Louise's UK Recruiter Blog

Video CVs

I feel I'm a little slow in voicing my opinion on Video CVs. There have been some great blogs recently about the pros and cons of them so I thought I'd link to a few as well as share my thoughts.

Firstly, Gerry Crispin's thoughts (you can read about Gerry here or visit his LinkedIn profile). Back in August Gerry got so sick of being asked the same question by journalists about his thoughts on video CVs that he posted "Video resumes are so dumb they don’t know when they are dead..."  He gives a detailed explanation of why he's so against them.  Gerry is recognised as something of a guru within the US recruitment industry so I'd say his thoughts are worth a read.  Not everyone agrees with him so it's also interesting to read the comments on that blog post.

Then earlier this month there was a post on the IdealPeopleBlog asking if Video CVs are the future of job seeking. There post looked at the pros and cons (but mostly the cons) as did this article from The Guardian  (but again the writer finds more negatives than positives).

Finally, and what has prompted me to write this blog post I saw that Nick Corcodilos of Ask The Headhunter (fab email newsletter - well worth subscribing too) had written about Video CVs "The Fantasy of flacks and career sites" from a candidate perspective.  It's worth reading his article - but if you've not got time the bottom line is that he's not too keen on them.

By the way; if you want to see examples of Video CVs in the UK check out Talking CV and D7 Recruitment.

But what do I think of Video CVs?  I think they are an example of trying to use technology where it's just not needed.  I love corporate's doing online hiring videos but Video CVs, right here and now, don't do it for me (although I'm not suggesting they are just about to die out - I'm sure they are here to stay and be shoehorned as a solution to a problem which doesn't exist).  Recruiters screen CVs at a rate of one every 30 seconds or so.  Experienced recruiters do it in between phone calls, waiting for the kettle to boil and (rather naughtily) whilst chatting away to colleagues.  Watching a two minute video CV will obviously take longer; unless you only give each person 30 seconds in which to prove themselves - and of course that's not the idea at all.  As I've said previously I also think it opens the door to discrimination (either purposeful or unconsciously).

However, they do have an application in some niche areas.  Obviously within the "performing arts" there is a market and maybe for certain sales roles a recruiter may offer to view video presentations showcasing sales skills.  Where appropriate they can allow a recruiter to assess a candidates presentation and communication skills.   But two minutes of watching a candidate read out their CV?  It's a no from me!

Facebook and referral recruiting

There's a new Facebook application I want to mention today.  It's called Zubka Jobs (Zubka is a job board that pays a reward to people for recommending a person for a job on the site). They have basically taken the shell of their process (person A sees a job on the site and thinks their friend, person B, would be right for it.  Person A recommends person B for it.  If person B gets the job then the hiring company pays person A a bounty of up to £5,000) and slotted it into Facebook.

The reason that Zubka has done this?  To target all those millions of (international) Facebook users who spend their working days popping on and off the site.  I think it's a neat idea.  To be honest it's not exactly revolutionary - they've just used Facebook's communication tools to help people use the application in the way they're used to communicating already on the site.  However, they have ensured that the application is properly integrated into their technology so that when a user finally logs in to Zubka (which they need to do to send the referral to the hirer) the confirmation of interest and candidate details etc are already in there waiting for them.  For recruiters (Zubka's clients) it expands the visibility of each job and provides a cheap, easy and immediate route into recruiting from social networks. 

This is the key really for referral sites to work.  People have to be viewing the jobs.  Jobtonic (their competitor in the UK) created something similar back in the summer.  They created a "refer-o-matic" application on Facebook which "reads" the user’s Facebook profile in order to display jobs most relevant to their location. Again, they have done this to increase the number of referrers on their site and to allow them to use the site in a way which most suits their web usage.

Whilst I'm on the subject of checking out new stuff on Facebook I wanted to mention this really nice idea from Gavin Ingham.  It's a group called "Success Frog".  Gavin is a motivational speaker (and ex recruiter) so it's no surprise to find he's created a group with the purpose of "to share our successes and wins and to create a wealth of positivity that motivates and inspires".  In my opinion, a lot more positive than joining the "Katie Melua's whining makes me want to rip my ears off" group.

