Sirona Says

The social recruiting battlegrounds in 2010

The last decade has, in my opinion, seen one of the biggest seed changes the recruitment industry has seen for many years. While I am referring to social media, I also combine that with the evolution (it took it's time but now has real momentum) that has  been online recruitment.

The primary change is that we're no longer just regarding them as recruitment experiements, they are now primary recruitment channels. Online recruitment systems (ATS's), job boards and social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and even Facebook have quickly become established candidate recruitment channels. And for me, this has led to the biggest change of all - increased candidate expectation!

The companies that have not yet embraced social recruiting, via the sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube (not forgetting blogs), will need to take a long hard look at themselves, as these platforms will become the recruiting battlegrounds of 2010.
Companies and recruiters that have been sitting at the head of the curve, have already created successful communities on specific platforms - like the already very successful Mya4e Community site, based on the Tribepad platform - and will they definitely yield recruitment success from these recruitment communities (the caveat being that whatever the platform, they need to be maintained and effectively managed to yield desired results).
Some companies and recruiters are already actively building effective communities, on the likes of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Many companies towards the end of 2009, finally realised that they need to be in the social recruiting space, and have started to explore it further.

Building your online community - whether it be via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or a blog - will be absolutely crucial to success in social recruiting. Recruiting is all about relationships - with clients and candidates alike - and using social media tools are fantastic ways to initiate and develop relationships with them. So, by building your own communities (on individual or multiple social channels) with interesting, compelling and relevent content, companies and recruiters will both start to create a social recruiting brand that they will certainly need in the years ahead.

Battlegrounds inevitably have casualties scattered around them. So, if candidate expectation (around using social media in recruiting), continues to increase the way it has in 2009, then be prepared for the consequences, because, if as a company or a recruiter, you choose to ignore social recruiting as a channel for 2010, then you will be watching your competitors take control of the recruiting battleground for good!

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Innovation or Madness? New Recruitment company, Playfair and Noble, pay 50% of their fee to the successful candidate!

Do you ever get emails from companies looking to 'sell you' their company? Probably like you, I get a fair amount arriving in my inbox each week. So you could probably say that I am a little sceptical (too long in the recruitment world, I am afraid!!)

So it was a really pleasant surprise to see a recruitment platform (from non-recruitment people I might add) that is daring to be different and placing its big kahuna's right there on the middle of the recruitment table to be chewed at!! (Metaphorically of course!)

Now before you think I am over dramatising this a little, let me tell why it is so different - This company actually pays the successful candidate  50% of the fee they get paid from their clients!!  And before any of you recruiters say it won't work (like I did before I spoke to them), they have done their maths, and they believe it will.

Now that I have your attention let me tell you the company - Playfair and Noble - and with a name like that, and the offering they are proposing, it won't surprise you to guess that ethics are a HUGE part of what they stand for.
Basically they have a real issue with recruitment agencies.

A great new Twitter tool for job seekers - TwitterJobSearch

I came across this a couple of days ago, and it seems to have taken the Twittersphere by storm with its interest and simplicity!
It is a web site called TwitterJobSearch and it is a fantastcially simple, yet brilliant, website for searching all the jobs placed on Twitter by companies and recruitment agencies alike.
The screen shot above shows how simple it is - you search for job title or location etc, hit search and bingo all the jobs that meet the criteria materialise, instantly.
What I like is that the integrity of the individual tweets are maintained, so you can go off and follow those companies or agencies that seem to be posting jobs on Twitter that suit your needs.

TwitterJobSearch is clever in that it draws in every vacancy posted on Twitter, and the new web-based service analyses and restructures the data, extending each job’s reach and visibility to everyone online. Developed by Workhound, the UK’s leading job search engine, TwitterJobSearch will be joined by a whole suite of smart, semantic search services for recruitment in other social media channels over the coming months.

(Although they may have some fun with Facebook!!)

Also, there is an RSS feed created for any search you might want to do, which is very useful if you want to track certain job titles, locations etc. This will immediately become an important tool for anyone looking for a new job!

I know it is very new, but already I think it is just brilliant - well the simple ideas always are aren't they?

Are Job Seekers wasting their time with Recruitment Agencies?

