This week I moved my desk to the other side of the office to sit with our development team. Within my Marketing responsibilities at Qandidate.com I work closely with the development team, when it comes to product design and scope, so I decided to move my desk from one side of the office to the other, to sit in the development area.
When I say development team (or SCRUM team), think about a bunch of bright people, almost all of them are Gen Y. They are eager, smart, fun and really knowledgeable in the area they are responsible for. I know, talking stereotypes here, but its a typical example of a young generation who want to spend their time at a growing and vibrant tech start-up to make some fun and build cool stuff. You’ll get the picture.
So imagine a marketeer surrounded by a bunch of bright Gen Y developers. In the 2 days I’m sitting here now, I learned a couple of things:
- WordPress is for the lazy marketeer.
(Sorry, colleagues out there)
- Technology is never a blocking issue.
It’s the person who’s not making up his mind or not exploring the opportunities far enough.
- Innovation is an attitude.
Despite of all the articles and blogs which I have read over the last couple of years. The power to innovate is part of a person’s DNA. Of course a company need to provide the right infrastructure and atmosphere, but if you’re not open for new collaborative thinking, you won’t get it.
- It isn’t about instant messaging
It’s about instant feedback.
- Collaboration
Thinking about social business and exploring social collaboration tools for your company? Talk with your development team and learn why tools like IRC and GitHub are driving real value to this part of your employees.
- Email is already dead
While (HR) executives are still talking about reducing emails and exploring the implementation of social collaboration tools, these guys have already abandoned email. I haven’t seen a single email program on one of those 24 screens around me. I basically need to tell the guys that they have received an email from me.
- Learning
Learning gets a complete new dimension. It’s about self-learning. When was the last time you were hanging out with your peers at Starbucks at 7am to discuss and experiment business related initiatives?
- And last…
Never leave your laptop with these guys without password protection …. (although I have no illusion that password protection will make a huge difference…)
So, if this is the next generation of techies…what is your recruitment action plan to engage with this generation?
Ralph is responsible for marketing at Qandidate.com. He has worked his whole career at IT consultancy and software companies of which the last 6 years in the global recruitment space. He will share once in a while his view on life at Qandidate.com , marketing and recruitment. Follow him on Twitter or connect with him on LinkedIn.
Posted by: Peter Linas in Recruitment on
20 Feb 13
Recruiters in Europe consider a shortage of skilled candidates to be their biggest challenge in 2013, according to research we at Bullhorn have conducted.
Of the 195 recruiters we surveyed, 36 per cent cited the shortage of quality candidates as their biggest challenge, followed by economic uncertainty and unrealistic client expectations with 23 per cent and 17 per cent of the vote respectively.
This shortage is creating fierce competition among recruiters, who have to use the latest high-tech tools to source talent. Many are turning to specialist software in order to identify passive candidates on social media before they are headhunted by other agencies.
The shortage of candidates is no doubt linked to the historically low UK unemployment rate. Recruiters are using all the tools at their disposal to secure quality candidates with more of them turning to social media than ever before - in fact when we asked recruiters what the biggest opportunity for recruitment professionals in 2013 was, the top ranking answer was increased access to passive candidates via social media.
In 2011 we launched Bullhorn Reach, its social recruiting software. Bullhorn Reach includes a patented feature called Radar which helps recruiters identify passive candidates before they've even submitted a CV by monitoring their social profiles and watching for small changes. Bullhorn Reach was downloaded more times, in a shorter period of time, than any other piece of recruitment software ever - when you look at the results from our report, this is hardly a surprise. Social networks are a serious weapon in a recruiter's armoury and new features like Facebook's graph search will only make them more useful.
David Henry, VP Marketing at Monster.co.uk , has shared a neat Infographic which details the finer points of the new integrated media campaign, "Find Better" which launches on Monday 11 Feb. What I find interesting and unique about the campaign (which runs until 31 March), is that it is not TV for TV's sake. David and his team have made a concentated effort the last couple of years to ensure that advertising does not occur in a vacuum - look at the 2012 relationship with the Marussia Formula One team for example.
