Resignation Letter the Yahoo Stile!
When you get a new job, there is always this thing hanging… The Resignation! Most of employers will ask you for some form of letter, and isn’t it the nice way to escape from the face to face meeting?
Anyway if not to sure how to structure the letter – here is a bit of help from our friends at Yahoo: http://yahoorezinr.com/.
Irish Jobs buys Local Jobs Group.
Irish Jobs (IrishJobs.ie or SaonGroup.com) bought another company. If you look at their history, they seem to buy something every summer. Since they bought Jobs.ie 3 years ago (wasn’t it early September?), they started doing their summer shopping abroad. Some Chinese and UK web sites. This time it is Local Jobs Group (http://www.localjobsgroup.co.uk/). Those guys have a long list of ‘Local’ jobs web sites all over UK.
Neither Local Jobs Group nor IrishJobs or Saon Group have any press release published yet (at the time of writing) and not much of the details are out. Irish Jobs seams to hide the prices it pays for job boards, but as a ballpark it is a few million every summer.
So who is next on their target?
Or how to make jobhunters find you?
Remember my post about the Jobs-Ireland.ie web site?
Here is the record of the traffic in the first 30 days:
The average number of jobhunters for the first 30 days was 10 per day.
The average number of jobhunters for the last 7 days was 20 per day.
The number of jobhunters on the site yesterday was 30 (per day).
Funny how you can still make web sites with the ‘Buid it and they will come’ marketing philosopy, and if you bouild the site right, the job hunters (visitors) will really come.
I started working on a new job site this month. It is called Jobs Ireland and is hosted on a domain www.Jobs-Ireland.ie. It is early days rally. Today it is a ‘Job Board in the Nappies’, but some of the ideas that are coded now actually look like the interesting features for the end users.
Jobs Ireland Usability
In general the job boards in Ireland tend to suffer from the ‘over development’ while a new feature is built onto the existing code every now and then. After some time all those ‘extra’ features tend to overshadow the main features of the jobs board. The results that it is hard to find out how to simply apply for a job. Starting fresh with Jobs Ireland the aim is to get a set of features that are useful to the job hunters and stick to that set of features, without adding more and more. This is all to help job hunters to simply find the job they want and enable them to simply and quickly apply to it. Effortlessly is the word to use here really.
Jobs Ireland Speed
Another aspect I am also interested to look into while developing this site is the speed. The job boards have a clear problem with the speed for the two reasons:
1. Too many jobs slow the databases behind the jobs sites
2. Too many marketing messages and advertising sold as banners make the pages ‘heavy’
The aim with the Jobs Ireland is to make it fast as a web site should be. I started measuring the speed of the job site from the day one, before a single job was published, and am testing it as it is populated with the jobs. Initially just after the Jobs Ireland site was first installed I populated the database with 50 000 jobs and have run the speed test. The results did not show much difference with a ‘full’ and completely ‘empty’ database. That is the target I am working towards with the live jobs now as well.
Recruitment Roadshow 2008 Dublin in Connaght House, Premier Group
Recruitment Roadshow 2008 took me to Swords and Tallaght today visiting the two La Creme & Premier offices. It was really interesting how the same presentation I am giving every day evolves from the contribution from the recruiters I meet every day. The most interesting topic we spoke about today was the Job Titles. Basically the question was:
What is The Best Job Title?
Since the Job Title appears in the Job Search Results on the job boards, and it also appears on the Search results of the search engines, it is very important to write the job title in a such way that it invites the web site visitor to click on it. If the job title does not make a job hunter click on it to see more of the job, the application process gets ‘broken’ and a visitor/CV is lost.
The conclusion is that a job title has to be:
By looking at the Google Analytics data of a recruitment agency web sites or a job sites, and comparing the number of views of the same job with a different job titles gives a definitive answer, and that is that:
The job tile on a recruitment agency web site and a job boards shouldn’t be the same!
Why? Simply because you are trying to attract the job hunter in the different environment.
Job Titles for the Job Boards
Job boards contain thousands of jobs. Most likely there will be numerous jobs with the job tile that is exactly as yours. Standing out is a good thing. Sometimes you need to ‘Go Crazy’ as well (for certain type of jobs). I have heard how the tiles like: ‘Can you sell ice to the Eskimos’ work well, simply since they stand out.
Recruitment Agency and Corporate Site Job Titles
Job tiles on your own web site need to be far more formal. There are two reasons for it. Here you do not compete with the rest of the recruiters in the country. Here it is all about you and your brand. Informative, descriptive, short, attractive…
Another point is that your web site content is the main driving force to the web traffic to your recruitment web site. The majority of the content of the recruitment sites are the job descriptions. Google just loves your jobs online since they get updated regularly, and Google ‘loves’ the live content. Your job titles will most likely (should really!) contain the most used search phrases to drive the traffic from Google. If you want relevant traffic you need the job titles that are 100% relevant to your jobs.
