Hire Strategies Blog

TRU London 2012: Should the online job application be mobile?

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I didn't attend the first TRU London but have attended them ever since and this year will be my third. TRU events have been memorable for me and I am hoping this year will be even better again; two years on there has been a lot of change! I also intend to turn up this time to run my track on the second day! So if you have some views on mobile job applications be there on Thursday 23rd February 2012. In usual TRU style no one knows what time the track will be!

Why job SEO is not enough

So we are starting to see various vendors claim their stake in the career site SEO (search engine optimisation) game. But just because you optimise your jobs, it does not mean you have found the golden nugget. 

Is Linkedin really as good as we "think" or is it already an urban myth?

This question has been nagging me for a while. So many recruiters have claimed that they get all their hires from the job boards they use yet in reality they have no decent tracking to know where their hires really come from. Now Linkedin is flavour of the month but is it really just a load of hocus pocus? Has anyone got any real decent stats to prove their claims? I wanted to find out first hand so started digging with a Linkedin poll. 

How often do you login to Linkedin?

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?

My 2012 predictions!!

The last few years have been chaos for everyone and listening to the predictions for 2012 the economy is not exactly planning on bouncing back. So what do I think 2012 will bring us in the world of talent technology?

Have you read Who Moved My Talent? (short poll)

Please take the quick poll below as I'd like to get as much feedback as possible.

 

 

Job boards vs. social networks. #in

The job boards pretty much took the entire job advertising market from print in around 10 years. The social networks could take the market from the job boards in maybe half that time; so it is now the job boards market to lose. Here's a few things they could try to save it.

I am man - I am Google. I am woman - I am Social.

Search hasn't changed but social has changed the game as far as advertising is concerned. But what do we men know anyway?

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.

From Consultant to Head of Social Media……

 

The rumour mill seems to be awash with what I am doing with Lumesse so here are the facts!

The future of the job board; my latest prognosis!

A picture says more than a few words so I'll leave it at that. RIP job boards, the end is nigh.

IBM Social Business Viewpoint

I had the pleasure of attending the IBM social business viewpoints meeting yesterday at the new IBM Forum location. Getting in required the use of my well worn passport and I somehow passed this first security stage with no questions. But having made my way up to the starship enterprise top deck I wandered around looking for human existence. I was in but I was alone; or was I!? 

Would you refuse applicants without a social profile?

What no LinkedIn? What no Twitter? What no Xing? What no Facebook? Well you won't be able to register with us then until you get one. I mean, we need your Klout score.

Of course you would never, ever, ever do such a thing. It is absolutely proposterous and open for so much trouble from the PC police. But, already in certain cases to apply for a job online a CV is mandatory. As is a telephone number. And an e-mail address.

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.

Why I'm not drinking the mobile recruiting kool aid.....

(Image taken from Cloud Recruiting)

I am very mobile, so much so that I use my phone probably more than my laptop - to go online, send e-mail, find information, text my kids, do the Tesco shopping and more. I occasionally make phone calls as well. So although I use my mobile for pretty much everything I'm not yet buying into just mobile like some other people are. Although I am in other ways. Confused? Please read on.....

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.

Talent community or field of dreams?

Build it and they'll come. Will they? Will it work? Will anyone really care?

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.