Categories
Blogs

For Hire: Recruiter On Demand!

A company is hiring a blogger / social media person. Senior management have spent a lot of time defining the position. They couldn’t really make up their mind if that is a web (hence IT) position or a marketing position. Number of different people contributed to the job specification. The required skills list had 50 items. From various program languages, sys admin, and db admin skills, to B2B and B2C, and B2B2C marketing skills. There was of course a lot of Photoshop, Flash and Action Script as well. And PPC. And people management. And CSS.

Their company HR have shortlisted the top 5 candidates, and interviewed them. 4 of them got sent to the next stage with the Managing Director (they are serious about his position!). The managing director is an accountant by profession. He doesn’t understand more than a half of the abbreviations used in the Job specification. As did the HR personnel (none of the skills required for this position are the core skills for the company average employee).

Fortunately the MD is smart enough to realise: How are we to hire someone when we know nothing about what that person should be doing? How are we to determine if one or the other is better or worse between the last few candidates? How to include professionalism as opposed of the ‘Blink Effect’ and just hire the one we like the most as a person?

01 440 1900 rings.

The HR Manager explains the situation. They need a blogger. And a Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and (the list was long here) person. And PPC management. And much more. Jet there is no one in the company competent enough to interview a candidate. So they get an idea. To hire a Recruiter. A Social Recruiter. A blogger, a Twitter, a LinkedIn, a Ning,… advanced user – specialist. They need someone to interview the shortlisted candidates and make the professional decision – who is the best match for the company?

How do you hire a blogger today, if you yourself never wrote a single blog post yourself? Or perhaps never even read one?

ADVERTISEMENT: Call 01 440 1900 Today for your Irish Social Media Recruiter – we will help you choose the best candidate for your company!

Categories
Blogs

Monster Affiliate Scheme

Monster’s Affiliate Scheme called Monster for Publishers invites you to start earning money while sending traffic to Monster web site. They pay actually only if the visitor from your site buys their service, or subscribes / uploads the CV.

Here is more from Monster for Publishers

Monster Affiliate

Monster Career Ad Network is the largest career focused ad network in the world. It is made up of Monster properties and our partners. Now, you can be a part of the network and share in the benefits!

Our career widgets use our patent-pending, targeting algorithms to put the right jobs in front of your audience. You don’t have to guess what jobs to show. Monster does it for you!

Categories
CV Database Job Site LinkedIN Recruitment Recruitment Agency Social Networks Social Recruitment

LinkedIn Recruiter for Recruitment Agency

Well LinkedIn have decided that the Recruitment Agency market is to big not to service it. The new product called LinkedIn Recruiter is launched that enables Recruitment Agencies to harvest the full power of the LinkedIn Social Network.

Is LinkedIN Recruiter a good or a bad thing for you?

Well, depends from your standpoint. LinkedIn as any other social network is finding hard to monetise it’s service. The subscriptions to Employers aren’t making the desired revenue levels. Advertising Jobs didn’t take up in most of markets. In Ireland for example, there is about 30ish jobs advertised in LinkedIn at one time for the last two years (January 2009: 17 jobs in Ireland advertised in LinkedIN). Obviously not a sustainable business model. Considering and national job board even in the recession times has thousands of jobs advertised.

Therefore from a LinkedIn’s perspective, this is clearly a new revenue stream.

From the Recruitment Agency perspective, this lets them in LinkedIn on a completely different level than before. Built in protection when the staff leaves and being able to share the contacts and the communication is what was always missing element for the recruitment agencies. LinkedIn Recruiter is here to offer all what a recruitment agencies need to use LinkedIn on a larger scale than before.

And then there is a job hunter, the passive job hunter, the ordinary LinkedIn user. How will LinkedIn Recruiter affect him/her?