Once again, they are coming out with something different - looking to engage with Jobseekers throughout the day - with outdoor digital displays at rail and tube stations as well as on the roadside. Additional digital elements will feature on mobile, tablet and PCs. We have featured one of the new Ads in our cover page article, one ad below and have both ads which are released running in our Video Player.
Here at Bullhorn, we recently surveyed 1,500 recruiters on their ‘pet peeves’ and candidates applying to irrelevant jobs topped the list.
Thirty per cent of recruiters noted that their biggest turnoff was candidates who apply to jobs for which they are clearly unqualified, with 43 per cent of respondents indicating that they would go so far as to ‘blacklist’ such candidates and suppress their names from CV searches.
Posted by: Ben Hutchins in technology selection, talent attraction, recruitment technology, recruitment system, recruitment solutions, recruitment software, Recruitment Leadership, Recruitment, recruiting software, recruiting, outsourced recruitment services, online recruitment, on-line recruitment, human resources, hr, gradweb, Graduate Recruitment, business, awards, assessment, applicant tracking system on
21 Sep 12
GradWeb, the entry level, graduate and campaign recruitment outsourcing specialist, won four awards at the prestigious Recruitment Business Awards (RBA’s) in Manchester.
Newbury UK – GradWeb, the entry-level and graduate recruitment outsourcing specialists, announced that they have won four awards at the Recruitment Business Awards held in Manchester. The awards included Best Integrated Campaign, Best Recruitment Platform, Best Candidate Experience and the ultimate accolade of Recruitment Company of the Year.
The Recruitment Business Awards are now in their tenth year and aim to reward creative recruitment advertising and successful recruitment businesses. GradWeb won a hat-trick of awards for the work it has done for its clients Network Rail, BT Global Services and Cisco, and rounded off an excellent night by also scooping the Recruitment Company of the Year Award.
The high profile Track&Train recruitment campaign, that provides paid internships within the rail industry for unemployed graduates, secured the award for Best Integrated Campaign, by combining innovative candidate attraction services for lead client, Network Rail, and the other 27 participating rail businesses. The Best Candidate Experience Award for outstanding candidate management was won by BT Global Services for the recruitment of its Sales Academy, for which GradWeb managed a huge volume of candidates in a compressed time period, using a bespoke assessment process to select 200 exceptional sales people. The Best Online Recruitment Platform was won by Cisco for the global Cisco Partner Talent Network (CPTN). Uniquely designed, developed and managed by GradWeb, the portal features a ground-breaking job-matching algorithm and integration with LinkedIn to deliver an unrivalled candidate experience.
“We are delighted that our work has been recognised and rewarded by the judges at the Recruitment Business Awards” said Cynthia Bostock, Managing Director, GradWeb. “To win one award is a great honour but to receive four, including Recruitment Company of the Year, is a fantastic achievement. It is testament not only to the strength of our partnerships with our clients but also the outstanding candidate experience that we provide. These awards highlight the breadth and depth of our expertise and experience in delivering innovative, highly effective and transformational recruitment solutions that deliver real business value to our clients.”
SilkRoad Named a Major Player in IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Social Technology in Integrated Talent Management Vendor Assessment
SilkRoad Recognised for Its Integrated Social Talent Management Capabilities
London, August 2012 - SilkRoad Technology, Inc. has been ranked a major player in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Social Technology in Integrated Talent Management Vendor Assessment, IDC #236025, July 2012, for its ability to enable companies to attract, develop and engage top talent through innovative social talent management solutions. IDC recognised SilkRoad for its social recruiting capabilities and employee-centric solutions designed to cover all facets of talent management.
"We're watching the integration of social technology into talent management very closely as the market remains nascent," said Lisa Rowan, program director, HR, Talent, and Learning Strategies and Services for IDC. "SilkRoad is innovating in this space, providing social talent management solutions that deliver a competitive advantage by improving the employee experience."
Posted by: Hannah Stacey in Recruitment on
22 May 12
The UK recruiting industry is ready for a change. That’s the message given by recruiters in response to brand new recruitment model, Sonovate. Launched last month, the site is already providing recruiters with all the tools necessary to start up on their own, and has received positive responses to its unique offering from as far afield as Australia.