This simply points to the obvious:
Job titles for the job boards and job titles for your company web site shouldn’t really be the same.
When you get stuck with a job for many years, and you are good at it, in time you will become an expert. If you are passionate about your job and like it, you will explore and find ways of improving it. You will talk to other people in the industry and get to the forefront of the innovation.
Or is it just me?
One way or the other, I have spent my last 5 years in managing online recruitment web sites. It drove me into the whole search engine optimisation (SEO) industry, and all kind the online recruitment related disciplines like multiple job posting, developing of the clients recruitment agency web sites and in general consultancy for the Irish recruiters. Combining the knowledge gathered and the relevant experience gave me a clear picture where the recruitment in Ireland currently is, and where is it going. Comparing it with the UK market is a natural thing, but the American and Japanese are actually today about a year more advanced, and better ‘describe’ our Irish future.
I have spent years training recruiters on how to use all kinds of various online recruitment tools. From the early job boards like www.RealJobs.ie and aggregators like www.IrelandJobs.ie to the www.EmployIreland.ie I run today. Then came blogs, then came social networking, really simple syndication, mash-ups of all those and as well the www.LinkedIN.com!
Online recruitment has changed in the last 12 months more than it have ever before. It is perhaps only comparable to the ‘restructuring’ in the recruitment industry ranks after the Dot.com bubble burst.
The questions that every recruiter is asking today are:
1. Where to get the candidates?
2. Why don’t I get as much CVs or applications from the job boards?
3. Where is the quality of the applications (gone)?
4. Where should I advertise?
5. Should I use LinkedIN? How?
6. If every search begins in Google, why is Google AdWords so bad (expensive) for the recruitment? What are the alternatives?
To answer all those, I set down and prepared a presentation:
I will held presentations in various shapes and forms in a number of the recruitment agencies in Dublin, Cork, Limmerick, Gallway, Waterford and … during this last few days in May and the whole June. Still a few days available in the mid June. The next round will start at the mid September 2008, so book early at 01 440 1900!
A few years ago I had a web site called Ireland Jobs. The domain was IrelandJobs.ie. It was actually a really nice web site. Here is some artwork from it:
Ireland Jobs Logo:
Ireland Jobs Banner:
Ireland Jobs Rectangle:
Ireland Jobs Banner Long
Like them? I do!
It is a beautiful day today, almost perfect to drive to Lyrath Estate Hotel, Kilkenny, to attend the CIPD Ireland Annual Conference 2008.
Both The Irish Times and the Independent are the highest ‘Platinum Partners’. Meaning you can see the teams of the sales people from both Loazajobs and Irish Times Jobs – doing their best to sell some advertising while mingling with the HR personnel. Wine them, dine them, (a bit of golf on the day like today please!) and sell them your expensive advertising space.
Well done both sales teams of our Irish newspapers on sponsoring the (British CIPD) sales event packaged in the HR wrapping. :)
If we clearly define and make a distinction between Marketing and Advertising in saying:
Advertising–what Larry Heiman refers to as “Lead Generation”–is the “magnet” you use to attract the customers you want to your business. Marketing is the process you use to determine who and where those people are, what they buy from you, why they buy from you, and how they think. With that information at your command, then–and only then–can you begin to construct the strategic magnet that irresistibly attracts your ideal customers.
The typical Irish Recruitment Agency hires a Marketing Manager. The Job of a Marketing Manager of an Irish recruitment agency is to… ADVERTISE! Marketing manager manages the advertising budget, typically spent on the Irish Job boards, and the print, radio, beer mats, bus shelters, LUAS, cinema, bank machines, taxi, airports and other visual advertisements.
The closest the Marketing Managers of the Irish recruitment agencies ever get to the real (Internet) marketing is when they ask the job boards to supply them with the ABC approved figures, that show the number of the visitors per day, their geography, and so no. Anyone who has ever seen the two of the such reports from different Irish Jobs Boards knows that you simply cannot compare one with another. And if you try to reach some conclusions from those reports – it is in clear disparity with what you see yourself online.
The Online Marketing Manager of an Irish Recruitment Agency should know the answers to the following questions:
1. Who are our clients (employers) looking for, and expecting us to deliver?
2. What internet recourses do those candidates use?
3. Who is advertising on those web sites (or online software like Skype for example)?
4. How likely is it that an advertisement is going to be seen on the web page where it is advertised?
5. How likely that the advertisement will result in a ‘click’, and wring a job hunter to our web site?
6. What is the cost per application from each of the web sites where the jobs are advertised?
As opposed to the above, the typical Irish Marketing Manager of an Irish recruitment agency is interested in and managing:
1. What Job boards to use and advertise on?
2. How many jobs can be advertised there (number of job slots)?
3. Are our jobs ‘seen’ in the searches on the job boards ‘high enough’ – or down below thousands of other advertisements?