National Online Recruitment Awards - Winners

The winners of the National Online Recruitment Awards 2007 have just been announced.  Stephen O'Donnell has yet again done a great job at rounding up the judges (some who needed more rounding up than others!), sorting the nominations, collating the scores and pulling everything together. The winners are:

Best General Job Board: Fish4Jobs
This is the first year Fish4 have won in this category.  The site got the joint highest score across all the sites nominated this year. 

Best Specialist Jobsite: efinancial careers
Won last year by Jobserve. 

Best Regional Jobsite: s1jobs
s1jobs previously won this category in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006!

Best National Recruitment Agency Website: Search Consultancy
Won last year by Badenoch & Clark.

Best Small Recruitment Agency Website: pfj - Phee Farrer Jones 
pfj also won in this category last year.

Best Employer’s recruitment Website: West Midlands Police
Won last year by Whibread (who weren't nominated this year).  The site got the joint highest score across all the sites nominated this year. 

Best Online Recruitment Section by a Consumer Publication: The Guardian
The Guardian won this category in 2004.  The award was won last year by The Telegraph.

Best Online Recruitment Section by a Trade Publication: Caterer
Won last year by Personnel Today (who weren't nominated this year).

Best Employment Advice Website: Monster
Monster won this category in 2003, 2005 and 2006.

Best Innovation in Online Recruitment: JobTonic
This is a new category to the awards.  This category had the lowest total scores across all the categories.

I was one of the judges this year (it's my sixth year of being involved as a judge) and like previous years I found both inspiring and depressing.  Some of the sites were absolutely dreadful (and these are apparently the best in category), some didn't seem to  have moved on one inch from last year.  However, some were magnificent (even though they didn't win it the Royal Navy website is a fabulous example of creating a brilliant candidate experience - although I did think the winning West Midlands Police site was great too). The standard within the General Job Board category was really high and I actually found it hard to choose between them as they mostly offered the same types of service to a jobseeker (career advice, list of employers, "email a friend", create a saved list of potential jobs, etc) and had a great range of jobs across the industries. However, within the "Best Online Recruitment Section of a Consumer Publication" category I thought the standard was disappointing (although I did agree that The Guardian was the best).

In all cases I think the winners are worthy of the award.  Between all the judges 32 sites were given the top mark of five (compared to 39 last year) but 21 (compared to 12 last year) were given the lowest mark of just one (out of five).  Maybe the judges are getting tougher (too much watching x-factor?), maybe our standards are set a little higher or maybe there's plenty scope to improve the value of these sites to jobseekers.

You can see information on nominations and awards for previous years at http://www.alljobsuk.com

Is Twitter any good for Recruiters?

Maybe it's just me being a bit of a luddite but I really can't see the application of Twitter for recruitment (if you've never heard of Twitter here's an overview).  Actually, if I'm honest I can't see the point of the site at all. 

I use facebook (although I never do those "status" comments.... "bob is feeding his cat") and can see how it has applications for recruitment.  I love LinkedIn (and had recent success using it for a recruitment project) and the other business networking websites.  In comparison Twitter just seems a bit too un-business-like to me.  However, James Parr suggested I take another look. He says "it’s one to stick with, it’s definitely going places".  He pointed me in the direction of Guy Kawasaki's recent blog post on how Twitter has worked for him.  As a result I've registered with Twitter and taken another look. I'm only "following" two people so far, so if you are in recruitment drop me a note with your Twitter username.  You can follow me if you like, although at present I'm not saying much.

I will stick with it for a while, would love to hear how anyone out there uses it for recruitment, and will report back.

Interview with a Blogger - Fran Brill

Fran is the Marketing Manager for Aptus Personnel (“one of UK’s top 100 recruitment agencies providing temporary staff, permanent recruitment and innovative personnel services to leading companies and local businesses across the UK”).  Prior to this she worked as a Brand Manager for Avon Cosmetics, dealing with products ranging from Jewellery to Aromatherapy.  Fran writes the Aptus Personnel blog – rather nicely entitled Brill’s Blog.

How long have you been blogging?
Only since July this year, I’m a self-confessed novice.

Why did you start?
At first, as a straight forward attempt to increase traffic to our website.  Over time I’ve realised however that few recruiter blogs look at the industry from a marketing perspective, so I think I have something to add to the pot.