One thing is for sure – the amount of the job offers sent via LinkedIn InMail is going to increase. In markets where the LinkedIn Recruiter is going to be large, and there is a shortage of certain skills in the workforce, some LinkedIn users will find themselves as a target to job offers. So far it was great – since they wanted Employers to find them when they have a job for them. What happens when the Recruitment Agencies have a capacity to get to them easily is that a great ‘candidate’ will be contacted by every recruitment agency trying to fill the same position. So you might get 5, 10, 20,… InMails from all different Recruitment Agencies who are interested to head hunt you for the same role. If you not like the role – will you respond to all of them saying: ‘No Thanks.’? And when that happens next week when another company has a similar role, and you get XX InMails about it again?

So the success of sales of LinkedIn Recruiter will decrease the quality of the LinkedIn service for the job hunters that have skills that are in demand in their markets.

The trade off that LinkedIn is making with introducing LinkedIn Recruiter is that to increase their profits, they decided that it’s OK to decrease the quality of the service they are providing to their most sought users. The longer term problem for LinkedIn is what if those best users leave, finding they get too much SPAM? And with that crème candidates cut off, LinkedIn all of a sudden becomes not a source of Good passive Candidates, but of just … Passive Candidates? And even those slightly fed up by being hassled by many recruiters for the same job they don’t want in the first place?

Then again, LinkedIn limits the number of InMails that a recruiters can send a month. It is 50 a month (to multiple recipients each). So to reach more candidates and send more InMails a recruitment agency will just by more licenses. That creates more revenue for LinkedIn, so they will turn a blind eye that the top candidates gets bombarded with job offers.

Ireland might be a bit specific in that regard. Ireland is a small country where everyone knows everyone. (Almost) Literally! Online Social Networking take up in Ireland is far lower than in the US (where LinkedIn is from). Ireland is still the country where more people get a job via the traditional Job Boards than via the Social Networks. The ratio is changing, but we are far from the situation currently in US or Far East.

Who will be the first Irish recruitment agency in Ireland to take up the LinkedIn Recruiter offer?

Categories
Blogs Career Internet LinkedIN Recruitment Social Recruitment Twitter

Personal Branding and Digital Footprint

Creating your personal and or company brand is a delicate act on the social networking sites. You really need to be genuine, positive, honest, and stand behind anything you say. And that is something in the contradiction with the main task – being Active. What do you say on a web 2.0 sites – if you have nothing to say that day? You know you need to be active and communicate with others. The long term success of that contribution you make to the social networking – depends on the Quality of your contribution. If you have nothing to say – say nothing.

Quality of your online content
It took me a lot of time to learn that. After some time (and numerous mistakes!) I have realised that it is sometimes worth far more to post once a week on a blog than once a day! The quality of the content is actually far more worth than the quantity. If it takes a week to write a good article, do not rush it. Do not force yourself to publish when you do not have something of a value for your audience.

Digital Footprint
All you say (write) on the Web 2.0 sites will stay there, and will work for or against you in the future. It will always be easy to put your name or your company name in Google and check what you are all about. Your name associated with something you are not proud while publishing it – will most likely hurt you at some stage in the future. Carefully choose what photos you publish, and how you represent yourself on the web. Your digital footprint is there to stay!

Release your Marketing Message
The social networking sites like LinkedIN, Twitter and Facebook and blogs let you publish your ideas, thoughts and opinions. Define who you are and what you are. Then define who your target market and the audience are. List the topics you know about and they want to hear about. Bring your original marketing message in the mix. Do not push it on your audience. Leave it there for them to take it.

Let Go of your Marketing Message
This is what worries most of us. Corporations are shivering with just the idea of it! What do you mean by letting go of our (so far always tightly controlled) marketing message?

In the Social Web, the users will take your messages and give their spin on it. Here you are getting crowd generated picture of your brand. Your only made the initial input and slightly steering and maintaining it later on. Your audience – the crowd will decide if they like your message, and will contribute to it.

Candidate Digital Personal Branding
Your CV is great tool to open the doors. But it gives you what you want to say about yourself. This is why recruiters ask for references. To check up and make sure all you wrote is true, and that there isn’t something important missing.

