Hire Strategies Blog

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?

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. But they’re married so it doesn’t matter.

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.

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?

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.

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?

TRULondon: Adopt a Student and help find them a job

Last week I attended the infamous Unconference TRULondon.

I attended the Master Class which was more conference like and to be honest, I did not like the rigid feel of a “normal” conference. Maybe I’m too much of a maverick but I felt like I had been shackled and held hostage in a room where I had to listen even if I was bored (that did happen to some on Day 2!) So I made a sharp exit early on and continued with this modus operandi on more than one occasion!

Does your application process REALLY need to be like this?

Let's be honest; the average job application process is a mess and it cannot stay like this much longer. With ALL the best people being on Linkedin why would you even need a careersite or an ATS. Super Linkedin are going to save the world of recruitment AND tidy up all those messy application processes. Or maybe not. So what to do?

Taste of my own medicine.....

I bought another sack of dog food recently and whilst there, asked the shop owner what to do about my my young springer spaniel Holly. I explained that she was getting.... *cough* slightly rotund for one so young and wondered what to do. Being a "proper" pet shop I expected lots of technical advice on food types, exercise regimes, food additives etc.

Nope, he suggested (I'm sure he was thinking "idiot") I feed her less!!! That was it. As obvious as anything really. Basic common sense. Yet I was thinking it was something a bit more complex. Duh!

Which reminds me of a similar corporate recruitment client. They were overwhelmed with CV's from job board adverts. They didn't have an ATS and their inbox had 500+ unread e-mails which they didn't have time to read as they had new jobs coming in each week and the more they advertised the more the inbox filled up and the more behind they fell. The HRD asked me form some quick wins (don't you hate that phrase). Like the pet shop owner (as in an obvious solution) I suggested they stop advertising for a little while. Maybe do some searching instead. The rest we could look at later.

The point is, that often we cannot see simple stuff as we try too hard. Consultants can get a bad name for stating the obvious but sometimes that is what is needed. That'll be £5,000 please.

DISCLAIMER: No dogs, pet shop owners or HR professionals have been intentionally upset by the content of this blog post.

PS: Not my dog... this is Holly below!

Job advert or landing page? Something corporate recruiters rarely get right!

I try and educate corporate recruiters on the concept of a landing page yet the effort of creating these seems to seen as too hard in so many cases. So putting this aside, make your job advert a landing page instead. The key aspects of a landing page are:

• Make sure the message follows on from the advert.
• Make sure the message sells the role and is not just a job description.
• Ensure the "call to action" (apply/register) button is easy to find, maybe even in two places.
• Don't provide (ideally) any other navigation away from the page. If you must, have as little as possible.
• Keep it simple!

Here's a great example from a marketing master: www.write-a-white-paper.com

Imagine you have searched Google on "How to write a white paper" and see how immediate the sell and process is. Now go and look at your recruitment advertising and compare it!

It's all well and good not wanting to use agencies but if in turn your not on top of your game you'll be crawling back to the agencies in due course.