What do you do, work related, when you aren't blogging?
My role is really diverse, one day I can be at one of our branches helping design a new shop-front, the next working on market research to help drive our desk strategy forward.  In between – everything from flyers & posters to competitions, job boards & our websites.

Do you think blogging has helped your business?
It’s been a relatively short period of time since the blog was launched, but I’ve definitely seen an increase in traffic to our website.  Additionally, anything (however small) which increases our presence in the marketplace has to be a good thing.

What do you feel is the biggest challenge about writing a blog?
Making sure that what I want to say comes across in an interesting way, and genuinely adds to the reader’s knowledge.  I love the idea that something I write could inspire a great idea!

What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
www.verymildperil.com.  This blog makes fun of the ‘over the top’ parental warnings on films and household items, it always makes me smile.

What do you want your reader’s to know about you?
I’ve lost 4 stone in weight so far this year, and I’m very very happy about it!

If you knew someone was thinking about starting a recruitment related blog, what advice would you want to give them? 
Be passionate about your subject, and try to add value rather than re-visiting the same old topics.

Is there a question you wished I asked you?
Which do you think offers the biggest recruitment opportunity - Facebook, My Space or LinkedIn?

Average Salaries by Region in the UK

AllTheTopBananas.com are collecting and analysing salary data from their partner job board websites to provide a Monthly Salary Index.  To create the index they have analysed more 600,000 jobs advertised between April and September this year.

It's not a breakdown by job title/function but nevertheless gives an interesting overview of the differences in salary by geographic location.  The sort of information a recruiter could do with having at his/her fingertips.

The regional figures are:

Region Average advertised salary
London: £37,991
Scotland: £29,036
East Anglia; £28,673
West Midlands: £28,665
South East: £28,132
Wales: £27,447
South West: £27,035
North West: £26,613
Yorkshire & Humber: £26,060
North East: £25,699
East Midlands: £24,940
The average salary for a job advertised in the UK in the last six months was £31,290 a year.

If you view the list on their website you can see the sample size in each category (overall they analysed 616,374 jobs posted between April & September 2007).  You can also view graphs for counties and UK major cities.

If salary data is your thing then check out our list of free salary surveys at www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/salary.htm

comScore's Top 10 UK Career Services & Development Sites

If you read the ukrecruiter newsletter you'll see that for quite some time now we've been publishing Hitwise's top 10 most visited UK recruitment sites.

A number of subscribers enquired as to whether, in addition, we could get similar stats from comScore. They have kindly offered to share their monthly recruitment figures with us.  The plan is for us to publish them on this blog (with a link from the newsletter) every month. 

comScore: Top 10 Career Services & Development Sites by UK Unique Visitors (000) – September 2007*

Total UK Internet Audience: 32,179
Career Services and Development: 11,051

Jobcentreplus.gov.uk: 2,704
Fish4jobs: 2,050
CareerBuilder LLC: 1,470
Monster: 1,394
Totaljobs.com Sites: 1,189
NHS Careers: 966
Reed.co.uk: 961
Guardian Jobs: 856
Jobsite: 662
Axcis.co.uk: 566
*Unique users aged 15+, excludes traffic from public computers such as internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs

If you are looking to compare these to the Hitwise data you will notice that comScore include Fish4 and TotalJobs (which Hitwise can't do as they don't aggregate data from sites who form part of a network).  However, comScore don't include LinkedIn (which recently starting appearing in the Hitwise top 10) as they class LinkedIn as a social networking site (ranking it under their "conversational media" category as opposed to the "Careers Services and development" category we are seeing above).

However, these factors aside the rankings are actually very similar (which I guess is good for them both to show consistency of data).  For example I also know that cv-library.co.uk was a very close 11th behind the tenth place site in both the comScore and Hitwise rankings for September.

New Niche Job Boards

I get quite a few press releases from sites asking if we'll feature them in the newsletter - too many in fact for us to be able to mention every one each week.  I thought I'd write a quick post about some of the new niche job boards being launched to compensate for this lack of space (however it's taken me a while to get round to it so I'm sorry if a couple of these are "old news").