After two months of trading Sonovate has attracted a host of high-level recruiters to subscribe to its services, with current early adopters ranging from contract to permanent recruiters, from top-billing managers to part-time mothers and spanning across five different sectors.
“Our pioneering Associate Businesses are successfully and regularly recruiting and closing deals already. If these recruiters had chosen to found their business single-handedly they might still be bogged down in admin and paperwork rather than bringing in commissions as they are now,” comments Richard Prime, managing director of Sonovate.
One of the first recruiters to subscribe to Sonovate was Andrew Longfellow, now owner of Samuel Frank Associates. Andrew left his former agency, where he had worked for more than a decade before starting his business with Sonovate in March.
Longfellow comments: “Through Sonovate I realised that I could have the autonomy of running my own business without any of its unattractive aspects. My lifestyle since subscribing to Sonovate has been fantastic. I have been building a successful and consistent business while enjoying amazing flexibility and a better work life balance than I have experienced in years. I don’t know if I could have achieved this so quickly without the backing of Sonovate.
Micro Focus strengthens recruitment programmes with SilkRoad technologies
10 April 2012, London - Leading global software company, Micro Focus, has invested in SilkRoad technology's recruitment solution, OpenHire. Following a successful installation in the company's Belfast office, where the software has facilitated the employment of 15 new staff, OpenHire will now be deployed across the company's offices worldwide.
SilkRoad Recruiting and
Onboarding Solutions Selected by Milestone Technologies, Inc.
SilkRoad's Solutions
Eliminate Overhead and Streamline the Talent Acquisition Process
LONDON, UK (March 26, 2012) - Milestone Technologies, Inc. (MILESTONE) has selected leading provider of social talent management
solutions, SilkRoad technology, inc., to streamline its talent management processes. MILESTONE will be implementing SilkRoad's OpenHire for recruiting anagement and applicant tracking as well as RedCarpet for onboarding anagement. Upon implementing SilkRoad's OpenHire and RedCarpet, MILESTONE expects to realize a more than five percent return on investment in just the first year.
MILESTONE is an IT consulting business with a workforce operating in 30 countries around the globe. With many employees working remotely, the Company recognized that its previous talent management system was unable to scale to meet the needs of the growing business. To address this, MILESTONE selected SilkRoad's intuitive, cloud-based offerings, which can be easily accessed by employees across the globe, anywhere, at any time.
"It was important to us to find not just a vendor with a good suite of software providing a superior and innovative experience, but also a business partner that supported our overall virtualization strategy. We found that partner in SilkRoad," said Kasey Konkright, director, recruiting for MILESTONE.
Amazing that most companies still look for talent the traditional way. In a world topsy-turvy with change, rampant new
technology, social media, new competitive entrants and a global economy, companies are still hiring the old-fashioned way. Most companies are still embracing the status quo, slumbering thru the new talent management changes shaking this industry. If you're looking to dominate your business segment then remove the shackles of recruitment past.
Jerome Ternynck@jerometernynck, founder & CEO of @SmartRecruiters gives us food for thought with some of these interesting comments from his article at: http://www.rceuro.com/index.php/Featured/Hiring-Made-Easy-Jerome-Ternynck.html?t=13204441661.
1. Recruitment is not Tracking, it is Sourcing
Stop the emphasis on only tracking actions and statuses and get back to sourcing and engaging with the candidate.
2. Kill The Form
Social media and social networking have become even more essential elements of the broader marketing and communications mix this year, settling the question of whether they were merely capricious trends or fundamental and revolutionary shifts in the way that we engage, communicate and do business.
We are living in a world where consumer behaviour and activity have changed enormously in a very short time, where peer advocacy and user-generated content increasingly rival corporate advertising, and where communication can be achieved instantly. Considering this, it is no surprise that businesses are beginning to invest seriously in the places where their products and services are discussed the most.
However, it’s becoming very clear that this is an entirely new way of connecting with audiences, with its own set of considerations that relate to engagement and influence. The creative industries have always embraced innovation, encouraged change and challenged convention, so are more likely than other sectors to be moving at a similar pace to the technological advances driving these changes. Their challenge is to advise clients, who may not be as naturally inclined as others towards digital and social media, on how to make the best of the opportunities on offer.
