RCEuro is continuing its series of conversations with Recruitment Thought Leaders. This series will be comprised of 10 minute video (or sometimes audio only) conversations between RCEuro founder Alan Whitford and the interview subject. We have a few 'in the can', with more scheduled.

Dave Nerz is president of NPA, The Worldwide Recruiting Network. For more than fifty years, NPA, has been connecting independent global recruiting firms to facilitate split placements.

Dave discusses the benefits of local and global alliances for recruiters, the extended reach and resources that belonging to NPA can bring and the potential challenges facing recruiters in technical and engineering fields as the available talent pools in places like the US and the UK continue to shrink.

RCEuro provides a destination for visitors and members alike to share knowledge, information and experiences about trends, best practices, events and technology developments in recruitment and human reources across Europe and around the world. Use our multi-lingual translation feature to explore and enjoy content in your language of choice. Registration is free.

Explore the site at your leisure. An explanation of the various site features can be found in the About Us section, Exploring the Site.

What's on Today?

The Lead Article today:

Recruitment Thought Leaders Inteview with Dave Nerz of NPA Worldwide

Latest RCEuro Blog Post(s):

Vic Okezie: Failure is an option in Social Recruiting

Fional Landers: Make First Impressions Count

Simon Lewis: Jobseekers need to learn respect

Simon Lewis: the MARAs sign a title sponsor

External Blogs: Today's selection includes feeds from:

Louise Triance of UKRecruiter
IAB statistics are relevant to recruiters

Bill Boorman's blog, Norton Folgate -The Recruiting Unblog
What is he leaning from #BlogChat?

Gordon Lokenberg: W3 Rectuitment
Mobile recruitment or mobile marketing?

Paul Harrsion, Carve Consulting
Apple enters the social networking fray with PING

Matt Alder, Recruiting Futurology
Job boards: innovate or die

Online Radio
The latest recordings from the past week of online radio shows on recruitment around the world can be accessed from Audio Video player on the home page below, or the archived shows can be accessed by visiting the Audio Video main menu.

Video
Video shows on recruitment around the world can be accessed from the home page Audio Video player below, or the archived shows can be accessed from the Audio Video main menu. The latest episodes from Bill Boorman and Alan Whitford, broadcasting to Austraila, UK/Europe and the USA.

Event Updates
Industry events can be viewed from the calendar on the right or by visiting the events section
Check out the latest listings

Around Europe
Featured article in Trends, in Dutch and English, from the Netherlands on Social Media use in recruitment

Rotterdam, 10 May 2010 - Local labor markets are globalizing, resulting in one global labor market. In 2006 a survey showed that 61 percent of the people faced positive attitudes towards international mobility (The International Recruitment Manual, 2006). Three years later, in 2009, this has increased by five percent to 64 percent of the people with positive feelings about being mobile on the global labor market. This is a result from the Global Talent Mobility Research, executed by Intelligence Group and The Network in July and August 2009, including 66.019 respondents from over 40 different countries.

It can be concluded that the overall trend on the labor market is that an increasing amount of people have positive feelings towards international labor market mobility. The question is: How can this be explained?

GDP affects willingness to be mobile

One relationship which was uncovered shows that the better the economic situation in a country, the more people in that country face positive attitudes towards being mobile on the global labor market. The average change in GDP in the third quarter of 2009 towards the in the research included countries was equal to -3.88 percent, with an average amount of people willing to work abroad of 64 percent. The better (or less worst) the economic change in a country, the more people face positive attitudes. Economic recovery is expected to happen in 2010. Therefore it can be expected that the amount of people willing to work abroad will even further increase in the upcoming year.

Figure 1 Relationship between change in GDP and willingness to work abroad

Source: Global Talent Mobility Research, July-August 2009

Peaks around the trend line can be explained by multiple reasons. One of them relates to the scores of countries on the worldwide ‘happiness-index', as measured by the New Economics Foundation. For instance Egypt has a very high score on this ranking, resulting in a lower than expected willingness to work abroad, probably affected by the fact that Egypt is a very pleasant country to live. Estonia on the other hand scores low on the ‘happiness-ranking'. Apparently Estonia is a less pleasant country to live, resulting in a higher amount of people willing to work abroad.

Do you want to know more?

The increased willingness to be mobile on the global labor market and other trends which will have major impacts on the labor market, are discussed in the white paper ‘Get ready for the international recruitment rally'. This paper also discusses five steps that companies must keep in mind in order to win this rally.

Are you interested in these steps or do you want to know more about the trends? Go to http://www.intelligence-group.nl/InternationalRecruitmentRally and download the paper.

With thanks to Jon Holden of Talent2.

Check out this quarterly snapshot of global trends, talent trends, HR trends and sector trends. Interesting stuff you need to know about the implications of macro world trends on employee expectations & engagement, workforce transformation and talent management.

Rotterdam, 26 July 2010 - Many Western Europeans spent their holidays in countries that are known for their comfortable climate, like France and Spain. Often it is seen, that the Southern European population spends their holidays in this region as well. Both prefer a comfortable climate.

