As more and more people are made redundant the competition for vacancies has become even greater, then add to this many of them now find themselves having to cope with the advances in web 2.0, making searching for a job completely different from even 5 years ago, or even less.

In the past responsible employers would use the services of Outplacement Consultants, who would hold the hand of the candidate and help him or her get back on track, but with so many redundancies and changes within the market,  is the candidate getting the best possible value?

I suppose the answer is probably no, because with all recruitment being web based these days, it was only a matter of time when someone would bring out a web based outplacement package. Which is where www.myworksearch.co.uk comes in to play to help companies ensure they give their ex employees the best possible start in their job hunt.

MyWorkSearch are a relatively new company set up by Richard Alberg, who is probably the ideal person to develop such a specific package. Building on his success with PSL  (Psychometric Services Ltd.) an online assessment system, which he later sold to Kenexa Corporation is no new comer when it comes to knowing the hoops you need to get through these days to find a new job!

Richards philosophy is that for a candidate to harness the power of the internet in finding a job, it needed to be all under one roof, a complete package dedicated to helping the candidate find a new job. More importantly it should be available 24 hours a day 365 days a year, because the web is.

So being a fan of web based recruitment systems, I was more than keen to have a look round and give a short review.

Having had time to play around I was particularly impressed with the amount of support that was available to anyone using the system, from the many videos explaining every step, to mock interviews and of course how to harness the power of the internet. But for me what really stood out is he grasped the idea that you need to get it all under control and build a online profile separate from anything else you may do online to even a dedicated email for this one task.

For more info this video should give you a good overview or even test it free for 14 days

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Although I have not written anything for three months it doesn’t necessarily mean I haven’t been keeping an eye on what was going on within Recruitment or at least getting some inspiration for Recruitment Views!

My excuses for not writing has been as a direct result of my father getting cancer and then passing away within these 3 months, so of course the motivation was not quite there. One of my fathers greatest attributes is to think of others more than himself, some of which I have inherited. I am convinced this is probably why I succeeded at recruitment, because at the end of the day it is about helping the candidate and client achieve their goals.

Recruitment is I feel a great career not only in recruitment, but more often than not it is a lunch pad onto greater things, because of the great variety of skills you gain. The most obvious is to start your own recruitment company from the experience gained such as sales skills, people management and the ability to run a small business, all of which I feel can often create or maybe help those with an entrepreneurial spirit succeed. This could not be better highlighted than a young ex recruiter called Danny Moore.

I met Danny just over a month ago at an Innospace function, which I have to say is one of the best places to start your own business, where you get an office address in the centre of Manchester for just £250 per year, you couldn’t do better! If you then add free training, inspiration from regular speakers and to work in an environment where your rubbing shoulders with other entrepreneurs what more could you want.

Danny after leaving recruitment set up a company called Intafood, a company which sells individual packs of ingredient to make your ideal curry and runs classes to learn how to do Asian cooking.

Although it is still rather early to tell how successful he will be, but one thing is for sure his recruitment training and the environment he is in will ensure his success. What I can say is that having now tried a couple of his curry packs the result was the best curries I have ever made, in fact better than any I have tasted from a restaurant and for that alone he deserves to succeed.

You can read a little more of his story here.

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I have been meaning to write this for sometime, which may seem strange as I work for Arithon, maybe its because its so close to home.

So as a little introduction Arithon has been developing their web based recruitment software package since 1999, in those years we have seen many changes with the Internet so Arithon has continually changed to take advantage of those developments.

So what has been happening recently? Well at the beginning of the year we have been working tirelessly to create the best possible website integrated package on the market, by not just enabling vacancies to be advertised direct to the clients website, but to allow candidates to up date their own details and even see the progression of their applications, without the need to contact their consultant. The candidates are now be more informed, which happens to be one of the most often cited criticisms from candidates on consultants is now solved!

Saying that for me it gives the consultant more time to concentrating on organising more opportunities.

I could go on more about the fully integrated career website, but to get a real feel it would make more sense to take a look at our first client with their newly integrated website package www.principlehr.ie and below is what the MD said after its implementation

Peter Hughes, Director of Principle hr, was particularly pleased with the increase in accuracy of his CV databases thanks to candidates being able to pro-actively update their profile and availability details via his website. He commented, ‘With Arithon’s Integrate solution in place I have found that my consultants make fewer calls to establish candidate availability, and are able to forward CVs to clients a lot more quickly when a vacancy is received – it gives us a head start. This helps us deliver a better service to our clients, and improves our chances of a successful placement.’