Many established decision-makers are still trying to make sense of the digital world, the speed at which innovations are taking place and how to manage the wider business implications. Meanwhile, the so-called ‘Generation Y’ is highly mobile, technically astute and perfectly in sync with these burgeoning digital environments; quick to spot the opportunities and turn them to their advantage. This generation gap could fast become a cultural dichotomy, which is why it has become so essential for social media to be properly integrated into strong marketing and communications strategies.
Those artlessly invading and attempting to harness and commoditise these spaces have swiftly discovered that such a strategy doesn’t work. They are turning to the people who understand that this new-born digital knowledge needs to be blended with more traditional communication and creative skills to enable them to engage more successfully online. Digital design consultancies and digital marketing groups are working very hard to galvanise these skills through educating and informing their more senior specialists in the ways of digital and developing their ‘digital natives’ into more rounded creatives.
Sydney, April 4, 2011: Become, one of Australia’s fastest growing creative recruitment agencies, today announces the launch of their Melbourne office.
After 4 successful years in Sydney, Become will be opening it’s second Australian office to add to the offices in London and Manchester in the UK and continue driving their position as global player in the design and advertising industry
According to Melbourne Manager, Adele Leah, this is an exciting time for the business and proves they have come along way since our pioneering beginnings in Sydney in 2007.
We’re really excited to be expanding and are looking forward to the challenge Adele said, ‘We feel Melbourne is a booming creative hub, you only need to look at the recent awards to see how much influence the city’s agencies have within Australia and further abroad.’
After last years re-brand, the company has increased focus on digital media, not only through their website, but also through social media outlets like Twitter and Linked In.
Posted by: Gareth Jones in totaljobs.com, strategy, socialmedia, social recruiting, social networking, social media recruiting, social media in recruitment, recruitment technology, recruitment solutions, Recruitment, recruiting, online recruitment, on-line recruitment, On-line job hunting, monster, jobboard, job sites, job search, job boards, Job board, future, erecruitment, Engagement, Candidates, #trulondon on
28 Feb 11
I have been thinking a lot about job boards recently, as both a customer and a jobseeker. In these socially enabled times, it strikes me that the job board user experience should be something like this:
Jobs are displayed in easy on the eye tag clouds, instead of ordered lists we know are manipulated by the recruitment organisations who post them. Jobs are highlighted to me by other job seekers and I can rank them by most viewed, highest rated or user defined tags. It’s a visual experience, not a data driven one.
I can tag each job myself, just like I can currently tag the rest of my social life – my pictures, my bookmarks and so on – knowing that all my fellow jobseekers are doing the same. This rich user tagging is doing a way better job of delivering me relevant jobs than the job board search facility can.
What's more, I can connect with my social friends on the site, directly, along with other job seekers whom I don't know. Yet. The feature that flags the profiles of people who are also looking for a job in my specialism or area takes care of that.
It introduces me to others in the community who also happen to be looking for a job in the same area as me. We can swap notes, compare opportunities, give advice and extend our job-seeking network. And of course, make some life long friends along the way.
The increased development in technology in recent years has resulted in employees being able to work anywhere and anytime – from home, the airport, on holiday and so on. More and more people work from home permanently and some work from home on set days per week allowing their work and home life to co-exist.
I came across an article recently in Grapevine magazine discussing this issue and it revealed that one in five workers are in fact not allowed to do so. This got me thinking about whether or not this should be the case –should companies be offering this to all and is it a good idea?
The article explains that research by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) found that 4.5 million workers wish to work from home on some days a week but are not given the option to do so. We all know that some work simply could not be done from home, but for those jobs that can be there appears to be great benefits.
The TUC argue that allowing employees to work from home will result in “Better staff recruitment and retention; improved motivation and productivity; improving the quality and reputation of the service; reduction of sickness absence and travel costs; and infrastructure cost savings”.
