

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 25 October 2003, HITWISE.CO.UK The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, Jobsite, Total Jobs, Reed.co.uk, Fish4 Jobs, WorkThing, Job Serve, Monster.co.uk, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and CWJobs.co.uk. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

Issue 140

Welcome to issue 140 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.

Would you like to write articles for the newsletter? If you're interested send us a note to louise@ukrecruiter.co.uk with details of your area of expertise or the subject you'd like to write about.

CONTENTS
* My Favourites (by Victoria Wheeler of Highfield Human Solutions)
* Article (Trends in online recruitment by Raya Mamarbachi)
* Article (New Privacy Regulations Update by Dave Gurney)
* Prize Winners (Koach Power Canvassing CD Winners)
* Don't Miss This (The Recruitment Society - Winning Competitive Tenders Workshop - Lawspeed Legal Update Seminar - Networking Event - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
* Statistics (Online Job Index - Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites)
* Subscription Form - Advertising Information - Unsubscribe Instructions

Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs.

-----MY FAVOURITES BY VICTORIA WHEELER OF HIGHFIELD HUMAN SOLUTIONS-----

www.theaa.com This site offers a whole host of services including a route planner which is really effective for planning that essential journey to finding a hotel in the right location and the right price. Also in day to day matters they provide competitive searches on insurance, car purchases to personal loans. Might I add that you will never get caught out again if you catch up on their travel news!

www.cwjobs.co.uk With markets changing so frequently and recruiters trying to keep a grasp of what is the going rate of salary for skills in the UK. This site offers a comprehensive salary guide for both contract and permanent staff measuring it against skill, industry, sector and location. CW use information collected by an independent source, SSL who analyze job advertisements for IT professionals on the major IT and generalist job boards and in the business and national press. This is then available on the web address above at no cost and is a very useful tool to IT professionals and recruiters alike.

www.ananova.com Ananova is a news site belonging to Orange. It is certainly one of most efficient site in delivering up-to-date news both in the UK and internationally, proving pictures and sound bites as well. Also for those that enjoy their celeb gossip it can provide a 10 minute break, when the weather is too miserable to step out the office; Or learn about what is happening in your favourite area, whether it be sport, comedy or theatre. Overall a very informative site for those quiet moments, if ever we get them.

Victoria Wheeler is a researcher at www.highfielduk.co.uk

Submit your 3 favourites web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

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========================

-----ARTICLE-TRENDS IN ONLINE RECRUITMENT BY RAYA MAMARBACHI----

There has been much in the press lately regarding online job sites in the UK both from positions of 'attack' and 'defence'. Unable to ignore the advantages of time and speed that the Internet provides, people are increasingly using the Internet to look for positions. Though we are less 'on-line' than our American cousins, the UK is quickly catching up

In August 2003, a survey produced by Cranfield School of Management and the Daily Telegraph focused on online recruitment, examining the levels of use and success amongst 2,000 UK employers.

The results showed that approximately half of the employers participating in the survey use the Internet within the recruitment process. The survey went on to detail that of those using online recruitment 54% only use corporate recruitment sites (the careers section of a company's own site), 14% only use commercial job boards and 32% of those using the internet in the recruitment process use both techniques.

The research then looked at which positions companies are advertising online. One positive finding is that organisations are now using the Internet to recruit across a broader range of employees in terms of seniority. The research found that in the summer of 2003, 20% of organisations used the Internet to recruit at board level, compared to 5% in the spring of 2000.

Overall the following percentages of companies are now using the Internet to recruit at the following levels.

Board Level - 20% Senior Management - 47% Middle Management - 60%

Commercial sites had been used more successfully than corporate sites to recruit those at board level (54% vs 34%), senior management (64% vs 50%) and middle management (65% vs 59%). These figures come against the background of a well-established belief amongst HR professionals that senior candidates don't use the Internet, let alone commercial job boards and should go some way to revising these views.

Employers who have stopped using commercial job boards stated they did so because they received too many unsuitable applicants. The ease of applying online can be a double-edged sword generating lots of applications, including those from irrelevant candidates.