On top of this and with all the buzz from Linkedin and Twitter Arithon can now announce that both are integrated within Arithon, although more still needs to be done with Linkedin, but the beta version certainly makes it so easy to download cvs directly into the database with one click without even visiting Linkedin!

With Twitter you can advertise vacancies directly from within Arithon once again making Arithon one of the easiest recruitment software packages on the market place, if you don’t believe me test it out yourself on the demo version or even call me direct on 0161 408 0505.

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I have to admit I do not read the Sun although with a readership of 3 million and 20 million unique user visits to their website, it was with some surprise to find that after they launched their free to advertise job board, that there are actually very few jobs advertised.

Mind you it did take a little effort to find their site after the announcement from Recruiter, because as usual recruiter are not keen on giving the reader a good user experience, by not including a link to the job site. What are Recruiter so scared of, I can only assume they just do not understand social networking or web 2.0!

So if you are looking for some free recruitment advertising pop along to The Sun Employment site, to take advantage of this offer. Obviously the site demographics will not suit everyone, but at least you are not going to get lost in the thousands of jobs advertised on the likes of Monster or Jobsite.

As job boards go, the Sun’s is very simple to navigate which fundamentally is more important than anything, the only negative is that they seem to have been hi jacked by a few get rich and commission only jobs, they need to be careful of these as again it will effect the user experience. Most importantly it is free and I am sure they will drive some candidates over to prospective agencies and employers.

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Today we have a guest post by Nikki, who has set up a company called My CV and ME. Basically they help candidates land their perfect job, by helping with the writing of your CV, interview coaching, assessment centre coaching and career coaching. So when she asked if she could write a guest post, I thought why not so long as it is beneficial to my readers of course.

So if you have just found yourself unemployed then these 10 top tips will certainly get you on the right track.

10 Ways to Jump Start Your Job Search

With more competition than ever for jobs, here’s some advice on what is currently working for job seekers. My CV and Me spoke to 100 ex-job seekers to discover how they found a job.

Here are the results:

Personal Contact/Networking 40%

Half of all jobs are not advertised anywhere. Companies advertise internally on notice boards, the intranet or they take on people who have already contacted them. Ask friends and family to let you know about jobs that are advertised where they work. Many companies have an Employee Referral Programme where your friends or family can earn some money for referring you.

Job Boards/Social Networking Sites 29%

With so many different online job boards, it is important to make sure you choose the most relevant to your industry. You should keep checking regularly to see if there are any suitable jobs and apply as soon as you can. Online applications are only accepted for a very short time. By registering your details on a job board you could be informed about any new jobs straight away.

Job seekers also know that tapping into social and professional networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn connect you to contacts that might be the key to your next job. Facebook lists job opportunities and you can join groups to find people with common interests and to network with them.  You can also use Twitter to search for someone who works at a company you are interested in or to search for recruiters.

Recruitment Agencies 12%

You should sign up with several agencies, preferably those which specialise in your industry. If they specialise in your industry they should be able to give you some valuable inside information on the state of the job market. They will be able to tell you what sort of jobs they would consider you for and the likely salary range. You should also ask them to give you feedback on your CV.

Adverts in Newspapers 5%

National papers normally focus on different professional areas each day of the week. For example The Guardian on a Monday is a good place for secretarial, media and creative vacancies. Check out the Evening Standard for business and secretarial positions, Metro and Loot for lower level jobs. Advertised jobs in the national papers, often attract 100s of applicants so do not spend all of your time applying to just these jobs.

Events/Career Fairs 4%

Career fairs usually have a range of employers and concentrate on a specific sector.  It is worth speaking to companies directly before you attend to try and book in an interview. Find out the recruiter’s name so you know who is responsible for hiring new staff and can look out for them.
Trade Journals 3%

Professional and trade journals advertise jobs and also bring you up to date with current issues – always a good talking point at interviews. Subscription is often free if you are already in the industry. There will also be news on which companies are expanding and you could approach these companies directly.