When international labor mobility of these candidates is examined, it can be seen that to the Western European population, the climate is of much higher importance, compared to the Southern Europeans, who already live in a comfortable climate. This is shown by analyses of 12,962 candidates living in Europe from the Global Talent Mobility Research, a study from Intelligence Group and The Network.

Climate more important to Western Europeans

To 12 out of every 100 Western European candidates a better climate is one of the most important reasons to consider working abroad. To candidates living in Southern Europe, where a comfortable climate is an everyday reality this is only true for 5 out of every 100 candidates.

Besides the difference in amount of people that state the climate being a reason to leave their current country, it's interesting to focus on differentiating factors. To Western European candidates the climate is, compared to the global average, the most differentiating reason to consider working abroad. The contrary is true for Southern European candidates. The climate is by these candidates not only less often mentioned as a reason to consider working abroad. It is the reason that shows the biggest difference in the times mentioned, compared to the global figures as well. So, to them it's most differentiating in the ‘negative direction'.

The fact that candidates from Western Europe are more driven by living in a better climate than respondents living in the Southern European countries (which are known for their comfortable climate), shows that the climate really has a considerable impact on moving towards such a country.

Comfortable can mean cooler as well

The table shown below shows the countries where candidates live who show high importance towards the climate when they consider working abroad.

Table 1 - Countries and relative importance of climate when considering working abroad

Source: Global Talent Mobility Research, Intelligence Group/ The Network, 2009/2010

It should be noted that Cyprus is not the only country with a warm climate, but above average importance to climate when considering a job abroad. Malta, Spain and Greece show figures above the global average too. An explanation is that candidates in these countries are interested to work and live in a country with a moderate climate. This shows that even candidates in countries with a warm climate feel their current climate is a reason to be internationally mobile.

And the winner is...

As can be seen in table 2, the United States is most popular. Therefore it can be concluded that the US is the overall winner, even when they consider moving because of the climate.

Table 2 -Popular location to Western and Southern European candidates

Source: Global Talent Mobility Research, Intelligence Group/ The Network, 2009/2010

Besides the fact that the US is the overall winner, it can be concluded that Spain has gained most popularity when adding the dimension of climate. Spain's popularity increases with 11 percent, resulting in a jump from sixth to second rank. Therefore, when focusing on the impact of climate on candidates international mobility, Spain is a winner too. Switzerland shows the biggest loss in popularity with a 15 percent decrease when only candidates who are motivated by the climate to consider working overseas are included. Germany and the United Kingdom face big losses too, with 10 and 13 percent respectively

Technical justification

The data in this article originates from the Global Talent Mobility Research. This study, executed in July and August of 2009 by Intelligence Group and The Network, includes 66,019 respondents from over 40 different countries and enables us to place statements concerning preferences and behavior of candidates at the international labor market.

The figures in this article refer to 12,962 respondents. Southern Europe refers to France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta and Cyprus and includes 2,043 respondents. Western Europe refers to Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom and includes 10,919 respondents.

Fundamental Shift or Flash in the Pan; the Use of Social Networking Sites in Recruitment

There is no constant, but change, as the saying goes. Executives Online has conducted a survey of 1,264 executives, wearing both the candidate and hiring manager hat, to find out what they really think of Social Media and its impact on recruitment. The resulting report, titled: Fundamental Shift or Flash in the Pan; the Use of Social Networking Sites in Recruitment, can be downloaded for free here.

Not surprisingly, LinkedIn was the site most offen cited as the professional network that both recruiters and candidates turned to, with FaceBook and Twitter much less utilised today The gap, though, appears in the results table: 7% of candidates say they have found a role using social networks while only 4% of employers reported success.

Anne Beitel, Managing Director of Executives Online, stated in our interview (which can be heard in full below by clicking on Anne's photo): "Nobody has solved the screening problem yet. Despite the increased reach that social networks provide, companies need recruiters with intelligence and business acumen to identify the best candidates, no matter what the source."

Perhaps that is why 35% of the respondents said that social networking sites and technologies would be fine for junior jobseekers and roles, and 15% said that social networking was a 'flash in the pan' and will be forgotten tomorrow.

Anne's Background

Anne brings more than 10 years' experience marketing in high-growth environments to her role as Managing Director for Executives Online. With an MBA from Harvard and a top-flight track record in product and services marketing 'both sides of the pond', Anne developed her marketing and management expertise in previous roles as Director of New Product Marketing for ON Technology Corporation, Vice President of Marketing for Dr Solomon's Software Inc., and European Marketing Director of specialist staffing company Aquent. Anne also has considerable experience as a freelance marketing executive, successfully completing a range of interim and project assignments for technology and professional services companies in both the UK and US.