4. Can we reduce the rates paid to the job boards (or increase job slots!)?
We all know that people use the search engines more than job boards. In fact, the job boards get the vast majority of their visitors from the search engines. In the same time the Irish Recruitment Marketing Managers are totally oriented and dependent on the Irish Job Boards as opposed to the search engines. The only exception is Google AdWords that most of the agencies have trued using, but were simply outbid by their own money they invested in the Jobs Boards, who simply outbid them.
An Irish Online Marketing Manager of the Recruitment Agency should think on how to put his advertisements on the web sites that are being visited the most. Google.ie is on the top, for a long time now. Why is there not a single recruitment agency on top of the search results for the phrases job hunters use to find the jobs? Simply because the Marketing Managers have got the wrong job description. They should not manage the advertising budget, but monitor what job hunters use, and where they can be ‘surprised’ with the advertising message.
Larry Heiman wrote a nice blog post: Recruiting is a Marketing Task
Here is the part where he explains the Marketing processes applied to the recruitment, and sourcing to help you find that right candidate for the your jobs:
As an enlightened business owner, you understand the importance of doing market research on your prospective customers. For example, you want to know where they’re located, any common characteristics they may have and, ultimately, as much as possible about how they think – their needs, wishes, and motivations. The goal, of course, is to refine your ability to effectively and efficiently target your message to those with whom you most want to do business.
Well, you may be surprised to learn that this wisdom equally applies in seeking prospective employees. In fact, marketing for customers and marketing for employees address the similar four key questions:
• What is my likely trading area? (Where are my likely employees located)?
• What is my product? (What is the position?)
• Who is my “ideal customer”? (What are the qualities of my “ideal employee”?)
• How can I best attract their attention?
Even when you are feeling the pressure to quickly fill an unexpectedly open position, you’ll save yourself a lot of grief if you take the time in advance to get very clear on the answers to those four questions.
In the Irish market – that is dominated with the recruitment agencies advertising on the job boards and the traditional media, would you see such model as a ‘workable’ one? The most agencies will try to get the candidate who is slightly overqualified, to impress the employer with a quality of the CV. Also they try to match the same role title – of the past and the future role of the candidate.
So in a sense – the recruitment agencies her in Ireland do all the opposite to what Larry is suggesting above.
I personally like the marketing processes applied to the recruitment model. I can see it work beautifully, especially with the lower level jobs in Ireland.
An Online Recruitment Jobs Fair has several advantages over a Traditional Recruitment Fair.
Jobs Fair for Recruiters
More convenient: No staffing required.
More effective: Lasts for two weeks instead of a few hours.
More cost-effective: Cheaper than holding an actual job fair. No material, travel, food and accommodation costs.
More targeted: Targeted at specific industries/audiences.
Global scope: Available to anyone with an internet connection.
Jobs Fair for Candidates
More convenient: Can visit several companies from the comfort of their own home, and can be accessed from anywhere in the country 24/7.
More cost-effective: Can attend without the expense of time or travel.
More interactive: Host of user-friendly and state-of-the-art features including Podcasts, Employer Videos and Webinars.
Do you think Irish Recruiters are ready? For Employer Videos? Podcasts? Webinars?
What about Job Hunters? Aren’t they just interested in a better salary?
Monster.com founder Jeff Taylor is furthering his goal of taking newspaper services online with Tribute.com, a website for the bereaved.
Monster.com founder Jeff Taylor helped you find a job, and helped ease you into middle age. Now he wants to help you build the last web page you’ll ever need.
Tributes.com is scheduled for a soft launch in June. It aims to provide a central location to house online memorials for those who have passed on. It’s starting with $4.3 million in funding, with The Wall Street Journal as a lead investor.
Taylor, who retired from Monster.com in 2005, says Monster was intended to take the jobs section of newspaper’s classified ads online. So online obituaries seemed like an inevitable next step.
In my ‘other’ job as the MD of Portal Ltd., the web and software development company, I have managed the development of the several newspaper web sites in Ireland. Perhaps the most important was the Leinster Leader Group, who our company developed an online publishing system for and the web presence. One of the features as that a visitor could book Classified Advertising via the web site and pay with the credit card.
One thing I noticed there in the reports was the obituaries. It was interesting to notice that almost all of them have been booked from oversees. What this meant is that the Leinster Leader tapped into the new market, since the only way to get the advertising in paper before was to call on the phone or walk in their offices. Neither is convenient if you are in Australia. The revenue from obituaries alone multiplied after the web site was launched. The whole new market (world – Ireland) opened.
Leinster Leader Group was sold a bit more than a year after publishing their revolutionary web sites. If I remember correctly the value was 138 mil. All the business consultants, journalists and columnists have been asking themselves what was that huge price based on…
Spot on Jeff!!!
CBO, Chief Blogging Officer: Blogging and Business on SEO Consultant .
