I've been on a Facebook kick lately joining my local regional network (Bridgeport-Stamford) on the site. It's the only network I can join at this point but with over 26,000 users, it's a free way to get the word out for my local job board which serves that region, FairfieldCountyJobs.com.

Anyway yesterday on "The Wall"... I came across this message posted by someone who I assume is an employee of a company called Bridgewater Associates.

This is user-generated employment branding at its best. And guess what? It's free.

Labels: Employer Branding

I have to shower some praise on the HR folks at Deloitte. Not only have they started blogging, but they just announced a film festival among its employees in an effort to attract more Gen Y job candidates.

The film festival will come from employee generated videos throughout the company. Here's a few of the details;

• With "What's Your Deloitte?" as the theme of this groundbreaking corporate initiative, all of Deloitte's personnel were encouraged to make short films that express the organization's culture and values.
• More than 370 short films were submitted by teams of Deloitte personnel (one to seven individuals per team), from offices across the U.S. firms.
• Each video offers a candid and unfiltered view of Deloitte's culture of inclusion, leading edge talent and innovative workplace.
• The submitted films were posted on an internal "You Tube-like" intranet site where they were viewed and rated by Deloitte employees.
• To showcase Deloitte's commitment to innovation and the creativity, enthusiasm and passion of its people, the best films will be integrated into campus recruiting programs.

Perhaps employers are starting to get this 'recruiting is marketing' concept after all. Congrats Deloitte, you are my HR Hero of the Week!

Read more about Deloitte's film fest here.

Labels: Employer Branding

While at next month's ERE expo I hope to get some video of the poker tournament put on for charity by Jason Davis and others. In case you're interested they still have room for a few sponsors. Ethan's got some details here.

Labels: Events

Hitwise announced today that Google accounted for 63.98 percent of all US searches in the four weeks ending September 1, 2007. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 22.87, 7.98 and 3.41 percent respectively. So Google gained about 4% over last year. MSN is in a free fall.

Percentage of US Searches Among Leading Search Engine Providers
Domain	Aug-07	Jul-07	Aug-06
www.google.com	63.98%	64.35%	59.99%
search.yahoo.com	22.87%	22.13%	22.73%
search.msn.com	7.98%*	8.79%*	11.86%
www.ask.com	3.49%	3.21%	3.37%

Labels: SEO tips

InterviewStudio is a new Web-based service employers can use to screen executive-level candidates. With InterviewStudio, senior-level candidates build a media-rich "showcase" online through an easy step-by-step process.

An InterviewStudio showcase combines resumes, video interviews with answers from an online database, reference checks, professional assessment test results, a candidate's Web page and portfolio, colleague endorsements, and other personal data found through Internet search engines and at networking sites like LinkedIn. More information about InterviewStudio, which was founded by an executive recruiter, is available at the company's website.

Labels: Recruiting Software

Next month the final issue of Business 2.0 comes out. It's one of only 2 magazines which I've religiously read since the late 90's. (the other is Entrepreneur). TechCrunch has the skinny on the end.

Labels: Random thoughts

Yesterday's Wall St Journal had a terrific piece on recruiting written by Ron Alsop. It was entitled "The New Battle for MBA Grads" but the advice is relative to ALL companies and their recruiting efforts. Here's a couple of the key quotes:

"it is a seller's market out there, making it tough for many companies to meet hiring quotas using old tried-and-true recruiting methods"

Clearly the job market is changing. Blogs, podcasts, video and social networks are the new battleground for recruiting.

"What's more, some also are breaking from the traditional routine of on-campus presentations and cocktail receptions and trying something new: virtual recruiting. They are mining for résumés online, arranging video interviews and using instant messaging to cast a wider net and connect more effectively with today's tech-savvy students."

It's time recruiters start engaging candidates using the tools they have already integrated into their online lives.

"To be successful in the future, recruiters will need a different skill set. Rather than being event planners who are transaction-oriented, they'll need to become more adept and comfortable with technology and the online world."

So if you're a recruiter who hasn't stepped into this brave new world. Start a blog like this guy, do a jobcast, upload a video, or advertise where the candidates are.

Only the strong will survive.

Labels: Random thoughts

Here's a unique angle on a job-board-like offering. It's called One Day One Job. The premise?

It's a blog that will feature one job per day geared towards recent college grads. I'm not sure how much promotion he'll be able to drive to the site. But its an interesting niche concept.

Labels: Job Board Alternatives

For some companies a resume database is more than just a place to find employees. Check out this story. I think job boards might want to review who's sniffing around their data.