It is important to:

1) Choose your media carefully, remember the right job board for you isn't necessarily the cheapest or the largest but the site that can provide you with the type of candidates you want to recruit.

2) Invest in sorting and sifting software to combat irrelevant applications. Such software can judge all candidates against preset criteria and select the applications from relevant candidates and respond automatically to those without the relevant skills. Using this back end technology effectively is the key to ensuring that you enjoy the full benefits of online recruitment.

Raya Mamarbachi is the Executive Editor of the Goldjobs Link Newsletter. Goldjobs, along with Silverjobs, is "one of the most effective ways to find or fill premium positions". Silverjobs is an advertising portal for executives commanding salaries upward of £50,000.

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Comprehensive list of training courses for recruiters.

The UK Recruiter web site lists recruitment specific training courses by many different training providers.

Visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/training.htm

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-----ARTICLE-NEW PRIVACY REGULATIONS UPDATE BY DAVE GURNEY----

Pressure Remains on Recruiters CV Handling as New Privacy Regulations are Delayed. Dave, who told us all about these regulations in issue 134, now gives us an update.

There has been a short delay for the introduction of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, which were due to come into effect on 31st October 2003. Although it now appears likely that Business to Business direct marketing activities will now be subjected to less strict regulations, there is no let up on the pressure in the Business to Consumer environment. The new date for introduction will be 11th December, 2003 and by that time you must be handling your data in such a way that you will not fall foul of these regulations nor the existing Data Protection rules.

The new regulations mean that information held by you can no longer be used for direct marketing activities unless you have obtained the explicit consent of the individual involved. Consequently, it is imperative that businesses retain control of their information and the consent that they have to use it. Your company should always be able to show a valid reason for retention. Furthermore, individuals now have the right to seek compensation for any damage or distress a business's non-compliance may cause. Remember, if you e-mail someone who has not agreed to receive e-mails from you in advance of it being sent, then you could be sued and/or charged.

Dave Gurney is Marketing Consultant for Probit-e and can be contacted on 01280 701375. Probit-e are suppliers of CypherBase which has been purpose built to help recruiters comply with the new regulations.

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WANT TO RUN PSYCHOMETRIC OR APTITUDE TESTS?

Call Louise on 01635 254881 or email louise@ukrecruiter.co.uk or visit www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/tests.htm ========================

-----PRIZE WINNERS------

KOACH POWER CANVASSING CD WINNERS The winners of the Koach Power Canvassing CD were Vince Boatham of Antal, Tasmin Coxhill of Anders Elite and Bill Sloane of Spring IT. Look out for another giveaway in next week's newsletter

-----DON'T MISS THIS-----

MONDAY NOVEMBER 24, LAWSPEED LEGAL UPDATE SEMINAR, LONDON. Specialist legal consultancy Lawspeed is offering UK Recruiter readers 15% discount off the price of their latest update seminars on the key legal and commercial developments affecting recruitment companies. The seminars include a free legal surgery on recruitment issues. Normal cost is £195 with discounts for multiple bookings. The offer is open to the first four companies booking one or more places before November 12th and quoting "UKR1" . To book call 01273 236236 or, for more details, visit http://www.lawspeed.com/recruitment/seminar_Nov2003.htm

27 NOVEMBER, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON Why not register for our November event? It's free to attend - register at: http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. It's a great opportunity to talk with suppliers, clients and recruitment peers.

UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT? Don't forget to visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. Current topics on the site include "vacancies(agency management companies)" and "Software - Cheap and cheerful(database systems)". Visit the site; ask questions and share your knowledge

-----STATISTICS-----

ONLINE JOB INDEX, ALLJOBSUK.COM The number of live vacancies posted on the top 10 UK job boards last week is 425,006 which is down 4,606 on the previous week. For more information visit www.alljobsuk.com/jobsites.shtml.

HITWISE TOP 10 RECRUITMENT SITES, WEEK ENDING 1 NOVEMBER, HITWISE.CO.UK The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentre Plus, Jobsite, Total Jobs, Reed.co.uk, WorkThing, Fish4 Jobs, Job Serve, Monster.co.uk, Guardian Unlimited Jobs and The IT Job Board. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk