Back issues of the newsletter - Issues 51 to 100
Happy Christmas to you all. I've avoided heavy business content for this issue; in fact you might find yourself using these sites at home over Christmas as well as in the office.
CONTENTS: What is the recruit net newsletter? - Reviewed Sites (BBC Online & UK250) - Goodie Bags - Subscription form
*****WHAT IS THE RECRUIT NET NEWSLETTER?***** Since I first started the newsletter back in January 1999 the content has changed in some ways. The main purpose of the newsletter is still to keep recruiters up to date with developments on the Internet. Every fortnight I review two Internet sites that I think have relevance to recruiters. I handle vacancy boards and CV databases by publishing a list on the UK Recruiters Home Page and including reviews from Chris Pengelly of Riley Advertising. Chris provides an impartial opinion that takes advantage of the regular feedback from his recruitment clients. I also like to include articles from other subscribers to the newsletter. If you are interested drop me a note with details of the proposed content. I'm also looking for someone to start writing regular reviews of CV databases (although you would need to able to provide some commitment and demonstrate your independence from any one particular CV database).
*****REVIEWED SITES*****
BBC Online ***http://www.bbc.co.uk*** The BBC Online website is chock full of useful resources. The site is well laid out and quick to load. The main features of the site include news, sport, weather and TV & Radio. The News section contains the latest headlines, along with sections on world news, UK specific news, UK politics, business, science/technology, etc. As well as having news articles on the site there is audio/video news with clips of news stories and constant audio news feed. The TV & Radio section has programme listings as well as a facility to find the sort of programmes you might be interested in (by choosing subjects that interest you). As you might imagine this section only covers BBC TV and radio channels so if you're looking for TV listings across all channels you might like to try www.radiotimes.co.uk. One of the other interesting sections on the site is the WebGuide. This is a directory of "good" websites as determined by the WebGuide Team. Categories include Arts, Food, News, Health, etc.
The BBC site is well worth a look at. The news section is certainly a good business resource although the majority of the rest of the site might be more appropriate for personal interest.
UK250 ***http://www.uk250.co.uk*** UK250 is a directory of UK websites. The websites are split into many different categories (including extreme sport and antiques) and each category has a listing of a maximum of 100 relevant web sites. You can find websites in three ways, either by choosing a subject from the scrolling list to the left of the home page and then clicking on the "select" button. You can click on a letter in the "alphabet pad" in the middle of the home page and be taken to a list of all subjects covered under that letter or you can select a group heading from the short list to right of the page. When you find a listing of web sites you are interested in you can see the web page title and a short description of the content. One enhancement I'd find useful would be the ability to conduct a search of links on the site
I ought to mention that one of the things to bear in mind with this site is that the companies listed have paid to be included, so the categories do not necessarily include the best sites on the Internet. All in all a useful site if you are looking for information on easily categorised subjects.
GOODIE BAGS Recently a few people have been asking what's in the goodie bags. Well, without spoiling the surprise to those who win one, the contents are variable and can include: pens, mouse mat, coffee coaster, stress reliever, key ring, note pad, post-its, t-shirts, etc. Most of the products have been given by vacancy boards and CV databases. The actual contents change all the time as I'm always on the lookout for the best "goodies".
We'll be back to the standard format in the New Year so don't forget to let me know about any great business related web sites that you are using as part of your recruitment/research role.
recruit net - the fortnightly newsletter for keeping recruiters up to date with developments on the Internet.
CONTENTS: Reviewed Sites (Moreover News Portal & HotBot UK) - New Feature (CV Database Reviews) - Vacancy Board Reviews - Subscription form
*****REVIEWED SITES*****
Moreover News Portal http://www.moreover.com/news/ The Moreover News Portal allows you to search for or browse news stories from over 1800 sources. When you first enter the site the home page contains the latest "top" news story headlines - as this is a US based site these are US focussed. The search mechanism is very simple with a text field and a "go" button. Once you have entered your search term the results are brought up in the body of the page as a series of headlines each with source and date. To view the text of the story you click on the headline. This brings up a new browser window and takes you directly to the news story on the website of the source (for example if the news story came from CNN the link will actually take you to the correct page on CNN's website). If you want to browse the Moreover site you can choose from 15 channels (such as business, entertainment, finance and industry) that between them have over 330 categories. For example under the category Companies is a listing of the 30 largest global companies (including Hewlett-Packard, Boeing and Procter & Gamble) and when you click on one of the subcategories you are given a listing of the latest news stories relating to that company. You can subscribe to "email updates" of any of the news categories - these are sent out each day and would be very useful if you were trying to keep up to date with a particular industry or company (eg, Leisure Goods or Johnson & Johnson).
This is a comprehensive site that is very easy to use and made even more useful by the email update feature.
HotBot UK http://www.hotbot.lycos.co.uk Lycos have recently launched a UK version of the HotBot search engine. HotBot is a simple to use search engine with some useful advanced search features. It states it has indexed more than 500 million web pages in its database.
Conducting a simple search is the same as with any other search engine and on the "quick search" page there are some basic filter options to help you refine the search. The key benefit compared to many search engines is that they make the advanced features easy to use. There are a great many options in the advanced search screen. For example you add additional search terms, select a date range, specify the domain and search for pages that contain various multimedia technologies. The Help feature on HotBot is superb with very clear and comprehensive notes.
When I conducted a few UK searches I found the results to be satisfactory enough to make using the site worthwhile. One final comment, if you try to enter the US version of the HotBot search engine (using www.hotbot.com) you might find you are re-directed automatically to the UK version. This can be really frustrating if you are not intending to conduct a UK focussed search. To get around this you will need to use the URL - http://hotbot.lycos.com/
*****CV DATABASE REVIEWS***** From the next edition, 24th January 2001, Jane Barrett is going to start reviewing CV Databases. Jane is a freelance onsite recruiter who is currently working for PricewaterhouseCoopers. If you've any comments or suggestions you'd like to make please let me know.
*****VACANCY BOARD REVIEWS - UPDATE***** Chris Pengelly of Riley Advertising will be continuing to review the major UK vacancy boards specifically for the recruit net newsletter.
Sites he will be looking at in the coming issues include New Monday, Fish and Workthing. He will then begin to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the main horizontal sites versus the vertical sites that they compete against. Chris will also be writing full reviews on some of the niche industry and function specific sites in the near future. If you've any comments or suggestions of sites to be reviewed please let me know.
If you are interested in writing an article for the recruit net newsletter please drop me a note with your suggestion. Also, as usual, any feedback and suggestions are most welcome. Don't forget that if you suggest a site that I then review you'll get an Internet goodie bag!!
recruit net - the fortnightly newsletter for keeping recruiters up to date with developments on the Internet.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (The Universal Currency Converter & Human Resource Management Resources on the Internet) - CV Database Review - Request for help (Salary Surveys) - Subscription form
**~~~~~** Just before I get on with the reviews I thought I'd mention that I've been asking the UK Vacancy Boards to update/provide short profiles for the UK Recruiters Home Page. They are still coming back to me but already I've got over 80 profiles on the site. The listing of around 220 UK Vacancy Boards is at www.nmib.com/recruiter/vacboard.htm and the profiles can be found at www.nmib.com/recruiter/vbprof.htm. If you think I've missed any UK Vacancy Boards - drop me a note. **~~~~~**
*****REVIEWED SITES*****
http://www.xe.com/ucc/full.shtml The Universal Currency Converter The "Full" Universal Currency Converter has information on 180 currencies in over 250 geographical locations. You enter the amount of money you wish to convert into the first field and then choose the currency you are converting from and the currency you are converting to and click on the button at the bottom (which helpfully says "click here to perform currency conversion"). The results re-state your initial query and give the converted amount in the currency of your choice.
There are a number of other currency related services available on the site including the "E-Mail Currency Update Service". This service is free and by subscribing you receive daily currency rate updates, by email, in the base currency of your choice. One of the other services is "The Interactive Currency Table"; this service allows you to create currency tables for past dates back to 1995. There is also a cut-down version of the currency converter with about 100 common currencies at http://www.xe.net/ucc/.
This site was recommended by Ann Aken of Perpetual Resources Ltd - who will shortly be receiving a goodie bag for her efforts.
http://www.nbs.ntu.ac.uk/depts/hrm/hrm_link.htm Human Resource Management Resources on the Internet The Department of Human Resource Management at Nottingham Business School maintains this site. It is basically a list of Internet resources relevant to HR. The site is split up into 20 main categories - including HR publications, recruitment services, HR mailing lists and business psychology resources. You can use the site either by browsing each sub category or by viewing a page with the full list of links (primarily designed to allow you to print it off). I haven't counted the number of sites linked to but there must be over 700.
This is a really useful starting point for all things HR and recruitment related. It's quite easy to navigate and many of the sections have great resources. One of the slightly off-putting things is that despite the fact this site has been developed in the UK for use by students based at Nottingham Business School there are a lot of US links. Sometimes these are just as relevant as the UK ones but when you need a UK based resource they are a bit annoying.
Dan Donovan of Spike Broadband Systems, based in the US, recommended this site.
*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - WRITTEN BY JANE BARRETT***** Jane is a freelance onsite recruiter who is currently working for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
As a freelance in-house recruiter I am always looking for ways to reduce "cost per hire" for my clients, so I jumped at the chance to review on-line databases for the recruit net newsletter. When faced with the bewildering choice of on-line databases available, I thought I would start with one of the most well known.
Monster.co.uk (www.monster.co.uk)
142,000 CV's, costs £2,000 per quarter, 180,000 registered candidates based in the UK, all industries and job functions covered. Following their recent "Beware of the voices" campaign, they claim 700 new CVs are being registered everyday.
Monster offers an online database, as well as an extensive job posting board. It enables recruiters to post jobs and search the database online via the "recruiter's office". The "recruiter's office" is very user friendly. The search criteria are broad, but there is a facility to conduct a sub-search, which is very handy for narrowing your search.
The best feature in my book is the "job agent" that emails you when someone with the criteria you specify posts their CV. Then you can go directly into the site and check the new CV's. I set up several "job agents" for each technical skill. Candidates are encouraged to write a description of their ideal job. This is a recruiter's time-saver. You can immediately see if a candidate would be interested in the company or the job for which you are recruiting. It was easy to contact candidates by clicking on their email at the top of their CV. Some candidate's CV's are confidential which offers privacy for candidates and no embarrassing moments for recruiters!
Most candidates seemed to be graduate level, middle management and above. I have only used the service for a week and I have already contacted a couple of candidates - so I am impressed by the quality. If you only make one placement a quarter, it will have more than paid for itself. Fingers crossed I make a placement!
In the next newsletter I am planning to review CVServe. If you find a site you think I should review or have an experience of an online database (good or bad!) that you would like to share please email Louise at louise@nmib.com
*****REQUEST FOR HELP***** Recently I've had a couple of emails from recruiters trying to locate reliable sources on the Internet for salary benchmarking. I know there are some great paid for services out there - but I'm specifically trying to find services that can be used for free. I mentioned this quite a long time ago in the newsletter and I know that a couple of people suggested using the information contained in job advertisements on vacancy boards. However, the problem with this is that different people tend to use job titles to describe different jobs and companies tend to put the higher end of a salary bracket on a job advert. I'd be really pleased if anyone can suggest a reliable way of getting this sort of information.
recruit net - the fortnightly newsletter for keeping recruiters up to date with developments on the Internet.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (British Companies & MapQuest) - CV Database Review - Salary Survey Sites - Subscription form
*****REVIEWED SITES*****
http://www.britishcompanies.co.uk British Companies This is a directory site of UK companies. It is organised into about 40 categories (such as DIY, food/drink and office equipment). In general within each category there are three sections: associations and institutes, main directories and companies. The entries within each of these sections contain a hyperlink to the web site and a short description. There is also a sister site called "British Services" (http://www.britishservices.co.uk) which offers the same facilities for companies providing services in the UK - with about 50 categories (such as accountants, marketing and financial services).
Both sites have a link to the "Top 500 British Companies" page (http://www.britishcompanies.co.uk/top500companies.htm). This page lists the top 500 companies by turnover with links to their websites. When I phoned the people who run the site they couldn't remember the source for this listing but said that it "roughly ties in with The Times top 500". Never the less this is a very useful list if you want quick access to the web sites of major UK companies.
This site was recommended by Mike Kerr of Highfield Human Solutions - who will shortly be receiving a goodie bag for his efforts.
http://www.mapquest.co.uk MapQuest MapQuest is a provider of "destination information solutions", otherwise known as maps and driving directions. The maps section on the site is split into three areas; street maps, airport terminal maps and world atlas. To use the street map section all you need do is enter an address, city or town or postcode and the map is brought up. You can zoom in and out on the map (even to see the whole of Europe!) and pan in all directions.
To use the driving directions section of the site you need to enter the addresses you are travelling from and to. You can enter the full address or just the city or postcode. If you want to avoid toll roads or ferry lanes you click on the "add options" button. You can also use this to choose the format in which you want the directions displayed (an overview map with text, text only or turn by turn maps with text). Directions can also be provided in a number of different languages. When the directions are given they come up showing the fastest route although you can choose instead to see the shortest route. There are options to print, download to PDA, email or fax the directions. Another tab allows you to display the reverse directions.
Whilst I've previously covered other map sites (see http://www.nmib.com/recruiter/recnet.htm) this one is generally quick and easy to use and the driving directions results are straightforward to read. This is another very useful site for planning journeys and locating maps.
*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - WRITTEN BY JANE BARRETT***** Jane is a freelance onsite recruiter who is currently working for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
CVServe (http://www.cvserve.com)
157,000 CV's, costs £250 per quarter, 95% of candidates based in the UK, mainly seem to specialise in technical IT and telecoms. Has both permanent and contractors.
CV serve offers an online database, as well as a job posting board. It enables recruiters to post jobs and search the database online.
Extremely easy to use, although a bit limited in terms of "making the recruiters life easier" functionality. Long pull down menu of technical skills. The job functions were mainly technical roles.
The search I did found some impressive candidates and I even found an interconnect analyst which is as rare as hen's teeth! However you would need to put aside some time to do the searching, as it was difficult to keep track of which candidate's details you have seen. Some details were a bit scant, but you could always contact the candidate direct, to get the details you needed. The major downside was that there was no ability to do a free text subsearch or see what the candidate's job title was, before you displayed their full details. On the plus side, one feature I particularly liked was being able to control how the CV was printed.
In summary I think it's a pretty good site and seemed to have a good selection of middle level technical people.
If you find a site you think I should review or have an experience of an online database (good or bad!) that you would like to share, please email Louise at louise@nmib.com
*****SALARY SURVEY SITES***** Thanks very much to all who responded to my request for help in the last newsletter. I thought I would list all the sites that have been recommended with a brief overview.
The JobStats site (http://www.jobstats.co.uk) was recommended by Chloe Bennett of Priam. The site focuses on salaries within the UK computing industry and gives details of average salaries split by location, job type and skills.
Colin Lawton recommends The Graduate Labour Market (http://www.prospects.csu.ac.uk/student/cidd/lmi/main.htm) where you can search the graduate salary database. Colin also mentioned the Free IT Salary Survey compiled by the National Computing Centre (http://www2.vnu.co.uk/v5_static/v5_compass/).
Jonathan Mills of Aerotek uses The Skills Market (http://www.theskillsmarket.co.uk) for salary information on IT roles. However, in order to access the information you will need to register and pay a subscription. A cut down version of the information is available at Agency Central (http://www.agencycentral.co.uk) free of charge.
For information on the Irish market you could try Finfacts International Salary Comparisons (http://www.finfacts.com) as suggested by Jess Tyler of S.Com Group. Jess also mentioned IT Club USA (http://www.itclubusa.com), which even though it is US focussed may have international comparisons available.
Finally on an associated note don't forget about the Reed Salary Calculator (http://www.reed.co.uk) where you can do a comparison of salaries by geographical region (Natasha Deloughery of PRL reminded me of this site).
If you know of any more good salary survey sites please let me know.
recruit net - the fortnightly newsletter for keeping recruiters up to date with developments on the Internet.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (Zephus & Search Engine Watch) - CV Database Review - Vacancy Board Review - Subscription form
*****REVIEWED SITES*****
http://www.zephus.com Zephus Zephus is a Mergers and Acquisitions intelligence resource. All of the information on the site is free. When you first go into the site you see the main headlines on mergers and acquisitions for that day (once you have set up a free account and chosen the companies and markets you are interested the news on the home page is tailored to your interests). Along the top of the home page are the search options. To conduct a basic search you enter the company name or industry, the type of deal you are looking for (eg, acquisition, initial public offering, joint venture, etc) the time period within which you want to search and the country in which companies are based.
The results give you an initial table showing a summary of information based on the deals the search has found (eg, average deal size in British Pounds and average pre-tax profit). To see details of the individual deals you click on the "go to deals" button where you can see information on the companies involved, their market places, the deal type and value and the current status.
There are other tools available on the site including the Quoted Company Search. There is quite a lot of information on companies, including contact information, web site url, aliases, name of parent company and details of any subsidiaries. This part of the site is a useful feature in itself.
This is a great resource if you want to keep up with what your clients are doing, if you are going to see a new client and want to do some background research, or if you are conducting target company identification.
http://www.searchenginewatch.com Search Engine Watch This site is both for webmasters wanting to make sure their website gets a good ranking in the search engines and for search engine users. The site is a comprehensive analysis of how search engines work and how best to use them and has been created and maintained by Danny Sullivan who is a recognised expert in search engines.
The main areas of the site for search engine users are the Search Engine Listings (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/links/) and the Search Engine Newsletter (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/index.html). The newsletter is free and comes out monthly giving information on changes to existing search engines, announcements of new search engines and any changes to the Search Engine Watch website. Other useful sections within the website include Web Search Tips and Reviews, Ratings and Tests. Because there is a lot of other information on the site it is worth looking at the site map.
This is a very useful site and despite the large amounts of information contained on it - it remains uncluttered and easy to use.
*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - WRITTEN BY JANE BARRETT***** Jane is a freelance onsite recruiter who is currently working for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Jobmagic (http://www.jobmagic.net)
90,000 CV's, costs £800 per month (extended to 6 weeks for new customers), this includes database searching, company profile, banner ad and unlimited vacancy advertising. Majority of candidates are based in the UK, earning over £30,000 and mainly permanent. Specialises in wide range of job functions but with a bias to IT.
This site, part of the Rexonline PLC, claims to be among the top 10 companies on the web for online marketing spend and has 76,000 new visitors a month. It mainly focuses on corporate advertising, unlike its sister company Jobtrack, which is more focused on the agency marketplace.
I found the search easy to do, although I needed to have quick read through the "help" notes. The synopsis for each candidate was helpful, and saved time when deciding which candidate's details to look at. Another good idea was the ability to save your searches in groups - which would be useful for tracking candidates and bulk emailing. One negative point was not having the option to search on salaries and some of the candidates; I found had no salary details. I liked the word search feature, especially useful when searching for unusual IT skills, although I managed to get error messages on one search I did.
Two other pieces of useful functionality were the "CV Surveillance" which delivers the 10 most relevant CV's to your desk each day and "Look whose looking now" which shows you the latest 50 CV's on the site. These features might be more useful for a recruiter looking for a number of roles, as the roles I look for are very specific.
Overall I found a couple of strong candidates and I would rate it as a site worth seriously considering. The client testimonials are impressive in their praise of the site and the customer service - which was very helpful. Rexonline PLC are developing more specialised sites for some key skill areas - which should make searching more accurate. I will hopefully review them later this year and report back.
If you find a site you think I should review or have an experience of an online database (good or bad!) that you would like to share, please email Louise at louise@nmib.com
*****VACANCY BOARD REVIEWS - BY CHRIS PENGELLY***** Chris Pengelly of Riley Advertising reviews UK vacancy boards specifically for the recruit net newsletter. Chris also gives each vacancy board a score out of 50 derived from an internal Riley survey.
Workthing (http://www.workthing.com) Running a recruitment website is a delicate balance between content and function, Workthing appear to be more aware of this than most. The site is interesting, well planned, and leads the pack in the way that search results are displayed
They have, obviously, thought long and hard about the user experience, however, the end result is a slight over complication in inputting things like areas that you would like to work in both geographically and in terms of business sector. This is a disappointment and I wonder how many people start an advanced search or begin uploading their personal details and do not finish.
There is a good variety of vacancies on the site from a number of different sectors, not the normal dominance by the IT sector, but the site is totally dominated by recruitment consultants, with over 2700 jobs from Robert Half, and over 2000 Joslin Rowe.
Although still a relative newcomer traffic has risen steadily and now there are about 300,000 unique visitors per month to the site opening 2.7million pages in January. In total there are around 11000 jobs advertised on the site of which more than 10,000 are from recruitment consultants (over 1700 are also jobs originally published in The Guardian newspaper).
In a nutshell the site works incredibly well and will establish good user loyalty through the editorial content of the site. Job searching is a bit over complicated; if you want to specify location or sector, and the results will be a let down for those candidates looking to apply direct to an employer.
The site scores reasonably well in all categories giving a total of 30 out 50 on the Riley scale (the top score being 44 from GoJobsite), and this can only be expected to increase as the site matures.
recruit net - the fortnightly newsletter for keeping recruiters up to date with developments on the Internet.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (Europages & Fast Facts) - CV Database Review (PlanetRecruit) - Vacancy Board Review (Newmonday.com) - New Feature (Recruitment Technologies) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITES*****
http://www.europages.com Europages Europages is a business directory that covers 30 European countries. There are 500,000 companies listed within the directory. You can either search the site or browse the directory. On the home page there are two simple search options - either to search by product/service or by company name. The results show the company name, address, industry classification, phone number and some have a map. You can also conduct a more advanced search, but beware that you can only do this once you've got the results of the initial search. The advanced search gives the additional option of searching for companies by geographical area. You can also select how you want the results sorted (by amount of company information, alphabetically by company name or alphabetically by country). If you choose to browse the site you can select from 25 main categories (such as Telecommunications Industry and Banking & Finance). Once you go into a category you can see how many companies are listed within that subject area and in each of the sub categories.
This is a useful site if you are looking to find the locations of companies across a number of countries - or if you want to browse for companies in a particular sector. It is a sort of European-wide Yellow Pages.
http://gwu.edu/~gprice/handbook.htm Fast Facts: Almanacs/Fact books/Statistical Reports and Related Reference Tools This is another useful site from Gary Price - who also compiles Gary Price's List of lists (http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~gprice/listof.htm) as reviewed in Issue 44 of the newsletter. As the title suggests it is a compilation of sites that can help in the research of factual information. The site is constructed as one very long page. After the introduction there is a section of recent additions (which do not necessarily give a good impression of what the site offers). Next there is a small section of "Very Fast Facts" and below this is a table of all the categories covered on the site (this includes such subjects as Reference, Investing, Business, UK). Beneath this table all the links are grouped by category. The main focus of the site is the US as Gary Price is based in the States, but it does have sections for the UK and several other countries.
This site is definitely worth looking at if you are trying to locate statistical or factual information.
*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - WRITTEN BY JANE BARRETT***** Jane is a freelance onsite recruiter who is currently working for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
PlanetRecruit (www.planetrecruit.com)
100,000 CV's, costs from £250 per month, this monthly subscription covers unlimited job postings and CV access. PlanetRecruit told me that the majority of candidates are male, 25+, earn over £20k p.a. and have IT experience. They do assure me they cover all age groups, females as well as males and all industry sectors and levels.
I found the search quick and easy to do, there was a nifty little feature that allows you to select the geographic regions in a very user-friendly interface. The search criteria questions were well thought out and I liked the fact I could do a key word search. The best part for me was the presentation of the candidate information that allowed you to get the "headlines" before drilling down to get all the information on the candidate.
One piece of functionality that was useful was the ability to have new CV's that matched your criteria emailed to you.
One area however that needs improvement is to broaden the search criteria for the industry and job functions. At the moment this is only 8 categories, which is far too broad. Also a salary level search criteria would be very helpful.
As a round up I was impressed with the site, as I found it very fast and easy to use. My only comment would be that if you are looking for people that are quite broad in their experience, you could be searching forever! I was looking for specific IT skills and this is when the key word search came into its own.
If you find a site you think I should review or have an experience of an online database (good or bad!) that you would like to share, please email Louise at louise@nmib.com.
Jane is on holiday for the next fortnight - but will be back in time for issue #58
*****VACANCY BOARD REVIEWS - BY CHRIS PENGELLY***** Chris Pengelly of Riley Advertising reviews UK vacancy boards specifically for the recruit net newsletter. Chris also gives each vacancy board a score out of 50 derived from an internal Riley survey.
Newmonday.com (www.newmonday.co.uk)
VNU have had plenty of experience of launching recruitment websites in the UK and here they go again with Newmonday.com. This time they are in step or even slightly ahead of the rest of the market with the inclusion of services that take them half way to being an online recruitment consultancy. Candidates register their details with the site and these are matched against client requirements, the matching candidates are telephoned to check for interest and availability. As pre-selection of candidates seems to be the way that the market is going why not take it a stage further and actually check that they are interested?
The site is up there as one of the best around at the moment. It is clean and quick to download, simple to navigate and search, plus it offers some really useful editorial. Although it is dominated by IT vacancies, 18,000 jobs out of a total of 25,000, and by consultancies, 24,000 out of 25,000, it is also good for Finance and Accountancy - VNU publish Accountancy Age so this is hardly surprising.
Newmonday.com is a really good site but there are a number of really good sites out there and everything that Newmonday.com does somebody else does probably a bit bigger and a bit better. Traffic figures are overall pretty good with 160,000 visitors a month opening 1.6 million pages.
The site scores a reasonable 35 out of 50 on the Riley scale which will increase with more traffic to the site and with more vacancies from other sectors apart from IT and accountancy.
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES***** From the next edition, 21st March 2001, Alan Whitford is going to be joining the recruit net team to write reviews of recruitment related technology products and services for the newsletter. Alan is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes. Alan will cover such areas as candidate management software, job application tracking tools, sifting and screening technologies and vacancy board posting services. If you've any comments or suggestions you'd like to make please let me know.
recruit net - the fortnightly newsletter for keeping recruiters up to date with developments on the Internet.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (iTools! & Google Groups) - Vacancy Board Review (Salesvacancies.com & uksalespro) - Recruitment Technologies (Overview & "Ask and Expert") - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITES*****
http://www.itools.com iTools! This resource site is split into three main sections that contain language tools, research tools and internet search tools. The site is a series of meta search engines that allow you to search across a number of databases or tools. For example within the Dictionaries area of the language tools section you can look up a word or term from one of 7 dictionaries.
The language tools section also contains thesaurus and translation tools. An interesting feature is that the one word translator will try and "guess" the language the original word is typed in and then translate it into "many languages" (as a result I can now say chocolate in 14 different languages!). Within the Research tools section of the web site are library tools (biographical and quotations dictionaries), geographical tools (maps and telephone directory), financial tools (currency converter, stock market look-ups) and an email discussion group search tool. The Find-It section allows you to search the web, newsgroups, a people directory and software sites all from one place.
This is a great site for looking up simple information or for conducting basic searches across a number of resources. The site was recommended by Chloe Bennett of Priam Solutions who has been sent an internet goodie bag.
**subscribing to the newsletter** If you regularly forward this newsletter to colleagues why not suggest they fill out the form at the end of the newsletter to get their own copy - completely free of charge.
http://groups.google.com Google Groups Google recently acquired the Deja.com newsgroup archive database and are currently in the process of making it available over the internet. In the meantime Google Groups is a good site for searching more recent newsgroup articles (from August 2000 onward) and for locating relevant newsgroups for postings. There is a simple search box on the home page of the site or you can alternatively browse the newsgroups by category (NB, to find uk specific newsgroups you will need to click on "more groups" at the end of the "Browse Groups" section). If you want to conduct a more sophisticated search you can click on the "usenet advanced search" link. Here you can search through postings from particular newsgroups, or just search the subject and/or author field. To get the best out of this site it is worth reading the help page as well as the search tips page.
A current limitation of Google is that it doesn't support posting to newsgroups - but this feature is in the pipeline.
*****VACANCY BOARD REVIEWS - BY CHRIS PENGELLY***** Chris Pengelly of Riley Advertising reviews UK vacancy boards specifically for the recruit net newsletter.
Salesvacancies.com (www.salesvacancies.com) & uksalespro (www.uksalespro.net) As the names suggest these are vacancy boards that specifically target Sales People.
Salesvacancies.com has about 10,000 visitors per month, and currently has 727 jobs advertised online. Uksalespro had about 4,000 visitors in February and has about 250 jobs online. Salesvacancies.com has been going since July last year and uksalespro since February 1st of this year. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the volume of jobs and visitors will increase for uksalespro over the next few months.
The uksalespro site also has some decent resources and editorial and is likely to get repeat visitors that are not necessarily looking for a job but may just have a bit of a browse. This would encourage passive as well as active job seekers.
The two sites charge in different ways with salesvacancies.com charging £250 for 1 to 5 vacancy slots and uksalespro offering a 50 credit vacancy package (includes corporate profile) for £1500.00 for four weeks. With uksalespro one vacancy credit will get you a lineage entry; ten will get you a display entry.
Just to put a little perspective to all of the above TotalJobs has 1395 Sales jobs online at the moment (and 420 Marketing) and those figures are likely to increase fairly steeply over the next couple of months, as is their traffic (42,861 page impressions for Sales an 47,388 for Marketing in January). GoJobsite have around 1600 sales jobs and 34,000 e-mail subscribers to them. For marketing they have around 400 jobs and 25,000 e-mail subscribers.
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - BY ALAN WHITFORD***** Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes. As well as Alan's regular articles we are also introducing an 'Ask the Expert' section where Alan will answer questions relating to recruitment technologies. Please submit questions to louise@nmib.com . We will pick the most interesting question and respond in the following editions.
**An Overview ** What are the tools we need today to use the Internet most effectively for recruitment? In our first article in this series, we will provide an overview of the evolution of Hiring Management Technologies. Succeeding articles will focus on the benefits to be derived from different approaches to automating recruitment processes and what companies are the key players.
So, how did Hiring Management Technologies evolve from the usual 'system' of paper-based recruitment methods to the modern integrated business systems used by companies such as Nortel Networks and Cisco Systems?
Ground Zero - Paper based systems This is the system we all start with, whether as a corporate recruiter or in a recruitment consultancy. Independent paper based systems - individual recruiter oriented - that evolved over time. Most systems integrated poorly with other paper based business systems such as payroll, benefits administration or central HR systems.
Level 1 - Basic Database approach The clever recruiter looked around the office to see what kind of technology was in the office and how that might be adapted to recruitment needs. Independent PC-based or local area network systems for particular staffing functions developed. Included elementary report writing and possibly integrated with payroll. Manual data entry versions of applicant tracking. Used basic databases (Access) or spreadsheets (Excel), aligned with word processing and, in a sophisticated environment, e-mail.
Level 2 - Networked CV Database Beginning of paper based systems being transferred into two tiered networked databases. Recruitment paperwork and CVs become electronic. Scanning and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software and hardware developed which enabled the CV to be turned into a text file. Electronic application forms available at kiosks or over the Internet. Significant new players (Resumix, Restrac, Personic) founded to develop purpose built recruitment workflow solutions with networked access to CV databases. Sophisticated searching/matching tools for skilling requisitions and matching to candidate skills. Recruiters have full on-line access to candidates and requisitions over the company network. Interfaces to the major HRIS solutions from PeopleSoft, SAP, Oracle.
Level 3 - Web Enabled Recruitment Solutions Staffing transactions and information become automated or web enabled. Drive to bring cost of the large systems down and to make access to information for recruiters and candidates more 'user friendly'. Web automation of recruitment transactions becomes the focus. Resourcing department "owns" and distributes information. External candidates apply through company's internet web site and internal employees apply via the intranet. Major recruitment systems vendors rewrite their products for the internet. Many new players such as Virtual Village and JobPartners enter the market with web designed recruitment workflow solutions. Internet job boards add new impetus to looking for work via the web.
Level 4 - E-Staffing The next logical step is for integration of the recruitment solutions with internal and external business processes and systems. The hiring management solution is allied with productivity increasing applications such as customer relationship management offerings.
Level 5 - Workforce Planning Using the tools for hiring management solutions for internal employee mobility. Skills gap analysis and career planning tools connected with other business enabling applications. Integrated with client's business strategies and goals and matched to market demands to predict future workforce needs.
**Ask the Expert** Q: Where is the market in terms of truly translatable software for pan-European sites? Sara McGinley
A: You should be asking why you want different languages. Is it for local user and candidate access only? Do you require a multilingual candidate database (much more difficult to develop and maintain)? What is the 'language of recruitment' in your business?
The current crop of web-based recruitment systems are beginning to offer multi-lingual offerings due to the ease of redefining fields in html based applications. ActiveRecruiter from JobPartners and VirtualVillage (now owned by JobPilot) offer their solutions in different language versions. Personic has delivered a French language version. The Internet Job Boards such as Stepstone, Monster and JobPilot offer candidates and customers alike local language applications and management tools.
recruit net - the fortnightly newsletter for keeping recruiters up to date with developments on the Internet.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (Maporama & Pandia) - CV Database Review (Peoplebank) - News Item (HR Portal) - Recruitment Technologies (An Overview - Part II) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITES*****
http://www.maporama.com Maporama This site provides maps, driving directions and a yellow pages service with good global coverage. It contains maps from more than 187 countries with street maps of 635,000 towns and cities. For the UK 94% of the road network is covered. To locate a map you select the country and then enter an address and/or postcode and city. Once the map is displayed you can zoom in or move about the map. You can also send the map by email or put it into "printer-friendly" format.
The site's other main features are the yellow pages directory and a journey planner tool (under the heading itineraries). The yellow pages directory is not as complete as others such as www.yell.co.uk or www.thomweb.co.uk but it does provide a common source for multiple countries. To use the journey planner you enter the start and end locations. The results give you an overview map, journey distance and travel time along with step-by-step directions. Maporama also has a few fairly unusual features. These include a weather forecast for the start and end location, an average speed suggestion for the journey and you can also easily view detailed maps of the start and end locations. Also at each stage of the journey you can search through the yellow pages directory for hotels, restaurants and leisure activities.
You can also personalise the content by using "My Maporama". This allows you to register your maps and favourite itineraries. You can also save preferences such as the size and the colour of the maps
I know there are lots of map sites already out there - but this is another really great one.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
JobTrack Online - www.jobtrack.co.uk Online tools for recruiters - post your vacancies with them and they automatically display it on 25 other partner sites including Yahoo and the online version of the Daily Telegraph, search through over 70,000 CV's and contact job seekers the second that they register - All for one low fixed cost!
For more information telephone 01344 874422 or email sales@jobtrack.co.uk =======================
http://www.pandia.com/news Pandia News This is a meta news site. It provides access to news content from sites such as BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo, Moreover (covered in issue 52) and NewsHub.
You can either conduct a search or browse through the categories. Major categories are: main headlines, internet, business, life, sports and technology. Within the category "main headlines", for example, you can select sub-categories including US politics, UK politics and economics. When you conduct a search the results that come back give the headline, the source, date and normally a summary. To view the full text of the article you click on the headline. When you are structuring your search query you need to bear in mind that Pandia is searching the indexes of a number of different sites. Not all of them will use the same search query language. However, in the main, you will get best results by using the plus sign to force a word to be present in the results and the minus sign to expressly exclude a term from results. You can also use quotation marks to search for phrases.
In addition, on the home page below the categories, there are the actual main headlines of the day (5 main world headlines). There is also a section on weather where you can enter a city to get today's weather forecast. At the end of the home page there is a hypertext list of newspapers, free news search sites and search engines.
This is another great site for researching a particular company or industry sector and for just keeping up to date with current news from around the world.
*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - WRITTEN BY JANE BARRETT***** Jane is a freelance onsite recruiter who is currently working for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Peoplebank (www.peoplebank.com)
150,000 CV's, currently with the "Direct" product you pay to assess the contact details of a qualified candidate (1% of salary) or £500 a month for unlimited searching. Rather than state all statistics of the database here, refer to the site where up-to-date statistics are provided.
I registered as a "guest" user, which enabled me to search the online database for free. There was another service that allowed the recruiter access to more features such as more detailed searching and the ability to post jobs on the site.
The main attraction, of this easy to navigate site, was the "pay as you go" pricing. So I could find a CV I was interested in and then contact Peoplebank to get the candidate's contact details for which I had to pay. I was also given the information, as to when the candidate had registered, so I could decide how far I thought a candidate might be in their job search and whether it was worth me contacting them.
Judging by some of the search criteria, the online database has a very broad mix of candidates, I even saw "clergyman" listed! From conducting a few searches, the broader the search, the more CV's were brought up. One of the searches was for a specific technical skill and I felt I would have had more success had I been able to search only on key skills rather than the mandatory definitions I had to chose from.
All in all, I would recommend you have a go on Peoplebank! After all the great thing is you have nothing to lose and if you find it meets what you are looking for you can invest in buying access to more features.
This is my last online database review for recruit net, as I am going to spend more time doing career coaching, which is demanding more of my time. I have enjoyed reviewing the online databases on the market and the feature that has been most useful is being emailed the details of database candidates who most closely match the search criteria.
If you are interested in researching and writing CV Database reviews for the newsletter please email louise@nmib.com or telephone 01635 254881.
***** News Item - HR Portal Recruitment Advertising Quotation System*****
HR Portal (www.hrportal.co.uk) has recently introduced an interesting and potentially valuable service to help recruiters place adverts on the internet. To use the service recruiters email HR Portal with details of the requirement. As well as a job spec the recruiter would specify how many jobs are to be advertised, whether or not access to a CV database is required along with a number of other criteria. HR Portal creates a shortlist of vacancy boards and then requests quotations from each of the sites. They are currently offering a free trial of the quotation system. If you want more information contact Marcus or David on 0208 287 8888 or email scott@hrportal.co.uk
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - BY ALAN WHITFORD***** Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes.
**An Overview - Part II** Last week, we looked at the overall evolution of automation in the recruitment space. What are some of the current terms and what do the systems actually cover today?
Applicant and Requisition Tracking - Many options - web based, web enabled or client-server - Can provide overall management of the recruitment process - Automates the tasks associated with creating requisitions, accepting and tracking candidates - Streamlines the hiring process - Ensures existing employees are aware of internal openings - Reduces hiring costs
Candidate Management Systems - Define specific skill and competency requirements - Search and match position skill requirements against any and all CVs in an electronic CV database - Automatically process CVs that are received electronically as a result of any Internet sourcing means - Perform automatic matching to open positions of electronic form CVs as they are received - Use e-mail to automatically notify recruiters or hiring mangers that a prospective candidate has been located - Forward the candidate CV or summary of their qualifications to the recruiters or hiring managers
Screening and Filtering - Screening and filtering applications are tools that 'filter' responses - Can be both pre or post application - Generally based on keywords (post application) or online questions (pre application) - Can be useful to reduce quantity and increase quality of response. - Types of screening/filtering applications include: -- 'Killer Questions' to sift applicants - an online version of 'yes, no, maybe', e.g. visa requirements, driving licence, years experience -- Creation of skills profiles for candidates to complete to enable better matching -- Based on profiles, candidates can be ranked according to employer requirements -- More advanced screening can include cultural fit and competency-based questions
Job posting tools and sites - Also know as Cross Posting Tools - Post jobs automatically to pre-selected range of job sites - May be provided by the software vendor, or increasingly, by the prime job board - Post to one, they post to others
As well as Alan's regular articles we are also introducing an 'Ask the Expert' section where Alan will answer questions relating to recruitment technologies. Please submit questions to louise@nmib.com . We will pick the most interesting question and respond in the following editions.
recruit net - the fortnightly newsletter for keeping recruiters up to date with developments on the Internet.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (The Industry Standard Europe & Copernic) - Vacancy Board Review (Fish4Jobs) - Recruitment Technologies (ASPs) - News Item (Top Temp Consultant Awards) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.thestandardeurope.com The Industry Standard Europe web site is billed as guide to the European internet economy. The site is maintained by the company who also publish the Industry Standard magazine although much of the content on the site is not found in the magazine. The site has the feel of a news resource about it with "breaking news" headlines on the home page. It then has 8 main categories (called sections) including commerce, jobs & workplace and money & markets. These categories contain recent news stories and opinions. Within the Jobs & Workplace section there is a piece entitled HeadHunter that is apparently "the best jobs gossip column in the Internet Economy". From the home page there is a search facility where you can search the entire site. Another interesting feature are the email newsletters - there are five including Daily News ("today's news events"), Metrics Report ("the weekly newsletter of internet economy research and analysis") and New Gig Europe (covers all aspects of recruitment in the European internet market). Whilst the newsletters do recycle some of the content from the web site and magazine they also have exclusive news stories and opinion.
Whilst this site might be especially useful for those recruiting within the internet industry it also a useful resource for researching and keeping up to date with internet technology issues this side of the Atlantic.
=====ADVERTISEMENT===== Clicked off with your recruitment web site? Candidates and clients going off the boil?
HotLizard creates recruitment sites that combine cutting edge development with seamless systems integration.
Having successfully delivered web sites for some of the biggest names in recruitment, we've really got a grip on the market.
Heat up your site - talk to HotLizard: www.hotlizard.net 01264 7303000 ========================
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.copernic.com Copernic 2001 is an "intelligent agent" that searches the internet by simultaneously contacting a number of key search engines. To use it you must visit the site and download the software. The version that I use, Copernic 2001 Basic, is free to download and gives access to 80 search engines grouped into 7 categories (including the web, newsgroups and e-mail addresses). By purchasing one of the commercial versions (Copernic 2001 Plus and Copernic 2001 Pro) you have access to over 1000 search engines and more than 90 categories) along with additional search features.
To conduct a search you choose your area of interest and enter keywords. You don't need to worry about the specific rules for searching each of the search engines as Copernic ensures the search is correctly formed. Once you've clicked on the search button Copernic connects with the most relevant search engines. The results are displayed as they are returned and then Copernic eliminates any duplication and displays the results in order of relevance.
Once the search has been completed you can download the results onto your computer for off-line browsing. For those people who still have a dial up internet connection this can be a real money saver. Because the results are saved you can also request an update on an existing search
This is a really handy search tool that has been recommended by Alison Pilpel of David Stevens International; Alison will soon by receiving a goodie bag.
=====ADVERTISEMENT===== PlanetRecruit - www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies. Partnerships with MSN UK, Yahoo! UK, Infospace amongst others. EXCLUSIVE partnerships with MSN Hotmail and the BCS. Probably the largest daily CV feed in the UK with ***over 100,000 top quality CV's*** All for one low fixed cost per month! (subscription)
For more information contact T: 0870 321 3660 or sales@planetrecruit.com ========================
*****VACANCY BOARD REVIEWS - BY CHRIS PENGELLY***** Chris Pengelly of Riley Advertising reviews UK vacancy boards specifically for the recruit net newsletter.
Fish4Jobs (www.fish4jobs.co.uk)
Fish4Jobs undoubtedly has the most comprehensive database of jobs in the UK at the moment. By taking content (jobs) from over 800 local and regional dailies and weeklies the site offers a depth of coverage that no other will be able to compete with. With all of those sites offering good local information and drawing traffic as a result, and linking back through to the Fish4Jobs search engine they have more opportunity than any other sites to capture the 'passive jobseeker'.
As a job seeking resource it is of more use for non-professional positions. This is not to say that it would not pull any response for a senior product manager, for example, but it may be that the quality is not up to much. This is an argument that does apply to all horizontal sites by virtue of the internet being an open media, (I am sure that Fish will argue that the database technology (which seems excellent) will mean less wastage in search results and as a consequence less wastage in response), but the audience is important and is affected by the type of jobs that it is likely to find. The sort of job that you should put on the site therefore is the sort of job that has traditionally gone in local and regional newspapers (really not rocket science).
The concept behind Fish4jobs is admirable at the very least. It is difficult not to be a fan of what the site is trying to do. The site is enabling the internet to be a locally useful tool as well as a global media.
The site does very well for traffic with 350,681 unique users opening 8,366,951 pages in March. Overall Fish4Jobs scores 38 out of 50 on the 'Riley Index', which ranks it at number three according to our most recent survey.
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - BY ALAN WHITFORD***** Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes. This week he introduces ASPs.
ASPs
What does ASP mean? · ASP is an acronym that stands for Application Service Provider.
What is an Application Service Provider? · An ASP is an agent or broker who assembles functionality needed by enterprises, and packages it with outsourced maintenance and other services. · An ASP provides access for individuals and companies to applications through a browser based (web) interface. The ASP offering will include all the external software and hardware services required to run a business application, without custom code being installed on the company's computer systems. · An ASP deploys, hosts and manages access to a packaged application to multiple parties from a centrally managed facility. The applications are delivered over networks or via the Internet on a subscription basis. This delivery model speeds implementation, minimizes the expenses and risks incurred across the application life cycle, and overcomes the chronic shortage of qualified technical personnel available in-house.
What does an ASP actually do for me? · An ASP provides the means for a company to outsource its computing needs for specific business applications on a case-by-case basis. A company can lease its software, hardware, physical system infrastructure and system for each individual business application. · The ASP solution lets companies focus on their core competencies, and not have to worry about IT management or costs.
What is the difference between an ASP solution and outsourcing the management of our IT systems? · Outsourcing is defined as: The transfer of the management or ownership of components or large segments of an organisation's internal IT infrastructure, staff, processes or applications to an external resource. · The essential difference between an ASP and an outsourcer is that an ASP will manage application servers in a centrally controlled location, rather than on a customer's site.
What type of Application Service Providers are there? · Application providers create the software and applications from which solutions are assembled. This category encompasses the software developers and independent software vendors (ISVs), whose products ASPs and service integrators deliver. The segment also includes providers who host and deliver their own applications as online services. · Service integrators are the providers that end-user businesses most often recognise as ASPs. They bring together services for delivery as complete, managed solutions. This category also includes more traditional types of professional services company, such as e-business integrators and full-service providers. · Access providers take care of the 'last mile' connection that allows users to access the network. · Infrastructure operators look after the physical backend elements of the network. · Infrastructure service providers make up the software and services layer of the Internet computing infrastructure.
How does it actually work? · Applications are accessed over a network (which could be a dial-up or leased IP/ISDN/modem connection), which employees use through a standard web browser interface. In such an arrangement, applications can be scaled, upgrades and maintenance can be centralised, physical security over the applications and servers can be guaranteed, and the necessary critical mass of human resources can be efficiently utilised · Whilst several variations of this model exist, in general, monthly fees are paid by the end-user business, which will include the application software, hardware, service and support, maintenance, and upgrades.
In the next issue Alan will identify the benefits of using ASPs and answer some of the frequently asked questions about ASPs.
***** News Item - Top Temp Consultant Awards 2001***** Just thought I'd mention the Top Temp Consultant Awards. These are for consultants placing either temps or contractors or interim managers. The awards are sponsored by CashFriday and in association with The Curve and TGI Friday's. The overall winner will receive a holiday for two in San Francisco. For more information visit the CashFriday web site at www.cashfriday.co.uk/FILES/TopTemp.php
recruit net - the fortnightly newsletter for keeping recruiters up to date with developments on the Internet.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (Salary Checker from totaljobs.com & FTMarketWatch) - Vacancy Board Review (Picking a site to advertise accountancy vacancies) - Recruitment Technologies (ASPs Part 2) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
www.totaljobs.com Salary checker - totaljobs.com Surprisingly few vacancy boards seem to offer useful value added services for recruiters. However, totaljobs.com are an exception with their detailed Salary Checker. The salary checker, accessed from the home page, is based on information contained in the SSP Quarterly Survey of Appointments and Data.
To use the salary checker you need to first choose an industry from the list (these are catering & hospitality, electronics, human resources, IT/internet, property and travel/leisure/tourism). You then choose a job category (for example within "Human Resources" you can select the job category "training"), job title (eg, "training manager"), industry sector (eg, "charities") and location (eg, Wales). The results show the average salaries for that job function for the geographical area you have chosen as well as nationally.
It can be quite difficult to locate salary information for free on the internet and this is a simple to use and useful service. If you were to purchase this data it would cost £325 for an annual subscription.
If anyone is using other free services found on vacancy boards that subscribers to the newsletter might be interested please let me know.
=====ADVERTISEMENT===== Clicked off with your recruitment web site? Candidates and clients going off the boil?
HotLizard creates recruitment sites that combine cutting edge development with seamless systems integration.
Having successfully delivered web sites for some of the biggest names in recruitment, we've really got a grip on the market.
Heat up your site - talk to HotLizard: www.hotlizard.net 01264 7303000 ========================
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
www.ftmarketwatch.com FTMarketWatch This site is joint venture between the Financial Times (www.ft.com) and Market Watch. It contains free European financial and market news. The site has been developed for private investors but much of the information can be used for business research or analysis.
The site is split into four main sections; News/Commentary, Markets, Research Tools and Portfolios listed on the left of the page. The news and commentary section (seen as the home page to the site) has up to date reporting and analysis of the business markets. There is also coverage of the Europe markets. This section also has marketpulse bulletins that are the commentary on the breaking news. Obviously all of this is geared towards financial market news rather than general business news.
The Markets section allows you to view and track detailed information on the stock markets with information on currency performance.
The Research Tools section of the site has a number of useful tools including "Interactive Charting from BigCharts". These allow you to create custom financial charts. These could be especially useful when conducting research for a client, into target companies or producing detailed briefing packs for candidates. Another useful tool in this section is the "Analyst Research" where you can get the latest research and forecasts on over 1500 European companies.
The Portfolios section requires free registration and gives access to interactive portfolio tools along with email news briefings on the markets.
This site is a useful tool for trying to locate information on, and keeping up to date with, the financial markets.
=====ADVERTISEMENT===== Thousands of CVs online - but anyone suitable? Recruiting great recruiters experienced or graduate intake isn't a numbers game. Quantity doesn't give you quality. Careers in Recruitment offers you CVs from senior, and new recruiters, carefully selected to match your needs. Plus a unique shop window browsed by thousands of professional recruiters each month featuring every detail of your vacancies, your company and your career opportunities. Cost? £1050 gets you a full three-month unlimited vacancy trial, with NO SALARY % FEE. You can subscribe, on the same fixed price terms, for a full year for less than £4000. Interested? call us on 08456 50 55 65, or go to www.careersinrecruitment.com for access to more recruiters, for lower, fixed costs. ========================
*****VACANCY BOARD REVIEWS - BY CHRIS PENGELLY***** Chris Pengelly of Riley Advertising reviews UK vacancy boards specifically for the recruit net newsletter.
**Picking a site to advertise accountancy vacancies**
There are several players in the accountancy recruitment market online and this article attempts to take a broad look at most of them. The best place to start is to look at a selection of sites that carry accountancy vacancies and more importantly have traffic going into their sites looking for accountancy jobs.
The choice is likely to be between the main horizontal sites in this sector (who draw traffic from all walks of life as a result of their expensive advertising campaigns). Another reason for focussing on the main horizontal sites is that the main offline accountancy press, such as Accountancy Age and Accountancy magazine, link up with horizontal sites New Monday and TotalJobs respectively.
How do you choose between the main players? I would suggest that a good place to start is to see where the main sites are now on a generic vacancy like "Financial Controller - Berkshire". This is easy enough to do by running a search on each of them and checking the number and relevancy of results. Below are listed half a dozen of the top sites and the number of jobs each pulled up matching the above criteria:
- TotalJobs (www.totaljobs.com) - 52 jobs - some wastage - Monster (www.monster.co.uk) - 493 jobs - high wastage (A lot of these were IT jobs! For example, second in the results was this job title: C++ Software Engineer - 3D Audio for Gaming & Music To £45k.) - Workthing (www.workthing.co.uk) - 9 jobs - no wastage - GoJobsite (www.gojobsite.co.uk) - 4 jobs - no wastage (all from last seven days only) - Stepstone (www.stepstone.co.uk) - 2 jobs - no wastage - New Monday (www.newmonday.co.uk) - 200+ jobs quite high wastage (although they were all accountancy vacancies)
Out of the above exercise you are left a little wiser - TotalJobs seems to win on numbers and relevance. The next stage would be to do an analysis on a number of generic jobs and test all of those results for relevance. From those results you may get a clear winner, although that is unlikely. For those of you that have the time the next stage would be to do a traffic analysis of each site. Questions that you should ask are as follows:
- How many people search your site each month for accountancy vacancies? - How many accountants' cv's are held on your site? (For how long?) - How many accountancy jobs are there on site in total?
Now that each one of the sites has emailed their responses to you, you're ready to go right? Probably not! Each site will probably give you information back in various different formats (traffic could be given in visitors or unique users - neither giving a true reflection of how many people actually use the site), so you may have to dig deeper to be able to compare like for like.
Finally, before you make a commitment to any of the sites. Do they work? Ask for independent testimonials.
Alternatively, speak to your recruitment advertising agency who do this all day every day and who usually know by experience what has worked before and what is likely to work again.
A large number of recruitment advertising agencies in the UK are talking together to formulate a standard set of questions that all ad agencies will ask of all jobs boards all of the time. By this we hope to standardise for everybody the way that jobs boards present their information to their clients. Thus, we hope, establishing standards and a culture of trust between client and media. For more information on this please feel free to email me (chris.pengelly@riley.co.uk).
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - BY ALAN WHITFORD***** Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes.
In the last newsletter Alan explained what an Application Service Provider (ASP) is. This week he explains the benefits and answers some frequently asked questions.
What are some of the benefits to me? · From an end-user perspective, one of the benefits of the ASP model is that it allows businesses to leverage the technologies, processes, and expertise of the leading providers of enterprise applications without having to make investment in technology. · This model theoretically allows cost, performance, and change coefficients to be optimised at any one point in time. As opposed to researching, building the infrastructure and then buying and customising the applications, paying a subscription fee to use an application over the internet can lower the total cost of ownership for enterprise applications. · This holds true for specialised applications (such as finance, human resource (HR), vertical industry), ERP solutions, customer service, sales force automation (SFA), groupware, personal productivity (such as Microsoft Office, Lotus Notes), web hosting, and online storage.
How can using an ASP save me money? · An ASP can save a company money by providing the customer with a solution that does not require capital outlays, and investment in legacy systems. By using the service of an ASP, a company can lease what they need, and scale appropriately. · Some studies have indicated that by leasing an application from an ASP, customers save between 33% and 53% over purchasing and managing the hardware and software for the application themselves.
As an ASP customer, does the vendor provide me with the hardware I need? · All server hardware requirements are met by the vendor. You are responsible for the client side hardware requirements, i.e. a machine capable of running the correct level of internet browser.
Does the vendor own the data center? · Not usually. Hosting a data center is not one of the core competencies of most vendors, so in the same way that companies have chosen ASP hosting for their application needs, vendors choose specialist companies to provide the management of the data centers and the physical management of the systems.
How reliable is an ASP service? · Software and hardware feature redundancy is utilised to make sure your site and business stays up and conducting business 24/7.
Does the ASP solution look or work differently to the same application if my company ran it internally? · Not usually.
What benefits are there for using an ASP? · Delivery speed: as the vendor already has the equipment, applications and expertise, they are able to supply the system to a customer very rapidly. · Operational freedom: by outsourcing application management, the customer can focus critical resources on their core business. · Improved performance: the vendor can apply its experience to implement best IT practices for superior levels of availability, security, backup and disaster recovery. · Financial flexibility: this model reduces fixed costs and lowers overall expenditures for hardware, applications and management. · Reduced risk: with no capital expenditure on software, hardware, and IT personnel, organisations can "test" a new technology with minimal impact to their existing environment and bottom line.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (Business.com & Distance Calculator) - Vacancy Board Review (Using the internet to recruit new graduates) - Recruitment Technologies (Cross posting technologies) - News Item (e-Recruiting & Staffing Conference and Expo) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
www.business.com Business.com is a directory and search engine focussing on business sites. It is a resource for locating information on companies, industries and business people. Whilst it is a US site it should be of interest to UK users as it has international content. The directory is split into 26 main categories (including: food & beverage, healthcare and IT) and includes more than 400,000 business-oriented web sites.
There is also a "Company Finder" feature. You can search the database of 64,000 company profiles - these contain financials, news and profiles on the key people within the organisation. For many companies there is also a competitor list with the top industry players ranked by revenue. The information on the site comes from a number of business sources including the Financial Times, Dow Jones and Reuters.
This is a useful site for locating information about the key players in an industry as well as searching for information on a particular company.
This site was recommended by Gemma Snook of Highfield who has received an internet goodie bag.
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Having successfully delivered web sites for some of the biggest names in recruitment, we've really got a grip on the market.
Heat up your site - talk to HotLizard: www.hotlizard.net 01264 7303000 ========================
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
www.indo.com/distance The Distance Calculator found on the "Bali & Indonesia on the internet" site (!) is one of the best I've come across. You simply enter two locations and the results give the distance between them (as the crow flies). You can enter a city, country or latitude and longitude - if there is any duplication in the database you are asked to clarify the location by picking from a list of suggestions. The results show the distance in miles, kilometres and nautical miles and give each place's latitude and longitude. For some locations you can link to driving distance and directions (not suitable for my query of Tasmania to Cardiff!). There is also a link to the Xerox PARC site where you can view each location on the map.
It is unlikely you are going to need to do distance searches every day - however, this is a quick and really useful tool for those times when you need the information.
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*****VACANCY BOARD REVIEWS - BY CHRIS PENGELLY***** Chris Pengelly of Riley Advertising reviews UK vacancy boards specifically for the recruit net newsletter.
Using the internet to recruit new Graduates.
This is obviously quite a broad subject and one that could not be covered in one article so in order to try and offer some sort of depth I have split this in to two sections. This week, I will try and offer some understanding of the graduate audience and how they might use the internet to find their first jobs. In a fortnight's time I will look at the options available in website choice.
Understanding your audience.
One mistake that is easy to make is to treat the graduate market the same as the rest of the employment market. It is easy to forget that graduates have little or no frame of reference in terms of work experience. This is important. When you look at some of the ways in the broader recruitment market it is possible to sell against negative work experiences - earn more money, be your own boss, manage your own career etc. - these lines may not be quite as effective as graduates have not yet had experience that would suggest that these may be good or bad things.
Undoubtedly this is one area where the internet is an incredibly useful tool. Gradfacts 2000 (a survey by the Guardian in partnership with the Association of Graduate Recruiters) uncovered the following statistics about graduates online activity:
- 78% of graduates will use the internet in their job search. - 80% will browse newspaper advertising. - 72% will use speak to their careers service. - 54% will use graduate directories. - The internet is seen as the most useful
This implies that the audience is there and potentially quite easy to find. Looking aside from using Job boards, graduates will use the internet primarily as a research tool:
- 64% will use the internet to find information about prospective employers. - 33% will surf your site for pre-interview research - 58% will search employer sites for vacancies - 30% will post their CV on a registered database.
Overall the internet job hunt is seen favourably:
- 47% say the job hunting process is easier online. - 56% say it is quicker - 44% say there are not enough vacancies in my sector. - 28% say there are to many!
Riley have run a number of focus groups with recent graduates. We have discovered that whilst the internet is seen as very useful, and job boards are well used, there are some negatives to consider:
"I find the internet really useful for doing research but not for finding a job. It is really frustrating accidentally sending off your CV, and the whole thing is really impersonal. I would prefer it if it were easier to speak to somebody."
" I am using the internet to find my job. I have looked at the major sites and find that my search results (entry level consulting or fast track ) are either for a chief execs job or a tea lady - I still have quite a search to narrow them down. I have given up on having them e-mailed to me)"
On the other hand there is less reluctance to fill out online application forms and take online personality tests and the like. These are seen as a necessary evil and therefore a barrier that has to be jumped. In general most graduates do not have a stack of job offers before they graduate and therefore will probably work harder to get a job that they want than someone already in employment.
Other points that have come out of our own research and experience to bear in mind are:
- Graduates want to see what the job is going to be like - They want work to empower their social life - They have little negative work experience - so give positive statements that match what they want to see - Do not sell against negative work experiences they have not yet had.
Lastly for this week I think it is worth stating again that graduates have little or no work experience. They have a different agenda and different information needs.
High value is give to employers that look to try and describe the person that they want and value personal qualities as much as qualifications. They see themselves as a group that all have one thing in common and are, as a result, all quite similar. Therefore other elements really make somebody stand out. As a consequence of this the line of logic runs that if a company is looking for innovative, motivated, enthusiastic people then those are the kind of people that they employ and if those are the sort of people the new entrants will be working with then it is a good company.
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========================
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - BY ALAN WHITFORD***** Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes.
**Cross Posting Technologies** Multiple posting to job boards and corporate sites has many different meanings. For some, it takes the form of typing a vacancy in Word or similar, or else cutting and pasting it straight out of a back office software application, and sending this to various job boards.
For others, a vacancy is submitted to a third party who in turn submits it manually or semi-automatically to the various job boards. In both cases, the vacancies are either e-mailed, or with an increasing number of job boards, users can log into a secure back office area and input the vacancy directly onto each board.
These processes have inherent inefficiencies and problems, particularly as job boards increase in complexity and develop unique identities and styles. For the recruiter e-mailing a document to job boards, these documents have to be read, and the contents often manually copied onto the job board's own template, with the person doing this having to determine how best to translate the copy into the job board's format. This process is time consuming and inefficient.
Logging directly into the job board's back office means that the recruiter can directly input the vacancy ensuring greater accuracy in the vacancy format. Fine in principle, but what if you want to advertise this vacancy on five or six job boards, and what if its not just one, but twenty vacancies you want to advertise. Time is precious, and often there is not enough to be able to do all of this.
The alternative is to use one of the various third party job posting services now available in the market. What exactly do most of these do to speed up the process? Some do little more than submit your vacancy in their own standard format, still leaving the job boards with the problems mentioned earlier. Some use people in the posting process to manually input jobs on your behalf. Whilst this is more accurate, it also leads to an inevitable increase in costs, and can still be time consuming.
Another complication is that one is also inevitably left wondering why all of this only addresses the beginning of the process, i.e. advertising the job. What about tracking and reminding about the renewal of advertising? What about managing the application response? What about integration with existing software systems? What about ways of measuring effectiveness and efficiency?
e-cruitnow has developed a modular range of recruitment management systems know as web-cruit. Featuring multiple simultaneous translation of your vacancies into the job boards own formats, web-cruit vacancy poster ensures fast, accurate posting - first time, every time. Tracking vacancies and managing the re-posting process are all part of the standard functionality of this powerful vacancy management tool.
*****e-Recruiting & Staffing Conference and Expo***** Just in case anybody has missed all the advertising I thought I'd mention the conference taking place on the 14-15th June at the Hilton London Metropole. It's organised by Kennedy Information. They have been partnered by Newmonday.com who are offering delegates a £100 reduction on the delegate fee. There is also an "early-bird" discount for those who book before 18th May - bringing registration down to £589. For more information on the conference visit http://www.newmonday.co.uk/e-recruiting
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (Currency Converters & UK online) - My favourite web sites (by Graeme Read) - Recruitment Technologies - Article (Recruitment and the Economy) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.moneyextra.com/rates/currency/converter The Money Extra site offers a simple and quick currency converter tool. Enter the amount you wish to convert and choose from drop down lists the currencies you are converting from and to. The results show the currency conversion based on the amount you entered. It also gives the exchange rate for the currencies you have entered.
This site also has a Currency PowerSearch option where you can search for the best performing currencies on any date since January 1994. This feature of the site has the nine major currencies and is useful if you want to find historical currency information.
I thought I'd also mention the currency converter at FT.Com (http://www.marketprices.ft.com/Quote.ft?query=now&view=currency-convert). It's useful to have a second site to hand in case the Money Extra site is slow or unavailable.
=====ADVERTISEMENT===== Clicked off with your recruitment web site? Candidates and clients going off the boil?
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Having successfully delivered web sites for some of the biggest names in recruitment, we've really got a grip on the market.
Heat up your site - talk to HotLizard: www.hotlizard.net 01264 7303000 ========================
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.ukonline.gov.uk The UK online site is the replacement site for www.open.gov.uk (which I reviewed back in issue 50). The transition will be complete from 1st July 2001, however the site already contains a lot of the of open.gov.uk along with additional services.
The site contains four main areas: Quick Find, Life Episodes, CitizenSpace and The Election. The "The Election" part of the site is temporary - and during the election period the newsroom area of the site will contain information on the electoral process.
The Quick Find section probably contains the most useful resources. The main feature of this section is the search facility. This searches a database of content from every UK government resource. Once you have conducted your search you can refine it, look through all the matches or select from the key government websites recommended. Also within the quick find section are links to a great many categorised government resources; categories include central government services, local government services and forms and legal documents. These are very comprehensive directories of links.
The Life Episodes section is an information and advisory service from a variety of sources designed to help you through various experiences (including moving house and learning to drive). CitizenSpace is an area of the site where you are encouraged to take part in government consultations and to share your views with others.
This site might be confusing at first for those used to using the open.gov.uk site - however as more of the information is brought across it should become a very comprehensive information site.
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*****MY FAVOURITE WEB SITES ***** This is a new feature where we ask key players in the recruitment market to give us an insight into the web sites they use.
**This week's sites are provided by Graeme Read, COO of Antal International (www.antal.com)**
Not being allowed to opt for either www.antal.com or my very own site, which provides distant relatives with pictures of my gorgeous son and family, I have chosen:
http://www.excite.com - Every morning on my way to work this site provides me with excellent news content delivered to my WAP phone, with intelligent categorization of new stories
http://www.freeserve.com - Especially good now as you can personalize the content of the home page.
http://www.wsj.com (Wall Street Journal) - Features are always succinct, with its comprehensive business coverage of Europe.
=====ADVERTISEMENT===== Internet training As well as the newsletter and UK Recruiter website we also specialise in Internet training for recruiters. Our Web for Headhunters course is a one day in-house course teaching recruiters and researchers to understand how to use the Internet effectively in all aspects of the recruitment process. We also run a half day intensive hands on training session, "Finding Passive Candidates on the Internet", focussing on using the internet to locate potential candidates.
Drop me a note at louise@nmib.com or call me on 01635 254881 if you want any more details on either the course or the guide. http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk ========================
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - BY ALAN WHITFORD***** Alan Whitford is on holiday. He will be back for the next issue
*****RECRUITMENT AND THE ECONOMY - BY LES DOWSON*****
**Les Dowson is Director of Yassaba Solutions (www.yassaba-solutions.com)**
Is the economy starting to slow down as a result of the US downturn? Or is it an over reaction in the face of a general election?
Whatever it may be, the effect of these early signs will see companies looking at their profit forecasts and in turn that will also mean their costs. Already we are seeing mass redundancies in the mobile telecoms industry as the market slows down and companies are falling short on profit forecasts.
Working in recruitment puts us straight into the firing line!
So now is the time to take a look at how healthy we are. To do this I have broken the health check into three categories: 1) External Factors 2) Internal Factors. 3) P.M.A. (Positive Mental Attitude)
External Factors Let us look at the business from the outside, below are a few questions to consider: 1) How many key clients/accounts do you have? 2) How strong is your client base? 3) How loyal is your client base. 4) How strong are your competitors in your market? 5) How good is your sales reporting?
The last few years has seen a candidate led market, this can make it easy to lose sight of your client relationships. Now is the time to review just how good your clients see you. If the market gets tight, clients will remember who gave them the best service!
Internal Factors Stating the obvious the quality of your staff will affect external factors, so we need to consider the following: - 1) Do you have figures on individual productivity? 2) What depth of experience can you identify in your key employees? 3) How will your employees cope with a changing market? 4) Have they had the right training and guidance? 5) Will they stay for the fight!
Past experience has shown that consultants working in a vacancy led market can find it difficult to adjust to a changing market where the business development skills become a far greater part of the role.
P.M.A. Positive Mental Attitude - this is vital and from the top down you must project a continuous message of succeeding and that the best survive. Don't let your teams talk themselves down.
Remember any time of change is a time of opportunity! What degree of change we may see is difficult to predict. Whatever happens the recruitment industry will have to take a good look at itself in order to ensure that it maintains growth in what could be a challenging time for all.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - www.jobform.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (UK Recruiter & Vrisko) - My favourite web sites (by Ann Swain) - Vacancy Board Review (Using the internet to recruit new graduates) - Recruitment Technologies (e-Cruit) - News Item (Free marketing resource) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk Now some of you might think it's a bit of a cheek reviewing a website I've developed myself! However, I just wanted to make sure that you are all aware of the resources on the UK Recruiter website.
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. Our objective is to provide the most comprehensive set of information and links for the UK recruitment industry.
The site contains the most comprehensive listings of UK Vacancy Boards and CV Databases, a directory of links to companies who service the recruitment industry, a large web directory and some information on our own services. The main sections are as follows: - UK Vacancy Boards (http://www.nmib.com/recruiter/vacboard.htm) - listing all known UK Vacancy boards with basic information on their purpose and links to their sites. - CV Databases (http://www.nmib.com/recruiter/cvdbase.htm) - a table of UK CV databases (which have a minimum of 3,000 CVs) with contact and pricing information where available. - Links to recruitment industry suppliers (found from the home page) - a directory of companies that provide products and services to the recruitment industry - Business Directory (http://www.nmib.com/course/recdir.htm) - large resource of other websites that should be useful to UK Recruiters.
We're always trying to improve the site so if you've any content suggestions please let me know at louise@nmib.com
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*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.vrisko.com/ Vrisko specialise in enterprise information software and applications. Clients are "knowledge intensive organisations" including Investment Banks and Law Firms.
Whilst their web site mostly talks about the company and products and services they also offer a very useful free service. On the home page of their web site is a link to "UK PLC Web Sites". When you click on the link it launches an applet in a new window where you can select from an alphabetical list of UK PLC's and be taken to that company's home page. Only companies with a URL are listed and there are currently about 1600 companies in the database. This database is updated every week - ensuring that companies on the FTSE with web sites are listed.
This is a really great site for quickly locating the web sites for major UK companies.
=====ADVERTISEMENT===== The UK's fastest growing online career network for recruiters: Careers in Recruitment.
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Interested? call us on 08456 50 55 65, or go to www.careersinrecruitment.com for access to more recruiters, for lower, fixed costs. ================================================
*****MY FAVOURITE WEB SITES ***** Key players in the recruitment market to give us an insight into the web sites they use.
**This week's sites are provided by Ann Swain. Ann is the Chief Executive of the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSCo) www.atsco.org and www.atscojobs.com **
www.thisislondon.co.uk - A great all-rounder. On this website I can keep up-to date with all the news, including up-to-the-minute business news, find out what's on at my local cinema and discover new restaurants in my area.
www.buffy.com - I have three young daughters, all of whom are crazy about Buffy the Vampire Slayer and indeed her old boyfriend Angel. I can log on to this and keep them amused for hours.
www.silicon.com - one of the best sites for the latest news from the IT and e-commerce worlds. It has great video interviews and its daily e-mail alerts are always full of useful information and up-to-the-minute news. Silicon are also ATSCo's partners in atscojobsocom.
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*****VACANCY BOARD REVIEWS - BY CHRIS PENGELLY***** Chris Pengelly of Riley Advertising reviews UK vacancy boards specifically for the recruit net newsletter.
Using the Internet to recruit new Graduates - Choosing a site to advertise on
In issue 61 of the newsletter Chris offered some insight into the graduate audience and how they might use the Internet to find their first jobs. In this issue he looks at the options available in vacancy board choice.
The primary difference between the graduate recruitment market and the mainstream recruitment market is the lack of work experience of the target audience. This will affect media choice to some extent as it is important to consider the way your information is displayed and how easy it will be for your prospective new recruit to go from job information in search results to information about your company or client.
There is probably more choice specific to this niche than any other at the moment. There are a number of graduate specific sites, plus virtual recruitment fairs on cd, plus all of the main sites. One serious point to remember is that graduates use the same sites as the rest of us to find a job, they are not immune to multi million pound marketing efforts any more than the rest of us.
Below is a selection of sites that could be considered for advertising. They are all multi sector sites and are either graduate focussed or 'one size fits all'.
www.activate.co.uk www.doctorjob.com www.eurojobs.com www.fish4jobs.co.uk www.ftcareerpoint.com www.graduate-jobs.com www.graduatelink.com www.graduatebase.com www.gradunet.co.uk www.gojobsite.co.uk www.interviewme.co.uk www.jobs.ac.uk www.jobsunlimited.co.uk www.milkround.com www.monster.co.uk www.oxbridgejobs.com www.phdjobs.com www.prospects.csu.ac.uk www.stepstone.co.uk www.student123.com www.topjobs.co.uk www.totaljobs.com www.wcn.co.uk www.workthing.com
When adding up the statistics for amount of traffic these sites get it is apparent that graduates look at more than one site!! This to me means that it would be a waste of money to post a number of jobs on all of the sites in order to get coverage and to make sure that your jobs are seen. Job posting is a hit and miss affair at best. You are buying a needle in a haystack. To be seen it makes sense to buy a lot more needles and/or to paint the haystack in your own colours!
My advice would be to choose one or two graduate sites and one or two horizontal sites. Look at horizontal sites with high brand awareness and a specific graduate channel. Look at what jobs are being advertised on your shortlist of sites and run a dozen or so searches to see what jobs come up. Ask the sites that produce the results that are closest to your requirements how many searches are performed per month on those search words. Work out a rough "searches performed to jobs advertised ratio".
Look at the advertising options on each site. Look at a corporate profile and banner advertising and job posting as a combination of methods to get as much information as possible across, or get as many people directly back to your own site where it costs less to display more information in your own style.
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PlanetRecruit - www.jobform.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - BY ALAN WHITFORD***** Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes.
Today we continue our series looking at 'e-recruitment solutions' with a description of the e-Cruit solution from Vivid Links (www.vividlinks.com). In the next two issues we will discuss Intellicruit (formerly Virtual Village) and ActiveRecruiter from Job Partners. Please let us know of any solutions you are particularly interested in.
e-Cruit is a web based recruitment supplier management tool. Using e-Cruit, employers can monitor the progress of all the recruitment activities within their organisation, track individual vacancies and the recruitment processes involved on each one, measure the performance of recruitment suppliers and internal recruitment processes, identify bottlenecks that hinder the recruitment process and maintain a continually updated register of all external resources (contractors and temporaries) employed within their organisation. e-Cruit will appeal to both employers who are hiring staff on a regular basis and to recruitment suppliers.
The e-Cruit system runs as an extranet that can be accessed by employer managers, HR Departments and recruitment service suppliers. Each participant only sees the information that is necessary for him or her to undertake his or her activities. The system date stamps all "milestone" activities thus ensuring that the effectiveness of the recruitment process can be monitored.
Key features of e-Cruit include the following: * Permits the definition of supplier service level agreements in a single place * Tracks the recruitment process at departmental and recruiting manager level. * Quickly identifies the most effective recruitment suppliers both by company and individual recruiter. * Tracks original recruitment terms offered against final terms agreed. * Tracks the original reason for the requirement arising.
How does it work? * Recruiting managers within each department of the employer (or HR if preferred) place their requirements on to the e-Cruit extranet. * Recruitment Suppliers then respond to the requirements that have been assigned to them and place the details of their candidates against a specific requirement. * The recruiting manager reviews CVs, which are circulated in the normal manner by recruitment suppliers. * The recruitment supplier enters the time and date of confirmed interviews on to e-Cruit against the requirement. * Following the interviews, the recruiting manager rejects or offers the candidates he or she has seen. The recruitment supplier also records this information on e-Cruit. * When the candidate has accepted, the recruitment supplier records the acceptance and the terms of the employment or assignment. A variety of reports can be generated by the system.
Activities tracked by the system include: * Registration of requirements (permanent, contract and temporary vacancies). * Recruitment suppliers (preferred and ad-hoc). * CVs proposed for particular requirements. * Interviews offered, rejections and "pending." * Rejections of candidates after interviews. * Employment offered (permanent and contract). * Acceptances and rejections of offers by candidates (can include reasons).
For temporaries and contractors the system also maintains an up to date record of: * Who is working for the company? * The term of their assignment (when they start and finish). * Which supplier they come from. * The costs involved.
***** News Item - Free marketing resource ***** Oaten Farrar (a recruitment advertising and communications agency) have a number of free resources for recruiters available on their web site (http://www.oatenfarrar.co.uk/downloads). These include short articles on campaign design, recruitment advertising, web work and branding.
****SUBMITTING ARTICLES**** If you are interested in writing an article for the recruit net newsletter please drop me a note with your suggestion.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (Clearly Business & EasyMap) - My favourite web sites (by Aisha Tunis) - Vacancy Board Review - Recruitment Technologies (ActiveRecruiter from Job Partners) - Article (How to get the best from your recruitment communications, by Oaten Farrar) - Sites of Interest (ASP Island & Thin Planet) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.clearlybusiness.com The Barclays/Freeserve "Clearly Business" site has a section that provides free access to Datamonitor information. Datamonitor have traditionally specialised in high cost strategic intelligence information. The information available on the Clearly Business site consists of profiles and information capsules on around 250 UK market sectors.
To use the site you need to scroll down the home page and click on the link to "market research" in a grey box on the right hand side. From there you will be able to view a list of 25 main market sectors split up into sub-categories. The main market sectors include food, telecoms, finance and pharmaceuticals. Once you have selected the sub-category you want you can view the market capsules and profiles. Information includes market overview, value and forecasts, definitions and key terms, competitive landscape and leading companies. These profiles are all UK focussed.
Whilst these are cut down versions of the reports Datamonitor charge for, they are certainly a useful overview of a wide range of industry sectors from a well-respected source.
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While you were wondering how to reduce recruitment costs, someone, somewhere got a top job. Top people. Top companies. Only at TopJobs. The only online recruitment website to specialise in Management, Professional, Technical and Graduate sectors. And nothing else. Over 300 blue-chip and progressive companies are benefiting right now from the amazing benefits of recruiting through topjobs.co.uk. Fully audited by ABCe and a founder member of the Association of Online Recruiters. http://www.topjobs.co.uk ========================
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.easymap.co.uk EasyMap are business-to-business providers of pay-for mapping services. However, to help promote their products they give free access to their mapping website. To use the site you need to enter a postal address and then click on the search button. This will bring up a map of the location you have entered. Once the map is displayed you can use a number of additional features to zoom in or out on the map, and to re-centre the map (done by clicking on another area of the map). You can also view the map as full screen, print the map A4 size or email the map. The other advanced feature is a drop down menu where you can view the map at different "levels", ie, at a regional level, city level or street level. This is like a more exaggerated version of the zoom feature.
Whilst there are quite a lot of mapping sites available in the UK this is quick and simple to use.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Your online recruitment solution could be ONLY 1 WEEK AWAY. Stop losing candidates on-line to competitors. The BCL RECRUIT RANGE OF SOFTWARE is easy to integrate into your existing website. Comprehensive website design/re-design is also available. To see an ONLINE DEMONSTRATION of the Range of applications go to http://www.bcl-recruit.com
For further information contact Darin on 01635 581185 or darin@bcl-numedia.com ========================
*****MY FAVOURITE WEB SITES ***** Key players in the recruitment market to give us an insight into the web sites they use.
**This week's sites are provided by Aisha Tunis - Internet Research Manager of TMP Worldwide e-Resourcing (http://uk.eresourcing.tmp.com)
http://www.thetube.com - I always have to plan a tube journey somewhere and this site allows me to do this while giving me the shortest route possible. It also gives information on strike action.
http://www.google.co.uk - Google is great for finding general information. I also find it essential for in-depth company information and for seeking passive candidates.
http://www.flightline.co.uk - For my last few holidays I have been able to get the best deals on flights from Flightline. It is very easy to use and very quick.
*****VACANCY BOARD REVIEWS - BY CHRIS PENGELLY***** Chris Pengelly of Riley Advertising reviews UK vacancy boards specifically for the recruit net newsletter. Chris is currently on holiday.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.jobform.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - BY ALAN WHITFORD***** Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes.
Today we look at one of the newer 'built for the web' candidate management solutions, ActiveRecruiter from Job Partners (http://www.jobpartners.com, http://www.activerecruiter.com).
Job Partners approaches the HR marketplace from a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) perspective. The focus is to enable companies to manage and optimise the complete employee lifecycle, i.e. attracting, developing and retaining the best staff. The market sectors are cross industry from large companies to small fast growth companies, with customers in IT, Consultancy, Manufacturing, Telecommunications and the Public Sector.
Founded in London in 1998, the company has its international headquarters in the United Kingdom. The company employs in excess of 100 staff (projected to be 250 at year end) across Europe, with a network of partners that complements its own network of offices. Job Partners is a strong and financially stable company, having received two rounds of investment backing from some of the world's leading investment and IT companies.
What is ActiveRecruiter? ActiveRecruiter is a collaborative recruitment platform that automates, structures and manages the entire recruitment process. The solution provides access to a diverse mix of candidate channels, both traditional and Internet-based, including print media advertising, recruitment agencies, head-hunters, universities, job sites, job fairs, community web sites and company intranets. ActiveRecruiter is a cross-industry application for companies that have major recruitment needs. The solution is multi-lingual and is currently available in English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish and Italian, with more languages being added.
Developed in line with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) principles, ActiveRecruiter allows departments to establish one-to-one relationships with candidates, by keeping in close communication with them throughout the application/interview/hiring process, even allowing the candidates to track the progress of their application. In other words, enable the employer to treat candidates like customers.
What are the features and benefits of ActiveRecruiter? * Complete end-to-end solution - covering the entire process of recruitment from job request to offer letter. * Multi-channel approach - posting jobs to all channels and backed up by the Job Partners network of associate companies. * Candidate applications are automatically scored and ranked against job description criteria. * Reduction in the costs of hiring - customers are reporting between 50 - 60 percent decreases in the cost of recruiting. * Reduction in the time-to hire - the result of targeting candidates accurately in an online environment means less 'Paper/CV' administration and more time 'face-to-face' with candidates. * Higher quality candidates - the solution 'actively' draws in those candidates whose criteria perfectly match a department's needs. * Strategic reporting - ActiveRecruiter's reporting templates allows recruiters to report accurately on all aspects of a recruitment campaign, identifying cost-effectiveness and performance of different channels, geographic breakdowns, and 'time-to-hire' results. * Connectivity to ERP Systems - through strategic partnerships and as a founding member of HR-XML. * Job Partners Network(tm) - a strong alliance programme which pulls together the main players of the recruitment market (primarily recruitment media agencies, recruitment websites, recruitment agencies, community portals, incubators and universities) to provide a value-added group sharing interest in the recruitment market place.
How is the solution delivered? ActiveRecruiter is delivered via an Application Service Provider (ASP) model, with access to the system using nothing more than a Web-browser. This means that HR departments can avoid lengthy, expensive implementation cycles.
How is ActiveRecruiter priced? Pricing is on a flexible 'pay-per-use' basis, with no set-up costs, license fees, or ongoing IT administration costs. ActiveRecruiter can also be delivered via a traditional client server software model if required.
***** HOW TO GET THE BEST FROM YOUR RECRUITMENT COMMUNICATIONS: DIRECT MARKETING, BY OATEN FARRAR *****
PART ONE (Part two of this article will be published in issue 65 of the recruit net newsletter)
Direct mail is a cost effective method of reaching the right people. With increasing competition for the creme de la creme of candidates, directing your efforts through a planned, targeted campaign will ensure you reach and connect with the right people, attracting quality candidates and reducing your costs.
It is true - the ideal job advert can attract a select handful of highly suitable candidates, and they will be almost perfect for the job. Clearly, this does not often happen and you're left trying to sort the wheat from the chaff through a combination of other selection methods. But, all communications can strive for this level of accuracy when targeting an audience. When the time and effort is taken to identify prospects, their needs and their desires, the shape of the communication will speak directly to them.
A problem is that much direct mail has been labelled as 'junk mail'. The lack of attention given to who companies were trying to reach resulted in an alienated, frustrated audience who switched off the moment the 'junk' hit the ground. The old approach of blanketing a whole region or market sector in the hope of stumbling across the 'eagerly awaiting' respondent wasted time and money, and gave direct mail a bad name.
Target marketing is the process of distinguishing the different groups that make up a market, and developing services and marketing mixes for each segment identified. Methods of direct marketing include telemarketing and more recently, e-mail, both useful and often complementary to direct mailers. Today, many developments and innovative approaches are being adopted to turn the negative image of direct mail into a positive one, and they are working. According to the Direct Mail Information Service, average response rates are currently 10.6%
Reaching out for the right people involves defining your audience. Dividing your chosen market into segments is advisable for a number of reasons; one of which is that it is simply more manageable. The criteria that you employ to split the audience may be based on a psychographic or demographic profile or a geographic area, according to your specific objectives.
Once the segments have been identified; enabling you to communicate your message to one chosen audience at one time, the messages you use will let your selected segment know that: - they are the chosen ones, highly selected individuals - you are the specialist in their own field of interest - that you can meet their special needs
Convincing your target segment that you are offering them a specialist service that suits their needs, and, that you have chosen them specifically is one way of standing out from your competitors. Direct mail targeted in this manner, with these goals in mind, will raise your profile and appeal to the people who you want to reach, giving you a competitive advantage. You can:
- Give candidates benefits to believe in - Focus on one segment for cost effective and efficient campaigns - Prompt a response by specialising in the candidate's field and with repetition you will establish yourself as the industry specialist - Turn candidates on with relevant mailers
Direct mailers encompass a wide variety of marketing materials, including brochures, catalogues, postcards, newsletters and sales letters. And enable you to know who is receiving it, when they receive it and in what form they are receiving it! This affords you a remarkable degree of control and knowledge - putting you in a strong position not only contact the recipient, but to monitor responses.
10 pointers to the perfect mailing:
1. Personalise it. Where appropriate: name, position, department and address must all be correct and spelt right. When dealing with people, it helps to be personal. 2. Can I have your attention please? Grab your reader. You are competing with an ever-growing medium. Stand out from the crowd. If it is original all the better. 3. If you are not delighted with the way it looks and reads - forget it! Apply only the highest standards, after all, it's not junk mail, it's your message - your company. 4. If you touch their heart as well as their mind you are on a winner. 5. When a candidate remembers the mailer, they remember your company too. Positive responses abound from positive mail. 6. "It's you, only you we are speaking to!" Talking to the candidate about the things they want to hear is the way to their heart. 'You' is the magic word, use it. 7. Be direct. Keep it clear - keep it simple. No long words and no long sentences. 8. What are you going to do now? Do you want a response? If so, say so! 9. Focus on what the candidate is looking for, not what you want to sell. Understand the candidates needs so they understand the mailer. 10. Repetition is the key. The ultimate goal is to be there when you are needed. The more you repeat, the more chance you have of being there at the right time.
Oaten Farrar are a specialist recruitment communications agency based in Bristol. To find out more, or download free recruitment communications information packs, please visit http://www.oatenfarrar.co.uk or call Nick Farrar on 0117 953 23 43
****SITES OF INTEREST**** Angela Garner of Recruitment Zone has recommended a couple of websites for IT recruiters. ASP Island (http://www.aspisland.com) is a resource centre and on-line community for the Application Service Provider Industry and Thin Planet (http://www.thinplanet.com) is a resource centre for Thin Client and server-based technologies. Both sites are owned by Internet.com and should help you keep up to date with industry developments as well as being potential sourcing grounds for high quality individuals with expertise in these areas.
****SUBMITTING ARTICLES**** If you are interested in writing an article for the recruit net newsletter please drop me a note.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (Company Profiles & Airport Flight Information) - My favourite web sites (by Giles Guest) - Recruitment Technologies (Intellicruit Workflow) - Article (How to get the best from your recruitment communications, by Oaten Farrar - Part 2) - Sites of Interest (Engineering web sites) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://profiles.wisi.com/profiles/UnitedKingdom.htm Company Profiles from Wright Investors' Service has information on around 2000 major UK companies. You can either search the database on ticker or company name. Alternatively you can scroll through an alphabetical list of the UK companies. The information on each company includes brief profile, stock chart, list of directors, contact details, web site address, competitor analysis plus other comprehensive financial data. If you are looking for companies in other countries there are over 300,000 company profiles available on the site (http://profiles.wisi.com/profiles/) from over 50 countries. There is also detailed information on more than 20 industry sectors - with country specific content.
This is a great resource that is very simple and quick to use for information on UK and worldwide companies.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
HR Portal is launching "Ad Manager" on the 1st of August. This asp solution allows Employers, Ad Agencies and Recruitment Consultancies to manage & track their entire online recruitment purchasing and posting activity through one simple interface. We provide Quantitative and Qualitative research of over 480 online recruitment opportunities, and offer it up to buyers in an impartial format, completely independent of any bias. For further information please call 020 8287 8888, e-mail marcus@hrportal.co.uk or visit http://www.hrportal.co.uk
========================
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.justplanes.com/flifo.html - Airport arrivals and departures The Airport Flight Information site has been created by what I am assuming are airplane enthusiasts, specialising in civil aviation videos, from the USA. The site contains a list of 270 (and growing each week) airports worldwide. These are split into two separate pages, one of Europe and one for the "rest of the world". It's a really simple site with each airport having a hyperlink button for arrivals and one for departures. The link takes you to the relevant site and page for that country and airport, allowing you to access information on the flight arrival or departure. Where flight information isn't available at the airport's website some of the links actually take you to a teletext (or country equivalent) page.
I realise this isn't a site that's going to be used all the time - but it is invaluable when you are trying to locate flight arrival or departure information - it's the one I would always go to first for this information.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
While you were waiting for the finest job seekers to surface, someone, some where got a top job. Top people. Top companies. Only at TopJobs. The only online recruitment website to specialise in Management, Professional, Technical and Graduate sectors. And nothing else. Over 530,000 high quality candidates are already registered with us, and more are joining every day. So instead of waiting for things to happen, look on topjobs.co.uk. Fully audited by ABCe and a founder member of the Association of Online Recruiters. http://www.topjobs.co.uk
========================
*****MY FAVOURITE WEB SITES ***** Key players in the recruitment market to give us an insight into the web sites they use.
This week's sites are provided by Giles Guest, Managing Director, of 4mat.com, a leading provider of recruitment websites, who tells us about his current top tips for sites to visit on the web.
http://www.ask.co.uk - you really can't beat asking Jeeves, if only to try and catch him out! But recent improved intelligence has made him even more useful
http://www.192.com - save money on directory enquiries costs and a whole range of other database needs
http://www.pollstar.com - one for that quiet moment. Whether your thing is Prodigy, Poison, Squeeze or even the Partridge Family, then this site will give you details on more than 52,000 gigs from nearly 7,000 artistes
and finally of course http://www.4mat.com/dotvacancy - just visit it - you'll see why it's a favourite!
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
hrstaff The UK's first website dedicated to advertising job opportunities within the HR field, and carrying ONLY HR related positions, hrstaff offers companies serious about filling vacancies, a route to a wide range of Permanent and Interim positions from graduate and administrator through to senior-level managers and directors. http://www.hrstaff.co.uk/
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*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - BY ALAN WHITFORD***** Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes.
Hello all. Today we look at the jobpilot Intellicruit Workflow (www.intellicruit.net and www.jobpilot.com) solution for candidate management. This was initially developed as the Virtual Village system, prior to the purchase of the workflow solutions by Europe's most successful job board, Jobpilot. Jobpilot has integrated the workflow solutions for agencies and corporate users into its overall candidate attraction and management solutions. The workflow products can, however, be used in a stand-alone manner.
The jobpilot workflow software is a flexible and scalable suite of ASP or client-hosted recruitment solutions for recruitment agencies or corporations to help them streamline recruitment business processes. jobpilot enables increased interactive communication between clients, candidates and suppliers as well as enhanced recruitment process management.
Via a browser, the workflow software portfolio provides key users, from HR staff to outside agencies, with access to elements of the same central database online. By delivering real-time information on candidates, jobs and recruitment activities, team members are able to work quickly together on shared activities.
The workflow solutions (available in all 18 countries in which jobpilot operates) handles all the routine and administrative processing tasks associated with the recruitment hiring cycle. Other valuable elements of the software include automatic, personalised candidate e-mail notification of open positions, user-specific reports and candidate filtering based on customisable web forms. The software is adaptable to any staffing methodology and is unique in its approach to task management, incorporating e-mail, calendaring and reporting.
Standard functionality includes: * ASP or client-hosted * accessible anywhere, anytime * connects recruiters, agencies, contacts and candidates * measures recruitment success rates * measures advertising effectiveness * extensive workflow creation and management * contact, calendar and task management * consolidated job-posting to multiple media channels * employment site hosting * available in different languages
jobpilot's workflow products can be integrated seamlessly into existing websites and feature centralised posting to multiple on and off-line media, thereby enabling users to create and post vacancy details, change their status and share information instantly. jobpilot's web-based delivery allows for a limitless number of users to gain access to its solutions regardless of geographical location, with no install time. Moreover, its full multilingual capability means that localisation is not an issue.
Intellicruit has just released Version 3.1, which incorporates a number of new features and updates on previous capabilities. Many of these have been developed specifically in conjunction with some of its 25 European customers. These include:
* Origins: Used when a third party recruiter is used to supply candidates. It keeps track of where a CV came from and time and date stamps it so that the fees can be paid to the correct company. * Supplier/client rate management: Ability to manage the varied supplier/client rates from within the system * Contact Skills: Ability to search for skills specific to the contact, as well as to the job or to the candidate. That is, you can now conduct queries based on the specific skills that a contact is typically on the look-out for, thereby allowing users to speculatively send out the candidate's CV to the client even though no job might be available. * Triggers: A powerful tool enabling suppliers, clients and recruiters to be notified when certain actions are performed in the system. Examples of triggers include those that enable recruiters to be notified once an offer has been made to a candidate and those that enable suppliers to be notified once a job becomes opened.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Your online recruitment solution could be ONLY 1 WEEK AWAY. Stop losing candidates on-line to competitors. The BCL RECRUIT RANGE OF SOFTWARE is easy to integrate into your existing website. Comprehensive website design/re-design is also available. To see an ONLINE DEMONSTRATION of the range of applications go to http://www.bcl-recruit.com
For further information contact Darin on 01635 581185 or darin@bcl-numedia.com
========================
***** HOW TO GET THE BEST FROM YOUR RECRUITMENT COMMUNICATIONS: DIRECT MARKETING, BY OATEN FARRAR *****
Part Two - A closer look at the potential of the direct email
Last week Hugh Ransley looked at the advantages of targeting and the cost effectiveness of direct marketing. This week he continues with a look at how recruiters can make the most of the email.
In a survey conducted by Direct Magazine, direct marketing accounts for more than 55.7 percent of companies' total marketing budgets, surpassing all other areas by up to 32.6 percent. Why?
Direct mail is an excellent way to build a long-term relationship with candidates and clients alike, strengthening your brand at each interaction. One new method of direct mailing has arrived with the internet. This is the perfect medium to maximise the potential of one-to-one marketing, in the form of Email. The scope for innovative and entertaining direct mail is only limited by your imagination, and the responses can be staggering. As the famous adage has it: 'The medium is the message' and in this instance, the use of an animated direct mailer to connect with your audience is worth its weight in gold. Showing them that you are a progressive and innovative company grounded in new technology and not afraid to move with the times.
There is also the added advantage of building an ongoing relationship with both clients and candidates through regular, considered use of e-mail. Using the database at your fingertips you can contact specific segments with information that will be useful and therefore welcomed. This kind of contact when carefully orchestrated will have the effect of developing and maintaining a relationship. You may for instance have a number of candidates on your database who have not been in contact with you for a number of months. If they are kept informed of your existence through a monthly email, when the time comes for them to seek the help of a recruitment agency, you will be the first choice. Don't forget it is said to cost five times as much to gain new customers as retain current customers.
There has been much debate about so called 'SPAM', however, by using your own database or renting a highly targeted list, you are providing a welcome message to a specifically selected audience. According to Direct Mail Information Service research: - business managers open 84% of direct mail - 49% of business people consider direct mail 'useful' or 'quite useful'
At present the online recruitment sector is growing beyond all expectations, according to Forrester research the industry is set to expand by over 1600%, thus, the need to find a niche is growing. It is becoming a cliché, but it certainly applies to online recruiting: 'Get big, get niche or get out'. Taking on board the sentiments of this quite brutal phrase, it is clear that to target communications is certainly worthwhile, as the most cost-effective, efficient and reliable way to connect with your candidates and clients - it may make the difference.
Provided here are some simple steps to consider when embarking on a direct mailing initiative. Using this process, you'll not only reach the right people, but really connect with them when you do!
Step 1 Define your target audience and if necessary divide this into segments. Identify their needs, their desires, and how you can fulfill them.
Step 2 A list is the most important part of a direct mail strategy. It is advisable to spend a good deal of time and effort selecting the right list, in fact, a rule that has been brought to my attention is: 'spend twice as much time selecting the list as you do creating the mailer itself'. Recruiters are in the perfect position to reduce their costs when implementing a direct mail campaign, as they already have access to the most valuable resource - their own database.
Step 3 Set an objective. What do you want to achieve from the mailer? This will help you steer your message accordingly, and give you more chance of meeting your requirements.
Step 4 Planning the schedule. Ideally, you'll plan and timetable a specific pattern for the roll-out of the direct mail. Perhaps this will coincide with another communications campaign, or act as a follow up to some public relations. Whatever you choose to do, ensure that you have a timetable and try to stick to it.
Step 5 The message, the look and the feel. It is important to pay special attention to the message in all its forms: design layout, copy and graphics - great creative can make all the difference. Direct mailers are the perfect opportunity to reinforce your brand with your target audience.
Oaten Farrar are a specialist recruitment communications agency based in Bristol. To find out more, or download free recruitment communications information packs please visit http://www.oatenfarrar.co.uk or call Nick Farrar on 0117 953 23 43
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.jobform.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
****SITES OF INTEREST****
ENGINEERING RECRUITMENT SITES
This is a list of useful sites for engineering recruiters recommended to me by a helpful recruit net newsletter subscriber. The sites listed below are not recruitment websites but some will incorporate a jobs section. This isn't an exhaustive list and they may all prove useful in different ways and are a mixture of commercial and association sites.
http://www.eevl.ac.uk - Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library http://www.emta.org.uk - National Training Organisation for Engineering Manufacture http://www.nto-nc.org.uk -The National Training Council http://www.rfeei.org.uk - The Radio Frequency Engineers Education Initiative (RFEEI) http://www.wisecampaign.org.uk - Women into Science and Engineering http://www.dfee.gov.uk/modXpp - Site explaining how Modern Apprenticeships work. http://www.engineering.org.uk - Campaign to Promote Engineering http://www.Xpprentices.co.uk - Apply for an apprenticeship online - sponsored by the EEF http://www.enginuity.org.uk - EMTA site offering career advice for young people. http://www.autoindustry.co.uk - UK Automotive Industry http://www.smmt.co.uk - Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders http://www.eef.co.uk -Engineering Employers Federation http://www.engc.org.uk - Engineering Council http://www.neon.co.uk - New Electronics http://www.eureka.findlay.co.uk - Innovative Engineering Design http://www.mcsolutions.co.uk - Manufacturing Computer Solutions http://www.worksmanagement.co.uk - Works Management http://www.europeanautomotivedesign.com - European Automotive Design http://www.findlay.co.uk - Manufacturing's Message Centre http://www.designselector.co.uk - Connecting Engineering Specifiers and Suppliers http://www.machine-tool-selector.com - The Global Machine Tool Specification System http://www.mcworldwide.com - Wide range of used metal cutting and metal forming machine tools http://www.iei.ie - Institute of Engineers in Ireland http://www.ied.org.uk - Institute of Engineering Designers http://www.engineeringtalk.co.uk - Industry newsletter http://www.manufacturingtalk.com - Industry newsletter http://www.electronicstalk.com - Industry newsletter.
The main vacancy boards for the engineering industry include Jim Finder (http://www.jimfinder.com), Just Engineers (http://www.justengineers.net) and Engineers Online (http://www.engineers-online.co.uk) and we'll review these in a future issue.
****SUBMITTING ARTICLES**** If you are interested in writing an article for the recruit net newsletter please drop me a note.
We are always reviewing the content of the recruit net newsletter so if you've any suggestions for articles or features you'd like us to include please drop me a note. Also, we now have a number of advertisements in each issue of the newsletter. These are necessary to ensure that the newsletter is free for recruiters. Please support the newsletter advertisers by visiting their sites - and if you do contact them make sure you say where you saw their details!
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (UK Public Transport Information & Disappearing Email) - Article (Interim Management) - Recruitment Technologies (JobQ by Axiom) - Vacancy Board Review (Monster, TotalJobs, Stepstone, and GoJobsite from a jobseekers perspective) - Article (Candidate Relationship Management) - Sites of Interest (How To Get A Job You'll Love) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.pti.org.uk The UK Public Transport Information site covers all travel by rail, air, coach, bus, ferry, metro and tram within the UK. It covers the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland as well as transport between the UK and Ireland. It also covers rail, ferry and coach travel between the UK and mainland Europe. The site actually says "if it's not here, it's not on the web"!
It is a very simple site to use. If, for example, you were looking for train information you would click on the "Rail" tab next to the "National" section. This brings up a list of links. At the top of the list are links to the Rail Timetables On-Line and The Train Line sites where you can get timetable information for all the train stations in Britain. Below these first two links is a list of each of the train companies. Under the heading for each rail company there are links that include timetables, fares information, journey planner, online booking, phone numbers and online maps. The sections for the others methods of transport work in a similar way with comprehensive lists of links. Alternatively, if you want to use a phone hotline rather than look up the information on the Internet you can click on the "Phone Hotlines" tab to view a list of national phone hotlines you can use.
If you are looking for timetable or fare information for public transport this is most definitely the place to go.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
While you were wondering how to increase the effectiveness of your recruitment budget, someone, somewhere got a top job. Top people. Top companies. Only at TopJobs. The only online recruitment website to specialise in Management, Professional, Technical and Graduate sectors. And nothing else. Over 300 blue-chip and progressive companies are benefiting right now from the amazing benefits of recruiting through topjobs.co.uk. Fully audited by ABCe and a founder member of the Association of Online Recruiters. http://www.topjobs.co.uk
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*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.omniva.com/ This is the website of Omniva who offer an email security product called Policy Client. The software allows you to send and receive emails that after a time, set by the sender, become unreadable. Basically when you use this software emails are encrypted using a unique "key". After a set period (anything from 30 minutes to six months) the key self-destructs, making the message permanently unreadable.
This software was developed in the States where there have been some high profile court cases (including the Bill Gates case) where the content of an email has become damming testimony. Perhaps in the UK anyone sending email with the sort of software might be regarded with suspicion. However, there are some legitimate security reasons for its use and as the site points out the software is meant to be used in conjunction with a document retention and destruction policy. If you want to give the software a go you can download a free trial of "Disappearing Email" from their website.
This site was recommend by Chris Morrow of Vividlinks.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
hrstaff The UK's first website dedicated to advertising job opportunities within the HR field, and carrying ONLY HR related positions, hrstaff offers companies serious about filling vacancies, a route to a wide range of Permanent and Interim positions from graduate and administrator through to senior-level managers and directors. http://www.hrstaff.co.uk/
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*****INTERIM MANAGEMENT - A FLEXIBLE MANAGEMENT RESOURCING SOLUTION - BY PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS*****
Organisations are increasingly turning to Interim Management to ensure continuity in functions before a permanent incumbent takes up a position. Business nowadays is too fast moving to have gaps especially in key director or manager roles - even in an apparent slow down of economic activity.
The concept of Interim Management has been around for a very long time. However, it is only in the last 5 years or so that Interim Management has really started to be taken seriously as a flexible management resourcing solution.
In fact the interim market is growing at over 30% per annum. The Interim Management Association (IMA) (http://www.interimmanagement.uk.com) represents the leading Interim Management providers, setting a rigorous code of conduct and the newly formed Institute of Interim Management (IMM) (http://www.inst-mgt.org.uk/iim/index.htm) promotes professional standards amongst interim managers.
So what is Interim Management? "It's the provision of experienced senior executives to fill specific management roles on a short term basis", says Torrie Smith who leads PricewaterhouseCoopers's Interim Management. "Interim managers help in a wide variety of ways - management of specialist projects or change, bridging skill gaps, filling in for a key director or taking the helm in a crisis".
How does it work? Following a discussion with the client, an Interim Management provider will forward a shortlist of pre-screened candidates drawn up from the provider's pool of interim managers. Generally, interviews take place quickly and the chosen candidate can be at their desk within days.
Clients see the key benefits of Interim Management as an ability to make an immediate impact and to provide objectivity and independence. There is often a transfer of skills to the permanent staff so that everyone wins. This really is a flexible management resourcing solution.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is a leading provider of interim managers across all disciplines including many CEOs in the Public & Private sector, from SMEs to multi-nationals. For more information contact E. Torrance Smith, 020 7212 3862 or visit http://www.pwc-interims.com
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Your online recruitment solution could be ONLY 1 WEEK AWAY. Stop losing candidates on-line to competitors. The BCL RECRUIT RANGE OF SOFTWARE is easy to integrate into your existing website. Comprehensive website design/re-design is also available. To see an ONLINE DEMONSTRATION of the range of applications go to http://www.bcl-recruit.com
For further information contact Darin on 01635 581185 or darin@bcl-numedia.com
========================
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - BY ALAN WHITFORD***** Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes.
Hi all. This week we look at a different aspect of the candidate management arena, the process of automating the sifting and matching process.
JobQ, developed by Axiom, (http://www.axiomjobq.com) offers a new web-based matching, sifting and assessment platform that incorporates a comprehensive range of assessment tools drawn from established test publishers. The system is geared to automatic and objective screening, assessment, rating and ranking of applicants and facilitates applicant management and tracking. This combination of matching skills with relevant experience is a key point of differentiation and will better enable employers to evaluate applicants' skills, motivations and fit and thus their ability to succeed in the job role.
Customised corporate branding, role specific online application processes and applicant-to-job matching all contribute to ensuring a seamless recruitment process.
How does it all work? Candidates' biographical, motivation, aptitude, skills and other scaleable data is gathered by JobQ and assessed and matched against your own selection criteria. Inappropriate applicants can then be sent a suitable rejection response automatically at any time after their initial enquiry.
Screened applicants who get past this first stage can then be assessed using a wide range of best-in-class personality, aptitude and skills instruments from leading test publishers.
The JobQ service includes a step by step process to ensure that the client company selects the correct mix of tools and services: - Scoping session - Questionnaire construction - Recruitment processes reviewed and integrated - Job profiles established - Test and assessments reviewed and selected - Corporate and recruitment links established - Corporate look and feel designed - Site testing
The web-based Applicant to Job Matching service then delivers: - Advanced screening, profiling and assessment platforms - Customised corporate branding, role specific online application processes, and applicant relationship management (ARM) - Seamless integration into existing application processes - Automatic real time and objective screening, assessment, rating and ranking of applicants - Broad range of assessments covering ability, aptitude, experience, motivation, workstyle, fit and education
What are some of the benefits? - More accurately and more fairly match qualifications, skills and relevant experiences - Dramatically improve capability and ability to evaluate applicants' skills, motivations and "fit", and thus their ability to succeed in the job - Act more quickly on the strongest candidates, right at the time they apply - Reduce time and resources spent sorting and sifting through CV's, interview preparation and interviewing unqualified candidates
Ultimately, this means that JobQ Delivers: - A positive recruitment experience - Response co-ordination & talent relationship management - Time efficiencies - Cost savings - Capacity handling - Individual talent identification - Accurate and objective matching - Corporate values matching - Equal Opportunities Monitoring
*****VACANCY BOARD REVIEWS - BY CHRIS PENGELLY***** In this issue Chris Pengelly, previously of Riley Advertising, compares Monster, TotalJobs, Stepstone and GoJobsite from a jobseekers perspective.
It is important to consider the usability of a site, from a jobseekers perspective, in deciding which vacancy board to use. Whilst traffic statistics and the number of jobs are important factors you should also ensure that the site is simple for candidates to use and that they can easily apply to your vacancy.
**Monster - http://www.monster.co.uk
Monster is easy to use and easy to find. The first impression is of a site that will be of use. When browsing for jobs the ability to hold down the CTRL key and select multiple categories is useful, especially if you live on the London borders. Search results are quick and accurate within the category that is selected. The "key word" facility is useful when selecting multiple categories and areas and it seems to bring up relevant results. The jobs on the site are well presented and the application link is easy and quick to follow.
"My Monster" works well and I am sure for some people it would be handy to be able to store up to five CV's online - although I am not sure how many people will actually have time to go through what is an incredibly long winded process more than once.
A negative point would be for those looking for a job in recruitment but who do not want to work in a consultancy; it seems that if you use "recruitment" as a key word then you get all of the recruitment consultant listings.
A problem for me was that there is no option to add a covering letter when you apply for a job. This must surely make life more difficult for recruiters and certainly is a big downside for candidates, especially if you have an unusual background or diverse experience.
Finally, although it seems on first impression that Monster carries plenty of jobs this is not really the case. The first time you use the site you get everything for the past two months coming up but after that there appears to be less vacancies added each day than all of the other sites I looked at. However, I do still check this site about once a week.
**TotalJobs - http://www.totaljobs.com
This site has impressed me more than any other of late with its simplicity to use and the results it pulls up in terms of relevant jobs. Really handy is the Career Health Check that is worth doing even if you are not looking for a job. The "quick search" box on the home page is also useful as you can get to search results in no time flat. TotalJobs seems to have plenty of jobs and they all appear to be relatively recent. Search results are as accurate as any that you will find on any other site.
"My TotalJobs" is well thought out. You can very quickly and easily build a useful skills profile that must make the response from this site easier for an employer to deal with. You can also save covering letters on the site which speeds up the process for the jobseeker. I also found the application tracking facility handy.
**Stepstone - http://www.stepstone.co.uk
The site is quite disappointing and I have experienced a number of broken links or site failures. There is a handy "quick search" box on the home page but search results are all over the place. There appear to be far too many jobs and some are really old. This is an off-putting experience. I searched on Account Manager - there were 301 vacancies returned in my search which on the surface seems OK (although 19 pages of search results might be a bit much) but the top of the list was one dated 18th May followed by 26th April then further down the list a job dated 20th July. It may be that results are sorted by relevance, but it must be a turn off for candidates to see such old jobs at the top of the list.
Whilst I have no doubt that Stepstone have a vast number of quality and interesting jobs online (I have seen some things that I am really interested in) it would be nice if they made it easier for candidates to get to them.
**GoJobsite - http://www.gojobsite.co.uk
It is not necessary to write a great deal about this site. In fact all that is really necessary is to say that it works and beats the other sites in almost every way. There are more jobs, and they are all up to date. I will almost certainly have found my next job using this site by the time this article is sent out (fingers crossed!!). The downside is the huge number of jobs and the IT bias to the results. But it is quite easy to filter out the jobs that are not worth looking at by using the "power search" facility.
Finally to sum up; all of the above sites are useful job seeking tools and it is worth persevering with the more difficult to use because they all have interesting opportunities posted on to them. If I were spending my own money on advertising on them I would use GoJobsite and TotalJobs as they are the sites that I feel, as a jobseeker, are the easiest to use and give the best results. Obviously there are other large vacancy boards that I haven't talked about here - but when considering advertising on them think about the points made above and try putting them through their paces.
I have used the CV posting service on all except Stepstone and again in my opinion GoJobsite is the winner with 9 enquiries sent to me followed by TotalJobs with two and Monster with one.
A request to all recruiters; please do not disregard response from a vacancy boards if it does not come with a covering letter, it is not always possible to attach one. Also it's useful to note that the most frustrating part of using the internet to find work can be the complete lack of response to a job that is applied for!
Any readers interested in bespoke advice on their recruitment advertising needs (or those who may have an interesting opening!) please e-mail Chris at pengelly_c@yahoo.com
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HR Portal is launching "Ad Manager" on the 1st of August. This asp solution allows Employers, Ad Agencies and Recruitment Consultancies to manage & track their entire online recruitment purchasing and posting activity through one simple interface. We provide Quantitative and Qualitative research of over 480 online recruitment opportunities, and offer it up to buyers in an impartial format, completely independent of any bias. For further information please call 020 8287 8888, e-mail marcus@hrportal.co.uk or visit http://www.hrportal.co.uk
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***** CANDIDATE RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT - ESTABLISHING YOUR STRATEGY*****
By Ben Fletcher, Chairman, Internet Recruiters' Network and Association (IRNA)
The advent of the Internet has suddenly provided recruiters with access to candidates in all the different stages of job seeking. These include candidates contemplating an immediate move and those that could be persuaded if the right job presents itself. Some are happy in their current job but want to assess the options open to them, and of course there are those who have had an unhappy week at work and want to register (at work) on a recruitment site as a form of revenge!
Just as multi-channel marketing has allowed retailers to build up a more comprehensive profile of their customers than ever before, the recruitment industry now has the opportunity to gain unparalleled access to the behaviour, needs and detailed profiles of its jobseekers. After extensive research the IRNA believe that the secret of success is to capitalise on that profile by building a Candidate Relationship Management strategy.
So what steps can you take to move this very people-oriented process on-line, and to ensure that it is as successful for you as it is for your candidates?
1. Ensure your site works for all visitors Web users browse on a huge variety of different platforms and with numerous different plug-ins, so functionality and design that work for one person may not work for another. Your site should be designed with the lowest common denominator in mind
2. Match your recruitment site design and message to your main corporate site Viewing the recruitment part of your site as simply a "bolt-on" to your HR department can result in a site that sends out conflicting messages to the candidate and damages your image.
3. Continually measure and evaluate your site's traffic Internet sites can produce a huge amount of data about the people that visit - which pages they look at (and for how long), where and when they leave the site, what sort of browser they are using, and so on. This information is essential for evaluating the experience people are getting from your site.
4. Use sample visitor feedback It is very difficult to know how someone that does not know your company and has never seen your web site will try to navigate their way around. There are some principles that can be employed on all sites, but for specific applications, hiring a team of sample candidates to perform a set of tasks or apply for certain jobs and observing how they go about it can provide invaluable insights into potential site improvements
5. Get feedback from users It is important to get feedback not just from successful applicants but also applicants that gave up before completing the process
6. Be very careful with personalisation and automatic responses You can use cookies (a code you send to their computer) to detect if you have a repeat visitor. This enables you to create a more tailored experience for them using personalisation software. Automatic responses are useful to inform applicants that their application has been received, and they can also be a good opportunity to outline how the process will work from there.
7. Transparency of the process and privacy statements Candidates sometimes worry that their application will get lost in the ether if they apply on-line. For this reason, it is useful to spell out the process. A clear statement of how you will store and use the information a candidate has given on the site is essential.
8. Allow people to leave and come back to complete their application The longer the application form, the more likely the candidate will not want to complete it all in one go. You need to allow them the ability to leave and pick up from where they left off later.
9. Be careful with the questions you ask - ensure they are aimed at the right level This is not just an on-line issue, but it is surprising how many people forget basic principles when dealing with the 'net.
10. Create the human touch Often simply sending something by post as opposed to email can create the feeling in the recipient that they are being properly treated and are not just a number. Look for little ways to make your service different to that of your competitors.
Internet Recruiters' Network and Association (IRNA) is a discussion forum for on-line recruitment specialists - http://www.irna-uk.com
****SITES OF INTEREST****
HOW TO GET A JOB YOU'LL LOVE John Lees, former Chief Executive of the IEC turned careers consultant, has published a book on making difficult career decisions, How To Get A Job You'll Love (McGraw-Hill 2001, £14.99). The book includes an extensive list of useful web sites for job seekers and recruiters, plus information about the changing world of work and what John calls "futureskills". Readers of the Recruit Net Newsletter can obtain a discount on the book by visiting http://www.johnleescareers.com, a web site dedicated to helping those wanting to make effective career changes. The site includes lists of other useful sites and an article taking a fresh look at networking.
****SUBMITTING ARTICLES**** If you are interested in writing an article for the recruit net newsletter please drop me a note.
Please support the newsletter advertisers by visiting their sites - and if you do contact them make sure you say where you saw their details! These are necessary to ensure that the newsletter is free for recruiters.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (Applegate Directory & Virus Hoaxes) - Recruitment Technologies (Personic) - My favourite web sites (by Victoria Bates) - Vacancy Board Review (TopJobs, Fish4Jobs and JobPilot from a jobseekers perspective) - Article (The Scope and Scape of Recruitment Advertising) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.applegate.co.uk/ The Applegate Directory is a comprehensive source of information on companies within the electronics, engineering, chemical engineering, plastics & rubber and recruitment service industry sectors in the UK. There is information on more than 18,000 companies. On the home page of the site there is a directory index where the main industry categories are listed. Under each of the five industries there are sub-categories of Companies, Products, Towns, Post Code, County, Tel Code, Top People and Top Companies. The directory is browsable rather than searchable - so for example if you look under the "Companies" heading you can browse a list of companies within that particular sector alphabetically. The Top People category has individuals with the job title of Manager or above. However, the "Top Companies" category might be slightly misleading as it contains companies whose pages are looked at the most within the directory. Some of the companies have very simple entries with just basic contact details. However others have enhanced (paid for) entries with far more information including detailed company information, employee numbers and email addresses.
This is a very useful directory if you are looking for information on companies with the electronics, engineering, plastics & rubber, chemical engineering or recruitment service industry in the UK.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
While you were wondering why the best candidates are so hard to find, someone, somewhere got a top job. Top people. Top companies. Only at TopJobs. The only online recruitment website to specialise in Management, Professional, Technical and Graduate sectors. Over 560,000 high-quality candidates are already registered with us, and more are joining every day. So instead of searching here, there and everywhere, look on topjobs.co.uk. Fully audited by ABCe and a founder member of the Association of Online Recruiters. http://www.topjobs.co.uk
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*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html and http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp? These two sites contain information on virus hoaxes. With so much news coverage of email viruses at present it is very easy to either become over cautious, and never open an email attachment, or to become complacent and routinely ignore any virus warning. The next time you get a virus warning email you can use one of these sites to check if it's legitimate. Simply scroll down the list of hoaxes where you will see the hoax name and the text of the hoax message. Once you have determined the email is a hoax you should follow the sites advice and "ignore any messages regarding this hoax and do not pass on messages." Passing on messages about the hoax only creates further confusion. These sites also contain information about dealing with real email viruses.
However it is also important to note that virus writers can use known hoaxes to their advantage allowing them to distribute destructive programmes attached to the original hoax virus warning. Therefore, it is important to never open an email attachment unless you know what it is - even if it's from someone you know.
With new virus warnings arriving in your in-box on a regular basis it pays to be well informed - and these are certainly the sites to keep you up to date.
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Internet training for recruiters
Looking for training for recruiters and/or researchers? Need help in using the Internet effectively in all aspects of the recruitment process? We specialise in internet training for the recruitment industry. For information on our one day and half day intensive hands on training sessions contact info@nmib.com or call 01635 254881. Information can also be found on the UK Recruiter web site: http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk
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*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - BY ALAN WHITFORD***** Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes.
Today we are reviewing the company that was one of the originators of candidate management/applicant tracking systems, Personic (http://www.personic.com). It has long been a leader in the UK in providing automated solutions for the recruitment consultancy market (the product originally know as EZee Access) and has moved in recent years to web enabled and corporate solutions.
Personic is a provider of human capital management and e-recruiting solutions with more then 650 customers. The company was founded in 1993 in the US to provide automated solutions that would mirror, facilitate and improve recruiting workflow processes. Personic has since built a track record of market leadership serving a broad range of customers in the corporate and recruitment industry sectors.
The Personic Workflow solutions are provided in an integrated modular approach to the recruitment process. Descriptions of the main offerings follow:
Multiple deployment options Personic offers the option of deploying its Web-based solutions either in a customer-managed, on-premise configuration, or as a fully hosted (ASP) service. Either option provides full feature capabilities and "anytime, anywhere" functionality to all users with Internet access.
Personic Workflow is an intelligent recruiting and tracking system designed to emulate the workflow of human resources departments. Personic Workflow guides the user through the recruiting and hiring processes. From advertising to collecting and scanning CVs to skills matching and making the hire, each step in the recruitment process is automated. Personic Workflow is designed to create an easy-to-use paperless system.
Personic eRecruiter has been created as an intelligent, easy-to-use web-based workflow that automates data capture, minimises manual data entry, reduces paper trails and provides a complete hiring solution for recruiters with corporations. Recruiters can access full functionality and feature sets of Personic Workflow through a standard web browser.
Manager's WebBench, an intelligent, browser-based Intranet application, provides one standard forum for interaction with recruiters and hiring managers. Activities such as creating requisitions, reviewing CV's or generating offer requests at logical times encourage better communication between hiring managers and HR departments. Managers WebBench also enables self-service for managers. The system can be configured so managers are autonomous and can conduct more of the tasks traditionally performed by recruiters. Managers can post jobs directly, search the CV database and make offers through the system.
Personic eCandidate offers potential candidates a single interface for job searches within the organisation and customises the entire application process. eCandidate automatically 'calls back' candidates at appropriate times and, when they logon, immediately queries them for the information required at that stage of the hiring process.
Personic ePartner is a web-based platform, which connects buyers and sellers of labour. ePartner links organisations, recruiting experts and sub-tier suppliers through role-based features and functions and facilitates business to business communications and transactions across the entire human capital chain.
EPIC seamlessly recognises a variety of electronic CV files from a wide variety of sources and formats, such as text, image, PDF, email, or HTML, and translates them into a format ready for use. For hard copy CVs, EPIC's OCR (optical character recognition) technology significantly reduces conventional error rates and enables hundreds of CVs pages per day to be processed.
CJP (Consolidated Job Posting) is a web based posting tool, enabling organisation to quickly and efficiently post openings to multiple job board.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Your online recruitment solution could be ONLY 1 WEEK AWAY. Stop losing candidates on-line to competitors. The BCL RECRUIT RANGE OF SOFTWARE is easy to integrate into your existing website. Comprehensive website design/re-design is also available. To see an ONLINE DEMONSTRATION of the range of applications go to http://www.bcl-recruit.com
For further information contact Darin on 01635 581185 or darin@bcl-numedia.com
========================
*****MY FAVOURITE WEB SITES ***** Key players in the recruitment market give us an insight into the web sites they use.
**This week's sites are provided by Victoria Bates - Editor of The Head-Hunter magazine (http://www.askgrapevine.com/Head-Hunter)
http://www.freeserve.com This site is a good all rounder and demonstrates how e-commerce can work if it is developed in the right way. Easy to navigate, the site allows you to search for a holiday, use yell.com, the online yellow pages, right down to reading your horoscope and checking your share prices. A good place to start looking when you are not sure what it is that you want!
http://www.askgrapevine.com Re-launched at the beginning of August 2001, Executive Grapevine International's site now offers new and unrivalled insight into the world of corporate and professional recruiting. You can purchase directories, subscribe to The Head-hunter newsletter and even rent list data 'by the slice'; making highly targeted marketing easy. There is also a wealth of archive literature available to read online, including articles and profiles of corporate and professional recruiters.
http://www.blackfrock.com Every woman owns at least one 'little black dress' and this site allows you to own several more! You can choose from a number of styles or design your own. Whatever the occasion they can cater for it. You can even choose from a selection of 'models' who will model the dress of your choice. You can choose from different styles and lengths and the whole process is fast. What is even better is that they guarantee delivery to you within seven days - fantastic!
*****VACANCY BOARD REVIEWS - BY CHRIS PENGELLY***** In this issue Chris Pengelly, previously of Riley Advertising, continues his comparison of vacancy boards by looking at TopJobs, Fish4Jobs and JobPilot from a jobseekers perspective.
TopJobs - http://www.topjobs.co.uk
The theory behind TopJobs is not just good it is great; loads of top employers and very a limited numbers of recruitment consultancies, fantastic. Whilst it is not a sight you would use exclusively but you would definitely use it as a central part of your job search.
The home page is neat and well laid out but there is no "quick search" facility as with many of the other mainstream sites. The facility to browse from here is useful but sometimes a candidate does not specifically fit into any of the specific categories.
If you decide that you do not fit into a specific category and decide to go to the full search facility the first thing that you are forced to do is pick a category! The search is actually quite good and produces accurate results although you always get the feeling that the site could do with more jobs. When you go through the company profiles it seems that quite a number are not actually recruiting.
All in all the fact that there are fewer consultancies than other sites and fewer jobs (because not all companies that have deals with TopJobs are recruiting all of the time) means you get the impression that the site is a credible tool in your job search but not one that you would use as the main driver of it.
Fish4Jobs - http://www.fish4jobs.co.uk
The first thing to strike you when you open up this site is how clean and uncluttered it is. It also seems that the site is going to produce results. There are over 42,000 jobs on the site so there must be something of interest. This is an impression that does not leave you. The search facility is easy to use - just type in your job title and where it is you want to work and bingo away you go to the results.
There is a problem though. The key word search is exactly that. It is not an exact job title search, or at least it does not appear to be. A search on Sales Manager in Windsor will bring up all jobs in Windsor with sales in the title or manager or both which produces a lot of irrelevant results. You can do a more specific search by clicking the "add details" button and add key words. Mind you, all of the jobs are really up to date, so you do feel like it is definitely worth checking in on a regular basis.
The site should be congratulated on making everything else easy. Applying for a job through the site is simple and offers the facility to add comments and attach your CV with ease without having to go through a full registration process. The registration process should you choose to do it is easy but there is no CV storing option which means that if you are logging in from a different machine you can not apply for any jobs.
JobPilot - http://www.jobpilot.co.uk
The home page of this site makes you think that maybe it has a different emphasis than others. It is packed with articles on CV tips or the law at work etc. There is a quick search facility on the homepage, which produces quick results and there is a really useful facility to choose how many results you want on a page. Search results are well laid out and the only minor downer being that they were mostly irrelevant (on a search on Sales Manager).
Opening up an account is easy but you have to use some absolutely ludicrous user ID - a seven-digit number (what is wrong with you email address?). Submitting a CV is a pain, as, like monster, you have to fill out a standardised form. Now I am sure that all of you recruiters out there find this infinitely easier to use and believe that this facility makes your job easier but I just found it a pain especially so when it seems that everybody then asks for a copy of your CV in Word format straight away anyway. So wouldn't it just be easier if the site allowed you to upload your CV in Word format in the first place?
To conclude on where I have found useful jobs and had success from so far in order: GoJobsite, TotalJobs, Fish4Jobs, Monster, Stepstone, TopJobs, JobPilot. Useful leads ratio is 15:2:1:1:1:0:0.
Any readers interested in bespoke advice on their recruitment advertising needs (or those who may have an interesting opening!) please e-mail Chris at pengelly_c@yahoo.com
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
hrstaff The UK's first website dedicated to advertising job opportunities within the HR field, and carrying ONLY HR related positions, hrstaff offers companies serious about filling vacancies, a route to a wide range of Permanent and Interim positions from graduate and administrator through to senior-level managers and directors. http://www.hrstaff.co.uk/
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***** THE SCOPE AND SCAPE OF RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING, BY OATEN FARRAR *****
PART ONE (Part two of this article will be published in issue 68 of the recruit net newsletter)
Advertising is an essential part of the recruitment agencies communications arsenal. It is an effective way of attracting candidates and clients alike, and can result in building and reinforcing your brand. Planned use of advertising, in conjunction with the other elements of the marketing mix, will ensure that your candidates know you exist and what you can do for them. There are many benefits of constant and consistent advertising, highlighted here are some of the key ingredients to aid your recruiting success.
Awareness Advertising creates awareness. Building brand awareness works in three important ways, and will help establish your company values with the target market:
Firstly, awareness creates the possibility of purchase. People cannot buy a service if they are unaware of its existence. Following on from this, awareness helps people actually notice a brand. Have you noticed that when you are looking to buy a particular make of car everyone where you look you seem to spot them. Awareness of a recruitment company will secure an audience and therefore candidates.
All things being equal, the higher the awareness of a brand, the more favourably that brand is perceived. High awareness creates a positive bias toward all aspects of a brand. This varies from product to product and service to service, but it can take an extremely short time for some choices to take place - simply based on prior experience and perception of the brand.
Identification Advertising can create a model with which people wish to identify; images that encourage people to relate to and 'adopt' as part of their identity. Construction of a personal identity will occur over time. If the brand is designed to project a 'funky, young, dynamic image' the people who consider themselves to be, or aspire to be 'funky, young and dynamic' will more than likely notice your branding, if presented in an accessible manner in the 'right' places for "funky" people. For this to work for your company, you need to consider what you stand for, who you are trying to reach, and ultimately the message that you want to send to those people. These considerations will shape the advert and the brand that you and your agency develop.
Communication Advertising communicates information. The message needs to be constructed to suit the audience, is it what they want to hear? Your advertising agency will be aware of your target audience and your brand, and respond accordingly with the appropriate advert design and copy.
Advertising is suggestive. The day-to-day, week-by-week, year on year repetition of an advertising message, if acceptable to the conscious mind, can reach and influence the unconscious mind that in turn can alter perceptions and behaviour. Responsiveness to suggestion is a subtle process - but it works.
Where and Why? The consideration of where to place the adverts is crucial to your success.
Media The 'media' refers to the entire set of channels through which it is possible to deliver messages to specific parts of, or the whole public. It is becoming increasingly popular, easy and advantageous to target specific segments of your audience. Doing this will increase the relevance of your chosen message and result in a more directed and thus effective advertising campaign. Motivations for advertising vary, but ultimately an increase in candidate placements and a reduced cost per hire is the desired result.
Attracting clients and candidates to your website is becoming a vital part of the advertising strategy, as this will inevitably save money; advertising vacancies on other peoples sites can be costly and ideally, when they visit your site, an interaction with you will have a lasting effect, still reinforcing your brand further and reducing your cost per hire. Consideration of where to advertise in order to direct people to your site is a problem that now faces all recruiters. Competition is fierce, as ever, and to stand out in the crowd of companies is becoming increasingly difficult.
This and other issues will be explored in part two in the next issue of the recruit net newsletter.
Oaten Farrar are a specialist recruitment communications agency based in Bristol. To find out more please visit http://www.oatenfarrar.co.uk or call Nick Farrar on 0117 953 23 43
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PlanetRecruit - http://www.jobform.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
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****SUBMITTING ARTICLES**** If you are interested in writing an article for the recruit net newsletter please drop me a note.
recruit net - the fortnightly newsletter for keeping recruiters up to date with developments on the Internet.
Don't forget to email me details of any sites you think should be reviewed in the newsletter. And please support the newsletter advertisers by visiting their sites - if you contact them make sure you say where you saw their details!
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Sites (ResearchBuzz & Citytext) - Article (Set a goal to succeed) - My Favourite Web Sites (by Roderick Wijsmuller) - Article (The Scope and Scape of Recruitment Advertising) - Sites of Internet (Free PR Guide for Recruitment Firms) - Subscription Form
Alan Whitford is on holiday this week - but will be back for the next issue continuing with his reviews of recruitment technology products.
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.researchbuzz.com
ResearchBuzz is a website and newsletter that
covers Internet research. The content is focussed on search engines, new data
managing software, browser technology, information sources and web directories.
The site is US based but many of the sites and resources covered are relevant
globally.
The site and newsletter are free. They also offer a subscription based service for those individuals who want even more information ($20 a year). Subscribers receive the ResearchBuzz Wire newsletter that contains more in-depth information on search engines and web sites as well as additional resources not available in the free ResearchBuzz.
If you subscribe to their newsletter now you'll find that the site has become "semi-dormant" during August. However, it is worth subscribing as the newsletter is still being sent and updates made, and they'll be back to normal in September.
This is a great site for keeping up to date with Internet information resources and sites.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
While you were trying to make your recruitment budget go further someone, somewhere got a top job. Top people. Top companies. Only at TopJobs. The only online recruitment website to specialise in Management, Professional, Technical and Graduate sectors. Over 300 blue-chip and progressive companies are benefiting right now from major cost savings compared to traditional recruitment methods. Fully audited by ABCe and a founder member of the Association of Online Recruiters. http://www.topjobs.co.uk
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*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.citytext.com
Citytext is a website giving background information
on London stock broking, public companies, options and futures. However, the
site contains a lot of other very useful information for recruiters and
researchers. As there is such a lot of information on the site it's worth
looking through the site index to get a proper feel for how you might make use
of it.
One of the useful areas is the Top 100 and Mid 250 "contact data" section. This contains contact information for each Top 100 (or Mid 250) company, the information includes the head office and registered address, the telephone and fax number, the names of the board of directors and details of their auditors, bankers, financial advisors, financial public relations consultants, solicitors and stockbrokers.
Another useful section is the listing of London based "Advisors". There are 13 categories including advertising agencies, barristers, PR consultants and venture capitalists. Each company (or individual where appropriate) has a contact name, address and phone & fax number.
There is a great deal of other useful information on this very comprehensive site, including a listing of all quoted companies by industry classification, and your best bet would be to spend a little time having a good look around.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Your online recruitment solution could be ONLY 1 WEEK AWAY. Stop losing candidates on-line to competitors. The BCL RECRUIT RANGE OF SOFTWARE is easy to integrate into your existing website. Comprehensive website design/re-design is also available. To see an ONLINE DEMONSTRATION of the range of applications go to http://www.bcl-recruit.com
For further information contact Darin on 01635 581185 or darin@bcl-numedia.com
========================
*****ARTICLE - SET A GOAL TO SUCCEED*****
This article has been written by Andy Roper, an ex Recruiter and Branch Manager, who is a Performance coach for both your Business and Personal Life. He is trained in various methods of personal development and is a member of the International Coaching Federation, UK College of Lifecoaching and the Lifecoaching Academy.
The value of long term planning in recruitment is widely accepted as we all strive to meet our targets for the coming weeks and months. But how many of us actually reach our objectives and beat our sales figures week in and week out.
The follow steps have been identified as being critical in attaining your targets.
Many of us excel at planning holidays or buying a new house but only the most effective individuals excel in the workplace. You must be diligent in following the steps and evaluate them for a minimum 10 minutes every day to assess your success and what can be changed.
Step 1 Write down and clearly identify exactly what it is you must achieve. Be very specific. I am sure your targets are specific.
Step 2 Determine how you will benefit from achieving this goal. Write out as many benefits as you can possibly think of, ie, promotion, more money, health, less stress, recognition.
Step 3 Look at where you are now in terms of achieving the goal and what you have already done and what obstacles you have overcome already.
Step 4 Set a date for completion of each task. Be realistic, otherwise you will get demoralised and you will lose focus.
Step 5 Develop a plan of action. List the steps, ie, increase sales calls, interview more (or less) people, advertise more, revisit old clients. Make each step manageable. Evaluate what you already do or don't do.
Step 6 Identify obstacles that you may have to overcome and the skills and knowledge you will need to help you, eg, how to handle cold calls, working out who to call or time management to do the calls.
Step 7 Choose the people and or organisations you need help from. Add them to your action list.
Step 8 Once you know what you are doing and what needs to be done identify the first step, eg make more calls each week, make more time for candidate interviews, visit more clients. Remember make the step small enough to achieve.
Step 9 Keep a record of everything you do towards your goal. When you have completed the step move onto the next one and reward yourself for doing it.
Step 10 Everyday look at the goal and define what the steps are for the following day. The plan may change, but this is good. Also everyday remind yourself of why you are aiming to achieve this goal. Once you know why, it will become a must rather than a should. Then start working towards it. It takes time to develop the habit but outstanding performers all know what their goals are and when and how they will get there.
You can visit Andy's website at http://www.spirit-uk.co.uk or call 0800 1956923 to learn more.
*****MY FAVOURITE WEB SITES ***** Key players in the recruitment market give us an insight into the web sites they use.
This week's sites are provided by Roderick Wijsmuller - Managing Director of newmonday (http://www.newmonday.com)
http://www.telegraaf.nl - This is a Dutch news website covering national and international news. I like to keep up to date with what is going on in my country of origin.
http://www.ft.com - This is my favourite site for keeping me up to date about us, our shareholders and our competitors
bbc-ticker - Not strictly a website but I cannot live without my BBC Ticker. You download it from the www.bbc.com website. It is a real gem for news hounds like me!
http://www.newmonday.co.uk - Not that I am looking of course! You would not believe the amount of MDs who do not look at their own web sites!
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
hrstaff The UK's first website dedicated to advertising job opportunities within the HR field, and carrying ONLY HR related positions, hrstaff offers companies serious about filling vacancies, a route to a wide range of Permanent and Interim positions from graduate and administrator through to senior-level managers and directors. http://www.hrstaff.co.uk/
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***** THE SCOPE AND SCAPE OF RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING, BY OATEN FARRAR *****
PART TWO (Part two of this article will be published in issue 68 of the recruit net newsletter)
In the last issue we looked at how to make the most of recruitment advertising. It is an effective way of attracting candidates and clients alike, and can result in building and reinforcing your brand. Planned use of advertising, in conjunction with the other elements of the marketing mix, will ensure that your candidates know you exist and what you can do for them. There are many benefits of constant and consistent advertising, highlighted here are some of the key ingredients to aid your recruiting success.
Where to Advertise? The relationship between advertising and the media extends beyond the format and delivery of an advert. The media industry is reliant on advertising for its existence, and without a media system to convey ads, the modern advertising industry would probably never have come into being. The past 15 years have witnessed major changes in both the media industry and advertising industry. The choice of media currently available has created a situation where selecting the media to air your message is becoming more difficult - it is no longer clear-cut.
In recent surveys it has been noted that people give up television watching to spend time online. The latest independent statistics show over 1 million people to be looking online for a new job. One third of all UK employers have advertised on the internet, however this compares to a staggering 70% of US employers that use the net for advertising positions, this trend is undoubtedly set to increase in the UK.
Interface! With the changes in technology, media has moved from being a mass institution, where efforts are aimed at providing the most widely appealing news, entertainment and information, and is now a highly customised industry, able to supply very narrow avenues into the vast news and entertainment offerings. Traditional media have adapted to meet new, more exacting, consumer demands. This has inevitably resulted in fundamentally different interfaces between media and consumers.
Interactive! Some of the most startling changes have occurred in the amount of interaction a consumer has with the various media. Both traditional media and the new media offer increasing opportunities for communication and feedback. Television programmes are providing phone numbers, e-mail addresses and fax lines to learn what their viewers think and feel. The Internet offers advertisers the opportunity to become intimate and learn useful information - in real-time - from real customers, enabling them to provide a more customised service. The Candidate Relationship Management potential that this offers is extraordinary. Being able to serve your customers with information specifically for their needs at the right time provides you with a better chance of retaining them. You will be able to use an arm of your marketing strategy such as direct marketing to contact them at the right time with the right information.
Through utilising selected avenues it is becoming easier to direct your advertising at a particular segment. This enables you to achieve a better return on your investment and increase candidate traffic. It is feasible that with the quality of data available today that recruitment companies are able to select highly suitable advertising initiatives and steer them towards their online facilities. Once online, if your website offers the features that candidates are keen to use, then you have gained a new customer. One that, if treated in the right way, you will keep. Building relationships with candidates is crucial today, and with the increasing competition it is becoming ever more important to retain customers once you have secured them.
Effects of Media on Advertising Recruitment agencies need to adopt a suitable advertising strategy to maintain their presence in the market place. What sites do your candidates visit when online, it is reported that the 'average' internet user will visit somewhere between six and ten sites on a regular basis. Where are they going? To discover this and place appropriate banner ads is a cost effective way of directing people to your recruitment site or simply raising their awareness of your existence, creating that 'top of mind' response when trawling for a suitable vacancy online or otherwise. All offline advertising must contain your website address. Directing candidates to your site is becoming a necessary part of all recruitment advertising strategy.
Developments within recruitment advertising have increased with the internet. That is not to say that you must advertise online, or even that it is beneficial for your particular agency to do so. Advertising, by whatever means necessary (or appropriate) is the name of the game and it is regular advertising that will pay dividends. The goal, as always, is to place candidates, and that is exactly what advertising will achieve. If targeted correctly, designed appropriately and used in conjunction with other avenues available through marketing, you will raise the profile, reinforce your brand and thus, put the all-important bums on seats!
Oaten Farrar are a specialist recruitment communications agency based in Bristol. To find out more please visit http://www.oatenfarrar.co.uk or call Nick Farrar on 0117 953 23 43
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.jobform.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
****SITE OF INTEREST - FREE PR GUIDE FOR RECRUITMENT FIRMS**** Gaining publicity, especially in the magazines and papers read by clients and candidates, is something most recruiters aim for but few achieve without the guidance of a firm that understands the media. Now, a leading recruitment PR specialist and an award winning journalist have joined forces to develop a free guide to choosing a public relations firm to help get a company's message across effectively.
Sponsored by Dan Doherty's Cadence Market Strategy and written by "an award-winning journalist", The Buyers' Guide to Recruitment PR - a 12-page full-colour booklet is available from http://www.cadencepr.com, and is the first in a planned series of free guides for the sector.
****SUBMITTING ARTICLES**** If you are interested in writing an article for the recruit net newsletter please drop me a note.
As usual, any feedback on the newsletter and website suggestions are most welcome.
recruit net - the fortnightly newsletter for keeping recruiters up to date with developments on the Internet.
Don't forget to email me details of any sites you think should be reviewed in the newsletter. And please support the newsletter advertisers by visiting their sites - if you contact them make sure you say where you saw their details!
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Site (Haysworks.com Salary Surveys) - Updates to UK Recruiter - Recruitment Technologies (Amris) - Article (How to Recruit Online: The art of writing the perfect ad) - Article (What is XML and what does it mean for recruitment) - Site of Interest (TOPS Recruitment) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.haysworks.com/content/clientContent/misc/gen_salaries.jsp
The Haysworks.com site offers a salary survey feature free of charge.
Haysworks.com are the online arm of Hays Personnel Services.
They have taken data from their nationwide network of 250 offices and produced fairly comprehensive salary information on many key market sectors. There are 21 sectors covered, including accountancy (one of their core recruitment areas), HR and Sales & Marketing. In total there are around 400 different "professional titles" covered within the salary survey. The salary survey information is updated between twice and four times a year depending on the availability of key data.
The way in which the data is presented is dependant on the job title. For example within the sales and marketing category there are five job titles with 12 geographical areas. For each geographical area the individual job title has a minimum and maximum salary. However, within the media and marketing category there are nearly 30 job titles covered, against each one is salary range. There is also commentary for each category, looking at recruitment trends within that area, information on what skills are most sought after and the types of employee benefits being offered.
Whilst the Haysworks.com site doesn't cover every market sector it is a useful source for free and up to date salary information on quite a number of different roles.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
GENUINE OFFER - HR Portal's "Ad Manager" provides a single point of purchase for all UK jobsites. Ad Manager allows recruiters to manage & track their entire online recruitment purchasing and posting activity through one simple interface. We provide quantitative and qualitative research of over 480 online recruitment opportunities, and offer it up to buyers in a totally impartial format, free from bias. For a limited time we are offering this FREE of charge to recruiters (excluding the IT & Telecomm sectors). Call 020 8287 8888 now for registration or e-mail david@hrportal.co.uk with your details.
http://www.hrportal.co.uk
========================
****UPDATES TO UK RECRUITER (http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk)**** Firstly, thanks to all of you who emailed me with feedback about the re-designed UK Recruiter web site. Since the re-launch last week we've already added a couple of new features.
- Jobs for Recruiters: For those recruiters who are looking for a new job for themselves we're working with vacancy boards that specialise in this area to offer an easy way to search for jobs. The "Jobs for Recruiters" page can be found from the top menu on the UK Recruiter web site home page. Currently you can search the databases of HRStaff, CareersInRecruitment and Rec2RecOnline. TopRecruitmentJobs.com will be coming soon.
- Training Pages: We're working with Training Pages to offer their directory of Recruitment and Selection courses available in the UK. There are over 125 courses within this category listed on the Training Pages site. Just visit the "recruitment training" section on the UK Recruiter website and click on the link. We've still got the list of companies who specialise in recruitment training listed on the UK Recruiter site as well.
Hope you find both of these useful features - feel free to drop me an email with any suggestions for additions to the site: louise@nmib.com
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Topinterim.com
Senior interim is one of the UK's fastest growing resources for senior management. topinterim's unique new process offers clients a blisteringly fast access to a top community of already over 1,500 years of blue chip management experience in a wide spread of key disciplines now working as senior independent portfolio managers. Fastest speed, lowest cost. For same day assisted search ring 020 7830 9662 or e client@topinterim.com or just visit the search engine on the site. No log ins required to search, do visit. http://www.topinterim.com
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*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - ***** Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes.
Welcome back to the 'real world' of English Fall, no more Bank Holidays and school traffic on the motorway:)
Today we continue our series of articles on internet based automated recruitment (or candidate management) solutions. The Internet Corporation Ltd (http://www.int-corp.com) has utilised its experience of over 15 years of providing recruitment services to develop and launch its ASP recruitment process control solution, amris(tm).
What is amris? By linking all internal recruiters, external providers and direct candidates electronically, amris realises a true electronic supply chain, providing instant automated workflow of all the fundamental recruiting actions - (vacancy creation, authorisation, vacancy distribution, interview scheduling, rescheduling, offers and rejections). Centralised databases of job descriptions, skills, benefits and a centralised and fully searchable database of candidates are also provided.
The amris service is supplied on an ASP (Application Service Provider) model and requires no hardware or specialist IT staff. All users need is an Internet connection and basic browser and keyboard skills.
amris(tm) features SYSTEM SETUP AND COSTS: * No set up fee or license charge (except where customisation or additional work is requested) * 24 hour set-up (for a five user system) * Fixed Monthly cost per internal user required (No hidden extras) * Scalability: Add, edit or delete your own: - departments, internal users, agencies and job boards as needed * Unlimited use of multiple agencies and job boards within the fixed monthly charge. User pays the agencies and job board direct (unless AMRIS billing system required).
JOB REQUISITION MANAGEMENT: * Create stored job templates for regularly repeated vacancies * Create and approve job requisitions on-line * One click multiple posting of jobs to Internet job boards/own web site and multiple agencies * Attach candidates directly to open job requisitions * View posting history of each job requisition * Create databases for job types, descriptions, skills and benefits * Job requisitions carry attachment facilities.
SCHEDULING AUTOMATION: * Request, schedule and reschedule interviews * Real-time scheduling between internal recruiters, agencies and direct candidates * Track time-to-schedule and view scheduling history * View post interview notes
COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT: * Supply chain: - Electronically link internal recruiters, agencies, job boards, corporate web site and direct candidates * Real-time communication between all the participants in the hiring process and one click email * All participants are informed of an action taken in AMRIS by automatic email
APPLICANT TRACKING: * At a glance candidate status and vacancy status * Automated "outstanding actions" home-page * Transfer candidates between vacancies * Time and date stamped history for all applicants
AGENCY MANAGEMENT: * Agency logins, homepages and functions * Conduct electronic negotiations * Agencies complete a single page profile for each candidate submitted including the answers to 4 filtering questions
FILTERING: * 4 filtering questions on each application
CANDIDATE POOL: * Create a centralised searchable talent/CV pool * Search by single page profile sheet * Search CV * Search candidate history, interview, and other notes
CORPORATE HOMEPAGE JOB WIZARD: * Full AMRIS support behind job button * Post jobs to own website automatically * Candidates apply straight in to AMRIS * Instant automatic email sent to the candidate * Register facility (To apply for multiple jobs without re-entering details)
HR TOOLS * Users can be set-up to view all, individual or any desired configuration of departments * Multiple reporting capability on candidates and external supplier performance * Export data to Excel for ad hoc reporting purposes * All events are date/time stamped to prevent supplier disputes (e.g. double booking of interviews, which agency introduced an applicant first)
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
While you were wondering why the best candidates are so hard to find, someone, somewhere got a top job. Top people. Top companies. Only at TopJobs. The only online recruitment website to specialise in Management, Professional, Technical and Graduate sectors. Over 560,000 high-quality candidates are already registered with us, and more are joining every day. So instead of searching here, there and everywhere, look on topjobs.co.uk. Fully audited by ABCe and a founder member of the Association of Online Recruiters. http://www.topjobs.co.uk
========================
*****ARTICLE - HOW TO RECRUIT ONLINE: THE ART OF WRITING THE PERFECT AD***** This article has been written by Jonathan Menzies from Fish4Jobs (www.fish4jobs.co.uk).
Like most things in life, so long as you follow a few rules, you can't go too wrong:
Rule No. 1 This will sound obvious but the Internet is not paper advertising. The vast majority of Job Boards display ads in a simple text format with little or no colour and no fancy logos to grab the eye of a user. Why? Because duplicated across 50,000+ ads this will slow down any site for the average Internet user on a 56k modem to that of an asthmatic snail. Therefore Rule number 1 is Text Sells.
Rule No. 2 To ensure that the right candidate can swiftly reach your ad swimming in a multitude of your competitors you have to accommodate both the selling of the ad to the candidate and the fact that the text has to meet the basic requirements of an Internet Job Board search engine. An ad must have the following for the software to do its job properly: a) Job Title. Candidates will look at Job Titles first as most Job Boards highlight these above the rest of the ad's text. Therefore the more specific the better. A generic 'Web Developer' title will probably appear further down the results list than a more specific 'Web Developer - Java/ASP/ColdFusion'. Such a job title informs the candidate straight away if it is compatible to their skill set or not. If not, you wouldn't want to waste your time with their CV in the first place. b) Location. Got a mortgage? Kids in a local school? Chances are that you will not up sticks and move to a Job on the other side of the country at a drop of a hat. The power of the Internet gives candidates the freedom to find a suitable job in the location of their choice. Generic terms alone will not help. An ad with 'St Albans, Hertfordshire' will be bumped higher up the results pages for a candidate looking in this area than, an ad merely listed as 'Home Counties'. Fish4Jobs.co.uk goes one step further and even allows candidates to search within an 'x' mile radius of their, or any other, postcode. c) Salary. We may say to the boss that we work for the sense of well being it gives us, however most us look to increase our income when looking for a new job. If you know the salary range, great, put it in. If not then never, ever just say '£Neg'. Why? Because in a cluster of ads on a results page that just state 'Salary: £Neg', and one ad simply has 'Market leading rates +OTE +Company Benefits': as a candidate, which ad would you click on first? d) Keywords. Most candidates type in a variety of skill keywords into the job search engine to filter out unsuitable vacancies. You can help candidates and the search engine software by outlining early on in the main body of the ad what skills, in order of importance, your clients are looking for. The more precise the list of skill keywords the better to help filter out unsuitable CVs as candidates would now have little excuse to apply for a role clearly unsuitable for them.
Rule No.3 Candidates approach the ads in two halves: one can I do the job and two, do I want the job. The above keywords tactic should help the candidate swiftly make their mind if they can do the role. After this it is up to you to sell the job. You don't have to give away your clients' trade secrets, however, outlining the benefits of working for your client; from the obvious like pension and HealthCare to less obvious ones like free parking or discounted Gym membership will make a difference. If you do not know the additional benefits, then an extra five minutes finding out from the client is the thin line between finding the right candidate, and making the placement, or not.
And the Golden Rule? Generic ads will only generate, if any, a generic response.
Good hunting.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.jobform.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
***** ARTICLE - WHAT IS XML AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR RECRUITMENT?*****
This article was provided by 4mat.com who specialize in bespoke and pre-built web solutions, marketing, statistics and hosting.
Firstly let's remove the myths. XML is not the great saviour of on-line recruitment and it is not actually a technology in its own right. What it is a standard language for communicating vacancies and CVs and what it does is allow all systems that previously couldn't work together to communicate and operate together. Why is this important? Imagine one system (your internal recruitment system) sending CVs out in one format, your web site wants them in another format and your clients and jobboards all want them in slightly different formats. The net effect is that no two systems interact and things don't work!
XML is a way of describing a vacancy or candidate in a format that all systems can read and understand. The systems themselves still do the work and manipulate the information but the key is that using XML they can cross communicate.
In 4mat's opinion XML will significantly contribute towards growth in on-line recruitment firstly for vacancies, and then in about 18 months for candidates. It provides a new common language that opens up the opportunity for systems to work together. That's why 4mat.com is the only UK recruitment web company to be a member of the International HR-XML forum. If you'd like to know what is happening with XML on a UK or global basis call James Saunders at 4mat.com on 0207 721 7811 or visit http://www.4mat.com.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Your online recruitment solution could be ONLY 1 WEEK AWAY. Stop losing candidates on-line to competitors. The BCL RECRUIT RANGE OF SOFTWARE is easy to integrate into your existing website. Comprehensive website design/re-design is also available. To see an ONLINE DEMONSTRATION of the range of applications go to http://www.bcl-recruit.com
For further information contact Darin on 01635 581185 or darin@bcl-numedia.com ========================
****SITE OF INTEREST - TOPS RECRUITMENT**** TOPS Recruitment are an agency specialising in placing sales staff. They have developed a web site exclusively for sales vacancies. In order to increase the number of visitors they are offering the site as a free, no obligation, advertising platform to other recruitment companies (in a similar way to Reed with their Freecruitment site). Recruiters using this service get their own password so they can access the admin site and can upload the vacancies themselves with all candidate response going straight back to the agency and not to TOPS. The only criteria is that agencies who wish to use the site must not specialise in the sales arena - ie, no direct competitors to TOPS. So for those recruiters who have the occasional sales role to fill it would worth looking at http://www.topsrecruitment.co.uk. Alternatively you can contact Patrick Newbound on 01600 719889 or email patrick@topsrecruitment.co.uk to ask TOPS to generate a password for you to add vacancies to the site.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
hrstaff The UK's first website dedicated to advertising job opportunities within the HR field, and carrying ONLY HR related positions, hrstaff offers companies serious about filling vacancies, a route to a wide range of Permanent and Interim positions from graduate and administrator through to senior-level managers and directors. http://www.hrstaff.co.uk/
========================
****SUBMITTING ARTICLES**** If you are interested in writing an article for the recruit net newsletter please drop me a note.
As usual, any feedback on the newsletter and website suggestions are most welcome.
Regards Louise Triance _______________________________________________________________________ New Media in Business Limited - http://www.nmib.com - 01635 254881 (UK) UK Recruiter http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk
If you want to remember any of the sites previously reviewed visit the RECRUIT NET BOOKMARKS: http://www.nmib.com/recruiter/recnet.htm
*****SUBSCRIPTION TO RECRUIT NET NEWSLETTER***** Don't forget to let your colleagues know about this newsletter. Anyone can subscribe - all they need to do to receive their own copy of the recruit net newsletter is complete this form and send it to louise@nmib.com
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To unsubscribe from the newsletter please send an email to louise@nmib.com with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.
****ADVERTISING**** If you are interested in advertising a product, service or internet site in the newsletter please contact me by email (louise@nmib.com) or telephone (01635 254881).
The name of the newsletter has been changed to "ukrecruiter". This is to accompany the recent re-launch of the UK Recruiter web site (http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk).
Don't forget to email me details of any sites you think should be reviewed in the newsletter. And please support the newsletter advertisers by visiting their sites.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Site (mad.co.uk Directory) - Updates to UK Recruiter - Vacancy Board Review (Jobtrack, JobMagic and PlanetRecruit) - Recruitment Technologies - Article (Go Public with your Relations, by Oaten Farrar) - Article (Digital Generations, by justengineers.net) - Web site Review (Michael Page) - Site of Interest (The Whole of the Moon) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://directory.mad.co.uk
The "mad.co.uk Directory" is part of the
www.mad.co.uk website (www.mad.co.uk is a resource for news, information, jobs
and services for marketing professionals). The directory contains information on
suppliers of services within the marketing, media, new media, advertising and
design industries.
There are 20 main categories including market research, recruitment and design services and in total there are 192 sub-categories covered.
To use the directory you select the main category you are interested in and then search by keyword, company or geographical location. You can also select a sub category at this stage. The results are returned as a list of companies that match your query - company name, address, phone and fax number. If you click on the company name you get any other information that is available including contact name, position and email address, overview of business and company profile with target market and number of employees.
Companies do not have to pay to have their basic details listed (name, address, contact numbers, contact name and main area of business) which means this database is more comprehensive than others where companies must pay for their entry. There are currently around 2,000 companies listed - and this is increasing every day.
This is a really useful site if you are looking for information on companies that supply the marketing and related industries.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
While you were trying to make your recruitment budget go further someone, somewhere got a top job. Top people. Top companies. Only at TopJobs. The only online recruitment website to specialise in Management, Professional, Technical and Graduate sectors. Over 300 blue-chip and progressive companies are benefiting right now from major cost savings compared to traditional recruitment methods. Fully audited by ABCe and a founder member of the Association of Online Recruiters http://www.topjobs.co.uk
========================
*****UPDATES TO UK RECRUITER WEB SITE (http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk)*****
We've been working on the Books section of the UK Recruiter site (accessed from the menu to the right of the page). There are about 20 books listed on this page. They are all relevant to recruiters. For information on any book (or to purchase it) you just need to click on the title. If you want to recommend a book that you think other recruiters would find useful please drop me a note. Book reviews would also be welcome.
Feel free to drop me an email with any suggestions for additions to the site
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Internet training for recruiters
Looking for training for recruiters and/or researchers? Need help in using the Internet effectively in all aspects of the recruitment process? We specialise in internet training for the recruitment industry. We run two onsite courses - Recruiters Guide to the Internet and Finding Passive Candidates on the Internet. For information on our one day and half day intensive hands on training sessions email info@nmib.com or call 01635 254881. Visit http://www.nmib.com
========================
*****VACANCY BOARD REVIEWS - BY CHRIS PENGELLY*****
In this issue Chris Pengelly, of MCB digital, continues his comparison of vacancy boards by looking at JobTrack, JobMagic and PlanetRecruit from a jobseekers perspective.
JobTrack http://www.jobtrack.co.uk and JobMagic http://www.jobmagic.co.uk/
I'm reviewing these two sites together because to all intents and purposes they are the same. They look different and feel different (JobMagic seemingly targeting the corporate marketplace and JobTrack aiming for agency business) but a number of searches that I did resulted in almost identical results. This is probably because they are both owned by RexOnline and seem to share the same database.
It remains to be seen if these sites will be any sort of real competition for the major sites which seem to be getting better and better.
JobMagic offers, potentially, something to differentiate it from the other sites i.e. it looks like it may be a site where employers advertise their own jobs, but this really is no more than the Stepstone feature of filtering out agencies from your search results, or the GoJobsite starring system.
PlanetRecruit (http://www.planetrecruit.co.uk) The first thing that strikes you about this site is that it seems to have more jobs than other sites, but it also seems to cover more countries from the same site so that impression is soon eliminated before you even search for a job.
The site looks clean and easy to navigate, it is quick to download and simple to figure out which bit does what. I ran a search using account manager as the key words and was given over 500 results, hardly surprising really but the first page seemed relevant enough although all from the South East.
When you want to narrow the search down by location you get a list of towns and counties, in my opinion this list is not particularly usable. You cannot search on South East as a location, you cannot define London Central or Greater London, and there is no Home Counties option. When you try and choose a town near you to search on this could also leave you cold, according to the list of locations there are no Chertsey, Staines, Slough, Windsor, Reading Guildford, or Richmond. There is a Kingston on Hull but not a Kingston on Thames. I found this stupid to an extreme and it put me off using the site before I even started.
For those that are not put off by the fact that it is made difficult to easily find a job locally to them (if they live in the South East) the results are really quite good. They are well presented and it is easy enough to upload your CV etc. Obviously there are only agencies in those results and that is disappointing but not really any different to any other sites except (as mentioned above) Stepstone and GoJobsite.
In summary. As a candidate I found all of these sites disappointing, although I did get two agency calls as a result. Planet Recruit should do better with their locations and JobMagic needs more employer jobs - although I am sure that is partly related to the slowdown.
Any readers interested in bespoke advice on their recruitment advertising or design needs can contact Chris at chris@mcbdigital.com. MCB Digital is a design agency, specialising in digital media and involved in the recruitment markets.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Your online recruitment solution could be ONLY 1 WEEK AWAY. Stop losing candidates on-line to competitors. The BCL RECRUIT RANGE OF SOFTWARE is easy to integrate into your existing website. Comprehensive website design/re-design is also available. To see an ONLINE DEMONSTRATION of the range of applications go to http://www.bcl-recruit.com
For further information contact Darin on 01635 581185 or darin@bcl-numedia.com
========================
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES ***** Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes.
This week I received the following email from Alan:
The last week has been a tough one for everyone on both sides of the Atlantic. Somehow, recruiting systems seem less significant - yet I know that we must keep on working, keep on with so called 'normal' life.
Last Thursday I received an amazing article written by Ken Gaffey in the US. It sums up better than I could imagine the true meaning of hiring people who perform above and beyond the call of duty. With all our attempts to implement automated recruitment systems, the key factor at the end of the day is still the personal qualities of candidates that truly matter.
So, with that said, here is a URL to Ken's article - http://www.erexchange.com/a/d.asp?cid=FE803F42CA2E4B8C9209681624755095
Best regards Alan
*****ARTICLE - GO PUBLIC WITH YOUR RELATIONS, BY OATEN FARRAR*****
PART ONE (Part two of this article will be published in issue 71 of the newsletter)
Public Relations, when employed in a considered and appropriate manner will give your organisation credibility. But what is PR, and is it really something that your company needs to consider?
The term 'Spindoctor' is often banded about when PR is mentioned, usually with a negative connotation. However, there is more to the world of PR than the popular perception of what Alistair Campbell does. Public relations is one part of the communications mix, adding value to the other areas including direct marketing and advertising. Ideally it is employed alongside these avenues of promotion to provide a credible background.
The form public relations can take may vary from a 100 word press release or 2000 word feature article in the magazine serving your particular industry, to a staged event that your company sponsors. There are many possibilities that can be explored to suit all budgets. For instance, if a recruitment firm specialising in secretarial placements were to sponsor the provision of course materials for a particular training college in their local area, this may not only bring them candidates directly from that college, but if planned and executed well, could generate some excellent coverage in the local and trade press. This would cost relatively little to achieve, but would give them both credibility and respect from clients and candidates alike. In relation to the spend on advertising, PR is often surprisingly inexpensive. It is also worth remembering that success is not gauged by the amount of column centimetres, regular exposure in respected magazines is often far more beneficial than advertising, constantly contributing to the desired credibility.
The most widely known form of PR, is the press release. This is used to feed 'newsworthy' information concerning your company to interested parties. But what is news? Well, if directed to the relevant publications, news can consist of: new services you're offering, major clients you've obtained, office expansion, change in pricing - particularly lower-cost, memberships in associations, attending a trade show or exhibit, success stories based on clients, your company contributions to the community - including employees, awards you give your own employees, fund-raising events for the local community etc. etc. etc.
Good PR is simple and starts with a careful thought process inside your company. There are a few pointers that may aid your success in the early stages, before you ask for the help of a professional. Begin by telling yourself the truth. What does your company stand for? What does it do best? If you don't know what you want to say it will be difficult to tell the PR people, ultimately sending a confused message to customers.
Who is listening? Consider your candidates - consider your clients, both current and potential. What are they hearing about you? What do they like to hear? What do you want them to hear? What do you want them to learn? If you can't carry the message yourself, who would be the most effective messenger? Are your potential customers more likely to be swayed if they read about you in the local paper, or if they hear your product praised in the trade press? What publications do your customers read?
Aim to develop a relationship with people at the pressure points - trade and local press. They are closer to your customers than the general press and often carry more weight and credibility. What could be more reassuring to potential customers than to see your name among the experts? There is no real difficulty in reaching the trade press, as trade press editors are always on the look out for solutions to the problems of filling the space around the adverts, and this is often done through public relations material in the shape of press releases and articles. The better quality material will be published, again, if it is not news, or targeted information specifically designed for the trade publications' readership - forget it.
This article will be continued in the next issue of the newsletter, with practical steps to ensure you get good PR.
Oaten Farrar are a specialist recruitment communications agency based in Bristol. To find out more please visit http://www.oatenfarrar.co.uk or call Nick Farrar on 0117 953 23 43
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PlanetRecruit - http://www.jobform.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
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***** ARTICLE - DIGITAL GENERATIONS, BY JUSTENGINEERS.NET*****
The Online Recruitment sector, like most other Internet industries has been one that has concentrated on attracting 18-30 year olds. Lee Walsh from justengineers.net explains why those recruitment sites wishing to stay ahead will have to rethink their strategies towards the UK's ageing workforce.
The Numbers Game It is a startling fact that two-thirds of all the people who have ever lived to be over 65, in the entire history of the world, are alive today. It is also a fact that the 50 plus demographic is the only section of the UK population that is actually growing. Yet, in the online recruitment industry, most sites seem to have a blind spot when it comes to offering services for the 50 plus sector. Many of the attributes and Internet usage patterns online recruiters use to describe people 50 plus, better reflect people aged 70 plus. Today, mature Internet users are working longer, enjoying better health, and utilising technology more than at any prior time in history.
There is little disagreement among the published surveys (Key Note 1999, GVU 1998, Financial Times 1998, 1999) that the average Internet user is an educated, white male American in his mid thirties. However, in the UK it is estimated that around 15 percent of all Web users are over 50.
Why should Online Recruiters serve this market? The UK is beginning to experience the affects of a profound skills shortage. The falling birth rate, the overseas brain drain and a rapidly growing state dependent elderly population means that the UK economy will have to look for new sources skilled labour. The government has recognised the problem, following Germany's lead, approving the large-scale immigration of IT workers from the Indian subcontinent. Yet, this is just a short-term solution, it has long been recognised in the US that older workers hold the real long-term sustainable answer. The Department for Education and Employment's "Age Positive" campaign, proposed changes to employment law and retraining initiatives are positive steps, but the value of older workers will only be fully realised when the attitudes of all involved in recruitment changes.
As demand for skilled workers increases, simple market economics will dictate that those recruitment sites that have the ability to attract candidates of all ages will succeed. The prejudice attached to workers over 50 should evaporate in the coming years, as recruitment agencies and employers will be faced with little alternative but to realise the true value of experienced workers. In turn, employers and agencies will only use those sites who can meet their recruitment needs.
They don't use the Web??? As the number of the UK Internet users is set to double to over 14 million people by the end of 2003 (a quarter of the population), not only will the number of older Internet users rise rapidly, but their share of the Internet will also grow. The statistics suggest that within only a few years, the UK will see age ranges of the Internet flatten to be more in line with that of the US's. As users brought up on the Internet settle into middle age, the Internet becomes a more attractive marketing channel for recruiting older employees, breaking with the current stereotype as a medium used only by the young.
justengineers.net is a job board specialising in engineering companies, agencies and candidates. For more information visit http://www.justengineers.net or email lee@justengineers.net
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
hrstaff The UK's first website dedicated to advertising job opportunities within the HR field, and carrying ONLY HR related positions, hrstaff offers companies serious about filling vacancies, a route to a wide range of Permanent and Interim positions from graduate and administrator through to senior-level managers and directors. http://www.hrstaff.co.uk/
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*****WEB SITE REVIEW - MICHAEL PAGE***** In future issues of the newsletter Chris Pengelly will be reviewing recruitment agency and supplier web sites. He starts with a critique of Michael Page's site.
Michael Page - http://www.michaelpage.co.uk
The first thing you see when you visit the Michael Page site is "Our website is a starting point and not an end in itself". If only I could have figured that out for myself! It is a shame that in a really prominent place on the site, at the top of every page, the company patronises the user.
The site itself apart from that is excellent. You are never more than three pages away from applying for a job, and although the search facility is clunky, and if improved potentially you could be only ever two clicks away from an application, it works nicely. Navigation is great and the site is easy to find your way around. There is useful advice and news easily available, and the site had a full suite of features.
One thing that I think makes this site one of the best is the way that job information is presented. There is enough information about each job and putting industry or corporate news next to that information is a nice touch.
The site is better than most, if not all, of the commercial job boards in the way it operates and its look and feel. The company have obviously invested heavily. My personal experience of using the site is that the electronics work really well but when you want to call about any of the jobs it can be difficult to track down the correct consultant.
In total MichaelPage.co.uk scored 40/50 on our usability scale. It could be improved but not by much.
If you want a recommend a site for review please email
****SITE OF INTEREST ****
After a thirty month interval, Mr Kim Jones, Chief of Operations of recruitment advertising company BSA International, London, has finally released the 20th Issue of their alternative recruitment advertising industry newsletter! "The Whole of the Moon" is published online at http://www.wholeofthemoon.co.uk. The newsletter contains biting humour regarding the recruitment industry, wise cracks - telling how it really is and other interesting information. Articles in this issue include, Internet Recruiting, Sacking and Office Fascism. The newsletter is targeted at anyone in Human Resources and Recruitment. For a free subscription you can send an e-mail to moon@bsainternational.co.uk, with the subject line: "The Moon"
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Topinterim.com
Senior interim is one of the UK's fastest growing resources for senior management. topinterim's unique new process offers clients a blisteringly fast access to a top community of already over 1,500 years of blue chip management experience in a wide spread of key disciplines now working as senior independent portfolio managers. Fastest speed, lowest cost. For same day assisted search ring 020 7830 9662 or e client@topinterim.com or just visit the search engine on the site. No log ins required to search, do visit. http://www.topinterim.com
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Please let me know about any sites you think should be reviewed in the newsletter and if you are interested in writing an article for the newsletter please drop me a note.
*****CONTENTS*****
Reviewed Site (List-A-Day) - Updates to UK Recruiter - Recruitment Technologies (Bond Adapt) - Article (Go public with your relations, Oaten Farrar - part two) - Article (When the going gets tough, PlanetRecruit - Features of Interest (Events & Domain Names) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
The List-A-Day site is an archive and subscription area for two email newsletters - List-A-Day and Listaday-Biz. The basic purpose of these newsletters is to suggest email lists for subscribers to join. They review email discussion lists, email newsletters and ezines. If you subscribe to List-A-Day you will receive information on email lists covering any topic, however, the Listaday-Biz newsletter only covers business related email lists. The site is US focussed - but many of the newsletters they review have an international appeal - or are purely for UK individuals. The reviews are about 200 words long and give a basic overview of the purpose and content of the newsletter being reviewed. They also give any related web site and the email address to use if you want to subscribe.
I found out about this site when they reviewed the ukrecruiter newsletter - so feel I can honestly say they review worthwhile and UK focussed content! You only get one short email a day so it's worth signing up to if you want to stay aware of relevant newsletters.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
TopJobs While you were trying to make your recruitment budget go further someone, somewhere got a top job. Top people. Top companies. Only at TopJobs. The only online recruitment website to specialise in Management, Professional, Technical and Graduate sectors. Over 300 blue-chip and progressive companies are benefiting right now from major cost savings compared to traditional recruitment methods. Fully audited by ABCe and a founder member of the Association of Online Recruiters. http://www.topjobs.co.uk
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*****UPDATES TO UK RECRUITER WEB SITE (http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk)*****
Feel free to drop me an email with any suggestions for additions to the site
We've been working on the recruitment software section of the website recently (see the right hand menu on www.ukrecruiter.co.uk). This section of the site gives a comprehensive listing of providers of recruitment specific databases for candidate and process management. The companies listed provide solutions that can either be purchased or run as an application service (ASP).
We've also added a new section for "international" resources on the right hand menu. Whilst the UK Recruiter web site focuses on UK based suppliers we thought it might be useful to provide access to companies that are based overseas. If you know of any companies we should list please drop us a note.
Finally, we've added another recruitment to recruitment job board to the "jobs in recruitment" section (see the top menu on www.ukrecruiter.co.uk). You can now search the database of vacancies from RecruitmentJOBZ.com along with the existing sites we feature: CareersInRecruitment, Rec2Reconline and HRStaff. TopRecruitmentJobs and R2R are coming soon.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
hrstaff The UK's first website dedicated to advertising job opportunities within the HR field, and carrying ONLY HR related positions, hrstaff offers companies serious about filling vacancies, a route to a wide range of Permanent and Interim positions from graduate and administrator through to senior-level managers and directors. http://www.hrstaff.co.uk/
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*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES *****
Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes.
Hello everyone.
We look at one of the offerings that has been at the forefront of automating recruitment, Adapt from Bond International Software (http://www.bondadapt.com/). Bond, which has eight offices worldwide in the UK, Italy, US, Australia, Canada and South Africa, now has an estimated 25,000 users of Adapt in 36 countries.
Adapt is now fully web-enabled with comprehensive e-commerce capabilities. It has traditionally been targeted at the following areas of the recruitment industry: * Temporary/Contractor * High Street * Executive search and selection * Specialist vertical market recruiters
Searching Adapt offers multiple searching methods, whether information is held in a CV, letter, or record card; or in the candidate, job, or client profile.
Searching for candidates, clients, assignments and job orders can be achieved using Adapt's custom designed search templates or with open format searching. Adapt searches for word groups or phrases in the database, whether they appear as an exact phrase, or are contained anywhere, in any order
Adapt automatically stores results from all searches for later analysis. These lists, derived from different search techniques, can be joined together providing a consolidated list. Search results may be refined and narrowed using more specific criteria.
Tracking and workflow Adapt's Action System is the workflow management tool. It is designed to mirror all your daily tasks and to mirror the way you perform them. The daily planner is used to schedule interviews and client visits, for follow up, after-care calls, deadlines and appointments. All daily activities and communications are automatically logged in permanent record cards attached to every client, candidate, job specification and contact. Adapt holds complete profiles for current and prospective clients, assignments and job orders.
Whether CVs arrive by mail, fax or e-mail, Adapt automatically creates detailed candidate fact sheets. Adapt can save the original document as an image or in various formats. Adapt development tools enable you to access your candidate's CV and photo, hear their voice, watch an interview video and review actual images of appropriate paperwork.
Data organisation and integration Adapt's powerful information management system equips a business with the necessary tools to integrate and convert data with ease. Adapt offers easy integration with other software used by your business. Adapt offers control over the flow of information locally and globally. Adapt's Intersite Transfer Module (IST) provides a viable alternative to a large centralised database. IST logs changes to the data and transmits it to or from your branch offices. You have ultimate control over information flow, keeping everyone updated.
Technology platform Adapt offers a Windows environment regardless of the server operating system and is also available on inexpensive character-based terminals using the technological sophistication of UNIX. Adapt's file server can be configured with either Windows NT or UNIX. Both compilations of Adapt have identical functionality, the same look and feel and will grow with you as your business grows.
Web based systems Bond has a Web-based version of Adapt, which will offer users remote access to their Adapt system, from anywhere in the world. With built-in high-security measures, it means users can check records and update their diaries 24 hours a day, whatever their location.
Adapt's web export template was created with the recruitment industry in mind. Internet job posting on your own or your client's web site is simple and fast.
Bond's e-Search is a powerful Web Agent that has the ability to access thousands of candidates on the Internet, with the minimum of intervention by the consultant. It retrieves an almost unlimited number of suitable CVs from the Web, and automatically sorts and downloads the details to Adapt.
This means it is extremely user-friendly, and eliminates the need for any time-consuming sorting or inputting by the consultant. The search can also be activated while the consultant is out of the office or even overnight, saving even more time.
e-Search can also be used in conjunction with its highly-configurable sister module, AIM (Adapt Internet Module), which has the ability to automatically kick in once candidates have visited a consultancy's website and sent their details online. AIM sends receipt of the information to the candidates, and matches them to any suitable current vacancies.
Bond has recently announced the latest release of Adapt, with the ability to fully integrate with the Web. This version features two-way Microsoft Outlook integration, ensuring that the appointment and meeting type entries are automatically synchronised. For easier integration with job posting portals, Adapt can now take data from its database and automatically adjust it so that it is presented in the style of the host job board, thus significantly reducing the time spent on formatting data.
A new Computer Telephony Interface (CTI) integrates an Adapt system with a telephone system. Using TAPI compliant technology, Adapt can automatically dial phone numbers at the click of a mouse, access records of an incoming caller and help manage missed calls.
Adapt can now also be configured to display a company's name or logo, and tailored to their specific brand and identity.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Your online recruitment solution could be ONLY 1 WEEK AWAY. Stop losing candidates on-line to competitors. The BCL RECRUIT RANGE OF SOFTWARE is easy to integrate into your existing website. Comprehensive website design/re-design is also available. To see an ONLINE DEMONSTRATION of the range of applications go to http://www.bcl-recruit.com
For further information contact Darin on 01635 581185 or darin@bcl-numedia.com
========================
*****ARTICLE - GO PUBLIC WITH YOUR RELATIONS, BY OATEN FARRAR*****
PART TWO- Getting Started (Part one of this article was published in issue 70 of the newsletter)
So, you think you could use a little PR.....who are you gonna call? The question is not whether you'll need help, but when and from whom. Does someone on your team have the skills necessary to write an article in plain English? Is it cost effective to delegate the task in-house or hire a freelancer, or maybe even use the services of an agency? If you hire an agency you'll be turning over at least part of your reputation to an outsider, do you trust them. A good agency can add extraordinary creativity and experience to your marketing; often producing measurable results, if you give it the information.
Do you feel that your company message warrants the attention of a large firm, or that a smaller more focused team is better suited to your needs? Working with smaller agencies often means personal attention, however, big or small, you will always pay by the hour with fees across a wide range.
So what can I expect from public relations? Patience please, if you don't confuse PR with being in the papers every week, or expect an agency to work miracles, if you give the time needed to sew seeds, and water expectantly, then you might just reap the benefits of PR. But beware, the results are not always that easy to quantify. Much of what PR can achieve is a strengthening of your brand in your clients and candidates minds. This can be gauged with, for instance, before and after interviews, but this is often a more expensive business than the PR initiatives themselves.
Don't expect details from an initial agency interview; too many agencies have seen their ideas listened to, then used with another firm. Specifics concerning implementation will not materialise unless you are paying for the time. You will be offered some ideas and an angle from which to approach the dissemination of the message, in most circumstances, this will give you a clear idea of what they are offering and whether they are the agency for you.
There is, unfortunately, no way to guarantee PR success, don't expect an agency to dress you as a lamb when really you are mutton. No agency can make you into something that you're not, and no decent agency will try. With help from you, the agency will be able to find a story about your company, and a way to tell it, that delivers the message in the right places. The only way to avoid frustration on both sides is to establish detailed goals at the outset.
An effective campaign is built carefully, with layers of foundation necessary before you can see results. Bottom line, if you haven't had any responses within six months, leave the agency. Public relations is forever, but a relationship with an agency is not. It may take a couple of attempts to find the right agency to suit your needs.
New avenues to explore The world of public relations is constantly looking for new avenues, one that has recently emerged with the onset of internet technology is the e-newsletter or e-zine. This can be mailed directly to your current clients and acts as direct mail and public relations at the same time. Informing and educating current clients and candidates of new developments is a vital part of retaining their interest and their custom. The potential for reaching new audiences is exceptional and the cost of producing the newsletter tiny by comparison.
Public Relations can benefit your organisation. Systematic exploitation of the relevant channels over a sustained period of time will give you credibility with your chosen audience. PR certainly has potential - spread the word.
Oaten Farrar are a specialist recruitment communications agency based in Bristol. To find out more please visit http://www.oatenfarrar.co.uk or call Nick Farrar on 0117 953 23 43
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Topinterim.com Senior interim is one of the UK's fastest growing resources for senior management. topinterim's unique new process offers clients a blisteringly fast access to a top community of already over 1,500 years of blue chip management experience in a wide spread of key disciplines now working as senior independent portfolio managers. Fastest speed, lowest cost. For same day assisted search ring 020 7830 9662 or e client@topinterim.com or just visit the search engine on the site. No log ins required to search, do visit. http://www.topinterim.com
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***** ARTICLE - WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH..... , BY PLANETRECRUIT *****
The business of e-cruitment first grew during a time of skill shortage and still achieved success. With the onset of an economic downturn, the benefits of recruitment online will come into their own, says Simon Appleton, CEO of PlanetRecruit (http://www.planetrecruit.co.uk)
In the face of an economic slowdown, predictions for the recruitment market are mixed. Even those of us old enough to remember the last recession can't use that as a reference point. Recruitment, like so many industries, has shifted ground significantly since the early 90s. An integral part of that change has been the arrival of 'e-cruitment'. The impact of online recruitment, though difficult to gauge, is no longer negligible. And it's set to be tested in the face of the new harsher economic climate.
The reasons for the 'e-cruitment' revolution are already well documented. Recruiters were able to engage efficiently with large numbers of candidates. Jobseekers found an easy way to get their CVs out to the right sorts of companies. Without the overhead of bricks and mortar, or the hype of some of the most well-known internet start-ups, job sites evolved in pace with the market. All this happened in a time when skills were short. The global market was expanding rapidly, Y2K was in full swing and the possibilities created by new media were putting demands on companies to react. Across all sectors, and particularly IT, business was brisk.
Maximising the benefits As the economy slows down, the issues for recruiters may change, but the benefits of online recruitment are just as relevant, if not more so. We know that the key strengths of online recruitment are speed, scale and cost-effectiveness. As recession hits, large numbers of candidates become available, and many of them (particularly in the telcoms and IT sectors) will go straight to the internet to look for jobs. With competition for jobs increasing, jobseekers will be more inclined to look in different locations - both here and overseas. The ease with which online recruitment transcends geographical boundaries will be critical.
Recently the behaviours of jobseekers have been influenced by the internet. Using job sites, they're more inclined to keep an eye on job postings and post their CV 'just in case'. And jobseekers now see themselves as marketable, especially with the fluidity caused by the rise in homeworking and the huge growth in the contract market. All this gives us a context for maximising the benefits that online recruitment brings.
Having said that, there have been jitters about whether recruiters will retreat to the familiar territory of paper advertising and networking in the face of a tougher market. But recruitment must be more efficient now than ever, which is why the online model is so compelling. Besides, why use another medium, when so many job seekers are looking online? What's likely is that recruiters will still use the full range of media, but a lot more carefully.
Role of agencies Another question surrounds the role of agencies in a recession. Will they become an unnecessary overhead for hard-pressed recruiters? Agencies, not surprisingly, point out the reasons why agencies will always be a critical part of the loop. PlanetRecruit, which works exclusively with agencies, is inclined to agree. Agencies help recruiters make the right choice, first time. In a saturated market, it will be important to filter effectively the large numbers of candidates going for each job. By nature, these are the candidates who will be most in demand. So again, agencies, supported by online recruitment tools, are set to deliver. Having said that, our agency clients are clear that there are tough times ahead. A lot of recruiters are downsizing or going out of business. And the market is beginning to reach saturation in some areas so there is increased competition between agencies. Tougher times will dictate the fate of many, and it'll be the agencies who've formed strong client relationships who'll survive. What we're noticing at PlanetRecruit is not necessarily a slow-down in sales (ie the number of new agency accounts), but an increase in churn, with some of the smaller agencies disappearing.
Flexible and fit As far as online recruitment companies are concerned, the crowded market has already begun to shake itself out. We may see the demise of a few more e-cruiters, particularly those whose businesses have grown very fast without the foundations of a sound business model.
One thing that's certain is that the market is shifting every day. We all need to become even more flexible, fitter organisations who can respond effectively to change. PlanetRecruit's strategy is to stay close to agencies, and we've continued to differentiate ourselves on price and customer support. There's still a lot more room for growth, and now more than ever, it's a question of listening to the needs of our customers.
****FEATURES OF INTEREST ****
There are a few recruitment events coming up this month:
- The second Resource event takes place on the 25th October 2001 in London (at the IoD). A strong line up of industry speakers is promised including Andy Baker, Director of workthing.com and Phillip McMullan, Editor of Professional Recruiter. Resource is a forum for the recruitment industry; its aims to provide the industry with a platform for communication and exchange of ideas among professional recruiters, employers and those associated with the industry. For more information on the event call 0800 072 0809, visit http://www.resourceforum.org or email resource@lsmgroup.com
- The next monthly event for The Recruitment Society takes place on the 9th October 2001. Geoff Armstrong, the Director General of the CIPD will be taking about "The war for talent: Recruiting vs. developing management teams". For more information visit http://www.recruitmentsociety.org.uk/
- ATSCo's annual Members Conference takes place on the 11th October 2001. The conference is for consultants and managers working within ATSCo member organisations and this year will focus on how to "thrive in a recession". For more information on the conference contact info@atsco.org or phone 01727 896081.
The IRNA (Internet Recruiters' Network and Association) online recruitment awards took place recently. To find out who won what visit: http://www.amita-uk.com/irna/awards/awards-winners.asp. As well as information about the winners you can also see details of the judges, rules and finalists.
Monster and Universum research have recently released the findings of their "Young Professionals Survey" conducted across 10 European countries. It includes a list of the top 100 employers as per the survey results along with insights as to why workers remain loyal to companies and what attracts employees to a company. An overview of results from the survey is available on the Monster web site at http://campus.monster.co.uk/articles/youngprof for more information email Tanya.ryan@augustone.com
I don't want to start up a domain name "swap shop", but thought these were quite interesting. Nick Rayner of r2r is selling the following domain names: recruit-2-recruit.co.uk, recruit-2-recruit.com, recruit-to-recruit.com and talk-the-talk.co.uk. If you're interested you can contact him on 01223 208008 or email him on nrayner@r2r.co.uk
*****CONTENTS*****
Reviewed Site (Query Server) - Updates to UK Recruiter - Recruitment Technologies (GlobalSuccessor) - Article (Employing the mature worker by FiftyOn.co.uk) - Website Review (Reed) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.queryserver.com/ Query Server is a meta search tool that submits your query to a number of different search engines at once. The results are returned as a single list ranked and clustered to bring the most relevant results to the top.
There are five different search pages covering different types of search engines: web search, news search, health search, money search and government search. The web search page queries 10 internet search engines including AltaVista, HotBot and Yahoo. The site is a US one and as such the government search page only searches US federal government sites. However, the news search page covers 11 TV and newspaper sites including BBC News, The FT, The Guardian, The Independent and The Times.
To perform a search you enter your search term into the "Search For" box and choose the appropriate options from the "Match", "Number of Results", and "Result Clustering" drop down lists. You can either search across all the search engines or just select the ones you want to include. There are advanced search tips available on the site.
This is a very useful site for conducting a search across a number of search engines or newspaper sites. It is quick to use and has a nice simple layout and design.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
SW2 & SW3 - The Symbol of quality Recruitment Solutions from ProjectHouse, wherever you are. SW3 is a web-based recruitment solution delivered as an ASP, taking the fundamental features and functionality offered by SW2 and integrating seamlessly into a recruitment agencies web site allowing consultants, candidates and clients access to a centralised database regardless of where they are as long as they have access to the Internet. SW2 is a comprehensive, integrated environment for building, operating and maintaining a high performance database across a LAN. Both systems administrators and users enjoy a simple high-level interface to an extremely sophisticated database offering complete management, tracking of sales/recruitment processes and links to the Internet. For more information visit http://www.projecthouse.com, email sales@projecthouse.com or call 01527 837111
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*****UPDATES TO UK RECRUITER WEB SITE (http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk)*****
We've added a "news" page to the site. This page is accessible from the top menu on the site under the heading news. This page will supplement the newsletter, containing press releases, recruitment news, events and details of changes to the UK Recruiter website. It will be updated as often as necessary.
If you think there is anything we can add to the site to improve it please feel free to drop me an email
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES *****
Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes.
Today we are looking at GlobalSuccessor from i-grasp (www.i-Grasp.com), a company founded by a core team of technology specialists from the European operations of Heidrick and Struggles, one of the world's leading executive search organisations. The core team has over 40 years experience in the development and support of web-based recruitment management systems.
GlobalSuccessor is an e-business solution to recruitment. The company aim is to work closely with organisations to adopt and implement successful e-business techniques and processes in the context of their recruitment, retention and overall Human Capital Management needs.
GlobalSuccessor is designed to support all types of recruitment activity, at all levels and in all geographical locations for permanent or contract staff, from graduates to experienced hires. GlobalSuccessor can be the catalyst for the adoption of standard processes and procedures throughout an organisation, leading to increased productivity and consistent management of all candidate relationships.
The e-business principles adapted to recruitment include: * e-engineering the Recruitment Supply Chain * customer (candidate) relationship management (CRM) * business process improvement.
e-engineering the Recruitment Supply Chain GlobalSuccessor is a process-oriented solution that integrates with key recruitment players inside a company, (HR professionals, interviewers and hiring managers) and external organisations such as agencies, contract recruiters, universities and job boards. Everyone has their own view of a common information system, eliminating duplicate processes and data and reducing costs.
CRM GlobalSuccessor helps a company apply standard and advanced CRM techniques to attracting, communicating with and managing an on-going relationship with all types of candidates.
The separate Universal Questionnaire tool facilitates the measurement of satisfaction felt by candidates, internal customers and external recruitment partners, enabling the company to monitor and improve the CRM process.
Business Process Improvement GlobalSuccessor enables the creation of virtual teams and discussion groups so that decisions can be taken from a common understanding and shared view of the process. The resulting elimination of duplicate and labour intensive processes, coupled with creation of a Virtual Recruitment Supply Chain leads to significant and measurable business process improvements.
Each part of the recruitment supply chain will be measured through the web based Management Information (MI) tool to ensure continuous improvements in the quality and time to hire.
To summarise, what does GlobalSuccessor and the i-grasp solution deliver?
Recruitment Search Job Posting: Jobs can be posted instantly to a company's own web site and intranet, external job boards such as Monster and Stepstone and to preferred supplier recruitment agencies via a unique private extranet.
Online applications: Candidates can apply online by filling in an application form on the company web site or email CVs directly.
Candidate communication and relationship management starts with automatic email acknowledgement of the application and moves on to invitation to interview and eventually to career progression.
Recruitment Selection CV analysis: Web CV Expert reads CVs and extracts data into a database allowing the company to store, query and retrieve candidate information.
Interview management: Information for candidates such as company information, interview format and office location can be made easily accessible on the corporate web site. Companies can also build a knowledge base of interview questions, schedule interviews and track the interview process.
Selection testing: Universal Questionnaire is the web-based questionnaire tool that can be used to screen and evaluate candidates.
Recruitment Management Integration: GlobalSuccessor complements existing investment in products such as PeopleSoft and SAP HR and can be seamlessly integrated with them.
Management Allows HR staff and line managers to administer the entire recruitment process on-line and focus on recruitment management not administration. Real-time reporting of management information enables a company to examine critically the effectiveness of recruitment campaigns.
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*****ARTICLE - EMPLOYING THE MATURE WORKER BY FIFTYON.CO.UK*****
The mature worker should be an obvious choice for businesses. Even in a small team, diversity of personnel brings richness and helps a business to differentiate itself from its competitors. Diversity helps by creating a workforce that is representative of the wider community and one that increasingly mirrors the customer base of the business.
FiftyOn is championing the top end of the diverse workforce - those aged 50 and beyond. We passionately believe that such workers have a key role to play in the future of many businesses in sectors as diverse as healthcare, financial services, retail, IT and professional services - in fact, in any environment where service and trust are critical, where reliability and stability count.
In 2006, the Government intends to introduce legislation to make discrimination on the basis of age illegal. The period until then is designed to give an opportunity for full consultation with employers and other interested parties. Currently, employers are encouraged to remove unjust practices through the voluntary code introduced in 1999, although this has not been seen to be widely effective.
Even without the threat of legislation, the case for taking a voluntary approach to employing more over-fifties makes sense. Skill shortages exist in many sectors and the war for talent continues to hot up. Demographic changes mean that more employers will be competing for a smaller pool of younger people and the costs of staff turnover will be high. The same demography will steadily increase the number of over-fifties potentially available in the working population.
As these scenarios evolve, the key to responding effectively will be flexibility. Workers need to think differently about their skills, how to keep them up to date and where they can employ them. Employers too will need to develop new flexible working policies and think differently about career structures and retirement ages. Interim and portfolio working will be increasingly part of the mix. The value of older workers
FiftyOn recently conducted research through NOP that showed that employing the over-fifties can also enhance the reputation of the company doing so. Key findings of the research were:
* 83% think that employing older people is good for a company's image; * 75% agree that older people tend to be more honest in the advice they give and aren't so interested in a quick sale; * 89% agree that retraining is not a problem for older people and that they are able to take on new skills.
This last point was supported by earlier research carried out for FiftyOn, which illustrated the growing propensity for older people to take on new IT skills. Over 4 million people over fifty own a computer and more than half of these regularly surf the Internet. Not only are these skills relevant to business, they scotch the myths that ageing leads to mental or creative decline.
There is, therefore, a sound case for employing mature workers:
* the availability of mature workers who are willing to retrain is high; * skill shortages exist in many sectors; * the turnover of younger staff is high; * demographic shifts mean the social problems will continue to grow.
Action is needed from all parties. Enlightened businesses should see the opportunity and seize it. Enlightened over 50s should focus on their flexibility and their marketability. Recruiters everywhere should champion the cause of the mature worker.
DON'T WASTE TALENT: USE IT.
Denis Walker is the CEO of Fiftyon.co.uk - a website for jobs and career opportunities for job seekers over or nearing 50, as well as information on leisure, health and finance. For more information visit http://www.fiftyon.co.uk
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Why should you take the risk? for only £995 set-up you could have a complete online recruitment database which includes all of the following: Vacancy Database, Management Interface, Searchable Vacancies Section, Multiple Application Processing, Online Page and Vacancy Statistics, Candidate Subscription Area and Pro-active Candidate Mailing List. Comprehensive website design/re-design is also available. To receive further information or view our online demo contact Alex or Darin on 01635 581185 or visit our web sites at www.bcl-recruit.com and www.bcl-numedia.com
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****WEBSITE REVIEW - REED ****
http://www.reed.co.uk The primary driver of web design is a focus on the user. What is it you want the user to do with your site? What objective are they likely to have that your site will help them meet? With Reed.co.uk the user is left in no doubt that they could find a new job ("the right job looks for you") from visiting this site.
We carried out an heuristic evaluation of the site and found the homepage cluttered and too busy to be able to completely take in all that is on offer. There is some duplication and the page does not fit the screen, which could mean that vital information could be quite easily missed.
The quick search facility is obviously placed and easy to use, so nobody is going to have a major problem finding jobs that are suitable. It is easy to find and apply for a job after registration and the whole process can be completed quickly in a near minimum number of clicks.
The career streams promise useful content, which is not necessarily delivered as you look at them. With so much of the area of the homepage devoted to career streams i.e. practically the whole right hand side of the page and a section in the centre you would imagine there to be plenty of information about the sector you are looking for. Unfortunately there isn't. It seems that they offer little extra but a wider browsing facility and an office locator.
Taking in to account the fact that you have to register to fully use the site, and getting registrations is an obvious objective for Reed, then the site does well. I would imagine that users are more inclined to register now as the internet becomes more trusted, but I wonder how many applications are lost through candidates not wanting to.
Allowing job postings from other companies is an excellent idea, especially when Reed are going to get the benefit of the registrations and control the server that forwards applications on to those companies so that they can be branded a Reed response. The overall impression that the site gives to candidates is of a site that will be useful in a job search.
The problem for Reed, as for probably all other recruitment consultancies, is that of split objectives. With Reed, practically all of the initially visible page is devoted to candidates, only when you scan down the page do you find any mention of their client services. Also the adverts that appear on the right hand side are all but invisible until you scan down the page. Bearing in mind the way that job results are presented in a box of ten format that is completely visible on the screen then there is little need to actually scroll down on any page apart from the homepage.
All in all we had mixed feelings about the site. The technology works very well. Candidates are left in little doubt as to what they are likely to achieve through looking at the site (until they try and apply for a job and are forced to register). There are wasted opportunities; advertising inventory is all over the place (apart from the fixed slots below the 'page break'), and the site could be better planned to allow for more focus on the company's client offering and less focus on areas where Reed has nothing or little to offer.
Overall this is a useful site, with room for improvement, which scores 30 out of 50 on the MCB Digital Index.
MCB Digital (www.mcbdigital.com) are a leading independent digital design agency specialising in designing highly usable websites, compelling presentation materials and digital marketing collateral (CD's, DVD's etc). The company is currently offering a discounted, in depth, website usability evaluation to UK recruiter readers. Contact Chris Pengelly on 0208 408 8137 or email him at chris@mcbdigital.com.
****WANT TO WRITE AN ARTICLE? ****
We welcome articles from subscribers to the newsletter. If you are interested in writing an article we've got some guidelines on the UK Recruiter web site at www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm If you have an article you'd like to submit please email or telephone (01635 254881) us.
*****CONTENTS*****
Free Books - Reviewed Site (ukphonebook.com) - CV Database Review (FT.com)- Updates to UK Recruiter - Features of Interest (Surveys, Award & New Newsletter Feature) - Subscription Form
*****FREE BOOKS****
We're looking to increase the number of subscribers to the newsletter and would like your help! In return we are offering 100 free books...
A copy of "Recruitment Advertising, Right First Time" by John Courtis will be sent to 100 lucky readers who have submitted the names of colleagues who would like to join the newsletter distribution list.
For every email address you submit you'll be entered into the draw to win a copy of the First Edition of this book. On the 30th November, the first 100 names drawn from the "hat" will be sent a copy of the book. All you need to do is email with the names of the colleagues you are subscribing (making sure they want to receive the newsletter!). There is no limit to the number of people you can refer - in fact the more people you recommend the higher your chances are of winning a copy of John's fantastic book!
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
ukphonebook.com is a service much like BT's directory enquiry service. Previously you could conduct as many searches, for telephone numbers, on the BT website as you wished; now it's limited to 10 per day (200 per month if you register). The ukphonebook.com service is completely free to use and you can do as many searches as you want.
To use the service you just enter the last name of the person, or name of the business, you want to find in the 'Name' box and the town where the person or business is located in the 'Place' box. Then click the 'Business Search' or 'Residential Search' button. If there is more than one place with a similar name you will be asked to clarify the location. If the name you have entered is not unique to that area you will get more than one match. You can either select an individual from the list of results or further refine your search by initials or address.
The site also has a great feature where you can search for the address that matches a postcode you have and where you can type in an address and get the correct postcode. This is found on the "Postcodes" tab. With the results from these searches comes a link to "get a map" which is also useful.
This is great site - it's very quick and simple to use
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Unlimited CV database access (http://www.cv-library.co.uk) Our unlimited access accounts will provide your agency with the resources to recruit staff in over 90 different industries, which cover the whole of the UK and Ireland. All CV's posted within the last few months. http://www.cv-library.co.uk/cgi-bin/link.pl?link=ukr-newsletter-dbaccess
3rd Party Database Solutions (http://www.cv-library.co.uk) We are pleased to offer employers/agencies our new database software, which incorporates into your website, providing your visitors/future candidates with the option to register their CV through our unique user friendly submission form. http://www.cv-library.co.uk/cgi-bin/link.pl?link=ukr-newsletter-3rdparty
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*****CV DATABASE REVIEW*****
This is the first in a new series of articles written by James Chapman of Business Research Solutions. James will be reviewing CV Databases for ukrecruiter newsletter on a regular basis. If you'd like to suggest a CV Database for review or have any comments on this feature please email
FT.com FTCareerPoint.com - http://www.ftcareerpoint.com
Sectors: Finance and Banking, Accountancy, IT and Senior General Management
Target candidate level: Very skilled and experienced, well educated professionals with a track record.
Site Launched: February 2000
Number of CV's held: 13,000 increasing by 400-500 per month
Geographic split of candidates: 40% UK, 40% Europe, 20% US and Other.
Target audience: Anyone who would usually read the FT Newspaper or FT.com looking for a job.
Site Marketing: In the FT Newspaper and on FT.com
How to Subscribe: Most clients are identified from existing FT advertisers. Other than that you have to register online. The phone number was nowhere to be seen on their site but am reliably informed it is 0870 739 7843.
Feedback after registering: Quarterly questionnaire
How is the database cleaned?: Candidates are reminded every 6 months to update their details. Once on the database only the candidate can remove their CV.
Costs: £100 per CV. It is free to register and search the database and view anonymous CV's, however a charge of £500 per company per quarter is envisaged for the new year.
Who's in charge?: Peter Highland - Peter's objective is to make FTCareerPoint.com the number one site for Senior General and Financial Management jobs in the UK. To achieve this he believes the CV database should hold over 10,000 UK based jobseekers as opposed to the current 5,000. Peter sees the site as being unique due to its superior content backed by the FT branding, which together bring candidates regularly to the site and give them the confidence to register their CV.
Positives:
The site is well laid out, simple to use and functional. The search criteria are concise enough to give good targeted results but do still give a wide selection of candidates that may still be interesting for an assignment. You can save searches and bookmark CV's for later reference which cuts down on the need to make paper notes or type potentially useless notes into your own database software.
Negatives: The site in itself is quite slow which can be a bit of a pain. Searches cannot be amended if you decide you want to narrow or widen the criteria - you have to re-type all the criteria. Despite the large percentage of foreign candidates looking for employment in the UK on the system, there is no facility to ask whether the candidates are entitled to work in Britain. You can search for candidates that have an MBA from a list of any one of virtually all schools in the world, however you cannot specify that they have an MBA from any of all the schools listed.
There is a major obstacle to actually getting hold of a candidate's CV. Once you have seen the anonymous CV (which may have everything about them including their current and previous employers and dates) FTCareerPoint will email the candidate asking for permission to release their name and contact details to your firm. It is then entirely a matter of luck as to when the candidate reads their email or whether they give permission to release their details. FTCareerPoint inform me that most candidates do allow their details to be released, mostly out of curiosity.
Summary: The site is well targeted and boasts some excellent candidates within its niche sectors. Getting the most out of the site is hampered by its overall slowness both in searching and actually getting hold of full CV's with contact details. At £100 per CV the price may seem quite high in comparison to other sites, however it is pitched at the higher end of the market where the rewards are greater and there is a high level of information available on each candidate before you decide to purchase. Considering that it is 20 months old I would have expected a slicker and more refined site and service.
Overall marks out of ten: 6
Recommendation: Take the opportunity to register and look around before they start charging next year. In its present form the site is unlikely to be your sole source of candidates for an assignment but will probably help you get you out of a tight spot if candidates are thin on the ground.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
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SW2 & SW3 - The Symbol of quality Recruitment Solutions from ProjectHouse, wherever you are. SW3 is a web-based recruitment solution delivered as an ASP, taking the fundamental features and functionality offered by SW2 and integrating seamlessly into a recruitment agencies web site allowing consultants, candidates and clients access to a centralised database regardless of where they are as long as they have access to the Internet. SW2 is a comprehensive, integrated environment for building, operating and maintaining a high performance database across a LAN. Both systems administrators and users enjoy a simple high-level interface to an extremely sophisticated database offering complete management, tracking of sales/recruitment processes and links to the Internet. For more information visit http://www.projecthouse.com, email sales@projecthouse.com or call 01527 837111
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*****UPDATES TO UK RECRUITER WEB SITE (http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk)*****
We've recently been working on the Job Seekers page. You'll see the link to it from the centre frame of the home page. Whilst the UK Recruiter site is focussed on the needs of recruiters a number of jobseekers also visit the site and this page is for them. Like the rest of the UK Recruiter web site the advice is independent. Perhaps you might like to let candidates who you can't help with their job search know about the page. If you've any suggestions on additions to the job seeker page - just let me know.
If you think there is anything we can add to the site to improve it please feel free to drop me an email
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Your own recruitment business Ever fancied the idea of going it alone and running your own recruitment business ? Maybe you have been put off by the hassle and expense of setting up an office and the technicalities involved in establishing and running the IT systems. By partnering with BenchmarkIT, all this is taken care of for you, including a super office based in Farnham, Surrey, PC, Internet, extensive candidate databases, recruitment systems, your own Web site and all the other recruitment and support services you need, so that you start earning from day one ! Please call Rob on 01252 781581 or email rob@benchit.com to find out more."
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****FEATURES OF INTEREST****
ONLINE RECRUITMENT SURVEY Enhance Media have released the results of the research they conducted at the recent IQPC Exchange Online Recruitment Event. The survey revealed that 89% of those sampled intend to increase their online recruitment activity in the next twelve months. The survey also found that the average online recruiter is currently advertising on 2.5 job boards and has spent over £21,000 on online recruitment in the last year. The biggest issue facing the UK recruitment industry was felt to be the integration of back end technologies with existing HR systems, with half of those surveyed voicing this concern. 31% felt the biggest issue was trying to improve the quality of candidates available. Full details of the survey results can be obtained by emailing results@enhancemedia.co.uk
RECRUITER SALARY SURVEY Heywood Associates Limited have recently released their 2000/2001 salary survey for the recruitment industry. This year's survey draws on a sample of some 2,800 recruitment consultancies from London & the M25, the Thames Valley, Midland and North of England. For more information or a copy of the report telephone Andrew Mountney on 020 7404 4884 or email andym@heywoodassociates.com
AGE POSITIVE RECRUITMENT AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE Recruiters who hire staff on ability not birthday are being invited to enter the Department for Work and Pensions' national awards contest. An entry form, together with the DWP's voluntary Code of Practice on Age Discrimination can be obtained by calling 08457 330360 or emailing soniarehill@geronimo2.co.uk and asking for details.
JOB BOARD REVIEWS - NEW FEATURE IN UKRECRUITER NEWSLETTER Matt Alder, Head of Interactive Media for the Advertising and Communications division of TMP Worldwide will be joining us the newsletter as regular contributor from the next issue. He has been involved in online recruitment for nearly five years and his main area of expertise is online media strategy, planning and measurement technologies. He'll be reviewing UK job boards so feel free to email me with any suggestions of sites you'd like to see him review.
****WANT TO WRITE AN ARTICLE? ****
We welcome articles from subscribers to the newsletter. If you are interested in writing an article we've got some guidelines on the UK Recruiter web site at www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm If you have an article you'd like to submit please email or telephone (01635 254881) us.
Please email me details of any sites you think should be reviewed in the newsletter or drop me a note if you are interested in writing an article. And please support the newsletter advertisers by visiting their sites.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Site (5minutesaway.co.uk) - Job Board Review (Stepstone) - CV Database Review (GoJobsite) - Opinion Piece (Co-operate with Competitors you can Trust) - Recruitment Technologies (WebWithoutWorries) - Article (Branding) - Don't Miss This (Recruitment 2001 - including free tickets!) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
5minutesaway.co.uk is a web based directory of services and facilities within 5 minutes of motorway junctions. To use the site you select the motorway and then the junction number, the types of facilities available at each junction are listed by category (accommodation, food/pub, garage, activity, fuel, shops). Address, phone number and directions are given for each of the facilities, along with opening times.
The whole of the UK is covered - although there are not facilities listed for every single motorway junction. The directory is still being added to with the final objective being to also add facilities for junctions off A roads. The service is also WAP accessible from wap.5minutesaway.co.uk.
This is a useful site if you need to meet a client or candidate at a convenient location for both parties and don't want to go into a town or city centre. It would also come in useful when planning family trips!
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*****JOB BOARD REVIEW - BY MATT ALDER OF TMP ADVERTISING*****
From Stepstone to Tombstone The sudden disappearance of Stepstone from the UK market place has posed a number of questions as to the way forward for online recruitment. For my first contribution to the newsletter I feel it would be appropriate to examine the successes and failures of the site, as it presents an interesting case study for what is good and bad in an online recruitment site.
What it did well Stepstone's biggest achievement was the awareness it built for itself in a relative short period of time. This was reflected not only in its traffic figures but also in many surveys in which it was consistently listed as a top three recruitment brand. Stepstone's marketing push also had the positive effect of raising awareness of online recruitment in general. On the back of this Stepstone's large sales team were also able to sign up an impressively varied selection of clients.
What it did badly One of the biggest problems with Stepstone was the way the site was laid out. The interface made it very difficult for candidates to find the jobs they were looking for and the banner ad placements on offer were not positioned particularly well within the site.
There was a lack of content over and above job listings, making it difficult to consistently generate repeat visits from users. Many of Stepstone's competitors offer things such as online forums and salary surveys to encourage users to come to their sites on a regular basis.
A stream of technical problems that were really unforgivable for a web publisher also blighted the site far too often.
From a client's point of view Stepstone's offering was not very sophisticated. They were far too late to the market with their new products, in particular selling access to their CV database. This meant there was little else for recruiters to buy beyond the standard offering of job postings, banners and profiles.
Why it failed The key to Stepstone's failure lies in the way the site was managed financially. Like many dot coms before it, it's large cash burn and enormous marketing budget were unsustainable against its revenues without significant continued external investment. Stepstone expanded across Europe at a phenomenal rate and never paused to consolidate it's position in any of its markets. The fact that Stepstone did this without the backing of a major company behind it proved fatal for its UK operation
What next for online recruitment The loss of Stepstone UK may well dent client confidence in recruitment sites, as people begin to wonder where the next casualty is coming from. It is fair to say that some further consolidation in the industry is inevitable, however Stepstone was a unique company and never had the security of a major backer that its main UK competitors still enjoy. Sites like Total Jobs, Monster, Fish4 Jobs and others are still going strong and with existing sensible business models and heavy weight financial backing are likely to be with us for a very long time to come.
Matt Alder is Head of Interactive Media for the Advertising and Communications division of TMP Worldwide. He has been involved in online recruitment for nearly five years and his main area of expertise is online media strategy, planning and measurement technologies. You can contact TMP on 020 7406 5000 or visit http://www.tmpw.co.uk
If you'd like to suggest a Job Board for review or have any comments on this feature please email
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
While you were trying to make your recruitment budget go further someone, somewhere got a top job. Top people. Top companies. Only at TopJobs. The only online recruitment website to specialise in Management, Professional, Technical and Graduate sectors. And nothing else. Over 300 blue-chip and progressive companies are benefiting right now from major cost savings compared to traditional recruitment methods. Fully audited by ABCe and a founder member of the Association of Online Recruiters. http://www.topjobs.co.uk
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*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - BY JAMES CHAPMAN OF BUSINESS RESEARCH SOLUTIONS*****
Sectors covered: All. Sub-divided into 35 Categories. IT and Telco are by far their largest categories with over 60% of their CV stock.
Target candidate level: ABC1 Job Hunters. They target people with good academic qualifications or professional skills, rather than relying on minimum Base Salary as an excluder. You won't find a £10k Office Cleaner but you will find £10k Graduates.
Site Launched: May 1995
Number of CV's held: 200,000 are freely viewable with a further 100,000 viewable only by advertisers of specific jobs on the site.
Geographic split of candidates: 90% UK, 10% Europe and rest of the world.
Site Marketing: Radio, mainstream press and recruitment press advertising and extensively across the Internet.
How to Subscribe: Clients can register their interest online at http://www.gojobsite.co.uk/home/moreinfo.html, they will then receive a call from a sales consultant to guide them through the process. They can also call direct on +44 (0)870 7748500
Feedback after registering: By phone or email - there is no structured feedback process, however they carry out extensive pilot tests before launching new products or areas on their site.
How is the database cleaned?: Clients are not able to search for CV's that are more than a year old. It seems that candidates are quite good at removing their CV's from view when they are not actually looking for a new opportunity.
Costs: You cannot buy CV Database Search only; it has to be purchased together with job advertising.
As a Recruiter the minimum spend to get access to CV's is £475 pcm however you will need to pay £810 pcm to take full advantage of the service.
As a 'Direct Recruiter' (ie an Employer) you will need to spend at least £1,100 pcm to get access to the CV service.
Who's in charge?: Keith Potts. Founded the firm as www.jobsite.co.uk in May 1995 as a spin off from an idea he was working on for Southwest Water. It is still a private company with Keith's brothers Graham and Eric as IT Director and Director of Personnel respectively. The site was re-launched under the www.gojobsite.com brand in November last year when they entered the European market. They see the site as the number one Generalist Recruitment site in the UK with the short term objective of increasing their market share here. The long term objective is to be the number one Generalist Recruitment site in Europe, though that is some way off.
Positives: A fast and easy to use site. Search criteria are in general very good - you can be as specific or general as you want. Search results are presented by pages of summarised candidate details with links that open the full CV in a new window or Word Document. This process makes it simple to find and access full candidate employment and contact details so you can call/email them and or save the information to your own system.
Negatives: There are no extra features on the site such as being able to save searches. A minor point to make is that if you search for people wanting to work in the 'UK' you may well miss some candidates who stated they want to work in 'London'. This is due to the fact that candidates are asked which 'Location' they would like to work in and clients searching the database are asked which 'Country' and which 'County' the candidate specified.
Summary: In general I liked Gojobsite. Any system that makes it easy to search a large number of CV's fast and then gives you access to all of them can only be a good thing. The site is heavily reliant on the IT and Telco sectors. This is good news if you recruit in technology but brings into question any notion that Gojobsite is a truly comprehensive Generalist CV database service.
Overall marks out of ten: 7
Recommendation: Well worth asking for a temporary password so you can take a look around yourself, but before you buy make sure you look around some other sector specific sites which may contain more CV's of the type of candidate you look for most.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
If you'd like to suggest a CV Database for review or have any comments on this feature please email
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e-cruitingbusiness newsletter gives you strategic insight into the latest electronic recruiting news - not just the PR hype you find in other publications. We help you make sense of what's happening -- what it means for you AND your competition. Given the unsettled climate in the worldwide electronic recruiting marketplace, it's more important than ever to stay current on all the changes in this volatile industry. Every issue gives you actionable news and analysis to help meet your short- and long-term recruitment goals. To download a free issue, go to http://www.ecruitingbusiness.com and click the "sample" button.
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*****OPINION PIECE - CO-OPERATE WITH COMPETITORS YOU CAN TRUST - BY JOHN COURTIS*****
This may sound like 'sleeping with the enemy' but it's actually in the 'united we stand' area.
Unless your outfit is very large, you cannot credibly profess to handle all types of recruitment.
Some big firms do and are still not credible. No names, no pack drill.
Instead, why not spend some time working out which firms around are complementary to you and meet your qualitative standards so you can happily sell your (and their) competency to clients and thus get business you might otherwise miss. Do not do it as part of your initial offering, but introduce it when you sense a lack of conviction; it can help keep you in the frame.
This has several peripheral benefits. If you know someone who does, when you cannot, honestly claim recent specific experience it makes you look big. And your 'friends' may get similar benefits, so you don't have to turn away business or present weakly. Other competitors may learn about it and want to be in on the act. And you may learn new skills.
I did this some years ago, when I was with the former Reed Executive Ltd and, after the initial suspicion, most of the better players who had a more generalist offering than our finance specialisation were pleased to co-operate. Some of them remain on speaking terms even now.
And when I did the same thing from my next base, in Executive Appointments Ltd, we put on more business which wouldn't have come to a London headhunter otherwise.
Being known to trust competitors also adds to your personal and corporate stature. And stature, trustworthiness, discretion and confidentiality are surely your stock in trade? The essence of good recruitment is that you are respected and consulted. Even CV wholesalers get more results by going beyond the paperchase, understanding and influencing what the clients specify so they can deliver a better product.
P.S. if you are known by clients as willing to tell them when they don't need you and can do it themselves, they'll be even more likely to phone you about anticipated needs! And sometimes they won't take your advice and retain you in spite of it".
John Courtis MCIPD, FCA runs a London search and selection firm which, for over 25 years has filled the middle/senior management jobs which HR functions feel need help beyond their normal consultants' skills. With his team's private and public sector backgrounds, in finance, general, marketing and publishing management, they find exceptional people across the UK and western Europe. For more information visit http://www.courtisandpartners.co.uk or telephone 020 7486 6849
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
hrstaff The UK's first website dedicated to advertising job opportunities within the HR field, and carrying ONLY HR related positions, hrstaff offers companies serious about filling vacancies, a route to a wide range of Permanent and Interim positions from graduate and administrator through to senior-level managers and directors. http://www.hrstaff.co.uk/
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*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - ***** Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes.
WebWithoutWorries (http://www.webwithoutworries.com)
After a short break last week, we are back looking at some of the Recruitment Management Systems available on the market for both the recruitment agency and the corporate recruiter. Today we look at an offering that fits into what I shall call the 'collaborative solution' space, in other words a solution that the recruiter, the client company and the candidate can all use together.
WebWithoutWorries was founded in 1999 by a team of highly skilled software developers and now forms part of Hooksoft Ltd - a software consultancy founded in 1995. It's goal is to assist everyone involved in the recruitment and HR industries to make the most of the Internet.
The initial offering is SecretAgent for recruitment agencies, which will be complemented by the newest offering, NaturalResource for Corporate HR departments.
SecretAgent takes all of the workflow processes from a recruitment agency and puts them online. The software combines a comprehensive online recruitment package, an agency contact management/scheduling system, and a very detailed statistics section. Agencies will be able to make this powerful web application available to their clients.
One of the most attractive features of SecretAgent is its ability to create candidate profiles without candidates having to spend much time supplying information.Candidates have a CV and employers have job specification documents. SecretAgent uses these documents as profiling data sources rather than having users fill in endless forms. The intelligent search engine then interrogates this data.
What are some of the key functions of SecretAgent?
Web Based - Web-based and accessible from any fully featured browser, which means recruiters can be mobile.
Search - Incredibly powerful search tool allows recruiters to retrieve exactly the information they are looking for very quickly.
Profiles - Comprehensive candidate profiles are compiled directly from CVs.
Shortlist - Shortlists of jobs or candidates can be created and stored by the recruiter along with personal notes. Candidates can also maintain shortlists of jobs (which the recruiter can also access).
Interview - Invite candidates to interview and manage the end clients' interview schedule remotely.
Event Tracking - All events on the site are recorded enabling agents and users to view a chronological list of their activities.
Email - Notification Emails. The recruiter (and/or the client) will be notified when suitable candidates register their availability. Candidates will be notified of vacancies, either at an email address of their choosing or through a private mailbox on the agency site.
Security - Security features protect the agency site from hackers and unwanted visitors.
Statistics - The statistics module enables recruiters to retrieve very specific information about the site's visitors and traffic.
Integration - Interfaces with familiar Microsoft applications.
Customisation - SecretAgent can be easily customised to match any agency's image.
Anonymity - SecretAgent can be configured to reveal as much or as little information and functionality to all parties involved in the recruitment process, providing a high degree of anonymity to candidate and company alike.
Let us also take a quick look at how this functionality will be applicable to the Corporate HR department with the NaturalResource application.
Features and Benefits: Web-based and accessible from any fully featured browser enabling people to search and view available jobs and apply online.
Easily control job postings and keep track of both internal and external applicants.
Applicants can be informed of the latest staffing requirements automatically via email either at an address of their choosing or at a private mailbox on the corporate recruitment website.
The in-built filter allows the corporate recruiter to sift through CVs efficiently and compile comprehensive profiles.
A shortlist of applicants can be created and stored along with personal notes.
Invite applicants to interview and manage interview schedules online.
The event tracking features allow the recruiter to keep track of the past successes or failures of an applicant. Likewise, an applicant can track the progress of their job applications.
Leading edge security features keep internal HR data safe from hackers and unwanted visitors.
The statistics module enables retrieval of very specific information about the site's visitors and traffic.
Interfaces with familiar Microsoft applications.
NaturalResource can be easily customised to match the corporate look and feel.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
BCL recruit are now able to offer FORCENTA, a complete online recruitment solution that can be added to your web site for only £995 setup, plus monthly hosting and software licence.
Why should you take the risk? for only £995 set-up you could have a complete online recruitment database which includes all of the following: Vacancy Database, Management Interface, Searchable Vacancies Section, Multiple Application Processing, Online Page and Vacancy Statistics, Candidate Subscription Area and Pro-active Candidate Mailing List. Comprehensive website design/re-design is also available. To receive further information or view our online demo contact Alex or Darin on 01635 581185 or visit our web sites at www.bcl-recruit.com and www.bcl-numedia.com
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*****ARTICLE - BRANDING - BY HUGH RANSLEY*****
Sushi is cold, raw, dead fish...
We all know that it is how we are perceived in the market place that counts.
Adding value to your company is key. Whether this is with candidates, clients or employees, a brand will affect the perceived value of your company, your services, and, influence any potential acquisition in the future.
Brands create value.
Brands influence consumer behaviour in every sphere. Establishing a relationship by delivering promises and remaining constant, brands evoke feelings of trust - this is where the value of the brand is so powerful. Associations are encouraged through a whole set of media avenues and in every single interaction that the individual has with your company.
Caviar : unborn fish.
A closer look at the cornerstones of brand value: awareness, loyalty and quality
Awareness There are basically four different levels of awareness with regards to brands.
1. The only one... Lea Perrins in the Worcester sauce market. (check your cupboards) 2. Top of mind...the first brand that you think in a given category: soft drink - Coca cola, 3. There must be more....if given a little more time it is possible to think of several more. 4. Those that never come to mind until suggested, then it's oh yeah them.
The added value of each the levels above is clear. It is not necessarily about the quality of the goods or services themselves, it is simply about awareness in the mind of the purchaser.
Loyalty Repeat business is one sure fire way of guaranteeing revenue. Contributing to a regular flow of income, repeat business, in the shape of loyal clients and candidates will reward your company with steady growth. The ideal is for clients and candidates, as well as prospective employees to go out of their way to locate and join you.
Retaining quality employees is crucial for all businesses; employees are likely to feel more loyalty towards a firm that has a brand.
Quality People will pay more for perceived value.
It is also the case that people will associate themselves with the type of goods and services that they aspire towards, and thus align themselves with a brand for the characteristics that this reflects upon them. Am I a Radion Automatic user or a Persil person, a Swatch or an Omega, an Audi TT or a Lexus 200 and so on. Clean clothes, the time of day and getting from one place to another are far from the purchase decision, aren't they?
The price that people will pay for branded products and services is one that has been exploited: Nike trainers for instance cost very little to produce and still sell for about £100.00 in some instances.
It really is only the perceived value that carries any weight with many purchasing decisions and this is where the power of the brand is often the deciding factor.
As an intangible asset, brand value, or what is often termed 'Goodwill' or 'brand equity', is a complicated business, and one that many accountants have difficulty calculating. However, if Coca cola as a production and distribution company disappeared tomorrow, the brand is strong enough for them to borrow all the money they would need to start all over again from scratch. I can't prove it, but it's the real thing: Coke is it.
Take another look The re-branding process that takes place is not simply to beautify your company, but to add value. Having a strong brand will add value to the services: enabling you to charge premium rates, add value by way of employee loyalty and add value to your company. It is important to distil the core values you wish to portray to the market place and to use these to inform visual representations.
It is about enhancing the products and services that you offer. After all, sushi is only cold, raw, dead fish.....
To read an article highlighting the benefits of branding, please visit Oaten Farrar's website: http://www.oatenfarrar.co.uk/articles
****DON'T MISS THIS****
WIN A BOOK Don't forget - there is still time to submit the names of colleagues who would like to join the newsletter distribution list and win a copy of "Recruitment Advertising, Right First Time" by John Courtis. All you need to do is email with the names of the colleagues you are subscribing (making sure they want to receive the newsletter!). There is no limit to the number of people you can refer - in fact the more people you recommend the higher your chances are of winning a copy of John's fantastic book!
RECRUITMENT 2001 The National Recruitment Industry Conference and Exhibition are taking place this year on November 28 and 29, at Olympia, West London. The exhibition is free to enter, and is easily the largest event of its kind. It's a good place to assess a wide range of the newest products and services all under the same roof. There are several new exhibitors this year and many of the stands will be using the occasion to unveil new launches.
The conference programme runs alongside the exhibition over both days, and speakers include Romney Rawes, founding director of Select, Richard Adecco, CEO of Adecco, John Redwood MP, a director of Search firm BNB, Carol Savage of Flexecutive, and Richard Boggis-Rolfe, CEO of Odgers Ray & Berndtson. The conference always attracts a very high calibre of delegates. There are also training workshops with subjects such as "Handling Poor Performance", "Surviving and Thriving in a Shifting Business Context" and "Competency Based Interviewing".
To attend the free exhibition you can either register in advance at http://www.interviewer-magazine.co.uk or simply turn up - doors are open between 9.30 and 5.30pm. For more information on the conference and masterclasses, email Rosalind_Renshaw@mrn.co.uk
FREE OFFER: Additionally, Rosalind has arranged an exclusive offer for the newsletter. The senders of the first TWO emails to be received by Rosalind_Renshaw@mrn.co.uk, mentioning the ukrecruiter newsletter, will each receive two free conference passes.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Site (workpermit.com) - CV Database Review (Jobs-at) - Job Board Review (Jimfinder) - Opinion (Are you missing out on free candidates or clients?) - Recruitment Technologies (advanSe) - Article (Recruiting in a tough market: discounting fees) - Don't Miss This (AWO-L and Human Resources Forum) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
workpermit.com are a UK based company, exclusively practising immigration law. Whilst they offer paid for services of assisting companies with the immigration issues surrounding moving staff overseas and setting up companies overseas the web site has a lot of free and useful information. They also offer free advice to recruitment agencies and other companies, and to individuals.
From the home page of the site you will see links to immigration guides for employers, IT professionals/contractors, recruitment agencies and non-business immigrations. Quite a lot of the focus on the site is on IT companies/contractors, although much of the information is relevant regardless of industry sector.
The website contains detailed information about the immigration laws of all the countries they deal with (these include US, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Japan). There is also a bulletin board, which announces changes to immigration laws and industry news, and a popular discussion board.
This is a great site for immigration queries, both from a business and individual point of view.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Global Staffing Industry Report keeps corporate executives and private firm owners up-to-date on key developments in international employment markets. As the big companies get even bigger, what they do can affect local markets -- and your company -- in ways you never thought possible. Global is the only publication that takes a strategic worldwide view of the staffing and recruitment marketplace. It has information you won't find anywhere else: labour trends, regulatory issues, country and company profiles, financial benchmarks. To download a free issue, go to http://www.global.sireport.com and click on the "sample" button at the top.
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*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - BY JAMES CHAPMAN OF BUSINESS RESEARCH SOLUTIONS*****
http://www.Jobs-at.com
Sectors covered: All. Subdivided into 28 Categories
Target candidate level: Any and All.
Site Launched: 1997 as www.Firstdivisionjobs.com. Re-Launched as www.jobs-at.com in 1998. In January this year they launched further country sites in USA, Australia, Canada and South Africa.
Number of CV's held: 10,000 UK based with a further 2,000 split across their other country sites.
Geographic split of candidates: No precise details, however it seems they are split evenly across the UK.
Site Marketing: A very large ad down the side of their Powerboat which is seen on Channel 4 and Sky Sports as well as by the 30,000 or so spectators who turn up to the races. Digital Television ie Sky, Telewest, ITV Digital. They designed the UK based Australasian magazine TNT's website and have all their jobs on there; also Yahoo jobs etc.
How to Subscribe: Call Lynne Belchamber direct on 01626 866 622 or email lynne@jobs-at.com
Feedback after registering: Not structured, however Lynne and her team keep very close contact with all their clients by phone and email.
How is the database cleaned?: Candidates can edit or remove their CV's whenever they wish. They are sent emails quarterly to remind them to update their details.
Costs: Available to recruitment companies only. If you sign up for a year the cost is £97.50 per month. If you sign up for a month it costs £225.
Who's in charge?: Lynne Belchamber started a small independent recruitment agency in 1978 and has been running it ever since. The idea for jobs-at.com came from the need for her company to have a web site but Lynne knew that as a small independent it would be hard to attract any volume of candidates; hence she came up with the idea of a site targeted at all independent recruiters.
Positives: At £22.50 per week for unlimited job postings and unlimited CV viewings the site represents incredible value for money. Any candidate wanting to apply for a job must submit their CV to the database and with all jobs on the site being advertised on Digital TV and the large free sites such as Yahoo this creates a good feed of jobseekers and their details to the site. The database performs fast searches and the pages load quickly.
Negatives: The search criteria are over-simplistic which can make for some quite erratic results. The site only has 10,000 UK based candidates across all sectors. The technology is simplistic in that you cannot, for example, save searches or specify that candidates should be entitled to work in the UK.
Summary: www.jobs-at.com is targeted at the smaller independent recruiter working in any sector. They have used limited resources in an imaginative way to build their site, client base and number of candidates registering their CV's, using everything from marketing on the side of their powerboat to posting their jobs for free on Digital TV and straight forward cold calling and effective customer care. The sight is cheap so anyone can afford to use it, but only has around 10,000 CV's increasing at a painfully slow rate of 500 per month.
Overall marks out of ten: 5
Recommendation: If you can only afford or wouldn't miss £22.50 per week, then sign up. If you have more to spend then spend it - you get what you pay for.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
If you'd like to suggest a CV Database for review or have any comments on this feature please email
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
While you were wondering why the best candidates are so hard to find, someone, somewhere got a top job. Top people. Top companies. Only at TopJobs. The only online recruitment website to specialise in Management, Professional, Technical and Graduate sectors. And nothing else. Over 600,000 high-quality candidates are already registered with us, and more are joining every day. So instead of searching here, there and everywhere, look on topjobs.co.uk. Fully audited by ABCe and a founder member of the Association of Online Recruiters. http://www.topjobs.co.uk
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*****JOB BOARD REVIEW - BY MATT ALDER OF TMP ADVERTISING*****
http://www.Jimfinder.co.uk
In this issue I felt it would be appropriate to review a site that has successfully positioned itself within a very specific vertical market.
Jimfinder.co.uk focuses on manufacturing and engineering disciplines across a large number of different business sectors. All levels of employment from technician to director are covered across a total of fifty-four different disciplines. The hope is that this allows potential candidates to find jobs that match their requirements with a high level of accuracy.
The Jimfinder user experience is a mixed one. On the positive side the search engine is impressively sophisticated. It offers the chance to search by job function as well as by job title and sector. This is an important feature as engineering and manufacturing job titles are not always good indicators of what the requirements of the position actually are. The site layout is however slightly disappointing. The home page is cluttered and users may find the style of the fixed navigation bar visually confusing.
Jimfinder is very much a job board rather than a recruitment hub. It offers visitors no other content beyond jobs and company information. This makes it more difficult to generate repeat visits and attract passive jobseekers to the site. However Jimfinder offsets this with an excellent jobs by email service. The site is kept in the user's mind by regularly sending them details of the jobs that will most interest them.
The key strength of Jimfinder lies in its route to a very specific market. The site is a subsidiary of specialist manufacturing trade publisher Findlay Publications Ltd (FPL). Publishers of Eureka, New Electronics, Machinery, European Automotive Design, Public Network Europe and Machinery Classified. Via FPL Jimfinder has unrivalled access to the country's largest database of engineering and manufacturing professionals. This database has helped Jimfinder to build its current traffic to impressive levels within its niche audience. The site has also benefited from a highly targeted on and offline marketing programme.
Currently the site generates an average 225,000 page impressions from over 40,000 user sessions every month and will undertake an ABC audit early in the new year. On top of this 10,500 candidates are registered to receive targeted jobs via email.
Jimfinder is still a relatively young site. It has performed well its first year of existence attracting an impressive array of clients. The site has strong backing and a sensible business plan. As my previous article about Stepstone illustrated both these things are vital in the current marketplace.
Matt Alder is Head of Interactive Media for the Advertising and Communications division of TMP Worldwide. He has been involved in online recruitment for nearly five years and his main area of expertise is online media strategy, planning and measurement technologies. You can contact TMP on 020 7406 5000 or visit http://www.tmpw.co.uk
If you'd like to suggest a Job Board for review or have any comments on this feature please email
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
IT Services Business Report (ITSBR) is the industry's most respected source for news and analysis of IT staff augmentation, project management, and solutions consulting. Keep up with key trends and events in the U.S., the U.K., and throughout the world. Every month, ITSBR helps you benchmark company performance and evaluate the competitive environment. What are customers demanding now? How are your competitors reacting? What skills are hot? What can you do to keep business going in a soft market? To download a free issue, go to http://www.itreport.com and click the "sample" button at the top.
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*****OPINION - ARE YOU MISSING OUT ON FREE CANDIDATES AND CLIENTS? - BY MIKE TAYLOR*****
The majority of companies today have their own web-site. Compare that to a few short years ago when having your own web-site put you in the minority. Today, more and more companies are listing vacancies on their web-site making it easy for people to view and apply for jobs. However, simply having your own web-site does not guarantee success. There are millions of web-sites on the internet and therefore you need to make it easy for people to find your site.
One of the main areas that companies have failed to address is the registration of their site with the search engines and directories, and yet 90% of the internet population use search engines and directories as their first point of call when searching for information. The search engines and directories can deliver free traffic to your web-site, but only if they know about you!
Do you know if your web-site has been registered with the search engines and directories? Do you know where your company appears in the search engine results if someone was to search for the services you offer?
For example, if you are a recruitment agency specialising in finance jobs, have you checked to see where your company appears on the results page for the search term "Finance Jobs"? If you go to the search engine http://www.altavista.co.uk/ and type in "Finance Jobs" it produces a result of 8,873,449 pages found!
Even if your web-site has already been registered with the search engines the chances are that unless you appear on the first three pages then people won't find you. Would you have the patience to trawl through thousands of results pages?
Registering your web-site with the search engines and directories and achieving high rankings can take a while as each search engine has different criteria for ranking sites. Therefore the sooner you take action the quicker you can start to improve on your current position.
However, if you are looking for a quicker way of achieving top ranking positions then you should also consider using the pay per click search engines. By using these search engines you can guarantee top placements by bidding on keywords and phrases, with the web-site of the highest bidder appearing at the top of the results page. http://www.payperclicksearchengines.co.uk.
Finally, it is worth asking yourself the question, "what could be worse than not being listed with the search engines or not being found on the search results pages?" How about your competitors already appearing there and taking away potential business from you!
Web-Based-Recruitment.com specialise in internet marketing and search engine services for the recruitment industry. For further information contact Mike Taylor on 01962 883754 or visit the web-site at http://www.web-based-recruitment.com
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
hrstaff The UK's first website dedicated to advertising job opportunities within the HR field, and carrying ONLY HR related positions, hrstaff offers companies serious about filling vacancies, a route to a wide range of Permanent and Interim positions from graduate and administrator through to senior-level managers and directors. http://www.hrstaff.co.uk/
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*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - BY ALAN WHITFORD *****
Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes.
http://www.advanse.co.uk
We have spent the last few months looking at back office solutions for managing the recruitment process, while at the same time the newsletter has provided reviews of a number of the leading job boards. At the totaljobs.com Internet Recruitment Seminar (a series that I Chair) last week in London, there was some spirited discussion about selecting the right boards and then finding a process for getting jobs onto multiple job sites - a topic that seems appropriate for this week's review.
You may recall the article that Peter Gold of ecruitnow kindly stepped in with on Cross Posting for the 14 May edition while I was out of the country. Another company making quite a bit of progress in this space is advanSe.
advanSe has developed an easy to use, yet sophisticated set of tools for both agency and corporate clients for selecting, booking and posting your internet job ads. More recently, they have begun adding services for pre-screening candidates and for more complex applicant tracking activities. Their services can be accessed directly via the advanSe site or supplied in an 'own branded' format on your recruitment site. For an example, look at http://www.personneltoday.co.uk and go to the ecruit button. This will provide you with the complete advanSe services under the Personnel Today brand.
Let's take a look at what some of these benefits and the services are.
Evaluation and Selection of Job Boards * Evaluate the best job boards by using independent reviews and critical analysis to formulate a campaign tailored to your business * Add further specialist sites to your campaign by selecting from the recommended market leading recruitment sites in the field * Take advantage of pre-built package deals to instantly calculate the cost of the campaign using pre-negotiated rates * Adopt the single billing approach which means one booking for all sites used * Monitor response levels for each job board which are uploaded regularly for your assessment * Access proprietary CV databases
What are package deals? Simply put, package deals advertise your jobs across multiple job boards in either Generalist packages which feature the UK's top boards who each cover multiple sectors or by Market Sector packages which include a blend of generalist boards and specialist target market job boards.
Generalist sites include: Totaljobs.com, Jobsearch, Fish4jobs, Monster.co.uk and GoJobsite
Market Sectors include: IT, Accountancy, Engineering, Legal, Public Sector, Telecomms, Legal Support, Finance and HR
When you are in this section of the site, there is a "More information" link that leads to a pop up view of the Onrec.com (Online Recruitment) web site for independent reviews of job sites and additional recruitment information.
Additional Services cover a variety of activities surrounding the job posting and candidate selection processes.
* Job Site Posting Service - copywriting assistance, multi-site posting, colating results, response handling, help desk and advice
* Application Filtering. advanSe offers the following offline and online response filtering options: Overseas - filters out all non-home country applications and Custom - client defined killer questions (6 max.)
* Applicant Screening and Attribute Matching. advanSe Talent powered by Axiom's JobQ (see review of 23-7) is geared to automatic and objective screening, assessment, rating and ranking of applicants uses the latest web-based technology. - Generic - screens education, employment history, work experience and language skills - Custom - client defined screening with up to 9 sections - Screening of personal details, equal opportunities and data protection are inclusive in both options
* Attribute Matching. - Generic - matches a number of pre-defined job attributes. Templates are available for : Graduates, Salespersons, Managerial positions, IT related jobs, Customer Services, and General - Custom - client defined attribute matching questions specifically tailored to the position, company culture etc.
* Aptitude Screening. IPI Job Test Programme and PPM (Power and Performance Measures)
* Applicant Assessment. Screened applicants who pass the first stage can then be assessed using best-in-class personality instruments from leading test publishers: - WPQ - Work Profile Questionnaire looks at the applicants' personality characteristics. - Orpheus - based on a well established Big Five model of personality, is designed as a general occupational personality test, suitable for use in the selection and recruitment process. - Pasat 2000 - an extensively researched and rigorously constructed personality questionnaire designed to measure those personality attributes that have a direct bearing on success in a sales environment.
* Hard Skill Testing. Over one hundred interactive, online hard skill assessments include skill assessment on the following products: - Microsoft Office, Lotus, Windows, Oracle, Novell, UNIX, SAS, SQL, Visual Basics, PeopleSoft, Delphi, Digital, Mac, Power Builder and more.
* Jobs. Additional Services that your candidates and company alike may find useful are in the Jobs Section of the site. - Jobs: gives a quick search (again via pop up links) to individual job boards for search on specific job title. Can search all the boards or selected sites. - Companies: companies currently advertising with advanSe are represented by company logos. Click on a log to see what jobs that company has posted - Company Reports: pop up link to Dun & Bradstreet small company reports section For £4.95,candidate can acquire a standardised report on a prospective employer.
* Response Handling. advanSe has recently launched a new set of services around the response handling aspects of internet recruitment for both corporate and agency use. Applicant traffic can be driven to the advertising company's career section of their website. Once there a 'vacancy section' branded plugin will list all company's current jobs, display individual job specifications, manage, measure and securely store all response from both offline and online advertising. Applicants are responded to by email in either a generic or bespoke format on behalf of the client. Each customer is provided with a secure back office login and password by which all order status, job posting data, response measurement and applicant data can be viewed. For further information on these services, contact the company directly.
To contact Alan Whitford please call the Abtech Partnership on (0)1451 850811 or (0)797 1864620.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
BCL recruit are now able to offer FORCENTA, a complete online recruitment solution that can be added to your web site for only £995 setup, plus monthly hosting and software licence.
Why should you take the risk? for only £995 set-up you could have a complete online recruitment database which includes all of the following: Vacancy Database, Management Interface, Searchable Vacancies Section, Multiple Application Processing, Online Page and Vacancy Statistics, Candidate Subscription Area and Pro-active Candidate Mailing List. Comprehensive website design/re-design is also available. To receive further information or view our online demo contact Alex or Darin on 01635 581185 or visit our web sites at www.bcl-recruit.com and www.bcl-numedia.com
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*****ARTICLE - RECRUITING IN A TOUGH MARKET:DISCOUNTING FEES - BY ROY RIPPER*****
Roy Ripper has worked within the recruitment industry for over 14 years. Recognised as one of the foremost trainers on Search and Selection techniques, he has trained over 4,500 industry personnel as well as providing management consultancy for many companies.
Almost every day I am being asked by consultants, managers and owners, "what can I do to win/fulfil/retain business? ". This article is written to provide some practical assistance to one of the problems of today's tough marketplace.
Clients are reading the same newspapers as us. They are feeling the same pressures. They have the same fears. Some of them are taking advantage of the downturn in the economic market to put the squeeze on recruitment consultants. (Others have to ask for discounts to appease their own managers and retain their own jobs!).
The danger in offering discounts now as a way of winning new business or in order to 'keep' an existing client happy is that once the fee % has been lowered, it is very difficult to push it back up. Successive recruiting managers are going to want to score additional discounts with you and so the whole vicious circle is perpetuated.
Instead of bowing to the clients' request immediately, practise saying "NO" gracefully.
When first asked for a discount say no politely and explain why you are unable to do so, e.g. "We would not wish to discount our service to you". Sometimes this polite rebuttal may be just enough to stop them asking again.
If asked a second time, agree with the client's intent in asking, again say no politely, but this time offer an alternative, e.g. "What I can do is offer you an increased guarantee period".
If asked a third time you may feel in danger of losing the client entirely. This time offer something towards your client demands, but not all of them and state conditions.
If asked a fourth time, agree to a discount that you are comfortable with (within your company parameters) but state your conditions of acceptance. This may be reduced guarantee periods, faster payment terms, invoiced on offer/acceptance, etc.
Always have your conditions in agreeing any discounts. Otherwise the client may feel you gave them away too readily and may be tempted to ask for more!
Finally, offer discounts as cash sums knocked off the final invoice value instead of knocking off 1 or 2 percentage points off your standard % rates. This may seem like an insignificant point but £500-£1000 sounds a lot more substantial to a client than 0.5% - 1%!
This enables you to preserve your fee percentages for future hiring managers in the client company whilst appearing to be reasonable when asked for discounts.
For further training / advice on how you can use this and other methods please contact Roy Ripper at 80 20 Vision on 01273 330336 or alternatively email him: RoyRipper@8020vision.co.uk
****DON'T MISS THIS****
All Working Online (Awo-l) is a well-established networking evening for those working in the online recruitment industry. They now have over 400 members that meet regularly to put the on-line recruitment world to rights, and generally have a good night out courtesy of their sponsors. The next Awo-l party (the Christmas event) is being held tonight in Soho, where the inaugural awards ceremony will take place. Unfortunately, places have now all been filled - so to see what happened on the night, or to be updated of future events, register now (for free) at http://www.awo-l.com now
HUMAN RESOURCES FORUM
The annual Human Resources Forum, on-board the P&O ship Oriana, takes place next year on the 9-12 May 2002. Over three night and two days, the Human Resources Forum brings together ideas, people, knowledge and expertise from the UK's top HR industry professionals. Over 200 delegates have confirmed their place already in the early stages of the invitation process and there are now less than 50 exhibitor places remaining. For further information visit www.hrforum.co.uk
This is the last ukrecruiter newsletter for 2001. We are taking a Christmas break and will be back in the New Year (with a regular sized newsletter!) on the 16th January 2002. Wishing you all seasons' greetings and a happy New Year.
*****CONTENTS***** Reviewed Site (roundup of my favourite sites) - Recruitment Site Review (Passing Notes) - Recruitment Technologies - Opinion (Advertising) - Don't Miss This (AWO-L Awards & Awareness Seminars) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
I thought I'd use this issue to remind you of a few sites we've covered previously in the newsletter. These are my favourites (along with www.UKRecruiter.co.uk - of course!)
Travel: For working out journey times and routes I use the Plan Route service from the RAC (http://www.rac.co.uk/) the site may not be the fastest but so far it's never got me lost! The Tube (http://www.thetube.com) - very useful to people like me who don't live in London - but do have to visit!
Search Engines: Google (http://www.google.co.uk) is my current favourite (I tend to use the advanced search option). If you want to find out any information about search engines visit Search Engine Watch (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/), it's a great site with loads of information
Financials: When I'm looking for financial information on a company I try Hoovers (www.hoovers.co.uk) first - it's well laid out and has detailed free information on lots of companies. For currency conversions I use the Money Extra web site (http://www.moneyextra.com/rates/currency/converter).
Finally, a completely non-work related site; Delia Online (http://www.deliaonline.com/). Delia Smith's site is a fantastic resource for anyone who likes her cooking. It has a very comprehensive recipe finding tool, a cookery school section and a "Christmas Special" section. The site is well laid out with tons of photos. And the best bit? It's all free!
*****RECRUITMENT SITE REVIEW - PASSING NOTES- BY JAMES CHAPMAN OF BUSINESS RESEARCH SOLUTIONS*****
http://www.passingnotes.com
Site Concept: Provide a forum for Executive Recruiters and Researchers to share Information.
Site Launched: Winter 2000
Who's in charge?: David Carpe. His background is in Research and Search. He lives in Lexington, Massachusetts with his wife and young children. David is due to finish a Business Degree from Babson University next year.
The idea for the site came from David's realisation that hard recruitment research was being duplicated all the time and that if researchers shared information everyone would be able to save time and deliver assignments faster.
The site was set up on a shoestring budget, purely as a hobby. David undertook the site development and twelve sector specific recruiters and researchers agreed to run forums on the site and offer specialist market advice.
Site Marketing: Viral Marketing only. Within a month of launching he had over 1,000 registered users, all from word of mouth recommendations. As policy, David does not now disclose the current number of registered or regular users.
User Base: Mostly in the US, however industry professionals from around the world access the site.
How to Subscribe: Just visit the site and register.
Costs: Free, with no current intention of charging. David was in talks with a firm that wanted to test a 'Micro Charging' service ( ie costs as small as 10 Cents) to allow users to sell their information, but nothing has progressed to date.
Feedback after registering: David seems omnipresent and is very quick to respond to requests.
Is it Legal? David informs me that he did get some legal advice at the outset. He will help any corporation that contacts him identify users who are trading in or posting stolen information on the site. To date no one has contacted him in this respect.
What's on the Site?: Message boards for many market sectors, subdivided into various categories. A 'chat room' so you can speak to other members who are in the site. A directory of sites that help you find relevant companies and individuals or industry background information for search campaigns. Free anonymous email account service. Opt in email newsletter with cross-sector market intelligence.
Positives: A researchers dream. The site has excellent information and lots of users who seem happy to help with just about any topic. If you are desperate for candidates in a specific company you may well be able to buy a company directory from another user. The site is entirely confidential so there is no chance of even your own colleagues knowing who you are. At the heart of the site are the Forums: even if no one else responds to your posting it is likely that David will, either with the information you were looking for or pointers to where you might find it.
Negatives: The site is predominantly US based so, at present there is limited use for UK based recruiters. David has just set up a UK Forum for anyone who wants to test the site out and post some queries and / or information.
Summary: I was impressed by the amount of functionality Passing Notes had, especially considering that it was set up as a hobby. There seems to be a genuine desire for recruiters to share information, probably fuelled by the fact that the site is entirely confidential. Obviously most of the information is specific to the US market but that could soon change if more UK based recruiters use it. It is hard to tell how many people actually use the site now and some of the Forums have not had a posting for a while, however all requests for information seem to get a response and there is no way of telling how many recruiters are communicating privately within the site. I'm sure the site has been of excellent value to many recruiters, undoubtedly more so to those who got over the initial fear factor of posting their hard grafted research online and then received more information in return. You get out of it what you put in.
Overall marks out of ten: 10 for US based research.
Recommendation: Try it out. If you like the idea of sharing information and reducing your research time, then this is a site you need to be using. The more UK recruiters that use it, the more useful it will become.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - BY ALAN WHITFORD***** Alan Whitford is a well-known expert and speaker on recruitment issues and his areas of expertise include Internet technologies for HR and recruitment, recruitment strategies, on-line recruitment, and the automation of HR processes.
Hi all,
This time of year is usually the 'review of the year', 'personality of the year' etc in all media. In keeping with the Spirit of Christmas, I have called on the Ghost of Christmas Past (i.e. Bing Crosby) to lend a hand looking at some of this year's players in the on-line recruitment space. Apologies in advance for 1) my lack of true rhyming capability and 2) not being able to fit everyone in.
Have a Happy Channukah, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Alan
"My Web Recruit By Christmas" (With apologies to Irving Berlin and Bing Crosby)
I'm dreaming of a New Recruit To start by the end of the year I called my agency Who laughed out loud at me "No candidates now, my dear"
I'm dreaming of a New Recruit AdvanSe, web-cruit, Websalvo are fine To post my new job specs on-line Totaljobs, Jobpilot, Gojobsite CVs to find
I'm dreaming of a New Recruit Monster, Planet Recruit, Jobserve Job boards send me the masses To read all, need new glasses "Sift First", JobQ, SHL, QWIZ
I'm dreaming of a New Recruit "Track and select", Intellicruit Amris, Personic, PeopleClick Zynap, i-Grasp, WebWithoutWorrie
I'm dreaming of a New Recruit With shortlisted candidates I see The Web process made it so easy My New Recruit came to the Christmas Party.
To contact Alan Whitford please call the Abtech Partnership on (0)1451 850811 or (0)797 1864620.
*****OPINION - ADVERTISING SINCE SEPTEMBER 11TH - BSA INTERNATIONAL*****
An article in the Independent on how advertising must change after September 11 was quite thought-provoking. As advertising resumed, sensitivity was a key issue with many pitfalls for the unwary. Merrill Lynch, for example, ran an ad in Italy for a new product, LDRS, under "from today, the stock market has a new leader". This simple wordplay (leader/LDR) provoked numerous complaints from people who saw them as implying they were the stock market leader after the loss of lives at Morgan Stanley. The theme of the article was that the attacks had "polluted every piece of communication out there" as everything is now seen through the filter of carnage - a perfectly innocent ad for sweets featuring a waste bin with the headline "twelve chances to improve your aim" now has totally different connotations.
In time this sensitivity will no doubt pass but the future challenge will be to advertise appealing to what is now seen as important. This will involve keeping a close eye on context; for example, was I the only one who found a recent TV trailer "for all the latest on the Afghan refugee crisis, watch the news - right after Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" thoughtless? More important will be content - as values and emotions change, there may well be a need to alter focus of advertising appeal to reflect these changes. For example, in recruitment, the attractive salary might not be the pull it once was when family, togetherness, respect for those who show generosity and the celebration of persistence are the prevailing emotions - rather than respect for competitiveness, risk and flair.
Despite this, the more you look at ads, the more you wonder if the industry is cocooned from reality. Today I am reading a story with "Aid Crisis Mounts" as the headline. It's about the race against time to deal with a fresh wave of 400,000 Afghan refugees. Right next to it is a huge ad offering 10% off "making must haves such as Issey Miyake's colourful scarves, Blair Del Monico's crystal belts and Chester Barrie's made to measure men's suits well within reach of the most discerning customers".
Maybe it's me...
This article was provided by BSA International. For more stories go to - http://www.wholeofthemoon.co.uk
****DON'T MISS THIS****
The winner of AWO-L's personality of the Year (along with "Best Agency Person" and "Sexiest Man") award was our very own Matt Alder! For details of upcoming events check with http://www.awo-l.com
DLM Associates are running 'A New Year - A New You?' taster seminars in Cheshire during the first two weeks of January. Hartford Thursday 3rd January, Knutsford Monday 7th January, Tarporley Wednesday 9th January, Frodsham Monday 14th January 2002. All events - 7:30pm - 9:00pm. Entrance fee £5 per head. Call 01565 73 4561 or email dlmassocs@aol.com for details.
From next year we're hoping that David Miskimin of DLM Associates will be writing a series of articles about personal development. If there are any particular issues you'd like him to cover please drop me a note.
****WANT TO WRITE AN ARTICLE? **** We welcome articles from subscribers to the newsletter. If you are interested in writing an article we've got some guidelines on the UK Recruiter web site at www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm If you have an article you'd like to submit please email or telephone (01635 254881) us.
As usual, any feedback on the newsletter and website suggestions are most welcome.
*****WIN A BOOK*****
We've got together with Go MAD Ltd to offer 25 lucky readers the chance to win a copy of "The ART of Making a Difference" written by Andy Gilbert. I was given a copy of the book at a recent recruitment event - and think it's a great tool to help you determine your personal goals and put into place the process to achieve them. The book explains and helps you follow the 7 key principles of the Go MAD process. The book is completely free to the first 25 people who email me - all you need pay is the postage (84p). To win a copy of the book please email me with the subject line "Go MAD". We'll get back to the first 25 people who respond with details of where to send your stamped self-addressed envelope. For information about the book you can visit http://www.gomadonline.com
*****CONTENTS*****
Reviewed Site (Domain 1) - Job Board Review (CW360.com) - CV Database Review (PlanetRecruit) - Article (Know Your USPs) - Opinion Piece (Executive Search - Looking back as we look forward) - Don't Miss This (Resource and AWO-L events) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
Domain 1 is a directory of businesses by industry sector or geographical area. The site lists 11054 different companies worldwide with 8500 of these being UK based. To search by business sectors you first need to select the main business sector category from a list of 18; including Associations, HR & Recruitment and Management Services. From there you can select a sub-sector (for example within the Associations category sub-categories include manufacturing associations or sports associations). Once you have selected your sub-category you are given an alphabetical listing of the relevant companies. The company name is a hyperlink to the organisation's website. To search by geographic area you follow a similar process, initially selecting a geographic region (from a list of 5), then a country and then (in the case of the UK) a county.
Domain 1 does not charge companies to have their details on the site. Sites are added through a combination of in-house research and from companies requesting to be listed. All entries are "hand checked". This is a useful directory of businesses - although it is more comprehensive for the UK than some of the other countries with a presence.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
The Best Job site for Recruitment Professionals - CareersinRecruitment is the online alternative to rec to rec's. We do not charge any commissions or fees when you hire. Instead our service is available for a single, low membership fee. We are dedicated to the UK Recruitment Industry and you benefit because every candidate registered with us is focused on building a successful career in recruitment. Phone our sales team NOW on 08456 50 55 65.
http://www.careersinrecruitment.co.uk/
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*****JOB BOARD REVIEW - BY MATT ALDER OF TMP ADVERTISING*****
CW360.com is a dedicated interactive portal, designed to help IT professionals. It offers users a mixture of business and technical editorial and independent analysis on technology, strategy and IT related issues. Principally launched as the online compliment to Computer Weekly Magazine, CW360 last year rebranded itself and has become one of the leading IT portals in the UK. Recruitment is a major part of the site's business and the recruitment section is large and well established
While the user's experience of CW360 is overall a positive one, the site navigation can be quite confusing. The roll-over menus at the top of each page work well. Unfortunately the menu on the left-hand side can be easily confused with the page content and therefore doesn't enhance the user's experience, as it should.
The job section of the site has recently been redesigned and is easy to use. The search engine is primarily keyword based. This is important when searching for IT positions and serves the user well. However it does tend to return a large amount of results if you are not careful about the keywords you choose. The process of finding a suitable vacancy could certainly be quicker if more filters were added.
The key strength of CW360 is the audience of passive job browsers that it attracts. It does this in much the same way as a traditional trade press publication. The large amount of industry content on the site means that is has built a loyal audience who return to the site on a regular basis. Although there has been a slow down in the IT market there are still skill shortages in key areas and CW360 offers an excellent opportunity for employers to market hard to fill positions to these passive job browsers.
The one draw back of job sites within portals is the difficulties in marketing them to active jobseekers. CW360 has addressed this problem by recently creating a separate URL for the job site (www.cwjobs.co.uk), meaning that it can be marketed to active job seekers as a stand alone recruitment site when appropriate. As well as having a prominent position in the site menus and being flagged up clearly in other areas of the site, there is also a significant amount of editorial content on the home page driving users to the recruitment section.
CW360 is exceptionally well marketed online and offline. Through it's relationship with Reed Business Information (RBI) it has unrivalled access to the market leading IT publications. The site has a massive advertising presence across RBI's IT press portfolio including Business and Technology, E-Business Review Microscope, Ch@nnel2001, Computer Trade Shopper and of course Computer Weekly. As well as a significant online advertising presence, CW360 has secured content deals with sites and channels well visited by IT Professionals. This includes an exclusive link on the MSN Computing channel.
CW360 current attracts 322,529 unique users a month who generate over two million page impressions. The site currently carries over 11,000 jobs and has over 50,000 candidates registered to receive targeted jobs via email.
CW360 is a site that is continually improving. Its RBI backing and strong content means it still performs well within an IT market that is becoming continually more challenging.
Matt Alder is Head of Interactive Media for the Advertising and Communications division of TMP Worldwide. He has been involved in online recruitment for nearly five years and his main area of expertise is online media strategy, planning and measurement technologies. You can contact TMP on 020 7406 5000 or visit http://www.tmpw.co.uk
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
BCL Recruit develop online recruitment solutions for the recruitment industry and human resource departments. BCL can supply complete solutions from backend databases to online job portal sites including a complete design service via our sister company BCL Nu-Media.
To receive further information or view our online demo contact Alex or Darin on 01635 581185 or visit our web sites at www.bcl-recruit.com and www.bcl-numedia.com
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*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - BY JAMES CHAPMAN OF BUSINESS RESEARCH SOLUTIONS*****
Sectors: Generalist, Subdivided into 8 Sectors.
Target candidate level: Not a great deal of emphasis placed on this. PlanetRecruit feel that if a candidate has the presence of mind and ability to search for jobs online, they are happy to host their CV.
Site Launched: April 1999
Number of CV's held: 230,000 in total. 200,000 currently viewable and 30,000 'Hidden' by candidates who do not want to be contacted at the moment.
Other CV Facts: - 95% of candidates are looking for Permanent work. - 45% Technology / Telco - 18% Engineering - 9% Sales and Marketing - 7% Graduates and Trainees The remainder are split between Admin/Clerical, New Media, Accounting and Finance, Media and Arts.
Geographic split of candidates: 70% UK, 30% Europe and rest of the World.
Site Marketing: Nearly all online. Major on-going deals with MSN including Hotmail. They are the biggest suppliers of job postings on the UK Yahoo site.
Despite the fact that they are a global jobsite, there is no marketing done outside the UK.
How to Subscribe: By telephone - 0870 321 3662. An Account Manager will arrange for a free trial and training. If you then subscribe, the same Account Manager will remain your point of contact from there on.
The service is supplied for Recruitment Agencies only.
Feedback after registering: Their monthly newsletter contains a feedback form.
How is the database cleaned?: Candidates are sent a reminder to update their details once a quarter. CV's not updated within the last year are automatically deleted.
Costs: £300 per month for 200 CV Downloads and 100 Job postings. An extra £100 pcm gets you unlimited usage.
Who's in charge?: Simon Appleton, CEO and Tony Jewell, CTO. They are both technology entrepreneurs who have individually set up and sold Internet businesses before joining forces to launch PlanetRecruit.
They rate themselves in the top three online recruiters for the UK. I am informed that they intend to concentrate on expanding their breadth in the UK before one day becoming the premier global jobsite.
Positives: The Search Criteria are very simple, yet extremely accurate. CV's are downloadable in Word format at the click of a button. Additionally there is a function that enables you to store Searches and automatically receive relevant CV's the moment they are registered.
Negatives: On one of the occasions I used the site, it was a touch slow.
Summary: I would usually expect to have a lot to say about a site, both in its favour and against. On this occasion I can only say that PlanetRecruit have obviously thought out their offering and come up with an almost perfect product.
They are half the price of similar sites I have reviewed.
They are of comparable size to the largest jobsites in the UK, yet do not push the issue by trying to rate themselves as Number One. They are a Generalist site, but realise that due to the fact that they are Internet based, almost half the CV's held are IT/Telco specific.
I spoke to a number of their staff at all levels and found them to be genuinely helpful, usually unable to answer every question I had, but always able to find out the answer or pass me onto someone who could assist.
They have the functionality in place to be a global jobsite, however that is some way in the future - I believe they will get there.
I promise I wasn't handed a brown paper bag full of cash to write this - I simply liked the site.
Overall marks out of ten: 9 (I would have given PlanetRecruit 10 out of 10, but on the assumption that nothing is perfect...)
Recommendation: Trial it and buy it. If you don't I'd be interested to know why.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
If you'd like to suggest a CV Database for review or have any comments on this feature please email
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
hrstaff The UK's first website dedicated to advertising job opportunities within the HR field, and carrying ONLY HR related positions, hrstaff offers companies serious about filling vacancies, a route to a wide range of Permanent and Interim positions from graduate and administrator through to senior-level managers and directors. http://www.hrstaff.co.uk/
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*****ARTICLE - KNOW YOUR USPs, (That's Unique Selling Proposition in the USA or Unique Selling Point in the UK)*****
Potential customers may not understand the differences between you (personal and corporate you) and your competitors. Worse, your past customers, classically the core of your future customer base, may not know either.
It is also possible that you, your colleagues and your staff may not. This demands that you do some homework. First, you need to work out what the USPs are. Then you have to educate your peers and team so that you all present a seamless front. Third, you must plan to get the results to past and potential clients.
Start with the analysis. Be basic and start with Rudyard Kipling's checklist - What,Why,When How,Where, Who. He didn't include Which but you might consider later how Consumers Association would view things!
What is your 'product'? Is it different from the competition's?
Why have clients chosen you in the past or ought to in the future?
When do you deliver the 'product'? Just in time, i.e. when you and the client have agreed it's needed? Quicker than your competitors could? Almost impossibly quick? Or at times of year when the market is regarded as dead? (The week after Christmas is a good example)
How do you do it? Is it different from the norm? Is it inherently more reliable than clients' expectations? Or morally more acceptable to a client who would think of 'search' as underhand? Another client may not approve advertising with a media group known to avoid taxes. Finally, is your method less costly than most?
Where are you based? Where will you do the interviewing? A local firm sometimes has advantages but if confidentiality is paramount clients may prefer an out-of-town firm whose staff don't know their staff. In some places you may be believed to be surrounded by likely candidates whereas the clients feel they are in a 'desert'. Or on a peninsula. (Clients by the seaside already know half their catchment area is under water.)
All these are just examples Only you can know what is true of your USPs and by now your market's likely perceptions. But if you don't work out what they are you cannot sell them. And in any case you may have to sell the sizzle rather than the sausage.
Note that we missed out the Who. It may be that past clients think you personally are the firm's USP, when it's actually the teamwork that produces the exceptional results. It can be helpful to let some clients into this secret, not least because it could reassure them and it helps to explain where the fees are spent! However, if the 'who' is you and you have lots of referrals from a strong network you may indeed be the USP too. I have several such allies who earn respect from their contacts by recommending the right advisers for specific problems. If you become the preferred recruitment source choice of someone like this, on the basis of past successes, those quotable successes are the USP. Cultivate these sources because they bring in business against any trend and against the odds.
John Courtis MCIPD, FCA runs a London search and selection firm which, for over 25 years has filled the middle/senior management jobs which HR functions feel need help beyond their normal consultants' skills. With his team's private and public sector backgrounds, in finance, general, marketing and publishing management, they find exceptional people across the UK and western Europe. For more information visit http://www.courtisandpartners.co.uk or telephone 020 7486 6849
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
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*****OPINION PIECE - EXECUTIVE SEARCH - LOOKING BACK AS WE LOOK FORWARD*****
This opinion piece has been provided by Jason Starr, Managing Director of the Executive Search magazine 'search-consult' and of Dillistone Systems, the specialist software suppliers to Executive Search.
The last 18 months have been amongst the most tumultuous that the executive search industry has ever faced. Back in the summer of 2000, the industry was booming. Fortune Magazine ran a cover story on the industry under the headline "The Talent Chase". Figures from the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) confirmed what we all knew - demand for retained search was as at record levels. Happy Days!
Fast forward 15 months, and look inside the pages of Forbes Magazine. Under the headline "Headaches and Struggles" Scott Woolley told the story of the Heidrick and Struggles flotation and its aftermath; a story of collapsing share prices, skyrocketing overheads and, in the eyes of some, deteriorating standards. And it was not just Heidrick and Struggles that was suffering. Cutbacks at all the public firms - and many of their private competitors - have been severe; some firms have chopped over 30% of employees. Indeed, the biggest names at the biggest firms have not been immune to the "restructuring" - the CEOs at TMP Executive Search, Heidrick and Struggles, Korn/Ferry International and AT Kearney Executive Search were all replaced in 2001.
So what went wrong?
It's the Economy, Stupid! Well, the economy was without doubt a major cause of the pain the search industry has felt. For some of the players, however, the expectation was that the levels of growth seen in 2000 would continue forever. Should Search Firms be Public?
Steve Potter, the former CEO of TMP Worldwide Executive Search felt that the decision to go public had set the major firms up for disaster. In an interview with search-consult in February he argued that the level of overhead carried by some of the industry majors was simply unsustainable. "...(pure) Search firms shouldn't be public companies... you can't keep growing 20% per annum in a business with conflicts... it just doesn't work and at some point it will close in on itself... both Heidrick and Korn/Ferry have gone public without, in my view, addressing that layer of management and cost... their overhead is extremely high and Wall St knows it... it's going to crush them in a down market."
Prescient words. Six months later both Heidrick & Struggles and Korn/Ferry were slashing costs desperately as share prices go through the floor.
We all make mistakes! We spoke to Pat Pittard, then CEO of Heidrick & Struggles in July, just days before he resigned to be replaced by Piers Marmion. He admitted mistakes had been made, but argued that these mistakes were not related to the public status of the firm. The firm had grown spectacularly in 2000; growth was beyond analysts expectations and merely a reflection of client needs "...our staff increases were the result of business demand; we would have had that demand whether we were public or private....". Whatever the reason, in August the firm was forced to admit that 40% of its consultants "...are still underwater - that is, they are not producing enough revenue to earn their base salaries, and any minimum guarantees they may have."
Vertical Integration When we spoke to Windle Priem at the AESC Conference in Florida, the then CEO of Korn/Ferry International told us of a firm which planned to become "... a business that manages careers. We will begin working with you in university and continue throughout your career". This was the justification for a number of acquisitions - the traditional search business had been joined by Futurestep, JobDirect, MBA Jungle and JD Jungle. Six months later, Paul Reilly - successor to Mr Priem - announced that JobDirect was to be closed and that Korn/Ferry would no longer be involved in college recruiting.
Boardroom Services Whilst Korn/Ferry planned to increase shareholder value through a 'cradle to grave' strategy, a number of firms - including Britain's Whitehead Mann Group preferred to focus on the board room. The strategy at Whitehead Mann is not one of moving down the recruitment ladder, but rather increasing the range of products offered at the boardroom level by expanding into services such as management appraisal. Mid year results for Whitehead Mann - and feedback from other firms following similar strategies - seems to be that clients are responding well to these product offerings.
Success Stories Of course, despite all the doom and gloom, there have been success stories. Boyden Global Executive Search released statistics showing an 18% growth in professional staff over the last 12 months. Many of the networks - TRANSEARCH International, for example - have maintained a steady trickle of office openings over recent months.
Predictions for next year If you believe the 'off the record' predictions and rumours that are floating around, the next 18 months will be as interesting as the last 18. File the following under "Allegedly!":
* One of the top 5 global firms has been actively considering filing for protection from creditors. This is now unlikely to be necessary, but is not impossible. Allegedly! * TMP Worldwide has been in talks with a number of the top 5 global firms about the divestment of its executive search division - a division which it no longer believes is core to its business. Allegedly! * TMP Worldwide will grow its executive search division through the acquisition of a top 5 global search firm. This reflects TMP's absolutely commitment to Executive Search. Allegedly! * Growing off limits problems at the public firms will lead to growth problems, share prices falling and the Partners once again taking the firms private. Allegedly! * Smaller Search firms will take advantage of all of the above.
What will actually happen remains to be seen; few would doubt that we are in for interesting times!
****DON'T MISS THIS****
AWO-L
Their next awo-l event will be on the 24th January 2002 at Harley's in High Holborn. Awo-l (All Working On-line) is a regular networking event for online recruitment professionals. Their aim is to provide a great (generously sponsored) night out; whilst creating an environment for meeting friends and colleagues; old and new. If you work within On-line recruitment and are interested in joining the awo-l movement - you can register on the site to be kept updated of future events. To attend the event on the 24th please register at http://www.awo-l.com
RESOURCE FORUM
The next Resource Forum will take place on the 31st January 2002 at the Institute of Directors. The purpose of the forums is to provide a platform for industry professionals to meet and discuss current industry issues. For more information visit http://www.resourceforum.org. A limited number of invitations are available from Resource. Contact resource@LSMgroup.com or telephone 0800 072 0809.
*****CONTENTS*****
Reviewed Site (Atomica) - Job Board Review (Hotrecruit) - CV Database Review (Rexonline) - Opinion (View from the People's Republic of America, by David Carpe) - Recruitment Technology (Zynap) - Article (Reputation within Recruitment, by Richard Rawlings) - Don't Miss This (Top Temp Consultant Awards 2002 with free tickets - National Online Recruitment Audience Survey - Softworld HR & Payroll) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
Atomica - http://www.gurunet.com/solutions_products_web.html
Atomica is a online reference suite that has compiled content from many reference sources into a useful "one-stop shop". References include the American Heritage Dictionary, Roget's Thesaurus, Columbia Concise Encyclopaedia, AcronymFinder, Mapquest and Google.
To use the site you simply enter your keywords and click "Answer". Atomica determines the type of information you are trying to find from your keywords. For example when I entered the search term "unilever" I was presented with a company profile, related business news and stock information. When I entered "tom jones" I got a biography and list of all of Tom's hits. Finally, when I entered "awol" the dictionary definition and acronyms were displayed
The site also offers a "Did You Mean?" tab where Atomica will list the different meanings and if it appears you have miss-spelt a word it lists possible alternatives.
This is a fantastic information site.
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Kick off 2002 with JobsProactive.com, a refreshing alternative in getting the right candidates for your vacancies. This month sees the launch of Jobsproactive.com, the brand new website that brings candidates and recruiting companies together. We operate across a range of sectors and offer a free of charge service to active and passive jobseekers. The team at Jobsproactive.com has years of experience in the online recruitment industry and recruitment in general. We are dedicated to bringing the cost of recruitment down for you and will put together a bespoke trial package for you to test our ability in doing this. So, don't waste any more time. Be proactive about bringing your recruitment costs down with jobsproactive.com. To see for yourself how cost effective jobsproactive.com is email info@jobsproactive.com, or call one of our consultants now on 01923 244456. http://www.jobsproactive.com
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*****JOB BOARD REVIEW - BY MATT ALDER OF TMP ADVERTISING*****
http://www.hotrecruit.co.uk
Hotrecruit is a site aimed specifically at 16-28 year olds - be they students, recent graduates, working travellers or young professionals. Over the last couple of years Hotrecruit has proved effective in a growing number of specialist areas including recruitment in hospitality, retail, travel, office admin, light industrial and voluntary areas.
Hotrecruit's audience are certainly heavy Internet users. However they may not always have a great deal of time to spend online at any one time, particularly if they are accessing the Internet from cyber cafes or university libraries. It is essential then that the site is easy to use and that relevant jobs can be found quickly.
Hotrecruit does go some way to addressing this in its user experience but does have shortcomings. The job search is effectively positioned at the top of the home page and is certainly very straightforward. It offers the opportunity to use simple relevant filters and appropriate keywords. The home page also contains links to key content areas of the site with the purpose of getting the user where they need to be as quickly as possible.
On the negative side the layout is slightly inconsistent, the top navigation bar is confusingly near to the top banner and the bottom banner placements are so far down the page they run the risk of not being seen. Also selected jobs come up in separate windows which could confuse users if they have several other applications running or web sites open.
Hotrecruit has been successful when it comes to generating response for its clients and has a growing list of case studies to prove it. One of the key factors in this is the way it markets itself to build and retain its audience. The site has been very good at high impact targeted marketing. Whether this consists of posters in unusual places or publicity stunts, it always has an added sense of fun in its execution. The aim is always the same, to build a brand that younger jobseekers can relate to.
The site content mirrors this attitude, particularly the "Crazy Jobs" section. Here jobseekers can apply for positions (all real) as diverse as a magician's assistant and a diving guide for people wanting to swim with Great White Sharks! Not surprisingly this section provides one of the biggest entry points for users from the home page into the main body of the site.
Hotrecruit currently attracts 110,000 unique users a month who generate a monthly total of 1.8million page impressions
Hotrecruit is now well established as a key specialist in part time and temporary recruitment on the Internet. It is now taking on the challenge of helping clients with their full time vacancies. Initiatives such as recruiting students at key universities to be its Brand Managers underline how seriously Hotrecruit is attempting do this. It will have to be if it wants to develop from its niche to become a major player in the overcrowded horizontal sector.
Matt Alder is Head of Interactive Media for the Advertising and Communications division of TMP Worldwide. He has been involved in online recruitment for nearly five years and his main area of expertise is online media strategy, planning and measurement technologies. You can contact TMP on 020 7406 5000 or visit http://www.tmpw.co.uk
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*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - BY JAMES CHAPMAN OF BUSINESS RESEARCH SOLUTIONS*****
http://www.rexonline.co.uk
Incorporating: http://www.jobtrack.co.uk, http://www.jobmagic.net, http://www.absolute-comms.co.uk, http://www.absolute-engineers.co.uk and http://www.rex.co.uk
Sectors:
* Jobtrack and Jobmagic - Generalist across 25 listed sectors, launched June 1999 * Absolute-comms and Absolute-engineers - Telecomms Professionals and Engineering Professionals respectively, launched middle 2001 * Rex - IT Contractors, launched 1996
Target candidate level: ABC1 Candidates - i.e. £15k to £150k Basic Salary for Permanent Candidates
Number of CV's held:
* Jobtrack and Jobmagic - (shared database) 23,000 new or updated within the past 6 months (114,000 total) * Absolute-comms - 2,000 new or updated within the past 6 months (3,000 total) * Absolute-engineers - 1,200 new or updated within the past 6 months (11,000 total) * Rex - 2,100 new or updated within the past 6 months (7,400 total)
Geographic split of candidates: Not specified.
Site Marketing: Nearly all online. Rexonline use their 'Career Network Channels' with over 30 ISP's to drive candidates to their websites. This means that anyone making a search for jobs from any of these ISP's homepages will see predominantly Rexonline jobs.
How to Subscribe: Either register online and an Account Manager will call you back, or phone 0870 130 4422
Who can subscribe?:
* Jobtrack - Recruiters Only * Jobmagic - Companies only * Absolute-comms, Absolute-engineers and Rex - Either Recruiters or Companies.
How is the database cleaned?: Candidates are emailed monthly and reminded to update their CV. If no update is received within 6 months their CV is archived, yet still searchable.
Costs: £2,750 per annum per site. This gives you unlimited job advertisements and unlimited CV searches and downloads. . Who's in charge?: Simon Hersh, CEO and Robert Dunning, Operations Director, both successful entrepreneurs in their own right. I am informed the original company, built around Recruitment Fairs and rex.co.uk, was suffering badly until Simon and Robert rescued it a few years ago. They turned the company round and floated it on AIM.
Positives: Each of Rexonline's sites contains a link to www.career-ahead.co.uk, their CV and jobseekers advice site, which seemed very useful and would certainly feature in my 'Favourites' if I were looking for a job.
You can save CV's to "Groups" for reference later on and "Bulk Email" those candidates with details of the job you are looking to fill.
Recruiters can receive daily emails of candidates with skills matching job criteria.
Negatives: Candidates can receive emails once a week with details of jobs that match what they are looking for - if I were a candidate I would want a daily report.
In some instances I found more Comms people on Jobtrack than I did Absolute-comms.
Summary: Unsurprisingly all the sites use the same technology and have a similar look and feel, which I found to have good features for Recruiters and Candidates alike.
The best candidates are the ones that expressed an interest in a move most recently. The total number of recently added/amended CV's across Rexonline's sites is about 28,000. To see all of these you will have to pay out £13,750 per year. Even taking into account the older CV's that is still a lot of money. Basically it costs the same to view 114,000 CV's on Jobtrack as it does for 3,000 on Absolute-comms.
47% of Jobtrack's candidates are IT specific. 13 out of the 25 listed sectors each have less than a 1% share of the total number of CV's.
Relative to the amount of marketing Rexonline are doing I would have expected to see a lot more CV's available to view.
Rexonline have more sector specific sites in the pipeline. This is concerning as, compared to a large generalist site, the recruiter gets proportionately fewer CV's to view for their money. Interestingly the business case for this strategy is excellent, as I understand several of Rexonline's clients subscribe to two or more of their sites.
Overall marks out of ten: 5
Recommendation: Don't buy it. There are cheaper sites with more CV's out there. In this case it seems you don't get what you pay for.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site http://www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
If you'd like to suggest a CV Database for review or have any comments on this feature please email
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http://www.careersinrecruitment.co.uk/
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*****OPINION - VIEW FROM THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF AMERICA - DAVID CARPE*****
American recruiters are big fans of Prozacian optimism. Here we sit, broken hearted, watching our industry leaders falter, layoff and eliminate entire recruiting budgets. Over 2,000 recruiting firms in California alone have shut down within the past twelve months, industry revenue has declined by over 30%, and countless Search Firm Associates are beating the streets for work doing anything that will separate people from money. But we're all expecting things to improve - eventually. Why?
Now it must be made clear that Americans are at a bit of a disadvantage. As you probably know from the anti-American literature distributed throughout UK schools, Americans do not even begin to learn to read until the fourth grade, algebra is not taught until college, and Vanity Fair magazine is called literature (because of the well researched articles, of course).
Given these extreme developmental setbacks, it is no surprise that countless recruiters find themselves struggling to figure out exactly what else it is they can do until the market comes back. Articles in the Wall Street Journal have described former Partners now working as Construction Site Managers, Teachers, and anything else that will stop bank account bleeding.
Is this a way to weed out the weaklings? Burn the soft fat implants? Pave the way for the real producers? Not likely. The industry appears to be in decline. Just as countless service industries have reinvented their pricing and services over the years, so too will the recruiting industry evolve to reflect such widespread rejection of our pricing standards (consulting, legal, tax and advisory all went to fixed fee, capped fee and on-final-delivery-please-pay-us-c'mon-please-do models).
Already, the largest firms have been rumoured to offer package deals for large clients, offering deep discounts, partial contingency fees, with new value-add services in the works (laundry? massage?). Surprised? I'm not. Eventually people do get upset when they figure out that most of the television set is just a decorative hollow box, and countless carriers can deliver the same pictures at lower cost with greater service.
Publicly held service firms trade at low multiples of earnings. The fat margins only exist when utilization rates are high (over 80%), so it is not at all odd to see public search firms flounder and seek out protection, new buyers, new markets, new models and cheaper employees. As corporations have grown wise to the ways of recruiting, the 'black art' processes and pricing logic, they are looking for new ways to empower their own organizations and drive out such expenses. Siebel and Cisco are doing it, with internal recruiting machines similar to those of Fidelity and Microsoft - replete with sizable in-house research staffs and proprietary databases of organizational intelligence. My gut says that the survivors will find a way to create a role around this new model, a more critical partnership as an integral resource - not just another firm looking for a hit-and-run deal. So that's where I'm headed, with my phonics tapes and math workbooks in hand.
David Carpe, BFA, MBA is a recruiting industry veteran, market research professional and wannabe artist. He is also the founder of http://www.PassingNotes.com, a leading industry website for serious research professionals who want to get something for nothing. He operates from Boston in the USA.
David will be contributing a number of articles to ukrecruiter over the next year, please let me know if you'd like him to write about something in particular with a US focus.
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*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - ZYNAP - ALAN WHITFORD*****
Zynap - http://www.zynap.com In the past months I have been looking at a variety of Recruitment Management Systems and in other parts of the newsletter, contributors have evaluated job boards. Generally, the software solutions and boards have one thing in common. Their approach to searching and matching is based on simple text search and advanced searches are created using Boolean search strings. However, there is another approach that entails the use of Artificial Intelligence techniques. Resumix was the leader in this approach during the mid-90s with a purpose built Knowledge Base and sophisticated search tools. More recently, the concepts of Neural Intelligence (put very simply, the software continues to learn the more that it is used, similar to the way the human mind works) have been adapted to the recruitment sector by Zynap Ltd.
Zynap develops and markets intelligent workforce management software that provides enterprise-wide hire, deployment and retention solutions. Zynap's HR software successfully integrates neural network technology into its application. The software handles free text data, such as CVs, in such a way that the computer is thinking and processing information in a human like manner, through the easy storage and retrieval of data with the minimal amount of manual processing and content categorisation. Zynap currently powers the SmartMatch feature on the totaljobs.com web site.
Zynap's software comprises three core solutions - hire, deploy and retain. The complete solution helps manage CV and job vacancy information to aid initial recruitment and the subsequent deployment and retention of key staff. Competitive advantage is gained through being able to match full job requisitions to candidate CVs (as opposed to key-word searches). Once contact has been made with the candidate, the software enables full relationship management.
HIRE Zynap Attract provides a powerful back-end to corporate Websites to enable candidates to register their interest in the company, use Zynap's powerful search engine to locate a suitable vacancy and apply on-line without having to complete time-consuming forms. Zynap Attract has a user friendly, Web interface that is completely customisable to an organisations recruiting process. This workflow process provides a repeatable, auditable process enabling any size of company to manage multiple hiring streams and departmental differences in recruiting more efficiently and cost effectively. Zynap Attract will automatically post job requisitions to a target Website or Job Board and retrieve the results of matched candidates directly to the recruiters desktop.
Zynap Knowledge Manager is the engine that powers all Zynap applications, combining intelligent storage and retrieval of both structured and unstructured data with an ability to learn as the data is automatically processed.
Zynap Workforce Manager allows users to harness the power of Attract and Knowledge Manager within the framework of their recruitment process. It provides the functionality for a complete end-to-end recruitment solution including job requisition processing, candidate application processing, management information and administration.
DEPLOY The deployment module extends internal recruitment functionality to allow users to get the most out of their workforce by knowing exactly what skills and competencies they have within the organisation and by enabling employees to take charge of their own development. The Zynap Engagement module provides employee self-selection (training and career development), employee skills/competency analysis, and project and strategic resourcing
Zynap Knowledge Manager provides the functionality necessary to intelligently store, retrieve and manage all text-based information associated with the deployment of employees.
Zynap Workforce Manager covers the deployment processes, manages the employee relationship and the skills competency required to ensure successful projects.
RETAIN Zynap's ability to intelligently store and retrieve all forms of text-based information facilitates the greater use of forms, appraisals, qualifications and project related data as part of an overall employee relationship system.
Zynap Include Zynap can be delivered to every employee's desktop (or to local cyber kiosks for employees without PC access) and empowers everyone in an organisation to take responsibility for his or her own development.
Using Zynap's graphical display of competencies verses requirements, HR professionals and senior management can quickly identify the key skills in a business and can plan the strategy of how to retain them as the organisation changes over time. The "talent target" can also be used to map the business and social profile of internal and external candidates, providing an insight into the suitability of potential new employees or project team members. Behind this visual representation is the core data used to draw up the profiles, which has been collected and analysed using the power of the Zynap Knowledge Manager engine.
To contact Alan Whitford please call the Abtech Partnership on (0)1451 850811 or (0)797 1864620.
*****ARTICLE - REPUTATION WITHIN RECRUITMENT - RICHARD RAWLINGS*****
In the first in a series of Public Relations advice columns, Richard Rawlings looks at the issue of REPUTATION within recruitment, and how it can be harnessed.
Many recruiters believe that their excellent service or placement efficiency will attract new business by default. This assumption is dangerous. New customers, by definition, have not experienced your service before and therefore only have your reputation as a guide. They are attracted not by the actual service you deliver, but by what they perceive you will deliver. In marketing terms, perception is as important as reality, and a good reputation is the platform from which sales happen more easily.
Pro-active reputation management Too many recruiters offer excellent service, yet fail to be proactive in the management of their reputation, as only their existing customers know how good they are! Progressive recruiters go out of their way to ensure that their reputation actually precedes them.
Reputation is a source of significant competitive advantage, and in a crowded marketplace it is often the single element that differentiates one company from another. As budgets tighten and recruiters aim to reduce risk, it is reputation that will see companies through the tougher times we are experiencing. Swift action now can rapidly augment your reputation as perceptions can be proactively engineered in order to "fast-track" your business right in front of your prospects' noses.
On-line job boards are too efficient Most recruiters no longer have a shortage of candidates, but of vacancies. This recent about-turn has caught recruiters by surprise. The problem has been exacerbated by the efficiency of the on-line job boards, which have been counter-productive in promoting recruiters to their target audience.
This is because recruiters now post their vacancies on line, which is great for candidates, but useless for client exposure. So we have to look at other ways of generating meaningful exposure that will prompt clients to knock on your door, rather than you on theirs.
Expose yourself! One of the best-proven ways of doing this effectively is to get your business mentioned in the press. Good editorial coverage can be incredibly powerful and position you precisely in front of your target audience. In marketing terms, your reputation can never die of exposure. Unlike advertising, a publication's tacit endorsement conveys instant credibility and positions you as an authority on your subject.
However, there is little point in getting your name in the press if it has no meaning or relevance to your business. You need to consider exactly what your business stands for, identify your core values and carefully define your key messages before wasting a rare press opportunity.
Richard Rawlings is MD of Inside Out Communications, a PR consultancy that specialises in promoting the reputation of recruiters and allied organisations. He can be contacted on 01600 719 472 or 07773 770 319 or rrawlings@insideoutpr.co.uk.
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To receive further information or view our online demo contact Alex or Darin on 01635 581185 or visit our web sites at www.bcl-recruit.com and www.bcl-numedia.com
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****DON'T MISS THIS****
SOFTWORLD HR & PAYROLL - 6TH AND 7TH FEBRUARY 2002 Softworld HR & Payroll celebrates its 10th birthday when it returns to ExCeL, London between 6-7 February 2002. The show is described as "Europe's leading software and e-Business event for HR and payroll professionals". As well as the exhibition there are is also a completely free educational programme comprising vendor seminars, breakfast briefings & master classes. You can register at http://www.softworld.co.uk/hrp2002/register.html or telephone 07000 763 896.
CASHFRIDAY TOP TEMP CONSULTANT AWARDS 2002 LAUNCH PARTY - 21ST FEBRUARY 2002 CashFriday (payroll provider to UK recruitment agencies) has scored a hit with its Awards' Launch Party with over 700 tickets requested within a week of the announcement. This may have something to do with the party being held at the top London club, Ministry of Sound. CashFriday has only 400 tickets to give away (you can register for free tickets via http://www.cashfriday.co.uk ) and will announce the lucky recipients first-out-of-the-hat the first week in February. The Launch Party is on 21st February 2002. You can also use the CashFriday web site to nominate someone for the Awards with nominations closing at the end of May 2002.
ukrecruiter has secured a pair of free tickets for the launch party. They will go to the first reader who's name is pulled "from the hat" at 9am on Friday 1st February. To enter the draw simply email giving your full name and a contact telephone number.
NATIONAL ONLINE RECRUITMENT AUDIENCE SURVEY (NORAS) RELEASED APRIL 2002 The results of the first wave of NORAS are scheduled for release in mid April and will provide recruiters with the ability to directly compare the audiences of online recruitment sites for the first time. NORAS analyses online recruitment sites using a common methodology over an identical time period. The data provided by NORAS will enable recruiters to make more informed advertising choices, based on audience profile and numbers.
A number of leading UK online recruitment sites, including GoJobsite, Planet Recruit, Total Jobs and Workthing are all participating in the first wave of NORAS. The second wave is scheduled for September of this year, with results available in October. The process is being managed by Enhance Media and for further information about you can email noras@enhancemedia.co.uk
*****CONTENTS*****
Reviewed Site (Trade Fairs & Exhibitions UK) - Job Board Review (Inretail) - CV Database Review (Milkround) - Opinion (Trading Standards, by John Courtis) - Recruitment Technology (Questionnaire - win a Personality Profile) - Article (The Art of Closing, by Gavin Ingham) - Don't Miss This (Awards for Excellence in Recruitment - The 2002 UK Recruitment Channel Survey - HR Forum) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
"Trade fairs & exhibitions UK" is the official web site for the UK exhibition industry, sponsored by Trade Partners UK. Trade Partners are a government organisation responsible for all trade promotion and development work.
The site offers a listing of consumer, public, industrial and trade exhibitions being held in major venues around the UK. You can search the list by exhibition type, date, organiser, or by venue. The data is updated at the beginning of each month. The listings are divided into the fourteen subject areas, including computers, service industry and arts and crafts. You can browse the subject categories by clicking on any of the underlined headings. You can also browse by date up until April 2004.
The site contains a lot of exhibitions but it is an exhaustive list. Also, in order to keep up to date you should check back regularly as new events get added all the time. This site could do with a feature where you can request to be emailed when events of interest to you are added.
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*****JOB BOARD REVIEW - BY MATT ALDER OF TMP ADVERTISING*****
http://www.Inretail.co.uk
Inretail is a vertical site aimed at retail professionals within the UK that has strongly established itself over the last two years. Rather than targeting a particular segment of this market it aims to carry positions as diverse as head office, retail operations, senior positions, graduates and sales assistants. In total there are 25 job title search categories that cover the entire market. The majority of vacancies on the site however are for buyers, merchandisers, store managers and assistant store managers. This reflects the number and type of vacancies currently available in the industry.
The key strength of Inretail is the simplicity of its design. The job search engine is at the centre-top of the home page and highly visible advertising placements run down each side allowing users to quickly identify jobs and companies that are of interest to them. The search engine is divided into very logical and user-friendly filters but perhaps one disappointment is the lack of a quick search facility, which would enhance the process even further.
The format of the company profiles and the jobs themselves is simple, logical and user friendly. One criticism however would be the lack of an online application form facility. Whilst a large number of candidates still prefer to send applications via email or snail mail, an online application facility is something that should offered in one form or another. This will become even more important as candidates become more familiar with using the Internet to apply for jobs and HR departments "web enable" more of their internal processes.
Effective site promotion has been a real winner for Inretail. Inretail is the fourth largest advertiser in the retail recruitment trade press (figures from MMS). With adverts in Drapers Record, The Grocer, The Appointment and Retail Week on a weekly basis Inretail has built a massive presence within the industry. With over 2,000,000 flyers being sent out over the year, tube posters and regional station posters, exhibition stands, sponsorship of key industry events and direct mail to over 1,500 retail professionals a week, Inretail is serious about keeping the site's presence at the forefront of the industries mind.
Inretail is part of RHR (Retail Human Resources plc), the largest retail recruitment consultancy in the UK, who have added their considerable weight to the site's development and position in the market.
Inretail currently attracts 31,076 unique visitors per month generating 114,981 user sessions with an average of 28 pages opened per visitor session. A "jobs via email" service has been instrumental in encouraging return users. Inretail has built an email subscriber list of over 8,000 retail professionals. A new system is currently being created to offer clients the opportunity to promote their vacancies directly to this list in a highly targeted way.
Inretail has achieved much in the two years since its launch and a steady increase in business from some of the top companies in the industry over this time adds credence to its claim that it is market leader. A simple sensible approach to business growth and marketing has helped to achieve this, along with the backing of a large parent company. The growth of Inretail has shown that the Internet offers substantial opportunities in the retail marketplace. The site is well positioned to take advantage of these opportunities as it develops further.
Matt Alder is Head of Interactive Media for the Advertising and Communications division of TMP Worldwide. He has been involved in online recruitment for nearly five years and his main area of expertise is online media strategy, planning and measurement technologies. You can contact TMP on 020 7406 5000 or visit http://www.tmpw.co.uk
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hrstaff The UK's first website dedicated to advertising job opportunities within the HR field, and carrying ONLY HR related positions, hrstaff offers companies serious about filling vacancies, a route to a wide range of Permanent and Interim positions from graduate and administrator through to senior-level managers and directors. http://www.hrstaff.co.uk/
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*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - BY JAMES CHAPMAN OF BUSINESS RESEARCH SOLUTIONS*****
http://www.milkround.com
Sectors: All, subdivided into 30 categories. Candidates register interest in an average of 4.5 different categories.
Target candidate level: Recent Degree Graduates from the top 80 Universities in the UK, though they list around 130 on the site. (There are around 200 Universities and Colleges of Higher Education in the UK)
Site Launched: 1996
Number of CV's held: Around 200,000
Work experience of Candidates: - 0 Years - 77% - 1-2 Years - 19% - 3-4 Years - 7% - 5-8 Years - 2% - 8 Years plus - 1% - Work Placement - 31% - Post Graduate/MBA - 10% The percentages don't tally as they list the level of job experience candidates are interested in - i.e. they may have two years experience, but would also look at employers wanting recent graduates.
Geographic split of candidates: 90% UK 10% Rest of World
Site Marketing: Many different routes including exhibiting at university Recruitment Fairs (60 - 70 per year); Agreements whereby they supply all the mouse mats for university Computer Rooms; They employ around 200 students to sign up their friends; Free Beer - apparently the universal method of convincing students to do anything you want.
How to Subscribe: Milkround usually attract their clients via cold calling and targeted mail shots.
Anyone interested in the service can call 020 7419 5190 and an efficient account manager will take care of you.
How is the database cleaned?: Candidate CV's are never removed, however out of date candidates can effectively be filtered out in the search criteria.
How does the site work?: As a client you will have an area listing who you are, what you do, the kind of graduates you are looking to recruit and the type of jobs you are looking to fill. The site is intended to attract jobseekers to review the information on employers, listed by the type of skills they are looking for. Furthermore, emails can be sent to candidates listing either one, or several employers who are looking to recruit people with the kind of qualifications they have. Candidates then visit the site to review the opportunities in greater depth and apply with their CV.
Clients are never given direct contact details of candidates.
Costs: From £3,000 to around £20,000 per Academic Year. - £3,000 gets you a basic page with your company details and jobs you are offering. - £4,000 allows you to email a specific list of individuals whom you have selected by searching the CV database. Your email will go out within a week, together with other employers advertising similar opportunities. - £7,000 allows you to email any candidates at any time with only your job details. - £10,000 gets you a banner advert which all candidates see when searching a specific job category.
Who's in charge?: Tom Hughes, a Cambridge graduate, set the site up with a friend whilst he was a Management Consultant in Strategy and IT. Initially they targeted Oxford, Cambridge and LSE students and later expanded the site to include all the premier universities in the UK.
Tom tells me that they are looking to launch a site later this year, which will allow end clients and recruitment consultancies to contact graduates that have specific work experience and that are looking to move jobs, usually for the first or second time.
Positives: The site is simple to use, easy to navigate and delivers targeted results.
Negatives: None that I could see.
Summary: The site is intended for internal recruiters looking to entice graduates from the better universities to apply for their jobs. In this respect it is faultless. If I were undertaking that kind of recruitment I would happily pay the fees and await the CV's.
From the recruitment consultants perspective the light at the end of the tunnel will come in the form of the planned site intended to incorporate graduates with work experience. Tom had no previous business experience prior to starting Milkround: He has made a success of it and I'm sure the new site will be a market leader soon after it's launch.
Overall marks out of ten: 10
Recommendation: If you recruit new graduates, buy it.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
If you'd like to suggest a CV Database for review or have any comments on this feature please email
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
BCL Recruit develop online recruitment solutions for the recruitment industry and human resource departments. BCL can supply complete solutions from backend databases to online job portal sites including a complete design service via our sister company BCL Nu-Media.
To receive further information or view our online demo contact Alex or Darin on 01635 581185 or visit our web sites at www.bcl-recruit.com and www.bcl-numedia.com
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*****OPINION - TRADING STANDARDS, BY JOHN COURTIS*****
At some early point in a recruitment firm's development, founders tend to think about joining a trade association. The key words Why, Which, When and How immediately come to mind. Old hands often go automatically for the body which their former employers belonged to. New kids on the block need to think and research harder.
The "Why" question is actually the most important. Provided that you choose the right body, joining it gives you early contact with people who don't feel threatened by contact with competitors, who recognise that such contact can improve their knowledge of the enemy (alternative recruitment sources, the bad clients, the applicants, can all be the enemy) who don't mind sharing ideas on good practice and recognise the value of a joint industry voice, both in the market and with regulatory bodies. The common investment in legal and practical support is also an economy. A code of conduct, known to be enforced, helps to enhance the body's stature and influence, while making its members more credible. Common training schemes do the same. All these, in the UK, point one inexorably in the direction of the REC (a union of FRES and IEC) and possibly its senior arm, the ASSC. So we've probably answered the Why and Which questions.
When? As soon as their rules permit. The 'old hands' often try for membership even before their Newco is trading, which should be a good enough recommendation for the rest of us. For some of you, in sub-sectors where the clients are well organised or just plain sheeplike, membership of the REC is a condition precedent to their contractual procedures. And at the senior end, membership of the ASSC adds a similar bonus, particular with clients seeking cheaper national advertising deals or the comfort of known ethical standards.
There's another W. What else can we get out of such membership? And there are lots of answers. You'll meet the cream of the industry. Not the vain outfits, big or small, who think they are better than the rest (and thus prove they are not) but the proprietors who know there is always something new to learn and may even want to help 'competitors' perform a bit better because this adds to the public perception of our joint merits. And we are good; there are cowboys in the market, but not in the sort of grouping in which common interest breeds excellence. I learned most of my craft skills from people who had built something good and were not afraid to share their knowledge. Mike Rogers, who built up BNA, now running Careforce and a former FRES Chairman too, may be the best surviving example of this. Perhaps fortunately, some of today's big hitters (who are also held in low esteem by competition and the more perceptive sort of clients) have a bad name, which vanity prevents them sullying with membership of any association. And they couldn't comply with the codes of practice anyway!
There is another test in the 'should we, shouldn't we' argument. What could we have fun contributing? This is not wholly altruistic. You probably know something that you can do and your peers don't know about. Telling them about it may be fun. It may also enhance their respect for you and, if they can't or won't replicate your magic ingredient, they may sometimes recommend you to employer clients, secure in the knowledge that their relationship with these clients will be enhanced, not damaged, by the introduction. It works, in both directions, with clients whom you respect. I've tried it. It builds more business. And that is the nub of 'associating'. Think about it. If you and your better 'competitors' can discuss each other's merits with clients it must be good PR. And that is another of the main benefits of a trade association, apart from the fact that it permits you to be better at your craft. Incidentally, calling it a craft trade and proving your craftsmanship (sorry ladies, the word's been like that for a long time) is better than calling it a profession when it hardly even meets Hans Keller's definition of a phoney profession.
John Courtis MCIPD, FCA runs a London search and selection firm which, for over 25 years has filled the middle/senior management jobs which HR functions feel need help beyond their normal consultants' skills. With his team's private and public sector backgrounds, in finance, general, marketing and publishing management, they find exceptional people across the UK and western Europe. For more information visit http://www.courtisandpartners.co.uk or telephone 020 7486 6849
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - ALAN WHITFORD*****
Please could you spare 5 minutes to complete a short questionnaire (only 9 quick questions) relating to recruitment technologies? The results of the survey will be used to help determine content in the newsletter and any interesting findings will be presented here. To complete the questionnaire online visit http://www.nmib.com/forms/recques.htm
As an added incentive RecruitmentJOBZ (www.recruitmentJOBZ.com) and PeopleMaps (www.peoplemaps.co.uk) have kindly offered to give a FREE personality Profile to the first 25 people who complete a questionnaire. The Personality Profile is worth £29 and can be conducted via the internet.
Simply visit http://www.nmib.com/forms/recques.htm to complete the questionnaire - don't forget to give your email address if you want to be in with a chance of winning a personality profile.
*****ARTICLE - THE ART OF CLOSING, BY GAVIN INGHAM*****
In my experience as a sales coach one of the three most feared areas of the sales process is closing a sale, the other two being fear of canvassing and fear of objections. Closing the sale is a good one to start with.
But the real question is, what is it about these three that creates such a fear? Especially, when even some of the most successful sales professionals face challenges in one or more of these three areas. The answer is simple - fear of rejection. Humans are social animals and the fear of rejection is one of the primary human drivers so it takes a different line of thought to face this issue.
My first tactic for "closing" is to change the words that you use. Why not "ask for the business" or "take the order" or "provide a solution" instead? These words don't create the same fear. I have tested this on dozens of recruiters and removing the word that the fear is associated with removes the fear too. If anyone has read Anthony Robbin's material he describes how you can only experience feelings that you have words for and that words only have the meaning that you ascribe to them.
Secondly, start with the end in mind. Whenever you go to a meeting or make a call think through it in your head first. Think about what outcome you want from the "meeting" and think through the possible ways this might occur. Think also of what the minimum outcome is that you are prepared to accept from the "meeting". When you have built rapport, asked questions, uncovered your clients' needs and provided a solution its only natural to ask for the business. After all, you have provided a solution so asking for the business is the next step! Why would you accept less than your minimum acceptable behaviour from the client?
I once worked with a recruiter who was amazing. He made fantastic cold calls, built elegant and effective rapport and uncovered client needs effortlessly but he did no business. In a short coaching session I discovered that he disassociated the sales process from "closing" hence he would "do the meeting" and then think, "Oh dear! Now I need to close!". Cue panic. His customers could see it and the sale went down the drain, every time. He was in "sales" mode and they were resisting. He was a nice guy and he didn't want to be rejected! Simply by viewing the process as one seemless process with a natural conclusion he was able to see the "timeline" and "path" of the sale. If the client deviated from this he was able to maintain control and bring them back on track. His achieved a sales breakthrough literally overnight.
Lets face it, you work hard to find clients and get that all important meeting with them and you listen hard to understand their true needs not your perceived ones. When you provide a solution that matches their needs they are expecting you to "ask for the business". When this becomes a relaxed, natural part of the meeting you will achieve more and effortless sales.
Gavin Ingham is a business coach serving sales professionals, business owners, entrepreneurs and dynamic teams in their desire to create more sales and stronger businesses. He is also available for seminars, training and consultancy. He can be contacted at www.gaviningham.com or 0870 011 7864.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
****DON'T MISS THIS****
Awards for Excellence in Recruitment - 21st March 2002 In recognition of the growth and improving standards in the industry, Professional Recruiter has launched awards for excellence in recruitment, supported by LSM. A distinguished panel of judges has shortlisted the leading companies entered in each award category and the winners will be announced at a gala lunch in The Ballroom at The Dorchester Hotel, London, on 21st March 2002. Places at the ceremony are available now. For those who can't attend, an awards review will be published with 27th March 2002 issue of Recruiter. For information visit http://www.professional-recruiter.co.uk. The recruitment to recruitment category is being sponsored by www.recruitmentjobz.com
The 2002 UK Recruitment Channel Survey Top-Consultant.com have recently completed "The 2002 UK Recruitment Channel Survey". Described as "the definitive work on how to source consultancy candidates in the UK". It is based on their survey of 530 consultants and quantifies the size of the different channels such as Internet sites, Head hunters, Corporate sites and Newspapers. It also covers who are the market leaders in these segments and what consultants think about their current performance. The 52 page report would be a useful resource for any consultant recruiter or candidate in 2002. More information can be found at http://www.zambeasy.com/top-consultant/ebooks/display.asp?ID=9. The report is normally priced at £199.99, however, Top-Consultant.com are offering a 30% discount to ukrecruiter subscribers. To obtain your discount email tony.restell@top-consultant.com quoting reference ukr/02.02. The discount is available until the 14th March 2002.
Human Resources Forum - 9th May 2002 The Human Resources Forum, due to sail from Southampton on 9 May on the Oriana has only limited space left on board for delegates and exhibitors alike. This annual gathering for all those involved in the HR industry has over 300 delegates (senior HR professionals from the UK's top organisations) and nearly 100 exhibitors (suppliers of products or services to the HR industry) confirmed to date. For more information visit http://www.hrforum.co.uk/ or call Amy Calvert on 020 8487 2247
Please support the newsletter advertisers by visiting their sites - and if you do contact them make sure you say where you saw their details! These are necessary to ensure that the newsletter is free for recruiters.
*****CONTENTS*****
Reviewed Site (Teldir) - Changes to ukrecruiter - Opinion (Business Strategy, by David Miskimin) - Recruitment Technology (PeopleSoft) - Article (Customer Relationship Management, by Eric Rollett) - Don't Miss This (Top 100 online recruitment sites - Sleeping Giants) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
Teldir is the Internet's original and "most complete" index of online phone books. The site has over 400 links to Yellow Pages, White Pages, Business Directories, Email Address directories and Fax Listings from over 170 countries all around the world.
The site is split up by continents with links to the countries within each. For each country there is a listing of any available directories. Each directory is given a star rating and a short description as well as a link to the web site. The description usefully states the language(s) in which the directory is available. Some countries have a large range of directories, however, others may only have one or two.
This is a useful site for international research both into companies and individuals.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Frustrated with your current recruitment advertising medium? * Would you like to bring your cost per placement down? * Would you like a new refreshing medium through which to obtain high quality candidates? * Would you like these high quality candidates arriving in your inbox each morning? If you answered YES to any of the above, then you need to get in contact with JobsProactive. We are the new career portal for 2002, offering a cost effective tailored solution to your recruitment needs.
Click to find out more http://www.jobsproactive.com/ukrec
Email info@jobsproactive.com with your details and we will put a tailor made package together for you to trial our site.
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*****CHANGES TO UKRECRUITER*****
What changes would you like to see to the newsletter? Are there particular subjects you'd like us to cover or web sites you want to see reviewed? Email with any suggestions.
Additionally, we are looking at sending the newsletter out in HTML format rather than simple text only. Any feedback on this idea would be welcome.
*****OPINION - BUSINESS STATEGY BY DAVID MISKIMIN*****
Bill Gates said "Business is going to change more in the next 10 years, than it has in the last 50". He was really saying prepare your business for increasingly turbulent trading conditions.
Do you have a business strategy with clear action plans - then you are one of the enlightened 10% of businesses in the SME market. If you are in the other 90%, we might still ask why bother? In essence a business strategy...
... is intended to create value for the business and ultimately its customers, employees and other stakeholders
... is all pervasive, involving multiple markets
... involves the management and control of the organisations activities and resources
What are the benefits of having a strategy? Quite simply, your strategy is your plan of action for achieving your objectives. We recommend there are six areas for detailed examination:
1. External factors Those things outside of the organisations control that may have an affect.
2. Internal factors These reveal the position of the organisation internally. Some organisations are so large that they don't understand themselves, others are so small they cannot see themselves objectively.
3. Strategic Vision Where is this business going and why?
4. Competitive strategy How we will compete, especially given the internal and external factors?
5. Transformation plans What changes need to happen and when?
6. Measure Performance How will we know the strategy has been successful?
If having a strategy sounds more relevant, what needs to happen? There are several options. Certainly determining the time and resources for each topic area is important. Get a sheet of paper and work through some of the dependencies, so that the best actions are identified. Another option is to separately interview the top team, then bring them together in a coaching-led workshop. The benefit of this approach is to elicit any individual agenda whilst empowering the team to own and commence delivery of the revised strategy straight away.
The business needs a living breathing, action oriented plan - not as is more common, a business plan that gets dusted off once in a blue moon, because it became out of date almost as soon as it was published. You can see the benefits of a business strategy already, can't you...?
DLM Associates (c) 2002 David Miskimin has worked as a personal development specialist for many years. He is Principal of DLM Associates, a training, consultancy and coaching practice, established with the purpose of identifying and releasing potential in others. He works with individuals and teams, at the business or personal level and may be contacted on 01565 73 4561 or by email dlmassocs@aol.com.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
hrstaff The UK's first website dedicated to advertising job opportunities within the HR field, and carrying ONLY HR related positions, hrstaff offers companies serious about filling vacancies, a route to a wide range of Permanent and Interim positions from graduate and administrator through to senior-level managers and directors. http://www.hrstaff.co.uk/
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*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - PEOPLESOFT - ALAN WHITFORD*****
http://www.peoplesoft.co.uk
Hi Everyone,
We have been concentrating on the stand-alone recruitment back office solutions. For the corporate HR department, it may be possible to solve the automated recruitment need with your current HR System. As a word of warning, any recruiting application will be contained within the full HR system and not be available separately. Hence, the cost may be prohibitive if you are primarily trying to meet only your recruiting needs.
PeopleSoft has recently released its first end-to-end web based recruiting solution, integrated within the PeopleSoft 8 offering. PeopleSoft Recruiting Solutions includes a new product - Resume (American for CV) Processing-and three existing products with new features: * eRecruit * eRecruit Manager Desktop * Recruit Workforce, which is a module of PeopleSoft Human Resources
PeopleSoft eRecruit is a collaborative application that enables a paperless application process from start to finish by putting self-service in the hands of applicants and employees.
PeopleSoft eRecruit Manager Desktop streamlines the experience for hiring managers and recruiters. In one online location, managers and recruiters can search the talent pool, screen applicants, perform background checks, or manage online job postings across the Internet.
The Recruit Workforce module now enables you to merge two applicant records into one, making it easier to find talent within your internal pool.
PeopleSoft Resume Processing automatically extracts important data from a resume and enters it into the applicant tracking database. Because this process is automatic, based on accuracy thresholds, you can process hundreds of resumes without human intervention.
PeopleSoft eRecruit Features List Comprehensive Recruitment Functionality * Post job descriptions and requirements online. * Enable applicants to submit resumes online. * Keep all parties informed of application status and interviews. * Submit and confirm employee referrals, view awards, and view eligibility status via easy-to-use self-service transactions for employees and external applicants.
Self-Service * Enable applicants to create, review, and update resumes online. * Allow internal applicants to view information about job openings. * Collect interview results online.
Global Deployment * Tailor your text, date formatting, and data elements for employees in any global location. * Do business in any of nine languages, or use Unicode support to translate eRecruit into 200 additional languages.
eRecruit Manager Desktop Features List Self-Service for Managers and Recruiters * Create and edit job requisitions online. * Track and manage open requisitions from your desktop. * See which other jobs in your organisation applicants have applied for. * Schedule interviews and enter interview results online. * Search your internal talent pool for qualified candidates.
Recruitment Functionality for Managers and Recruiters * Search your entire applicant pool using multilingual keyword search capabilities driven by the Verity search engine. * Use workflow for routing, tracking, and approvals. * Work in multiple languages, currencies, and time zones for global recruitment. * Consolidate billing and track recruitment costs.
Tools for Hiring * Review all applicants for current requisitions. * View references for each candidate. * Prepare job offers. * Approve job offers prepared by other employees or managers. * View approval status of specific job offers. * Initiate pre-hire activities for applicants who have accepted job offers.
PeopleSoft Resume Processing Features * Process email, fax, and paper resumes without manual intervention. * Process resumes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. * Review resume data online using any web browser. * Process resumes written in international languages. * Process resumes from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Spain, and France. * Integrate with other PeopleSoft applications for an end-to-end recruiting solution. Faster Processing * Eliminate the wasted time and errors of manual processing. * Create applicant records automatically. * Automatically send email confirmation to applicants. Better Data Quality * Monitor the accuracy of each data extraction. * Set an accuracy threshold for data to enter your database. * Review and edit resumes that do not meet your threshold.
To contact Alan Whitford please call the Abtech Partnership on (0)1451 850811 or (0)797 1864620.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
BCL Recruit develop online recruitment solutions for the recruitment industry and human resource departments. BCL can supply complete solutions from backend databases to online job portal sites including a complete design service via our sister company BCL Nu-Media.
To receive further information or view our online demo contact Alex or Darin on 01635 581185 or visit our web sites at www.bcl-recruit.com and www.bcl-numedia.com
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*****ARTICLE - CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT - MAXIMISE YOUR PROFITABILITY, BY ERIC ROLLETT*****
Customer Relationship Management is fast becoming a powerful element of any company's overall strategy, to ensure both their future and success in today's challenging marketplace.
CRM quickly allows you to focus on the profitable development of the existing customers on your database and how to retain them, whilst filtering out the non-profitable customers; therefore giving you more time to focus on new business. Businesses are realising that all companies out there have different internal dynamics; it has now become essential to understand and work with these. The correct implementation strategy is essential to ensure the success of your business; workflow and general tasks attached to the various workflows need to monitor and automatically build performance indicators, per client, candidate and companies. From this profitability can then easily be measured and focused on in order to increase the bottom line.
Most companies in this day and age have an 'exit strategy'. How do we get there and how long will it take needs to be assessed and monitored at every step of the way to ensure that nothing jeopardises it.
With the advent of online databases, every recruitment company out there is able to see the same registered candidates. Exclusivity is very rare; with a large number of candidates compared to the small number of positions, success is going to the recruiters that can accurately and efficiently place the relevant candidates in front of the hiring manager before anyone else.
The strength of being able to filter out these candidates down to their previous positions, the companies they worked for and their skill-set is essential to give recruiters the leading edge in providing the right staff to the right companies. Recruiters need to be able to provide a personalised and knowledgeable service to their customers. It is essential that they know these companies business inside out. Customers today are demanding and price sensitive, the successful businesses out there are well prepared with the customer's current information as well as their history.
CRM solutions tend to ruffle feathers within organisations; they tend to expose the cracks but quickly allow you to repair them. It is no longer an option to have a CRM system in your organisation; it is imperative to ensure the very livelihood and future.
If you would like to find out more about CRM strategies and how it could benefit your business please contact Eric Rollett at Colonial Software on 0207 202 8456 or eric.rollett@colonialsoftware.com
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
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****DON'T MISS THIS****
TOP 100 ONLINE RECRUITMENT SITES A report of the Top 100 online recruitment sites, to be published 1st March by Online recruitment magazine, gives employers and recruiters an insight into the UK online recruitment market.
The report is based on questionnaires sent to online recruitment magazine's database of sites in the UK. An A-Z listing gives a useful guide to the sites. The report is based on the period December 2000 to December 2001. David Hurst, publisher, points out that the 36 page report will help recruiters to identify sites and those who use online recruitment will find the report a reference for background information as well as statistics. The report costs £30 and to receive a copy just email top100uk@onrec.com
SLEEPING GIANTS Sleeping Giants, launching at the beginning of March 2002, is a web enabled metasearch tool designed to address the problem of resourcing passive candidates on the internet. They are offering the first one hundred registrants on the site a 25% discount. Registrations are at www.sleeping-giants.co.uk/demonstration.html.
Sleeping Giants Interfaces to the UK's leading search engines and generates complex Boolean search strings to assist with finding and managing the candidates your competitors are not. You can search the Web, Virtual Communities and Newsgroups for CVs; X-Ray and Flip Search domains; auto preview CVs and export contact details; search companies for contact lists, employee directories and team members; search corporate career sites for job postings and extract every contact name, job title and contact detail listed on a corporate site. For further information see www.sleeping-giants.co.uk or call 0870 120 2205.
****WANT TO WRITE AN ARTICLE? ****
We welcome articles from subscribers to the newsletter. If you are interested in writing an article we've got some guidelines on the UK Recruiter web site at www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm. If you have an article you'd like to submit please email or telephone (01635 254881) us.
Welcome to issue 81 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.
*****CONTENTS*****
Reviewed Site (The Official Yearbook of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 2002) - CV Database Review (GisaJob) - Recruitment Technology (Benchmarking Recruitment Effectiveness) - Job Board Review (eFinancialCareers) - Article (Virtues of Building a Private Talent Pool, by Hank Stringer) - Article (Developing your key messages, by Richard Rawlings) - Don't Miss This (Updates to UK Recruiter - GTI Report on Graduates - TotalJobs.com Seminars - HotShot free trial) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=5703&More=N
This is The Official Yearbook of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 2002. It's an overview of the UK in text, figures, tables, maps and charts. The hardcopy version is £37.50, however, you can download the entire yearbook as a PDF file for free from the website.
The Yearbook is incredibly comprehensive. Subjects covered include: Britain and It's People, Government and Foreign Affairs, Social and Cultural Affairs, The Environment and Transport and Economic Affairs. The Economic Affairs section has analysis of different market sectors (eg, footwear, books and tobacco) and some great information on sales by different industry sectors year on year.
If you are ever in need of statistics relating to the UK or detailed information on a specific industry this yearbook could well provide all the necessary information.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
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*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - BY JAMES CHAPMAN OF BUSINESS RESEARCH SOLUTIONS*****
GisaJob - http://www.gisajob.com
Sectors: Generalist, Subdivided into 32 Sectors.
Target candidate level: Anyone and Everyone
Site Launched: May 1998
Number of CV's held: 72,000 with a Net growth of 19,000 CV's over the past 6 months
Other CV Facts:
* 53% IT * 7% Sales-Marketing * 5% Engineering * 5% Telecomms * The rest are split between the remaining 28 Sectors
60% of candidates are seeking Permanent employment, 40% want Contract work.
Site Marketing: * Widespread and imaginative. * Currently running campaigns in The Sunday Times and The Independent. * Have a pitch-side board at Birmingham City FC. * Will be running a campaign in Live 4 Now, a free magazine handed out at pubs and clubs UK wide. * All jobs go onto Yahoo * Their sister company is UK Banners, Britain's largest Banner Exchange, which they advertise extensively on. * Also advertise in specialist recruitment publications
How to Subscribe: Online only via www.gisajob.com
The service is supplied for anyone looking to recruit/hire staff.
Feedback after registering: Available via the site.
How is the database cleaned?: Candidates are frequently emailed to remind them to update their details and availability. CV's are never archived.
Costs: * Pink membership - Free subscription. £100 per hundred CV's * Bronze membership - £99 pcm. One CV credit for every job advertised * Silver membership - £199 pcm. One CV credit for every job advertised * Gold membership - £299 pcm. One CV credit for every job advertised * Further CV's are charged at £100 per two hundred i.e. half the cost of Pink membership.
The difference between Gold membership and the others is that you get CV's sent to you 24hours before the others, when you have set the site to send you candidates that meet specific criteria.
Who's in charge?: David Brown, a former IT Consultant. He sees Gisajob as being a good, mid level recruitment site. "We intend to focus on a UK audience, with no megalomaniacal plans for world domination"
Positives: Easy to use with well focussed results. All admin and communication with Gisajob can be done via the site. The CV forwarding service was very helpful and saved continuously returning to find new candidates.
Summary: If you want the full service it's going to be expensive relative to 70,000 CV's available, around £3,500 per year - assuming you don't have to pay for extra CV's. If you are prepared to wait and be a day behind the Gold members to receive forwarded candidate details then the costs can come down dramatically.
I liked the marketing approach in that they focus on hard copy advertising as well as online banners and job postings.
The issue I have with Gisajob was in dealing with the staff, which was to say the least, trying. I am not sure that dealing with them on a direct business basis would be any different.
Personally I really don't like their name. Gisajob, to me, implies a very downmarket site and service. I suspect they would have a larger candidate base growing at a faster rate if their name was different.
Overall marks out of ten: 6
Recommendation: It is free to trial for two weeks, so 100 free CV's can't be bad. If you like the site, find a couple of issues for them to deal with and see how they do.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
If you'd like to suggest a CV Database for review or have any comments on this feature please email
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Frustrated with your current recruitment advertising medium? * Would you like to bring your cost per placement down? * Would you like a new refreshing medium through which to obtain high quality candidates? * Would you like these high quality candidates arriving in your inbox each morning? If you answered YES to any of the above, then you need to get in contact with JobsProactive. We are the new career portal for 2002, offering a cost effective tailored solution to your recruitment needs.
Click to find out more http://www.jobsproactive.com/ukrec
Email info@jobsproactive.com with your details and we will put a tailor made package together for you to trial our site. ========================
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - BENCHMARKING RECRUITMENT EFFECTIVENESS - ALAN WHITFORD*****
Many of you may wonder why I spend so much time talking and writing about selecting and implementing tools that automate much of the recruitment process. Besides the obvious benefits of reducing administration and speeding the review and selection of candidates for interviews, a significant benefit is having in place a means of capturing and analysing key recruitment data. Being able to measure the effectiveness of recruitment processes in your company and ultimately to be able to benchmark against firms in your direct space or that recruit similar staff will give you a seat at the table of corporate management. If you can measure it, you can manage it.
Fortunately, I am not the only one who is 'preaching the gospel' of measuring and benchmarking recruitment effectiveness. David Bevan runs zebra managed recruitment services (www.zebramrs.com), a management consultancy that specialises in recruitment and resourcing. Between December 2001 and the end of January 2002, all the FTSE 250 companies and a selection of smaller organisations was invited to participate in a Benchmarking Recruitment Effectiveness Survey by filling out a questionnaire on the Zebra web site.
The following are the key points to arise from the survey:
58 organisations took part with responses covering 448,000 employees
38% of organisations produce no reports on recruitment activity whatsoever and are therefore unaccountable for the time and spend involved.
77% measure Cost per Hire (CPH) in some way The largest number favoured the Staffing/Cost Ratio 52% of those that measure CPH make no differential between discipline or role rendering the CPH figure relatively meaningless Easily measured hard costs were most usually tracked (e.g. agency fees) Measurement of soft costs (e.g. management time) was rare
66% measure Speed to Hire (STH) in some manner Most common start point was vacancy sign off Most common stop point was start date - potentially very misleading due to different notice periods or other factors which determine the actual start date. Very few track the whole process consistently making it very difficult to pinpoint bottlenecks This lack of tracking exposes organisations to potential legal challenge
58% have some Customer Satisfaction measurement Of these, 77% measure only 'overall satisfaction', again making it difficult to address specific issues Only 10% use Service Level Agreements (SLA)
Only 54% have some measure of Quality of Hire, potentially the most important metric of all The most common measurement was the appraisal process - unfortunately whilst this is entirely appropriate for specific organisations it does not help promote standardisation across industries Most analysis is made against people at the same level leaving no room for an assessment of speed of progress to that role Only 8% have any form of competitor benchmark Process measurements focuses on quantity (number of CVs) rather than quality (shortlist, initial CV rating against the job specification, hire ratios to CVs) Again lack of logging of critical process details leaves organisations potentially exposed in any legal action and indicates widespread non-compliance with Data Protection Act requirements.
To quote (selectively) from David's (dbevan@zebramrs.com) survey conclusions:
"This survey shows how unsophisticated organisations are in assessing process efficiency and value for money. If organisations really want their agencies to add value, for instance, they should lead by example by establishing clear guidelines for performance expectation and management. If organisations are not efficient or effective, how can they expect their suppliers to be efficient and effective on their behalf?"
"We do not believe that we are yet at a stage where we can establish UK-wide benchmarks. We had hoped this survey would identify three or four clear standards but this has not been the case. Even most favoured metrics failed to apply to over 50% of the response base."
"Zebra so far is a small voice crying in the wilderness! We hope that this significant survey will help to raise the issue of recruitment effectiveness up the agenda - both for HR and for organisations as a whole."
I concur. Get a system in, start measuring your processes and you will be able to join the decision makers in your business.
To contact Alan Whitford please call the Abtech Partnership on (0)1451 850811 or (0)797 1864620.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
hrstaff The UK's first website dedicated to advertising job opportunities within the HR field, and carrying ONLY HR related positions, hrstaff offers companies serious about filling vacancies, a route to a wide range of Permanent and Interim positions from graduate and administrator through to senior-level managers and directors. http://www.hrstaff.co.uk/
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*****JOB BOARD REVIEW - BY MATT ALDER OF TMP ADVERTISING*****
http://www.efinancialcareers.com
eFinancialCareers positions itself as Europe's largest vertical recruitment website for the Securities, Investment Banking and Fund Management industries. Rather than just being a stand alone job board, the site is fully integrated with eFinancialNews, a leading Internet financial news provider.
The site offers a wealth of content. As well as job listings and branded advertising opportunities there are a number of other features including news stories from eFinancial News, online polls and a lot of career related editorial content. Overall this range of content is a great resource for the site's users. However layout does create some problems. The home page is very crowded with some of the content coming a long way down the page. This potentially harms the user experience. On a more positive note the job search and advertising placements are well positioned to make it as easy as possible for the user to interact with them.
The jobs search engine is simple to use with quick and advanced search options making it easy for the user to find the jobs they are looking for. The lack of both an online application facility and the opportunity to register CVs is disappointing although the site does offer users the chance to set up a personal search engine to automatically find and store relevant jobs.
eFinancialCareers' key selling point is the way it markets itself. The site has worked hard to ensure maximum exposure for its advertisers, something that it achieves in two ways.
Firstly as well as generating repeat users and passive jobseekers via eFinancialNews the site has formed several strategic alliances with other leading industry news providers. All the jobs posted on the site are mirrored on Bloomberg's Career sites throughout Europe and the Wall Street Journal's Career sites ensuring wide spread exposure to a highly relevant target audience.
Secondly eFinancialCareers is unique in being the only UK job site that publishes a traditional 'hard copy' magazine in which all jobs from the website appear free of charge. The eFinancialCareers Magazine is circulated to 40,000 finance professionals and builds traffic for the web site by sending readers to eFinancialCareers.com to get details on how to apply for the jobs listed.
This approach has resulted in eFinancialCareers having over 100,000 registered users who generate over 600,000 page impressions per month. It has also helped eFinancialCareers to build a strong presence in the market. In the last year 120 recruitment companies and 100 businesses in the Investment Banking and Fund Management industries have paid to use the service.
In conclusion eFinancialCareers has created a strong position for itself in a vertical market where others have not been so successful. The site reaps the benefits of a sensible and logical approach. This will be very important as the site develops with the likelihood of more competition in this market in the future from both horizontal and vertical recruitment sites.
Matt Alder is Head of Interactive Media for the Advertising and Communications division of TMP Worldwide. He has been involved in online recruitment for nearly five years and his main area of expertise is online media strategy, planning and measurement technologies. You can contact TMP on 020 7406 5000 or visit http://www.tmpw.co.uk
*****ARTICLE - VIRTUES OF BUILDING A PRIVATE TALENT POOL BY HANK STRINGER*****
Great recruiters always have access to that special stack of CV's or Rolodex of top candidates for hard to fill positions. The prospective candidates that clearly have value to the organizations we represent and as recruiters we ensure that we maintain important relationships with this special pool of talent.
The Internet - Greater Scale and Reach
In our world of recruiting traditional sourcing channels limit our reach, are time consuming and costly. Today we rely on a public talent pool and hope the right candidate responds to today's posting. Many companies and organizations around the globe have proven they hire better quality, faster and at lower cost by constantly building and maintaining their own Private Talent Pools. The key to their success is building a pool of special private recruitment relationships by utilizing proven recruitment techniques through the Internet and Talent Management technology.
Passive Candidate Relationships = Quality
Companies and Recruitment firms world wide are building Private Talent Pools of high quality talent by establishing relationships with passive candidates at their website. They accomplish this by enticing individuals not really looking to make a career move at the time but interested in the organization, a chance to quickly (under 120 seconds) choose what they want to do and do so anonymously by using a public email address for correspondence. No name, phone number or address is necessary, a concept just the opposite of how most recruiters think. Yet organizations using this process the world over have consistently established very large private talent communities of which 60% of the prospective candidates choose not to leave a name or CV on their first visit. It's only later when an opportunity matches their career needs do they respond. One US company began building a Private Talent Community at their website and filled a software engineering position for their London studio within 15 days with a candidate who began a passive relationship with the talent pool saving time, money and ensuring that the next software release would stay on schedule.
Maintain the Relationships
As good recruiters we've maintained relationships with the really good talent in our pool with a holiday card or a phone call. This worked to a degree but could never scale to ensure we were managing a growing number of the right candidate relationships. Today companies are using email to send compelling and targeted digital marketing campaigns to segments of their private talent pools. They may not know who the candidate is by name but do know they are interested in certain messages. And with technology the companies are able to gauge specific coverage of a position type with the talent pool at all times. That is, the company knows at an instant and in real time how many people in the community are interested in financial or engineering positions. If they do not have sufficient candidate coverage they know how much marketing budget they need to spend in order to attract the right number of relationships to their talent pool.
Deliver Interested, Qualified and Available candidates.
At the end of the day recruiters deliver Interested, Qualified and Available candidates to the desktop of hiring managers. We source a set of candidates, qualify them, get their interest, present and hopefully close. One of the virtues of a private talent pool is the ability to automatically screen candidates at a first level. Typically we ask a series of questions in a first interview whether conducted over the phone, by email or in person to qualify the candidate to ensure we are on the right trail. Companies that have established large private talent pools also use technology to screen interested candidates by presenting qualifying questions as a part of the submission process. These are answered by the candidate and automatically scored, immediately sending the candidate a response telling them they are qualified or not for the position. Simultaneously those who are Interested, Qualified and Available are sent to the desktop of the recruiter and hiring authority. Companies using this process have reported returning calls to qualified candidates within minutes of submission. This is unique to the recruitment process, highly competitive, cost effective and from candidate reports very much appreciated.
Conclusion
In conclusion the Virtues of a Private Talent Pool are many. Specifically, a private talent pool increases candidate quality, cost per hire and time to productivity. Understanding the segments of the talent pool gives the company great leverage in decisions when talent is a part of the equation. Talent knowledge becomes strategic.
We have been in a competitive market for talent and by all world demographic accounts the competition for talent will increase. The need for companies and organizations to control, manage and optimize talent supply cost, quality and effectiveness will become greater. Technology continues to play an important role as it allows us to scale the important recruitment relationship we as recruiters have built our practices and careers on. We all must be challenged to understand and embrace new technology that can make us more productive and effective to the organizations we serve.
Last note: As Private Talent Pools become the norm the recruiter will become a more strategic and valued part of the organization. By eliminating administrative work technology enables the recruiter to spend more time on strategic planning and candidate delivery, two important issues facing companies when competing for talent.
Hank Stringer is Founder and President of Hire.com. Hire.com provide a software solution powered by the internet allowing organizations to build private talent pools. http://www.hire.com
=====ADVERTISEMENT===== BCL Recruit develop online recruitment solutions for the recruitment industry and human resource departments. BCL can supply complete solutions from backend databases to online job portal sites including a complete design service via our sister company BCL Nu-Media.
To receive further information or view our online demo contact Alex or Darin on 01635 581185 or visit our web sites at www.bcl-recruit.com and www.bcl-numedia.com ========================
*****ARTICLE - DEVELOPING YOUR KEY MESSAGES - RICHARD RAWLINGS*****
In my last article (issue #78), we looked at how recruiters can be pro-active in harnessing their reputation, particularly by securing effective media coverage. However, if any such coverage is to be meaningful, we need to consider what goes into our reputation and how we wish to have it communicated.
The local, regional and trade press are crammed with examples of companies trying to get their company name in the paper by using various "publicity stunts". Headlines such as "Recruiter gives £1000 to Children's Home" or "Recruiter walks backwards from Birmingham to Coventry" have the potential to carry key business messages to a target audience, but they usually end up providing exactly what the headline suggests and nothing more. They probably leave the reader thinking "how nice - but so what?"
We must remember that the only purpose to such a stunt (other than genuine charitable intentions which could otherwise be donated privately) is to secure publicity that has real gutsy relevance and significant meaning to our target audience. Otherwise it is an opportunity wasted.
If you want people to do business with you, there must be some motivation as to why they should do so, other than the fact that you supply candidates. Your competitors also supply candidates. You need to discover the true reasons why people enjoy doing business with you. In doing so you will unearth your core values and this will help you define a series of key messages.
It is these key messages that should be woven into any press release or publicity material, so that your company name is consistently associated with a certain business "personality"; one that is distinctive, meaningful, unique and relevant.
So before issuing anything to the press I suggest you get your team together in a quiet place, ideally away from the office, and try to identify the unique character of your business, which is likely to be as much a reflection of your staff as it is of yourself.
Putting money aside, ask yourselves the following questions: - Why was the business established? - Why don't I do something else? - Why would I do business with myself? - How would our clients describe us? - Why would they recommend us? - How would our candidates describe us? - What do we admire most in our competitors? - What do we like the least in our competitors? - In what ways are we a threat to our competitors? - How would I describe the qualities of my colleagues? - How would they describe me? - On what values is our company culture based? - What is really important long term?
From these discussions, produce a series of well-articulated and quotable key messages that portray the culture, ethos, personality, style, offering, values and nature of your business. These "sound bites" enhance the chances of verbatim coverage and can be used selectively during communication with the press. Any resulting coverage will then be anchored by phrases that are meaningful to your target audiences.
The next article in this series covers "How to write a Press Release" with a view to securing media coverage that contains your key messages.
Richard Rawlings is MD of Inside Out Communications, a PR consultancy that specialises in promoting the reputation of recruiters and allied organisations. He can be contacted on 01600 719 472 or 07773 770 319 or rrawlings@insideoutpr.co.uk.
****DON'T MISS THIS****
UPDATES TO UK RECRUITER (http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk) We've recently updated a lot of the listings of suppliers to the recruitment industry pages on the site (these are found from the right hand menu). Categories include: recruitment software, web design, recruitment to recruitment, recruitment research, advertising agencies and training. All of the companies within the supplier directory specialise in working within the recruitment industry. We've also updated the CV Database listing (a link to this can be found from the top menu on the home page of the site). There are 46 CV Databases listed with information on number of CVs, industries covered and contact details.
If you know of any companies that should be added to the UK Recruiter website - or would like to suggest a new category please drop me a note.
FREE TRIAL OF "EMAILSHOT"
SOFTWARE
HotLizard is offering a 14-day trial of HotShot, its email list manager and HTML
email creation software. The HotShot product allows you to create emails inhouse
that have the look and feel of professionally designed e-mailshots. You can use
the software to create newsletters, press releases, advertising messages or just
simple email messages. The free trial will allow you to test the software by
creating emails and you can send out up to 100 emails during the trial period.
For more information visit http://hotshot.hotlizard.net, telephone 01264 730300
or email joanna.leonard@hotlizard.net
TOTALJOBS.COM INTERNET RECRUITMENT SEMINARS - UK
WIDE - ONGOING DATES IN 2002
Totaljobs.com are hosting a series of Internet recruitment seminars throughout
the UK in 2002. They are free of charge for recruiters and feature industry
experts bringing delegates up to date on what is happening in the online
recruitment market. They are chaired by Alan Whitford (our recruitment
technologies writer). Despite being run in association with companies such as
Hot Lizard, Peopleclick and Computer Futures, the seminars are promoted as being
impartial, and have been widely praised by previous attendees for their
objectivity . You need to pre-register to attend the seminars. Further
information can be found at www.totaljobs.com/seminars/ or by emailing
totaljobs.seminars@totaljobs.com
GTI REPORT INTO GRADUATE RECRUITMENT
TRENDS
Employers are making selection procedures more rigorous so that only the most
suitable graduates apply for jobs, according to a new report, Graduate
recruitment trends, published by GTI, publishers of graduate careers
publications. The report catalogues statistics compiled over the last three
years from eight titles in GTI's TARGET by sector series. A total of nearly 500
companies took part in the research, representing 71 of the 2001 Times Top 100
graduate employers. A full copy of the survey, costing £50, is available from
Sarah Marsh on 01491 828 905 or sarah.marsh@gti.co.uk
As usual, any feedback on the newsletter and website suggestions are most welcome.
Welcome to issue 82 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.
*****CONTENTS*****
Reviewed Site (First Directory) - Job Board Review (Fish4Jobs) - CV Database
Review (Jobvertise.com) - Article (Recruiting in a tough market by Warren Kemp)
- Article (References by Bettina Bender) - Don't Miss This (Executive Grapevine
Spring Conference - Awo-l Events - Resource Forum - Recruitment Advertising
Pricing Trends Survey) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
First Directory is a UK Business Information and Business to Business directory. It covers over 25,000 UK companies listed by 20 different market sectors. You can browse by sector, products and services, company name, or search by keyword. However, annoyingly, you can't use the search option from the home page. You need to go to the industry sector and click on the link to "keyword search". The information you get on each company varies quite a lot, although it normally includes company name, address and a brief description. For some companies you can also view contact names, telephone, fax, email, Web address, and a more substantial description of the company and its products and services.
This is a nice comprehensive site as it is free
for companies to be listed. The only criticism would be that the search facility
could be a lot better.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
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If you answered YES to any of the above, then you need to get in contact with
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Click to find out more http://www.jobsproactive.com/ukrec
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========================
*****JOB BOARD REVIEW - BY MATT ALDER OF TMP ADVERTISING*****
http://www.fish4jobs.co.uk
Fish4jobs is one of the leading horizontal
recruitment sites in the UK and is jointly owned by a consortium of local
newspaper publishers. In the recent Onrec top 100 recruitment site report Fish4
was listed as having the most visitors per month and the third highest number of
monthly page impressions.
The site is very well laid out and the home page is simple and uncluttered. This
ensures the site offers a positive user experience. The job search engine is
simple and allows job seekers to quickly search by job title and location. In
some respects it is actually too simplistic and perhaps could be improved by
adding more optional filters earlier to help narrow the search down. There are
other options as part of the advanced search but it might be good to see more on
the home page. The site serves people who have a clear idea of where they want
to work geographically very well, offering searches via postcode and within a
set number of miles of a specific location.
Fish4jobs biggest strength lies in the nature of its ownership. A consortium of the following publishers funds the site: - Northcliff, Newsquest, Guardian Media Group, Trinity Mirror and Regional Independent Media. This gives Fish4jobs considerable marketing and content benefits.
Content wise Fish4jobs benefits in two areas. Firstly it takes a considerable number of job postings from its backers' local papers. While this does offer its users access to a large number of jobs, it does sometimes cause problems when jobs are lifted straight out of the press and not specifically written for the web. Secondly the site is part of an online classified advertising network that also includes sections for home and car buyers. While some might argue that this potentially diverts attention from the job site, it actually works to its advantage by offering exposure to a massive audience of potential passive jobseekers.
As far as marketing is concerned there are three main benefits that Fish4jobs derives from its ownership. Firstly it has a large national marketing budget that means it has been able to create a strong brand via prime time television advertising and other above the line activity. Secondly it has a content syndication and branding on the popular "This is" network of local portals, with all jobs being mirrored on the local site most appropriate to where the position is based. Thirdly Fish4jobs is heavily promoted each week in a whole host of local press up and down the country.
It is not surprising then that Fish4jobs has such impressive traffic figures. The site generates over 8 million page impression per month from over a million visits. Although it does carry a variety of vacancies at all levels, the majority jobs are from the C2DE demographic. This does very much reflect the job content you would find in a local newspaper.
Fish4jobs local positioning and C2DE demographic make it a very different proposition to the other main horizontal recruitment sites. Fish4jobs is very much a classified advertising portal and is attempting to do something very different to sites such as Monster, Total jobs and Gojobsite that are often mistakenly classed as its competitors. The site has grown to where it is today by playing to the strengths of its owners. With more national marketing planned shortly it is likely that the site will be even more successful in the coming months.
Matt Alder is Head of Interactive Media for the
Advertising and Communications division of TMP Worldwide. He has been involved
in online recruitment for nearly five years and his main area of expertise is
online media strategy, planning and measurement technologies. You can contact
TMP on 020 7406 5000 or visit http://www.tmpw.co.uk
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
£10 off - 1 WEEK ONLY...
Recruitmentjobz.com and PeopleMaps.co.uk are
delighted to offer all users £10.00 off - for ONE week ONLY - the cost of a
FULL PeopleMaps Personality Report.
To take advantage of this promotional offer
simply click on the link below.
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========================
*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - BY JAMES CHAPMAN OF
BUSINESS RESEARCH SOLUTIONS*****
http://www.jobvertise.com
Sectors: Generalist, Subdivided into 8 Sectors.
Target candidate level: Mid to High level professionals
Site Launched: Summer 1997
Number of CV's held: Around 60,000. These are mostly US based. There are currently 450 UK based candidates with a further 7,600 who want to work in the UK.
Other CV Facts:
* 80% are looking for Permanent work, the remainder for Contract work.
* 80% of CV's are IT based
* 10% Sales/Marketing
* 10% Other
Site Marketing: Built around free hosting of jobs ads for recruitment companies. The Jobvertise site acts as a central pool for all their clients jobs, thus everyone benefits from the total marketing of the individual recruiters sites.
How to Subscribe: Online form via the site gives immediate access. The service is supplied to anyone that cares to register.
Feedback after registering: Via the site or email.
How is the database cleaned?: CV's are not kept on the site for more than a year. Candidates generally update their details on a frequent basis.
Costs: Free
Who's in charge?: Sam Roseman an ex Software Development Project Manager. He set the site up at a time when he felt most jobsites offered as poor service to recruiters and it has grown from there.
Sam says 'Jobvertise provides most of the tools the "big" players provide, without any cost to the jobseeker or employer. We have the largest free resume database we are still growing on a monthly basis. With enough time and our current strategy I believe we can compete with the big players at a much lower price'
Positives:
* Well, it's free.
* Of the very small number of candidates they have in the UK there are some
highly desirable skills, certainly within IT. The process of registering takes a
matter of seconds and the search facility is fast and effective.
* There is a separate area on the site to search International CV's only.
Negatives:
* The site looks less slick and corporate
compared to larger established players, which may make some people think twice
about registering their CV
* With free, unchecked access to CV's there could easily be security issues. I
am assured that candidates have the ability to use the sites' anonymous email
service, which ensures their details stay as confidential as they want them to.
* The one major issue I had with the site is that there is no ability to filter
out candidates who are not eligible to work in the EEC, which would slow down
the research process significantly.
Summary:
On the surface it seems pointless reviewing a site with so few candidates in the UK and Europe.
From a technical point of view the site virtually runs itself and almost no telephone support is needed i.e. it doesn't matter that the people running it are in the USA.
The 60,000 CV's has grown from zero in a year, purely by word of mouth. Candidates are attracted to the site by pooling the marketing resources of recruitment companies' individual sites.
For the site to take off in the UK and Europe it only needs recruiters here to sign up and have their jobs hosted for free- the CV's will follow.
Overall marks out of ten: 8
Recommendation: Sign up and get free CV's. The
more people that sign up, the more CV's you will get.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site http://www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
If you'd like to suggest a CV Database for
review or have any comments on this feature please email
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
*****ARTICLE - RECRUITING IN A TOUGH MARKET BY WARREN KEMP*****
Part One: Fees
Ok, so times are tougher with fewer vacancies and fewer good candidates. Your job is to work with your existing clients and attract new ones by putting the best available candidates forward in as timely a fashion as possible offering excellent value for money.
What do you charge now? Let me word it differently. What do you try to charge and what do you actually charge? Lets say your standard fees are 20% . Add up all your placement values in the last 12 months and the total fees. Now work out your average fee as a percentage. Shocked? Surprised? Disappointed? Have you or your team too often negotiated fees downwards unnecessarily or are your standard fees too high anyway?
I ask these questions to prompt thought and then for you to take action where applicable. That action may mean a very simple enhancement or a larger project to uncover the optimum solution.
First then review your fees. In a recession should you reduce fees? Will that help or simply reduce turnover and profits? Once you reduce them on an ongoing basis for a client it's nigh on impossible to increase them for that same client later. Should you increase them now across the board and offer a Rolls-Royce service?
You have to be able to justify your fee - first to yourself, then to your clients.
* If you think your fees are too expensive for
the work you do - you're right!
** Either upgrade your service or reduce your fees.
** You can't sell what you don't believe in.
* If your fees are too cheap for the service you provide then downgrade your
service or up your price.
Companies don't have money to burn, yet throwing a small or large amount of money at something that doesn't work out is the same result -a waste of money. Clients will be delighted to pay whatever your fees are as long as they are excellent value for money and solve their issue.
When was the last time you checked out your competitor fees? Every 6 months is the minimum you should wait to review them. Don't just find out your competitors fee rates, try and gauge the level of service provided too. Speak to your clients and potential clients for this information. They will soon tell you what they think!
So in conclusion review your fees, justify them
to yourself and your team first and then sell your services with confidence. If
you want to succeed in a tough market that's not negotiable!
Warren Kemp is a management consultant and
trainer to the recruitment industry. For further information on products and
services available visit www.warrenkemp.com. Telephone free on 0800 0749289 or
email info@warrenkemp.com
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
BCL Recruit develop online recruitment solutions for the recruitment industry
and human resource departments. BCL can supply complete solutions from backend
databases to online job portal sites including a complete design service via our
sister company BCL Nu-Media.
To receive further information or view our
online demo contact Alex or Darin on 01635 581185 or visit our web sites at
www.bcl-recruit.com and www.bcl-numedia.com
========================
*****ARTICLE - REFERENCES - A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE, BY BETTINA BENDER*****
In the first of a series on legal issues in
recruitment, Bettina Bender looks at references.
Is there a legal duty to provide a reference?
References are part and parcel of the recruitment process and many job offers
are subject to satisfactory references. It therefore comes as a bit of a
surprise to many that there is no general legal duty to provide references.
Are there exceptions to the general rule?
Yes, there are exceptions. Particularly for senior executives, agreed references
are commonly negotiated on termination and form part of compromise (or
settlement) agreements. References agreed in this context can be either very
brief or particularly flowery and a recruiter who receives such a reference
would be well advised to make further discreet enquiries about the candidate's
employment history!
Another, quite specific, exception relates to an employee who has alleged sex
discrimination and then requests a reference after leaving employment. If the
employer refuses to provide a reference, this refusal can amount to
victimisation (which is a form of discrimination). This exception currently only
applies to sex discrimination. However, the expectation is that this type of
victimisation claim is likely to extend to other forms of discrimination, such
race or disability, in the future.
There are, of course, further examples of exceptions to the general rule and
reference requests should be considered on a case by case basis.
If a reference is provided, what should you
watch out for?
If a reference is provided, the person compiling the reference owes a duty of
care both to the employee as well as to any prospective new employer. A
reference should be true, accurate, fair and not misleading. It does not,
however, have to be comprehensive and a common sense approach should be taken as
to what is relevant. If an employee does not get a new job and is able to
establish this is the direct result of a negligent reference, they may be able
to bring a claim for lost earnings. Similarly, if an employee is employed on the
basis of a negligent reference and the new employer suffers a loss, for example
because they were not told the employee was dishonest, they may be able to bring
a claim.
Should an employer provide a reference?
For problem employees the generally safest option is not to provide a reference
(on the basis that no exceptions to the general rule apply). The other
alternative is to provide a purely factual reference, which only sets out
someone's job title and period of employment and says nothing in respect of
their performance. However, this could still be problematic if an employee has,
for example, stolen company property or been fraudulent in any way as there may
be an obligation to provide such information if a reference is given.
As with employment law generally, the legal
position on references is no longer as straightforward as it might be, which
unfortunately does not make the life of a recruiter any easier!
Bettina Bender is an employment lawyer at City
law firm, Fox Williams and is editor of Fox Williams' weekly online employment
law information service, www.hrlaw.co.uk. Bettina can be contacted at 0207 614
2633 or at bbender@foxwilliams.com
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
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http://www.hrstaff.co.uk/
=======================
****DON'T MISS THIS****
THE EXECUTIVE GRAPEVINE SPRING CONFERENCE - 18TH
APRIL 2002, LE MERIDIEN, PICCADILLY - LONDON
Whilst the conference "Adding Value in Executive Recruitment" is
almost fully booked there are a small number of spaces still available. The
conference is divided into four sessions; "becoming a strategic
advisor", "managing recruiting relationships",
"international executive recruitment" and "flexible resourcing
solutions". For more information about the sessions and for details of the
speakers visit the Executive Grapevine web site - http://www.askgrapevine.com/Conference/
or telephone 01727 844335
AWO-L NETWORKING EVENTS - 11TH APRIL, THE CIRCLE
CLUB - MANCHESTER AND 18TH APRIL, HARLEY'S, HIGH HOLBORN - LONDON.
The next Awo-l events are taking place in April 2002. Awo-l (All Working
On-line) is a regular networking event for online recruitment professionals. Awo-l
events combine a great night out with an opportunity to meet up with others in
the online recruitment industry. If you work within On-line recruitment and are
interested in joining Awo-l you can register on the site to be kept updated of
future events. To attend the Manchester event visit http://manchester.awo-l.com
and to attend the London event register at http://www.awo-l.com.
RESOURCE FORUM - 26TH APRIL 2002, THE INSTITUTE
OF DIRECTORS - LONDON
The purpose of these full day events is to provide a platform for industry
professionals to meet and discuss current industry issues. To secure your
invitation contact resource@LSMgroup.com or telephone 0800 072 0809.
RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING PRICING TRENDS SURVEY -
http://www.executivesontheweb.com/business/recruitment/recruitment_advertising_survey.cfm
Executivesontheweb.com (a website for executive positions of £50k+) recently
commissioned a survey of HR Directors & Managers to determine the level of
on-line recruitment advertising and it's perceived value. In summary the key
findings were:
* Almost 50% of organisations who responded to the survey, advertise recruitment
opportunities on-line. This represents an increase of 10% on last years survey
results.
* The average Internet advertising costs appears to be increasing with 40% of
the respondents paying between £100 and £500 per ad. The results of last
year's survey indicated the average price to be £51 - £100 per advertisement.
* Almost 50% of organisations who responded have an Internet advertising budget
for 2002.
The survey is available free of charge from the web site. For more information
contact cdm@executivesontheweb.com or call Cameron Mitchell on 01543 411454
Welcome to issue 83 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.
*****CONTENTS*****
Reviewed Site (Trade Association Forum Directory) - CV Database Review (JobsProactive) - Musings from the Frontier - Opinion (Is the War for Recruitment Talent Over? by Andy Mountney) - Recruitment Technology (Hire.com) - Article (Handling Objections by Gavin Ingham) - Don't Miss This (The Recruitment Society Annual Internet Meeting, Re-think Recruitment Seminar, CIPD Annual Recruitment Conference & E-HR Exchange) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
The Trade Association Forum Web site contains a searchable directory of around 700 UK trade associations. You can search the directory by the association name or by keywords. Unfortunately there is no browsable directory of associations by industry sector so that can make it quite difficult to ascertain if you have found all the associations within a particular field. Listings for the associations vary in depth of information. However, as standard they include a brief description, postal address, telephone and fax numbers, named main contacts, and a link to the association's Web site.
A great starting point if you trying to locate information on which associations service a particular industry or job function.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Do you want to improve the careers section of your company website?
TopJobs offers a flexible online solution that can be implemented immediately and has your website or intranet's look and feel. Corporate Recruiter enables your HR department to add jobs and career-related information within a few minutes, and then track applicant responses, without involving the IT or design department.
** TopJobs is a leading online recruiter. For more information visit http://www.topjobs.co.uk/advertise or telephone 01925 287800 **
========================
*****MUSINGS FROM THE FRONTIER - BY SIMON APPLETON OF PLANETRECRUIT*****
Regularly in the newsletter Simon Appleton CEO of PlanetRecruit, and a well known industry authority, will be looking at some of the current news items relevant to the world of recruitment.
Jobs.co.uk (http://www.jobs.co.uk/), the jobs portal seems well on the way to completing its acquisition of Halcyon Internet and E-Cruitnow. This brings together an interesting combination of competences that may introduce a new player into the online recruitment services market. Will they come up with a clever niche play to offer something useful to recruiters, or try to muscle into the already mature broad job board market? Worth keeping an eye on.
The veteran of that mature market, Robbie Cowling - Jobserve supremo has made the Sunday Times Rich List (http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/section/0,,1481,00.html) at number 333, thanks to a cool £100 million of wealth. Oddly, few consultants seem to be cracking the champagne open at this news.
Expect a flurry of confusion, non-compliance and website rebuilds by jobsites, agencies and employers as the first part of the new Employment Practices Data Protection Code (http://www.dataprotection.gov.uk/) has appeared. Just to be cruel, the code will be published in parts over the next few months, and includes such cliff hangers as: "A secure method of transmission should be provided if an employer provides an online application facility. The use of widely available encryption-based software could be used to do this." Doesn't that just make you shiver with anticip...ation?
If you've any news you think we should know about or have any comments on this feature please email
*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - BY JAMES CHAPMAN OF BUSINESS RESEARCH SOLUTIONS*****
http://www.jobsproactive.com
Sectors: Generalist, subdivided into 25 Sectors
Target candidate level: Any and All
Site Launched: December 2001
Number of CV's held: Around 8,000 of which 4,500 registered last month alone.
Other CV Facts: * 65% Looking for Permanent employment / 35% Looking for Contract work. * 60% Technology / Telco * 20% Sales and Marketing * 10% HR / Recruitment * 5% Graduates
Site Marketing: They retain the services of an online marketing firm who have mostly generated traffic to the site via Search Engine Marketing. Within the next two weeks they hope to announce a partnership agreement with a large IT Jobsite, thus giving access to a greater number of CV's.
How to Subscribe: Online only.
The service is supplied for Recruitment Agencies only at the moment, however they are currently talking with a number of Blue Chip companies about supplying the service direct.
Feedback after registering: All phone calls are welcome as well as emailed queries.
How is the database cleaned?: All CV's stay live for three months, at which point an email is sent to candidates asking them to update/re-submit their CV. If they do not update their details their CV becomes hidden from the main database.
Costs: £300 pcm for unlimited access to the site, the CV's and Job Postings.
Who's in charge?: David Tillyer is the founder and MD. Before setting up the site he had been a Recruiter for seven years and previously had a career in Sales and Marketing spanning ten years.
David set up the site with a view to providing Quality candidates at a reasonable price. Where he seeks to set the site apart from the larger competition is by offering, and continuing to offer, a personalised service whereby clients and candidates always have speedy access direct to the relevant staff, via phone or email. He says the site is still young and growing in 'Phase 1', and the aim of 'Phase 2' is to get the site into the Top 10 jobsites, with around 2.5% of market share.
Positives: The search criteria are simple and give highly targeted results. I liked the ability to email a range of candidates direct from the search results.
The 'CV Watch' is very useful for setting up automated CV forwarding of candidates fitting specific criteria, as they register, and any number of these can be set up and run concurrently.
Summary: It is important to realise that the site has only just got going four months ago.
Furthermore, their criteria for 'Live CV's' is based on registrations within the past three months as opposed to the standard six months or more used by many other sites. Therefore the amount of live data on their system may, by comparison, seem smaller however the data will be newer and more relevant.
I liked the site for its simple and straightforward approach and the promise of immediate access to the relevant staff when I needed it.
My overall concern was based on the pricing structure. Other sites offer exponentially more CV's to view for a similar price. The site aims to offer quality candidates, however I am not entirely convinced of their ability to attract only the highest calibre of candidates. Therefore as a recruiter I would want a good quantity of candidates that I could then pick the quality ones from.
As the site grows that argument will be less and less relevant, though bearing in mind that they need to fund the business whilst breaking into this crowded marketplace, it would have been nice to see some incentive to become a client with them now rather than later.
At the moment I would not see them as being my primary supplier of CV's, however they could be a very good second source.
Overall marks out of ten: 7
Recommendation: Take up their 30 day free trial offer - then, assuming they are not your primary supplier, decide whether the service is worth paying the added money for.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
If you'd like to suggest a CV Database for review or have any comments on this feature please email
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
hrstaff The UK's first website dedicated to advertising job opportunities within the HR field, and carrying ONLY HR related positions, hrstaff offers companies serious about filling vacancies, a route to a wide range of Permanent and Interim positions from graduate and administrator through to senior-level managers and directors. http://www.hrstaff.co.uk/
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*****OPINION - IS THE WAR FOR RECRUITMENT TALENT OVER? BY ANDY MOUNTNEY OF HEYWOOD ASSOCIATES*****
As 2002 sees the recruitment industry pushing ever closer to full recovery it faces a period of uncertainty in the way that it will grow again. 2001 began with recruiters fighting tooth and nail for those staff capable of helping them delivering the big accounts and high fee revenue. The slow up of the year though led to unprecedented caution and accusations that not only was there no longer a fight for talent but that much of it was being ignored in a cost cutting binge.
2001 appeared to be a disappointing year of regression with pay cuts for the business leaders as was evident from the Heywood Associates salary survey of 2001, disappointment on the stock market, redundancies across all sectors (much of it in response to the latter), and the value added ideas that were touted in 2000 disappearing from view. Recruitment appeared to be at a significant watershed in terms of proving itself as an industry to those outside, yet it was choosing to return to habits of old; infighting, low standards of service and that cowboy factor.
From the inside though it is possible to paint a considerably brighter picture. 2001 was a disappointing year but far from leading us headlong into a depression it has given the recruitment world the opportunity to get shipshape to evolve into the Solutions services providers that we claim we want to be. While the year may have been a shock to those low on experience it is nothing that has not happened before and it has allowed consultancies to remove dead wood in readiness for the bullish market of 2002.
Despite fears of seeing the fight for talent disappear in recruitment it has hotted up, a flick through the joining files of the HR department of any recruitment firm will show that the average age and experience of a new member of staff has gone up. The need for those who can deliver the best and win key accounts is there in abundance, as is the desire to bring on board those who can push those of less experience that bit further and show the potential that there is in this market.
If there are any doubters still out there on the topic it is perhaps worth noting that currently one of the leading IT recruiters supposedly in a trough is assembling a crack team of the best contracts consultants in the UK. Also that many medium and smaller businesses are still growing off the back of profits (yes they are out there) from the last two years, and in a recent article that picked six recruitment shares, including the likes of Harvey Nash, Robert Walters and recruitment industry incubator Staffing Ventures as his shares to watch this year on the AIM if a killing is to be made.
If you have the talent you are as much in demand as ever and now as the market picks up it is the time that this can be cashed in on best to ensure you reap the benefits of what will surely be an excellent 2002.
Andrew Mountney is manager of the Professional Services Practice for Heywood Associates the leading recruitment to recruitment consultancy. A copy of Heywood Associates Recruitment Salary Survey can be gained at http://www.heywoodassociates.com or by phoning on 020 7404 4884.
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PlanetRecruit - http://www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - BY ALAN WHITFORD*****
http://www.hire.com
Over the last few weeks, you have read my ramblings about measuring the effectiveness of your recruitment processes and how technology might help that. One of the guest authors in Issue 81 was Hank Stringer, the founder of Hire.com in the US. Hank pointed out the long term benefits of building a talent pool. Of course, if you are measuring your effectiveness in the recruitment process and benchmarking against the industry, you will ultimately have a better chance of success over the long term.
Hank's company has recently launched a new product set to ease the process of measurement of success for customers of the Hire.com solutions. I thought it might be useful for you to have a brief view of what an analytics package could do for your business.
Hire Analytics is a reporting and analytics package, which helps organisations map Human Resources (HR) activities to the business strategy.
The main components are: * Hire.Scorecards * Hire.Reports (Pre-defined reports, Ad Hoc reports) * Hire.Alerts
User Benefits * Reports accessible via a standard browser, without any plug-ins required. * Export capabilities to other report writers. * Dedicated reporting database servers for reduced load on production systems. * Rapid custom-report development per customer requirements. * Report streaming (Crystal Enterprise Page Turner) enhances scalability and reduces wait time for the end user. Content is delivered to the user as soon as it is processed without needing to wait until the entire document is complete. Other reporting solutions have no equivalent to report streaming. * Page On Demand enhances both performance and scalability using resources only when requested by the user. Content is delivered to users a page at a time. * (Example - when the user requests page 3999 in a 5000-page report, that page is accessed directly, and does not require the preceding 3998 pages to be downloaded to the client first compared to other vendors and simple HTML reports. * 0-client DHTML report viewing and modification for all reports. Crystal Enterprise users are able to view, interact with, and modify reports using 0-client interfaces. Other vendors require JAVA or ActiveX downloads to facilitate this. * Talent Scorecard reporting - By providing high-level scorecard metrics, the Hire.com solution allows for an overall view of the entire talent management process. This then allows Human Resources to drill down into the data when key indicators are met or exceed thresholds.
Hire.Scorecards are key indicators with alert technology, that allow the user to drill down into supporting data. Hire.Scorecards enables 3 important things: * View the status of organisational performance * Manage the organisation as an asset * Demonstrate your (HR Department) contribution to the company's financial success
Data is captured on: talent pool, web, EEOC, cost, time and geography
Talent Pool Track the size of the talent pool as it progresses over time. Measure your success in "passive" candidate capture - View the breakdown between candidates who include a resume and those who do not.
Web Monitor when candidates visit your career site.
EEOC Identify the ethnic distribution of your candidate population.
Cost View where expense challenges exist.
Time View where time challenges exist.
Geography Understand where your candidates live.
Reports Hire.Reports enables 3 important things: * Empower the organisation with information. * Easily create executive briefings and new reports. * Distribute the information in the right format.
Primary areas of reporting include: * Sourcing * Recruiting * Hiring: There are currently 40+ Hiring Center reports available.
Alerts Hire.Alerts enables 3 important things: * Identify performance issue automatically. * Monitor strategic business objectives. * Address issues immediately.
Example Alert Scenarios: * Time threshold exceeded * Time to Hire * Time to "IQA" * Expenses threshold exceeded * Cost per hire * Expenses by Recruiter * Candidate Coverage * Adequate Coverage (no emergency sourcing required) * Poor Coverage (emergency sourcing required) * Recruiter Workload * Recruiter/Candidate Ratio * Recruiter/Requisition Ratio * EEO / Compliance * Candidate diversity short-fall * Website Traffic * Website traffic short-fall
To contact Alan Whitford please call the Abtech Partnership on (0)1451 850811 or (0)797 1864620.
*****ARTICLE - HANDLING OBJECTIONS, BY GAVIN INGHAM*****
In the fast-moving, high technology markets of today there is more competition and less differentiation between products than there ever has been. For businesses it is paramount that time is used efficiently hence the initial resistance to sales approaches. This combined with many sales people's fear of the word "objection" results in an adversarial approach with the client making the process a negative experience for both.
Interestingly, only 5% of clients are totally happy with their existing products and about the same number are looking to buy. As many as 79% are not totally happy but will tell you that they have no need initially or will raise some other objection. You have to choose whether you are a sales person and intend to "sell" them or whether you are an order taker looking for the small number of clients who are looking to buy now.
Imagine yourself viewing life from your clients' shoes. Show empathy and understanding, and then ask questions to ensure that you understand the objections clearly before making any attempt to answer them.
Example..............
Client: "Your car is not fast enough?" Sales: "Thank you for telling me how you feel. So that I can check that I understand correctly please tell me what do you mean by fast?" Client: "Well something that accelerates away from problems quickly?" Sales: "Why is that important to you?" Client: "Because I do a lot of motorway driving and I don't want to get boxed in".
This sales person has now got information about what the client means by fast and what the real needs of the client are. He should continue to investigate as he has only just opened the door but he is on the right track. Unfortunately, the real scenario went like this,
Client: "Your car is not fast enough?" Sales: "It actually accelerates from 0-60 in 7 seconds and has a top speed of 130. This makes it the second fastest in its class and its £7,000 cheaper than the fastest. Can I interest you in a test drive?" Client: "Not today. I need to speak with my wife about the purchase before I go any further."
This sales person is none the wiser about the client's real needs. And before you say to yourself that you know this already - tape yourself on a few sales calls. My experience is that over 90% of sales people fall into this trap.
It's worth mentioning emotionally based objections because these are not real objections at all and can be virtually ignored. Questions such as, "Are you a sales person?" and, "Do I know you?". You should move on with the sales call not explain yourself e.g. "Are you a sales person?". Answer: "I called to introduce myself and my company .........." And move forward in the sales call.
Task: Write down every objection you ever get and think about how you currently deal with them. Ask yourself what questions you can ask the client in future to understand their real objections better. And remember, when you approach all objections from the perspective of understanding the client and not pushing your product you will sell more. Good luck.
Gavin Ingham works for Koach a sales coaching and training company serving business owners, entrepreneurs, sales professionals and dynamic teams in their desire to create more sales and stronger businesses. He can be contacted on 0870 011 7864 or www.koach.net.
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BCL Recruit develop online recruitment solutions for the recruitment industry and human resource departments. BCL can supply complete solutions from backend databases to online job portal sites including a complete design service via our sister company BCL Nu-Media.
To receive further information or view our online demo contact Alex or Darin on 01635 581185 or visit our web sites at www.bcl-recruit.com and www.bcl-numedia.com
========================
****DON'T MISS THIS****
THE RECRUITMENT SOCIETY ANNUAL INTERNET MEETING, 16TH APRIL 2002, LONDON
Jeremy Caplin (European Marketing Director of Monster.com) and David Taylor (e-entrepreneur, writer and broadcaster) will be giving their views on how the internet is fundamentally changing the relationship between the client and the recruitment company. For more information visit http://www.recruitmentsociety.org.uk/ or email admin@recruitmentsociety.org.uk
RE-THINK RECRUITMENT SEMINAR, 30TH APRIL 2002, INSTITUTE OF DIRECTORS, LONDON
JobPilot Intellicruit are holding a free recruitment seminar on the 30th April between 2pm and 6pm. The event is an opportunity to meet, learn and network with individuals in corporate and professional recruitment. The speakers are Lainey Hart (RMS Manager, Vodafone), Alan Whitford (Regular Contributor to ukrecruiter newsletter) and Peter Lowman (Group Managing Director, ESS Group). For more information contact kate.newell@jobpilot.co.uk or call her on 020 8614 7806. Information can also be found at http://www.intellicruit.net
CIPD ANNUAL RECRUITMENT CONFRERENCE, 21ST MAY 2002, LONDON
This year's conference programme includes: recruitment updates, case studies and master classes. Speakers include James Reed (Chief Executive of Reed Executive Plc), John Clarke (Recruitment Advertising Manager of the BBC), Dr Nicole Cunninghan-Snell (Occupational Psychologist for Shell International) and Jeff Grout (former MD of Robert Half International). For more information about the conference call 020 8263 3434, visit http://www.cipd.co.uk/recruitmentconference/ or email n.pierce@cipd.co.uk
E-HR EXCHANGE, 26TH- 27TH JUNE 2002, CAFE ROYAL, LONDON The E-HR
Exchange event brings together senior HR directors and recruiters to discuss the latest thinking regarding key issues within E-HR. Over 2 days, participants have the opportunity to focus on strategic and technical issues including e-recruitment, e-learning and employee empowerment. The events combines a workshop program with presentations from leading industry professionals and one to one business development meetings with specialist solution providers. Places to attend this event are limited. For further details on how you can get involved, contact Sara Dobias, Event Director on 0207 368 9556 or email sara.dobias@iqpc.co.uk
As usual, any feedback on the newsletter and website suggestions are most welcome.
Welcome to issue 84 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.
*****CONTENTS*****
Reviewed Site (Workthing Salary Checker) - CV Database Review (Recruitmate) - Musings from the Frontier (WAP Phone Tip) - Recruitment Technology (Technologies Survey) - Article (How to Write a Press Release, by Richard Rawlings) - Opinion (Online Networking, by Powermingle) - Don't Miss This (Recruitment Networking Event, World Leaders in Recruitment Conference) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.workthing.com/servlet/SalarySurveyInput
Workthing offer a Salary Checker search engine on their website. The information is provided in partnership with AC Neilsen who monitor job adverts appearing in the national, regional and trade press. The salaries are taken from adverts over the past 12 months - and they have more than 200,000 records in the salary checker at any one time.
To use the search you make selections from the drop down lists in the salary checker form. These fields are Job, Job Title, Industry and Location - you do not have to use all four fields if you want a broader set of results. Once you've made your selections you click on the 'Check my salary' button.
The results tell you how many records relate to the criteria you have selected and two salary figures are displayed - the average salary and highest recorded salary. The number of records that are found is very varied depending on the job function you are looking at. For example when searching on a Marketing Director in the Pharmaceutical industry in Berkshire only two records were found. However, when searching on a Sales Executive in the consumer goods industry in London 193 records were found.
This is a useful tool for getting a feel for salary levels across many different job functions and industries.
=====ADVERTISEMENT===== Frustrated with your current recruitment advertising medium? * Would you like to bring your cost per placement down? * Would you like a new refreshing medium through which to obtain high quality candidates? * Would you like these high quality candidates arriving in your inbox each morning? If you answered YES to any of the above, then you need to get in contact with JobsProactive. We are the new career portal for 2002, offering a cost effective tailored solution to your recruitment needs.
Click to find out more http://www.jobsproactive.com/ukrec
Email info@jobsproactive.com with your details and we will put a tailor made package together for you to trial our site.
========================
*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - BY JAMES CHAPMAN OF BUSINESS RESEARCH SOLUTIONS*****
What it is: A one-stop site for recruiters to find candidates for vacancies, and vacancies for candidates, using all the information openly available on the Internet.
Why this type of site: The idea behind the site is to service recruiters in Vacancy lead markets, where there are fewer jobs on the books, and in Candidate lead markets where there are too few people actively looking for a move.
The site enables you to find 'passive' candidates - people not actively looking for a job right now, but who may well be tempted to move if shown a better opportunity.
Also, the site seeks to enable recruiters to find vacancies for the candidates they have on their books.
In effect the site should allow a recruiter to start business from scratch by find vacancies together with the candidates to place.
How it works: In various forms and in various places, there are details on a huge number of people and jobs on the Internet. If you were a highly skilled user of the Internet you would be able to find this information, though it would probably take you a good deal of time to look everywhere online for it. Recruitmate makes it easier for you to find this information and simultaneously looks all over the net for it.
Target candidate level: Any level you are looking for.
Site Launched: April 2002
Number of CV's held: I am informed that there are approximately 250 million CV's or Personal Profiles openly available on the Internet, which can be found and viewed using Recruitmate. Furthermore, many of the billions of online pages contain names, job titles, employers, phone numbers, email addresses etc of people, all of which could be useful in finding the right candidates to approach for a vacancy.
How to Subscribe: Online via www.Recruitmate.com or phone 01342 825 176. The service is supplied for Recruitment Agencies only.
Feedback after registering: They have a project manager whose job it is to keep in touch with all clients and make sure they are happy with the service. Any problems can be discussed over the phone with a qualified member of their team.
Costs: £59 per month per user. Discounts start after purchase of ten or more user licences.
Who's in charge?: Daren Revell - Has 12 years experience in the recruitment industry, six of which have been in recruiter training. Over the past three years he started and built his own training company, Recruitment Concepts, into the second largest firm of its type in the UK.
Summary: The idea behind the site is excellent - who wouldn't want the ability to find little known candidates and vacancies? All the tools for developing and placing business are available on the site.
At this stage of the sites development you need to be quite committed to getting the information. Though Recruitmate seeks to simplify the difficult task of adequately searching the net, you still need to be quite imaginative about the way you use the search criteria and not afraid of making several attempts at finding the information you are looking for.
I had a crash course over the phone on how to use the service and still found it tricky to navigate. The good news is that all new users get a face-to-face training session at their place of work, and all the telephone support they want.
All the staff I spoke with, were knowledgeable about the product, happy to help no matter how ridiculous my questions were, and were committed to making sure I got the information I needed.
The site has only just been launched, but they have already got plans in place to make the site easier to use including interactive online training.
The management team came across as pro-active and imaginative, eager to develop close relationships with their clients and service them effectively.
Overall marks out of ten: 8
Recommendation: Go for the 3 day trial with free telephone training. My gut feeling is that you will be buying a full subscription within days of the trial ending.
We'll be reviewing SleepingGiants (http://www.sleeping-giants.co.uk), a similarly marketed product, in the next issue of the newsletter.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site http://www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
If you'd like to suggest a CV Database for review or have any comments on this feature please email
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Do you want to improve the careers section of your company website?
TopJobs offers a flexible online solution that can be implemented immediately and has your website or intranet's look and feel. Corporate Recruiter enables your HR department to add jobs and career-related information within a few minutes, and then track applicant responses, without involving the IT or design department.
** TopJobs is a leading online recruiter. For more information visit http://www.topjobs.co.uk/advertise or telephone 01925 287800 ** ========================
*****MUSINGS FROM THE FRONTIER - WAP PHONE TIP - BY SIMON APPLETON OF PLANETRECRUIT*****
Regularly in the newsletter Simon Appleton CEO of PlanetRecruit, and a well known industry authority, will be looking at some of the current news items relevant to the world of recruitment.
Well, all is quiet on the news front (to this observer at least). So instead, here are some brief thoughts on how your mobile phone can be even more indispensable.
If you have a wap-capable mobile, you may be wondering if there is *anything* useful out there for wap. Well, there is. How about checking your office email one-handedly from your mobile? Train, café, client site, you can quickly check your new mail.
Set yourself up with a Yahoo! Mail account at http://uk.mail.yahoo.com/, and configure 'options / check other mail' to check your office email (you may need your friendly techie to help here).
Once done, configure your wap phone as outlined at http://uk.mobile.yahoo.com/tutorials/ and you can check your office mail from your mobile (under options / menu / check other mail). If you have good thumb stamina, you can even reply. Very, very useful on the run, and a lot less hassle than laptop or organiser.
Huge tip: make your Yahoo! ID and password something you can easily type on your mobile key pad, preferably with only one press per letter, rather than anything meaningful. It makes logging in far less of a pain.
This is gradually being superseded by the newer handsets that include an email client and GPRS (always on, sensibly priced mobile internet access). The current must-have mobile for this is the sexy Ericsson T68. Colour screen, WAP, Email, GPRS and many other acronyms wrapped up in a nicely sized package. Recommended grudgingly, as I don't have one yet...
If you've any news you think we should know about or have any comments on this feature please email
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Wright Bradley Associates specialise in research projects exclusively for recruitment companies. We conduct in-depth telephone interviews with client organisations and candidates. From this information we produce comprehensive reports identifying client satisfaction, market share, performance in key areas and comparison to competition. Contact james@wbareport.co.uk or telephone 01707 897913 for more information.
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*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - TECHNOLOGIES SURVEY - ALAN WHITFORD*****
I realised today as I was doing some catching up that I had been remiss in reporting the results of our survey from Issue 79. My apologies. While analysing the results, I thought it might also be useful to provide a comparison from another surveying project that I am involved with at the moment. As many of you will know, I chair a series of Internet Recruitment Seminars for totaljobs.com. This year we have been out on the road to Cardiff, Bristol, Manchester, Glasgow and London (twice so far). As a pre-cursor to each event, attendees are asked to answer a few questions about their use of the internet in recruiting. This week, I will detail the findings of our own UKRecruiter Survey. In the next article, I will cover the totaljobs surveys and some more of my thoughts on what these indicators mean.
So, what have we been learning about the use of the Internet in Recruitment in the UK this year? (And, before all the professional researchers out there write in indignantly, I will state up front that this is informal research that may not be statistically relevant!)
Our survey for UKRecruiter was answered primarily by agencies. Almost all are using the web, have their own web site and use job boards. Most use a recruitment system (Agencies have led the way in use of this technology for 10 years), with the most popular systems being Filefinder, Voyager, Adapt and Personic. Well over half of those systems, though, are not web based. My guess would be that most of the agencies are involved in IT recruitment, based on the heavy use of jobserve, although the generalist sites such as gojobsite, totaljobs, jobtrack and Monster also featured. Of interest is that a number of respondees mentioned the use of the recruitment web sites of national magazines, newspapers and the vertical trade press.
A quick conclusion? Our readership is using the web to recruit, is mixing and matching between job boards and their own sites and use back office technology to manage their workflow. However, many are still using older client server systems to try and cope with web driven applications. Another conclusion is that for the smaller agencies (10 who responded have less than 10 employees), technology and the web can help to level the playing field.
UK RECRUITER SURVEY RESULTS Number of Respondents: 22
Number of Employees 0-10: 10 11-30L: 7 31-50: 2 50+: 2
Are you using the web for recruitment Yes: 20 No: 2
Does your company have its own website Yes: 20 No: 2
Do you use job boards to advertise vacancies Yes: 17 No: 4 N/A: 1
What type of recruiter are you Agency /consultant: 20 Corporate: 0 Job Board: 1 Research/consultancy: 1
Do you use a recruitment system Yes: 18 No: 2
Name of recruitment system FileFinder: 5 Adapt: 3 Voyager: 3 Personic/EZAccess: 2 Paloma Systems: 1 Recruit: 1 ITRIS 2000: 1 In-House Built: 1 Use Client's system, i.e. Resumix/Restrac: 1
Is it web based Yes: 7 No: 11
What are the main job boards that you use Gojobsite: 8 Jobserve: 7 Monster: 4 Totaljobs: 4 Jobtrack: 3 Reed Freecruitment: 2 Planet Recruit: 2 CW360: 2 Rexonline: 1 Sites Linked to national/Trade Press: 2 Castlelinks (cross posting site): 2
Selection of industry or geographic specialist sites such as: Irish jobs, Bostonworks, pharmiweb, pharmajob, inpharm, Expat network, NMJ,
To contact Alan Whitford please call the Abtech Partnership on (0)1451 850811 or (0)797 1864620.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Do you want to improve the careers section of your company website?
TopJobs offers a flexible online solution that can be implemented immediately and has your website or intranet's look and feel. Corporate Recruiter enables your HR department to add jobs and career-related information within a few minutes, and then track applicant responses, without involving the IT or design department.
** TopJobs is a leading online recruiter. For more information visit http://www.topjobs.co.uk/advertise or telephone 01925 287800 ** ========================
*****ARTICLE - HOW TO WRITE A PRESS RELEASE, BY RICHARD RAWLINGS*****
My last article focussed on how recruiters can be proactive in creating and managing their own reputation. We now look at how to communicate aspects of that reputation through the media. Whilst the most effective means to press is to have a one-to-one relationship with key editors, these take time to develop and the DIY PR practitioner will prefer to issue press releases to relevant publications.
But 95 - 98% of all material sent to the press is not used! So how should a press release be written in order to ensure a good chance of verbatim coverage?
* Ask yourself - "Is this of interest to the publication's readers?" You may be wild with excitement, but will anyone else? Does the publication usually print such stories or news items for other companies? Adapt what you write to complement the style of the intended publication. * Attract the editor's eye. Use a headline that states exactly what the release is all about. Eg: "Demand prompts Nursing Agency to open second Bristol Office". The editor is likely to make a decision on whether to publish or not based on this headline, even if he/she rewrites the content. * Keep it short and sharp. Probably about 200-250 words. * The first paragraph should be no more than about 50 words, contain all the who, what, when, where and why's and be a succinct summary of the release. It should be capable of standing alone if need be. The middle paragraphs should contain further details and perhaps a quote. Remember - editors tend to chop from the bottom up! * Keep each paragraph to about four lines in depth. In publishing, a paragraph is a unit of length, not of thought. Keep it short and simple about 20-25 words per sentence and only 2 or 3 sentences per paragraph. Don't use long words where alternative short words will do. Keep your sentences concise and avoid waffle. Always remember "Is this interesting to the reader?" * One-and-a-half line spacing is the norm for a clear press release and gives the editor somewhere to scribble notes. Ragged right hand margins are easier to read than justified. * Never, ever, try to sell! Your release will be binned. Editorial coverage is a subtle way of creating targeted awareness and establishes credibility. It is not an advert! Stick to facts, not gratuitous selling messages * Too much repetition of brand/company name will also make the release sound like an advert. They should not be mentioned more than five times in 250 words. * Always write as independent 3rd person in active voice. This makes it sound better, informative and less "salesy". * Don't underline anything or use italics, parentheses, bold type, etc.. Your use of words should communicate what is important without embellishment. * Use correct English with perfect spelling, grammar and syntax. (Please contact me for a list of 22 writing tips) * Date the release to give a sense of immediacy. * Put your contact details and a summary of what your business does at the end.
Richard Rawlings is MD of Inside Out Communications, a PR consultancy that specialises in promoting the reputation of recruiters and allied organisations. He can be contacted on 01600 719 472 or 07773 770 319 or rrawlings@insideoutpr.co.uk.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
*****ONLINE NETWORKING, BY POWERMINGLE*****
Flemming Madsen, Managing Director of Powermingle Ltd looks at an interesting new approach involving recruitment networking.
Most business models of online jobsites are based on the traditional perception of the job market, where an employer lists a vacancy and people then apply for the job.
This is an interesting fact since the majority of jobs are not filled in this manner, but via word of mouth, or - to use a modern phrase - via networking.
According to the material I have seen there are two undisputed findings: 1) The number of jobs that are filled via networking is larger than the number of jobs filled via the traditional approach and 2) The percentage of jobs filled via networking increases with increasing salary.
The most credible sources I have seen suggest than an average (Q1, 2001) of 36% of existing jobs in the UK were filled via networking vs. 30% filled via the traditional (on and offline) advertising channels. Some of the most recent statistic is from the Danish National Bureau of Statistics (Q3, 2001). It shows that only 25% of all jobs in that that quarter were filled via traditional (online and offline) advertising channels.
The above figures are average figures for all types of jobs with all kinds of different salaries. When it comes to the proportion of jobs filled via networking at different salaries, not many statistics are available, but Robert S. Gardella, Assistant Director of Alumni Career Services at Harvard Business School, estimates that the percentage of higher level jobs found through networking is greater than 70% and that an estimated 80% of Harvard Business School alumni find jobs through networking.
Why is it then that jobsites are focusing on the traditional part of the market when it is the smaller part? The obvious answer is that this is because the networking part of the market has, by its very nature, been too unstructured. Sure, you can arrange networking meetings, but such initiatives are not really scalable in the way the online jobsites (and their investors) like them.
You can solve this problem by teaming up with an online service that helps people advance their career by helping them extend their professional network. This way you can make your revenue even if they - as most do - find a job via their own network.
Powermingle provides an online matching service that helps people to a better and larger professional network. They offer online career sites partnership possibilities to help them exploit their pool of job seeking clients. Contact Flemming Madsen at fmadsen@powermingle.com for more information.
