It is interesting to see how the overpriced Irish jobs sites started reducing their prices drastically. I just saw this ad this morning, and I still think they should reduce it much, much more, but at least it is a step in the right direction… Perhaps a too small step and too late?
I often thought how to structure the remuneration package for a sales staff in the recruitment or even more specific is the sales of the jobs site subscriptions. The jobs sites sell the three month, six months and the most often the annual subscription that includes the free usage of a number of jobs slots on the site. What it means is that the client, an employer or a recruitment agency can use their XX number of jobs slots as they like. There is usually some side products on the jobs sites like the CV Database Access, or a Hot Job – that is displayed on the home page. Some company branding packages with the company logos around the pages on the job site are also common practice.
The sales staff are usually paid so that there is a percentage of their salary that is a Basic Salary. It is guaranteed and not related to their performance. For a junior sales staff it is not far off the minimum wage, and it grows with the experience of the person. The other part of the salary is the bonus that is related to the performance achieved in each time period. The bonuses are really structured differently in different companies and industries.
Obviously the sales person should bring more in (revenue) the company than what his own costs are. So here is a question then:
Should a sales person rather accept a percentage of the revenue or the classis sales remuneration package comprised of a basic plus a bonus?
Obviously for a good sales person a percentage of the revenue if it is a substantial percentage should be a far more interesting option, since it brings the person to a ‘Partner’ level instantly. It is actually even better then a partnership since the sales person gets a percentage of the revenue generated, regardless if the company is actually profitable at all.
I have heard recruiters saying, that the percentage of the revenue is interesting for them but that the sales process can take long time to close, and there is the mortgage, the car,…
So I tried to look at it from a different perspective. How about a sales person taking home 100% of any revenue he makes for the first month or so? How about 100% of all the revenue made in the first two months??? Surely there should be quite enough clients you can close a deal with within 60 days?
What do you think? Am I on the right track? Would you take a job where you take home everything you make for the first few months?
Monster recruitment website is making an interesting habit of being hacked regularly. The latest hack on Friday (January 23, 2009) was interestingly managed from Monster. They posted the note on their web site that included the following:
We recently learned our database was illegally accessed and certain contact and account data were taken, including Monster user IDs and passwords, email addresses, names, phone numbers, and some basic demographic data.
This just makes me wonder if Monster did a redesign of their site since they got so much bad press lately, so they understood fixing the old web site does not work but they published a new one? And now the new one gets hacked the same month it is published?
One way or the other, I haven’t heard of ANY recruitment site being hacked so often as Monster is lately. Perhaps they should adopt some ‘Open Source’ policy, letting the job seekers know that their CVs are entering the public domain.
Remember the days when the recruitment agencies have been publishing the salary surveys? Not only publishing them but printing them on fancy glossy paper and sending to the potential and existing clients? Some even went that far to burn in onto a CD and send it that way. How comes no recruitment agency actually got the idea to print them on the USB flash drive is beyond me, since most of us would keep the drive somewhere – with the recruiters logo printed on it…
Anyway the salary surveys will be far less popular this year. I am also imagining them far less accurate, because God only knows what will salaries be like during this year. Look at your house price, can you say for certain what is it worth? How about your car? Is it worth the price a similar one is advertised in the local shop? Or the price it has on the web? Is it actually selling for that price (or how far below the asking price)? We do not really know what many things are worth at the moment. What was Anglo Irish worth (that the government had to nationalise it)?
It is quite unlikely we will see many fancy salary surveys around in 2009. You might as well look into the glass ball to estimate the salary ranges for certain positions. I guess we will all be asking ourselves trough the year – what are we really worth?
A great loss for the financial sector happened today with the partial takeover of the Anglo Irish Bank by the government the existing Board of Directors have all resigned. Anne Heraty who is running the largest Irish recruitment agency CPL also resigned today from her Directors role in the Anglo Irish Bank.
I see it as a loss for the whole financial industry, to lose people like Anne Heraty. She is a clear leader of the whole recruitment industry in Ireland, and actually quite unique in her capacity and the leading role in the industry in general.
