Louise's UK Recruiter Blog

15-minute guide to online recruiting

Susanna Cesar Morton of Advorto sent me a note last week about their "15-minute guide to online recruiting".  It's targetted at corporate recruiters but should also provide useful information to agency/consultancy recruiters.  The subjects covered include your career site, job boards, your intranet, candidate e-newsletters, online referral systems, social networks, blogs and SEO.

It's nicely put together and really only does take 15 minutes to read.

You can download a copy from their website

6 Tips for Better Recruiting

Heather Johnson, who regularly writes on the topic of career exploration has written something specifically for the UK Recruiter Blog.  Here are her tips to help your recruiting services:

1. Expand your talent pool.  Develop relationships with university career centers.  This is a great source to tap into and the people in these departments are going to put you in touch with the youngest and brightest graduates.  Check online job boards where people have posted their resumes. 

2. Go with the sure thing.  When considering a candidate for a position, try to search for people that have done the same job for a similar company with a similar culture.  It’s proven that people that have done the same job and done it well will be a better fit than a raw talent.

3. Look in-house first.  Post new job offerings in-house before exposing the position to the public.  This will boost morale in your company and enable you to get to know your employees better.  An in-house candidate will know what you’re expecting and will make a more seamless transition than an outsider.

4. Ask current employees for help.  It’s a good idea to run potential candidates by your current employees before making a decision to hire.  They’ll know what type of person would fit in the best.  Let them know you’re considering making a new hire and they can scan their own networks to see if they know anyone that would be a proper fit.

5. Offer better pay than the competition.  This seems like a no-brainer but it is something that often gets passed over for minimal cost-cutting reasons.  If you offer a slightly higher salary than your competition you’re going to attract better candidates.  They’ll feel that your company is one that appreciates its employees better than the next company.

6. Advertise your benefits.  In addition to offering competitive salaries, tout your benefit packages.  Keep them above the standard for your field and you’ll come off as “the” place to work.

If you want to contact Heather with questions or writing job opportunities  you can use her personal email address.

Mike Walmsley Training group on LinkedIn

Mike Walmsley has sent me an invite to join his Mike Walmsley Training group on LinkedIn. 

He's created it to feed valuable information to members and, amongst other things, he is planning to interview key figures from the recruitment industry and to make the podcasts available to members.   Also, it's worth signing up as members can currently request a free 7 day trial of Mike's online recruitment videos.

Xobni in your inbox

Last week two people mentioned Xobni to me so I thought I ought to check it out (it doesn't take much to get me interested in new websites does it?!)

Whilst, I've not found the time to download it yet I didn't want to miss out on sharing what I know so far.

According to Dan Atkinson at Accite it's "The greatest piece of free analysis software for the desktop since Google Desktop Search.  Xobni integrates in to Outlook and automatically indexes every one of your messages. So far, so Google right? Well Xobni goes one better by pulling together every single correspondence you've had with an email contact, extracting their relevant phone numbers and even tells you what time of day they tend to email you. And that's just for starters. I can't recommend it enough."

He then went on to tell me that I'd emailed him 83 times. So it sounds like a good way of tracking your stalkers too!

Interview with a blogger - Andrew Gordon

A while back I was doing an "interview with a blogger" each Friday.  The people I have been featuring are all on our UK Recruitment Blog Watch page.  I've pretty much covered 80% of the bloggers so am trying to chase up the final (hard to reach in some cases!) few.  So if you've favourite blogger hasn't been featured here please feel free to give them a prod on my behalf.

This week I'm talking with Andrew Gordon of jobs.ac.uk.  Andrew has worked in the online industry since 1997 and is currently the Director of jobs.ac.uk. Andrew helped launch jobs.ac.uk before going to establish several other successful web projects - including 3 other jobs boards.  For 6 years he worked at website marketing company - New Terrain Limited.  In 2004, he was asked to return to jobs.ac.uk on the retirement of the previous Director.  He writes at Simply. Better

How long have  you been blogging?
I've blogged on and off for a couple of years although I've only consistently blogged with 'Simply. Better' (attached to jobs.ac.uk). I've been posting to this blog for almost 12 months now.

Why did you start?
I was sucked into the buzz about blogging and wanted to give it a go myself.

I saw, and still see it, as a way to have an authentic voice online and to provide people with a 'behind-the-scenes' peep at jobs.ac.uk. I was also interested in the potential for search engine traffic and the ability to tap into long-tail search terms that wouldn't normally be covered with our normal content.

What do you do, work related, when you aren't blogging?
It depends on what my wife tells me I should be doing ;)

This includes all the normal stuff of being a dad and husband plus trying to fit in hobbies and interests, online gaming and getting out into the country side as much as I can. I especially like hill walking and cycling.