****DON'T MISS THIS****
Recruitment Networking Event, Thursday 30th May 2002 from 6.30pm at Harleys, High Holborn, London The first of a series of regular networking events for UK recruitment professionals takes place on the 30th May. The event is already fully subscribed - in fact it was booked up within days of me sending the initial invitation to you! However, if you'd like to put your name down on the reserve list or register an interest in future events please visit www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/network.htm.
The World Leaders in Recruitment Conference, 10th July, Hilton Hotel on Park Lane, London Now in it's 5th year, the overall theme to this years event will be 'benefiting from the upturn'. Speakers include David Gallagher (MD of PrimeTime), Julia Robertson (MD of Carlise Staffing Services) and Stephen Harvey (Director of People, Profit & Loyalty from Microsoft). In previous years over 250 recruitment professionals have attended each event. The day is built around the presentations with a three course lunch and post Conference drinks. For a registration form contact davidhead@dial.pipex.com or phone 01932 351144.
Welcome to issue 85 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.
*****CONTENTS*****
Reviewed Site (The AA - Accommodation Search) - CV Database Review (Sleeping Giants) - Article (Recruiting in a Tough Market, by Warren Kemp) - Recruitment Technology (Technologies Survey) - Article (Listen and Learn - The Importance of Customer Feedback, by James Wright) - Don't Miss This (Recruitment Networking Events, Free Guide to Choosing a Job Site) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.theaa.com/getaway/hotels/hotels_home.jsp
As well as the standard information on roads and breakdown insurance the AA site contains a directory of AA approved hotels and B&Bs. The directory contains around 8,000 places to stay.
To use the site you simply enter the location (town or city or postcode, etc) and/or the name of the hotel. You can also select the accommodation type (hotel, B&B or travel accommodation) and the AA quality rating (1 to 5 stars). At the next stage you will be asked to confirm the location if the database finds more than one match and to select any additional preferences including parking facilities and leisure activities available.
The results show the name of the hotel, number of stars and a hyperlink to additional information. This additional information gives the address a detailed description of the hotel and its facilities, prices and directions. You can also use the site to check availability and make a booking.
This is a great site if you need to locate a hotel at which to conduct an interview or want to book overnight accommodation for yourself, a client or a candidate.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
While you were wondering why the best candidates are so hard to find, someone, somewhere got a top job. Top people. Top companies. Only at TopJobs. The only online recruitment website to specialise in Management, Professional, Technical and Graduate sectors. And nothing else. Over 650,000 high-quality candidates are already registered with us, and more are joining every day. So instead of searching here, there and everywhere, look on http://www.topjobs.co.uk. Fully audited by ABCe and a founder member of the Association of Online Recruiters.
========================
*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - BY JAMES CHAPMAN OF BUSINESS RESEARCH SOLUTIONS*****
www.Sleeping-Giants.co.uk
What it is: A one-stop site for recruiters to find candidates for vacancies, and vacancies for candidates, using all the information openly available on the Internet.
Why this type of site: The idea behind the site is to service recruiters in Vacancy lead markets, where there are fewer jobs on the books, and in Candidate lead markets where there are too few people actively looking for a move.
The site enables you to find 'passive' candidates - people not actively looking for a job right now, but who may well be tempted to move if shown a better opportunity.
Also, the site seeks to enable recruiters to find vacancies for the candidates they have on their books.
In effect the site should allow a recruiter to start business from scratch by finding vacancies together with the candidates to place.
How it works: In numerous forms and in various places, there are details on a huge number of people and jobs on the Internet. If you were a highly skilled user of the Internet you would be able to find this information, though it would probably take you a good deal of time to look everywhere online for it.
The site makes it easier for you to find this information and simultaneously looks all over the net for it.
Target candidate level: Any level you are looking for.
Site Launched: May 2002
Number of CV's held: There are several hundred million CV's or Personal Profiles openly available on the Internet and many more pages containing details of names, job titles, employers, phone numbers, email addresses etc. Sleeping Giants, for now, focuses on finding details of UK based people, though they will be expanding the service to include more countries imminently.
How to Subscribe: Online via www.sleeping-giants.co.uk or phone 0870 120 2205
The service is supplied for Recruitment Agencies and 'Blue Chips' end recruiters.
Feedback after registering: Via the site or through dedicated account managers.
£330 for six months or £660 for 14 months. Further discounts are available to anyone purchasing more than 5 licences.
Who's in charge?: Matthew Dewstowe - started his career in Software Engineering before moving into Recruitment. He soon started his own firm which he successfully ran until launching Sleeping Giants this month.
Summary: It took me 20 minutes of being talked through the product and I was up and running.
The information fed back to me, whether looking for people or vacancies, was incredibly focused: almost every result returned, contained the information I was looking for. This is basically what sets the site apart from its competition.
The site is easy to navigate and the simple search criteria make it hard to go wrong.
For every search you make you have the option of saving it for later use. Soon you will be able to set up your saved searches to run daily, giving details of every new person or vacancy that comes online.
Also planned is the ability to save relevant links into folders you create on the site, the idea being that you can access the site from anywhere and carry on working from where you left off.
Although I felt comfortable using the site almost immediately, all new users have a telephone tutorial or face to face training to get them up to speed. There is also an interactive tutorial planned.
The site isn't overly feature rich but I feel that is its strength. The focus, ease of use and targeting of information returned are what is important and that is what it delivers.
Overall marks out of ten: 10
Recommendation: Trial it and buy it. Get it now and reap the rewards of the ongoing development that may well revolutionise the way you make money. It's the best and easiest to use site of its type that I have seen.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site http://www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
If you'd like to suggest a CV Database for review or have any comments on this feature please email
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Jobs-at.com- http://www.jobs-at.com
**Over 100,000 unique users per month can't be wrong!** Jobs-at.com - dedicated to ensuring that independent and smaller recruitment consultancies have access to a cost effective solution to advertising, processing and managing their vacancies online.
Come and see the Jobs-at powerboat racing around the UK this summer or watch us on Channel 4 later this year!
========================
*****ARTICLE - RECRUITING IN A TOUGH MARKET - BY WARREN KEMP*****
Part two: Variable and fixed costs
Whether times are getting tougher or not the only thing that keeps you in business is net (bottom line) profitability i.e. how much money is left in the bank after you have paid all your bills.
Cut out all unnecessary expenditure (for everyone and lead from the front). Check every expense claim and question something in every single one. It's amazing how those claims start to go down in value once word gets around that you are scrutinising them! Check dates against a calendar for those taxi, lunch and petrol receipts. Is it possible that someone's Sunday lunch with his or her partners till receipt 'fell' in with his or her client and candidate entertainment ones? Does your least productive consultant really travel that many miles on business? Is it possible that by leaving 20 minutes earlier for an appointment your team could take public transport across town instead of a taxi? It's not about being mean or penny pinching- it's about safeguarding peoples jobs for the future. If someone in your business has been made redundant recently or there's that prospect in the air now is it right that people should be even slightly 'carefree' with the company's profits?
Give someone the project of reviewing some of your standard costs e.g. stationery, equipment rental, electricity bills. Then get them to phone up these service providers and ask for a reduction. That's right - ask for a reduction. If say your printer is unwilling to review their charges then get three quotes from alternative suppliers and either ask again armed with these figures or change supplier. I have clients who in recent times have managed to obtain the following:
* 10% off Pitney Bowes franking machine rental for 12 months - by threatening to terminate the contract. * 30% reduction in printing costs with a current provider - by ordering future supplies less often and in larger quantities * 50% off printing costs -by changing supplier * 20% telephone call rate reduction- by utilising a discount call provider * 10% off stationery costs - by changing from Viking to a local company (its no longer same day but saves £500 a year minimum) * 12.5% reduction in electricity charges - by changing supplier * 30% off telephone call rates - by questioning tariffs with BT (and they got a £5,500 rebate!)* - give me a call and ask me how * 33.3% rent reduction on their offices for 3 months - by talking about having to reduce their serviced office space (£3500 saving)
My own 0800 freephone number costs me just £2.00 per month service charge compared with BT's £50 a month. The call charges (you pay for incoming calls with 0800 numbers) are 50% of BT's costs too. If you want to know who my supplier is give me a call.
Sit down for 10 minutes or so with your management accounts or profit and loss and list all the areas with potential for saving money. It might be the most profitable 10 minutes you have spent this week!
Warren Kemp is a management consultant and trainer to the recruitment industry. For further information on products and services available visit www.warrenkemp.com. Telephone free on 0800 0749289 or email info@warrenkemp.com
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
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With over 18000 visits per week we can provide a high profile web presence directing appropriate UK Jobseekers to your site.
Promote your site on Jobs1 from £60 per annum.
========================
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - ALAN WHITFORD*****
Hello everyone and welcome back from the Bank Holiday. I hope that most of you did not spend the few days off looking for a new job!
I mentioned in the last article that I chair a series of Internet Recruitment Seminars for totaljobs.com. This year we have been out on the road to Cardiff, Bristol, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and London (twice so far). As a pre-cursor to each event, attendees are asked to answer a few questions about their use of the internet in recruiting.
Of the approximately 350 attendees in the 7 events, about150 have returned questionnaires. What have we learned so far? (And, remember, this is not necessarily statistically accurate, but an indicator of trends from only those who have participated).
Most people who use job boards are still using them in a passive way. About 55% of respondees have advertised on a job board, while only 24% have used (searched) the CV databases.
Of the 80 who have used job boards, 5% thought the response was excellent, 43% good and 35% average. This still left 17% who thought response was poor.
43% of respondents thought the Internet made recruiting easier and 55% felt there was no difference. 4% thought recruitment was harder while 16% who responded were not yet using the Internet for recruitment.
Only 29% thought that their cost per hire had been reduced because of Internet recruiting, 28% said there was no change, while 44% didn't know at all. I find this statistic particularly disappointing, primarily because it emphasises how few people are measuring their recruitment processes.
When asked about how most of their vacancies were filled, the respondees voted most heavily for Newspaper ads (29%) and Recruitment Consultancies (27%). The internet has made substantial gains, to 12.6%, which ranks it equal to referrals. Interestingly, when asked the questions somewhat differently, i.e. What method has yielded the most hires in the last 3 months, Newspapers or the Internet, 69% said the print media, while 21% said the Internet. An additional 10% said they were equal.
For those companies using the Internet to recruit, 56% of hires came from job postings and 6% from CV Databases (totalling 62% for job boards), 36% from the company web site (this is a fantastic number) and only 2% from search engines. (As a counterpoint, some recent research in the US showed that 75% of US companies actively use search engines and 'flip search' technology to find candidates).
Sadly for those of us in the industry, only 10% of companies actually have a dedicated Internet recruiter. Having met the e-Recruitment Manager from a major pharmaceutical company at the last London seminar (and I will not embarrass her by revealing her name), I can only urge everyone to consider this approach. She is adding significant value to the HR and recruitment process, while getting to candidates faster than her competition.
33% said that they have a candidate management/applicant tracking system. I know this percentage is flawed (I ask people at each seminar to justify their answer by explaining what solution they have.) Most who answer (Other than recruitment agencies, who have had systems in place for years) are using the module from their HRIS, or more usually, a spreadsheet or database or contact management system. Of course, I am sure that as time goes on, more of you will actually be putting these systems in.
If you have any comments to make about this survey, please don't hesitate to e-mail me at: awhitford@compuserve.com.
I am including the complete questions and answers data below.
TOTALJOBS.COM INTERNET RECRUITMENT SEMINAR 2002 Combined Results - 7 May 2002
1. Have you advertised vacancies on a job board? Yes .....83 No .....66
2. Have you used the CV databases of job boards? Yes .....36 No .....114
3. How has response been from job boards? Excellent .....4 Good .....34 Average .....28 Poor .....14
4. Does your company plan on spending more or less on Internet recruiting this year? More ....92 Less .....12 Same .....33
5. How are you currently filling most vacancies/getting your best CVs? Internet Recruiting .....37 Referrals .....39 Newspaper advertisements .....85 Recruitment consultancies .....79 Careers fairs .....14 Job centres .....21 Other .....18
6. Has the Internet made recruiting easier or harder? Easier .....56 Harder .....4 Same .....55 Not currently using .....16
7. Does your company use a candidate management/applicant tracking system? Yes ..... 47 No ....94
8. What Internet recruiting method yields the most hires for your company? Job Postings .....63 CV Databases .....7 Company Website .....40 Search Engines and FlipSearch .....2
9. In the past 3 months, what has yielded more hires for your company, newspaper classifieds or Internet job postings? Newspaper .....83 Internet Job Postings .....25 Same .....12
10. Has Internet Recruiting reduced your company's cost per hire? Yes ..... 29 No .....30 Not Sure .....46
11. Do you have a recruiter within your company dedicated only to Internet recruiting? Yes .....15 No .....139
To contact Alan Whitford please call the Abtech Partnership on (0)1451 850811 or (0)797 1864620.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
*****ARTICLE - LISTEN AND LEARN - THE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER FEEDBACK - BY JAMES WRIGHT*****
A Recruitment Consultancy's success depends on how it delivers its promises. A new client can be won with words but existing clients are kept by providing a consistently good service. As the recruitment industry has become more competitive, excellent customer service has become even more important to retain clients.
A company that ignores or is unaware of its customers' experiences and its competitors is prone to losing their market share. So how do recruitment organisations ensure that their clients and candidates are receiving an excellent service every time that they interact?
The easiest way to achieve this is to ask your clients and candidates how you are performing. They are the only people who can give you an accurate idea of how your service compares with your competition. More importantly, as your customers, it is their opinions that count. It is therefore very important to elicit their views on a regular basis. The assessment and analysis of key performance indicators enables companies to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
Both recruitment consultancies and their clients benefit from such assessments. The service provider finds out what is going well, and more importantly what is going wrong. Strengths can be built on and specific problem areas can be improved. This information is invaluable for business development, staff training and investment decisions. The client also benefits, as the service they receive will improve not only from their suggestions but also the improvements made due to the suggestions of other clients. The cycle of assessment and improvement benefits all parties.
Clients can also provide valuable information regarding topics apart from performance and service issues. For example, by speaking to a broad section of clients it is possible to ascertain which competitors are gaining ground in the market place and why, predictions can be made as to the likely workload over the coming months or year, and the feasibility of proposed services can be assessed. A company armed with such information has a distinct advantage and can face the future with confidence and a greater knowledge of themselves, their clients and their competitors.
Wright-Bradley Associates specialise in providing such a service to recruitment consultancies. The process is simple but effective - independent interviewers extract valuable information from clients/candidates; this data is analysed and the resulting reports enable recruiters to identify how they are performing and how to improve. This is the most effective and efficient method of assessing company performance because a large number of surveys can be carried out quickly and the interviewees feel comfortable expressing candid views to an independent third party in a non-sales environment. This method also outperforms paper based satisfaction surveys in terms of level of response and quality of information.
Recruitment professionals have to deal with two sets of customers - clients and candidates. Hectic day-to-day business can be very challenging but it is paramount not to lose sight of the fact that in a service industry such as recruitment the customer is your business and you must not forget the importance of excellent service.
Wright Bradley Associates specialise in research projects exclusively for recruitment companies. Contact james@wbareport.co.uk or telephone 01707 897913 for more information.
****DON'T MISS THIS****
RECRUITMENT NETWORKING EVENT, 20TH JUNE AND 25TH JULY 2002 FROM 6.30PM, LONDON We've confirmed dates for the next two networking events for UK recruitment professionals. If you'd like information about the events visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/network.htm.
FREE GUIDE TO CHOOSING A JOB-SITE You can request a free guide to choosing a job-site from http://www.internet-recruitment.info/Free-Guide.htm. The guide is available as an adobe document and covers some of the questions to ask the job-sites when you are considering them as an advertising partner. It also covers some of the job-site features you should expect to see. All you need do it click on the email address and the guide will be emailed to you.
Welcome to issue 86 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.
*****CONTENTS*****
Reviewed Site (Ananova) - CV Database Review (Peoplebank) - Article (Interview Notes & Data Protection - Are Your Scribbles Safe? - Fox Williams) - Recruitment Technology (COOPER4U) - Opinion (The Global Recruiting Marketplace and the Importance of Preparedness, by Alison Clemente)- Don't Miss This (Recruitment and The Law Seminar) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
Ananova is a UK focussed news service website. It covers news, sport, entertainment, business news and weather reports. The site has a virtual newsreader (Ananova) who "presents" the main news headlines by video report. You can also sign up for news bulletins, by email or WAP, from a choice of more than 3,500 subjects. As part of the news alert service you can also sign up for met office weather warnings and news of travel problems on individual motorways, rail stations, rail services and/or the London Underground. Another interesting feature is the daily roundup of "what the papers say" giving an overview of the main stories in each of the UK nationals. The site has a useful search engine so you can look back at news stories or locate up to date news from non-UK sources. The search engine scours thousands of web sites around the world for relevant news and information.
This is a very comprehensive news site with a useful news bulletin service. It is well worth a good look around.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
While you were wondering why the best candidates are so hard to find, someone, somewhere got a top job. Top people. Top companies. Only at TopJobs. The only online recruitment website to specialise in Management, Professional, Technical and Graduate sectors. And nothing else. Over 650,000 high-quality candidates are already registered with us, and more are joining every day. So instead of searching here, there and everywhere, look on http://www.topjobs.co.uk. Fully audited by ABCe and a founder member of the Association of Online Recruiters.
========================
*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - BY JAMES CHAPMAN OF BUSINESS RESEARCH SOLUTIONS*****
http://www.Peoplebank.com (part of Workthing.com)
Sectors: Generalist, subdivided into 26 sectors
Target candidate level: ABC1 age 21-45 years old earning between £20k-£60k
Site Launched: 1995
Number of CV's held: c90,000. They are currently achieving an average net growth of 7,500 CV's per month.
Permanent/Contract split: Overwhelmingly Permanent candidates.
Main Sectors: - Management: 15% - Sales and Marketing: 14% - Clerical: 12% - Computer/IT: 8% The rest are split between the other 22 sectors.
Geographic split of candidates: Almost all candidates are UK based and evenly spread throughout the country.
Site Marketing: The site as a whole has been marketed on TV and Radio, though they are now pursuing an online marketing strategy. Only a third of their CV's come in via direct marketing, the rest come from their Blue Chip clients sites, which they host.
How to Subscribe: By Phone - 0870 036 3636
The service is supplied for Anyone.
Feedback after registering: Via dedicated Account Managers and email questionnaires.
How is the database cleaned?: CV's remain available to view for as long as a candidate wishes.
Costs: £1,500 for one months access or £4,800 for a years access.
Who built the site?: Bill Shipton. Bill was brought in by the founders of Peoplebank in 1995 to run and develop the site. After several changes of ownership, including a management buyout, Bill is now Commercial Director of Workthing.com who bought Peoplebank.com in November last year.
Where do they see the site positioned in the marketplace?: They believe Workthing is 'a leading provider of online vacancy advertising and CV database services' and see Peoplebank as being 'the UK's leading provider of hosted corporate recruitment sites with clients including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Nestlé.'
With the two entities now combined, they seek to 'Provide all recruiters of any size company with a complete online recruitment solution.'
Summary: The search criteria are extremely specific and I found them to be quite complex and time consuming to set up. The results returned were therefore highly targeted, so could lack a certain amount of latitude and therefore I was viewing less CV's than I would ideally have liked.
It was good to be able to save my searches, but it would have been even more helpful if the system would automatically send me the details of new candidates coming onto the database that matched my saved searches.
Two thirds of the CV's on the database are fed from clients like Tesco's, Sainsbury's and Nestle whom they host recruitment sites for. This seems an excellent way for them to build their database and benefit from the national recruitment advertising of these large companies.
The problem is that these CV's are only freely available on the database after 45 days, by which time candidates may well have found employment, Additionally there is the risk that you are only seeing weaker candidates who have yet to find jobs in the six weeks since they sent their CV.
The good thing about the way they get their CV's is that the database isn't overly reliant on IT candidates to make the numbers up. As some other Generalist sites have 40% to 60% of their CV stock in the technology sectors, Peoplebank stack up well with only 8%.
Peoplebank CV's do not contain candidate names, addresses, telephone numbers or current employers details. They only allow direct access to their candidates by anonymous email, or their Candidate Services department can chase candidates by phone on your behalf. With the site being open to all to view, this is understandable. As a recruiter I would feel more comfortable being able to discuss the merits of a job with a candidate over the phone myself.
Relative to the number of CV's on the system I found the price to be a little on the high side.
Overall marks out of ten: 6
Recommendation: If you are an internal recruiter for a large corporate, the site and the related service offerings would probably suit you down to the ground. As an Agency/Selection recruiter, it might be best to go for other larger and less expensive databases on the market.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site http://www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
If you'd like to suggest a CV Database for review or have any comments on this feature please email
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Jobs-at.com- http://www.jobs-at.com
**Over 100,000 unique users per month can't be wrong!** Jobs-at.com - dedicated to ensuring that independent and smaller recruitment consultancies have access to a cost effective solution to advertising, processing and managing their vacancies online.
Come and see the Jobs-at powerboat racing around the UK this summer or watch us on Channel 4 later this year! ========================
***** ARTICLE - INTERVIEW NOTES & DATA PROTECTION - ARE YOUR SCRIBBLES SAFE? BY FOX WILLIAMS****
Making notes is a valuable part of the job interview process but such notes are usually made for the benefit of the interviewer and not with a view to showing them to the candidate. Often they contain colourful expressions of opinion about the candidate that the interviewer would be reluctant to share with the candidate.
Data Protection Act 1998 ("the DPA") Employers and recruitment consultants are now reviewing their approach to interview notes, as a result of the Data Protection Act 1998 ("the DPA"). Under the DPA, candidates can ask to see any personal information being processed about them, whether held in electronic or manual form.
The DPA requires that employers comply with certain obligations - including 8 data protection principles - when processing information relating to employees and candidates. The DPA applies, in essence, to information that relates to an individual or from which he or she can be identified. As mentioned, such data can include expressions of opinion about individuals and any details about an employer's intention and comments about an individual. There are certain other related obligations in addition to the above.
Employment Practices Data Protection Code ("the Code") Part 1 of the Information Commissioner's Code was issued in March this year. It deals with recruitment and selection and provides recommendations as to how the legal requirements of the DPA can be satisfied.
The Code confirms that if an individual makes a request for access to interview notes, it must be granted unless the set of notes is so unstructured so as to fall outside the scope of the DPA. While the Code specifically states that it is not concerned with the conduct of interviews, it provides a benchmark in relation to the collection and retention of personal data at the interview stage. This specifies that employers should ensure that all personal data retained following an interview can be justified as relevant to, and necessary for, the recruitment process. Further, checklists for employers attached to the Code emphasise that interviewees have a right to request access to their interview notes. A recommendation is made that such notes should only be destroyed after a reasonable time, allowing the employer to protect itself from any potential claims from interviewees.
Should employers and recruiters change their practices regarding interview notes? A number of commentators have speculated that the best response to these disclosure obligations regarding interview notes is not to record anything at all. Prudent employers and recruiters are not however adopting this approach.
Instead they are limiting their comments and notes in the recruitment process to those that are relevant to the skills and experience of the person, rather than personal aspects of the individual candidate or employee. The existence of relevant documentation explaining the decision-making process and the reasons for refusing a candidate for employment can be invaluable in responding to allegations of discrimination. The absence of such documentation creates an information vacuum from which a tribunal hearing any such allegations may draw an adverse inference of discrimination by the organisation.
Louise Ferndandes is an employment lawyer at City law firm Fox Williams and can be contacted at lfernandes@foxwilliams.com
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Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - COOPER4U - ALAN WHITFORD*****
http://www.cooper4u.com
For those of you who, like Louise and I, managed to make it on, (and off) the Oriana, welcome back. For those who didn't make it, suffice it to say that it was very worthwhile event, although certainly exhausting! Many of the HR and Recruitment professionals that I spent time with were still concerned with the obvious, how to get the major corporates to utilise the internet and technology more effectively. And, for the agencies and vendors, the questions are similar. How to get the agencies to use more modern tools and how to integrate those tools with the corporate client systems and processes. In other words, the decision on how to best utilise internet technology in recruitment is still one of the most important ones a business can make today.
This week we are looking at a company that is trying to bridge the gap between providing an internet recruitment solution and the advice/consultancy that both agencies and corporates can use. Initially, its services are geared towards the SME recruiter, with ongoing development that will enable the corporate client to share a similar platform in the future.
COOPER4U is a Scottish based internet organisation created by professional recruiters for professional recruiters which supplies a range of internet based business tools for the recruitment industry. There are three distinct divisions within the organisation.
The COOPER4U internet platform (www.cooper4u.com) which creates and provides relationships and synergies with like minded recruiters working in the same and/or related industry sectors.
CooperConsult is the consultancy division that develops recruitment specific internet strategies and solutions for Recruitment Consultancies and Corporates. CooperConsult advises on all aspects of internet, intranet, and extranet strategy, from how to best structure a web site and audit its value, through to how to properly integrate internet technologies with existing back-end business processes.
Cooper4uNet (www.cooper4unet.com) is the division that advises on all aspects of internet design development and marketing. An ASP model for front and back end processes is currently under development and will offer a fully integrated web based system to run a recruitment business.
In addition to industry specific packages, Cooper4U supplies Advanced Web Solutions for the Professional Recruiter. Many of the modules reviewed are currently available, with others in the pipeline for delivery shortly.
* Creative Design of the recruitment web site platform The COOPER4U relationship platform philosophy is based on creating synergies and stimulating relationships with likeminded professional recruiters working in the same and/or related industries.
* The Packages The recruitment portfolio initially consists of three levels of web site packages which supply a company with all it needs to get started on the internet. Each package will be customised with company name, logo, details and company colours.
* Dynamic Vacancy Database and Email CV Establishes a dynamic searchable vacancy database enabling the company to add, amend and delete vacancies. Candidates conduct an advanced search for vacancies by selecting from a number of standard fields and can apply to single or multiple vacancies by emailing their CV.
* Search Candidate Database Registered clients have the ability to search the candidate details that are being held on the web site. Candidates must have given permission for their details to be searchable and the profiles presented to clients will be anonymous.
* PremierJobs Identify specific vacancies and have them highlighted at the top of the search results list and on a specific PremierJobs page.
* Client Registration A client registration database enables capture of key information about each client including valuable profiling information.
* Client 'Email a Vacancy' form The form provides the ability for internal or external clients to submit their vacancies in a format compatible with the database.
* Candidate Filtering Candidate filtering provides the facility to allocate key filtering criteria through the registration process to prioritise key job seekers.
* Candidates by Email Clients can register to have candidate details sent to them by email.
* Email Site to a Friend and Email Job to a Friend The recruitment site details and/or specific job details can be emailed by a visitor to one of their friends.
* Banner Advertising Maintenance Establish, manage and track the effectiveness of banner advertising through comprehensive statistics.
* Client Micro Site A client micro site is a cut-down version of a client's site available on your site. It may contain background information such as selection procedures and the current vacancies that are being handled for that client.
* Bulletin Board/Forum Stimulate discussion on the site with the addition of a bulletin board. Discussion items can be sub-divided into different categories and you have the facility to administer and moderate the bulletin board yourself.
* Newsfeed Integration Keep the site current and informative by having one of a selection of newsfeeds on your site.
To contact Alan Whitford please call the Abtech Partnership on (0)1451 850811 or (0)797 1864620.
***** OPINION - THE GLOBAL RECRUITING MARKETPLACE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF PREPAREDNESS BY ALISON CLEMENTE *****
In March 2001, the United States entered an economic recession that gradually spread its effect and impacted economies around the globe.
One year later, March 2002, Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the American Federal Reserve, the person who holds the reins on the controls of money and lending in the US, has declared the recession at an end. Specific economic data pertaining to gross domestic product, productivity and unemployment support this declaration. Infact the most conservative and knowledgeable analysts of the US economy are predicting, not just a turn-around but a sharp, dramatic upturn in most business sectors.
The American recession of this last year hit the American recruiting marketplace like a 'ton of bricks.' And the recession that had a high negative impact on recruiting to begin with, was capped by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11 - which advanced the deep freeze in recruiting even farther. The end result of this economic wall of fire of the past year - is that there are significantly fewer recruitment agencies in every territory around the world.
So, what conditions will the sudden global economic recovery bring with it?
First and foremost, the recovery will ignite hiring at companies of every variety. Manufacturing, real estate, travel, financial, technical - all companies which have been observing hiring freezes over the past 6 to 12 months, which now are near zero inventory and functioning at high productivity with bare-bones, pared staff. These companies will begin to build their staff ranks once again.
Second, because many of the companies which pared staff during the recession, began with their human resources personnel, the need for independent agencies will suddenly be at an all time high because companies need to hire, but their recruitment teams have been streamlined to near non-existence.
Third, and most importantly, the need for preparedness on the part of independent recruitment entities will be essential. Recruitment firms which have skilled consultants working for them, which are fully staffed with maximum well-trained, effective recruiters - these firms will gallop and achieve record productivity because they will be ready for the tidal wave of business which will come their way, not only from existing clients, but from clients whose previous recruiting firms have vanished from the landscape.
Worldwide, the challenge to all independent recruiting agencies, is to be ready. To have consultants recruiting for superstar candidates in each of a firm's specialties and to be marketing to ALL clients daily, their readiness to help them re-staff. Equally essential, is to spend a part of each day at this point in time, marketing for new clients because they are out there now in record numbers.
Firms that observe this mandate, to be prepared, will very likely achieve record-billing in 2002. To those firms, all success to you!
This article was written by Alison Byrne Clemente, MD of Anthony R. Byrne Productions Inc (http://www.pl2000.com).
****DON'T MISS THIS****
DISCOUNT ON "RECRUITMENT AND THE LAW" SEMINAR, 6TH JUNE 2002, LONDON Lawspeed is holding a half day seminar in London to provide recruiters with informative and practical advice on the key legal and commercial issues affecting every recruitment agency in the UK. Subjects to be covered include Risk Management, Employment Law and Agency Legislation. The seminar is normally £125 + vat per delegate, however, Lawspeed are offering the first 25 respondents from ukrecruiter newsletter readers a £25 discount off the price. To apply all you need do is email michaelb@lawspeed.com quoting "ukrec". Lawspeed are a specialist legal consultancy advising businesses operating in the recruitment industry - for more information on the seminar visit http://www.lawspeed.com/agencyseminar.htm or call 01273 236236.
HR FORUM, ORIANA - May 2003 - Early warning I had a great time on the Oriana a couple of weeks ago, along with 412 HR professionals, 218 exhibitors, 56 speakers (including Alan Whitford) and 21 other press attendees.
The HR Forum is a great opportunity for senior level HR decision makers to meet with industry suppliers, to enjoy a range of seminar and workshop sessions and to network with peers and colleagues. The overall feedback I had from the recruitment companies that were exhibiting this year was very positive - although all agreed that spending an intensive three nights and two days on the boat is very tiring!
So you might want to plan to attend next year's event. For more information visit http://www.hrforum.co.uk/
Welcome to issue 87 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.
*****CONTENTS*****
Reviewed Site (International Salary Calculator) - CV Database Reviews - Recruitment Technology (Infogistics) - Opinion (Photos on CVs by Gerald Wortman) - Don't Miss This (Charity Inter-Agency Football Match - Association of Graduate Recruiters Annual Conference - Results of NORAS released) - Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.homefair.com/homefair/calc/intsalcalc.html
The International Salary Calculator from Homefair.com allows you to compare the cost of living in over 700 cities around the world. To use the salary calculator you initially select the countries you are "moving from" and "moving to". At the next stage you enter your salary and select the specific cities within the two counties (or the one closest to your location). The results show that if you make x amount in your existing country you will need to made x amount in the one you are moving to. For example if you earn £30,000 in the UK then will you need to earn £40,000 in Japan to maintain the same standard of living. It is difficult to assess the reliability of the results given by the salary calculator but it would at least provide a useful guide.
This is an interesting site that could be used for ballpark figures on salary comparisons between countries.
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While you were wondering why the best candidates are so hard to find, someone, somewhere got a top job. Top people. Top companies. Only at TopJobs. The only online recruitment website to specialise in Management, Professional, Technical and Graduate sectors. And nothing else. Over 650,000 high-quality candidates are already registered with us, and more are joining every day. So instead of searching here, there and everywhere, look on http://www.topjobs.co.uk. Fully audited by ABCe and a founder member of the Association of Online Recruiters.
========================
*****CV DATABASE REVIEWS - BY JAMES CHAPMAN OF BUSINESS RESEARCH SOLUTIONS*****
Since James started writing for the newsletter back in October last year he has reviewed 10 CV Databases and 2 online sites that allow you to search the internet for passive job seekers. If you want to revisit any of these reviews they are available at www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/recnet.htm. We will continue to review CV Databases and would welcome your input on ones you'd like James to consider for review. We're also interested in reviewing associated technology.
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80,000 Targetted UK Jobseekers per month.
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========================
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - INFOGISTICS - ALAN WHITFORD*****
Hi everyone,
I hope you all enjoyed the Jubilee Weekend and are refreshed and raring to go with your Internet Recruitment strategy.
We have looked at a number of different recruitment solutions (with more to come). Most have one thing in common - simple text search as the means of matching candidates to jobs and vice versa. (The exception was Zynap).
How do we as recruiters (or line managers) actually 'sift' CVs and match them to job requirements? We scan the CV visually, highlighting key information - location, education, skills, employment history, current employer, salary and other specialist information that may be relevant to our company and jobs. Visually we might weight a certain skill higher if it occurs in actual recent work experience as opposed to being in a course or even out of date. We then make the "yes, no, maybe" decision and 'file' the CV in the appropriate channel for action.
What does simple text search mean in practice? We try and create a search string that will replicate the above process. This can be complicated, as there are a number of variables. Typically, the search, if too loosely defined, brings back too many candidates and if too tightly defined, too few responses. Why does this happen?
A simple keyword matching technology allows you to identify only things that are stored in a list of known keywords. An advancement has been the addition of pattern matching technology where the system can recognize things stored in the lists allowing for some variations. (Many vendors tried to sell this as 'fuzzy logic')
Another challenge is that different contexts impose different meanings to words and phrases. For instance, "Project Manager" is a potential skill for a candidate but in the sentence "I was reporting to the Project Manager", it is not. Birmingham may be where the candidate resides, where the place of work is or where the degree was earned.
A further complication is that the terminology used in the job requisition may not actually match the language usage that the candidate is more comfortable with. If you run an ad for a Bin Man or Refuse Collector and I call myself a Sanitation Engineer, the simple text search will not provide a match.
Hence, there are two key issues not addressed by this technology: * How to construct concise, accurate and uniform profiles from CVs and job advertisements automatically * How to find relevant candidates/vacancies whose profiles are not directly matched by a particular search criteria or saved search string.
So, what to do? There have been a number of attempts to utilise Artificial Intelligence to address this issue. Resumix was the first and most successful. Zynap is getting there. The newest player in this market is Infogistics Limited, a leading provider of text-analysis solutions across multiple markets including HR, law enforcement, knowledge management and CRM. It is an Edinburgh-based company, launched in July 2000 as a spin-off from the University of Edinburgh and founded by internationally recognized experts in the fields of text-mining and document retrieval.
Infogistics has launched a set of intelligent HR tools for extracting information from the CV (CVXtractor - automatic profile extraction engine) and searching candidate databases, either your own or external sites. (RealTerm - candidate search and browsing engine). The major benefits of Infogistics' intelligent HR tools are: * Unique integrated search and browsing functionality that enables flexible mix-and-match strategy in linking candidates to vacancies * Real-time automatic population of candidate and vacancy databases from multiple on-line sources * Labor and time savings on candidate and vacancy profile construction * Guaranteed consistency between profiles created by different recruiters or candidates
CVXtractor imitates the way humans read and understand: it analyses the linguistics structure of a text passage and applies context-driven reasoning to figure out what different words mean in a particular context and how they can be grouped together. It can identify work experience facts including time period, employer and position held. Similarly it can identify education and qualification facts including degree/qualification, school and the date achieved. And, of course, it can identify industry specific skills to a high degree of accuracy. Infogistics also supplies a very efficient post-editing interface, which shows the extracted facts and the exact locations in the CV where they were found. CVXtractor, has demonstrably speeded up profile construction by up to 10 times over standard manual methods. (see the end of the article for the "How does it do this?" detailed explanation)
RealTerm is a topic identification and clustering technology. It analyses results returned by a search, organizes these results into a hierarchy of topics and presents them to you for browsing and exploring. RealTerm enables a highly intuitive candidate-vacancy matching process. Like a traditional search, RealTerm lets you formulate a query and submit it to the system. It then retrieves candidate profiles with the required skills and qualifications and ranks them according to how many of the target criteria have matched information in the profiles. Unique to RealTerm, a list of secondary skills, qualifications and preferred locations is also presented to the user. Using this additional information the user can quickly and intuitively browse through the set of returned candidates' profiles and populate the target hot list in a matter of seconds.
The Infogistics software can be integrated easily into existing workflow systems, adapted to most of the existing candidate management and HRIS systems or be used on an ad hoc basis to search external databases.
Xtractor - automatic profile extraction engine Infogistics technology is based on recent advances in Artificial Intelligence and Computational Linguistics. First it partitions a resume into zones including personal information, overall summary, employment history, and education background. Then it treats information extracted from these different zones differently: a programming language mentioned in the employment history is a much stronger skill than one mentioned in the education background, a town mentioned in the address of a previous employer is not necessarily the location where the candidate resides or seeks a job. Extracted qualities are then normalized to their main forms. For instance, the word "Novell" is normalized to "Novell Netware" if it stands for a software product or "Novell Inc." if it stands for the company itself.
To contact Alan Whitford please call the Abtech Partnership on (0)1451 850811 or (0)797 1864620.
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Come and see the Jobs-at powerboat racing around the UK this summer or watch us on Channel 4 later this year!
========================
*****OPINION - PHOTOS ON CVS? - BY GERALD WORTMAN*****
Photographic portraits inserted on CV's are widely used in Paris and New York. I have been able to appreciate firsthand how effective it can be and how it supports the written words. Many major companies now expect this visual aid.
We are all used to portraits of journalists with their column in newspapers or magazines and employees in newsletters, brochures, annual reports etc. Stores and banks, for instance, display portraits of their M D's, managers and personnel. This has proved very successful with the general public.
Why hesitate to incorporate a photographic portrait on a CV? There is this feeling that a portrait detracts from the applicant's qualifications and puts them at a disadvantage. I can understand this if the "Passport Photograph" approach is used and the portrait is taken by the recruitment agency as the candidate arrives off the street, wet if it is raining, often after an exhausting train/car journey. Before they have time to relax they are placed on a chair in front of a Polaroid or digital camera, with a lens that distorts.
But a professional photographer can capture the personality and character of the individual. Everyone is photogenic - our face is a map of our lives and there is no need for glamour, in the Hollywood sense of the term. The photographer can discuss which clothes the individual should wear and ensure they are comfortable and relaxed so they will project their true personality, qualities and abilities. A good photograph is worth a thousand words. Every opportunity to impress future employers (or clients) should be taken by the agency and the candidate.
To provide an added incentive to candidates the "original" of the photo should become their property so that it can be used for in-house newsletters, company brochures etc.
Gerald Wortman provides a Photographic Portrait service and can be contacted on +44 (0) 20 8995 6056 or by email HeadstartCV@aol.com
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PlanetRecruit - http://www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
****DON'T MISS THIS****
CHARITY INTER-AGENCY FOOTBALL MATCH, MONDAY 15TH JULY, CENTRAL LONDON In the spirit of the forthcoming World Cup, TheSkillsMarket are holding an inter-agency 5-a-side football tournament in aid of the NSPCC on Monday 15th July. IT recruitment companies are invited to submit a team to play for the prestigious 2002 Recruitment Cup. It costs £200 per team and the money will be donated to the NSPCC. The tournament will be held at the Market Sports Centre in Liverpool Street and it will run from 6-8pm. If you're interested in entering a team, contact Guy Ruben on either 020 7354 9669 or football@theskillsmarket.com
ASSOCIATION OF GRADUATE RECRUITERS ANNUAL CONFERENCE, 15-16 JULY 2002, CELTIC MANOR RESORT, NEWPORT, SOUTH WALES This year's conference programme will be the largest and busiest conference AGR has ever staged with 15 workshops, 4 seminars and 2 keynote addresses. It will include a personal perspective on change management from Tracy Edwards MBE, professional sailor and Marcus Powell, Head of HR Strategy and Change, Marks & Spencer. The conference will also be the main launch pad for the 2002 'Graduates in the Eyes of Employers' research. Entertainment will be supplied by Spandau Ballet's - Tony Hadley and his band. For more information about the conference call 01926 623236 or visit http://conference.agr.org.uk or email info@agr.org.uk
RESULTS OF NORAS RELEASED Enhance Media have released the results of the first wave of the National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS). NORAS provides advertisers with demographic profiles and audited unique user numbers of eight of the UK's leading online recruitment sites; Fish4Jobs, GoJobsite, PeopleBank, Top Jobs, Total Jobs, Workthing, Anderselite and Jobs AC. In addition to providing details of the distinct audiences of the eight sites surveyed, NORAS gives an insight into the characteristics of online job seekers. For example NORAS shows that the average online job seeker is aged 32.2 years and on average has had 10.5 years of work experience since leaving full time education. They last started a job for a new employer 3.9 years ago and will visit an average of 4.7 online recruitment sites when looking for a job online. The NORAS results, which feature details on all of the eight sites are available free by visiting http://www.enhancemedia.co.uk/noras.html
Welcome to issue 88 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.
CONTENTS
* Reviewed Site (UK Recruiter Discussion
Forum)
* Job Board Review (GoJobsite by Alex Hens)
* Online Review (exec-appointments by James Chapman)
* Article (Are you pregnant or just fat - questions to avoid at interview, by
Fox Williams)
* Recruitment Technology (Improving Time to Hire and Cost Per Hire: Can it be
done? by Alan Whitford)
* Opinion (Rate Negotiation by Mike Walmsley)
* Don't Miss This (Recruitment Confidence Index Summer Survey, Cheap Books
Offer, Discount on "Recruitment and the Law" seminar, Complimentary
two hour training sessions, seminar notes from employment law update) *
Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl
Now some of you may say it's cheating to review part of our own web site: UK Recruiter's Discussion Forum. However, I think it's going to be a really useful tool for all newsletter subscribers and I wanted to make sure you all know about it. Its purpose is 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. Current topics are on the site are salary surveys and interactive voice recognition software for screening applicants.
We are only just launching it this week (after a great design job and lots of hard work by www.divisionx.com). I hope that you'll all help to make it a useful and interesting discussion board for the UK recruitment market.
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While you were wondering why the best candidates are so hard to find, someone, somewhere got a top job. Top people. Top companies. Only at TopJobs. The only online recruitment website to specialise in Management, Professional, Technical and Graduate sectors. And nothing else. Over 650,000 high-quality candidates are already registered with us, and more are joining every day. So instead of searching here, there and everywhere, look on http://www.topjobs.co.uk. Fully audited by ABCe and a founder member of the Association of Online Recruiters.
========================
*****JOB BOARD REVIEW - BY ALEX HENS, 33*****
http://www.GoJobsite.co.uk
Key Stats - Unique Users: 576,006 (April '02 - NORAS/ABCe) - Page Impressions: 11,601,080 (May '02) - Vacancies advertised on site: 57,220 - Best Sector (by Jobs-by-Email subscribers): IT (208,466) - 2nd Sector (by Jobs-by-Email subscribers): Engineering (87,245) - Best Sector (by applications): IT (205,419) - 2nd Best (by applications): Engineering (36,657)
What the site says "GoJobsite is the UK's leading internet recruitment service. We set up in 1995 and were the UK's first multi-sector online recruitment site. This allows us to offer our clients an unrivalled level of experience in recruiting on the Internet. What makes GoJobsite very different from our competitors is our focus on highly-targeted, highly-effective online marketing to attract the right candidates to your vacancies."
First Impressions Effective and functional. The front page that greets you leaves you in no doubt of what the site does and what it offers, with the option of diving straight in with a powerful Key Word search across the site ('QuickSearch'), establish your own profile on the site ('MyGoJobsite') or carry out a more in-depth interrogation of the 35 specific industry sectors ('PowerSearch').
Delivery of results GoJobsite undertakes to deliver candidates only the most recent advertised positions, obviously confident enough in their number of advertisers to only offer candidates vacancies advertised (or certainly actively refreshed) within the last 7 days. There's also a costing mechanism that provides the candidate with a clear distinction between direct client vacancies and consultant vacancies - with Consultants having the option to buy high volume low cost lineage adverts whilst other advertisers can choose between Display or Semi-Display formats, which are marked differently and delivered higher on the results pages. From the perspective of a candidate I would think this could only help.
Tools on offer The site offers everything you would expect, from standard to embellished ads through to corporate pages, email alert sponsorship and access to their CV database as well as Application Management Software and the option to use things like psychometric tests. For incredibly hard to source positions they also offer something called GoCampaign where they will use their online expertise to work with and on the clients behalf to deliver targeted visits to a dedicated address, targeting both active and passive job seekers. What makes this a pretty unique proposition is that they invoice per visit - accountable web-sites, what on earth will they think of next? :o)
The try at home trial Couldn't really fault it. 56k or not, the initial download was quick and results came through without any real delay - fast enough to keep even the most impatient low bandwidth job seeker on the site long enough to find something worth applying to.
Strengths & Weaknesses GoJobsite have really concentrated on their 'it does what it says on the tin', no nonsense approach - and I think it works. Since conception their energies have gone into providing a powerful and robust back end system that is focussed around delivering candidates a slick database of relevant jobs, as opposed to trying to become all things to all people. And to be honest, their hat-full of industry awards and impressive success as a solid business model can be attributed to this. Their focus on online marketing has also stood them in good stead - let's face it, the stats speak for themselves when you consider that GoJobsite was the first of its peers to receive consistent traffic of over 1milllion unique users. However, lately some of the competition seems to have been getting wise to their online techniques and it looks as if the gap is definitely closing - if not, in some cases, already closed. As the Internet job seekers and browsers mature and become more specific in their use of the Internet, as well as more au-fait with connecting offline advertising to online products, then will 100% online marketing be enough to generate the sort of traffic and brand recognition that will keep a site at number one? As with all these things, only time will tell. GoJobsite does appear to have a battle on their hands to ensure they maintain their traditionally large slice of the online job seeker pie - but for the moment, at least, you can't really argue with their stats and results.
Job board reviews are written by Alex Hens, Head of New Media for 33 - Recruitment Communications Specialists. Alex has recently joined 33 to help develop the New Media edge to their recruitment solutions. He has extensive experience in delivering practical recruitment solutions utilising both online media and interactive products within the wider recruitment marketing mix. You can contact him on 020 7404 3323, visit www.thirtythree.co.uk or email to: alex@thirtythree.co.uk
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PlanetRecruit - http://www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
*****ONLINE REVIEW - EXEC-APPOINTMENTS BY JAMES CHAPMAN OF BUSINESS RESEARCH SOLUTIONS*****
http://www.exec-appointments.com
What does the site do?: Allows Recruitment firms and Corporates to advertise jobs for Permanent, Contract, Interim and Non-Exec roles, typically offering remuneration above £50,000. The site seeks to compete with the Broadsheet Newspaper Display Advertised Jobs and expand the market place for this level of job ads due to their low cost of advertising.
Site Launched: March 2002
Current Number of Ads?: 350 per week - already more than the weekly total run by the average leading Broadsheets. The site was launched with 120 ads and expects to grow to around 1,000 by the end of the year.
Visitors to the site: In the three months they have been running there have been c30,000 unique visitors to the site. These figures are increasing by 50% per month.
How long are ads Live for?: They are sold on a per week basis. Typically ads run for five weeks.
Sector Split: Mainly Financial Services, IT, Management Consulting and Technology, with an even representation for remaining sectors.
Other Job Ad Facts: - Permanent 80% - Contract 9% - Interim 5% - Non-Executive 3% - Voluntary 3%
Location of Jobs Advertised?: 25% are in London. 60% in Europe, including the UK. 40% are ROW.
How do they bring Candidates to the site?: Email campaigns to AB1s; extensive press coverage and PR campaign; targeted London Underground stations; word of mouth; speaking engagements; search engines, etc.
Marketing plans for this summer include: - Sponsorship of IoD Conference, including mailing to all 60,000 members. - Sponsorship of Surrey Cricket club - hoardings viewable by television audience. - Promotion to MBA and Alumni programmes. - Further Tube advertising, especially Canary Wharf and DLR. - Postcard mailing to 150,000 ABC1 addresses - Hopefully an advertising campaign with a National ABC1 Radio Station.
How to Subscribe: By telephone - 0845 458 9850. You will be assigned an Account Manager who will place your first job ads on the site and can come and visit you to show you how to place ads yourself.
Feedback after registering: Through your Account Manager
Costs: Published Rate Card is £250 per ad, per week. This compares with a typical cost of £4,000 to £17,000 for an equivalent size ad for a weekly Broadsheet ad.
Who's in charge?: Betty Thayer, CEO and Tim Irving, CTO. - Betty comes from a long career in Management Consultancy, most recently as a partner with Ernst & Young in the City. She identified the gap in the market for a quality online Executive Job Advertising resource to "To improve employer and recruiter choice by removing print media's high-cost monopoly in recruiting" - Tim Irving similarly comes from PricewaterhouseCoopers where he was a "leading technical architect and IT consultant", "specialising in leading edge computer architectures - particularly complex internet platforms."
Summary: From a recruiter's point of view the site is easy to navigate, add, remove and edit jobs.
Similarly for the candidate, the task of finding and applying to relevant jobs is simple; aided by the ability to save specific job searches, receive email alerts of new jobs and manage their application process.
They have obviously put a good amount of thought into the site before launching, which, including their expansive marketing campaign, seems to be paying off with the sites' visitors growing by 50% per month.
Exec-Appointments.com are seeking to not only to compete with the Broadsheet hold on the market, but also to create an entirely new market by giving recruiters the ability to advertise to a targeted section of the Executive candidate community at a low cost.
Market Perspective: I contacted the Telegraph and spoke with Chris Lloyd, Head of Businessfile.co.uk (their online executive appointments equivalent). Though Chris is aware of exec-appointments.com and confessed to being impressed with the site, he was not quite ready to see how a new independent player could afford to maintain their profile with this hard to reach market sector.
He said the only way to do that was to be on Radio 4, which was impossible. I am informed there will be an exclusive Radio 4 interview about Exec-Appointments.com with Betty Thayer this summer.
Overall marks out of ten: 9
Recommendation: If you are recruiting for an Executive role it has to be worth a go. They have structured their market entry well and I think they are here to stay.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Wright Bradley Associates specialise in research projects exclusively for recruitment companies. We conduct in-depth telephone interviews with client organisations and candidates. From this information we produce comprehensive reports identifying client satisfaction, market share, performance in key areas and comparison to competition. Contact james@wbareport.co.uk or telephone 01707 897913 for more information.
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*****ARTICLE - ARE YOU PREGNANT OR JUST FAT? - QUESTIONS TO AVOID AT INTERVIEWS BY FOX WILLIAMS*****
An interview may be a nerve-racking experience for a candidate but for unwary employers and recruiters, it could prove equally worrying. As discrimination and data protection laws apply to the recruitment process, employers and recruiters must take care to avoid exposure to potential claims from applicants.
Employers and recruiters may want to establish at interview stage whether candidates can cope under pressure and fit into the workplace environment. However, one of the main purposes of discrimination legislation is to ensure that individuals are not treated less favourably on the grounds of their sex, race or disability. Questions should therefore be limited to those that reflect the business needs of the company and the specific requirements of the job.
Employers and recruiters should be cautious about questions relating to gender, ethnic origin, nationality or disability as both the employer and the recruitment consultant may be exposed to a potential discrimination claim.
For example, asking candidates how they would cope in an all male/female working environment is likely to be discriminatory and asking a female candidate whether she plans to have children in the near future should definitely be avoided. Questions focusing on whether English is the candidate's first language or whether the candidate would cope if the rest of the workforce is white may also be discriminatory on the grounds of race or ethnic origin.
To reduce the risk of a potential discrimination claim from a candidate, employers can try to extract the requisite information by focusing on different types of questions. If the information required is genuinely related to the duties of the job, this should be discussed on an objective basis and be asked of all the candidates interviewed. As outlined in the last article on interview notes and data protection, any information gained should be documented and notes kept. The candidates themselves may raise some of the above issues. Where this is the case, employers may take the opportunity to delve further into the matter, but only if the information is genuinely necessary and relevant to the job.
Employer should also be aware of the provisions of the Employment Practices Code ("the Code"), the first part of which has recently been published by the Information Commissioner. This deals with recruitment as a whole and includes suggested standards for collecting information about candidates during the interview process.
The Code emphasises that any information obtained about an applicant during the interview process must be relevant and necessary for the recruitment process. If the information does not meet this test, then it should be ignored and the information must not be retained after the interview.
As legislation will be introduced over the next four years to prevent discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, religion and age, employers should also review the interview process in good time to limit exposure to these types of claims from candidates.
Having objective clear and accurate recruitment records put employers and recruiters in the best position to defend discrimination claims. In one of our recent cases, the production to a rejected candidate of the prospective employer's immaculate interview notes and selection matrix resulted in her unilateral withdrawal of discrimination proceedings without a penny being paid to her: a clear example of the benefits of best practice in recruitment!
Louise Fernandes is an employment lawyer at City law firm, Fox Williams, and can be contacted at lfernandes@foxwilliams.com
=====ADVERTISEMENT===== BCL Recruit develop online recruitment solutions for the recruitment industry and human resource departments. BCL can supply complete solutions from backend databases to online job portal sites including a complete design service via our sister company BCL Nu-Media.
To receive further information or view our online demo contact Alex or Darin on 01635 581185 or visit our web sites at www.bcl-recruit.com and www.bcl-numedia.com ========================
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - IMPROVING TIME TO HIRE AND COST PER HIRE: CAN IT BE DONE? - ALAN WHITFORD*****
Hi everyone. As many of you may remember, we discussed metrics and benchmarking in March. I have recently revisited the core aspects of that topic for a seminar presentation I gave last week, provocatively titled: "Improving the Bottom Line, Faster and Cheaper Hiring". I thought this might be a good time to remind us (once again) why we want to automate the back office of recruitment.
A survey conducted by Talent Market Group, on behalf of PeopleSoft, last summer, discovered that 40% of organisations are spending at least 25% of their available resources (time, people and money) on processing candidate CVs into some sort of database or HR system. Yet, few companies here take the time or invest the money in analysing this aspect of cost per hire, much less the more common measures of advertising and recruitment agency spend.
I realise that Cost Per Hire is perhaps an outmoded concept in many discussions about Recruitment Metrics. In fact, some analysts and experts in recent articles have gone so far as to say that CPH is a useless measure, as it implies hiring less qualified people or 'warm bodies' just to get the CPH down to an acceptable level. While I wholeheartedly agree that Quality of Hire is the most important measure, both for recruiters and line managers, we have to start somewhere. Cost Per Hire is relatively easy to calculate and enables us to educate our line of business clients and financial management, as well as our colleagues in HR. Time to Hire is an integral part of CPH, particularly if we begin to analyse "lost opportunity" or "empty chair' costs as part of the overall CPH.
And, as we will see, going out to the Web for candidate attraction and automating the drudgery of the back office with web based tools will provide a significant savings in Time to Hire and the overall Cost Per Hire. Once an organisation has taken these steps, more significant analysis of Quality of Hire and individual recruiter (and line manager) performance will be possible.
The data below is the result of some hands-on workshops that I have run to examine CPH and Return on Investment of automating recruitment processes using the Internet and Web-based tools. The workshop attendees were set the task of defining how long various steps in the recruitment process for a typical white collar hire would take, using non-automated or basic automated processes. The groups then determined some typical costs for key areas of the recruitment process, including staff costs and the budget to hire 50 people. I assumed a minimum "lost opportunity cost" value of £1,000 per day. We than computed a Cost Per Hire and Lost Opportunity Cost for each main type of recruiting, assuming that all 50 hires would be made using only one method.
What did we learn? That it took 65 days from having a requisition approved to a candidate accepting a position. Savings from using the Internet and automation of the front end of the process, from advertising the role through to setting the first interview was about 20 work days. And, that using the Internet would be substantially less money and at least 30% faster than more traditional methods of recruiting.
Food for thought! I would welcome any comments about this, and the opportunity to discuss the findings in more detail with our readers. You can always reach me at: awhitford@compuserve.com or via Louise. I will be back in this space in 4 weeks time. (After the USA and England meet in the World Cup semi-finals!)
How Long Does it Take?
*Getting to the Candidate Vacancy/Requisition: Assumed to be approved Job Posting/Advertising: 10 days CV/Application Receipt: 5 days Matching Candidate to Requisition: 5 days Selection for Interview: 5 days
*Interview Procedure: Data to/from Line Managers CV: 2 days Interview notes: 1 days Test results: 2 days Interview/Tracking: 15 days Making and Accepting the Offer Offer Process: Paper/Electronic: 10 days Reference Checking: 5 days Acceptance: 5 days Total Days to Hire: 65 days
*Using the Internet/Intranet: Reduction in Cycle Times Activity: Minimum Time Saved HR Advertises: 6 Days Application received: 4 Days Process/screen CV: 6 Days Communicate candidate/manager: 4 Days TOTAL TIME SAVED: 20 Days
How Much Does It Cost?
Channel -- Cost per Recruit -- Opportunity Cost * Internet -- £3,986 -- £45,000 * Print Media -- £6,096 -- £65,000 * Referrals -- £5,918 -- £65,000 * Graduate -- £7,596 -- £65,000 * Agency -- £17,811 -- £65,000 * Job Fairs -- £23,918 -- £65,000
To contact Alan Whitford please call the Abtech Partnership on (0)1451 850811 or (0)797 1864620.
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*****OPINION - RATE NEGOTIATION BY MIKE WALMSLEY*****
How do you fancy two weeks' holiday in Thailand at the company's expense? After all, just by visiting the local bazaars and markets, recruitment consultants would pick up negotiating skills that would pay for the cost of their trip many times over in the months following their return to work.
A ludicrous suggestion? Probably - however, every day, recruiters are wasting thousands and thousands of pounds by caving in to clients' requests for lower rates and margins. How much better would they handle these requests if they possessed even the most rudimentary rate negotiation skills of a market trader?
In my experience, rate negotiation is a seriously neglected training issue. Only last month a recruiter called me regarding our own current vacancies (she was top biller in her company with over three years' experience). Her response to my request for a slightly lower rate was painful to hear. "I've just spoken to my boss and whilst he rapped my knuckles he has agreed to the discount."
Sadly, she could easily have secured full fee if only she had been more thorough whilst taking details of my vacancy and then been able to justify her fee. However, after making those initial mistakes, what did she then gain in return for giving away part of her company's profit margin? Exclusivity on that vacancy? Commitment to future business? A client meeting to pro-actively suggest a preferred supplier meeting with only her on it?
Somewhat predictably, in her haste to secure the business, none of these thoughts appeared to cross her mind. Would this have been the case if she had been trained how to negotiate rates more effectively and then regularly practiced her delivery via role plays with managers, directors or colleagues?
In my opinion, many recruiters "cave in" on rates because they feel uncomfortable handling those types of calls. Rate negotiation shouldn't be traumatic - it should be fun. Recruiters who can justify their fees and then overcome rate reduction requests in a professional manner will not only have less of the former and more of the latter but they'll naturally make more money for themselves and their company along the way.
Mike Walmsley is presenter of the world's first complete video/DVD training series for temp & contract recruiters. He can be contacted on 01727 370 041 or by email at mike@recvids.com. www.recvids.com
****DON'T MISS THIS****
RECRUITMENT CONFIDENCE INDEX SUMMER SURVEY, CALLING ALL HR AND RECRUITMENT PROFESSIONALS! The Summer Survey of The Recruitment Confidence Index (RCI) is now collecting data at www.rcisurvey.net. This quarterly survey tracks predicted trends in recruitment confidence and associated employment areas. In addition each RCI survey focuses on an area of current interest in recruitment and this quarter they are examining what's happening in Internet Recruitment. To help with the survey simply visit the on-line RCI survey as noted above and answer the questionnaire, which only takes ten minutes or so to complete. In exchange for your support, you will receive a complimentary copy of the report, available to non-participants at a cost of £50. Further information on the RCI can be obtained at www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/rci, or by contacting Caroline Mahoney at info.rci@cranfield.co.uk, or on 01234-754808.
CHEAP BOOKS OFFER - 3 BOOKS FOR £3 I've come across this great website where you can get 3 books for just £3. You don't have to join a book club or promise to buy any more books in the future - they promise no need for further commitment! Plus you get a free attaché bag. Visit http://tracker.tradedoubler.com/click?p=1324&a=398140&g=9313 to choose your 3 books from a large selection
DISCOUNT ON "RECRUITMENT AND THE LAW" SEMINAR, 27th JUNE & 17th JULY 2002, LONDON Lawspeed is holding a series of half-day seminars in London to provide recruiters with informative and practical advice on the key legal and commercial issues affecting every recruitment agency in the UK. Subjects to be covered include Risk Management, Employment Law and new Agency Legislation. Lawspeed is offering the first 25 respondents from ukrecruiter newsletter readers a £25 discount off the usual ticket price. To apply all you need do is email michaelb@lawspeed.com quoting "ukrec". Lawspeed is a specialist legal consultancy advising businesses operating in the recruitment industry - for more information on the seminar visit http://www.lawspeed.com/agencyseminar.htm or call 01273 236236.
COMPLIMENTARY TWO HOUR TRAINING SESSIONS, READING, MANCHESTER & BIRMINGHAM ECL are offering a series of complimentary two hour training sessions (Reading 3rd July 2002: Birmingham 27th June 2002 & Manchester 20th June 2002) for Directors and Senior Decision Makers of recruitment firms. This is an opportunity for Recruitment firms to view ECL's training. The training session will cover: Candidate Marketing, The Marketing Presentation, The Key Indicators of a Placement, Starting a Desk From Scratch, Seven Management Tools - To Be The Best, Seven Key Management Tasks, Planning for Sales Success, The Justification Model, The Individual Sales Plan. For more information contact Nicole Hutton of Enabling Change Ltd on 01264 360234 or email info@enablingchange.co.uk
SEMINAR NOTES AVAILABLE FROM HUNTRESS SEARCH'S EMPLOYMENT LAW UPDATE Huntress Search Ltd recently ran an employment law update covering issues such as; Discrimination in the Work Place, Parental Leave, Maternity Benefit, Paternity Leave and Handling Employees Personal Data. The talk was given by Employment Law specialist Ann Bevitt and a copy of her presentation is available free of charge. If you want a copy of the seminar notes or wish to talk about attending a future seminar you can contact Allison Upton, Marketing Manager of Huntress Search on 020 7744 1300 or email her at Allison.Upton@huntress.co.uk
Welcome to issue 89 of the ukrecruiter newsletter - especially to the 140 new subscribers who have joined since the last issue.
CONTENTS Reviewed Site (National Rail Departures) CV Database Review (totaljobs) Job Board Review (Caterer.com) Article (Overview of NORAS results by Tim Elkington) Opinion (Recruiting - a Relationship Experience...not a Process by hank Stringer) Don't Miss This (Free Recruitment Network Event - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum - Benchmark Study) Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/departures/fs_departures.htm
The National Rail web site has a section that allows you to view station departure boards for over 400 stations on the National Rail network.
You can search by selecting a station from the alphabetical drop down lists and then press go. Alternatively you can narrow the search area by clicking the geographical location of your station on the map and then selection from alphabetical drop down lists. The results are given in one of two formats depending on which station you chose (I'm assuming this is because the system is still in its trial phase). In general you get the station the train is starting from and going to along with the scheduled departure time and the expected departure. Depending on the station you may also get the name of the operator and the platform the train will be departing from. With one of the formats you can click on the end destination and the route will be given with the names of stations the train stops at.
The system that produces the information is experimental and has a number of known limitations that you can read about at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/departures/disclaimer.htm. Because it is an experimental system there is no guarantee as to the accuracy of the information and the site does suggest you check the information with National Rail Enquiries.
I think that this is useful site. It may come in useful next time your candidate tells you they were delayed for interview because of the trains!
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
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*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - BY JAMES CHAPMAN OF BUSINESS RESEARCH SOLUTIONS*****
http://www.Totaljobs.com
Sectors: Generalist, Subdivided into 28 Sectors.
Target candidate level: Anyone looking for a job.
Site Launched: January 2000
Number of CV's held: c135,000
Other CV Facts: Candidates can opt to place themselves in four Market Sectors. Therefore it is hard to be sure what the percentages are for each Sector. It is pretty evident that over 50% are in IT.
Geographic split of candidates: 97% UK based.
Site Marketing: Print advertising in Reed's 50 Business Titles. They also sponsor MSN's Careers area, Google and Ask Jeeves.
How to Subscribe: By Phone - Recruitment Firms 020 7769 9255, Direct Recruiters 020 7767 9080. After signing up, clients are passed to the Customer Relationship Management department who deal with all aspects of support.
How is the database cleaned?: Unless they have been updated, CV's are removed after 6 months.
Costs: £1,000 pcm for unlimited CV downloads, if you subscribe for a year.
Who set up the site and Why? "The site was set up by Reed Business Information a subsidiary of the FTSE 100 information publisher Reed Elsevier group plc as a strategic extension of it's recruitment advertising business."
Summary: There are two ways of searching the database. The first is a standard Field Entry database. It is quite specific, so can be time consuming to fill out, though I am sure this process would speed up with a bit of practice. The CV's that are returned can be previewed before downloading, which saves time. You can also save your searches for future use, again saving time, though the ability to set up automatic searches is not a feature they offer. The second is called Smart Match, where you basically type sentences and it figures out what you are looking for. This worked surprisingly well and gave good contrast to the other search method. Both methods of querying the database returned results almost immediately.
Relative to the number of CV's, the database is prohibitively expensive.
Overall marks out of ten: 6.
Recommendation: If you've got loads of spare cash I still wouldn't buy it. You can buy more CV's and better technology for less.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
If you'd like to suggest a CV Database for review or have any comments on this feature please email
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
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*****JOB BOARD REVIEW - BY ALEX HENS, 33*****
http://www.Caterer.com
Key Stats Unique Users p.m. (across the site): 44,000 (Hitwise - April '02) Unique Users p.m. (jobs' module): 17,600 (estimated) Page Impressions p.m. (across the site): 764,000 (Hitwise - April '02) Page Impressions p.m. (jobs' module): 351,440 (estimated) Vacancies advertised on site: 2,381 (1-7-02) Job views p.m.: 124,183 (March '02) Most jobs carried: All chef positions (1,089 - March '02) 2nd most jobs carried: Sales & Marketing (614 - March '02) Biggest advertising employer type: Hotel (2,515 jobs - March '02) 2nd biggest advertising employer type: Restaurant (821 - March '02)
What the site says "2001 saw Caterer.com invest over £1 million in the site and re-launched with new modules, a completely new look and significantly more depth and breadth of content - making it the most comprehensive and up to date online resource for the hospitality industry in the UK. No other hospitality site has as much information, updated as frequently. No other hospitality site contains as many job vacancies. No other hospitality site has as many opportunities to generate response or build awareness for you. No other hospitality site achieves the volume of traffic each month. Since launching in November 1999, Caterer.com has rapidly become the most visited UK-based hospitality web site."
First Impressions A vertical (industry specific) web site you're greeted by a busy but well laid out front page. There's plenty for professionals within the target audience as well as enough of interest for those just curious (I can recommend the recipe database in the Chef module). But even with such of wealth of information it's still easy enough to find the general area you're interested in, from jobs, news and events to specific information for managers or chefs - there's even a module offering online training assistance. The jobs' module is well flagged as a key area on the front of the site and offers the user a host of options, but to its credit you're lead straight into the business end of job searching with a no nonsense, easy to use search engine.
Tools on offer With a good level of traffic and high industry relevance there are some good opportunities to get in front of both the active job seeker and job browser as well as a wider targeted audience of potential applicants. There are a number of ways to enhance any recruitment activity on the site from simple banner ads within the jobs' module or across the site to sponsoring the popular general news or jobs specific emails. And whilst there are plenty of the usual ways to brand you or your client, they're also more than happy to discuss other branding initiatives you may want to try on their audience.
The try at home trial Pretty good really. There is a lot of information, but as most of it is in text format once the initial site had loaded itself it never really took that long that an interested party would have got bored and clicked off. And I think in an industry that isn't necessarily renowned for its IT savvy and fast connections - and probably has a fair amount of home surfers - they seem to have hit the right balance between form and function.
Strengths & Weaknesses It's a good site that's packed with useful info, enough to keep even the most fickle industry visitor's attention as well as having enough depth to warrant a book-mark from a web using industry professional - as well as a probable sign up to the email update ('News Alert'). And with the backing of both Reed and one of the strongest industry titles - The Caterer & HotelKeeper - you can bank on the URL staying fairly prominent within the minds of relevant potential candidates. As for a weakness - for my money there aren't enough direct employers on the site. However I'm sure that this is indicative of the market and not for lack of trying by the sales team. However there's certainly plenty of potential for some solid employer brand building. Overall though it's a solid site that maintains a high relevance for the target audience and demonstrates how a web site can add real value to a print title as well as developing as its own entity.
Job board reviews are written by Alex Hens, Head of New Media for 33 - Recruitment Communications Specialists. Alex has recently joined 33 to help develop the New Media edge to their recruitment solutions. He has extensive experience in delivering practical recruitment solutions utilising both online media and interactive products within the wider recruitment marketing mix. You can contact him on 020 7404 3323, visit www.thirtythree.co.uk or email to: alex@thirtythree.co.uk
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Wright Bradley Associates specialise in research projects exclusively for recruitment companies. We conduct in-depth telephone interviews with client organisations and candidates. From this information we produce comprehensive reports identifying client satisfaction, market share, performance in key areas and comparison to competition. Contact james@wbareport.co.uk or telephone 01707 897913 for more information.
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*****ARTICLE - OVERVIEW OF NORAS RESULTS BY TIM ELKINGTON*****
The National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS) was conducted in April 2002 by Enhance Media. NORAS draws on responses from over 7,500 online job seekers to produce a detailed demographic profile of the users of eight of the UK's leading job boards; Fish4Jobs, GoJobsite, PeopleBank, Top Jobs, Total Jobs, Workthing, Anderselite and Jobs AC.
The results show the profile of those who use the internet to look for jobs, revealing that the average user is aged 32.2 years, has over ten years work experience and earns £22,720. However the real strengths of NORAS are apparent when the results are used to compare the audiences of the participating job boards.
NORAS is the first piece of research that enables genuine comparison of the audiences of job boards. This comparison is made possible because NORAS gathered data across all sites over a common time period, using a common methodology.
NORAS analyses the demographic profile of site's audiences across key recruitment criteria including; residency, gender, age group, social grade, qualification, working status, work experience, working seniority, income, role, industry sector, job seeking attitude, relocation attitude, internet experience and online job seeking behaviour.
Recruiters are able to use this data to establish which job board has the most suitable audience for the vacancies they wish to advertise. For example, NORAS shows that Fish4Jobs has the best regional coverage in the UK, for example 19% of Fish4Jobs users live in the Granada TV region, compared to an average of 11% for all generic sites. Of the generic sites, Workthing has the best-educated users, 52% have a degree as their highest qualification, compared to an average of 45% for all the generic sites. A higher percentage of users from GoJobsite (75%) had applied for a job they discovered online than the users of any other of the generic sites (60% on average).
Recruiters are also able to assess the relative size of the sites participating in NORAS. Each site conducted an ABC ELECTRONIC audit during April 2002 and submitted the figure for unique users from that audit to the NORAS report. The figure for unique users shows the number of different people that visited each site during April 2002 and is currently the best way of assessing the reach of each site.
The unique user numbers and twenty tables featuring comparative demographic information on all sites are included in the NORAS results booklet. To obtain a free copy of the booklet as a pdf please email noras@enhancemedia.co.uk.
Tim Elkington is the Managing Director of Enhance Media. Enhance Media provide a range of research, consultancy and training services for recruitment professionals who want to maximise the effectiveness of the internet as a recruitment tool. Please visit www.enhancemedia.co.uk for more information.
=====ADVERTISEMENT===== BCL Recruit develop online recruitment solutions for the recruitment industry and human resource departments. BCL can supply complete solutions from backend databases to online job portal sites including a complete design service via our sister company BCL Nu-Media.
To receive further information or view our online demo contact Alex or Darin on 01635 581185 or visit our web sites at www.bcl-recruit.com and www.bcl-numedia.com ========================
*****OPINION - RECRUITING, A RELATIONSHIP EXPERIENCE... NOT A PROCESS, BY HANK STRINGER*****
I've been blessed as a recruiter. I've had the opportunity to visit and study recruitment supply chains from Malaysia to Australia to Europe and back to Texas. I'm sure a number of you have experienced the same and for me it has always been fascinating to learn more about the industry we are committed to - recruiting.
The recruitment supply chain is different in different parts of the world. In some countries, companies take a direct approach to candidate relationships while in others recruitment consultancies and agencies remain a major and important part of the recruitment chain.
Companies taking the direct approach are relying on technology to build and manage private talent communities at their web sites. Talent Management strategies allows them to scale and interact with large numbers of passive and active prospective candidates faster, while delivering comprehensive and compelling marketing messages through email, web sites, etc. Talent Management was introduced in the US in the late 90's and is replacing some of the traditional recruitment supply chain by placing all candidate relationship ownership on the company. The companies using technology for Talent Management are having good recruitment success hiring quality candidates faster and at lower acquisition costs.
Talent Management is working, but as we see positive economic signs in the States and an increase in hiring activity, companies may be missing a very important element of proven recruitment methodologies that our friends in The United Kingdom understand very, very well...Candidate Relationships.
I've always been amazed at the utilization of Recruitment Consultancies or Agencies in the UK market. They play a role in a very high percentage of the hires completed at all levels. Many on both sides of the pond have discussed how technology will affect this recruitment supply chain and if the Internet might ultimately replace recruiting firms. The discussions and arguments have been lively and both sides have strong opinions. Most of us believe there will be change but that the Consultancies can play an important role for a major reason.
It's All About Relationships. At the end of the day, the value of a recruiter lies in their current candidate relationships or their ability to create meaningful candidate relationships. It's from these relationships they delver the right candidate for the right position as efficiently as possible. It appears to me that candidates in the UK rely on Consultants for market understanding and positioning. They have a relationship with a firm or an individual they trust will direct the right information to them at the right time. All that matters in recruitment is the relationship and right now the Consultancies own them.
As we look to the future it may be advisable to consider two questions as we determine what the recruitment supply chain may become.
1. Can Consultancies scale their candidate relationship reach in ways that allow them to source; recruit and help clients hire the right candidate competitively? That is high quality talent delivered faster and possibly at lower cost. 2. Will companies use technology to create competitive value building their own private talent communities and candidate relationships?
If the Consultancies can accept, adopt and implement technology into their business models while continuing to add value through their established candidate relationships, they will remain a significant part of the recruitment supply chain. If their friction as middlemen in the recruitment chain does not add efficiency and value then companies will adopt technology to build private candidate relationships.
The question remains however, can companies replace hiring process tactics with activities that secure meaningful candidate relationship experiences? If companies try it will be necessary to turn to a resource that intimately understands how to recruit effectively. If Consultancies do not secure their position in the recruitment chain, companies will replace them by hiring consultants for their own internal recruitment consultancy.
It is an interesting time. Some of us have worked at the recruitment model for years, yet we may be at the very beginning of model definition. It is a time for pioneering and courageous thought and action to define the recruitment supply chain of the future for all of Europe and for the entire world. Based on the importance and success of recruiting relationships in the UK the new model may very well emerge from your closest friend or competitor.
Whatever and whomever, we can be assured that the key to a successful recruitment supply chain will be based on candidate relationships. Will they come from traditional sources or will companies use technology to take greater control of their talent asset?
I predict the next few years will supply the answer and the time to get there will be filled with dynamic and dramatic changes in recruitment.
