Global Management opportunity; office politics, loads of pressure, operational crap, unhappy customers. But the money’s great!

OK there's no job; or is there? Imagine if all jobs stated the reality of the position! Would anyone take a look? You did. Can't see it happening any day soon but imagine it did.

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Global Management opportunity; office politics, loads of pressure, operational crap, unhappy customers. But the money’s great!

Tags: attraction, Fun, hmmm, Industry Chat, Talent Acquisition

TRU London 2012: Should the online job application be mobile? #in

Click the TRU image to buy a ticket I didn't attend the first TRU London but have attended them ever since and this year will be my third. TRU events have been memorable for me and I am hoping this year will be even better again; two years on there has been a lot of change! I also intend to turn up this time to run my track on the second day! So if you have some views on mobile job applications be there on Thursday 23rd February 2012. In usual TRU style no one knows what time the track will be! Should the online job application be mobile? I chose this subject for my track for a few reasons. There has been quite a bit of debate online already. I do some consulting for Lumesse so have an insight into the world of being an ATS vendor. I have built an ATS so have additional views of my own. In anticipation of my track I started a Linkedin poll

Tags: attraction, hirepad, image, Industry Chat, mobile, result, Talent Acquisition, tru

TRU London 2012: Should the online job application be mobile?

Click the TRU image to buy a ticket I didn't attend the first TRU London but have attended them ever since and this year will be my third. TRU events have been memorable for me and I am hoping this year will be even better again; two years on there has been a lot of change! I also intend to turn up this time to run my track on the second day! So if you have some views on mobile job applications be there on Thursday 23rd February 2012. In usual TRU style no one knows what time the track will be! Should the online job application be mobile? I chose this subject for my track for a few reasons. There has been quite a bit of debate online already. I do some consulting for Lumesse so have an insight into the world of being an ATS vendor. I have built an ATS so have additional views of my own. In anticipation of my track I started a Linkedin poll

Tags: attraction, hirepad, image, Industry Chat, mobile, result, Talent Acquisition, tru

Why job SEO is not enough

So we are starting to see various vendors claim their stake in the career site SEO (search engine optimisation) game. But just because you optimise your jobs, it does not mean you have found the golden nugget.

Tags: attraction, engines, hirepad, Industry Chat, jobs, nugget, optimisation, result, seo, Stake

Why job SEO is not enough #in

So we are starting to see various vendors claim their stake in the career site SEO (search engine optimisation) game. But just because you optimise your jobs, it does not mean you have found the golden nugget.

Tags: attraction, engines, game, golden, Industry Chat, nugget, result, search, Stake

Is Linkedin really as good as we "think" or is it already an urban myth? #in

This question has been nagging me for a while. So many recruiters have claimed that they get all their hires from the job boards they use yet in reality they have no decent tracking to know where their hires really come from. Now Linkedin is flavour of the month but is it really just a load of hocus pocus? Has anyone got any real decent stats to prove their claims? I wanted to find out first hand so started digging with a Linkedin poll .

Tags: attraction, features, job, poll, recruiters, result, social recruiting, Talent Acquisition, work

Is Linkedin really as good as we "think" or is it already an urban myth?

This question has been nagging me for a while. So many recruiters have claimed that they get all their hires from the job boards they use yet in reality they have no decent tracking to know where their hires really come from. Now Linkedin is flavour of the month but is it really just a load of hocus pocus? Has anyone got any real decent stats to prove their claims? I wanted to find out first hand so started digging with a Linkedin poll .

Tags: attraction, features, Industry Chat, job, linkedin, poll, recruiters, result, social recruiting, Talent Acquisition, work

Job boards vs. social networks. #in

The job boards pretty much took the entire job advertising market from print in around 10 years. The social networks could take the market from the job boards in maybe half that time; so it is now the job boards market to lose. Here's a few things they could try to save it. Become social Yep, that old chestnut. Actually, I don't think they can or will so we'll pass on that one. Integrate with the ATS That's what Linkedin did and within only a matter of weeks, four of the top ATS vendors had all fallen in line (and many smaller ones). Problem is, there is only one Linkedin but 1,000's of job boards so can't see that one working either. Integrate with Linkedin Imagine a job seeker on Jobsite looks at a job and once they've applied they get to see who they are connected with in that company. What an idea and of course Linkedin already offer that kind of integration. I wonder how they'd like that? Sock it to 'em job board man. Create customer Pages on Facebook Let job seekers 'Like' a customer job section and hey presto, you've helped the customer build up a…. wait for it….. talent pool.