In the Digital world of the Blogs and Social Networks – it is all about the public opinions being formed around yourself. It is about the number of people you are connected, about the ‘qualities’ of this connections. It is about the quality of your contribution to the public communication. It is about the response from the crowd on your social communication contribution. Does the crowd like you? Do they value your professional opinions?

How do you measure your Digital Branding success?
When the people you do not know, not your co workers, not friends or family, simple people who find you online – publicly show respect to your work and you – you must be doing a lot of good! It doesn’t happen overnight! You will need to invest a lot in creating a digital brand. Regardless if that is yourself or your company brand. It takes time.

The Social Web is changing. Remember MySpace? Remember Bebo? Both are gone. Have you started with Google Wave, or did you decided that you will be left behind? Social media tools are changing. You need to change your skills to be able to follow the change. Your message although always the same in its essence will have to be adapted for every new web publishing and collaboration tool that comes around.

Conclusion and a Real Life Personal Branding Example
Related to the recent article about the Internet traffic on Job Sites, I asked the LinkedIN Users for their input via the LinkedIN discussion: Irish jobs sites traffic comparison chart. Here is just a short few sentences I got as a reply:

Thanks Ivan and admire your humble approach. I suspect this combined with your vast knowledge and being a genuine nice person is how you have gained my respect and trust of so many others also. You have not become one of the market leaders for no reason…

…Hope to catch up with you again at the Christmas drinks.

Would like to hear how other niche and generalist job boards are doing, if you’d like to share….

MD of one of the Irish Jobs Site

When you start getting positive comments like this from the ‘crowd’ – people you are not associated to in any way, they start forming a Digital Image of your brand. Competitors recognition as in this case is of the utmost importance – that was the reason I have chosen this comment in front of all the others. It is a bit like the eBay and the recommendations it introduced smartly in ecommerce. People trust brands that are positively spoken about online.

What will you do today to create a Digital Image of yourself that you desire?

Categories
Career Jobs Recruitment Recruitment Agency Social Recruitment

Job: Principal Resource Specialist (Senior Recruiter)

The role of the Principal Resource Specialist (Senior Recruiter) – PRS is to develop and deliver excellent recruitment services to the client in line with agreed service levels. A key component of this role is to design innovative sourcing strategies to attract candidates from within the market place in a cost-effective manner. The Principal Resource Specialist is also responsible for building excellent relationships within the hiring manager community in order to identify opportunities for direct hiring and provide guidance to ensure a best practice approach to resourcing is adopted.

This is a key role that requires a responsive, strategic and client-facing individual.

  • Essential to have in house recruitment experience
  • Proven track record of sourcing candidates directly & ability to source directly from multiple channels and recruit at all levels
  • Ability to deal with rapidly changing priorities
  • Excellent ability to deal with people at all levels – internal and external stakeholders
  • Good commercial and business acumen
  • Target driven and ability to meet key deadlines

Job Title: Principal Resource Specialist (Senior Recruiter)
Job Location: Dublin South
Hiring Company: Alexander Mann Solutions – global leaders in Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)
Applications to: garreth.woods@alexmann.com

Categories
Job Site Jobs LinkedIN Recruitment SEO Social Networks

Jobs.ie and EmployIreland.com on the raise

Jobs.ie and EmployIreland.com are the only two web sites that recorded a growth of the unique visitors numbers during September this year. According to Complete who collects the public data, as opposed to the marketing messages from the job boards, Irish Jobs, RecruitIreland and Monster both recorded a significant drop of traffic during September 2009.

irishjobs.ie jobs.ie recruitireland.com monster.ie employireland.com

September is the very important month in the online recruitment industry. In the previous ten years, almost all leading job boards would have a record numbers of visitors in September. The current recession is obviously affecting the online recruitment industry.