I often hear from the job hunters that they simply do not trust recruiters any more. Why do they say it? They say they do not trust recruiters because there are so many jobs advertised on the web sites, and when one applies to those jobs some recruiters don’t even respond by returning a email with a notification of a receipt of a CV. I guess, when you send your CV to someone, with so much of your personal data in it, you would like to see some response back to you, or at least a small ‘Thank You’ note.
The last few months we have heard that our economy is not in the best situation. In fact the economy of much of the western world is not really in the best shape. Last week a bank was nationalised in Ireland (some people ask themselves what is next?!). Opinions about that bank nationalisation are different, but we all agree there is absolutely NOTHING positive about it. David wrote a nice post: Anglo fiasco is Ireland’s Enron on his blog.
2009 is here, new budgets in the Irish companies, Jobs News is reporting HUGE job losses, and the financial sector is among the ones hit the hardest. BTW – have you seen the ’09 car registration jet? It is 19th January today, and I have seen only a few. Anyway, from what we get in the news the people in the financial industry would have to fear for their jobs. But according to the Irish recruiters, it is not really so.
Here are the statistics from the leading Irish Jobs site for the two jobs categories relevant to financial sector:
4852 jobs advertised in Banking, Financial services & Insurance
4640 jobs advertised in Accountancy & Finance
So altogether almost 10 000 jobs are available according to the Irish recruiters to the people who deal with those finances we pay for.
What does that tell you?
Are the employees currently working in the finance sector being made redundant and the country is currently hiring for the Team B?
Is this new Team B going to be made of the people from the Team A who have just been made redundant? Is there a bit of negative selection going on?
Is there really 10 000 jobs in the finance sector being available in Ireland today? What do you think is the realistic number?
The Irish Jobs Guru – always creative, always inoperative, always so realistic, funny and true. Want an insight in the recruitment and jobs scene in Ireland – The Irish Jobs Guru is a blog to read!
Medical Sales Expert – Some people say that the Recruitment in Ireland works best when it is done in the tiny niches. Can you imagine something more specific that the sales profession in the medical industry? If that is your niche – the Medical Sales Pro Blog is for your!
My Medical Jobs – another Irish recruiter in the medical industry. Nice and easy to read from a true medical recruitment professional.
My personal best is:
National Recruitment Federation Awards Blog – I guess when you will an award, you have to show off with it. Isn’t that what the award was for in the first place? Generating press coverage? Well, it is. That is what it is all about. Creating a blog about it, is a step further. A step in the right direction. A step ion 21st century. Well done!!!
LinkedIN obviously has some problems in the sales of their jobs advertising in Ireland. Currently there are only 17 jobs advertised in LinkedIN Jobs section. It is Mid January, the time the recruitment season is normally in the full swing in Ireland. Microsoft is there as they always are there present with a job or two, and funnily enough Dell is also advertising a job. Knowing how Dell is (un) popular with the hundreds of redundancies announced last week, it’s just a bit strange to see them advertising on LinkedIN. Especially since there are only 17 jobs in Ireland advertised at the moment.
This is the worst time for Jobs in Ireland according to the number of advertisements in LinkedIN. There used to be 40 to 60 jobs in last year or two almost all the time. To see the number of jobs dropping to 17 only… makes you wonder. Is it the recession? Or is it just poor sales team in LikedIN?
December is here, and December is the worst month in the recruitment industry. Why? First, it is short and second, it is the end of the financial year, and budgets are frozen. But the Irish Celtic Tiger does not sleep. Perhaps it should be rebranded in the Snow Leopard. Why? Since in our country even in December the now jobs sites are popping up like mushrooms after the rain. The new kid on the block in RocketJobs.ie!
The logo and the web site colors show a strong resemblance to a ‘Home Made Burger’ place called Eddie Rockets. Oh yes, there is the resemblance in the name there as well when you think of it…
Perhaps it is the burger place branching out into the other industries since the news of the Irish pork being banned worldwide for the illegal amount of toxins being found. Their marketing should be: We have all Irish Jobs and,… would you like fries with that?
Honestly I think that Ireland will benefit from all those job boards. It will create jobs. People will work for those companies, web sites will be developed, marketing campaigns (or not?!), sales teams will call the recruiters… It’s all good for Ireland as a country and for Irish jobs market as well. It would be interesting to revisit each of this year’s new job board reviews in about 12 months time and see how is still there, and who is actually in the real competition to become a leading Irish jobs site.