Tags: attraction, facebook, Industry Chat, job, job-boards, linkedin, networks, result, social, social recruiting, Talent Acquisition, years

I am man – I am Google. I am woman – I am Social.

Search hasn't changed but social has changed the game as far as advertising is concerned. But what do we men know anyway? The thing is, search is a male thing. Like shopping we are very focused on what we want. If we want a pair of jeans, we go to a shop that we know sells the type of jeans we like, buy them then go home, or to the golf club/pub/gym etc. We do NOT: Spend a whole day looking for a pair of jeans. Visit 15 different shops; just in case. Get our nails done whilst looking for jeans. Meet friends for coffee to compare notes about different jean styles. Need a pair of shoes to go with the jeans. Need any help from our partners. Care how big our bum looks in our new jeans. We just go and buy our jeans. So how does this affect search? Search is for people who know what they want whereas social is for people who are not even looking. Who care what their friends say. Look at what their friends buy. Listen to what friends say to each other. Make decisions on what their friends say. Maybe even buy something based on what a friend tells them even though they were not thinking of buying that something. Social is more friendly and caring, unlike men.

Tags: attraction, direct recruiting, facebook, Industry Chat, linkedin, search, sem, social media, social recruiting

I am man – I am Google. I am woman – I am Social. #in

Search hasn't changed but social has changed the game as far as advertising is concerned. But what do we men know anyway? The thing is, search is a male thing. Like shopping we are very focused on what we want. If we want a pair of jeans, we go to a shop that we know sells the type of jeans we like, buy them then go home, or to the golf club/pub/gym etc. We do NOT: Spend a whole day looking for a pair of jeans. Visit 15 different shops; just in case. Get our nails done whilst looking for jeans. Meet friends for coffee to compare notes about different jean styles. Need a pair of shoes to go with the jeans. Need any help from our partners. Care how big our bum looks in our new jeans. We just go and buy our jeans. So how does this affect search? Search is for people who know what they want whereas social is for people who are not even looking. Who care what their friends say. Look at what their friends buy. Listen to what friends say to each other. Make decisions on what their friends say. Maybe even buy something based on what a friend tells them even though they were not thinking of buying that something. Social is more friendly and caring, unlike men.

Tags: attraction, direct recruiting, facebook, Industry Chat, linkedin, search, sem, social media

Pages, pages everywhere so where does my career site fit?

(Photo courtesy of

Tags: attraction, chance, facebook, friends, Industry Chat, networks, photography, quality, social recruiting, Talent Acquisition, thought

Facebook, Twitter, Google and even Talent Communities; it’s all about the data!

Thing is, we probably all know this yet, when we talk talent communities of any kind we get all hot under the collar about the conversations, engagement, employer brand blah blah blah. But, we do actually need all these conversations to take place, photos to be uploaded, friends to be found because every action, every conversation, every like – counts. It counts for advertisers which is where Facebook make (some of) their money. But there will be a bigger picture as to how Facebook monetise all of this information; but that's nothing new. For talent communities we need to be thinking much further ahead about the real goal. Ultimately, the utopia of recruitment is access to the best people exactly when you want them, exactly when they want to be found. Not just skills though, we need to mix in attitude, desire, interest and timing. This is ultimately where the data from external sites such as Twitter and Facebook, added to your own community data really start to add up. Hogwash maybe but let's see. Like Facebook and Google and Twitter; it's about the data. The things they offer are purely there to get you to do stuff which they save into big data banks of information and monetise. Don't get me wrong though. The whole point about making the recruitment process more engaging and conversational is of value to both parties but this ultimately to get the best match for job seeker and employer. Of course it is important that unsuccessful job seekers are treated well and they leave with a positive brand experience. If you are a retailer for example, chances are the job seeker is also a customer so they should be treated accordingly. But the same applies to any employer; treat job seekers like customers because one day you never quite know where they will be. Also, there is a good chance these days that they will share their experience with the friends…. you get the point. But to me it is the rich data that can be collected and used to make the recruitment more amazon like than it is today. G4S are already on that journey offering up jobs that match based on various activities the job seeker has taken. I'm sure there is a lot more besides but we are all just starting that journey. G4S stepped up to the plate, so who's going to join them? More leaders required to start to transform the face of recruitment and make it what we dream of. So, I am a talent community fan. It's they way that recruitment, marketing, sales, customer support is heading and it's going at 100mph. OK the term may not be one that everyone likes but the concept of better communication, choice of communication and style of communication should not be lost on any of us. Unless of course you live in a cave