Morgan Stanley accused of misusing resume info

Cold calls allegedly made for contacts

Associated Press - September 13, 2007

Massachusetts Secretary of Commonwealth William F. Galvin filed a civil complaint against Morgan Stanley and two of its Boston employees, accusing them of "dishonest" practices for allegedly using a job-search Internet site to find sales prospects.

The complaint says the company tapped into CareerBuilder.com for resumes, then cold-called people in violation of state and federal do-not-call laws and regulations.

In a statement responding to the complaint, Morgan Stanley said the charges "involve an isolated instance in one office involving a single financial adviser," and added that the company "takes its do-not-call obligations extremely seriously, has systems in place to prevent abuse and trains its personnel to abide by all regulations."

The complaint says a Morgan Stanley financial adviser, Arlen Fox, accessed more than a thousand resumes on CareerBuilder.com for the purpose of sales prospecting between August 2005 and December 2006. The alleged use violated Morgan Stanley's contract with CareerBuilder, which limited the financial-services company's access and use of the resume information for hiring purposes only, the complaint says.

The complaint says "the resumes were chock-full of valuable information, such as employment history -- suggesting potential sources of 401(k) transfers -- recent salary levels and vital contact information, such as cell phone numbers, that might not otherwise be published."

According to Galvin's office, an assistant branch manager in the Boston office allowed Fox to use a management password to access resumes.

Labels: Industry News

A search on recruitment videos on Youtube reveals almost 3,000 of them. If your company doesn't have one yet, what are you waiting for? It's free advertising and a great way to promote your employer brand.

Here's a great example from the Rockland County NY volunteer firefighters.

Labels: Employer Branding

I'm starting to think social networks are going to be more useful than plain old blogging in the future when it comes to recruitment advertising. Just look at the stickiness of JobBoarders which I launched only 2 months ago.

Pay close attention to the time spent on the site. It's nearly double than this blog's time spent. The number of pageviews is also significant. So when you read new stories of social networks and recruiting like this and this, you know why.

Labels: Recruitment Advertising, Social networking

I'd like to welcome AGResearch as a new sponsor to the RecruitingFly site & blog. I asked April Grady, their President to give us a rundown of their services. Please contact them if you think their services may be of use.

1. Explain what your firm does and who your target audience is? Our firm provides hourly fee based name generation and candidate development. Because the services are offered hourly, the cost per hire is much less than retained or contingency fees. AGResearch supports both corporate and search firm clients.

2. When did you start the company and what is your background? I started the company in June 2002. We have since grown the firm to 38 recruitment/research professionals. I started in search in 1992 at a boutique firm in Arlington, Texas. I was then recruited to work for the Technology practice of TMP Worldwide (Now Heidrick & Struggles). When the market began to turn after 9-11, I felt that I could offer myself more job security being on my own – and AGResearch was formed.

3. Who are some of your clients? AGResearch conducts work for 23 of the Fortune 500 and seven of the top 10 search firms.

4. What’s the best reason to use AG Research? Communication and commitment. AGResearch believes in truly partnering with our clients and offering them a very cost effective recruiting solution.

I see that Cheezhead mentioned JobFox today. But a larger, more prestigious publication also has featured the new job hunting upstart: Forbes Magazine.

Some interesting quotes by founder Rob McGovern (former CareerBuilder exec) caught my eye. He says among other things;

"The idea of staying with a company and getting promoted from within is becoming the exceptional case. More and more people are finding that you have to leave your present company to go up to the next higher rung on the ladder."

I would agree.

"Based on the migration of users leaving job boards and coming to us I think yeah, it's a trend."

I wouldn't go that far.

"Clearly Monster and CareerBuilder are competitors. We found in our test market that we put a huge dent in their traffic at a fraction of their advertising expense."

How does he know what their traffic was in those markets? That's virtually impossible to tell.

On Craigslist: "I think that five years from now we're all going to look back and say that the idea--call it a "dumb classified"--is dead."

Take that CL!

"The inspiration for Jobfox really takes me back to CareerBuilder. We were seeing that only 5% of the job listings on the site were resulting in a hire. In other words, that's a 95% failure rate. "

Well that bridge has been burned.

Labels: Job boards

My videos are now more easily accessible through Youtube's new player. Visit the TV page. Users can easily scroll though the collection of RecruitingFly videos.


If anyone wants to put the player on their own site, email me (info at recruitingfly.com) for the code and I'll send it over. We're in syndication!

Labels: Videos

Is your company part of small town America? Here's an article that will help you sell the benefits of your little slice of America.

"Recruiters often find it difficult to persuade candidates to take jobs in small towns, despite the advantages of rural living. How difficult is it? One recruiter says he can find 10 times more candidates for a position in a big city. However, by relying on creative strategies, some companies are getting people to move to small towns for employment opportunities."

Read the full article >>

Labels: Recruiting Methods