Blogs 3%

Recently larger blogs have started to integrate job banks into their own websites. You can use these blobs to track employees that work at a company you’re interested in.

Online CV database 2%

By registering on a CV database you could be head hunted by employers straight away. Make sure that you keep your CV and contact information up to date, as you never know when an employer may decide to contact you. However ex-job seekers reported that they received quite a lot of calls about irrelevant jobs too.

Jobcentres 1%

Jobcentres are in every town and focus mainly on jobs for non-professionals. They have databases of local vacancies and their advisers can help you with finding work.

Speculative Applications 1%

If you are interested in a specific company, you can send a speculative application although this has a very low success rate. The employer may keep your CV on file until a relevant job comes up.

Conclusion

You’ll increase your chances of finding your dream job if you make it as easy as possible for employers to find you. Therefore, it makes sense to use multiple strategies. When you have found an job you would like to apply for, your CV and cover letter will be crucial for getting interviews. My CV and Me offer high quality CVs, cover letters and interview coaching.

A guest post by Nikki, founder of CV writing company My CV and Me.

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If you didn’t spot the launch last week for the TotalJobs Barometer, I suggest you take a look just to get a handle on the recruitment market place.

With over 2 million unique job seekers that generate over 1 million on-line job applications each month, Totaljobs have unique position when it comes to identifying trends within our industry, so when I was asked to give them a little exposure I certainly felt the information they had generated makes some interesting reading and worth of a mention.

With all this data generated they have built a website specifically to try give the recruiter a snap shot of what is happening within our industry in a format which is a little easier to use and can be generated specifically to our interest over a month or a series of month, thereby giving us some idea which way a particular market is heading.

Obviously the data is always going to be a month late but as a retrospective view, but the data does give us a feel of what is happening within various market sectors or territories and maybe can give us a clue to the opportunities for the future.

Of course it is just a barometer, but none the less one to watch and therefore I suggest it is worth while signing up for their monthly news letter here.

Just to give you a feel what you can get is their recent key findings:

1. Demand for Jobs outstrips supply, with an average of 8 applications for every job posted (which is an increase from 6 in April, but if you go back to August last year it was 2.7 )
2. The number of jobs posted on Totaljobs.com fell for the ninth consecutive month (interesting that they should admit this, but is this because we are being more clever in the way we find our candidates using the likes of linkedin twitter Facebook etc)
3. Employers in the property sector posted 12% more jobs in April/May than February/March. (Which has to be a most interesting figure and hopefully a positive sign of some kind of a recovery)

I could point out many other interesting figures, but the interest really is down to the individual recruitment industry’s sector and location. Also within supposedly bad sectors there are still good niches and I am sure we all can interpret the results differently.

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Today Louise has officially launched her UK Recruitment Plus website, which I am sure will be a valuable aid to any recruiter. It isn’t a free resource, hence the work that has gone into the building of the site with input from various experts from within our industry.

In some ways it is a compilation of some of  the superb advice that UK Recruiter has produced and the valuable contacts she has worked with over the years. This all has been brought together into one place, to make it more accessible or should I say more user friendly.

The site is very well designed and is simple to navigate, covering virtually everything you should need when it comes to starting your own recruitment company or if you want to improve your skills with articles such as “the little book of recruitment law” and free job boards and trial” two very useful articles for any recruiter, plus many more of course.

The cost of joining is an annual membership of £99, with a cash back offer of £25 for the first 100 sign ups, an excellent deal for any recruiter.

And as Louise has become a good friend I wish her and her team the very best of luck

Regards

Stephen

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I am a little late with this press release for Rekitt Benckiser’s Recruitment Blog, but even so I still wanted to give them a mention because it’s a good example of a corporate blog being used to get candidates for their own company.

The Site is called My RB Opportunities and basically is made of 9 bloggers from within the company from different locations in the world, which is great but if I had to criticise they all happen to be in sales and marketing, in fact mainly marketing!

On top of this they are all apparently between 20 and 30 years of age, which is probably reflecting the type of people they want to employ, they have tried to cover diversity but forgotten all about ageism!!

If they want my opinion they could have come up with a better mix, some one on the shop floor in packaging, the MD or someone who has been with the company for more than 10 years etc, I think you get my drift.

When it comes to the actual blogging, we will see if they can keep it up, but what would have helped is if you could have read one persons blog, that way you can get a better snap shot of what they are doing.

