Hire Strategies Blog

New broom sweeps clean: are you a talent technology fixer or fitter?

Do you see 2012 as the time to get rid of that ageing HR system or are you going to fix it instead?

Pages, pages everywhere so where does my career site fit?

(Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography)

As a recruiter you have your coveted career site but you also have Pages; Facebook, Linkedin, Google+ and no doubt there will be more incarnations to follow. But as more "brands" push people to their Pages rather than their website (X-Factor is a typical example) where does that leave your own site? Redundant or different? The road ahead is daunting.

The urban myth of careersite and job search engine optimisation (SEO)

Optimise your jobs and all will be well. Yet another fields of dreams but this time, it is a lot less likely they will come. There are simple facts that debunk the job SEO sales pitch and plenty of evidence to back this one up!

First off, it IS important to get your jobs indexed by search engines as they will in certain scenarios get found on page one of Google et al. 

• Jobs - job boards and aggregators will win.
• Sector jobs e.g. engineering jobs - same again, you won't win.
• Something more specific otherwise known as long tail e.g. Graduate Trainee Merchandising Programme (a Bing search for a change).

So as you can see from the above, it is worth making sure your jobs are optimised but please don't be fooled into thinking that you will be on page one for every search.

You also need to think about your longer term strategy and build landing pages that are optimised for the long term as a job is here today gone tomorrow whereas your hiring needs in certain areas are ongoing. Two examples.

• Group food sourcing is an industry specific term so easier to win on this one. Not the prettiest page in the world but it works!
• Accuracy checking technicians do who knows what but if you are one, Boots make it really easy to find a job at Boots.

The approach to landing pages is to make then quite niche so you get quality rather than quantity which means that even smaller organisations have a chance of doing well.

Take a look at your career site stats and see the exact keyword phrases being used although in most cases it will not reveal too much as you won't get that much generic traffic. So the back-up option is to spend a little bit of money on Google Adwords. Not just to drive clicks (although they will be good quality) but to get an idea of the kind of search queries that get used in your niche and then think about building landing pages with those keyword phrases in mind. This is why a well optimised site, with optimised jobs start to really work in your favour but you have to work at it as it takes a bit of time. Alternatively, just carry on using job boards and getting the same results that you get today. If that works and it is proving to be cost effective then why change? If of course it is not working.....

I hope that all makes sense but if not let me know.

Facebook, Twitter, Google and even Talent Communities; it's all about the data!

Thing is, we probably all know this yet, when we talk talent communities of any kind we get all hot under the collar about the conversations, engagement, employer brand blah blah blah. But, we do actually need all these conversations to take place, photos to be uploaded, friends to be found because every action, every conversation, every like - counts. It counts for advertisers which is where Facebook make (some of) their money. But there will be a bigger picture as to how Facebook monetise all of this information; but that's nothing new. For talent communities we need to be thinking much further ahead about the real goal.

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.

Google and Facebook show us the way for a better candidate and employee experience

The user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) is becoming more about simplicity; less is more, remove the clutter, focus on the important. Social has driven us in this direction. Myspace gave us the option to do what we wanted, Facebook tell us what we get. Look who's won that battle.

The candidate experience

Probably one of the most heard phrases but what do people really mean by this? I have two recent experiences that highlight this to me.

The FIRM Prezi: SEO made easy (or not)

Career site SEO on Prezi

Lumesse rebrand: but what do the employees really think?

So this week has seen the final days of Stepstone Solutions and the welcome of Lumesse. As you may know, I was in Luton for the offical launch of the new brand and it was of course a great day for all involved. But, what about the people at the sharp end? What did they really think?