Every day now there are seemingly endless amounts of people ending up in the queues at the Job Centres. Even today, the Government are trying to help the middle classes who have found themselves out of work in this recession, with special initiatives to help them find work.

So, as someone who has spent their career in the recruitment sector, I find myself asking questions of the industry and whether there should be some evolution in the way that job seekers are advised to find a job. 

I have recently questioned if it is right, to pay a career consultant to help find a job, which prompted some interesting discussion.

Today, I want to focus on recruitment agencies - are they a waste of time for job seekers?

Fixed Fee Recruitment RPO providers - shouldn't they actually be called recruiting FARM's?

 

As part of a large recruitment audit I am currently working on, I have had cause to look at the fixed fee recruitment providers, such as Webrecruit, Networx, Net-Recruit, Websearch and EasyWebRecruitment.

The first thing to try and do was to understand what they are actually called and what they do. They are not really full RPO (recruitment process outsourcing) companies, although they have the capacity to be. They are not true recruitment agencies, but again they do some of the process.
They all charge a fixed fee for a recruitment management service, whether that be job board advertising, CV database searches or response management.

So, I have created a description for them that I feel is both appropriate and effective as a description of what they do - recruiting FARM's.
F - Fixed fee
A - Advertising jobs
R - Resourcing vacancies
M - Management of the process

I actually think that it describes what they do very well.

What do you think? Does it suit their service? Can you come up with a better one?

Should Companies use more or less recruitment agencies in a recession?

As we all know, the world has fallen apart, no one is hiring and the recruitment market is in total freefall, never to be seen again!  Well that is what the media would have us believe anyway!!

But the truth is really not as bad as it sounds. Companies ARE STILL recruiting and skill shortages are still very much in existence in certain sectors - education, engineering and science to name three.

So, we are in agreement, recruitment is still going on. There is one change however, and that is recruitment budgets have been effected - either reduced or totally frozen. That means organisations have had to look at their recruitment a little closer than they probably have over recent times.

But does having a reduced recruitment budget mean you reduce or increase the number of recruitment suppliers?

There are arguments to both sides of this equation (but only if you have some budget left, I guess!)

Using more agencies

These are some of the reasons I have had from companies this year, that I have spoken to who have justified this approach to me:

• It is success only recruitment, so by increasing the number of agencies, there is a better chance of finding the right people I need at no extra cost.
• The agencies are 'desperate' for business and they have offered 'really low' rates.
• Given up on the preferred supply list because so many good CV's were coming in speculatively from other agencies.
• They perceive the job market is so tight in certain areas, they 'need' to talk to anyone that can supply a 'suitable' CV!!  I get angry when someone says this to me - they obviously have no idea of recruitment!!
• Why have a supplier list? They believe it is a buyers market and they are in control!
  

Using less agencies

Here are some of the good responses from clients, on why they are going to use less agencies - these are exactly the things I like to hear - albeit less often at the moment:

• Reducing supplier lists, to only work with the few agencies that have consistently delivered results, because they understand the clients values and don't waste time with poor matching.
• They have negotiated lower rates, but they have also reigned in the supplier list. So the agencies get a better chance on the roles, but at a slightly lower margin.
• Value for money - actually working closer and giving the agencies more information to save any time wasting later in the process.
• Working with a small number of agencies that deliver value-add. They add value in giving advice, helping the interview process, advising on selection etc.
• Why would they want to waste time having to take all the calls, and fielding all the CV's that will undoubtedly arrive in the inbox? They are getting loads more calls already!
• The little budget that remains needs to be used correctly, avoiding any recruiting mistakes, so the trusted agencies who have delivered are the ones to work with.

These are obviously just some examples from my experience in 2009, during these tough times. I would really like to hear some of your feedback from your clients, as to how they justify using more or less recruitment agencies in this recession. Please let me know in the comments below.

Can you tell me why companies ARE NOT using web 2.0 to attract and recruit new staff?

 

Today I read an article that was shocking from a recruitment perspective. The content shouldn't surprise me, as I am getting used to seeing it first hand with companies that I consult with, but even so, it was a really big disappointment!

So what am I talking about? The sentence is a simple one.......

In a recent CIPD survey, "more than 80% of companies don't use web 2.0 methods of technology on the web, to attract or recruit new employees."

Why not?

