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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.
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!
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!
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".
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!
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.
In my recent conversation with Emma at Sky we talked about their current recruitment PSL review. They have a large number of companies on their PSL as it hasn’t been fully reviewed in years and they want to streamline it
I thought it might be useful for recruiters to understand the process a corporate recruiter goes through during a PSL review. If you want to get onto a PSL these are the targets you should probably aim to hit. If you’re already on one bearing these things in mind may help avoid complacency and potential eviction!
Their strategy going forward is to look at each supplier and determine:
•How are they managing Sky’s brand?
•How well do they know Sky?
•Are they representing Sky in the right way?
Then to look at how the supplier is treating Sky (ie, is Sky business a priority, are they getting the best CV’s first and is the supplier adding real value?)
They are looking at how their suppliers see them and categorise suppliers as one of the following:
- Development: nurture Sky, expand the business, seeks opportunities and offer a proactive service.
- Core: look after Sky, fight to keep the account and offer a high level of service and responsiveness.
- Nuisance: see Sky as a nuisance and give low attention and appear happy to lose them as a customer.
- Exploitable: maximise today’s income, seeks short term advantage and risk losing Sky as an account.
Then they assess how Sky view their suppliers by categorising them as one of the following:
- Strategic: A business critical supplier where sustaining the longer term relationship is potentially more important than a single deal.
- Operational: A business critical supplier with whom Sky intend to have a longer-term relationship, lasting several years.
- Tactical: A supplier who Sky use as required, without any specific intention or guarantees of extending the relationship for future business.
- Potential: A potential supplier of business.
- Exit: - Supplier who Sky wish to perform a managed exit from current and future business.
Then they take the information and map each supplier they wish to retain onto a tier one or tier two PSL. Tier one are the established, preferred and performing suppliers who possess the capability to fill 60-80% of all Sky vacancies by any given business area. In most cases these are the first point of contact for any vacancies released to the PSL. Tier two are a broader group of selected suppliers who have the capability to fill vacancies in specialist or niche areas, or where Tier one suppliers have not been successful. They are expected to fill 20-30% of roles.
There you go, PSL reviews in a nutshell (courtesy of Emma at Sky).
Mark Whitby is running a free webinar on the subject of Candidate Generation on Wednesday 7th May at 10.00am BST. The cost of his webinars is normally £47 per person. We reviewed one of Mark's old style telephone training sessions a while back in the newsletter and got very good feedback. So, if yours is a candidate driven market it's worth finding time for this 45 minute session.
You will learn:
* Free and low-cost sources of high calibre candidates
* A formula for generating at least 2 referrals from every candidate who registers
* Unorthodox but highly effective tactics for finding "immediately placeable" candidates
* Great alternatives to traditional advertising
You can sign up here