Rocket Jobs – I wish you all the best!
(PS, I am not a great fun of a chicken burger really…)
Irish Jobs Ireland is a site I made a few years ago when Microsoft published it’s small business offer called Office Live. What you got there, and I presume you still get today is a domain name, hosting, CMS, email hosting,…. well basically everything you need to start doing business online. The CMS was really good (for the CMS-es two-three years ago), but the DNS settings a kind of strange and it seemed that Google did not really like those sites on the Office Live. Google spiders didn’t really visit those sites that often then. Today Google seems to be bringing quite interesting amount of the relevant traffic, that shows that some things have changed. Obviously Google cannot ignore the Office Live based sites any more.
So if you are a start-up recruitment agency, and a serious freetard, Office Live is for you. Free web site, free hosting, free domain name,… free place to advertise your jobs and receive your applications… Go for it!
Actually it is not that bad, it shows some basic visitor statistics and has a generous disk space allocated. I guess I should write a proper review of it, and instructions on how to utilise it from the perspective of the Irish recruitment agency.
I am pleased to announce the nicest Irish Job board: Green Jobs!
A this is second new job board I am looking at today, and funnily enough the first one was also ‘green’ or perhaps a bit to ‘green’!
Anyway back to Green Jobs! It is again the jobs site owned by the recruitment agency, and the good thing is – they do not hide it a bit! Their Green Search logo is proudly displayed in the header next to the Green Jobs one.
The Green Jobs Design
The design of the Green Jobs web site is probably the nicest site design of all Irish recruitment web sites. Modern, Web 2.0 (and beyond), light colors on the white background, 3D,… what can I say? It ticks all the right checkmarks! It really is a pleasure to look at, and I find hard to write about it, since I just keep starring at the front page. And not only the front page. When you browse around, you find the little graphics in the site that are relevant to the content, and make the site easier to read and follow.
There are some possible improvements on the looks, it could be a bit modernised since some elements are a bit… ‘old’. The latest jobs scrolling make me really nervous since I cannot really read about the job. It’s too quick! Featured employers box ruins the balance, and is over, over,… out-standing. Fonts could be a bit more exiting… But hold on! This is still probably the nicest (Heineken) jobs site in Ireland!
PS. If you are a graphic designer who made those graphics please call me on 076 670 8888 now! I have a job for you!
PS2. In case you are calling from Brasil, there is +353 for Ireland in front of the number…
The Green Jobs Usability
Well,…. there is always a room for improvement. Again, there is only one green button, on one page only that leads you to the job search facility. I think a job site’s main purpose is to show jobs. The Jobs Search should be on every page. I will repeat that. The job search should be present on every page.
SEO of the Green Jobs
Well not much of SEO on the Green Jobs page. There is actually a test you can do on a job site to check how serious contender are they. You just look at the URL of their job posting. If the page where the job is actually displayed does not contain the job name in the URL, in the TITEL, in the META, in H1 Tag, and a few times in the text…. well then that page will not get much relevant traffic from the search engines. You have to ask yourself – why publish something if it will not have any reach?
So let’s see the URL of the job post on Green Jobs:
greenjobs.ie/jobseekers/info.php?jobid=158
Well, you be the judge… My take on it is that they will always depend on Google AdWords for the traffic to their site, and we all know that this is not really sustainable way to run a job site.
Conclusion?
Green Jobs is the nicest little recruitment site in Ireland. It is cute in its simplicity really. Well done and all the best Greens!!!
I guess some people will say I like writing about the Irish Jobs boards. The funny thing is that there is so many popping out, it is almost every week you hear about a new one. This is just in the last month or so:
TheJobs.ie, JobisJob.ie, Jobs2do.ie aka Spamers, Monster Finance, urHired
So here goes an interesting one. The Irish .ie domain seemed a bit too expensive so it is called SnazzyJobs.com. At least it is Hosted in Cork, so Google.ie might actually not ban it completely, if Google Webmaster Tools is to be believed.
Here are the first impressions:
1. Logo resembles any other stock logo sample, not really inspiring (as was the case with a number of the recruiters logos earlier this year).