So is this true? We don’t believe that all companies should suddenly allow their team to work from home on a permanent basis – interaction with your co-workers is key. However we do relate to what the TUC are saying and believe that a large part of the issue surrounding working from home is trust.
Once someone has identified you, as the company they would like to work with, they are looking for constant reassurance that they are right! First impressions are created at the initial point of contact, but they are reinforced every time they experience an interaction with your team. Whether communicating by email, twitter, blog, website, letter, telephone or face to face, your company is sending a message to that individual about who you are and how you value them. If you hold someone in high regard and care how they feel and what they think about you - and importantly what they will say about you -, then each and every interaction you have with them will be planned and delivered thoughtfully. When people are going through the recruitment process, they are weighing up all the evidence ‘for and against’ coming on board with you - and the best talent will be doing this with several companies at the same time. They’ll be benchmarking all the companies they are considering against their ideal and comparing you with your competitors. It doesn't matter how brilliant your induction process may be, if you lose people during this early part of the process, you’ll never get them there to experience it anyway!
Little things can become big gestures during the first impressions stage. Things like:
- Picking up the phone to talk to someone, as well as sending them an email.
- Offering people as much information as you can about the role, your team, the company, your vision and the opportunity as readily as possible - and keeping it real!
- Looking after the people who aren’t successful, who aren’t quite right for your team - they will be for someone else and they are out there right now, telling their network how you treated them and you can directly influence what they say by your actions.
Jory Des Jardins President and Co-Founder of BlogHER will appear tonight onCompassionate HR/Social Media at 7:30 p.m. eastern standard time–4:30 p.m. pacific time. Why is this important? Jory gave me the encouragement, empowerment, and enlightenment for me to start blogging. That’s right. Jory did. This is a little known fact about Margo Rose. Most people think I started my blog because of my involvement in the HR Community. While this is true in part, the source of inspiration for me to develop the courage and insight to begin writing came from BlogHER.com.
The world of women owned businesses, women as power brokers, and women as decision makers is of profound relevance. Today, women decide what products we buy, what cars we drive, what hygiene products we purchase, what food is in our refrigerator, and what products we use to do our laundry. Every decision consumers make is often guided by women, and consumer owned companies know this fact. It’s why they jockey for position to be sponsors of the internationally renown BlogHER conferences, the BlogHER website, the BlogHER blogs, and the BlogHER brands.
While I personally find the term “mommy blogger,” demeaning, and a little distasteful, I am pleased to see Corporate America putting money behind women-owned blogs, and small women owned businesses. You see, the women who attend these conferences, write these blogs, visit these websites are prime candidates for the recruitment, and candidate sourcing industry. The human resources industry is also jumping on the bandwagon. Where nationally recognized speakers like Laurie Ruettimann and Sarah White are attending BlogHER10, and go on to Bryan Wempen’s radio show to discuss it, it’s time to perk up your eyes and ears and take notice.
When though leaders like Sharlyn Lauby, and Carmen Hudson are attendingBlogHER10 conferences, what that means is that female blogging conferences are are trending. Sharlyn, and Carmen are nationally recognized experts in the human resources, recruitment and organization development community. They are sought after by people around the world to speak and present at our industry conferences. In a word, these two women are geniuses. I don’t say that capriciously. Anyone who is anyone in our space knows this is true. Why did people like Laurie, Sarah, Sharlyn, and Carmen attend BlogHER10? Isn’t that answer obvious? Clearly it is because it was the place to be.
Serious knowledge brokering was taking place. I’m not talking about light weight fluff pieces, I’m talking about serious business focused sessions about work that has relevance, resonance, and reach around the world. It is time to stand up acknowledge, redefine, and praise Jory Des Jardin for spearheading this movement. She is the reason I do what I do. When I met her last fall, I was writing, journaling, and thinking about starting a blog. I was reading her blog. It wasn’t until I met her at the CincySM meeting that I was convinced it was safe to stick my toes deep into the water.
I asked her a question, a simple question: how does a woman start a blog and gain loyalty and readership? Her answer warmed my heart. She answered, then invited me to personally talk to her after the meeting.
Are you piercingly clear on your current direction?
When did your organisation last re visit your vision?