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Facebook, Twitter, Google and even Talent Communities; it’s all about the data!

Tags: attraction, career sites, collaborative recruiting, collar, conversations, employer, hot, Industry Chat, money, Photos, result, social recruiting, Talent Acquisition

Talent community or field of dreams?

Build it and they'll come. Will they? Will it work? Will anyone really care? There is constantly so much debate about the talent community. Brave New Talent apparently advertise “Build a community in 10 minutes”. But what is the point? 10 minutes, 10 days or 10 years does it really matter? Take our friend Twitter for a moment. Let's take our sterotypical sales person. Nowhere to be seen until they smell money and then they're all over you on any channel they can find you. Sign the deal and whoosh, they be gone never to be seen until of course it is time for that renewal. Or take prospective customers. Need that proposal like yesterday for that pitch they are doing to the board tomorrow. Love you for your help until they've had it. Next day and whoosh they be gone never to reply to your e-mail or voicemail ever again. Surely job seekers and recruiters are no different. No one cares about a long term relationship in the sales process. It's all about what I can get out of it for me and if we have a match then bingo we do a deal. If not, hasta la vista baby. Once I'm a customer/employee we have a vested interest in a long term relationship but otherwise it is a process of selflessness; getting what you can for your own benefit. But that's fine as long as we all recognise the rules of reality and stop trying to kid ourselves there is something deeper bringing us together. But here's another point. Who cares if this is how it works? I have a sneaking suspicion that all that really matters is success but the measures of success I hear talked about are what are wrong. Not that I actually hear that much about measuring success. I've heard about recruiters now having more applications (due to a Facebook advertising campaign) than they can handle whereas before they didn't have enough appplications. That's the success measure? I hope not! Furthermore, surely it's not about number of discussions, number of members (for a recruitment approach), comments, status updates etc. Surely is it about solving your business problem. If volume solves the problem then great but I rarely hear the problem articulated. I “hear” the debates about what makes a TC a TC but rarely do I hear any of the debatees talk about the business problem that they are trying to solve. They all seem to get het up about definition whilst missing the WHY. Like why do I want one? How will it help me? What problem will it solve? I see so many great ideas turn quickly into code but rarely into a successful business. Before we start writing code we need to check that the users will want what we are building. Steve Jobs would argue against this BTW. He apparently (I only read this point, he didn't tell me when we had a beer last year) thinks that the last place to look for product ideas are your existing customers (candidates). I kind of agree but still think it is a good idea to ask a few candidates what they think of your idea. Like will it help them achieve what they want to achieve? Simple stuff but hands up anyone who has built a business/product recently and actually asked “customers” if it helped them BEFORE they started to produce? Yeah, yeah I know you don't have to launch the perfect product first time these days but you do need to know that what you create solves a real problem. Of course you think it does solve a problem, why else would you create it but without actually checking with some potential users/customers first it is like roulette. There's a slim chance you are right but why not just check?! But, and it is a BIG but, what if you just know that this is the right thing to do? What if all the naysayers can argue with such eloquence that they must be right? Should you listen or should you follow your heart? Build it and they will come. Maybe it is not the idea that is wrong but the strategy or the build or the market. Maybe they will come but just from somewhere else. Sometimes you just have to say WTF; I'm doing it anyway. The opening words of this trailer say it all; yet still they came. In the meantime I'm off to get my tractor; I've work to do! Click image to view video on YouTube as “embed” disabled by Universal Studios!!