2. Legal Stuff – company registration number and the registered address nowhere to be seen on the site.
3. Why publish so many pages to have only Coming Soon text on them?
4. The site is actually designed in some ’90-ies style. It is really hard to read the font in the menu. Green font with the green shadow on the green background? Here are some Design ideas: Jobs Board.
5. The code is not as messy as most of the jobs sites are actually, but a bit too much of that Java code all over. It is an interesting choice to have the jobs board in php, while all the leading job boards are the powered by the Microsoft .NET. Another interesting choice is
6. StatCounter as opposed to Google Analytics? Interesting choice. I would still use both, since the speed the Google Analytics is being developed at the moment, with stuff like Data Visualisation (Google Analytics Motion Chart), will overshadow most of the aspects of otherwise very useful StatCounter.
You need to be brave to show your price list online where there is nothing really anyone can buy for less than a thousand euro. It could actually be used as a company slogan:
Snazzy Jobs
Where prices start at thousand Euro
Or maybe not?
There seems to be some 250 jobs advertised. Considering the time of the year and the (econ)comic situation in the country it is not bad really. There is also 2 jobs advertised in the last 7 days, so the site is not dead!
But honestly it will not be much more if some serious effort is not applied. The designers have decided to ignore a few important facts. SEO and Usability. The URL’s look like this:
snazzyjobs.com/jobsearch.php?ok=1&v000=&v001=1&v010=0&v011=&v101=&v111=....
To find the job search you need to click on some well hidden green button on the green background. And that button is one the single page on the site? Perhaps this is a part of the screening process: If you manage to apply – you must be a smart person, so we will look at your CV!
And,… you also need to create and account with Snazzy Jobs to be able to apply for the job. That last hurdle in the application process will definitely go well with the applicant. If banks and governments are losing the personal data, should I be leaving it on the web site that even does not confirm the company registration number required by the CRO?
Snazy Jobs we honestly wish you the best!!!
Psychometrics is increasing in popularity with Irish employers and with this most jobseekers are familiar with this term. Having said this there are many employers and jobseeker who do not understand
Psychometrics, what it involves and why it is used in Assessment and Selection.
Basically Psychometrics is an area of study about the measurement of "psychological" aspects of individuals. Aspects such as abilities, knowledge, personality, or skills. There is a huge range of tests and test providers which can be quite confusing. Below I have identified a few of the more popular assessments used in recruitment – Ability Tests and Personality Questionnaires.
Personality Questionnaires – Personality
Questionnaires are a very popular tool used in recruitment. They provide an indication of a persons preferred behavioural style at work, information on how a candidate will fit in certain work environments, how they work with other individuals and how they will cope with different job duties. The most popular personality questionnaire used in Ireland is the OPQ32 Personality Questionnaire.
Ability Tests – There is a large range of work based ability tests. The most popular ability tests are numerical and verbal reasoning tests. Ability Tests measure an individual’s current ability and their future potential.
Why do companies use psychometrics?
Enhanced Hiring Decisions – Research has proven that the combination of a competency based interview and psychometric testing is the best approach to predicting job suitability.
CV’s, Interviews & References don’t work – Traditional methods of recruitment do not work.
Fair &
Objective – Hiring staff in Ireland is becoming a minefield legally.
Psychometrics improves objectivity and reduces subjective decisions.
Psychometrics is a fairer approach to recruitment.
Most important
of all – Psychometrics saves time and money.
See more at: Psychometrics.ie and Measurability: Psychometric Testing
The job and employment landscape has changed dramatically over the last few decades. Once there was a job for life. Nowadays employees can expect anywhere from five to thirteen job changes throughout their career. Some of this change is self driven but other times employees are forced into this situation through redundancy. Redundancy is a popular topic in Ireland in this current climate with most industry sectors affected.
Redundancy can be a difficult time for all parties – employees and employers alike. Outplacement services supports organisation and employees through this difficult time. Outplacement Services for the most part is direct support to the affected in the form of CV, Career and Interview supports. It can also encompass support for the employer breaking news and managing communication and
support for the survivors remaining in employment.
Outplacement Services – What are the benefits?
Outplacement services have benefits for employers and
employees including:
Outplacement Services – What is offered?