Are the social recruitment sites like LinkedIN and even twitter, or Irish start-ups like Jobs Market stealing the traffic from the job boards? It certainly seems the case, since the traditional job boards are obviously getting less traffic.

So what have Jobs.ie and EmplyIreland.com done to keep the traffic rising during September? A bit of SEO perhaps? What do you think?

Categories
Internet Social Networks Social Recruitment Twitter

Irish Recruiters on Twitter

Irish Recruiters on Twitter

Are you a recruiter in Ireland?

Are you using Twitter?

Do you want more exposure for your tweets?

Do you want more Twitter followers?

Send me your twitter name – just or mention @IrishRecruiter on twitter.

Here is the up to date Irish Recruiters list on Twitter.

Categories
Career Jobs Recruitment Recruitment Agency

Recruitment Job: Technology Recruiter

Our city centre office on Grafton St is a stylish air conditioned professional environment to enable all of our practice consultants perform to the best of their ability. Our standard product offering is a hybrid of contingency and selection recruitment methodologies. We have a very structured training plan with a fully developed training calendar. Recruiters have invested heavily in the latest web enabled technology to access job seekers on the move. Then National Recruitment Federation just awarded us the best online services company in our category – check out our great new website on http://www.recruiters.ie/ .

To work with us you will possess the following competencies and experience.

A background in a combination of IT, Telecoms, Sales or Recruitment.
1-2yrs work experience
A keen interest in Sport / Poker and Online Gaming
Fearsome organisational skills coupled with an acute commercial awareness.
Experience of working in a team environment
An aptitude for Sales and comfort working in a commission based role.
A Degree in Business, Finance or IT.
Business development aptitude
Emotional Resilience with the ability to thrive in a target driven environment.

On successful hire you will assume responsibility for:

Interviewing at least two professional level candidates per day.
Attending one client facing meeting per week.
Writing online job specs and screening responses.
Qualifying and administering new job orders from clients.
Identifying and attracting new hires into our business.
Selling RECRUITERS product offerings to clients and candidates
Developing a thorough knowledge of the recruitment process and the latest in search methodologies
Adopting innovative problem solving / creative thinking techniques while sourcing candidates and new business opportunities
Competency based interviewing and selection
Contribute towards the growth, strategy and direction of the company
Initiate, champion and sell your business unit to existing and new clients.

To hear more about this opportunity, please contact Gerard Doyle on 01 6489112 or gerard.doyle@recruiters.ie.

Categories
Career Interview LinkedIN Social Networks

Connecting with Customers

Me in the press again. This time in the InBusiness magazine by Chambers Ireland. Here are a few snippets:

“PEOPLE WILL BE COMFORTABLE BUYING FROM A COMPANY THAT HAS THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE RECOMMENDING THEM.” – Ivan Stojanovic

Conventional advertising and marketing strategies are typically one-way communications with the product or service provider addressing customers. However, social media and social networking sites offer businesses the opportunity to engage with their customers or clients. Blogs, forums and profile pages can reach a large potential market, are free, and will allow a company to conduct market research and respond to the needs of their customers. It’s important to remember that your aim is to encourage customers to visit your website where they can get more information andenquire about making a purchase. “Facebook itself will not sell your products or services directly,” says Ivan Stojanovic. “However, if used correctly, it will bring visitors who should then be encouraged to leave comments about your offering. Your company blog will also drive relevant interested visitors to your company page where they can purchase your products or services.”

Ivan Stojanovic InBusiness

Building visibility and brand awareness on social networking sites is relatively easy. Building credibility, on the other hand, takes time and effort. However, once that is achieved, third-party recommendations can be a major boost for your business. Stojanovic agrees: “People will be comfortable buying from a company that has thousands of people recommending them, and not a single unhappy customer. eBay pioneered the introduction of social media on their existing merchant site. When you buy something, you can rate a supplier. This brought trust into online shopping and made eBay the largest online shopping site.”

