Hire Strategies Blog

Employer branding guide written by academics - useful then!

This is a quote from People Management:

"CIPD has launched an Employer Branding Guide based on round-table discussions with practitioners, consultants and academics."

With such a powerful sales line like this I'm dropping everything to rush out and buy a copy!  It does however state that it includes case studies from British Library and E-on.  I'm sure CIPD members don't need yet another book on employer branding.  Glad to see the membership fees are focused on writing books!

Will the job advert ever get Twittered?

I did a quick search on a big job board for a few jobs and still find that the job advert content is as dull as ever.  I'm not sure if the job boards should limit the amount of characters similar to the way Twitter does so that content would need to be VERY focused on the key message.  Or are job adverts never going to change?

Problem is, I'm not really sure of the answer on this one!

Aberdeen Group Report: HR Exec's Guide to Web 2.0

I read the above report yesterday/today and was pleased to see some of the evidence that supports the views of various people (including me) around the importance of using social media as part of your talent management strategy.

You do need to register (and maybe pay) to get a copy of the report but here are what I consider to be the key points.

The road to somewhere (maybe). Tracking applicant-to-hire.

Would you sign up to an expensive trip with the promise of getting somewhere nice?  Would you expect to know what it would look like when you got there, know when you had arrived and how long it would take?  I'm sure you'd also want to know what you'd need for the journey, if there were any additional costs, and what would happen if for any reason there were delays; in fact you'd expect compensation for delays wouldn't you?

So why is it that very few people have the same expectations when they invest money in recruitment advertising?

Linkedin Talent Advantage - How much?????

So Linkedin launch what I would consider a competitor to your Career Site and Facebook Page.  Of course Linkedin will consider me totally wrong and not comparing apples with apples and they would be right.

Designed specifically for Inhouse Recruitment Teams they quote the cost being $29,800 minimum investment for their Starter Package.  Of course there are some add-ons included but let's be real on this; how many corporate recruiters are sitting on £20k to build a new career site let alone a new profile page on Linkedin.

Maybe I'm missing the point; do tell me as I can think of better things to spend £20k on!

Zero Cost recruitment strategy

I know the cost of recruitment systems have dropped through the floor compared to the heady days of 1999 when most people didn't even know how to spell e-recruitment (or was it Erecruitment) and i-GRasp was still an infant (and no one ever gets the spelling right, even today) but it is getting worse or better?

Hire Strategies New Affiliates Programme

As part of our implementation of InfusionSoft CRM we have now added the Affiliates Module to help drive interest for our workshops and seminars whilst paying out to anyone who helps us drive delegate sign-ups.  If you would be interested in joining the scheme further details can be found at www.hirestrategies.co.uk/affiliates.

The scheme can be relevant to ATS vendors, job boards, RPO vendors and even agencies.  Although we are helping employers reduce their reliance on the wrong third parties, those good suppliers will always survive when they add real value to their customer.  If you have a great contact list of HR Professionals this is another way of making some additional sales and keeping in contact with something more than your normal sales pitch.

Additionally, I am testing this functionality as I think it could also be used to automate a company wide employee referral scheme.

Onboarding new hires

A long time ago we put in place a system for a client called the First System.  It was designed to improve retention of new hires as they could show that where someone stayed beyond 12-months, they would often stay 3+ years.  But, 70% of new hires left BEFORE the first 12-months!

Treating candidates like customers

I know it's a bit of an overused phrase but I don't quite mean it in the same way.  Having said that, service is so crappy these days being treated badly by HR or an agency is probably no different to the typical level of customer service you get anyway.

We've reached the summit!

We made it to the top, on time and before the rain starts.  We'll take a short breather, admire the view and then head back down shortly.  That's the easy bit done; the real test is what happens from now!

If it all goes to plan I see the use of the same CRM system having a massive place for building a talent pool, attracting and maintaining a niche agency candidate database or keeping your employees engaged/informed.

Watch this space for the next stage of the journey.