Can you tell me why companies are not using web 2.0 methods to recruit staff?

I would love to hear what you think, so please comment away!

IS this THE BEST job in the World? I dare you to argue!!

With all the doom and gloom around, I was amazed to see this fantastic job being that is currently being advertised on an aptly named website called Islandreefjob.com. Let me give you some of the details, and just see if you disagree with me, that this is THE BEST job in the world!

Tourism Queensland is seeking applicants for the best job in the world! The role of Island Caretaker is a six-month contract, based on luxurious Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef. It’s a live-in position with flexible working hours and key responsibilities include
exploring the islands of the Great Barrier Reef to discover what the area has to offer.
You’ll be required to report back on your adventures to Tourism Queensland headquarters in Brisbane (and the rest of the world) via weekly blogs, photo diary, video updates and ongoing media interviews. On offer is a unique opportunity to help promote the wondrous Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

Other duties may include (but are not limited to)
Feed the fish - There are over 1,500 species of fish living in the Great Barrier Reef. Don’t worry – you won’t need to feed them all.
Clean the pool - The pool has an automatic filter, but if you happen to see a stray leaf floating on the surface it’s a great excuse to dive in and enjoy a few laps.
Collect the mail – During your explorations, why not join the aerial postal service for a day? It’s a great opportunity to get a bird’s eye view of the reef and islands.

About the job package
Living above the Great Barrier Reef is a pretty unique benefit, but the successful candidate will also be paid a salary package of AUD $150,000 (approx £70k) for the six-month contract. You’ll receive return airfares from your nearest capital city (in your home country), accommodation and transport on Hamilton Island, travel insurance for the contract period, computer, internet, digital video and stills cameras access, plus travel to a number of the other Islands of the Great Barrier Reef. The six-month contract commences 1st July 2009.

About the location
Stretching for 2,600 kilometres, and composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands, the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia is the world’s largest coral reef system. The World Heritage Listed area supports a diversity of wildlife including whales, dolphins, sea turtles and more than 1,500 species of fish. The reef is an extremely popular destination.

It is no surprise to see that demand has been awesome!! They have advertise this in 18 countries, and surprise, surprise it crashed the website last week!!

Now someone tell me how this isn't the best job in the world currently!!

Does Your Business need a Recruitment Pinch Hitter now?

I am sure that many of you are not fans of Baseball, so first let me explain what a pinch hitter actually is:

They are simply defined as a substitute for another person, especially in an emergency or a moment of need.  This expression comes from baseball, where it is used for a player substituting for another at bat at a critical point or in a tight situation.

So to put into a business context, it would be someone with specialist skills being called upon to go into a company and solve specific needs of that company, for problems or issues they are experiencing.

Yes it's not brilliant out there, but it's NOT THAT BAD

We all know the state of the economy, it is something that everyday the media seem to taking great pleasure in telling us because they think people want to hear about it!
But what is more significant, is that all this bad news and the continual overkill of doom and gloom  (in my opinion, anyway) that comes out of the British Chamber of Commerce is ever-shrinking the confidence of recruitment and employment in UK businesses.

But let me be clear here, yes there is alot of bad news out there, but it is not effecting every company in the same way, as many are still recruiting staff at all levels. There are still big recruitment problems out there for some companies, as the quality and availability of candidates is becoming very limited.

A large retailer I spoke to last week, told me that their usage of recruitment agencies has actually increased since the credit crunch took hold!! Is that so surprising?
They now receive ten times more CV's, and the quality has dropped dramatically, so for this retailer to get to speak to the skilled individuals they need in their business, they are needing to use agencies to source them.

The ultimate employee referral scheme!

There are some jobs out there that, for various reasons, are notoriously difficult to fill. My local governing body, West Sussex County Council (WSCC), have come up with recruitment scheme to tackle such a job, that I think is simple but I am sure will be very effective.
They are using referral fee / finders fee approach, and aiming it at the end users/customers to come up with the employee referrals. You are probably thinking that this inventive, but not necessarily unique. Until that is, you realise that the job is for Lollipop People (sorry got to be politically correct here!), and the end users/customers are the school children!
WSCC are paying £50 to any child who can successfully find family or friends to do one of the vacant jobs!! 

I wondered if this could be applied to any other problem jobs? Do you know of any?