Recruiter Value Promotion

Yesterday I attended the excellent Business Forums International 4th Online Recruitment Summit and had some interesting discussions with major employers regarding their view of recruitment agencies.

It took me back to the good old days of working as a Corporate Account Manager at Securicor Recruitment Services and Randstad and it appears opinions (at least from those I spoke to) still haven't changed.

Words like, expensive, necessary evil, throw mud and see what sticks etc were still being used and I had to question why! Why if the recruitment industry in the UK, in the minds of UK HR professionals is so bad, does it continue to grow massively year on year, operators continue to report record profits and you as clients, continue to use agency support solutions?

We found the answer in our small little group and it is quite straightforward. Employers can't maintain staffing establishment without some form of agency interaction and this is seen as a negative almost 'held to ransom' situation. Agencies then (massive generalisation here but stay with me) don't appear to have convinced HR professionals in general of the value they provide to the corporate employment process.

I said in one conversation; "hang on, how does your business manage product distribution", and the answer was that they sub contracted it out to a distribution specialist. I obviously followed this up by saying that the same principles and cost efficiencies could and should therefore apply to sub contacting elements of your recruitment process!!!!

The penny dropped and for a minute I had immediately changed perception and got agreement. Conversation soon changed however to the fact that this has yet to be proven to the individual I was talking to but it opened the door to an alternative and proven way of thinking.

I admit, when I was a Sales Exec at SRS, you could walk into a D and I client and if you had drivers or a pool of good blue collar workers, you got an opportunity to supply, without the need for a lengthy sales pitch and in certain circumstance this was the same for Office Services, so the important discussion about value never really materialised. But what if it was included at every client meeting and tools and management information was made available to demonstrate value. Could general HR opinion be changed?

There is so much talk about how expensive agencies are and how they are an additional cost to employers, but I of course don't buy this because without agencies, employers need additional internal HR staff or hiring managers need to spend more time (time = cost) on the recruitment process which believe it or not is a cost to the business!!!!!

So to my previous employers at REC, let's have some detailed, high profile and widely distributed research into the cost efficiencies of utilising temporary and permanent recruitment businesses, for members and the industry itself to use to tackle these opinions. Some examples and indicatory tools would also be chipper.

Three buzzes make a big buzz - Zubka!

So the biggest buzz words in recruitment are web 2.0, social networking and the passive candidate.

It's no surprise then that Zubka has captured the hearts and minds of us technology and innovation commentators because it hits all of these bases in one go!

Web 2.0 - A clear example of how to incorporate the phenomenon of social and business networking and relationship management, with the aspirations of people to make money from the internet.

Social networking - Gives people the opportunity to communicate with and refer their friends, colleagues and contacts within their on and off-line networks to hirers advertising on the Zubka platform and at the same time earn a fee for doing so.

The passive candidate - You see a job on Zubka that someone you know will be ideal for. Chances are they are not job hunting but as soon as you connect them with the job, that changes in an instant.

Zubka is a source of quality candidates for recruiters and a potential new revenue stream.

For recruiters, Zubka will help them to fill more jobs, succeed with more of those hard to fill positions and enable them to accept out of scope roles all leading to an enhanced relationship with their clients.

In addition an opportunity exists to monetise candidates in their databases that they haven't yet placed with an existing client.

One to engage with.

The Mobile Internet Opportunity

I for one am passionate about the opportunity the mobile internet represents to the recruitment industries.

It hit my radar back in early 2006 at REC, when an organisation called asap Plc www.asapplc.com approached us regarding the mobile internet and how it could impact on the classified marketplaces.

The latest figures by the Mobile Data Association suggest 15 million people accessed the mobile web in April this year, a rise of 1 million users on the previous month. The increase in usage is yet another clear sign that mobile web browsing is on the map and with the significant role interactive job search plays in our everyday lives, it is perhaps the right time for recruiters to understand how they can capitalise on the mobile opportunity.

Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Google, MSN eBay and Yahoo are now all making big plays in mobile, plus more recently Vodafone went public on 6th June to launch their 'all you can eat' mobile data service.

Some notable job board brands have gone mobile too, Jobserve, S1 and SecsintheCity, so is mobile the next big thing? Well many agree of course it is and it's only a matter of time before consumers start to receive real value from internet access on the move and the mobile internet goldrush starts with earnest.

Recruiters - Don't complain about a lack of candidates!

If you know me, have read any of my published content in the trades or seen me present, you will know I am the biggest supporter of the traditional recruitment industry and have a passion to protect it from the press group monopoly on candidate flow and the trend for employers to go it alone using the latest employment technologies.

Imagine then my disappointment when I distributed my CV to a number of rec2rec and technology agencies, as a candidate through their standard application process, in a quest to establish if there were any businesses they were talking to and could place me with that needed the short-term or flexible support of someone like me; 10 years traditional and on-line recruitment experience at a sales and senior level, ex MD of the REC's technology subsidiary, ex REC's Acting Technology Director and all-round staffing and employment technology/innovation specialist.