Marketing to the masses InBusiness Autumn 09 2009 / 31

Categories
Career Jobs Recruitment Recruitment Agency Social Recruitment

Job Advertisement: Director of Permanent Sales, Cpl Recruitment

Job Description: 
A Director of permanent sales is needed in Cpl to develop consistent processes and drive the execution, development, and measurement of our permanent placement business in Ireland. You will need to detail and measure our progress towards achieving our strategy of becoming number one in each of the sectors in which we operate. Number 1 in particular in terms of customer satisfaction, (client + candidate) and number 1 in terms of profitability & efficiency. You will support the CEO, by directing all permanent placement activities and inspiring and influencing managers to deliver their best as a part of the senior leadership team.

Responsibilities include:

       Directs and coordinates all aspects of Cpl’s permanent placement day to day activities.

       Reviews previous day’s send outs, interviews and placements and challenges upcoming day’s and week’s activities as a result.

       Understands key metrics in each area and supports managers and sales team to improve fees.

       Agrees fees and recruitment plans

       Develops relationships with existing and prospective customers to strengthen customer relations.

       Will work with the Business Development Directors to create and implement sales strategies.

       Oversees permanent placement budget activities in order to sustain cost-effective business practices, maximize profits, and increase efficiency.

       Works with Managers and CEO to develop talent pool for future talent needs.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Leadership Competencies

  • Vision creation – Study issues in light of past practices to understand current strategy of each team. Then work with managers to develop innovative strategies built upon both previous experience and company history.
  • Technical – Must be able demonstrate excellence in permanent recruiting and a deep knowledge of how to get results for both candidates and clients
  • Engaging – Capacity to quickly establish solid interpersonal relationships. Someone others want to follow.
  • Tactical – Emphasizes the production of immediate results by focusing on short-range, hands-on, practical strategies.
  • Process/Structures – He/she must have the ability to develop a systematic and organized approach in order to systematically achieve the required fees and results
  • Strong Communicator – Very strong listener and consultative approach He/she asks questions to obtain understanding of the situation. States clearly what he/she wants and expects from others.
  • Control – Adopts an approach where nothing is taken for granted, deadlines are set and persistent monitoring ensures activities are completed to expectation.
  • Management Focus – Seeks to take “ownership” and accountability. Leads and directs the efforts of others.
  • Achievement Orientation – Holds high expectations for self and others. Pushes self to achieve at high levels.

For additional information please contact Anne Heraty, Cpl on 01-6146015 or email anne.heraty@cpl.ie

Categories
Blogs Career CV CV Database Job Site Jobs Recruitment

September records highest number of new jobs in Ireland in 2009

Premier Group Irish Employment Monitor:

The Premier Group Irish Employment Monitor, which measures the pulse of the Irish professional jobs market, registered a 31% increase in the number of new professional roles coming onto the market during September 09 versus the previous month (August 09). This was the highest number of new professional job vacancies recorded in any one month so far this year.

  • During September 09, the volume of new professional job opportunities within Ireland increased 31% compared with August 09 to 4,764. This was the highest number recorded in any one month so far this year.
  • However, this was still 58% fewer new roles than a year ago (September 08)
  • The number of professionals who began their search for a new role during September 09 rose 55% versus the previous month (August 09).
  • This was a drop of 28% compared to the same month the previous year (September 08).

Read the full press release and Jobs Ireland Blog.

Categories
Career CV Recruitment

JOB SEEKER Workshop in CORK, NOVEMBER 10th

Following the Recruitment Workshop in Dublin, Peter Cosgrove from Hudson Recruitment is holding the same in Cork. There is a Galway Workshop planned as well. Date and location will be confirmed here closer to the date.

JOB SEEKER EVENT CORK NOVEMBER 10th

The National Recruitment Federation is hosting a free job seekers event on November 10th.