Tags: attraction, collaborative recruiting, communities, direct recruiting, employee engagement, Industry Chat, social media, social recruiting, Talent Acquisition, talent-management

Don’t dress like a married man if you want to get noticed by top totty #in

You see them everywhere; even in the mirror dude. At the bar after their run or gym session or whatever it is they do to relax. But always in the bar. Unshaven. Favourite over worn t-shirt. Scruffy trainers. Baggy jeans.

Tags: attraction, career sites, Industry Chat, jeans, mate, shirt, social media, social recruiting

Don’t dress like a married man if you want to get noticed by top totty

You see them everywhere; even in the mirror dude. At the bar after their run or gym session or whatever it is they do to relax. But always in the bar. Unshaven. Favourite over worn t-shirt. Scruffy trainers. Baggy jeans.

Tags: attraction, baggy, direct recruiting, hmmm, Industry Chat, jeans, mate, Mirror, social recruiting

Who is responsible for tracking? Media channel or media buyer?

Why is it that there are still so many challenges in finding out where your great new hires came from? There are more tracking tools than you can shake a stick at yet recruiters still struggle to measure the success of their hiring channels. The ATS can’t do it. The job board can’t do it. Even Google Analytics or Atlas Tracking tags cannot do it alone. It’s absolute madness. So who’s responsibility is it then? Problem is, it's not easy so how does the poor recruiter actually fathom out a way to know what is working? Well first Mr or Mrs Recruiter remember you are the customer aka the boss. It is your budget and you can use it to smack your media suppliers over the head and make them COLLABORATE. Work together to give you the information you want, no information you NEED. If they won’t, get rid of them. That may sound quite simplistic but what is the point if you have no idea that a supplier delivers any value but won’t help you find the truth. Sack them today, right now. Make it the next thing you do when you have finished reading this. What’s the worst thing that can happen? In a few weeks time you find that you have fewer good quality applicants so that tells you that the media channel you sacked was adding value. So you bring them back and get rid of someone else if needs be. If you cannot or will not look into how you can track more easily using technology then at least try process of elimination. If you do nothing, then surely you are negligent in your duty to do the best possible job you can for your employer and that puts you in the firing line. Harsh words maybe.

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Who is responsible for tracking? Media channel or media buyer?

Tags: absolute, ats, attraction, career sites, challenges, hires, Industry Chat, search, social media

Dear very senior applicant, please send your CV into a black hole

Like most people in recruitment whenever I read a good old fashioned newspaper or magazine I thumb through the jobs ads. Not because I am looking but just an old habit! I saw a great sounding very senior job the other day and was drawn to the content as it was very well written. If it had been relevant to me I would have probably been interested but what hit me as a little off putting was who the application was to be sent to. Now no offence Recruitment Managers or Administrators but if I am a £150k level appplicant I may just be put off if I have to send my CV to recruitment; the black hole of CV's. Yeah, yeah I know this is YOUR process and if I want to apply then that is how it is but hey, I'm just the great passive candidate who is not looking that hard. Let me take a slight diversion to put it in context if I may. Value based selling Sales people who sell at Board level are trained to get to the budget holder, the decision maker, the person that signs the check. If I get an enquiry/lead the first thing I do is look at the social profile of the contact and then who they report to and who I may know who can connect me in with all of these people. The idea is that the sales person can build up different relationships relevant to the sales cycle to help the deal go to them. Value based job applications So assuming I see that high level job, and I have to send my CV into a recruitment department (yep, it can put some people off) I may just check out who the hiring Director actually is….. you get the picture. Try something different Now of course there are some people that will be spitting at the screen right now but take a step back and think about the candidate view. Recruitment teams are inundated with applications so I need to get my CV to the top of the list. Maybe by the recruitment team trying a few different approaches it will help them fill the vacancy and if they are proactive will still get the credit. Here's a few thoughts: Have the CV sent direct to the PA of the Director. Set-up a unique e-mail address that sounds better but really goes to recruitment. Create a private group on Linkedin so that interested candidates just have to apply to join the group to declare their interest. Set-up a unique e-mail address with an auto-responder with additonal instructions. Use different apply options for the same ad across different channels. Of course, these are purely ideas and like any idea you need to try some different approaches and then review them to see what worked. I could of course be entirely wrong but if you are not getting the quality of candidates you need for key roles what have you got to lose? That aside, Daniel H. Pink thinks as an outsider I may just be able to help more than you think !