Executive Outplacement – these are programmes tailored for executives or
senior managers. They are bespoke programmes facilitated through 1-1 coaching and
cover topics including: moving on after redundancy, career assessment and
direction, CV support, job hunting strategies and interview preparation.
Individual Outplacement –These programmes offer 1-1 coaching and flexibility
to meet individual needs. These programmes vary in length and content with modules
– career coaching and assessment, CV preparation, job search, interview advice
and ongoing support.
Group Outplacement – This is outplacement support in a group workshop
format.
See more at: Measurability: Outplacement Services and Outplacement Services Web Site
Any SEO Consultant will tell you that a decent SEO project should somewhere in its starting phase have a step called Keyword Analysis. Unfortunately different people have a quite different idea what exactly does the Keyword Analysis mean. Some mean that it is about finding the most relevant keywords, some that it is about the number or keywords, and the rest arte somewhere in between.
Google has a quite easy to use Keyword Suggestion Tool. Here are the keywords that Google will ‘suggest’ as a similar and relevant search keywords to the term ‘Jobs’.
I’ll leave up to you to draw your own conclusions about the suggested keywords. Are those really relevant? Too many? Too few?
Keywords related to term(s) entered – sorted by relevance:
jobs, sales jobs, job, accounting jobs, job opportunities, job search, finance jobs, medical jobs, find jobs, hr jobs, legal jobs, nursing jobs, summer jobs, temporary jobs, job vacancies, job site, job bank, jobs search, jobs online, jobs google, internet jobs, full time jobs, jobs available, financial jobs, healthcare jobs, temp jobs, job listings, part time jobs, banking jobs, top jobs, retail jobs, job sites, government jobs, jobs uk, jobs london, graduate jobs, engineering jobs, office jobs, new jobs, jobs com, parttime jobs, jobs wanted, jobs banks, find a job, social work jobs, contract jobs abroad, job fair, job find, advertising jobs, job seekers, environmental jobs, pa jobs, job agency, need a job, technical jobs, media jobs, administration jobs, accountant jobs, financial services jobs, sales rep jobs, job vacancy, job agencies, jobs waterford, online job, recruitment jobs, job recruitment, job google, part time job, jobs vacancies, jobs in london, jobs cork, accountancy jobs, local jobs, jobs international, irish job, jobs it, finance job, engineer jobs, jobs canada, hotel jobs, home jobs, sales job, jobs bank, language jobs, job applications, irish jobs, jobs on line, www jobs, looking for jobs, jobs france, all jobs, list of jobs, jobs no experience, ebay jobs, jobs club, jobs i, delivery jobs, microsoft jobs, receptionist jobs, promotions jobs, jobs websites, customer service jobs, child care jobs, fun jobs, jobs website, forklift jobs, partime jobs, maintenance jobs, clerical jobs, manufacturing jobs, jobs compliance, job seeking, loads of jobs, i need a job, ice jobs, microbiology jobs, job search google, tv jobs, nursing home jobs, promotional jobs, jobs in google, health promotion jobs, looking for job, health care jobs, jobs in healthcare, computer jobs, google job listing, job finder, gallery jobs, seasonal jobs, logistics jobs, dental jobs, job boards, jobs in boston, night jobs, jobs in chicago, my jobs, jobs in san francisco, jobs with animals, midland jobs, jobs in radio, payroll jobs, forestry jobs, welding jobs, entry level jobs, looking for a job, art jobs
Google has a bit more for your Keyword Analysis study. Here is the list of:
Additional Keywords to be considered – sorted by relevance
employment, employment agencies, employment opportunities, careers, recruitment, recruitment agencies, career, job listing, job postings, hiring, vacancies, opportunities, vacancy, help wanted, part time, employers, work, telemarketing jobs, employment google, employment online, job opening, job posting, entry level positions, employment agency, job opportunity, openings, auditing positions, recruiters, employment cork, jobs marketing, accountant hiring, positions, sales vacancies, home employment, entry level, recruit, full time, recruitment companies, telesales, recruitment agency, career opportunities, auditing position, part time work, typist, staffing, recruitment google, irish employment, sales reps, irish recruitment, legal recruitment
This second list is actually very interesting. What one can do is take any of those and ask the Google Keyword Tool for the Related Keywords suggestions again. By doing so the keyword list expands indefinitely.