Hank Stringer is Founder and President of Hire.com. Hire.com provide a software solution powered by the internet allowing organizations to build private talent pools. http://www.hire.com
****DON'T MISS THIS****
25th JULY 2002, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
We're running our next networking event for UK recruitment professionals on the Thursday 25th July 2002. The networking evenings are a great opportunity to meet with other professionals operating across all segments of the industry over an informal drink. Places are limited, so you must register in advance if you want to attend. To register visit our new website at http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk.
UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM
Don't forget to visit our new discussion forum - http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl. We've already got some interesting topics being discussed. Your input is vital in making this work! Current topics on the site include obtaining usage statistics from job boards, online CV finding services and the effectiveness of jobsites.
BENCHMARK STUDY The results of the IQPC Exchange / Enhance Media Benchmarking Study 2002 show that the use of job boards is up year on year with respondents now advertising on an average of 3.3 job boards, compared to an average of 2.5 one year ago. The results also show that online recruitment spends have increased in the last year, up from an average of £21,000 to £26,700. The Benchmarking Study was conducted for the second consecutive year by Enhance Media on behalf of IQPC Exchange at the recent IQPC E-HR Exchange (held on 26th and 27th June). Full results of the IQPC Exchange / Enhance Media Benchmarking Study can be obtained by emailing results@enhancemedia.co.uk
Welcome to issue 90 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.
CONTENTS Reviewed Site (weather.co.uk) James Chapman's Review (Hemscott Company Guru) Opinion (The Importance of Cultural Fit when Hiring a Recruitment Consultant) Researchers Tips (In which companies will I find my perfect candidate?) Don't Miss This (Can you help with articles? - August discount from HotLizard - Discount at Brian Tracey Seminar - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum) Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.weather.co.uk
The weather.co.uk site offers current conditions and forecasts for 2,900 locations in the United Kingdom and covers all major cities-worldwide. To use the site you enter a town/city, UK postcode or country. The results for that region show the current days forecast in detail with a 10-day forecast. It also has a large range of weather maps. For the current day's forecast you get the temperature, sun index, wind forecast, dew point, humidity, visibility and barometer reading. You can also access round the clock forecasts (at hourly intervals).
The amount of information available on this site is amazing. I think it's the best weather site I've come across on the internet and I use it all the time.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Fast, easy and effective recruiting!
Are you responsible for your companies recruitment needs? Are you looking for a fast and effective way of filling your positions?
GoJobsite, winner of the National Online Recruitment Awards gives recruiters the ability to post vacancies online via their credit card. Simply click on the link below to get started and your vacancy will be available to 1.3 million job hunters within minutes.
http://www.gojobsite.co.uk/cgi-bin/campaign.cgi?tid=2024
========================
*****JAMES CHAPMAN'S REVIEW - HEMSCOTT COMPANY GURU *****
www.Hemscott.com/guru
What it is: A searchable database of UK PLC's and Private Limited Companies with over £1million turnover, together with news archives
Relevance to the Recruitment Market: For business development; to compile lists of individuals in FTSE quotes companies to market to. For background research on companies and PLC Directors. For identification of PLC's and Private Limited Companies. For Candidate identification in senior level Search campaigns within PLC's.
Depth of Data: * c2,300 PLC Companies: Annual Reports, location, sector, number of staff, current and historic share prices and trading volumes, subsidiaries and brand name ownerships. Also Regulatory News as it is issued by the Stock Exchange. * c16,000 PLC Directors: Complete Biographies including, name, title, age, remuneration, background and interests. * c200,000 Private Limited Companies with a turnover in excess of £1million, showing Annual Reports, location, sector, directors names. * c140 UK and European news publications including archives over the past two years.
How to Subscribe: Call Vanessa Norton on 020 7847 1714
Cost: * £6,000 pa for PLC Company and Director info. * £8,500 pa for PLC (including Directors) and Private Company info. * Additional £2,000 for the UK and European News Publications.
Summary: All the information they have is excellent and up to date and the database is easily searchable, so there is no requirement for hours of training in how to use the service.
You can display the information you want in columns and easily export it to Excel spreadsheets at the touch of a button.
If you are looking to compile lists of companies and directors to market to, these would probably be needed more infrequently and could be rented from other sources on a one off basis, at far less cost.
If you are a Search firm with a large number of requirements to move PLC directors to other PLC's, this service would be invaluable.
The service was excellent for compiling lists of UK companies by turnover, market sector and location - very useful for putting together company Target Markets to research.
The issue is that many companies operating in the UK are foreign owned and so are not listed here. Therefore they don't appear on this database, and thus the service may help compile some research, but certainly not all of it.
Overall marks out of ten: 9, but only if you principally recruit UK PLC Directors
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
If you'd like to suggest a CV Database for review or have any comments on this feature please email
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
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*****OPINION THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURAL FIT WHEN HIRING A RECRUITMENT CONSULTANT BY ANDY MOUNTNEY OF HEYWOOD ASSOCIATES*****
One of the greatest frustrations I have found within the recruitment industry has been when the perfect candidate on paper suffers rejection. More often than not in these cases the client responds with; "they're just not quite the right fit, they would make a great impact in the business, just not quite right for here though!"
The importance of culture should never be underestimated in making a new hire and this is just as much the case with recruitment as it is with other sectors.
Let us first take the view that the candidate represents the current culture. If you are successful and distinctive you need to continue to work to the successful model, especially if you are a large or growing team. A consultant may be put to you who will add significant revenue however they are not a team player and will upset the balance of those already there. While they may individually become your top biller you may be sacrificing the success of your team, if this is the case then this new consultant cannot add value to the team. It is easy in recruitment to get carried away with hiring the big ticket earner but you need a team of generators to succeed, this is why you need someone who will fit and help push the team to new heights. Also average consultants in one environment can become top performers in an environment that really suits them - so hire the consultant with the right fit and watch the turnover grow.
The above situation represents why it is so important to work closely with those who recruit for you. A recruiter needs to understand the culture of their client to put the right people forward and this can only be done by forging strong relationships, get the person who recruits for you in to meet those in the team and understand what you look for.
A second scenario is about breaking up a monotony and making sure a group do not go stale. A recently placed candidate was described to me by his new manager as a "breath of fresh air" thanks to his enthusiasm in a usually fairly reserved firm. His activity levels had helped further lift a successful team in line with him achieving a career enhancing move. In this case making the hire is particularly hard as you are effectively hiring someone to fit the current culture but also impact on it differently to others. These hires are rare but if successful can bring a real boost to an already successful team.
A third scenario is achieving a change in culture. This is perhaps the most important and often needs to be implemented top down, hence a need to really make sure the personality, drive and ambition of your hire is correct. The harder market of last year saw a need to hire managers who could impact on a team not to indulge it and this was often part of a cultural change. "We want a leader" has been the usual cry. Bringing in the right person who understands the needs of the senior management for company development and who can fit into a team and drive what is there already to the next level usually happens as part of a cultural change. This is not an easy hire to make and you need to bring the strong people on board, when you do so you are changing the culture of your business but positively impacting on what you already have. With strong hires in these circumstances you can build or rebuild for the future around those who will positively purvey your business ethos.
While making any hire always has an element of risk this is greatly reduced by hiring those who have a synergy with you in terms of ethics, business approach and general attitude. As many recruiters are beginning to really drive forward their own hiring at moment it is important to hire those with the same vision, they are the ones who will deliver in your environment.
Andrew Mountney is manager of the Professional Services Practice for Heywood Associates the leading recruitment to recruitment consultancy. A copy of Heywood Associates Recruitment Salary Survey can be gained at http://www.heywoodassociates.com or by phoning on 020 7404 4884.
*****RESEARCHER'S TIPS BY CHRIS MALCOLM, DEANSA*****
Once a month we'll be giving a quick tip on managing a successful research project.
None of us ever takes on an assignment without understanding exactly our client's requirements. In the same way we should never instruct a researcher without a very exacting set of parameters. It seems so simple to say "Know exactly whom or what you are looking for", but next time you research for that "right" individual ask yourself the following questions:
Question 1. In which companies will I find my perfect candidate? It is of very little value to identify individuals who are presently working for companies that your client considers inferior. Forget them. Instead, ask your client for a wish list of his ten favourite competitors. Ask your client if candidates from these ten companies would realistically consider a move? If the answer for any of these is no then replace them with ones from competitors that will fit. Once they are all a yes then what we have is a very specific start point for our research work. You can now rest easy knowing that candidates put forward from these competitors come with a pedigree acceptable to your client.
Next month we'll be looking at the size of the potential candidate universe and how we make it workable.
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 07074 449 449 or by e-mail at enquiries@deansa.com.
****DON'T MISS THIS****
CAN YOU HELP WITH ARTICLES FOR THE NEWSLETTER? We are going to introduce two new series of articles. The first one is reviews of Multiple Job Posting tools. If you're using someone like CastleLinks, Conkers, etc to post your jobs on the internet and would like to give some comments on using the site please contact me
The second series of articles is going to be on online psychometric and aptitude testing. If you are experienced in the field of psychometric and aptitude testing and would be interested in reviewing some of the online offerings please contact me giving me your contact details.
Finally, if you've any ideas about articles you'd like to see in the newsletter or if you'd like to submit an article yourself please drop me a note
AUGUST DISCOUNT FROM HOTLIZARD HotLizard (suppliers of online solutions to the staffing sector) are having a "summer sale" with the following offers; 10% off it's standard web site recruitment components, free hosting for the first year for standard sites (worth up to £100 per month) and a free online marketing consultancy session. The offers are only valid for orders placed during August. Call HotLizard on 01264 7300300, email sales@hotlizard.net or visit www.hotlizard.net for more information.
DISCOUNT FOR RECRUITERS ON BRIAN TRACY SEMINAR Enabling change are running a Brian Tracy seminar entitled "Create your own future" on the 7th October 2002 in central London. The one day seminar is designed for "ambitious people who want to make more and achieve greater results than before by working smarter not harder". Enabling Change are offering readers of the ukrecruiter newsletter at 12% discount on places booked at this seminar. For more information contact Nicole Hutton on 01264 360234 or email nhutton@enablingchange.co.uk. You can also visit their website at www.enablinghchange.co.uk
UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM Don't forget to visit our new discussion forum - http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl. Current topics on the site include work permits, recruiter percentage fees and a discussion about how recruiters can get holiday cover if they run their own business. Visit the site, learn from others and share your expertise!
29TH AUGUST 2002, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON After another highly successful networking evening on the 25th July we've scheduled our next event for Thursday 29th August 2002. Photo's from the last event and information about registering is available at http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. Places are limited, so you must register in advance if you want to attend.
Welcome to issue 91 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. Please support the newsletter advertisers by visiting their sites - and if you do contact them make sure you say where you saw their details! These are necessary to ensure that the newsletter is free for recruiters.
CONTENTS
Reviewed Site (ViaMichelin)
Job Board Review (TopJobs by Alex Hens)
James Chapman's Review (Interview Bookers)
Survey (Graduates in the eyes of employers, 2002)
Recruitment Technology (HR XML by Alan Whitford)
Opinion (How can we better recruit our recruiter?)
Don't Miss This (Recruitment Networking Event - Recruitex 2002 - Recruitment Society Event - New "Recruitment Anecdotes" feature - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
The ViaMichelin web site has a great range of information for the business traveller, including driving directions, maps, hotel and restaurant reviews and traffic and weather forecasting. The route databases cover 43 countries in Europe. To use the "driving directions" you enter a departure and destination point (as a postcode, town, city or specific address) and then choose the type of "itinerary" you want (shortest route, fastest route, preferring motorway, etc). If you click on the "options" button you can also enter any places you wish to travel via. The results show the journey time, distance and step by step directions. To use the hotel and restaurant finder you enter a location or postcode and a list of establishments are shown. They range from hotels to service station motels. If you click on the name of the hotel or restaurant there is more information including address, phone number, website address, facilities and opening times. To use the traffic forecasting you simply enter a location or road (for example the M4) then choose a specific map area (eg, Bristol). The results show the traffic speed for that location.
ViaMichelin is a quick and easy to use route planning site - with some very useful additional features. If you want to see what other route planning sites are available we've got a list on our web site at www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/dirmap.htm
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
For excellence in recruitment web site design, development and marketing HotLizard is the premier supplier to the recruitment industry and to staffing and HR departments. Whether you are looking to re-develop your online recruitment offering from scratch, add fresh design concepts and functionality to an existing presence or market your site effectively to your target audience, HotLizard can provide you with a professional and cost effective solution. For more information, please contact Joanna Ratcliffe on 01264 7300300 or email joanna.ratcliffe@hotlizard.net. You can also view further information on HotLizard and some of our reference sites at www.hotlizard.net.
========================
*****JOB BOARD REVIEW - BY ALEX HENS*****
Key Stats
Unique Users: 283,672 (April '02 - ABCe/NORAS) Page Impressions: 2,692,006 (April '02) Vacancies advertised on site: 1,333 (12-08-02) Best Sector (by number of jobs advertised): Sales & Business Development (183) 2nd Sector (by number of jobs advertised): Engineering (182)
What the site says
"Launched in the UK in April 1996, TopJobs was one of the earliest brands within the Internet recruitment job board marketplace. Today, topjobs.co.uk is a well-established brand, targeting management, professional, technical and graduate job seekers. Extensive promotion delivers high quality candidates to clients' job adverts; corporate branded pages give clients the space to describe their employer philosophy and culture; job seekers can make well-informed decisions before applying for the role."
First Impression
Typing in the URL you'll be pretty clear what the site is set up to do - namely to find you a 'top job' - which is probably a good thing as it doesn't hang about in presenting you with potential opportunities right from the off. Together with a 'new jobs' promotion feature, the home page also presents you with the opportunity to take a closer look at potential employers ('Employer of the Week' and 'Top Companies' buttons) in keeping with a site that seems to be more comfortable promoting a smaller number of strong company/employer brands than a multitude of individual ads. I have a concern that unless you already have a strong employer brand these slots won't be the most effective spots on the site, but it does help demonstrate the site's focus on presenting real employers offering real jobs.
The lack of a quick 'keyword' type search option on the home page is also a little different from other sites. A sceptic may observe that with fewer jobs on offer than most of the other large job boards then perhaps the site doesn't want to start a visit with a negative result. However, the mechanism that's there is still effective enough to give you a feel for the site before offering a good 'refine search' option.
Tools on offer
Having been in the market for quite some while, TopJobs has taken the route of trying to establish itself as the employers friend and has, from its early days, established a host of online 'HR services' to assist efficiency throughout the recruiting process (including its industry information portal 'HRGate'). Every company is also signed-up on a medium/long-term commitment basis, unlike much of the competition that generally has a mix between long-term and one-off advertisers. This ensures that each company entry is branded and pretty comprehensive - benefiting both the sites overall appearance as well as candidate's decision processes. Apart from the home page branding opportunities there are also some very effective targeted banner positions delivered on the results pages that can't fail but to be noticed by the candidate (well positioned and without other clutter on the page). And with the usual mix of 'jobs by email' notification, full company and agency profiles, a careers advice section and an effective 'refine job search' mechanism, it all ads up to a solid candidate proposition. One tool that does distinguish this site from others is the absence of a searchable CV database. I'd imagine that as web security becomes less of a concern and society becomes happier to entrust their details to the web then this will have some effect on the user figures, however, perhaps the difference between a passive and an active job seeker will be sufficient to maintain a site where there's no danger of getting a call about a job you know nothing about.
The try at home trial
Didn't have any problem skimming through the pages, which pleasantly surprised me due to the number of logo's and text boxes. The clean overall design won through.
Strengths & Weaknesses
TopJobs aims to position itself as a provider of professional, technical and management careers - so it should be no surprise that it doesn't have the mass appeal (and thus mass statistics) that many of those who might be seen as its horizontal competitors might boast. And to be fair, examination of the NORAS results bears witness to a successful targeting strategy: 37% of users are social grade B (highest % of comparable sites); 36% are Manager or Senior Manager level (again highest %); 4% earn between £60-90k (twice as high as nearest sites).
I'm not a fan of a search mechanism/results page that doesn't offer the option of setting/viewing salary banding as I feel most people still make initial choices based on a number of key factors which includes salary range. I also felt overall usability was diminished by the use of employer buttons on the home page (as I referred to earlier). My concern is that these could prove to be a distraction and an annoyance to those not interested in the specific job. Added to this, the jobs on the front page don't take you straight to the job but rather to the company page. I just feel that if you put too many clicks between a candidate and the information they want, or the key information you need to convey, then they'll click-off - but perhaps TopJobs has the data to prove their visitors behave otherwise.
But that said, the overall delivery of each job makes a nice change. Too often job descriptions are badly written and poorly laid out - a sad reflection of the 'slapdash', 'bung it up 'cos it's cheap' mentality that's still rife throughout this media. I'm a firm believer that whatever the media, if you're serious about recruiting then you have to be serious about your advertising. From the moment you first get in front of a potential candidate you're starting a communication that will hopefully deliver them as a candidate. So, whether it's from the pages of the Sunday Times or from a screen on someone's desk, that person needs to be educated about your proposition and motivated to apply. Each of TopJobs' advertisers have their own display page style developed to fit their overall branding, helping convey the recruiter as someone who wants to engage with the potential applicant rather than one who just wants you to 'know some stuff about a job they've got'. So put yourself in the shoes of a 'professional, technical or management' type candidate and think which you'd most likely to respond to and which you'd come back to. Then take a look at the user profile breakdown and the list of testimonials on the site and perhaps a good ad well told is worth more than any number of clicks.
Job board reviews are written by Alex Hens, Head of New Media for 33 - Recruitment Communications Specialists. Alex has recently joined 33 to help develop the New Media edge to their recruitment solutions. He has extensive experience in delivering practical recruitment solutions utilising both online media and interactive products within the wider recruitment marketing mix. You can contact him on 020 7404 3323, visit www.thirtythree.co.uk or email to: alex@thirtythree.co.uk
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Fast, easy and effective recruiting!
Are you responsible for your companies recruitment needs? Are you looking for a fast and effective way of filling your positions?
GoJobsite, winner of the National Online Recruitment Awards gives recruiters the ability to post vacancies online via their credit card. Simply click on the link below to get started and your vacancy will be available to 1.3 million job hunters within minutes.
http://www.gojobsite.co.uk/cgi-bin/campaign.cgi?tid=2024
=======================
*****JAMES CHAPMAN'S REVIEW - INTERVIEW BOOKERS *****
http://www.InterviewBookers.co.uk
Sectors: Generalist, subdivided into 26 Sectors.
Target candidate level: Caters for any, but strengths are in 3years plus experience.
Site Launched: April 2002
Number of CVs held: c34,000. They bought Stepstone's CV Database numbering 29,000 three months ago and over 80% of the candidates asked to remain with InterviewBookers. In the past 2 months the database has grown by c5,000 CVs.
Permanent/Contract split: Mostly Permanent
Main Sectors: * IT (Less than 50%) * Accountancy * Admin / Secretarial * Banking - Back Office * Creative Media * Customer Service * Financial Services * Marketing / Advertising * Sales
Geographic split of candidates: Mostly London and Home Counties
Site Marketing: Google, Conkers and AOL. Big Campaign to Industry Specific web sites planned for September to boost non IT CVs.
How to Subscribe: Register on the site. You will be called back by an Account Manager who will then be your single point of contact, and will handle all user issues.
The service is supplied for Company Recruiters and Recruitment Firms alike.
How is the database cleaned?: Candidates update / remove their details or make themselves 'unavailable' on the system.
Costs: £50 per interview.
Who built the site?: Alex Braganza. Alex is an Accountant by training and has run several businesses, as well as working in recruitment as an online marketer, where the InterviewBookers idea came from.
Where do they see the site positioned in the marketplace?: Alex sees the site in the unique position of offering 'risk free' recruitment advertising, where Recruiters pay on results only.
How It Works: Candidates are encouraged to be extremely specific about their skills, experience and qualifications when creating a profile, which includes few 'free text' fields. The site works best when recruiters are specific regarding desired candidate attributes when posting a vacancy, thereby ensuring accurate matches on the CV database.
When I viewed the database many candidates seemed to have missed out details about themselves, and often got the order of their current and previous jobs muddled up. This made the site hard to search and I felt that time was being wasted. What InterviewBookers does to get round this issue is have their own Resourcers work on each new vacancy posted to find relevant candidates and send them the job ad.
All candidates are anonymous until an interview is booked through the site. Until that time it is possible to ask candidates questions to be as sure as you can about their relevance for a role. Once you are sure whom you want to interview, you pay your £50 per candidate and meet them in relative surety that one of them will be hired.
Summary: There are a host of other features on the site, all designed to help the candidate and recruiter keep up on top of the jobs and candidates they are pursuing. I can see the site being extremely useful for Company Recruiters looking to save money on recruitment fees, but who are able to spend time finding the right shortlist of candidates.
Although I understand around half of Interviewbookers' vacancies are from recruitment firms, I am not sure this balance will be maintained. In my experience, Recruiters are happy to receive a wider selection of candidates from a job ad, interview the interesting ones and keep the rest for later. In the InterviewBookers scenario, it takes longer to write the ad, fewer candidates apply and the recruiter is faced with rising costs of recruitment with every candidate interviewed.
Having said all that, it is important to remember that the site is only 3 months old and I can see it developing into a far more rounded service with time.
Overall marks out of ten: * For Company Recruiters: 7. It will save you money in return for a little more effort. * For Recruitment Firms: 5. It's still worth a try - if you place a free ad for a hard to find skillset, you get the benefit of their Resourcers trawling the database on a no interview, no fee basis.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
*****SURVEY - GRADUATES IN THE EYES OF EMPLOYERS 2002, PARK HR*****
Recent research conducted by Park and the Guardian, and launched at the AGR (Association of Graduate Recruiters) Conference, highlights a number of interesting issues for graduate recruiters including why recruit graduates at all?
According to three-quarters of employers, the key motive for recruiting graduates is their potential for the future. A majority expect to see some return on their recruitment expenditure within eighteen months with a greater ability to take on responsibility and work independently being seen as the key forms of return on investment. The business benefits of graduate recruitment are clearly tangible with 43% of employers expecting a measurable increase in revenues or output as a result of employing graduates.
Recruiters appear to have strong reasons for their choice of universities to target. As in previous years traditional redbrick universities come to the fore with 65% of recruiters focusing on particular institutions. Of all 104 respondents questioned, not one mentioned a 'new' university in their list of recruitment targets. Why target traditional universities? The most regularly cited reason was the courses these institutions offered. This was closely followed by the successful past experiences recruiters enjoyed and the strong working relationships they had established with the universities. Interestingly though, and perhaps giving some cause for concern, was the views of ten percent of recruiters that pressure from senior management was their primary motive for selecting one university over another.
Europe is also a popular source of recruits. Sixty-six percent of respondents regularly recruit from European countries other than the UK, with France and Germany being the single most popular sources of graduates. European students' more diverse skills and better linguistic abilities were the key explanations for their popularity amongst recruiters.
So, in summary it would seem that recruiters believe there to be a strong business case for graduate recruitment, tempered slightly by the questions surrounding whether or not graduates are better equipped for work than non-graduates. In one form or another tradition and experience would seem to be the key ties that bind employers choice of target university, with foreign universities also being a popular option.
"Graduates in the eyes of employers" is an annual survey of the views of recruiters, now in its sixth year. Published by Park and the Guardian it samples the views of a random cross section of 104 graduate recruiters. The research is available from either Angus Weir at Park (angus.weir@parkhr.com) or Helen Gallacher at the Guardian (Helen.Gallacher@guardian.co.uk).
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
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*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - HR-XML - ALAN WHITFORD*****
We have spoken a lot in the last 12 months about a variety of technologies that can help to automate the recruiting process, from great back office systems to the most sophisticated of Internet front ends. These technologies can be used by recruiters in the corporate environment, recruitment consultancies and high street recruitment organisations. A question that we haven't quite covered is: What happens when everyone uses something different?
The simplest example might be that you receive a CV in WordPerfect format and you have Word (guess that this dates me!). Your HR system (or client) might have job descriptions in one format, with tables and charts, that your recruitment system cannot interpret, much less format for posting to your selected job boards. And, of course, all of the job boards have their own structures for defining and labelling geography, job position, salary banding and education.
This conundrum applies across the HR spectrum, not just in recruitment. The good news is that there is a global organisation that is attempting to create global standards (descriptions/schemas) that will enable seamless sharing of HR data across systems, organisations and countries. Many of you may have heard of HR-XML and thought "oh, boy, another US vendor led initiative that will have little meaning or relevance to me here in England and Europe." And, in the early days, I would have agreed. However, I attended the quarterly meeting of the HR-XML Consortium, Inc. in Amsterdam in July and was greatly encouraged, both by the level of commitment to global standards that the US founding and charter members have and by the level of European involvement. Hence, I thought that it might be a good time to tell you a little bit about the consortium and its initiatives that have direct relevance to those of us in the recruiting arena.
What is the HR-XML Consortium?
HR-XML (http://www.hr-xml.org) is an independent, non-profit consortium, founded in December 1999, dedicated to enabling e-commerce and inter-company exchange of human resources (HR) data world-wide. The work of the Consortium centers on the development and promotion of standardised XML vocabularies for HR to streamline HR data interchange. It's mission is to produce specifications that are relevant and useful across many country contexts. HR-XML's current efforts are focused on standards for staffing and recruiting, compensation and benefits, training and workforce management. It is open to users, vendors, consultants, standards bodies, employers and other end-users, and individuals. HR-XML has over 115 organisational members in 22 countries. All of the standards and schemas are available for downloading on the web site.
Recruiting and Staffing.
The Consortium's Recruiting and Staffing Workgroup has developed the Staffing and Exchange Protocol (SEP), an XML-based messaging specification that supports dynamic, real-time staffing transactions over the Web. Transactions supported by SEP include the posting of job opportunities to job boards and other recruiting venues and the return of resumes matching those postings. Global in scope, SEP 1.1 supports the updating and recall of job postings and the procurement of temporary and contract staff. Further extensions to SEP might include support for employment verification and reference checking.
Staffing Industry Data Exchange Standards (SIDES)
Staffing Industry Data Exchange Standards -- commonly known by the acronym "SIDES" -- is a comprehensive suite of data exchange standards designed to offer new efficiencies and cost savings for staffing customers, staffing suppliers, and other stakeholders in the staffing supply chain. Major modules include: StaffingOrder; HumanResource; Assignment; StaffingSupplier; StaffingCustomer; StaffingAction; Extended TimeCard; and Invoice (an extended version of OAGIS 8.0 Invoice).
The objective of SIDES is to provide a set of standards for the exchange of information between staffing customers, staffing suppliers, and intermediaries. SIDES consists of a suite of XML-based specifications designed to support a full range of staffing processes. SIDES will improve efficiency and reduce integration costs for all parties by dramatically reducing the need to design and implement custom interfaces to link to trading partner systems. Six leading staffing firms have endorsed SIDES. These firms were the sponsors that developed the original "straw man" version of SIDES, which was donated to the HR-XML Consortium for further refinement and development. The six staffing firms (Adecco, Kelly, Manpower, Randstad, Spherion and Vedior) have issued a co-authored letter of endorsement for SIDES.
For more information or to contact Alan Whitford please call the Abtech Partnership on (0)1451 850811 or (0)797 1864620.
*****OPINION - HOW CAN WE BETTER RECRUIT OUR RECRUITER? BY A LA CARTE RECRUITMENT*****
Some tips on promoting your business whilst ensuring you recruit the best recruiters.
The points below are not supposed to be exhaustive but from my research and feedback so far seem to be the ones that need most work. I would very much like to hear from anyone who has anything to add to this as I am keen that we encourage the sharing of information in our industry.
1. Carefully plan your interviews with recruitment consultants. Being in a very fast paced, pressured environment we are all guilty of taking short-cuts in our preparation for interviews, particularly with potential future employees.
One of the most common things that consultancies omit to do is to liase between the various interviewers so that each interviewer can cover different areas with the candidate. All too often one interviewer will go in after another and ask exactly the same questions because the process has not been coordinated. As a result the time spent interviewing has not been very effective and more importantly the candidate will not be at all impressed.
2. Take the time and effort to sell your consultancy and the opportunity. Be honest but remember to sell it. After all, selling and consulting (lest we forget) is what we were put on this earth to do!
3. Think about exactly what you are offering in terms of career development opportunity to the potential recruit and explore whether this matches the candidate's aspirations. Exploring this clearly in some detail at the interview stage is obviously going to iron out misunderstandings later and should ultimately curb attrition rates. All too often I hear candidates saying that they were mis-sold the opportunity.
Thinking in more detail than usual about what you may be able to offer a new consultant in terms of career development will obviously help you look internally and assess your current structure and what you are offering your staff currently. This perhaps would be no bad thing!
Tim Connolly is Managing Director of A La Carte Recruitment - Recruitment for the recruitment industry. He can be contacted on 01442 878368 or 07812 169446 for any further information or by email tim@alacarterecruitment.com
****DON'T MISS THIS****
29TH AUGUST 2002, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON After another highly successful networking evening on the 25th July we've scheduled our next event for Thursday 29th August 2002. August's event is being generously sponsored by The Recruitment Consultant (www.therecruitmentconsultant.co.uk) who will be providing a champagne reception. Photo's from the last event and information about registering is available at http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. Places are limited, so you must register in advance if you want to attend. Hope to see you there!
10TH SEPTEMBER 2002, RECRUITMENT SOCIETY EVENT, LONDON Simon Howard, Chairman, and Vance Kearney, VP HR, of Oracle Corporation will be talking about the current state of the UK recruitment industry at this month's Recruitment Society event. The event takes place at 6.30pm on Tuesday 10th September in London. It's £10 for Recruitment Society members to attend and £20 for non-members. For more information visit www.recruitmentsociety.org.uk or email admin@recruitmentsociety.org.uk
15th - 16th OCTOBER 2002, RECRUITEX, LONDON The annual Recruitex and Recruitment and Staffing Forum takes place at the New Connaught Rooms, in central London in October. Recruitex is the only recruitment specific exhibition to be held in 2002. As well as the exhibition the Recruitment and Staffing Forum includes breakfast meetings, seminar sessions, Recruitment International's Directors Forum and an ATSCo open meeting. For more information visit the website at http://www.gateway-events.com or email Jonathan Robinson at jonathanrobinson@gateway-events.com
NEW "RECRUITMENT ANECDOTES" FEATURE Megan Hayes, previously of Recruiter's Insight, has kindly offered to co-ordinate a new feature for us. We thought we'd add a touch of light-heartedness to the ukrecruiter newsletter by sharing your anecdotes! If you've got an original and funny recruitment related incident you'd like to share; CV gaffs, bizarre interviews, etc, please email us. If we publish it in the newsletter we'll reward you with a special internet recruitment goodie bag!
UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM Don't forget to visit our discussion forum - http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl. Current topics on the site include free job boards and cv databases, recruiter percentage fees, PSLs and the use of ad agencies by corporates. Visit the site, learn from others and share your expertise!
Welcome to issue 92 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.
CONTENTS Reviewed Site (Cambridge Dictionaries Online Job Board Review (MAD.co.uk by Alex Hens) James Chapman's Review (CVPoster.com) Article (Using online tools, HotLizard) Researchers Tips (What is the size of my potential candidate universe and how can I make it workable?) Legal Article (Fixed term employees: will your company be in a fix, Fox Williams) Don't Miss This (CIMA Recruitment Awards - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum) Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
Finding a good UK online dictionary isn't as straightforward as you may think. I've looked at a couple recently and have found the Cambridge Dictionaries Online site to be the most useful. It's a very straightforward site - you simply type your search word in the field to the right of the screen. If it finds an exact match it brings up all definitions for that word. If however, if finds more than one match (as for the word hot) it lists all the entries that include that word and then a list of all the phrases that include the word. By this method it copes with hyphenated words (email finds e-mail, ram raid finds ram-raid, etc). If you want to find out how to pronounce a word you check the box labelled "Display phonetics" at the top of the left-hand column when you search for a word. It uses the International Phonetic Alphabet - and the site has a list of the phonetic symbols with examples of their pronunciation.
I do find this site useful - but would also like to find a UK site with added thesaurus. If anyone knows of one please email me and I'll review it in a future edition of the newsletter.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
For excellence in recruitment web site design, development and marketing HotLizard is the premier supplier to the recruitment industry and to staffing and HR departments. Whether you are looking to re-develop your online recruitment offering from scratch, add fresh design concepts and functionality to an existing presence or market your site effectively to your target audience, HotLizard can provide you with a professional and cost effective solution. For more information, please contact Joanna Ratcliffe on 01264 730300 or email joanna.ratcliffe@hotlizard.net. You can also view further information on HotLizard and some of our reference sites at www.hotlizard.net.
========================
*****JOB BOARD REVIEW - BY ALEX HENS*****
Key Stats Unique Users: not provided Registered Users (site wide): 160,000+ Page Impressions (site wide): 1.8million Job Alert Registrations: 40,000+ Best Job Title (by registered job seekers): Marketing Comm (9,916) Best Industry (by registered job seekers): Design Agency and Advertising (12% each)
What the site says "MAD.co.uk has been established to be the primary resource for news, information, jobs and services for professionals in marketing, media, new media, advertising and design. With the support of both an in-house editorial team and content streamed from 8 industry-leading titles such as Marketing Week, New Media Age, Precision Marketing, Creative Review and design week, the site offers daily targeted news and job alerts together with a search engine scouring archives going back 6 years."
First impressions MAD.co.uk addresses its audience well right from the front page, with up to date news and information, pretty clear navigation and a high profile positioning of the jobs section button. It's also probably worth pointing out that having already signed-up a respectable proportion of the available audience the move to subscriber only access doesn't seem to have any marked detrimental affect on subscriber growth, something which should only help to ensure that response to recruitment ads will, at the very least, come from a relevant audience.
The home page of the job section is nice and simply designed, ideally suited to the quick keyword search that also allows you to immediately streamline the results in relation to salary banding and location criteria. All pretty user friendly. I found the plethora of banners/buttons running down the right hand side of the page too numerous to serve any useful purpose, but in a site addressing itself to an industry that should appreciate the mantra "brand is king" then perhaps this barrage of logo's has some value in generating results.
I must admit to becoming a little confused when I used the advanced search option. When choosing your job category and sector the lists seem to start alphabetically and then, as far as I can tell, the structure falls apart. Perhaps these later descriptors are supposed to represent specific groups within the potential searches, but currently there's certainly room for confusion. But overall the delivery of the job search results were clean and effective, with enough headline information to assist you in deciding whether you want to read on or not. Something that did intrigue me however was the volume of introductory copy some Consultants choose to put before their ads. Whilst a small introduction might be nice most people wouldn't expect to be scrolling off the page to find the advert they wanted to read.
Tools on offer There don't seem to be too many opportunities for raising an adverts profile on the site above that of the rest, making it particularly hard if your vacancy doesn't fit nicely within one of the job titles or sector areas provided. From both a client and a personal perspective I think I'd prefer to see the home page buttons used more effectively by reducing the number and increasing the opportunity to flag specific vacancies from the home page. That said, with the 100% registered user base it's a site that knows its traffic and job seekers, which should mean its email alert facility will be a highly targeted and thus successful tool.
Try at home trial No real problems here thanks to the overall design being nice and simple.
Strengths & weaknesses The depth and breadth of the main site makes the job section highly relevant for recruiting in any of the core markets that the site covers and due to this, as long as it maintains its relevance and thus its subscriber base, it's got to be well on the way to establishing itself as the first port of call for recruiting active job seekers from these marketing sectors. The ease of use and clean delivery works very much in its favour, although I think there's plenty of scope for MAD to develop the sophistication of the advance job search without compromising this. In summary it's a solid targeted site, but it would be nice to see a little further investment in the job section.
Job board reviews are written by Alex Hens, Head of New Media for 33 - Recruitment Communications Specialists. Alex has recently joined 33 to help develop the New Media edge to their recruitment solutions. He has extensive experience in delivering practical recruitment solutions utilising both online media and interactive products within the wider recruitment marketing mix. You can contact him on 020 7404 3323, visit www.thirtythree.co.uk or email to: alex@thirtythree.co.uk
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Hayes Marketing is a recently new business catering specifically for the recruitment industry. Borne out of the realisation that many companies still don't have a strong marketing presence internally, Hayes Marketing (www.hayesmarketing.co.uk) provides that area of expertise by being your missing cog in the business wheel. Working closely with their clients they offer innovative, creative and effective communications both internally and externally. These communication solutions enable you to maximise and optimise your message to your target audience. From PR and Advertising to Marketing Strategy, we will work as an extension to your company to develop those areas to promote your business effectively within your marketplace. So phone Megan Hayes now for your FREE 1 hour consultation on 07812 559171 or email enquiries@hayesmarketing.co.uk
=======================
*****JAMES CHAPMAN'S REVIEW - CVPOSTER.COM*****
Sectors: Generalist, Subdivided into 38 Sectors.
Target candidate level: ABC1 candidates, which I took to mean anyone with a couple of years experience upwards.
Site Launched: July 2001
Number of CV's held: c10,000 - however these are all either new or have asked to stay on the database within the past 4 weeks.
Most Popular Sectors: * IT - Less than 30% * Engineering * Sales * Management * Telco * Banking and Finance
Site Marketing: All online through advertising on Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Altavista, Google etc.
How to Subscribe: By telephone - 01420 561 266. You will then be given a dedicated Account Manager.
Feedback after registering: Through your account manager.
How is the database cleaned?: All CV's are kept for a maximum of one month, during which time candidates are asked several times if they want to remain on the database. Any candidate wishing to stay live on the database for longer must log in and say so.
Costs: £450 per annum or £135 for three months access.
Who's in charge?: Ian Burrows and Jeremy Matheson, both with backgrounds in online Job Boards - Ian in Marketing and Jeremy in Sales
Summary: The site has two main functions. Firstly it operates as a CV Database that holds details of candidates who are currently looking for work. All CV's are less than a month old or have been updated / re-submitted within the past four weeks. Secondly, recruiters receive sector specific CV's via email the moment they are added to the database. The CV's are sent in text format, which can then be downloaded in Rich Text form for storage and processing to recruiter databases and on to clients. With CV's coming in one at a time they are easy to review and save or scrap. The benefit for the recruiter in both cases is that they are only seeing CV's of candidates who are definitely interested in finding a new job.
The site is simple to use, though seemed possibly a bit simplistic. This is probably due to the fact that there are only around 10,000 CV's to search at any one time, so being too precise could start to throw up Zero results. With this in mind it is important not to lose sight over what this service is about - up to the minute details on sector and skill specific candidates who are looking for work now.
At the equivalent of £37.50 per month for CVPoster.com I wouldn't stop using the larger CV databases, but would use it as a good quality, effective secondary supplier of candidates.
Overall marks out of ten: 8
Recommendation: It's cheap at twice the price, so give it a go for a few months.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site www.brsglobal.com or by calling 0870 748 4110.
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=======================
*****ARTICLE - HOW CAN I USE ONLINE TOOLS TO GET TARGETED TRAFFIC TO MY RECRUITMENT WEB SITE?, BY HOTLIZARD*****
A common complaint amongst recruitment companies is that they get limited or no traffic to their site and the Internet isn't really working for them.
One of the most forgotten elements of the web site equation is its marketing and the measurement of it's success. It isn't the easiest job in the world to differentiate your site in a sea of online recruitment sites but there are some techniques that you can implement which make it much easier to be found by the profile of visitors that you are trying to attract.
Some of the basics are to ensure that your metatags, description and copy accurately describe what you do and your specialist market sectors. The more specific you are the better as the words 'jobs' and 'recruitment' are just too generic whereas 'accounting jobs in leeds' is more effective. Working on these areas in combination with regular search engine submissions will help your positioning with most of the major search engines.
However, being number 20 in the search engine listing for your chosen phrase isn't much use as most visitors are unlikely to get past the first page of results. The ideal position to be in is obviously number one, or failing that, two or three. The answer is to supplement this activity with a more direct approach.
There are two main routes to achieving this and neither of them involve parting with thousands of pounds per month - a common misconception is that big companies pay huge sums to achieve their search engine supremacy.
The first is to employ a specialist search engineering company that will tweak, tune and optimise your site and keywords to place you in the top listings. The cost of this typically includes a set up fee and then monthly payments thereafter. Some specialists don't even charge until you have seen results.
The second is to bid to be listed in the top search engine positions, using a pay per click service. Again there is a set-up fee but you only pay when a visitor actually enters your site from a link on the search engine listings page. For many search engine words and phrases, this is as little as 5p per visitor, a small price to pay for targeted traffic.
For further information on how to get more results out of your web site, please contact Joanna Ratcliffe on 01264 730300, email sales@hotlizard.net or visit www.hotlizard.net.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
*****RESEARCHER'S TIP NUMBER TWO, BY CHRIS MALCOLM, DEANSA*****
Once a month we'll be giving a quick tip on managing a successful research project.
What is the size of my potential candidate universe and how can I make it workable?
Too many researchers assume the larger the universe of potential candidates the easier their task, when in fact the opposite is true. If your universe parameters are too large then your client will always wonder if there isn't just one more better candidate waiting to be found. If, on the other hand, you make your search as specific as possible; find every individual that meets the spec; and supply that list to your client; you will have a satisfied customer. The questions to ask yourself are: Which companies should I be looking in? What are my geographic constraints? What is the experience level? and What additional specific skills should I be looking for?
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 07074 449 449 or by e-mail at enquiries@deansa.com.
*****LEGAL ARTICLE - FIXED TERM EMPLOYEES: WILL YOUR COMPANY BE IN A FIX?, FOX WILLIAMS*****
Fixed term employees make up a large proportion of workers in the recruitment industry. Employers and recruiters now have until 1 October 2002 to familiarise themselves with the Fixed-Term (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002 to ensure they limit any exposure to claims from employees. There are a number of factors to consider before deciding whether a fixed-term employee has a potential claim:
Employee or Worker? Only employees who work under a contract of employment are covered by the Regulations. Although there was initial opposition to the proposed exclusion of workers from the Regulations (such as agency workers) the Regulations in their current form only protect employees.
Less Favourable Treatment Fixed-term employees should not to be treated less favourably than a comparable permanent employee, unless such treatment can be objectively justified. When deciding whether a fixed-term employee has been treated less favourably, particularly in terms of pay or other benefits (including pensions), the employers and employees may either look at the conditions on a "term by term" basis or they may look at the overall package. "The pro-rata principle" may also be used so that the fixed-term employee receives such proportion of that pay or benefit as is reasonable in the circumstances.
Who is the comparator? A comparison should be made with a permanent employee to establish whether a fixed term employee has received less favourable treatment. An employee is comparable to a fixed-term employee if both employees are engaged in the same or similar work, with, where relevant, similar levels of qualification and skills.
Successive Fixed-Term Contracts Successive fixed-term contracts may be used if they are limited to four years. Longer fixed- term contracts are permitted if they are justified on objective grounds. If a fixed-term contract is renewed after four years, it will be treated as a "contract of indefinite duration".
Redundancy Waiver Fixed-term employees may no longer waive their rights to a statutory redundancy payment. Any redundancy waiver included in a fixed-term contract which is agreed, extended or renewed after 1 October 2002 will be invalid.
Claims and Remedies A fixed term employee will now have the right not to be unfairly dismissed and also the right not to be subjected to a detriment. Crucially, this right not to be unfairly dismissed will arise as soon as the employee starts work and the usual minimum period of continuous employment of one year does not apply. If an employee brings a claim under the Regulations a Tribunal may award a declaration, compensation or recommend action to prevent further infringements of the rights of fixed-term employees. Compensation will be unlimited in respect of the employee's loss, subject to the duty to mitigate.
Conclusion Employers and recruiters would be well advised to review the contracts of fixed-term employees and re-assess whether it is still advantageous to employ staff on a fixed term basis in view of the new rights introduced by the Regulations.
Louise Fernandes is an employment lawyer at City law firm Fox Williams and can be contacted for further information at lfernandes@foxwilliams.com
****DON'T MISS THIS****
RECRUITMENT CONSULTANT OF THE YEAR AWARD AT CIMA ANNUAL CONFERENCE, 12-13 NOVEMBER 2002, LONDON CIMA (the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) are holding their annual conference and business expo on the 12th and 13th November. The CIMA Financial Management Awards Dinner, on the 12th November showcases "the commitment, talent and skills of individuals and organizations". You currently have the opportunity to nominate your companies' achievements free in the Recruitment Consultancy of the Year Award. To nominate your company, exhibit or attend the event visit http://www.cimaevent.com, email cimaevent@ppltd.co.uk or call 0207 880 7551.
UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM Don't forget to visit our discussion forum - http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl. Current topics on the site include recruiting recruitment consultants, the channels jobseekers use to find employment and the use of ad agencies by corporates. Visit the site, learn from others and share your expertise!
Welcome to issue 93 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. Don't forget to check out our new recruitment anecdotes feature - if you've got one you'd like to share please send it in and you could win a "goodie bag".
CONTENTS
Reviewed Site (Sky News)
Recruitment Anecdotes feature
Alan Whitford - Recruitment Technologies (iCAMS, HazelWeb Systems)
Article (HR-XML & CV Normalisation, by Doctrina)
Don't Miss This (September Recruitment Networking Event - Recruitment Industry
Awards Dinner 2002 - CIPD Conference at Harrogate - UK Recruiter Discussion
Forum - Free CV Database Access) Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.skynews.co.uk
For a straightforward way to keep up with current news stories why not try the Sky News site.
On the home page of the site there are the headlines of the main news stories with links to the full article. Down the left hand side of the page is a list of topics including, money, showbiz and health. Each section has a top story and then a list of other current news articles. There are also sections for weather and travel information.
By clicking on the radio button on the left hand side you can listen to the latest news bulletin - which is updated every hour between 6am and midnight. The site also has a number of web cams. These cover a number of tourist attractions across the UK and a few sporting venues (such as London Eye and Gleneagles).
The BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/) also provide excellent coverage but I find the site a bit cluttered and access seems to have slowed down lately.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
For excellence in recruitment web site design, development and marketing HotLizard is the premier supplier to the recruitment industry and to staffing and HR departments. Whether you are looking to re-develop your online recruitment offering from scratch, add fresh design concepts and functionality to an existing presence or market your site effectively to your target audience, HotLizard can provide you with a professional and cost effective solution. For more information, please contact Joanna Ratcliffe on 01264 730300 or email joanna.ratcliffe@hotlizard.net. You can also view further information on HotLizard and some of our reference sites at www.hotlizard.net.
========================
RECRUITMENT ANECDOTES
This is the first of a new feature of "recruitment anecdotes". We thought we'd add a touch of light-heartedness to the ukrecruiter newsletter by sharing your funny stories. This true story was sent in by "ES of a Birmingham based recruitment company".
My colleague had a Software Developer contract vacancy that he was eager to fill and had a couple of great CVs lined up for the client. One of the contractors had a great career history; he had recently worked in a similar environment and had excellent knowledge of the market. His programming skills were second to none and he was spot on for the job. The client came back quickly with feedback and an interview was set up for this particular guy.
On the day, the candidate arrived in good time and had been fully briefed on the job and the company. Within ten minutes, the client called my colleague and said they wouldn't be taking the application any further as they didn't feel the candidate was a "team fit". My colleague couldn't believe it - he had spoken to the candidate personally and he seemed fine. He was chatty and personable and he certainly had the skills and experience to do the job with no problems.
On further questioning of the client, it seemed that there was one fatal flaw with the contractor, he turned up dressed in women's clothing!
If you've got an original and funny recruitment related incident you'd like to share; CV gaffs, bizarre interviews, etc, please email us If we publish it in the newsletter we'll reward you with a special internet recruitment goodie bag!
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - HAZELWEB SYSTEMS - ALAN WHITFORD*****
I hope that everyone is back to work, kids are off to school and we are all ready to make the 4th quarter of 2002 a big one. Today, I have returned to looking at one of the technology offerings available to help in the quest for automation of some of the recruitment processes.
HazelWeb Systems (www.hazelweb.co.uk ) was established in 1997 by Jeremy Ovenden to develop enterprise-level, web-based recruitment software. HazelWeb is the company behind iCaMS (Internet Candidate Management System), an application that has been implemented at a number of blue chip UK clients and is managing the information of more than 120,000 candidates world-wide.
iCaMS is an end-to-end recruitment management system, underpinning all recruitment activities from the initial raising of a job requirement through to the generation of contracts of employment. It does this by harnessing the power of the internet to link together all parties involved in the recruitment process. Through advanced candidate relationship management features, candidates and employers can interact with one another using the internet as the medium and the employer's careers web site as the 'recruitment engine'.
iCaMS is divided into 3 major modules: * Employer Careers Web Site A customer branded web site featuring the career opportunities and specific vacancies that the customer is offering. Updated in real-time by recruiters via user-friendly, customisable job-posting templates. May be presented in any language the customer chooses - all messages and page texts are soft-coded. * Candidate Tracking Complete candidate management module, linked directly to the Careers Web Site or Graduate Application form or both. When a candidate applies for a job via the internet, their information is instantly available in the Candidate Tracking system with details of the candidate and the job(s) that have been applied for. This is the start of the Candidate Tracking process. Candidates can also be entered into the database by hand if required. * Graduate recruitment on-line application management Generic functionality such as system configuration and administration modules and enquiry screens/report-writers support the three major modules.
Core Features
* Post jobs to corporate jobs web site
* Corporate jobs web site may run in any language you choose
* Search for jobs using drop-down lists, dates, free text, and reference numbers
* Candidates can register for job bulletins
* Candidate CVs can be uploaded in any format
* Candidates can apply on-line with details of applicant routed to correct recruiter/manager
* Fully-searchable candidate database, both free text and 'structured' data
* Unlimited user-defined candidate tracking workflow steps
* Unlimited user-defined e-mail correspondence
* Bulk operations on candidates (bulk e-mailings, status updates etc.)
* Unlimited candidate history tracking
* Automated duplicate candidate monitoring with merge option
* Service Level Adherence, to avoid losing candidates
* Hard-copy letter generation support
Additional Features
ListBuilder Tool for defining Candidate database search criteria and producing a list that can then be used for one of the following actions:
* Mass update of candidate statuses
* Generating an e-mail to all candidates using a standard e-mail text from the Email Library
* Generating an e-mail to all candidates using an ad-hoc email message typed by the user
* Send the list of candidates to another system user (generates an email notification to this effect)
* The candidate history of all candidates is updated to show the revised status and/or details of any email sent
* Searches on the database using ListBuilder by default only return those candidates who are 'live'
Self-regulating Candidate Database Database is kept 'fresh' by monitoring profile start & end dates in the database and notifying candidates when their data needs to be updated
Technical Requirements iCaMS is built entirely using Oracle technology, taking advantage of Oracle's highly performant PL/SQL stored procedures. The system is 100% web-based, using a simple, fast HTML client throughout. iCaMS can be deployed on any platform on which Oracle8i is certified to run.
Deployment methods.
* Licensed - iCaMS can be supplied as a packaged software product for installation on your company's own server. This puts you fully in control of the service delivery environment and enables you to perform integration and customisation software projects with no constraints.
* ASP (Application Service Provider)- A sister company, hireserve.com Ltd., provides a complete turnkey solution for implementing iCaMS. By adopting this method, companies can implement iCaMS in a few days and only pay for the period of time they use the system.
Good luck to everyone and Happy Recruiting!
For more information or to contact Alan Whitford please call the Abtech Partnership on (0)1451 850811 or (0)797 1864620.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Fast, easy and effective recruiting!
Are you responsible for your company's recruitment needs? Are you looking for a fast and effective way of filling your positions?
GoJobsite, winner of the National Online Recruitment Awards gives recruiters the ability to post vacancies online via their credit card. Simply click on the link below to get started and your vacancy will be available to 1.3 million job hunters within minutes. http://www.gojobsite.co.uk/cgi-bin/campaign.cgi?tid=2024
=======================
*****ARTICLE - HR-XML & CV Normalisation, DOCTRINA *****
There have been a number of articles in the recruitment press recently about HR-XML, its objectives, structure, and potential benefits to the recruitment industry. This is a subject very close to my heart as I work in a software company that spends a large proportion of its time 'integrating' data capture applications with recruitment sector client's existing, proprietary, front and back office systems.
Apart from any technical considerations of the format itself, the bottom line is that HR-XML is the only, non proprietary, universal, candidate information exchange format available and as such will inevitably become accepted by most of the industry.
So the question is now not so much 'if' you will use HR-XML; but 'Where'?
Although HR-XML is a very good 'standard' for exchanging HR related information, it is not necessarily the best format for storing and processing that information within specific front or back office systems. The reason for this is also HR-XML's one weakness in that by trying to serve every HR sector, and in every country, the data records can become bloated with information that is seldom required by day-to-day line-of-business processes.
Line-of-business applications will, for the foreseeable future, continue to use 'abstracts' from the full information available in an HR-XML record; and continue to use internal database formats optimised for searching and processing that information in real-time (MS-SQL, Oracle, Access, etc).
I believe the answer to 'Where' we should use HR-XML is to store the Primary Candidate Information Record [ PCIF ] - which will be the central repository for all information required by all the other 'line-of-business' systems we use.
The start of the primary candidate information record will be the candidates CV which should provide most of the core HR-XML related information such as personal details, contact details, education / qualifications / work permits, work history, etc.
More to the point the candidate CV is the 'mechanism' by which we all currently communicate information about the candidate, and as HR-XML is designed for the communication of candidate information - using it for communicating CVs is the obvious answer to 'Where' first to use HR-XML.
The first steps will be to 'normalise' existing candidate CVs into HR-XML format, and then to encourage the communication of CVs in HR-XML. This does not mean that we will all have to be able to 'read' in HR-XML, but that the candidate CVs core information is made available in HR-XML, in addition to the traditional CV document.
Once CVs are available with a normalised HR-XML data file there will be no requirement to manually transcribe every CV you receive in to your own proprietary in-house candidate matching / booking systems, or your payroll / accounts system, as these will provide a direct HR-XML import facility to completely automate the process. Similarly I will not spend a third of my time writing bespoke data translation modules, as all our client's systems will, hopefully, be able to speak HR-XML for free.
Author Stuart Mail is CEO of Doctrina Ltd who supply candidate and timesheet data capture solutions to the recruitment industry. Contact No 08700 131821, www.doctrina.co.uk
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - http://www.planetrecruit.com
Simply the BEST AND BIGGEST UK JOB SITE - the only major all-sector online recruitment service to ***exclusively*** serve recruitment agencies.
========================
****DON'T MISS THIS****
26TH SEPTEMBER 2002, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
After another highly successful networking evening on the 29th August (you can see photo's at www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk!) we've scheduled our next event for Thursday 26th September 2002. September's event is being generously sponsored by Safe Solutions (www.safesolutions.co.uk) who will be buying the first round of drinks and providing a buffet. Places are limited, so you must register in advance if you want to attend - http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. Hope to see you there!
11TH OCTOBER 2002, RECRUITMENT INDUSTRY AWARDS DINNER 2002, PARK LANE HILTON, LONDON
The Recruitment Industry Awards Dinner is taking place on Friday 11th October 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/conf2002.htm or call the Events Team on 020 7462 3280.
23-25 OCTOBER 2002, CIPD ANNUAL CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION, HARROGATE
If you're interested in keeping up to date on the latest HR strategies and issues you should consider attending the CIPS Annual Conference and Exhibition. There are over 30 seminars featuring over 100 speakers from the world's top business schools and leading organisations. Subjects covered include people management, business performance and strategic development issues. There is also a free exhibition with over 300 people management and development suppliers. For more information visit http://www.cipd.co.uk/annualconference or call 0870 429 4479/
UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM
Don't forget to visit our discussion forum - http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl. Current topics on the site include recruitment rates in publications, assessment centres and online job sites. Visit the site, learn from others and share your expertise!
FREE CV DATABASE ACCESS, JOBSEARCH & JOBTRACK Rexonline are offering recruitment agencies free access to the Jobsearch and Jobtrack CV databases for one day anytime during September. The free access will allow you to search the CV databases and download the details of any matching candidates completely free of charge. To take advantage of the offer email fiona.davies@rexonline.co.uk or phone 0845 130 4422.
Welcome to issue 94 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. Please support the newsletter advertisers by visiting their sites - and if you do contact them make sure you say where you saw their details!
CONTENTS
Reviewed Site (virus hoaxes)
Researcher's Tip (I've found my target company. How can I zero in on that
perfect candidate?)
Job Board Review (Telegraph by Alex Hens)
Alan Whitford - Recruitment Technologies (SRM Vitae)
Article (New Data Protection Code Could Make Every Recruitment Web Site a
Lawbreaker, 4mat.com)
Recruitment Anecdotes feature
Don't Miss This (September Recruitment Networking Event - Discount on Power
Motivation Seminar - Discount on Recruitment Healthcheck - UK Recruiter
Discussion Forum - Cash Friday Top Temp Awards) Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
I originally reviewed these two sites over a year ago, in issue 67, however, with the ever increasing number of viruses and hoaxes I thought the subject worth revisiting.
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html and http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp? are two sites that contain information on virus hoaxes. The next time you get a virus warning in an email you can use one of these sites to check if it's legitimate. Simply scroll down the list of hoaxes where you will see the hoax name and the text of the hoax message. Once you have determined the email is a hoax you should follow the sites advice and "ignore any messages regarding this hoax and do not pass on messages." Passing on messages about the hoax only creates further confusion. These sites also contain information about dealing with real email viruses.
However it is also important to note that virus writers can use known hoaxes to their advantage allowing them to distribute destructive programmes attached to the original hoax virus warning. Therefore, it is important to never open an email attachment unless you know what it is - even if it appears to come from someone you know.
With new virus warnings arriving in your in-box on a regular basis it pays to be well informed - and these are certainly the sites to keep you up to date.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Doctrina launches its evolutionary CV data extraction system. edoCV can create candidate profiles approximately 10 times faster than conventional manual processing, with virtually 100% accuracy. Doctrina has used its extensive knowledge and experience in the recruitment and temp agency sectors to apply NLP (Natural Language Processing) technology to the extraction and standardisation of key information from unstructured CV's. The new system also manages the data integration of the extracted CV information into virtually any agency candidate data storage and retrieval system(s) or standardised CV formats. For more information, visit www.doctrina.co.uk.
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*****RESEARCHER'S TIP NUMBER THREE, BY CHRIS MALCOLM, DEANSA*****
Once a month we'll be giving a quick tip on managing a successful research project.
Question 3. I've found my target company. How can I zero in on that perfect candidate?
Before you start, make a list of who it is you are looking for. This is not the job description your client furnished you with. Do not burden yourself with attributes such as "team player", "energetic" or even "education". These can all be looked at later. For now we need to find people who presently either do the job required or are able to move up and into it. First, make sure that you really do understand the job your candidate will be asked to perform. Use a colleague and describe a typical working day. Keep at it until you truly do understand the attributes required. Try to visualise the work environment and ask yourself these questions: 1. Do I have a job title (remember many companies in the same industry have different titles for the same position, and where in one company a Vice President may do the job, in another company he/she may not be qualified). 2. Do I know the division or area? 3. Who would my target report to? (are they better qualified for the job?) 4. Who would report to my target? (are they maybe the ones to target?) 5. Does he/she move between areas?
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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Do you want to.............................
Get a head start on your competition?
.............. you can with Talisman the dynamic, new generation recruitment software
To find out how watch your email for more information or contact Helen at: Beacon on 01582 478 888, email: helen@recruitment-software.net
========================
*****JOB BOARD REVIEW - TELEGRAPH.CO.UK, BY ALEX HENS*****
Telegraph.co.uk job boards: http://www.Jobs.Telegraph.co.uk & http://www.BusinessFile.co.uk
Key Stats Unique Users: 65,000 (51,000 & 14,000 respectively) Registered Users: 52,000 (44,000 & 8,000 respectively) Page Impressions: 1.05Million Job Alert Registrations: 65,000 Most Advertised Roles <£55k (by Industry): Engineering and Manufacturing Most Advertised Senior Roles (£55k+): Consultancy and Insurance
What the site says "The Telegraph was the first newspaper in the UK to go online with the launch of the Electronic Telegraph in 1994 and was re-launched as telegraph.co.uk in the year 2000. The blue print site was Sport.Telegraph.co.uk that won Website of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2001. With over 6 years' experience in online recruiting, Jobs.Telegraph aims to offer a wide variety of jobs quickly and accurately to potential candidates. A partnership with Hotrecruit and our own Businessfile.co.uk site means that the full range of jobs are on offer, from temporary and part time to MD and Chief Executive."
First impressions First off I have to come clean - most days I use Telegraph.co.uk as one of the sources for my daily dose of news so you can probably take it as read that I'm comfortable with the overall format and structure of the site which in general I find uncluttered, easy on the eye and pretty intuitive - a design structure I'm glad to say follows through into the job section.
The brand itself is inevitably going to come with some baggage and preconceptions, however the Telegraph has worked hard to develop an online brand that has expanded the audience reach beyond their "stereotypical reader". Looking at the list of vacancies carried as well as the breakdown of the registered users helps to demonstrate this - so whilst the site will always have its fair share of engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and sales vacancies, it's also carrying, and being searched on, types of positions that you wouldn't necessarily have expected to see in the print product.
For the visitor there are plenty of options with some excellent functionality, but on entering Jobs.Telegraph.co.uk the eye is drawn immediately to the Quick Search facility in the centre screen helping ensure that even the most inexperienced of online job seekers isn't lost before giving the site a try.
Tools on offer Under the Quick Search section there are a number of clearly positioned tabs that will give you access to further tools to help the visitors search, and I have to say that I'm a fan of the manner in which the Advance Search select boxes are delivered smoothly within the same page. Changing the screen or the composition of a page can often leave the visitor feeling more lost than they need to, whereas this approach ensures it's a function that will be interpreted as a tool to aid their job search and not to confuse it, even by the most green of job hunters.
I also like the Matrix Search. Whether it actually saved me time searching for relevant jobs I'm not sure, but it just made me feel that it did. It felt as if I wasn't wasting my time searching to come up with a no result as in effect I could look first. Perhaps a bit of an illusion, but it was nice to have the option of using a different kind of search tool.
As an advertiser I think there's probably a benefit in using a site that has been well designed outside the recruitment world with the extra resource and experience that this can bring. There are some good button and banner spots that lend themselves to effective branding and traffic generation, as well as other touches like the "Jobs Ticker" that I imagine might also prove quite eye catching to the visitor. And then there's the rest of the site. If you've got a major campaign to break and you know your target audience then there's got to be something in the Telegraph's extensive range of targeted channels that might just get the attention of those few passive candidates that can make the difference between an adequate and a spectacular result.
And then there's BusinessFile.co.uk. Specifically focussed on the £55k+ employment market (following the "pink pages" section in print) this effectively offers advertisers targeting of candidates in terms of salary expectation. I would imagine this would be particularly beneficial where advertisers are reluctant to display any sort of salary indication on the advert. With the same key functionality and easy design as the main section it's a nice addition to the overall offering.
Strengths & weaknesses With a solid main site offering (in the form of a multiple award winning online publication backed by a massive traditional media brand) it's a well-designed site that's easy to use. And rather than trying to be all things to all people it offers a reciprocal link to another recruitment site that provides part-time, temporary and "younger" jobs (namely HotRecruit) - quite a clever move to maintain the users affinity with the Telegraph brand without too much cross-over. Its part ownership of handbag.com also provides a further source of "non-Telegraph" traffic. It's certainly done well as "the online Appointments section of the Telegraph" and "the jobs section of Telegraph.co.uk", so it'll be interesting to see if Jobs.Telegraph.co.uk can develop its profile further within the wider recruitment site market place (if indeed that's its intention).
The feed from the paper adverts is always useful for a site's flow of adverts, but it can all too often result in a poor visitor experience when they get to the end result - the advert copy. Job.Telegraph.co.uk tries to compensate with good 'key information' structure at the top of the advert, but for many of the adverts the "scanning-in" of the body copy means that the potential candidate receives little in the way of useful or compelling additional information, and until either advertisers or Jobs.Telegraph.co.uk itself starts to take more consideration for the composition and content of online copy then the site runs the risk of having the appearance more of a jobs bulletin board rather than a more comprehensive job board.
In balance - it probably offers a slightly different mix of audience to your main job boards (including job browsers) and so with some very economical packages for advertising you might just be surprised that your candidate was a Telegraph reader after all.
Job board reviews are written by Alex Hens, Head of New Media for 33 - Recruitment Communications Specialists. Alex has recently joined 33 to help develop the New Media edge to their recruitment solutions. He has extensive experience in delivering practical recruitment solutions utilising both online media and interactive products within the wider recruitment marketing mix. You can contact him on 020 7404 3323, visit www.thirtythree.co.uk or email to: alex@thirtythree.co.uk
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
For excellence in recruitment web site design, development and marketing HotLizard is the premier supplier to the recruitment industry and to staffing and HR departments. Whether you are looking to re-develop your online recruitment offering from scratch, add fresh design concepts and functionality to an existing presence or market your site effectively to your target audience, HotLizard can provide you with a professional and cost effective solution. For more information, please contact Joanna Ratcliffe on 01264 730300 or email joanna.ratcliffe@hotlizard.net. You can also view further information on HotLizard and some of our reference sites at www.hotlizard.net.
========================
*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - SRM VITAE- ALAN WHITFORD*****
Today we are looking at one of the newer entrants to the recruitment software space, Staffing Relationship Management, the producers of the Vitae recruitment software package for recruitment consultants and HR professionals. The latest revision of Vitae, 3.7, has added a host of new features such as improved summary panes and candidate re-skilling along with improved performance and usability. The web site (www.srmvitae.com) has been updated with a new look to match the Vitae product range, provides more content and improved support details.
Built around Microsoft technologies, and with a simple and intuitive Outlook style interface, it automates the tasks and procedures required throughout the recruitment process. From importing candidates CV's and job specifications, through managing relationships and automating activities, to matching and tracking candidates with consistent workflows, Vitae ensures that the professional recruiter can spend their time doing just that - recruiting. Vitae is configured to replicate the users' existing processes, making it very simple to use. It is scaleable from one to many thousands of users and is fully web enabled for external consultants, clients and candidates.
SRM states that the approach for agencies with Vitae is one of Customer Relationship Management. The Recruitment Consultancy agency can manage customers, candidates, suppliers and even other agencies. Vitae utilises dynamic alerts to inform the recruiter of upcoming and overdue tasks. Reports for the whole team include activities that have been performed, by whom, when and how long they've taken.
DOCUMENTS: Vitae will track all relevant documents and hold them against the appropriate records, whether they are candidate CVs, Job Specifications or simply an interview location map. Vitae will creates the candidate record on the database by extracting their name, address, skills and qualifications from the CV. Even if you change the documents (such as modifying a CV for send out to a client), Vitae will track the changes and store them back for you.
MATCHING: One of the strongest features SRM claims for Vitae is its capability to perform intelligent job matching. Whereas most other products provide simple keyword matching, Vitae knows how to match vacancies against candidates or candidates against vacancies in a more accurate way. Vitae knows about the relationships between skills, qualifications, different industry types and can take them all into consideration to give you a simple prioritised list of the best potential matches.
ACTIVITIES: Activities provides a way of automating common tasks in Vitae. Business processes activities in Vitae are fully customisable without the need for scripts, programming or bespoke code. Activities can perform a whole series of complex tasks that would normally take the recruitment professional a significant amount of time. For example, a single activity can send a personalised e-mail to the HR department head and the vacancy manager about a whole series of candidates suitable for a vacancy and include a customised document about each along with their re-formatted CVs, then progress each of those candidates through the workflow.
WORKFLOW: Vitae tracks all this information and can progress candidates through the workflow in an automatic and streamlined fashion. You can see who is at what stage with what client easily, whether you are looking at the client, the vacancy or the candidate. The workflow in Vitae is easy to set up by the administrator and can be changed at any time as business practices change while reports can easily be run to examine how well the business is performing.
V.WEB: Vitae integrates with it's sister product V.web, a complete hosted content managed web site for recruitment agencies and corporates. Using a database-driven model that is fully customised to meet a company's style, V.web provides automated management of vacancy and candidate data with additional tools for simple on-line content management to ensure that the site is always up to date.
V.web can also be configured to provide secure areas enabling you to let your clients log in via a secure account and be presented with information specifically for them; such as vacancy and candidate status, reports and statistics.
Candidates can search and apply for your vacancies online and submit their CV's automatically over the web and their information will be brought back into Vitae on the desktop ready for matching or progressing through the workflow.
NEW VITAE RELEASE 3.7 Re-skilling: Since you may have to introduce new skills over time you can now have Vitae re-scan your CV's and create new or update existing candidate requirements (i.e. re-populate their skills on the database from the CV).
New Summary Information: The summary information displayed on the front page of the person and company screens has been improved to include recent activities, skills, qualifications, and progress so that the user doesn't have to move to other tabs to have an overall view of the person or company. Summary information has also been placed on Activities and Match results, again to make viewing easier.
Document Saving: There is now no need to save a file and re-import it into Vitae if you wish to make changes. Vitae will monitor any files and ensure that any changes are saved back to the database - even if you close Vitae.
Page Hiding: You can now hide pages on a user by user basis, so that if a user doesn't require a specific area of functionality (such as qualifications, or industries) they needn't see it.
For more information or to contact Alan Whitford please call the Abtech Partnership on (0)1451 850811 or (0)797 1864620.
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
Hayes Marketing is a recently new business catering specifically for the recruitment industry. Borne out of the realisation that many companies still don't have a strong marketing presence internally, Hayes Marketing (www.hayesmarketing.co.uk) provides that area of expertise by being your missing cog in the business wheel. Working closely with their clients they offer innovative, creative and effective communications both internally and externally. These communication solutions enable you to maximise and optimise your message to your target audience. From PR and Advertising to Marketing Strategy, we will work as an extension to your company to develop those areas to promote your business effectively within your marketplace. So phone Megan Hayes now for your FREE 1 hour consultation on 07812 559171 or email enquiries@hayesmarketing.co.uk
=======================
*****ARTICLE - NEW DATA PROTECTION CODE COULD MAKE EVERY RECRUITMENT WEB SITE A LAWBREAKER, 4MAT.COM *****
A new code of practice has recently been released and could effect every recruitment web site in the UK, possible leaving them open to prosecution.
The code is entitled 'The Employment Practices Data Protection Code' and has been released by the Information Commissioners Office, a body appointed by the Queen. The contents for the first time focus and interpret data protection law specifically for the recruitment industry. It is this new detail and attention to our industry that it is hoped will help the industry operate and develop more detailed, professional working practices.
The new code runs into 50 plus pages and among its requirements is that all web sites should provide a secure method for sending on-line applications. The code also makes other recommendations about candidate applications and the security behind the web site all of which make grim reading for any company not aware of or tackling the issues.
We recently surveyed 200 recruitment web sites and found that less than 1% met the guidelines. Most web sites failed to meet the guidelines is at least two and often three or four separate areas.
Whilst the guidelines themselves are not law they describe how the Data Protection Act is interpreted in the context of the recruitment industry. Therefore a prosecution would occur under the Act itself but the guidelines would be referred to for detail. In effect therefore a breach of the guidelines is a breach of the act.
More worryingly perhaps for agencies is that a number of corporates in the survey said they would reconsider using agencies that did not comply with the new guidelines. In a market that is already under pressure the threat of losing clients is the perhaps the greatest threat of all.
In summary this is an area that requires definite attention. Electing to do it yourself is no mean feat and requires finding the guidelines on the government site followed by a hard day of reading and a potentially costly communication exercise with a specialist lawyer. Beyond understanding the code actually fixing the problem is also difficult with very few web companies having invested the large sums of money as well as the time and effort required to build a product that address the guidelines.
At present 4mat leads the field in this area and by offering a free review of any recruitment web site to determine how it complies (or not) with the guidelines. For more information on the guidelines or for the free review service visit www.4mat.com/dataprotection or call 0207 721 7811.
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=======================
RECRUITMENT ANECDOTES
This true story was sent in by "DSP of a London based IT recruitment firm".
We had arranged a UK candidate interview with a client in Holland. The candidate was very keen and was briefed for an hour beforehand and was very excited by the job prospect. We arranged the flights and all was going according to plan. On the morning of the interview, we spoke with the candidate and he was on his way to the airport. At 2.00 the client phoned and said he had not showed up (the interview was at 1.30pm). We couldn't get through on his mobile so had to wait. Nothing. The client phoned back every hour and said he still hadn't showed. We called his home and nothing.
Fast forward two days. Candidate calls in and this is what happened: He arrived at the airport and was arrested after passing through passport control. He was put in jail for two days and only had one phone call with which he called his brother to arrange bail. It transpires he sold a car when he last left the country 4 years ago and it was not registered in the new users name and was used in multiple armed bank raids. He was handcuffed and lead by two armed police to the bank to raise the bail money and was finally released. We persuaded him to stay in the country and re-arranged the interview 3 days late. He didn't get the job.
If you've got an original and funny recruitment related incident you'd like to share; CV typos, bizarre interviews, etc, please email us. If we publish it in the newsletter we'll reward you with a special internet recruitment goodie bag!
****DON'T MISS THIS****
26TH SEPTEMBER 2002, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
Final reminder that we've got our next networking evening tomorrow - Thursday 26th September 2002. September's event is being generously sponsored by Safe Solutions (www.safesolutions.co.uk) who will be buying the first round of drinks and providing a buffet. You must register in advance if you want to attend - http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. Hope to see you there!
20TH NOVEMBER 2002, POWER MOTIVATION SEMINAR, LONDON - DISCOUNTED PLACES
Gavin Ingham, a well-known UK motivational and attitudinal speaker, will be delivering a one day seminar on the subject of "Power Motivation". The seminar will help you "motivate yourself and empower your recruitment team". The standard rate for the seminar is £195 + VAT, however they are offering a discount to ukrecruiter newsletter subscribers of £50. This brings the daily rate to £145 + VAT. To register or for more information email david@koach.net or phone 0870 011 7864 and quote "ukrecruiter".
UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM
Don't forget to visit our discussion forum - http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl. Current topics on the site include recruitment software, job boards and tracking down candidates. Visit the site; ask questions and give feedback!
RECRUITMENT HEALTHCHECK - DISCOUNT FOR UKRECRUITER SUBSCRIBERS
Enhance Media, online recruitment specialists, have developed a product to help recruiters maximise the effectiveness of the internet as a recruitment tool. The Recruitment Healthcheck provides recruiters with a detailed report specific to your company, with recommendations enabling you to increase the effectiveness of your corporate website and target candidates online through both job boards and additional online amrketing techniques. The Healthcheck is normally £495 + VAT, however Enhance Media are offering ukrecruiter readers a 10% discount which equates to a saving of £50. For more information visit www.enhancemedia.co.uk, email alastair@enhancemedia.co.uk or phone 020 7733 4825 and quote "ukrecruiter".
CASHFRIDAY TOP TEMP CONSULTANT AWARDS 2002
Nominations for CashFriday's Top Temp Consultant Awards close on the 21st October. To nominate someone for the award visit http://www.cashfriday.co.uk. Winners will receive 2 days breaks to Paris, Barcelona and Rome. The awards will be presented at Ministry of Sound on 22nd November 2002. For more information visit the website or call 020 7626 0022
Welcome to issue 95 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. Don't forget to email me any feedback on the newsletter or suggestions for sites to review or article subjects.
CONTENTS
Reviewed Site (FreeDirectories.com)
New Feature (Multiple Job Board Posting Tools by David Craig)
Job Board Review (Workthing by Alex Hens)
Article (Text Match? by Doctrina)
New Feature (Psychometric Tests by Bill Boorman)
Recruitment Anecdotes feature Don't Miss This (Recruitex - Beta testers for
evelo - October Networking Event - Beta testers for Web Page Controller - UK
Recruiter Discussion Forum)
Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.freedirectories.com
FreeDirectories.com is a site listing directories and databases that are free to access. You can search by country, industry, interest area or by keyword. The results show you the name of the directory, the "type" and the language of the directory. The types of directory include phone books, links pages, profiles, portals, etc. When I did a search I came across some useful directories I'd never heard of before. However, I also got some results back that were less useful - including a list of the top 100 independent food retailers from 1997. Only of value if you are after historical data.
The site covers a vast range of countries and subject areas and is worth looking at when starting research on an industry or job function.