I think that there are some great and/or interesting niche job boards coming onto the market (as well as some very very obscure ones in my opinion - I'm just waiting to see the press release for this niche job site www.jobsforlazypeople.com).  Here are some of them in no particular order:

JobsinStockholm - for English speaking jobs in Sweden
Butternutjobs.com - jobs in East Anglia
SupplyChainOnline - the Supply Chain, Purchasing and Logistics market
Spatial Jobs Online - vacancies within the spatial industry
jobs.routesonline.com - route development jobs (for airports and airlines)
ICSJobsBoard.com - customer service professionals
ScienceProspects - dedicated to science jobs
Jobstopia - advertising Sheffield Jobs, Doncaster Jobs and vacancies throughout Yorkshire
Digital Industry Jobs - covering the digital marketplace

By the way, we try to maintain a full list of UK job boards (split into job functions/industry sectors) on the UK Recruiter site so if you want to find the ones for your market pop over there.

Global ERE Recruitment Expo 2007

Scott Baxt, Director of Marketing at ERE asked if I'd mention their Global ERE Expo 2007 recruitment conference.  After the success of last year's event I am more than happy to give it a plug for him.  It takes place on the 14-16 November in Amsterdam.

The conference Chair, again this year, is Alan Whitford who is real recruitment technology guru (and nice guy) and the speaker line up looks great (I noticed a couple of people who are well known in the UK - Matthew Jeffery and Keith Robinson).

There are loads of other great speakers and you can read all about them on the site.  The conference programme looks great so it's a real shame that yet again I can't make along.  However, I will be clearing my calendar for all of November 2008 to ensure I can attend!

Interview with a blogger - Mark Hobson

Mark has been in recruitment for 13 years, working in most sectors including contractors, IT, sales and retained search. He has also worked in all shapes and sizes of companies, from large Corporates, to small specialist firms- and have also ran my own firm.  Some time ago he made a move to ProjectHouse, and is now selling software to the recruitment industry software to the recruitment industry. His blog covers "general ramblings about the recruitment industry, for recruiters, for candidates and for clients".

How long have  you been blogging?
For about 6 months or so.

Why did you start?
I work from home a lot and missed the regular banter and chats about recruitment, so I started putting a few opinions about the industry in a blog. As I stumble across useful bits of information relating to recruitment pop that in a post as well. 

What do you do, work related, when you aren't blogging?
I sell recruitment software with one of the longest established players in the market - ProjectHouse.

Do you think blogging has helped your business?
Absolutely. It started off as just something to do, but it is now a useful business tool. I’ve had a fair number of people request demonstrations of our software from it, a good portion of whom are now users. It is probably nothing to do with what I’m banging on about, more a case of coming across my blog while they searched for something recruitment-related on the Internet. It has certainly helped broaden my network too, with people from the recruitment industry regularly getting in touch with comments. Occasionally they say I’m talking rubbish, other times to agree or add to what I’m saying, in either case it starts a discussion which turns into a regular contact.

Obviously having potential clients contact me via my blog helps business, but just as important is talking to a wide range of people from the industry and knowing what their thoughts on where recruitment and technology is going. Blogging enables me to do this.

What do you feel is the biggest challenge about writing a blog?
Getting the balance right between writing something interesting that might prompt a discussion, and something that just sounds like you’re full of your own self importance is difficult. I’m still trying to get it right and so far my posts land somewhere in the play-it-safe-but-dull region. I’m still learning!

What's another blog that you read and why do you recommend it?
There are a few I read that will probably be of no interest to anyone - like Jonathan Hotchkiss' triathlon training blog, Ian Lee (the comedian/radio dj) before he got bored and stopped writing it,and a new one by Stephen Fry - very funny except he keeps using long words that I don’t understand.

What do you want your reader’s to know about you?
I’m always keen to expand my network of contacts across the industry and hearing people’s views of the industry - drop me a line! I promise I won’t try and sell software to you…

If you knew someone was thinking about starting a recruitment related blog, what advice would you want to give them?
Be interesting, post often, link to as much as you can- all the things I haven’t quite got round to doing yet!

Is there a question you wished I asked you?
What three things annoy you most in life? Instruction manuals, a puncture when I’m cycling, Nigella Lawson.