In such turbulent times it is easy to continue on with your old vision - which was probably set in a better climate - while we are busy getting on with the important things like successfully sailing out of a recession. Your existing team will question your leadership credibility if the purpose, mission and values of the business are no longer relevant - nor realistic. We talk about the importance of engaging the hearts and minds of our people to retain talent and step one of engagement is alignment. How can people align with our goals and direction if they are not clear? Given that 1 in 3 (CIPD survey 2010) or 1 in 4 (PWC survey 2010) of your current workforce would consider a move in 2010/11, its worth working on this as a key part of your talent retention strategy.
But what about talent attraction?
These days it’s almost impossible to become a successful recruiter if you aren’t a wiz at using your social media skills. Over 3 million people in the UK alone use LinkedIn and good recruiters use it as a tool to source candidates and clients. The majority though, don’t know what they don’t know and could be getting so much more from it than they realise.
Even if you are that social media ‘wiz kid’, that’s only half the story. If you don’t have credible, consultative headhunting skills, having the names of top talent is meaningless if you can’t confidently approach them to professionally present an opportunity.
Using these skills together is the key, so learning them together makes sense.
Lander Associates has teamed up with LinkedIn expert Mark Williams (Mr LinkedIn) to create a unique training programme that combines LinkedIn and traditional headhunting techniques.
LinkedIn skills from setting up that ‘killer’ profile to discovering applications that you should be taking advantage of to really extend your network, go hand in hand with using a headhunting structure that gives professional credibility, managing even the most senior candidates with confidence.
Hello RCEURO readers! I am delighted to climb on board again as a contributor. I have worked in and had a passion for recruitment for many years (won’t say how many!) - and love having the opportunity of sharing thoughts and ideas with the global RCEURO recruitment community.
I met with Alan a few weeks ago and we were talking about recruitment companies starting to hire talent again as the recession conditions continue to ease up. He referred to the process as ‘on boarding’ (US term!). It got me thinking about the key parts of the service we should offer new recruits to welcome them on board. Historically attrition rates for 0-6 months in the recruitment sector have not been good! Last year’s CIPD annual survey report from the UK quoted a 20% turnover.
The journey to join a new company starts when a candidate responds to a job advert , twitter alert or is approached by someone about a role. From that moment on, every time the candidate ‘touches’ your organisation, there is an opportunity for you to provide outstanding service ensuring a great experience. British Airways called this ‘Moments of truth’ – though probably not well advised to use them as an example right now!
On boarding 1:
Much of the new talent choosing the recruitment sector across the world will be Y gen, so a definite first port of call is your website. Many recruitment companies have really good websites projecting a great brand but quite frankly when you click to the ‘join us’ page it’s often pretty uninspiring at best and just plain boring at worst! You have to plan how to engage with potential candidates.
I was really interested to read a piece courtesy of Recruitment Dad this week on the results of his study into recruiters. It created a lot of buzz on Twitter so I'm sure some of you have already seen it but in case you haven't, have a read here - it is definitely some food for thought.
The study basically illustrated what may have come as a shock to some, but was to be expected for others: recruiters weren't very good at their jobs. Here are a few particularly shocking statistics:
- Only 7 out of 20 asked Recruitment Dad (the fake candidate) his name
- Only 3 took a phone number
- Only 1 made him feel confident that they could help
- 0 asked about personal circumstances
- 0 asked if he had applied for any other jobs
And that is just a small selection!
Unfortunately this study just reinforces what many people already think about our industry - that recruiters don't really care about candidates. And that is very frustrating. Not only are these individual companies creating a bad name for themselves, they're stopping the rest of the sector getting the respect it deserves. Knowing the right questions to ask really is in the basics of recruitment that every consultant should have perfected.
These results really highlight the importance of investing in your staff. We don't only say this because it's our business - it's because it's true! Yes, giving your recruiters a ‘recruiters for dummies' guidebook is one way of doing it but the chances are that what they read won't stay with them for long, and they'll be repeating all the mistakes that those surveyed above did. Only by learning interactively, providing feedback / analysis and putting new skills into action at desk level is that learning going to work.