There were 4 types of response from the agencies I approached.

1. Immediate phonecall to introduce themselves and their business, then a fact find to establish what I was looking for and how they could support me. - To those, if you are reading, I salute you. You represent everything I have grown to admire about the recruitment industry and I look forward to working with and recommending you to my peer group.

2. Personalised email thanking me for sending my details but confirming I fell into a category they didn't support or I was looking for an opportunity outside their geographical boundary. - I can accept this as a reasonable response. After all time is money and they were good enough to say straight away that we couldn't help each other. I would say however, that I probably know many people that do fit into their categories and geography so if they used me correctly by staying in touch as an introduction point, I could probably facilitate a couple of fees a year for them.

3. Automated email confirming that my details have been received and would be databased for reference against suitable opportunities. - Not on face value negative, however, I know what this means. Because there was not a specific vacancy available at the time my CV was received, I was going into a database, many of which are not proficiently searchable, so in most cases I will be approximately 200kb of space taken up on their server and will never be seen again.

4. Nothing, nada, zip, tumbleweed rolling across a desert with an eary sound in the background. - An appalling response. Now considering most agencies when questioned will say that the biggest issue to their business is finding candidates, why oh why, would you not engage with one, one who I like to think is a strong candidate, who is placeable, connected, experienced and regularly in the press applauding the industry!

To those who provided the 2, 3 and 4 responses, what happened to specking candidates out? Is this a thing of the past or is the focus on the fee rather than candidate.This got me thinking. When some recruiters complain about a lack of candidates, do they mean a lack of candidates that perfectly fit the actual roles they have available at that very moment in time?

We know from the unemployment rates that the majority of job seekers in the UK are placeable, so I wonder if the focus was more candidate orientated, is there more value to be achieved all round!Here's a thought and perhaps a challenge to directors in the recruitment industry that follows the mystery shopper principle. Why not submit your CV to your own business via your website and see what response you get. You might be surprised!

Finally, to the agency that sends their automated responses with the subject header 'Resonses' with a missing 'p' and from an email address that starts 'reject', you might want to assess the experience you provide to job seekers!

It's Official, Technology 'Wont' Replace Recruiters!!!

I read, with surprise, in Recruiter Magazine today that a report called 'Debunking the Myths' has been produced by Cordoba Consulting for REC and KPMG to tackle questions on managed services and technology within the UK recruiter and employer marketplaces.

I was surprised because I find it difficult for a report to be so definitive in its conclusion that technology 'won't' replace recruiters because "too few employers have a sufficiently well-defined brand or web presence to attract as many candidates as they need".

I wonder if Cordoba included a review of the job board and search marketing industry's when conducting their research because, forgive me if I'm wrong, the low cost level playing field access to job boards, CV databases and pay per click sponsored links in the UK has given even the smallest employers equal opportunity to promote themselves and their vacancies on-line, which for some time has been the most proven method of finding a new opportunity for UK job seekers.

The report is also released at the same time as the CIPD's 'Recruitment, Retention and Turnover Study' which highlights that 73% of businesses surveyed used agencies in 2006, which is down from 76% in 2005. 3% doesn't sound much but a 3% reduction in UK recruitment industry turnover equates to £750 million pounds, which incidentally is more than the turnover of the fourth largest recruitment company operating in the UK by £250 million based on 2005/2006 figures, so not an insignificant sum!

In addition, we continuously read about the record profits and sales figures of technology vendors, including Stepstone Solutions and Jobpartners, who provide recruitment solutions to corporate employers to power their self-hire strategies.

I'm not saying that technology will replace recruiters but there is compelling and documented evidence that it is and will continue to erode corporate employers dependence on agencies, so a report claiming that technology won't have an effect sounds more like it is based on opinion rather than fact.

There's No 2.0!!!

Just a bit of tongue in cheek, but I had yet another conversation with a chap at the weekend who believed Web 2.0 described the impending launch of a new version of the Internet to rival the existing one!!!

I know, I know, it's like what they say about 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire', it's only easy if you know the answer, but you can't blame people for getting the wrong idea, when marketeers around the globe have jumped on the 'latest buzzword bandwagon' and flooded the press with Web 2.0 this and Web 2.0 that, without explanation and headlines like 'how web 2.0 are you?', plus historically, technology companies have called new versions of their products version 2.1, 3.0........

I of course explained in detail where the term Web 2.0 originated from and what it meant (fastrack here), but it led to some really humorous afterthoughts given that marketeers could now continue this methodology for describing other business practices, activities and pastimes.