They are also utilising facebook and Twitter, although it is only Ed who is on Twitter, I have to say he is doing a good job and he is worth following if you are into research and development. Not wanting to be too negative I did notice he has not engaged with his readers, which would be a good way to attract more talent, wouldn’t it! Maybe I am a little unfair judging by this Tweet from Ed.

@juliebrant You’ve made a good choice; it’s definately worth applying for the Graduate scheme with Reckitt Benckiser. Good luck!1:17 AM Jun 30th from web in reply to juliebrant

Finally it be a good idea if Ed was on Linkedin, in fact are any of the others on Linkedin, I have no idea but certainly another important aspect when it comes to finding talent. We may all talk about facebook, but it isn’t the only kid on the block worth considering.

OK I may have been a little critical, but hopefully it will be taken in the spirit it was given, because overall it is a good package. It is a clean, friendly and an easy to navigate corporate recruitment website, so I am sure it will achieve what it was designed for.

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Well its a start, I am sure someone can come up with better for Mike Taylor’s competition of “What do you call three recruitment bloggers?”, as a caption for the phot0 above of Andy Hedworth Myself and Peter Gold (reading left to right) mind you Sara has got me worried with “”Hair today, gone tomorrow” comment.

The photo was taken when by chance, we all happened to appear on Mikes stand at the CIPD conference, mind you I have to say Mike avoided being in the photo shoot, maybe he knew better!

So if you can come up with better and I am sure you can, pop over to Mikes post to “Win a Mystery prize” by adding your caption

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I may have taken my laptop with me to the UK, but now I am back I am still struggling to catch up! It has been a little while since my last post and I have to admit I have no excuse, I have plenty of  material but for some reason I have found it difficult to put pen to paper.

In all honestly consistency is one of the hardest things about blogging, which happened to be one of the subjects I covered as one of the guest speakers at the Recruitment Society the other week. My presentation was on blogging and recruitment, which went well and I was pleased to be let into the Guardian’s new offices, considering my last article on Guardian Jobs…

Following this I managed to get to the CIPD conference, which although is not core to me, I did get to see some of our recruitment software competitors. On top of this it was great to meet face to face some fellow bloggers Andy Hedworth, Peter Gold, Alan Whitford and Mike Taylor it was almost surreal we just need Louise to make it almost a full house.

Mike had a stand to promote his Social Media in recruitment Conference, which I promised to give a mention, not because he bought me a beer at at the UKrecruiter networking event held later that evening, which from a personal point of view I thought was their best function to date, but because his conference should be of benefit to many recruiters who want to get their head around Social networking for Recruitment. The areas he will be covering are below:

In total there will be nine expert speakers, including speakers from  Facebook and YouTube, covering the following areas:

* An overview of Social Media including social networking sites,
blogs and podcasts
* How social networking sites such as Facebook can be used to get messages to your target audience
* How to use LinkedIn to promote your vacancies and source new candidates
* How to use Twitter, TwitterJobSearch.com and the Job Search Engines for recruitment
* The legal issues re the use of social media web sites
* Using online video to promote your company and your job  vacancies
* How to put together a social media strategy for your company
* The future – taking social media to the next level

“Even if a Recruiter has no prior knowledge of social media there will be plenty of information and examples of how social media is currently being used in recruitment.”, commented Mike Taylor.  “This will give Recruiters the confidence to consider where social media could be used in their own organisations.”

To sign up you need to go here

In the end when I think about my presentation to the Recruitment Society, I came away thinking how much of what I said was relevant, because without my blogging and twittering I would not have been invited to their event, but more importantly I found that the ice was already broken with many contacts, not just at the Guardian, but at the UKrecruiter and at the CIPD. This for me is what social media is all about, that ability to connect to new people with a common interest.

All in all it was an excellent week where I met many useful connections, but mentioning everyone would take up too much of this post, but I would like to say that Geoff Newman, who’s blog is an excellent example of a recruitment blog and Frances Gillibrand who demonstrated their job board mypeoplebiz.com, whom both happend to be in this photo (Andy is the one without the jacket).

In addition I must mention my fellow presenters Luke Mckend of Google & Jon Hull of RS Components, a report of which found it’s way onto Ri5

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