Hire Strategies Blog

Graduate Recruiters take note: Students attend class through screening technology

According to a recent survey by Intercall students in the US are attending their courses "virtually" rather than in person. This may not be that new i.e. students lie in bed rather than attend lectures (not true of course!) but now, they can lie in bed and watch the lecture online or a recorded version etc. You can read more about this www.intercall.com.

What is interesting though is how this could impact graduate recruitment. We are about to enter the graduate recruiting season and let's be honest, it is must be a full time activity applying for graduate vacancies with every major employer having their own online process. This does not of course stop our eager beavers putting in those job applications leaving the recruiters with thousands upon thousands of applications to trawl through. Then there are all those assessment centres to attend and whatever else is in play. I just wonder if webinars could play a part in the process to:

• Better inform candidates.
• Filter out the time wasters.
• Grab the best early on.

Or does one just accept the deluge and consider it "business as usual"? Just a thought.

Starbucks UK Career site - what do you know!

As you may know I am a BIG fan of Starbucks and have been waiting with anticipation to see their new UK career site. It is now of course as to be expected - in my opinion very nice aesthetically and engaging. But, already there have been comments on the ATS (Taleo) integration and how "ugly" it is. But, does it actually matter?

Hey you with the flashy career site.....

I am still asked "Who has the best career site?" There are many great looking sites but that means nothing if the owner has no idea about measurement and performance. Using a swimming analogy, the training needs to be specific for the race. Times show performance and levels of improvement. Training is tweaked accordingly based on results. And on it goes. Clear goals in mind, specific activities to improve performance, measures to show improvements/losses.

ATS vendors - where next?

Following on from the Stepstone acquisition of Mr Ted what else may be on Mr Parkers shopping list? Is it just acquisition for growth or acquisition to expand the depth of their product offering. The likes of Amazon and Tesco have expanded way beyond their roots and Stepstone appear to be following suit. But the focus for most of the ATS vendors has been downstream of the application process into the talent management space whilst the likes of Success Factors are trying to push upstream. But I think their is a massive gap upstream for the ATS vendors.

The aggregation of advantages

Simple things can make a difference and added together make a big difference. The above title is from the British Olympic cycling team and is something Chris Boardman uses. If you are struggling to recruit top talent (I hate that phrase BTW) best you look at every step; and I mean every single step.

Here's an example. A simple auto e-mail I saw recently to all applicants, including those hard to find one's who are rare at best. It was was short. It was pants. It was a basic one liner and felt like a "Don't call us, we'll call you" typical HR response. If I'd made the effort to complete a full online application form and I got that, I'd probably delete my application.

Remember, every time an applicant engages with you as a recruiter they form an opinion and if your copy is great on your website but does not extend to the rest of the process don't be surprised if your results don't stack up. Copy goes under the skin of the entire process so maybe just add 1 more day for the copywriter to finish off what they started - it will pay dividends!

Sodexo UK Careersite gets SEO and social media upgrade

The US recruitment team of Sodexo have been doing great things with social media but, we have just implemented our own version of Jobs2Web for Sodexo in the UK as well as some initial steps into social media for recruiting.

Should Corporate Recruiters have a blog?

It depends.  But if they are going to take social recruiting seriously, and attempt to integrate their career site with their social presence, then a blog could actually make it that little bit easier.  Don't believe me?  Read on.

Social Recruiting Workshop New Format - Registrations Open #SMIR

Following on from the Social Media in Recruitment Conference last week (#SMIR on Twitter) I am delighted to say that you can now register for this workshop as of today at www.hirestrategies.co.uk/newformat. 

This workshop is being sponsored by Jobsite.co.uk which helps keep the cost down hence the first one is going to be FREE!  Thinking of registering?  Read on.

The Corporate Recruiters Handbook - Your Recruitment 1st Aid Kit

If you haven't got a copy yet you can order one at www.hirestrategies.co.uk/handbook.

P.S. Look out for the stalker in the video!

Can a Facebook Page replace your Career Site?

 

According to New Media Age, brands such as Coke are starting to plan to build Facebook Pages and branded YouTube Pages instead of Campaign Sites.  Hubspot blog goes into a bit more detail (and is worth reading) but in summary Coke want to go where the consumer is rather than drag them to a Coke site.

So does the same strategy apply to potential candidates?