Our discussion then was taking place at a BBQ 2.0 because we were using gas rather than charcoal, and the liquid of choice to wash down the food was Beer 3.1 (3.1 because it was in a can rather than on draught and included a widget so we could pretend it was draught). We went on and on, probably something to do with continued flow of Beer 3.1 and the introduction of Spirit 4.6, 4.7 and 4.8.

We had to stop because it started to get annoying, but it did highlight and semi explain a real issue I have noticed in the UK recruitment market. Technologies and innovations are complex but the explanations of what they do and what value they provide don't need to be. So here is a simple request to all technology marketeers around the world. Focus on simple 'plain English' explanations of your products and services rather than creative technological jargon!!!!

It might have an influence on a current trend where many recruiters are in the process of changing their existing recruitment software because it didn't do exactly what it said it would do on the tin (thanks Ronseal)!

On a side issue, we also started discussing if an actual Competitor to the existing Internet could be created with the hard-drives of dormant PC's, Laptop's and Server's around the globe being used to power it. Probably Beer 3.1 talk again but something to ponder on the next time I get a free minute or two.

Are recruiters losing the technology race to employers?

I am concerned that employers have seized the initiative from recruiters in terms of incorporating technology to enhance and streamline the recruitment process.

Gareth Osborne, my business parter at Bornto, and I have issued a stark warning to recruiters to catch up and engage with existing and emerging technologies to stay ahead of the game in terms of candidate attraction, processing, matching and selection and the correct application of recruitment software or risk giving employers the upper hand in the so called ‘War for Talent’.

I have been monitoring the online recruitment and technology vendor marketplaces since joining jobs.co.uk in early 2003 and continued to do so passionately throughout my tenure at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and now at Bornto. In this time the impetus has swung away from recruiters in favour of employers who now have by far the greatest appetite for engaging with technology to energise their recruitment processes.

Recruiters were quick to acknowledge the importance of recruitment software to streamline their operational processes and the efficiencies job boards and CV databases could bring to their candidate accrual activity, however, it is employers now who are embracing and implementing the latest innovations in integrated recruitment and employment technology.

How many recruiters can claim they have in place a fully integrated end to end technology suite giving them a job board style corporate website, advert creation and approval mechanism, multi-posting functionality, CV parsing, databasing, matching and selection abilities and fully automated back end processes!!!

Not too many, but when you look at the client lists of companies like Stepstone Solutions, Jobpartners and Vurv Technology, who have incidentally posted record growth and turnover figures quarter on quarter since early 2006, there are literally thousands of employers who now have the capability to attract talent to vacancies showcased on their corporate websites, multi-post these vacancies to job boards and screen and select the most suitable candidates to interview directly, without engaging a professional recruiter in the process.

I recall my days as a Corporate Account Manager at Securicor Recruitment Services and Randstad and the amount of times clients referred to agencies as a ‘necessary evil’ and confirmed their wish of a time when they didn’t have to rely on agencies to mange their temporary and permanent recruitment. It was always said and meant in the best of faith, however, even in 1997, I personally experienced clients investigating ways to reduce their dependency on agency support.

Until now we as an industry have been effective at proving our value in the recruitment process, however, technology has advanced so much that in certain recruitment situations, employers do not need a recruiter to intervene. I saw a technology at the beginning of 2006, that when put to the test, chose the exact person a company hired for a position two months before simply by running the 5000 CV’s generated by the advert for the role through the software.

I admit that technology will never remove the need for human intervention in the recruitment process but if technology can serve up a short list of the best five candidates for a role in seconds, will that human be a recruiter or an HR manager?

It’s not just the impact of employers’ self hiring aspirations that recruiters need to keep an eye on. We have both been observing the developments of the online recruitment industry, especially surrounding the ownership of the mainstream job boards migrating to the major press groups.

Many are now predicting the effect press group ownership will have on job board pricing and some recruiters have commented that prices have started to rise disproportionately to the increases in reciprocal value provided, plus services are being split out and charged for separately, such as advert posting and CV database access, thus constituting a major increase in candidate accrual costs.

Bornto accept and support the view from job boards that the more value you provide the more you can charge, but by combining the aspirations of employers to go it alone and the conspiracy theories surrounding increases in job board posting and CV access costs, we believe this should now be the catalyst for recruiters to catapult technology and online presence to the top of the board room agenda and urge recruiters to join the technology debate.

It’s interesting to note that the recruitment industry dominates candidate flow already, it just doesn’t know it. We tried to harness this dominant position by operating a recruitment industry specific CV database service at REC, however, legislative constraints limited our ability to operate an industry job board to accrue candidates, therefore, the RE-source solution was ultimately unsuccessful.

Given the additional pressures on candidate flow costs and employer self hiring, perhaps it is the right time for a recruitment industry exclusive job board and candidate database to exist and the formation of a recruiters technology champion. Bornto would consider operating such a solution and assuming this role, if there was a real demand from recruiters for it to do so.