Location: Imperial Hotel, South Mall,Cork
Date & Time: November 10th at 6pm to 7.30

The talk will be presented by Peter Cosgrove of the NRF and will cover the following:

• Writing a world class CV
• Where to find the next job
• Advice on dealing with recruitment agencies
• Improving interview skills and techniques
• Networking skills
• Negotiating salaries

If you would like to have a recruiter take a look at your cv please can you bring along a copy as there will be a cv clinic afterwards.

Please email: director@nrf.ie to register your place.

Categories
Internet Job Site Recruitment Social Recruitment

Costs of Jobs Advertising

Irish recruitment websites fall into two groups. First advertise their prices online and others do not. I always wondered why is that?

Here are the prices from the Irish job sites for a single job advertising:
RecruitIreland.ie – €99
Monster – €99
EmployIreland – €149 (includes CV Database)
LoadzaJobs – €280
Jobs.ie – €390
Irish Jobs -€950

The last two sites Jobs.ie and Irish Jobs do not have their prices published online. Now I realise why! Those are the two most expensive jobs sites in Ireland. Irish Jobs almost 10 times more expensive than the rest? They must have a really great sales team….

Now in all fairness, in a few minutes on the phone Jobs.ie did drop the price to €350 and Irish Jobs gave a whopping €150 discount to a total price of just €800.

Another available option is LinkedIN where you can post a job for €195. With 34 jobs posted for the whole country, it does not seem to be a greatest place to advertise a job. Or a hidden gem?

The cost of job advertisement in Ireland varies greatly. The web sites without the pricing clearly displayed seem to be by far the most expensive. Honestly I do not see how they justify the prices. Also their sales team has to be applauded. They will look for the commitment before close of business at 5PM. They would explain it with some ‘Cut off’ imaginary time for all ads of the day. All in all, serious sales training is involved there, and it’s obvious from the first 30 seconds on the phone – when they avoid telling you the price at all costs.

Categories
Internet LinkedIN Recruitment Recruitment Agency Social Networks Social Recruitment Twitter

Social Networks – a threat to the Recruitment Agencies?

Social Networks are here! Recruitment and sourcing in particular is changing. Job Boards that the recruitment agencies have been relying for as their main source of candidates are getting smaller role to play today. The future for the job boards is not extremely bright either. Their dominance is being replaced by the social networks. There are more and better candidates using social networks than job boards. Recruiters had to follow the trend – moving their business of the job boards – to the social networks.

Job boards will not really die tomorrow. Job boards will still have their place in the online recruitment world. Most of them in a bit different shape or form. They will serve as repository for active jobs, and feed their data to the web sites with the high ant targeted traffic (do you recognise the description of a social network here?).

A lot of the recruiters are not extremely happy with the way that social networking sites are changing the recruitment. They feel the threatened. Why? They feel that they will be bypassed since employers will be able to source and recruit directly on the social networking web sites. Those recruiters go that far that they themselves do not use the social networks, trying to stop the wheel of change.

The change is here. And more of it is coming. Embrace it. Don’t fight it. Resistance is futile.

Online recruitment as well as any online business are changing. Changing constantly and rapidly (Microsoft: At the Speed of Light). Adoption spread and growth of the Internet fuel the acceleration of the change of Internet itself. Market penetration phase is shortening, and the market reach is growing.

Social networks are NOT the end of the recruitment agencies.

Internet brought the quick and cheap advertising to the recruiters 15 years ago in a form of job boards. Employers used them as well as recruitment agents. Both successfully. Both competed for the same candidate. Social networks are no different. Both direct employers and recruitment consultants will use them. If used right, social networks will be (are today!) extremely beneficial in the recruitment process. Does this mean the end of the tunnel for the recruitment agencies? Absolutely not! Recruitment agents have their place in the recruitment process, and will always have it as long as they add value. The tools they use will always the be the tools that are on the disposal of the employers as well. Social networks today, and whatever comes along tomorrow.

Categories
Career Jobs Recruitment

Monster Jobs Fair

monster-jobs-fair-ivan-stojanovic-

Monster Virtual Jobs Fair – did you register jet?