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Do you want to............................. Protect & maximise your greatest asset? .............. you can with Talisman the dynamic, new generation recruitment software
To find out how contact Helen at: Beacon on 01582 478 888, email: helen@recruitment-software.net
See Talisman at Recruitex, New Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden - 15/16 October stand 32
========================
*****NEW FEATURE - MULTIPLE JOB BOARD POSTING TOOLS, DAVID CRAIG *****
I know from experience that posting to job boards can be a tricky business. If you are spending a lot of time posting to job boards you should consider talking to companies who provide a multiple job posting service. The idea behind this is that you fill out an online form with the relevant job information (title, location, description, etc) choose the job board(s) you want to post the vacancy to and press submit. Hey presto, the job is posted to one or more job boards and saved for future postings.
The services available also provide other useful features; some provide a tracking system so you can see how many applications each job board brought in and which vacancies were filled. This could be very useful information when you come to choose a job board in the future.
Another benefit is that you don't have to worry about the technicalities. The people who design the services, try their hardest to make them as user friendly as possible. Plus they are there to help you through the whole process. True, you have to set up user names and passwords with each of the job boards, but once you are over that hurdle you should in theory have a very convenient way of posting jobs.
I will be reviewing a few of the services available over the coming weeks. Any comments you have on the subject can be submitted in the UK Recruiter Discussion Forum (http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl)
David Craig, Fox Productions - http://www.foxproductions.co.uk
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
YOUR WEB SITE COULD BE BREAKING THE LAW ? The new Employment Practices Data Protection Code is aimed specifically at the recruitment industry and will mean 95% of all agency and corporate recruitment web sites are open to prosecution. With potentially unlimited fines and most sites breaching the new guidelines in at least one and often up to four separate areas this is an important issue to the recruitment industry. To receive advice on how to adhere to the guidelines and obtain a free consultancy review of your site visit www.4mat.com/dataprotection or call 020 7721 7811.
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*****JOB BOARD REVIEW - WORKTHING BY ALEX HENS*****
Key Stats Unique Users: 303,651 (July) Visits: 613,028 (July) Page Impressions: 4.3Million (July) Email Alert Registrations: 82,256 (July) Most vacancies carried (4th October 02): IT (6,236); Government/Non-Profit (2,385)
What the site says "In July 2000, Workthing became the UK's first complete 'employment network'. Workthing has a brand vision that helps us create a unique product which meets our target audience's needs better than any other. And according to NORAS, we deliver the most attractive candidate audience of all the major recruitment players: most likely to be both ABC1 (69%) and 25-44 (64%), most likely to have a degree or a professional qualification (52%), and concentrated in the £20-60k salary range (44%)."
First impressions The front page is very lively with 'in your face' use of colour and design. There is quite a bit going on in terms of images, buttons and interactive dropping boxes - however, I'd think it will go down well with the target audience.
The drop down boxes are clean and effective in aiding your navigation - certainly if you know which industry /employer you want to work in/for. The user is also offered quite a few different ways to get to the adverts, and anything that allows the potential candidate to feel empowered and speeds them to a point of conclusion has got to be a good thing. I personally found some of the search paths more successful than others, but perhaps this is as a result of Workthing appreciating that we all work in different ways and what works for me might not work for you.
Tools on offer I've always been a fan of the Workthing search technology, especially the manner in which your search criteria stay on the left of the screen - so rather than becoming overly intimate with the back button you can find a result and become more (or less) choosy with your criteria to provide the most relevant results. There's also the industry specific channels of employee information that seems to me to be as current and relevant as any of the advice sites out there and so should mean that Workthing isn't just the site of choice for those desperate to find a job.
As tools for the recruiter go, Workthing offers everything you would expect in terms of job alerts and a CV database, but has also really invested in the response management side of things too. With the full range of PeopleBank's technology at their disposal behind the scenes, Workthing have taken a further step in trying to establish itself as a complete online recruitment service provider - from job ads and CV's to a comprehensive recruitment management ASP, and just about everything in between.
Strengths & weaknesses As the recent demise of TopJobs.com has once again proved, having a nice looking site with some good functionality might not be enough in itself. The Workthing profile and backing is certainly a powerful base from which to offer their recruitment management ASP offering, but I think it's also important that they ensure their eye isn't taken off the job-site aspect of the ball. Workthing has developed its offering addressing a slightly more affluent, educated demographic and whilst I appreciate that to a recruiter quality of response is far more important than quantity, for many it can still be a bit of a numbers game.
In a market where it's increasingly hard for the candidate to separate the main job board contenders except by personal preference or habit, the fact that there is now one less just raises the stakes and urgency for the remaining providers to secure their foothold. And it would seem that Workthing are getting their approach right in this aspect according to my peers on recruitment website award panels. Last year saw them take IRNA's 'Best recruitment website' and this year they've been nominated in 2 categories for this years AllJobsUK.com NORA awards. So whilst I have to admit to sometimes finding the download time a little on the long side, a comprehensive offering that continues to deliver high quality results for the recruiter and a wealth of advertised vacancies for candidates on a nicely designed site should see Workthing continue with their recent user growth.
Job board reviews are written by Alex Hens, Head of New Media for 33 - Recruitment Communications Specialists. Alex has recently joined 33 to help develop the New Media edge to their recruitment solutions. He has extensive experience in delivering practical recruitment solutions utilising both online media and interactive products within the wider recruitment marketing mix. You can contact him on 020 7404 3323, visit www.thirtythree.co.uk or email to: alex@thirtythree.co.uk
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POWER MOTIVATION seminar A 'can't miss' opportunity to unlock the secrets of sales success for Recruiters arrives in London on 20th November.
Gavin Ingham, a leading UK motivational and attitudinal speaker, will deliver a unique and electrifying one-day motivational sales seminar. The cost for this fantastic one day event is only £195 and there's an excellent discount for the first 15 UK Recruiter subscribers who book tickets today. BOOK NOW! Call David at koach on 07960 167702 or email david@koach.net or visit the koach website for more details: http://www.koach.net/Power-Motivation.htm These seminars do sell out so book early!
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*****ARTICLE - TEXTING: FROM DATABASE TO TEXT MESSAGE, GEORGINA HALES - DOCTRINA*****
Texting capabilities on mobile phones were originally introduced as low-end functionality. The manufacturers never dreamed that the popularity and application of such a simple technology would become so wide spread.
In today's competitive recruitment industry, SMS texting provides a convenient and valuable delivery mechanism for agencies to inform candidates about suitable vacancies in a more discrete and immediate fashion, compared with phoning and emailing during working hours.
However, the issue for agencies wanting to improve their service levels to both clients and candidates is not in the delivery of information, but in the quality of information.
Employers and candidates alike continue to experience the frustration of being informed of unsuitable matches when traditional data mining technology has been used to assist the short-listing process. This technology is based on simple key word searches, but as anyone who has ever conducted a key word search on the web will know, you don't always get what you expect!!
As a result, the agency's cost of sale increases due to the excessive phoning, faxing, mailing and / or texting of irrelevant information to clients and candidates. In addition, the client's and candidate's perception of the agency is damaged, as they have failed to demonstrate a proper understanding of their requirements. The client loses out because they don't necessarily get to interview the most suitable candidates, and similarly waste time on interviewing the wrong type of candidate. The candidate also suffers, wasting time and money going for jobs that are not suitable and potentially missing out on more appropriate vacancies.
In recent times, advances in NLP (Natural Language Processing) technology have significantly improved the power of web search engines. The principle behind the technology is the adoption of contextual searching. NLP technology uses "syntactical" word matching algorithms that are far more accurate and selective, and can be applied to the extraction and standardisation of key information from unstructured CVs. The extracted information can be integrated into virtually any agency candidate data storage and retrieval system. It is possible with this technology to extract information such as "Sales" and put in the context of "Job function". Using multiples of these context searches within the criteria for a vacancy, the new search engines can shortlist candidates with much greater accuracy.
The benefits to the agency of adopting a more intelligent technology for short-listing include improved money and time savings, better customer service levels for clients and candidates, plus gaining competitive advantage. All that agencies need to do is move to the next phase of recruitment software to get their products to work a lot smarter and to apply the philosophy of harnessing existing technology to improve the different elements of the recruitment cycle, and in turn improve their quality of service.
Georgina Hales, Product Account Manager, Doctrina Limited www.doctrina.co.uk tel: 0870 0131821 email: georgina@doctrina.co.uk
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*****NEW FEATURE - PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS, BILL BOORMAN*****
MUMBO JUMBO OR MECHANICS - A REVIEW OF PSYCHOMETRICS
The term psychometric conjures up many images and thoughts in the minds of most recruiters, from those that believe that it is an absolute science to those who think it is absolute nonsense. As a recruitment practitioner, with over eighteen years of experience, I have mixed views as to the value of such tests as I believe that their usefulness only applies when you are certain what you are looking for from the test and how you are going to use the results.
At Prime Time we use a simple test that is computer or online based for three applications. Firstly, we use it in the traditional way for selection. Every candidate applying for a job is required to complete a profile at their first interview. The results are used to assist with selection and to present areas for consideration, both positive and negative, rather than as an outright selection tool. We also use the replies to identify areas that need further investigation at the second interview. I also find it useful to give the candidate a copy of the profile prior to the second interview and ask them to comment on any area where they strongly agree or disagree. I find that this helps to get the interviewee to talk about areas of discomfort and can be most revealing. Lastly, if I am interested in pursuing the applicant further, the profile that we use has a team application that can be combined with the results of the other staff to indicate how the potential new recruit will impact and interact with the existing team. Looking back on recruitment decisions we have made in the past, I have found this to be a particularly useful application, because if nothing else it makes me consider how the new employee will affect the team.
The downside of psychometric tests are that interviewees have a tendency to try to give the answer which they believe you as an employee are most likely to be looking for. Even in the most sophisticated test this can produce a compressed profile which is either difficult to interpret or can be misleading. As a benchmark to this I will from time to time test existing staff with six months service and compare their profile once they have the security of employment. This exercise helps to validate the tests and provide piece of mind that you are using the right profiler.
As another application I find that psychometric tests come into their own when used for development rather than selection purposes. When used for development, the pressure on the person sitting the test to give the right answer is much less than during an interview, and is certainly better received by the candidate completing the test. The results can then be used to highlight areas of development as well as identifying if training aimed at changing attitudes or perception has actually worked. The profiles can also be used to identify how making a member of a team the team leader or manager will change the team, as well as highlighting potential strengths and conflict areas. Whilst I use tests myself for these purposes they work because I know what I am looking for in the results. The tests themselves are not the magic wand that enables you to get it right every time (I have made plenty of mistakes to testify to that) however they are worth exploring.
When choosing which test is right for you, you should consider what you are looking for it to tell you, the ease of use, the speed of response, the cost and what training you are going to need to use it. During the next two months I will be reviewing a number of tests that are available on the market, from the most expensive that require qualifications and possibly a degree in psychology to understand and interpret, through to the simple based test, giving you my honest and balanced perception of their usefulness. As a recruiter rather than a scientologist I can only talk about what works for me and I would welcome any comments you may have about my conclusions.
Bill Boorman is National Training Manager for Prime Time Recruitment. http://www.primetime.co.uk
RECRUITMENT ANECDOTES
This true story was sent in by "RC of a London based search company ".
I received a prospective candidate's CV through the post the other say and the candidate said of himself:
"I wish to apply for the position of ******* and you will see from my details that I have all the requisite skills and experience necessary for the position, I work best within a team environment and am gaol orientated."
PS, it was not a job for a Prison Warden!!
If you've got an original and funny recruitment related incident you'd like to share; CV typos, bizarre interviews, etc, please email. If we publish it in the newsletter we'll reward you with a special internet recruitment goodie bag!
****DON'T MISS THIS****
15TH & 16TH OCTOBER 2002, RECRUITEX
There are a series of Recruitment and Staffing Forum seminars running over the course of the two day Recruitex exhibition. All seminars are free to attend. Seminar sessions include: Realising entrepreneurial spirit and retain the stars; Looking after the pennies, pounds and people; Developing business minds and Boosting Business Performance. Places should be booked in advance at http://www.gateway-events.co.uk/recruitex_2002/conference agenda.htm
If you are going to be at Recruitex on Tuesday 15th - don't forget that Gateway Events are hosting a drinks reception from 5.30pm after the close of the seminars. I'll be at Recruitex over the two days - so may see you there.
BETA TESTERS WANTED, EVELO FRONT OFFICE RECRUITMENT SERVICE
Pyplia Ltd are looking for recruitment companies interested in beta testing their new evelo recruitment service. There will be no costs involved and you don't need to have technical knowledge. This would be a good opportunity for a company looking to find a new recruitment data management system, free of charge. For more information contact Greg Wong on 020 7324 6060 or email greg.wong@pyplia.com
31st OCTOBER 2002, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON
Our next networking event is taking place on Thursday 31st October 2002. If you are a recruiter or work within the industry please register and come along - apart from having to buy your own drinks it's free to attend. More information, including photos of previous events, is available at http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. Hope to see you there!
UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM
Don't forget to visit our discussion forum - http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl. Current topics on the site include job boards, trainee recruiter positions and financial services recruitment. Visit the site; ask questions and give feedback!
Welcome to issue 96 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. Don't forget that we run free networking events every month especially for recruiters - more information is in the "don't miss this" section at the end of the newsletter.
CONTENTS
Reviewed Site (Companies House)
Review (Multiple Job Board Posting Tools - Jobmate, by David Craig)
Psychometrics Review (Online Belbin team role analysis, by Bill Boorman)
Researcher's Tip (How do I determine the correct level of experience?)
Recruitment Anecdotes feature
Don't Miss This (Factoring offer for recruiters - October Networking Event -
Free Multiple Job Board Posting Tool trial - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum)
Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.companieshouse.co.uk
The Companies House web site has two very useful free services on it where you can search their database of "Disqualified Directors" and the "Companies Name & Address Index". To access these you click on the "Company Information" link on the home page. To search the database of companies enter the company/branch name or company/branch number into the search fields and click on search (other options are given if you want to select dissolved names, proposed names, etc). If more than one match is found you can select from a list. The results show name and registered office, company number, date of incorporation, company type, SIC code, accounts information, previous names, etc. The database of disqualified directors works in a similar way. You enter the surname of the person you are looking for and click search. Again if more than one person with that surname is found you can select from a list. The name of the person is given along with address and disqualification dates. The reason for disqualification is also given as a code - click on the code to view a pop up information screen. The site also has links to search domain names on the Nominet UK Website and search the Trademarks Register on the Patent Office Website.
When I looked at this site for the first time two years ago the names and address index was only active between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday - they are slowly embracing the ethos of the internet as they are now active Monday to Saturday 7am to midnight! However, it is a very useful site.
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========================
*****MULTIPLE JOB BOARD POSTING TOOLS, DAVID CRAIG *****
Jobmate
Website Address www.jobmate.biz
Contact Details: Andrew Price - 01923 223319 or andrew.price@jobmate.biz
Costs from £450 per annum
Posts to 705 job boards
Jobmate was set up in April 2002 by Pier Technology, to provide an adaptable, cost- effective and time-saving job posting service.
Statistical reports include: The number of vacancy postings by user and/or team/division; response rate levels by vacancy/user and job board; and placements made by vacancy and job board. Brief reports can also be sent to your mobile phone via text message. The company also offers a web site design service that enables you to place a job search engine in your website so you can upload your jobs to your site as well as to the other job boards in one go.
Review: The benefit of the statistical reporting is that you can see who has posted specific jobs to which job boards, where the responses come from and if the positions were filled. It's up to you to click the box to state if the position was filled - and I know how busy some recruiters are! I found the layout of the online program uncluttered, but I wasn't totally sure where to go and what to do, in what order, to successfully post a job. However they do provide a telephone support service from 9am to 6pm (Monday to Friday). They also offer clients a dedicated Account Manager and Account Director. When I spoke to Jobmate they said that a recruiter should use the service if they are posting to more than one job board. I would say it might be a more practical service to utilise, if you are posting to five or more job boards at once. They also have a feature whereby you can post a job on a day and time of your choosing, just in case you are away sunning yourself in the Seychelles! This enables jobs to be posted outside of normal working hours, which will increase the chance of a vacancy being placed at or near the top of the internet job board, for when a jobseeker is drooling over their computer at the weekends and evenings.
In summary, although Jobmate is fairly new to the multiple job posting market, they are serious about what they do and the levels of service they provide.
Any comments you have on the subject can be submitted in the UK Recruiter Discussion Forum http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl
David Craig, Fox Productions - http://www.foxproductions.co.uk
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*****REVIEW - ON-LINE BELBIN TEAM ROLE ANALYSIS, BILL BOORMAN*****
I'm pleased to say that my last article introducing this series provoked some response in particular from John Burnell from Personnel Solutions who has asked me to point out some of the technical details behind the various test products we will be reviewing. If you would like to see the points he has made visit www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/psycho.htm so that you have access to all the information you need when making a choice on the right tool. Thanks for your comments John. If anyone else feels that they would like to add please feel free to contact me.
I would like to reiterate that I am reviewing the products submitted as a recruiter and trainer rather than a psychologist and I am most interested in how useful they will be to me in the recruitment process. In the process of reviewing the products I myself will complete a test questionnaires for each company. So here's my first review.
Belbin Associates - On-Line Belbin team role analysis Website: www.belbin.com Contact: Jo Keeler on 01223 264975 Cost: £25 per person (inc VAT) Applications: personal development, team building, selection and career development Additional information: takes on average 15 minutes to complete. No training is required (although they offer Belbin Accreditation Courses).
The questionnaire was straightforward and took about fifteen minutes to complete. I found the introduction pages a little difficult to navigate although the questionnaire was easy to use. If you are like me and do not read detailed instructions very well, you may find that you incorrectly complete the profile and have to start again (fortunately I picked this up before I finished). A verbal explanation would therefore also help. The questionnaire comprises of seven situations and asks you to award ten points between the responses. This can be done by awarding any combination from 0 to 10 across all of the responses given. The hardest part is making up your mind what to give as six to seven of the statements provoke a fairly strong response. Having completed the questionnaire I was somewhat sceptical about how the statements would produce a fair assessment of me that could be used for career counselling or selection.
Having completed the questionnaire you then have the option of adding a separate observers questionnaire, from someone that knows or manages you, to give a balanced result. This questionnaire was completely different in format and required the observer to tick a series of words that they felt best described you. There were a total of 45 words and you are allowed to award between 0 - 2 ticks to each word. 2 being most like the person being profiled. You can award a total of 33 ticks. There is a second list of 27 words where you follow a similar process. My observer commented that the difficulty they had in completing this was that they over awarded on similar words in the first section and found it difficult to award all the ticks in the second section.
And so to the report. I choose the career counselling option from Belbin. Many of you will be familiar with Belbin Team Role Model with the nine "team role types". I could see from the quality and accuracy of the report that I received how Dr. Belbin has earnt her reputation as a leader in her field. The report was easy to read and understand, presenting the results in a number of different formats and it pinpointed exactly a stage I am at in my own career and development. Had this been used independently it would have provoked a very worthwhile discussion over my future aspirations as well as highlighting some very real shortfalls that I need to consider and work on. The self-perception profile and observers profile gave some different results that again presented a good area for exploration. I found it difficult to argue against any of the points raised and would strongly recommend it in a training or selection environment.
At £25 for a report this is a well priced product and one that I found very useful. One comment would be that in order to use the assessors report I would recommend you undertake training if you are not already familiar with similar psychometric tests.
Bill Boorman is National Training Manager for Prime Time Recruitment (http://www.primetime.co.uk) and will be reviewing more psychometric test in future newsletters
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For a free trial visit http://www.planetrecruit.com/agency/
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*****RESEARCHER'S TIP NUMBER FOUR, BY CHRIS MALCOLM, DEANSA*****
Once a month we give a quick tip on managing a successful research project.
Question 4. How do I determine the correct level of experience?
As always when approaching these problems, keep it simple. Start out with a checklist of what your client has suggested for attributes that would reflect experience. Do not mix them up with job skills. Your client will usually suggest the normal parameters. These can have pitfalls attached that we must be wary of. They are:
1. Age is a good indicator but does not always tell the whole story. Candidate seems too old? Possibly had a previous unrelated career and now can offer life experience as an additional bonus. Too young? Before discarding make sure you're not overlooking the next "rising star".
2. Years in the business. Not enough? Watch out for previous job experience in related or unrelated industry. Quite often they are more closely related than they initially appear.
3. Job title is probably the biggest hurdle awaiting us in our search. Clients love to advertise the job title as though that describes everything. It is not the case. If, for example we look at the investment banking industry a few years ago, certain banks were handing out inflated titles to retain employee loyalty (and rumour has it, to reduce bonus payments). Additionally, job titles vary considerably from company to company within even the smallest industry.
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 07074 449 449 or by e-mail at enquiries@deansa.com.
****RECRUITMENT ANECDOTES****
This true story was sent in by KW of a London based recruitment and outsourcing company.
A colleague of mine was at a meeting with an IT Director to discuss a new requirement. The client had a large pile of CV's on his desk (somewhat dates the story!). He split the pile in two and dropped half of them into the bin under his desk. He then looked at my bemused colleague and said, "The last thing this company needs is unlucky people!"
If you've got an original and funny recruitment related incident you'd like to share; CV typos, bizarre interviews, etc, please email us. If we publish it in the newsletter we'll reward you with a special internet recruitment goodie bag!
****DON'T MISS THIS****
SPECIAL FACTORING OFFERS FOR UKRECRUITER NEWSLETTER READERS
Two factoring underwriters are currently offering specials to newsletter readers. One underwriter is offering discounted interest rate on advances. Instead of charging the usual 2% to 3% above base rate on advances they are willing to provide the advances at their cost of 0.25% above base rate (approximately 4.25%). Another underwriter specializes is willing to advance 100% of invoices sent to government clients (e.g. invoices sent to the NHS or local authorities). If you would like to take advantage of these offers and see indicative rates from other underwrites, click here http://ukrecruiter.xbridge.com/main?__action=dorfq&vid=1
31st OCTOBER 2002, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT, LONDON - CALLING ALL RECRUITERS
Our next networking event is taking place on Thursday 31st October 2002. If you are a recruiter or work within the industry please register and come along - apart from having to buy your own drinks it's free to attend. More information, including photos of previous events, is available at http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. If you can't make the 31st October we've got events scheduled for November and January 2003. Hope to see you there!
MULTIPLE JOB POSTING TOOLS - FREE TRIAL FROM BROADBEAN TECHNOLOGY
Broadbean Technology are currently offering a no obligation 3 month free trial of their new AdCourier software. It allows recruiters to post their adverts to multiple job boards from one online template. This is a good opportunity for any company who doesn't yet use this kind of service or are looking to change their current provider to try before they buy. For further information please contact Dan McGuire on 020 7987 6900 or email him on dan@broadbeantech.com
UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT?
Don't forget to visit our discussion forum - http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl. Current topics on the site include tracking down candidates, Recruitex and jobs for ex-recruiters. Visit the site; ask questions and give feedback!
Welcome to issue 97 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.
CONTENTS
Reviewed Site (FreePint)
Review (Multiple Job Board Posting Tools - TalentNet by Advanse, by David Craig)
CV Database Review (CareersinRecruitment, by James Chapman)
Psychometrics Review (Facet 5, by Bill Boorman)
Recruitment Technologies Review (Evolve, by Alan Whitford)
Job Board Review (Careers in Construction, by Alex Hens)
Recruitment Anecdotes feature
Don't Miss This (November Networking Event - 100th Issue Giveaway - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum - Special Credit Services Offer) Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
FreePint is free fortnightly email newsletter and community site for information professionals. The newsletter has articles on web resources with tips on searching the Internet and with website reviews. The articles in the newsletter are written by information professionals with expertise in the relevant field. The website includes article archives, industry news, book reviews, job listings and "the Bar". The Bar is where Internet researchers and business users can post questions and comments for other users to respond to. As the name would suggest much of the information is free. However, for a fee you can become a "member" and receive a weekly newsletter and other benefits. This site has a definite focus on information professionals (ie, librarians, researchers, etc) but the newsletter is often interesting and the website a useful tool for difficult to find general business information.
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To find out how Helen at: Beacon on 01582 478 888, email: helen.doherty@recruitment-software.net
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*****MULTIPLE JOB BOARD POSTING TOOLS, TALENTNET POWERED BY ADVANSE, BY DAVID CRAIG *****
Contact Details: Tony Cox or Jerry Hoefkens - 0121 722 7500 or t.cox@advanse.co.uk Costs: Depends on number of modules, type of service and if you are buying one campaign or an annual deal. Posts to: 150 job boards, and over 46 Countries, expanding weekly. Statistical reports include: Advanse can track 100% of all response from job boards, press and agencies.
Advanse have been up and running for three years now and it shows. They offer various levels of service including online media recommendation, media buying, copywriting, premium posting, application filtering, statistical analysis and exporting qualified CVs directly into the client's HR system.
The difference with Advanse, is that you post your jobs/job descriptions to them and then they write/post them to the job boards manually. I believe there is an argument that if a job description is written and posted in a certain way, by an experienced media executive, it is more likely to be seen by the right candidates. It also provides the opportunity for the job postings to be branded in a display or semi-display fashion, if the job board allows it.
Instead of offering a service whereby clients can post to hundreds and hundreds of job boards, they have established a select list of niche and general sites, which have been vetted, researched and tried and tested. And they should know, they have placed approx 10,000 job postings to job boards for over 600 blue chip clients. However I would say that some of the less well-known job boards out there, which are not included in the Advanse packages, have been in some cases just as effective for some recruiters out there. Another plus point is that instead of being invoiced by all the different job boards, you will receive one monthly invoice from Advanse once you have set up an account with them. Nice!
In summary Advanse is a company, which is capable of taking the headache out of the job posting process. Stress free recruitment campaigns sounds like a good thing to me.
I would very much like to hear what you think through the discussion forum: http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl
David Craig, Fox Productions - http://www.foxproductions.co.uk
=====ADVERTISEMENT===== Making your web site more profitable. It is a fact that most web sites don't provide the bottom line business profit they could. A recruitment web site should pay for itself and actively generate your company profit. If yours does not or if you are thinking about upgrading your existing site perhaps you should talk to 4mat. We are the UK's largest supplier of web sites to the recruitment industry and have developed over 300 online recruitment solutions - nearly ten times more sites than anyone else. More importantly every one of our web sites have paid for themselves and now generate profit for our clients. To understand how this can be achieved and for a 20 minute on-line demonstration call 020 7721 7811 or visit www.4mat.com/dotVacancy.
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*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - CAREERSINRECRUITMENT BY JAMES CHAPMAN*****
http://www.CareersinRecruitment.com
Sectors: Jobs in the Recruitment industry. Target candidate level: From Resourcer to Managing Director Site Launched: September 2002 Re-Launched under new ownership. Number of Jobs advertised: c2000 Number of CV's held: c2000 (though not yet accessible to clients) Geographic split of jobs: Across the UK
Site Marketing: Throughout the trade press, industry related sites and their newsletter that goes to over 20,000 recruiters. Additionally they are giving £1 to Children In Need for every new CV registered this month.
How to Subscribe: Through the site for 'One Off' job ads or by calling 01444 241 177
Companies that can advertise: Recruitment Consultancies, Recruitment to Recruitment Agencies and Corporates.
Feedback after registering: Through a dedicated Account Manager
Costs: £395 per month for unlimited job postings. £95 per job posting for ad hoc advertisers.
When the CV Database comes live, the monthly cost for access will probably be around £200. This service will not be open to Rec to Rec agencies.
Who's in charge?: Tim Dawson and John Ellis - have both set up and run niche jobsites over the past three years, most notably www.aviationjobsearch.com Before that they operated a training company in the aviation industry.
I queried the figures for number of CVs and vacancies on the site, asking whether they were left over from the site when it was under different management, but I am assured that all the clients and jobs have been gained since September.
Summary: From a jobseekers point of view, the site is excellent. Within two clicks you can be looking at jobs by Function or by Type and Name of employer. This makes it all the more likely that recruiters will continue to visit the site and apply for jobs.
The CV database is not live yet, as it is felt there are not enough CV's to justify charging for the service. When it does become available, a helpful feature will be that jobseekers can block specific agencies from seeing their details i.e. ones they work for now or know they don't want to work for.
From the employers point of view it is straightforward to Post/Edit Jobs; Post/Edit your company profile and contact details; and when available, find and download CV's (I got a sneak preview)
There was also an array of statistical information available on 'page impressions' and 'average visit duration etc. This would certainly help any employer monitor the number of people seeing their ads.
I found the site simple to use and un-cluttered from both an employers and jobseekers point of view.
Despite the fact that the site was only re-launched 6 weeks ago, they feel they are already the industry leader with over 70 agencies advertising and c2,000 jobs posted. I'll be making my mind up on that when I review their competition in the next newsletter.
Overall marks out of ten: 8 (which may well go up when the CV database goes live)
Recommendation: Well worth a go. I don't know whether they offer trial accounts, but it doesn't hurt to ask.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site www.brsglobal.com or by calling 020 7843 4311.
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*****PSYCHOMETRIC REVIEW - FACET 5, BILL BOORMAN*****
Consulting Tools - Facet 5
Website: www.consultingtools.com Contact: Tina Dudley & Penny Brockington on 01763 836320 Cost: Up to £75 + VAT. Discounted rates for multiple purchases Applications: Personal development, team building, selection and career development Additional information: Assessors must be trained in Facet 5 (the cost of a two-day course for becoming accredited is £500 for individuals, or £1500 for in-house training of up to 3 people).
As with the psychometric test from Belbin I found the front end and entry into the profile a little bit complicated but once in the test found it easy to complete and the results were instant. One restriction is that feedback needs to be given by an individual trained and accredited to use Facet 5.
The report produced is fairly meaty (17 pages) and comprehensive. This assessment looks at the five facets that make up personality, broken into five key areas; will, energy, affection, control and emotionality. These are scored on a ten part scale known as a STEN scale, which stands for standard ten. Scores at an extreme are more significant than moderate scores therefore should be used as a closer indication of personality type. Consulting Tools point out that, as this is a personality assessment there is no good and bad or right and wrong. I however felt that the report produced would give a fair indication of a person's personality and could be used either for identifying how well an individual would respond to either a defined management style or team type where your requirements have been well defined. It is also a very useful tool for self-development.
The questionnaire itself consisted of 106 questions and took about 30 minutes to complete. It was possible to go backwards and forwards so it was fairly easy to navigate and it was possible to save results and go back to the profile at a later date, which I found a useful tool. I also found Penny from Consulting Tools to be particularly knowledgeable and helpful so you will get the added benefit of expert advice and guidance. At up to £75 per person it is not cheap if you are running a larger scale recruitment campaign (although there is a "bulk buy" discount). However, if you want an accurate indication of the personality of an individual you are interviewing and the management they will require this is a particularly good instrument. The sound bites at the end of the report and the overview of work preferences are also extremely useful. I would recommend you have a look for yourself.
As a final note when visiting the Saville & Holdsworth (www.shlgroup.com) stand at Harrogate they announced that they would be releasing a new instrument in the New Year specifically for on-line testing that does not require British Psychological Society registration. I don't know whether this is in response to competition from other on-line tests however it does indicate that on-line testing and assessment is coming of age when the recognised "God Fathers" of psychometric instruments are moving this way. Please let me have any feedback you have and any of your own experiences or recommendations
Finally, an apology to Doctor Meredith Belbin. As a number of you correctly pointed out Doctor Belbin is actually a man and therefore should not have been referred to as "she"!
Bill Boorman is National Training Manager for Prime Time Recruitment (http://www.primetime.co.uk) and will be reviewing more psychometric test in future newsletters
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*****RECRUITMENT TECHNOLOGIES - EVOLE- ALAN WHITFORD*****
I'm back from the HR-XML meeting in New Orleans that was excellent. A lot of very interesting work is going on developing standards for recruitment and HR on a global basis. More on that later.
But, back to the 'day job'. This week we are looking at a sector of the recruitment market that is enormous in the UK, but amazingly the most poorly served community by the mainstream software vendors. I am talking about the start-up or small recruitment agency; those with up to 5 users, many of whom work from a home or a home/office environment.
Web based solutions that are delivered in an ASP mode offer the perfect opportunity for companies of this size to start automating recruitment processes and the interaction with their candidates and clients. If you have a reasonably fast PC, Internet Explorer and ADSL, Cable or Broadband connectivity, you can begin recruiting on the web.
A new offering designed specifically for this space has appeared on the market recently. Evolve (www.evolvedb.co.uk) is from the multimedia company FCP. FCP specialise in providing bespoke software development and web application development, managed hosting, co-location and consultancy services to small to medium size businesses. They have dedicated 2 years to building a sophisticated application specifically for the recruitment industry, working hand-in-hand with local recruitment companies, both start-up and established businesses, to ensure that the product is based on how the recruitment industry works.
Evolve is a simple affordable solution to a simple business process. Does it provide everything a recruiter may ever think of? No, but that is not the goal. Most recruitment (particularly for small companies) is relatively straight forward. If the company has a domain name and a basic web site, FCP will deliver a client interface module that plugs into that web site and integrates with the back office functionality. Candidates can apply either via the web site or directly via e-mail. The use of the web technology and ASP delivery provides the small recruitment company with a working recruitment back office system (taken in 'vanilla' mode) in less than a day.
What are the key features?
WORKFLOW PROCESS
* Complete integration of Client, Vacancy and Candidates components.
* The process starts with Candidate and Client Registration. New candidates are added to the system, their CVs (in almost any Microsoft format) are uploaded, converted, skilled and indexed automatically.
* Clients are added to the system with contact details for individual departments or locations.
* Vacancies are added, associated either with the master client record or with individual contacts as required.
* New Vacancies are then automatically matched against available candidates. The consultant also has the opportunity to perform detailed searches against both candidate and CV records.
* Once a candidate is found, the system allows the consultant to forward the CV (edited and depersonalised if required) by way of either conventional hard copy document or directly via email.
* Every action is recorded throughout the process.
* Successful applications mean the Candidate can be marked as placed, although their record remains available for future reference.
CLIENTS
* Unlimited number of contacts and locations per client.
* Unlimited client and contact history tracking
* Fully searchable client database, including key skills and business areas.
* Full email and SMS messaging capability.
VACANCIES * Fully searchable vacancy database, including key skills and business areas.
* Raw CVs searching includes 'Any', 'All', "Boolean' and 'Literal String' searches with 'Automagical' sorting.
* Intelligent Agents matching of vacancies to candidates across keys skills and business areas.
CANDIDATES
* Unlimited candidate history tracking.
* Automatic CV import (MS Word 5, 6, 97, 2000, XP) and conversion. Fully indexed and searchable.
* Automatic CV Skilling - Key Skills and Business Areas.
* Fully searchable candidates database, including key skills and business areas and raw CV search.
* Integrated CV editing and version tracking - customisation of CVs prior to sending them out.
CONSULTANTS
* Comprehensive personal information manager, including appointments, tasks and notes, with SMS and email reminders.
WEB INTEGRATION
* Customer branding of web-based components, integrates seamlessly with existing sites.
* Web integration module - Automatic posting of vacancies to company's own web site, web based job boards.
* Web integration module - Accepts candidate applications directly into system.
CORE TECHNICAL FEATURES
* System accessible via either stand-alone client software or browser based. * Secure dedicated logins for each consultant, encrypted database communication.
* Integration with Microsoft Word, Sun Star Office for automatic generation of hard copy documents.
* Unlimited import of new document templates for Client and Candidate correspondence.
* Comprehensive management reporting features, including consultants activity and communications.
* Polymorphic database structure allows easy customisation of database fields.
* Online help - log and track support enquiries direct from the client software.
For more information or to contact Alan Whitford please call the Abtech Partnership on (0)1451 850811 or (0)797 1864620.
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*****JOB BOARD REVIEW - CAREERS IN CONSTRUCTION BY ALEX HENS*****
http://www.CareersInConstruction.com
Key Stats Unique Users: 26,000 Visits: 63,000 Page Impressions: 500,000 Email Alert Registrations: 13,000
What the site says "Careers in Construction is the definitive online recruitment and career development service dedicated to the construction industry. User friendly and incredibly cost effective, Careers in Construction is the most dynamic solution to recruitment. It played a part in filling 10,000 vacancies last year."
First impressions This is what I guess you could term, for those Construction/DIY enthusiasts out there, a bit of a Ronseal site - in as much as "it does exactly what it says on the tin!". The URL alone ensures you're not likely to happen across the site and wonder what it's all about and the no fuss, no nonsense approach greets you on the home page. There are so many distinct areas within the construction industry (so I now know) that this vertical site immediately addresses its audience by dividing up front and leading the candidate straight to potentially relevant jobs. I found the overall design clean, simple, intuitive and effective, leading to the most recent jobs that are specific to your area of expertise and then offering some nicely laid out and concise headline information as well as the opportunity to search for more jobs - a function that also offers you the ability to search on a specific role and location too. The navigation on the left of the screen stays consistent and as well as acting as a good reference point, also offers clear indication of aspects of the site that the prospective candidate may find of further value to them in their quest for new/alternative employment.
Tools on offer For the candidate there are the usual email job alerts as well as quite an extensive career surgery, but the decision by Careers In Construction (CiC) not to allow any of their advertisers to link outside of the site has ensured that the company profiles are probably of a higher standard than you'd expect to find on most sites.
For the recruiter there are some excellent branding opportunities on the home page, but as these spaces are limited and the simplicity of the site provides little else for the advertiser in the way of banner/button sites, then these can be taken very quickly. Other than that the CV database facility seems like a good service, providing recruiters the opportunity to search at no cost, paying only to download the contact details of those candidates they are interested in (at £49 each). Of course I appreciate that only experience using this particular database will prove whether the candidate information and corresponding candidate calibre is consistently high enough to justify the fee.
Strengths & weaknesses With the traffic generation from industry leading print and online products (from Construction News, New Civil Engineer, Building and Architectural Review to related magazine online off-shoots and the award winning business portal ConstructionPlus.co.uk) they have developed a solid recruitment offering with an excellent audience focus.
I'm sure that there are plenty of advertisers on the site who feel a little aggrieved that having produced their own online recruitment presence CiC refuse to allow traffic out of their site, however the site works hard to ensure employer profiles on the site are built to resemble any corporate online presence as well as steering clear of charging anything more than a modest fee for this function. I think that CiC has delivered a solid recruitment offering through an effective, no nonsense site that addresses a highly targeted audience at a competitive but realistic price - a pretty good example of a media group using it's established market(s) to think ahead and add value (and I'm sure make money) with a good online product.
Job board reviews are written by Alex Hens, Head of New Media for 33 - Recruitment Communications Specialists. Alex has recently joined 33 to help develop the New Media edge to their recruitment solutions. He has extensive experience in delivering practical recruitment solutions utilising both online media and interactive products within the wider recruitment marketing mix. You can contact him on 020 7404 3323, visit www.thirtythree.co.uk or email to: alex@thirtythree.co.uk
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****RECRUITMENT ANECDOTES****
This true story was sent in by DD of an Essex based recruitment PR company.
"When I ran an agency years ago we had just got PCs. In the early days the spell checker was relied on too much before we considered the fact that it would let through a word that was spelt correctly even though it was the wrong word.
One CV was attracting no attention at all from clients, despite being for a brilliant secretary. Careful checking revealed the reason. The proposed summary of: `A highly conscientious secretary' had been let through by the spell checker as: 'A highly contentious secretary'."
If you've got an original and funny recruitment related incident you'd like to share; CV typos, bizarre interviews, etc, please email us. If we publish it in the newsletter we'll reward you with a special internet recruitment goodie bag!
****DON'T MISS THIS****
28th NOVEMBER 2002, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT - EARLY CHRISTMAS PARTY, LONDON - FREE TO ATTEND
Our next networking event is taking place on Thursday 28th November 2002. Even though it's not quite in December it's going to be our early Christmas Party. If you want to come along you'll need to register as places are limited. More information, including photos of previous events, is available at http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. Sponsors for the event are First Choice Software (www.firstchoice.org.uk). Due to their generosity we'll be able to offer you a free buffet and some free drinks on the night. Don't forget to register if you want to come along. Hope to see you there!
UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT?
Don't forget to visit our discussion forum - http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl. Current topics on the site include "How much to pay top consultants", "Buying CV's from job portals" and the popular "Multiple Job Board Posting Tools". Visit the site; ask questions and give feedback!
100TH ISSUE OF THE UKRECRUITER NEWSLETTER
Only 3 more issues to go! As part of our celebrations for our 100th issue of the newsletter, coming out on the 18th December, we want to give away 100 freebies to you, our readers. I'm currently encouraging suppliers to the industry to donate generously. We've already got champagne, Gucci wallets, chocs, a Christmas hamper and a day out on a powerboat. We'll tell you how to win closer to the time. If you are a supplier and would like to donate please email me.
SPECIAL CREDIT SERVICES OFFER FOR UKRECRUITER NEWSLETTER READERS
FTS Credit Services offer credit management and debt recovery outsourcing services. They offer a "No Collection No Fee" service for the collection of overdue accounts. They have no minimum requirement for use so you can use them as and when required. The usual fee for this service is 10% of the debt collected but they are offering ukrecruiter newsletter readers a 25% reduction in the fee. Therefore, the fee you pay will be 7.5% of the debt collected (please quote UKRECRUITER to qualify for this discount). For more information on this or any of their other services call Jason on 01233 722462 or visit http://www.ftscredit.co.uk
Welcome to issue 98 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. Why not drop me a note with your thoughts on the newsletter. I'd love to hear your ideas on sites to review or articles you'd like to see. And don't forget if you've got a special offer or deal for recruiters we'd be happy to spread the word!
CONTENTS
Reviewed Site (Topica)
Multiple Job Board Posting Tools Review (PostingPal by David Craig)
CV Database Review (RecruitmentJOBZ, by James Chapman)
Psychometrics Review (Rapid Personality Questionnaire by Bill Boorman)
Article (Writing OnLine Job Adverts by Dan McGuire)
Recruitment Anecdotes
Don't Miss This (November Networking Event - Free Training for Recruiters - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum - Free Trial of Multiple Job Board Posting Tool)
Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.topica.com/dir/
Topica has a directory of about 100,000 mailing lists. This site allows you to search for mailing lists for any particular topic and provides details on how to join the list. You can either browse by category or use the search box. As Topica is a free email newsletter publishing service many of the lists are non business. However, the site is a useful starting point for industry or functional research. Other sites that are worth visiting to source mailing lists include DiscussionLists.com (http://discussionlists.com/) with a database of 1085 newsletters and Email Newsletter Directory (http://ezine-universe.com) with 7860 newsletters listed.
Mailing lists can be a superb source of both industry information and potential candidates and sources. If you select the right mailing lists to receive you will get a lot of value from the list just by reading other peoples contributions. However, if you feel that the other participants in the list can help with a search you are undertaking, be sure to word your request in a manner that conforms to any rules the list has (many lists, for example, do not permit you to post a vacancy). For example instead of asking if any of the participants are interested in your vacancy ask them if they can put you in touch with anyone who might be, or recommend to you an appropriate place to advertise the role. Obviously if anyone is interested, they will get in touch with you directly, and you may get some good leads as well!
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========================
*****MULTIPLE JOB BOARD POSTING TOOLS, POSTINGPAL, BY DAVID CRAIG *****
http://www.postingpal.com/
PostingPal offers job posting to multiple job boards, candidate response management, your own personal CV bank, text messaging and extensive management reporting.
Contact Details: Derek Alexander Tel: 01624 861 638 or d.Alexander@postingpal.com
Review: PostingPal is ordered, easy to use and provides helpful features. For instance, you can allow CV responses to be sent to your inbox or you can store them online for when you are ready to view them, (which is handy especially with the number of CV's flying around the net these days). There is also the feature which enables you to mark the status of candidate responses at any time (eg. Keep In Mind, Interview and so on). You can even file the CV's in your personal searchable 'CV Bank' for future reference.
One feature, which I think is going to be used more and more in the future is the sms facility. This allows consultants to text message jobs to candidates' mobile phones. This could save the recruiter time and money and I think it is a discreet way of contacting candidates. The only downside at this stage is that you have to manually fill out each mobile phone number for each message.
PostingPal can set up the Job boards usernames and passwords for you, at no extra cost. This will leave you with just entering vacancies and posting them. If time is something you simply don't have, then they can take care of the entire process. You send the jobs to them and they will post the vacancies to the job-boards you specify. PostingPal can also negotiate rates with the job boards for you.
In summary PostingPal is simple to use and will provide a level of service which should suit you.
I would very much like to hear what you think through the discussion forum: http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl
David Craig, Fox Productions - http://www.foxproductions.co.uk
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*****CV DATABASE REVIEW - RECRUITMENTJOBZ BY JAMES CHAPMAN*****
http://www.RecruitmentJobz.com
Sectors: Jobs in the Recruitment industry.
Target candidate level: From Resourcer to Managing Director
Site Launched: September 2001
Number of Jobs advertised: c1,700
Number of CV's held: c150 (though not yet accessible to clients)
Geographic split of jobs: Across the UK
Site Marketing: Mostly through their newsletter which is delivered to recruitment professionals throughout the UK.
How to Subscribe: Initially by registering on the site, which will then be followed up with a phone call to the client to discuss their needs.
Companies that can advertise: Recruitment Consultancies, Recruitment-to-Recruitment Agencies and Corporates.
Feedback after registering: Through a dedicated Account Manager
Costs: £300 monthly or £2,900 annually gets you unlimited job postings.
Who's in charge?: Marc Jones spent 8 years in recruitment, progressing from Consultant to National Sales, before starting the site last year.
Summary: The site was basically easy to navigate and it was simple and straightforward to administer the jobs.
Pricing on the site is keener than the competition and good discounts are available for annual subscribers.
The service was excellent and the staff are always eager to help. One helpful feature on the site is a 'call me' button.
They recognise the competition in the market and plan, over time, to become 'the site' for recruiters to source their next career move.
Overall marks out of ten: 6
Recommendation: If price is your main concern, then this is the site to go for.
James Chapman is the MD of Business Research Solutions - a London based Recruitment Research firm offering cross sector candidate identification and approach. Further details can be found at their web site www.brsglobal.com or by calling 020 7843 4311.
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*****RESEARCHER'S TIP NUMBER FIVE, BY CHRIS MALCOLM, DEANSA*****
Once a month we give a quick tip on managing a successful research project.
Question 5. What specific auxiliary skills should my candidate posses?
Remember our most important rule - Be specific and don't throw the net too wide. Auxiliary skills can be defined as those skills on our clients "wish list". They are skills that every perfect candidate would posses, but unfortunately are ones that more often than not may have to be viewed with a more liberal attitude. For example one client may view membership and accreditation within a professional body as something absolutely necessary whilst another may view it solely as a bonus with the best candidate. Other examples could include language and education. Communicate with your client and always determine before you start your search, which are the auxiliary skills. As well, always view with some scepticism skills your client is asking for. Don't be afraid to ask your client to rate the importance of a certain skill and if indeed the client would accept a candidate perfect in all other respects but without that specific skill.
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.
*****PSYCHOMETRIC REVIEW - RAPID PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE, BILL BOORMAN*****
Rapid Personality Questionnaire (RPQ) from PSL
Website: http://www.psl.com
Contact: Ron Eldridge, Sales & Marketing Director on 020 8585 2345
Cost: £35 per scored questionnaire (no set up costs or additional cost for extra reports or reprints)
Applications: selection, development, career counselling and outplacement guidance.
Additional information: takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. Users must either be BPS Level B qualified or complete PSL's two day personality training course (£650 + VAT per person).
The RPQ questionnaire took around eight minutes to complete and consists of a series of questions that need to be ranked against how you operate in a working environment. I found the screens easiest to navigate of any of the questionnaires I have completed and the instructions very clear. It is also possible to view the instructions at any time while completing the questionnaire, which I felt was a real benefit if it is going to be used in an isolated environment. The statements relating to the scores you award to each question appear in an easy to read format at the bottom of the screen that also adds to the simplicity of completion. I would also give the resulting report and questionnaire top marks for plain English as there was limited psychobabble and the statements and descriptive adjectives were unambiguous and I found decision-making easy. That is unusual on an assessment of this type.
Profiles are produced and scores awarded in the following areas:
* Introversion v Extraversion
* Caution v Confidence
* Non-structural v Structural
* Non-conformity v Conformity
When I took the test myself I felt the report was accurate although it did not reveal anything significantly new. I would have found the summary pointers which describe preferable working environments particularly useful in selection. The interview summary points give some questions which can be used at interview to open the candidate up and explore possible strengths and weaknesses. The questionnaire also produces a report written for the candidates explaining how conclusions are formed which I felt would be useful to give to the candidates at first or second interview stage. Another useful function of the questionnaire is that you can use the number pad on the key board instead of a mouse for completion which speeds up the process and single questions appear clearly on the screen. I would be comfortable asking a candidate or applicant to complete this questionnaire from a home PC. The only negative I could see from this assessment is that there is no save function so if you have to break from testing for any reason you lose your results.
Another feature of the questionnaire is that it produces a "preferred team role" against the Belbin model. Interestingly this produced a different preferred team role for me than that recommended when I actually completed the Belbin profile. Whilst I wouldn't disagree with the suggested team role I did find the Belbin profile, in this respect, to be more accurate.. The use of this feature would allow you to search for profiles that match a particular role requirement and it allows a persons team role preference to be ranked from closest to furthest, which I feel would be a useful add on.
Overall an excellent instrument priced at £35 per questionnaire, I award it top marks for ease of use, clarity of reporting and potential applications.
PSL have a range of other psychometric and testing products including OPI (a more in-depth personality assessment tool), RCQ (specifically for recruitment consultants specifically) and the Branch Manager questionnaire. They also produce a product a product called Job Sift that combines applicant tracking and assessment. The assessment component contains competency questionnaires, a personality questionnaire and a numerical reasoning test and is used for automating online applications. This assessment tool allows applicants to be ranked in terms of suitability for a particular role.
Bill Boorman is National Training Manager for Prime Time Recruitment (http://www.primetime.co.uk) and will be reviewing more psychometric test in future newsletters
We would like to be able to recommend useful sites on the subject of psychometrics - please contact
us if you know of any.
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PlanetRecruit - finding candidates faster!
The new PlanetRecruit launches on November 1st - faster more accurate searching and time-saving, intelligent auto-matching of candidates to your jobs. Still the only major online recruitment site to serve recruitment agencies exclusively.
For a free trial visit http://www.planetrecruit.com/agency/
========================
*****ARTICLE - WRITING ONLINE JOB ADVERTS BY DAN MCGUIRE*****
Over the next four issues Dan McGuire of Broadbean will be giving his tips on writing online job adverts.
I have been prompted into writing this series of articles following feedback from a number of my customers who have commented about the poor quality of adverts produced by many of their consultants.
Over the coming weeks I am going to discuss methods for writing original and interesting adverts, and also look at how to compose them in such a way that they will appear in the maximum number of online searches. I also intend to show you how you can write one advert suitable for almost any job board (ideal when using a multiple job posting tool!).
I would welcome any feedback from readers who have any great hints they would like to share, or have advice on anything that should be avoided.
This week we are going to look at some important issues to consider BEFORE writing your ad.
Firstly, let's explore the legal aspect. The Association of Online Recruiters (AOLR), states that 'All jobs on the web site will be advertised with the authority of the employer/originator, who have committed that they are real jobs and that all remuneration & benefits advertised are true and accurate'. This means that writing 'spoof' ads to attract candidates, possibly to grill for leads, or exaggerating rates/salaries to generate greater response is in fact against the law. So don't do it! Your ads must relate to an actual job requirement which you or your company is working on.
Now, let's look at the mindset of your target audience. Understanding what makes them tick is key to writing an ad that they will find interesting and, more importantly, one that they will be able to find at all.
Using keywords which relate to the industry your ideal candidate operates in is important, as these will help the candidate find the position on their search and then inspire them to keep reading it.
A great way to find out which words/phrases to include in your ad is to speak to your target audience. Do this when you qualify a new candidate. Simply ask them what search criteria they enter when using online job boards and, indeed, which job boards they look at. You should begin to see a pattern.
This does not mean that you should make all your adverts the same - in fact you should do the exact opposite! Use the same keywords, but remember that these will now appear in more searches so make sure your ad is interesting and original. If candidates notice that all your ads are similar they may overlook them.
And finally for this issue, remember to pitch your ad at the right level. As the late American recruiter Tony Byrne once said "If you're looking for a superstar candidate, present them with a superstar opportunity".
Dan McGuire is Sales Director at Broadbean Technology - a London based software firm whose flagship product, AdCourier, is a leading multiple job posting tool. For further details you can reach Dan on 020 7987 6900 or dan@broadbeantech.com
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****RECRUITMENT ANECDOTES****
This true story was sent in by GP of a Kent based telecoms recruitment firm.
"I recently left a major City based consultancy to join a fairly new company in my own neck of the woods and the MD was very keen to try and get another consultant on board.
I suggested a colleague who had good experience and track record etc, assuring him that he was not the typical alcohol fiend that his current company had a reputation for employing, and a meeting was arranged. Things went pretty well and by the end of the evening more than one bottle of wine had been emptied. On leaving the bar, both parties being rather pleased with themselves, my colleague stumbled on the stairs causing the MD to trip and go head over heals down the stairs and back into the bar. This resulted in a broken rib and two fingers.
Strangely he still got the job, although the MD always is the first to go up the stairs!"
If you've got an original and funny recruitment related incident you'd like to share; CV typos, bizarre interviews, etc, please email us. If we publish it in the newsletter we'll reward you with a special internet recruitment goodie bag!
****DON'T MISS THIS****
28th NOVEMBER 2002, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT - EARLY CHRISTMAS PARTY, LONDON - FREE CHAMPAGNE & BUFFET
Our Christmas networking event is taking place on Thursday 28th November 2002 in London. If you want to come along you'll need to register as places are limited. More information, including photos of previous events, is available at http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. Sponsors for the event are First Choice Software (www.firstchoice.org.uk), GSR2R (www.gsr2r.com), JobsProactive (www.jobsproactive.com) and FWCS (www.fwcs.co.uk). Due to their generosity a champagne reception and free buffet will be available on the night. Don't forget to register if you want to come along. Hope to see you there!
FREE TRAINING WORTH £395 FOR RECRUITERS - JANUARY OR FEBRUARY 2003
The Recruitment Academy are starting a nation-wide programme of two-day training seminars in January 2003. The seminar, 'Foundation For Success in Recruitment', is designed and delivered by recruitment professionals for recruitment professionals. This seminar is suitable for consultants new to the recruitment industry, although those with some experience will also benefit as the course provides opportunities for them to develop and confirm their abilities. You can find more information at www. therecruitmentacademy.com or by calling 08702 400994. If you want to win the free training email success@therecruitmentacademy.com with the subject line "ukrecruiter newsletter free space".
UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT?
Don't forget to visit our discussion forum - http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl. Current topics on the site include "Online Job Board Cartel?", "Recruitment Software - What's the Best" and "Work Permits". Visit the site; ask questions and give feedback!
MULTIPLE JOB POSTING TOOLS - FREE TRIAL FROM BROADBEAN TECHNOLOGY
Broadbean Technology are currently offering a no obligation 1 month free trial of their new AdCourier software. It allows recruiters to post their adverts to multiple job boards from one online template. This is a good opportunity for any company who doesn't yet use this kind of service or are looking to change their current provider to try before they buy. For further information please contact Dan McGuire on 020 7987 6900 or email him on
dan@broadbeantech.com
100TH ISSUE OF THE UKRECRUITER NEWSLETTER
Only 2 more issues to go! As part of our celebrations for our 100th issue of the newsletter, coming out on the 18th December, we want to give away 100 freebies to you, our readers. I'm currently encouraging suppliers to the industry to donate generously. We've already got champagne, Gucci wallets, chocs, a Christmas hamper and a day out on a powerboat. We'll tell you how to win closer to the time. If you are a supplier and would like to donate please email me.
Welcome to issue 99. In the next issue of the newsletter (our 100th issue) we'll be giving away 100 freebies to you, our readers. We've already got champagne, Gucci wallets, luxury chocolates, a Christmas hamper and a day out on a powerboat. We'll tell you how to win in the next issue. If you are a supplier and would like to donate please email me.
CONTENTS
Reviewed Site (Postcode Finder)
Multiple Job Board Posting Tools Review (Conkers.net by David Craig)
Job Board Review (TotalJobs.com, by Alex Hens)
Psychometrics Review (GCQ from AbilityM by Bill Boorman)
Article (Writing OnLine Job Adverts by Dan McGuire)
Recruitment Anecdotes Don't Miss This (Networking Events - Management Consultancy Recruitment Forum - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum - CV Questionnaire)
Subscription Form
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.royalmail.co.uk/paf/pcodefin.htm
The Royal Mail has a Postcodes On-line service where you can search for any Postcode within the UK. You enter the address details (Number, Building name or business name with Street and Town details) and then click on Search. The results are returned as a list of "delivery points" - showing the full address (including company name if relevant) and postcode. Alternatively if you have the postcode but not the address the "Address Finder" runs a reverse search where you enter the postcode with Number, building name, or business name if you know it. The site certainly seems to be accurate and quick to use. The only downside is that you are limited 20 searches in each 24 hour period. If you need to do more than this either use a different machine (if you can) or try www.afd.co.uk who run a similar site based on the Royal Mail database and who allow up to 20 searches a day (although you do need to register).
=====ADVERTISEMENT===== Making your web site more profitable. It is a fact that most web sites don't provide the bottom line business profit they could. A recruitment web site should pay for itself and actively generate your company profit. If yours does not or if you are thinking about upgrading your existing site perhaps you should talk to 4mat. We are the UK's largest supplier of web sites to the recruitment industry and have developed over 300 online recruitment solutions - nearly ten times more sites than anyone else. More importantly every one of our web sites have paid for themselves and now generate profit for our clients. To understand how this can be achieved and for a 20 minute on-line demonstration call 020 7721 7811 or visit www.4mat.com/dotVacancy. ========================
*****MULTIPLE JOB BOARD POSTING TOOLS, CONKERS.NET, BY DAVID CRAIG *****
Contact Details: John Olphert, john@conkers.net, 08717 500799 Costs: Start from £300.00 per Annual Licence.
Review: One of my concerns about multiple job board postings systems has been whether the jobs end up on the right job board categories. Conkers have built their business on making sure the jobs end up on the job boards in exactly the right categories and in the right format, which is no mean feat. First you choose which job boards you want to post to.
Then this is the clever bit - when you come to fill in the job details themselves you are led to a dynamically constructed form, which reflects the different fields of the job boards you have chosen. The forms, which are generated, tend to be longer and more detailed as they cater for all the job boards you are posting to. The form also allows you to send long and short job descriptions according to what the job boards allow. The choice of industry sectors/job categories you can post to are also extremely detailed. Finally you can preview the job posting before submitting.
As an account manager of the system you can place a limit on the number of job postings your staff may use. You can also see who has posted which jobs to which job boards.
Conkers are investigating a modification to the system to receive the responses and monitor the results as an additional service. This should be available in the next quarter. Emails from candidates responding to your vacancies are sent directly to your email account.
Summary: Don't let the fact that Conkers doesn't offer statistical analysis just yet put you off their services. What they have achieved so far has to be commended.
I would very much like to hear what you think through the discussion forum: http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl
Please visit my website - David Craig, Fox Productions - http://www.foxproductions.co.uk
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
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========================
*****JOB BOARD REVIEW - TOTALJOBS.COM BY ALEX HENS*****
http://www.TotalJobs.com
Key stats. Unique users: 664,155 (October '02) Visits: 1,611,686 Page impressions: 14,726,908 Best industry sector by candidate profiles: IT & Internet (133,125) & Customer Services (79,014) Jobs by email accounts: 179,049
What the site says "TotalJobs.com is committed to being the first choice recruitment web site for active online UK jobseekers. Our marketing strategy ensures that active jobseekers who are looking for a job online find TotalJobs.com when it matters to them. We believe that TotalJobs.com has the highest recruitment site profile online in the UK, a position that is maintained by spending more money on UK online marketing than any other comparable recruitment web site. The unique TotalJobs.com marketing strategy offers recruiters a mass job seeking audience of active jobseekers whose skills range across the complete spectrum of functions and industries".
First impressions Bright and functional, I'd imagine the layout of the front page is easy to navigate around for a job seeker at any level of web experience. If you happen to come across the site without active job seeking on your mind then there's enough options of peripheral "stuff" to inform and advise you, but if it's jobs you want then it's straight down to business with either the keyword search or the option to dive into an industry sector search that'll help you establish your search criteria. It's not overly flashy looking, but for the mass-market horizontal job board I'd say having the jobs to search is of primary importance whilst ease of finding them (the functionality) is your next priority - two drivers that seem to have been kept very much in mind and been well executed.
Tools on offer From a candidates perspective there's the usual suspects in terms of posting a CV, registering for job alert emails as well as links to things such as a career health-check, information on recruitment exhibitions and a potentially useful partnerships with a provider of careers workshops.
As for recruiters you've got CV database access, response management functionality, email sponsorship and a plethora of branding opportunities to utilise.
Strengths & weaknesses A simply designed, easy to navigate site that draws a consistently high volume of job seeking interest through a good mix of on and offline marketing activity. TotalJobs sets out its stall early on in its life to become one of, if not, the biggest horizontal in the market and has worked hard to generate the interest from both the candidates and recruiters - unfortunately some of the promotional activities might have left some of the latter with a lingering perception of TotalJobs being a low cost and low quality product. Perhaps too many companies jumped at the well-publicised 'free trials' offer. Then, without due consideration, online planning and management on their behalf, they ended up with either not a lot to show or a whole pile of 'chancer' CV's to sift. But the number and spread of vacancies on the site must certainly be a pull to visiting job seekers, so, I'd think there are probably more satisfied 'free trial' clients than disillusioned ones. TotalJobs also have one of the highest unique user rates in the industry.
Job board reviews are written by Alex Hens, Head of New Media for 33 - Recruitment Communications Specialists. Alex has recently joined 33 to help develop the New Media edge to their recruitment solutions. He has extensive experience in delivering practical recruitment solutions utilising both online media and interactive products within the wider recruitment marketing mix. You can contact him on 020 7404 3323, visit www.thirtythree.co.uk or email to: alex@thirtythree.co.uk
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========================
*****PSYCHOMETRIC REVIEW - GCQ FROM ABILITYM, BILL BOORMAN*****
Product: GCQ Company: AbilityM Website: http://www.abilitym.com Contact: Richard Watson, 028 90 960 100 Cost: Free for basic results and £9.50 for the full report Applications: Graduate recruitment and selection
This weeks review looks at the competency based test available from AbilityM which is designed as a low cost tool for assessing a graduate's ability for work. Ability tests in general measure a persons potential and desire to learn new skills and the likelihood of these skills being applied in a work environment. The test I reviewed is free for students to use and gives candidates the opportunity to practice on-line tests without risk.
This differs from personality testing which looks at the human factors such as emotions, desires, stress levels, etc. This test is used by among others Cardiff and Brunel University for offering career advise to graduates. It is very easy to complete and takes about 3 - 5 minutes. The screens are easy to navigate and there is a permanent reference to the levels of grading for answers. You are given a series of statements to individually award a ranking to and then a separate column where you choose the statements which most and least fits your personality. The report is instant although not particularly detailed. It looks at career motivation, leadership, initiative, interpersonal confidence and resilience. Scoring statements such as "this is a highly ambitious individual" with highly characteristic, moderately characteristic or uncharacteristic. There were no surprises in the report produced and it would have limited application beyond mass recruitment campaigns. It does provide an option for you to test all applicants for something like a graduate programme which would help in the sifting process and is utilised by a number of major employers for on-line applications as it can be attached to an application form where the test is tailored to rank candidates against a specific job spec making the short listing and selection process easier. If you want to complete this test for yourself at no cost you can have a look at it by clicking on the link http://www.abilitym.com/instructions (a box will pop up and ask for a user name and password. Username: demo and password: racecar)
I am sure the tailored test and five page report would prove of more value than the test I produced but suggest that you take a look, just bear in mind that this test is designed to give you practice of using on-line tests rather than giving you any startling results. Let me know how you get on.
Following last issue's review I have looked at other products from PSL that have a wider range of applications. I will be providing you with a more detailed overview of PSL's product range in a later issue but to give you some idea of the specific tests the following are available: * Motivation questionnaire * Customer Service questionnaire aimed at call centres * Advanced Sales questionnaire that predicts the probability of the success of sales people * Recruitment Consultants questionnaire * Branch Managers questionnaire And groups of tests from retail and leisure staff
This week (when trying to test a product from Team Focus) I experienced my first technical difficulties with on-line testing which I would be grateful if anyone can provide a solution for. We have chosen to utilise Citrix thin-client technology for operating our network.. A number of the on-line tests are dependent on first downloading Flash, which makes them unusable on a Citrix network. Possibly something the test publishers may want to consider for future developments and certainly a consideration you should have if you operate a Citrix network. Any suggestions gratefully received.
In the next issue, which is of course the Christmas issue in case you had forgotten, we will be reviewing a product called Job Sift which is an on-line application form competency test and psychometric assessment aimed at selecting and ranking candidates in a mass recruitment campaign. To give you the opportunity to experience Job Sift you will be invited to apply for the post of Father Christmas and complete an appropriate on-line application. We will provide a suitable prize to the most suitable candidate who will be announced in the New Year.
Bill Boorman is National Training Manager for Prime Time Recruitment (http://www.primetime.co.uk) and will be reviewing more psychometric test in future newsletters
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
PlanetRecruit - finding candidates faster!
The new PlanetRecruit launches on November 1st - faster more accurate searching and time-saving, intelligent auto-matching of candidates to your jobs. Still the only major online recruitment site to serve recruitment agencies exclusively.
For a free trial visit http://www.planetrecruit.com/agency/
========================
*****ARTICLE - WRITING ONLINE JOB ADVERTS BY DAN MCGUIRE*****
Last week Dan McGuire of Broadbean started giving his tips on writing online job adverts. He continues...
In the last issue I addressed some things to think about before writing your ad. We are going to continue with that theme this issue. After all people don't plan to fail, they simply fail to plan.
So, you know which search criteria your candidates use and hopefully you will have asked them which sites they check out.
This information should be taken into account. However, you should also research the job boards you intend to advertise on.
It is worth bearing in mind that, according to the National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS), the average job seeker who uses the Internet to find a new position will visit 4.7 job boards. So, if you can find the five most frequented boards relevant to your industry you won't go too far wrong! Choosing which sites to use can be difficult. When researching new boards, get into the mindset of your target audience. What criteria do they consider when deciding on which sites to use? Here are some good questions to begin with: · Is the site easy to use? · Is there a decent selection of relevant jobs? · Is the site pro-active, i.e. does it provide email alerts to candidates or a WAP/SMS service? · How often is the job board updated? · Is it simple and straightforward to apply for jobs?
If you can answer yes to all of these questions then you are certainly heading in the right direction. Remember, though, that you also need traffic.
It doesn't matter how great a site's functionality is if no one looks at it. Many boards offer a free trial so it is worth trying them out for nothing while the trial lasts. Just remember to monitor the response.
A good way to find out how much it is being used is to look at the date/time of the last ad posted and also the frequency of ads going on.
Many sites charge you for posting your ad. It is especially important to monitor response from these paid sites as you could be wasting money if the response is poor.
You should also post to your own website (which will hopefully have a decent searchable database of jobs) as candidates may see a position that is not quite right but is perhaps too senior/junior or in the wrong location. They are then likely to assume that you will have other positions in that field and can then click a link to your site to find a slightly more suitable job. Remember that, whilst they are searching your site, it means they are not searching generic job boards and spending time reading your competitor's ads.
In the next issue we will look at exactly how to write an ad in order to achieve maximum, relevant response.
Dan McGuire is Sales Director at Broadbean Technology - a London based software firm whose flagship product, AdCourier, is a leading multiple job posting tool. For further details you can reach Dan on 020 7987 6900 or dan@broadbeantech.com
=====ADVERTISEMENT=====
New Business Sales Seminar
January 24th 2003
Call David at koach on 07960 167702 or email david@koach.net or visit the koach website for more details: http://www.koach.net. These seminars do sell out so book early!
=====================
****RECRUITMENT ANECDOTES****
This true story was sent in by MG of an IT recruitment firm.
"When I recruited accounting staff in the UK I had 5 candidate interviews lined up with a client who was also seeing another 10(!) through other agencies.
Not expecting any great result I had a call from the client after the 1st of my candidates had been met. He said 'I have good news and bad news'. The bad news was that I had to cancel the rest of the interviews, the good news was that he had offered the role to the 1st girl he met. On speaking to the candidate she said she got on very well with him, he offered her the job and typed up the contract while she typed up her resignation letter on another PC!
I called 6 months later and they were living together confirming that sometimes recruitment is only a short step from the dating agency methodology!"
If you've got an original and funny recruitment related incident you'd like to share; CV typos, bizarre interviews, etc, please email us. If we publish it in the newsletter we'll reward you with a special internet recruitment goodie bag!
****DON'T MISS THIS****
28th NOVEMBER 2002, THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENT EARLY CHRISTMAS PARTY Our Christmas networking event was a huge success. It took place at Tiger Tiger last Thursday and was attended by over 170 people within the UK recruitment industry. If you missed it and want to see photos they are on the website (http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk). We've got events lined up every month next year - so please register at the site if you want to come along.
UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM - ARE YOU USING IT? Don't forget to visit our discussion forum - http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl. Current topics on the site include "National Recruitment Contracts", "New Company Website" and "Online jobs board cartel?". Visit the site; ask questions and give feedback!
MANAGEMENT CONSULTANCY - THE 2003 RECRUITERS' FORUM - JANUARY 10TH 2003 Top-Consultant.com have organised a Recruiters' Forum on January 10th 2003 at City University, London. Insights will be provided into: latest market intelligence, salary trends, key findings from the Top-Consultant.com Recruitment Channel Survey and strategies for a successful recruitment campaign. To reserve a complementary place at this event visit: http://www.zambeasy.com/top-consultant/clients/recruiters_forum.asp
QUESTIONNAIRE - WHAT ARE RECRUITERS LOOKING FOR IN A CV - PLEASE COMPLETE Bill Upton of Focus CVs is currently doing some research on CV writing. He's like to get some feedback on what recruiters are looking for in a CV. If you'd like to help could you please email the answers to the following questions to bill@richmondtradingLtd.com. 1) When you look at a CV are you looking for reasons to accept or reject; 2) Do you always read all of the CV. If not at what stage would you stop reading; 3) What format is preferred: chronological, functional, or by skills; 4) Does the cover letter always get read first before reading the CV; 5) If the cover letter was poor would you consider not reading the CV. The results of the survey will be published in a free ebook that I will be giving to clients and potential clients of Focus CVs - anyone completing the questionnaire can have a copy.
Welcome to the 100th issue of the ukrecruiter newsletter. It's also our Christmas edition. We're not focussing too much on business content in this issue. We'll be back on the 16th January 2003 with our normal mix of CV Database and Job Board Reviews, reviews for Multiple Job Board Posting tools and Psychometric tests as well as useful articles relating to the recruitment industry. Don't forget if you want to look back over any previous issues of the newsletter they are at www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/recnet.htm
CONTENTS
Christmas Gifts - completely free to enter and win!
Reviewed Site - Google 2002 Year-End Zeitgeist
Applicant Profiling - Santa
Don't Miss This (2003 Networking Events - UK Recruiter Discussion Forum - 3 Month Free Trial of People Genie - Discount on "Reaching the Pinnacle of Success" Seminar - 2 days Free Access to Job Track)
*****CHRISTMAS GIFTS*****
We've collected together a great range of Christmas gifts that you can win: from a Powerboat ride (from www.jobs-at.com) to a mountain of Jaffa Cakes (from www.broadbean.co.uk). Other gifts include Gucci wallets (from www.lsmgroup.com) Champagne (from www.ruellajames.com), web audits (from www.madeeasy.com) and tickets for sales training (from www.koach.net). To see the full list of gifts visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/gifts.htm
It's completely free to enter the competition. All you need do is send an email giving your name, postal address and a daytime telephone number. If there is something you specifically don't want (eg, you may be allergic to chocolate!) please let me know in the email.
Rules: Emails must be received by midnight on Thursday 19th December; After this deadline gifts will be allocated on the basis of first "out of the hat"; The offer is only open to newsletter readers based in the UK; The judge's decision (that's mine!) is final.
Good Luck!
*****REVIEWED SITE*****
http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
Who is the most searched for person in the UK? Is this a recruitment question? No: Google provide an analysis of searches conducted over the last 12 months. It's based on more than 55 billion searches conducted worldwide!
You can see which search terms have been used the most overall as well as by category. You can view global breakdown for many categories including images, movies and athletes. For the UK you can see which women, men, and search terms have been the most searched for. There are also timelines and graphs plotting the most popular search terms as they occurred throughout 2002.
It's an interesting way to see what has been happening in the world, as internet users see it, over the last 12 months.
By the way the most searched for person is Britney Spears!
****APPLICANT PROFILING - SANTA****
This is your opportunity to do a bit of "moonlighting" over Christmas. Apply for the job of Santa Claus.
For a bit of fun we have designed a profile for Father Christmas that you are all invited to apply for. This will also give you the opportunity to view Jobsift by PSL. Jobsift is designed for producing shortlists from mass recruitment campaigns and links standard application forms with psychometrics at application stage). There is a MYSTERY PRIZE for the winner.
To complete the questionnaire (which includes "how do you feel about wearing red?" and "how bushy is your beard?") visit the PSL site at https://www.jobsift.com/Acct/PSL/C1423
Unfortunately due to CRB Clearance being necessary for the post you should be cleared to take up your new role by June!!
As well as the pre-screening questions the Jobsift product also includes a personality questionnaire. If you'd like more information please contact PSL on 020 8585 2345, visit www.psl.com or email info@psl.com
Bill Boorman is National Training Manager for Prime Time Recruitment http://www.primetime.co.uk) and will be reviewing more psychometric test in future newsletters
****DON'T MISS THIS****
THE RECRUITERS NETWORKING EVENTS After our success with the networking events last year we'll be running them every month in 2003. If you want to see photos from previous events and/or register for upcoming events visit the website (http://www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk). They are free to attend and the first one is on Thursday 30th January in London.
UK RECRUITER DISCUSSION FORUM Another initiative we launched in 2002 that has been very successful. Visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl to see what people in the industry are talking about. Current topics on the site include " Does a "name" help or hinder?", "Candidates who let you down" and "US HR Recruiters in the UK?". Visit the site; ask questions and give feedback!
3 MONTH FREE TRIAL OF MULTIPLE JOB BOARD POSTING TOOL - UKRECRUITER SUBSCRIBERS ONLY! To mark the launch of People Genie in January, any new customer in Dec, Jan or Feb will receive a 3 month free trial with no obligation to purchase and also a 50% discount off the published prices of additional services (see website: http://www.peoplegenie.co.uk/pricing.aspx). Currently this free trial is only being offered to ukrecruiter subscribers. For more information contact 0870 922 4061 or email Marc Hendrickse at marc@peoplegenie.co.uk mentioning "ukrecruiter".
DISCOUNT FOR RECRUITERS ON "REACHING THE PINNACLE OF SUCCESS" RECRUITMENT SEMINAR Enabling change are running a Mike Goldman seminar entitled "Reaching the Pinnacle of Success" on the 23rd January 2002 in London. This one-day seminar is designed to help you increase your income and accomplish more in each working day. Covering topics like: The Changing Profile - adapting to changing market conditions, how to develop and get the most from your key accounts and The Art and Science of "Doing it Now!"-"Proactivity" and the Successful recruiter. It costs £265. However, Enabling Change are offering readers of the ukrecruiter newsletter a 10% discount on places booked at this seminar. For more information contact Nicole Hutton on 01264 360234 or email nhutton@enablingchange.co.uk, mentioning "ukrecruiter". You can also visit their website at www.enablingchange.co.uk
TWO DAY'S FREE ACCESS TO JOBTRACK CV DATABASE Jobtrack are offering 2 days free access to their CV Database of over 200,000 CV's! And if you sign this week they will give you the rest of December absolutely free with nothing to pay until the middle of January! For more information visit www.jobtrack.co.uk or email sales@jobtrack.co.uk