We would like to hear your thoughts on this matter either on this Blog or privately via www.bornto.net

Emerging Technology and Innovation

Since leaving REC I have lost count of the amount of technology businesses that have invited me to showcase their technology and innovations on my travels.

There are some truly revolutionary new products and services emerging from around the globe, including;

• intelligent job board software, which supports the job seeker to determine which positions to consider based on a skills, experience and competency match to chosen positions, which themselves have been enriched with a taxonomy to ensure the highest possible results.
• a central searchable database of jobs published online, for recruiters to identify companies hiring the staff categories they supply and to establish which job boards appear to be best suited for advertising their opportunity's.
• an analytical solution to benchmark consultant, desk, branch, division and company performance against a range of targets and objectives to manage the potential of achieving budgets in real-time.

I am always interested to hear about and see unique technologies and innovations, so if you have developed or created one, please get in touch.

RSS v's Multi-Posting

There is a really good debate on the recruitment blogs started by Peter Gold and responded to by Dan McGuire, regarding RSS and its potential impact on the multi-posting industry.

I have blatantly jumped on the bandwagon because I have a very strong view on the subject.

I treat most things by definition and the term Wikipedia use for RSS 2.0 is Really ‘Simple’ Syndication (I emphasise the word ‘Simple’).

I expect RSS could be used to bulk post jobs to job boards, however, surely the only boards that could draw benefit from creating an RSS feed of client vacancies to their site are the free to post ones; e.g. reed.co.uk and Job Warehouse from Jobcentre Plus.

I say this because recruiters and employers will quite happily load all of their vacancies onto free sites but when it comes to having to pay, they are much more selective and to my knowledge RSS cannot anticipate which vacancies to post and which not, in a real time, commercial environment. The cost of posting everything to all job boards with the meter running, is simply not practical and will wipe annual agency/employer advertising budgets out in a few short months.

The day RSS or any technology can read the minds of recruiters and employers, watch your backs for Arnold Schwarzenegger running around trying to terminate Terminator’s, because it’s also the day the machines take over the world.

In addition, why would job vendors want to set up and manage multiple feeds to the ever increasing range of job boards. Surely a technology with a single interface with the ability to multi-post to all job boards would be a much better creation!

Hang on hasn’t this already been perfected by the multi-posting industry?

I think multi-posting technology is safe for a good few years to come and RSS only has the opportunity to rival bulk feeds like XML.

Websites - Feature Rich or Fluff?

I have to admit there are some fantastic feature rich traditional and online recruitment websites out there, however, is the focus on increased functionality enhancing the candidate/client experience?

The answer is of course yes if users engage with and benefit from the functionality provided, however, I wonder if in the traditional and online recruitment industry, the candidate/client experience is compromised at the expense of sites being made to jump through hoops to win technological development awards and stroke the ego's of developers/operators.

There is of course only one way to build a website that will endear itself to a target market and that's to ask users what they want it to do for them.

I have heard/read far too much critisism in the last three years about recruitment agencies and job boards not providing an acceptable online candidate/client experience and using the internet to support the numbers game.

If candidates and clients demand additional features from your site to aid their employment aspirations; bring it on. If not; keep it simple and aim for quality not quantity!

REC Putting Technology on the Agenda!

It appears one of my final triumphs before leaving The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) in November 06 is gaining momentum and support.

When hosting a meeting of the ORMC in October 06 and presenting the impact self hiring technologies could have on the traditional and online recruitment industries, I urged both industries to work closely together to ensure continued mutual prosperity and operational synergy. I also took the opportunity, given the audience of online recruiters, to suggest the re-introduction of an REC online sector group.

At the time, some of the majors pledged their support immediately and in the latest edition of Recruiter magazine (21st March), Rob Brouwer, chief executive, Monster UK/Ireland confirmed they will be supporting the new sector group. I am thrilled with the momentum behind this important step because, more than ever, job boards need recruiter's content and recruiters need job board's traffic and access to their talent pool databases.

The introduction of an independent authority to facilitate high level communication, regulation and development activity must be welcomed and supported by all. Contact REC for more details.

So You Don't Think Technology Could be a Threat!

I find it difficult to understand, given the amount of research, reports and announcements regarding employers investing in technological recruitment solutions and ideology, why many recruiters won't consider the argument that technology could have a negative impact on their businesses.

CIPD view, Cranfield view and feedback from 'Talent Pool' using recruiters view, all seem to support the view that employers are attempting to bypass recruiters, and at the same time suppliers of candidate accrual, management and deployment technologies to employers are claiming record breaking sales figures and performances; StepStone and Jobpartners to name just a few.

I would support the claim that the UK recruitment industry in general is dynamic and innovative, however, with increasing evidence that employers are engaging with technology to reduce reliance on recruitment companies, I do hope more recruiters will join the technology debate and engage with more online solutions and innovations.