Do you think blogging has helped your business?
It's difficult to say.

From the visitor figures, it's clear that the blog does bring in extra traffic. So that is, of course, a bonus. Whether all these people are the perfect target audience is another matter. Although, because we're trying to raise awareness of our brand, almost anybody visiting the site is a boon!

Whilst I can't say that the blog has won new clients, I can say that it has helped me develop my thinking in a number of areas.

When I write a blog post, I am forced to put my thoughts into some sort of coherent structure for others to read. This is a good mental discipline. Does that make me a better manager? You'd better ask my team about that!

What do you feel is the biggest challenge about writing a blog?
Being committed to blogging on a regular basis. Also, finding interesting topics to write about.

What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
I read so many blogs but one of my favourites is http://lifehacker.com.  There's always cool stuff on there. It's how I find out about some of the best resources online.

What do you want your reader's to know about you?
That I'm just trying my best, learning as I go and making lots of mistakes.

Even though I've worked the Web industry for several years - 12 now to be precise - it doesn't mean that you know all of the answers. Far from it in fact. But having an open mind and a willingness to learn is what keeps it still fun.

If you knew someone was thinking about starting a recruitment related blog, what advice would you want to give them?
Go do!

It's a great self-development tool and a wonderful outlet for you to express your views. Make sure you understand the commitment required, relax and be yourself. Try and be original and offer something of value to your readers.

But don't expect fame and fortune overnight. Just the opposite in fact. Unless you're very, very good at web marketing, you won't gain any substantial traffic for at least 8 - 12 months, maybe even up to 2 years.

Is there a question you wished I asked you?
Yes, 'which is my favourite blogging platform?' and I would have answered, Wordpress! It's the daddy of all blogging platforms. It's so easy to download, install and use. And best of all, it's free!

Connected Jobs - Facebook Application for Recruiters

Panlogic is a strategic UK digital marketing agency with a specialism in social media. They are creating a Facebook application for recruiters (corporates and agencies) "to ease the chronic skills shortage in our industry and to improve the process of employees and employers finding each other by using the power of the Facebook platform".

Whilst they are loathe to the use the word job board (they call it a sector based recruitment application) it is a kind of job board for Facebook. Helping individuals find the roles they are looking for and helps companies find the staff they need. It is the way it does it that is innovative i.e. tapping into the social aspects of Facebook such as showing where your friends have worked, getting the low-down on an employer, the inside-track of the job etc.

They are yet to launch the official version (I think they are in Beta at present) are currently integrating the application with Broadbean to allow all agencies to post vacancies direct to Facebook.  The idea is to set up niche sites for different sectors with some funky features such as videos, rating of corporates (by ex/current employees), etc, to make it more interactive (in keeping with the style of Facebook). 

Basically a recruiter advertises their job and it's pushed out to the people that are signed up to the application. Currently we understand that nothing will be shown in the user’s profile in order to retain anonymity. Whilst this may reduce its viral pick-up it does ensure total discretion. Panlogic were keen to stress that this area is under review and will depend on user feedback.

Some existing job boards have already created Facebook Applications and both of the main referral recruitment solutions (Zubka and Jobtonic) have them.  I've not heard fabulous stories about their success but I guess for existing job boards it's just another route to market.  Their early Beta has launched for the Digital Agency sector (no surprise there, then) but, as above, I understand that there is a later version to follow soon.

What do you think?  Will "jobseekers" add this application and can a recruiter rely on advertising their vacancies on Facebook alone?

The branded video signature - for recruiters

What about this as a way to promote vacancies at your organisation.  You get your CEO or Head of HR to do a piece to camera about how fantastic your company is - for the purpose of showcasing to candidates.  You pop a link to the video creative on your email, company literature, wherever you can.  On this link you'll see Jeremy Kay, MD of now|email, walk onto his website! If you click on the rotating stills behind him you'll be able to see what he and his company have done for the likes of Unilever and Future Publishing.

Obviously the more creative and well-drawn the company profile, the better an impression it gives and the more it helps the company to recruit better candidates.  It's a  brand new concept  so now | email  would like to spread the word to as many cutting-edge recruiters as possible.  Contact Jeremy  at jeremy.kay@nowemail.net and it could be your funky new sig I'm previewing here!

Is Employment Law ever amusing?

Sprecher Grier Halberstam (great name for a firm of solicitors in my mind) sent me a note about their "weekly legal update".  As we already have a regular legal feature in the newsletter (see last week's issue for April's update) I thought I'd mention them here.  The weekly update is written by one of their employment solicitors and described as "informative yet humorous".  And, do you know what, they are!

You can view the most recent one and a load of the back issues on their website.