Tags: attraction, black, direct recruiting, habit, hole, Industry Chat, job, jobs, result, social recruiting, Talent Acquisition

Agency recruiters versus In-house; a few more logs on the fire maybe?

So what should an HRD do? Build their own team of In-house experts, outsource it entirely or let line managers use their own choice of recruitment agency? But what do I know? I'm not a recruiter anymore am I? OK, I was once a great recruiter (modesty prevails) and pioneered master vendor and on-site managed contracts before mobile phones and recruitment automation even existed let alone sat in every office. Yes, I am that old. So what can I tell anyone about how to recruit in 2011? Well let's see. How to recruit This bit I am NOT going to tell you. But what does pain me is the amount of people that call themselves recruiters but have very little training. I would love to see some industry standards adopted that actually deliver a good solid grounding in recruitment. I started with Manpower in 1987 and have to admit, that I had excellent training albeit in temp recruitment. As I moved around the industry I saw various degrees of training but sadly the main expectation was that experience was gained somewhere else and training was more about policy and procedure than actual recruiting skills. There are loads of training courses but I am not aware of a programme that could claim to be an industry standard. Maybe one of the informal groups such as The FIRM could one day put together some kind of recruiter boot camp programme. Lou Adler (US based) offers a lot of different levels and I'd love to see something similar in the UK.

Tags: agency, attraction, collaborative recruiting, direct recruiting, Hrd, Industry Chat, line, managers, result, sem, seo, social recruiting

Case Example Facebook ads – Nestle show how not to do it.

This ad above caught my eye whilst gossiping on Facebook so I thought I'd take a peak. This post is not about having a dig at Nestle though but showing a typical bad example of using ads like this. So at first I was “intrigued” that Nestle were trying out Facebook for HR Business Partner roles. Without doing too much research I would not expect there to be too many people that meet the above profile match so I thought I'd take a look at the job advert. This is what I got. So I guess they forgot about the ads when they put this page together. It's OK, no one is perfect and at least they had the foresight to put this page together. Although it is now 14 March so I would have thought the page could just re-direct straight to Taleo now? Never mind. Maybe the link will take me to that somewhat elusive HR Business Partner role? Still nowhere to be seen. No idea why the default location is Switzerland?! Of course doing a search was no better so I gave up. But what is so disappointing, is that the results of this campaign will not be that great as there will not be too many applications as the process does not work. I see this on LinkedIn and Google Adwords and have to wonder about the Advertising Agency conspiracy theory about proving that social advertising for recruitment does not work. Well, with campaigns like this, I would find it hard to disagree.

Tags: advertising agencies, attraction, direct recruiting, facebook, Industry Chat, result

Career site SEO: How Google changes will affect your jobs and career site

Google ultimately want to help users get to the right information in as few clicks as possible. Unfortunately, corporate recruiters do not help Google achieve this and are penalised in many ways. So are you going to change or carry on wasting money and losing out on the best candidates? The facts Most career sites are not optimised for organic search. They have pages that have nice content but is rarely written with search engines in mind and items such as page title tags are not thought about in any way to help search results. Jobs are hidden from search engines in an ATS so they never appear in search results. Recruiters put their jobs onto job boards so the candidate has to go through additional steps to apply (assuming they are not hijacked on the way) and job boards continue to hog the organic search listings thanks to all the jobs they have. Recruiters are sadly wasting money as they have no SEO strategy. What to do? Get your career site reviewed from an SEO stand point and make the relevant changes. Get your jobs optimised. Think about content e.g. blog, Facebook Page, Twitter etc. Think about useful, decent, relevant content! Why? The biggest beneficiaries seem to be originators of what Google calls “high-quality” content, which the company defines as ” information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on .”

Tags: analysis, attraction, Beneficiaries, content, corporate, engines, money, recruiters, result, search, thoughtful