Rotterdam – Brussels, 26th of January 2010

A comprehensive White Paper has been releaed this week by Intelligence Group and The Network using analysis from The World’s Largest Candidate Behaviour Research to underpin an imminent recruitment rally on the international labour market. The White Paper, based on the Global Talent Mobility Research, which included 66,019 respondents from over 40 different countries around the world, discusses major trends affecting the global labour market and provides recommendations to firms with global recruitment strategies on how to win the rally.

Globalisation of local labour markets
Labor markets are globalising at a high pace. This is a result from both the fact that job boards have became smarter and developments in social media and search engines. This provides international candidates with a very wide mix of channels to find their job in the global labour market. In addition, general trends are seen as well which affect the globalness of labour markets. For instance the increased number of Generation Y candidates on total workforce, has resulted in a more positive attitude towards international mobility. A second trend shows that the better the economic situation in a country in terms of GDP growth, the higher the propensity that their residents will consider working abroad. This means that, with the prospected improvement of economies in 2010 an even wider part of the world’s workforce will have positive opinions towards international labour market mobility.

Get ready for the international recruitment rally
The paper discusses these and other major trends and their impact on the global labour market. In addition, five key aspects are highlighted that hiring firms must keep in mind in order to win the rally and be successful on the global labour market. One of these aspects concerns the importance of knowing your target group. The more specifically the target group is defined, the more effective communication with them will be. Knowledge of a particular target group influences the information communicated and the best channel to use. Other trends affecting labor markets and the remaining four things firms should keep in mind are presented in the paper.

"Get ready for the international recruitment rally" by dowloading the full report from the Intellience Group or from The Network or by sending an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

About The Network
StepStone, totaljobs.com and jobs.ch created The Network in October 2002 to provide international recruiters with unrivalled access to online recruitment services through a network of leading local sites. The Network covers more than 100 countries and has a combined traffic of more than 47,000,000 unique visitors (Comscore, May '09). Recruiters can benefit from Network services through a single point of contact.

About Intelligence Group
Intelligence Group is a Dutch research- and consultancy agency with regard to recruitment marketing and recruitment. On the basis of innovative research methods, recruitment problems are analysed and solved. This can range from research reports and consultancy to all-encompassing solutions to recruitment, recruitment marketing and Employer Branding problems on both national and international level. Intelligence Group is a trendsetting partner of nearly all important employers and recruitment-related parties in The Netherlands and beyond the borders.

The FIFA World Cup South Africa soccer/football tournament is in it’s final week of first round matches and the first supporters are celebrating the fact that their team will be competing in the next round of the tournament. Countries can have different reasons to attempt organizing an event like this. Think of the impact it has on their economy or a boost to their image, both for the country and the host cites.

The Intelligence Group, a strategic research and advice agency specializing in recruitment and labor market communications, examined the data from it’s recent research conducted in over 40 countries, the Global Talent Mobility Research, to determine whether cities that are known for organizing an event or being the home city of famous soccer clubs, are popular cities with respect to the interest of candidates’ willingness to consider working and living there.

The cities Cape Town and Johannesburg, currently hosting the World Cup soccer aren’t very popular with candidates. Respectively 0.7% and 0.5% of the international mobile workforce would move to either one of these cities. This is one of the results from the Global Talent Mobility Research, executed in July and August of 2009 by Intelligence Group and The Network. Can it be stated that the fact that organizing big events doesn’t affect its image as a potential new place to live, or is this just the case for South Africa?

A closer look at the ranking of popular cities does show cities that are, at least to a part of the population, known for their soccer clubs or Olympic history. Highly ranked cities are Milan, Barcelona and Madrid where respectively 4.8%, 4.4% and 3.4% of the international mobile workforce would consider working there. Unfortunately, these cities are also known for many other things as well, like their excellent climate and high level of culture. Therefore it is hard to conclude that these cities are popular just because of their soccer performance.

On the other hand, there are also cities that are specifically known for their soccer clubs and less for other aspects, like Manchester, Glasgow, Sevilla and Liverpool. It can’t be stated that those cities are famous for big companies that are located there, (with the exception of Sevilla) they aren’t known for their great weather and they aren’t usually seen as cultural destinations. Of these cities, Manchester is the most popular with 1.4% of the people that would move to Manchester to start a career. Not only is this percentage low but it also shows a disappointing ranking (in terms of popularity) as well, with the highest rank of 41 for Manchester and rankings over 100 for Sevilla and Glasgow. Therefore it can be stated that these typical soccer cities aren’t popular employment destinations, just like the case for the South African cities.

What is interesting is the popularity of the Olympic cities Vancouver and Montreal, which are locations that 3.2% and 3% of all international candidates would consider. Especially Vancouver will, at this point in time, leverage the attraction advantages of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Unfortunately, other Olympic cities, like Seoul, which aren’t known for many other reasons, don’t show high popularity.

It could be that, even though the impact is limited, male candidates show higher interests in the cities just mentioned compared to females. In the case of Manchester and Montreal it can be stated that men are slightly more interested in a job in these cities than women, with in both cases differences of one percent. For all other cities, it can’t be concluded that men show higher preferences for moving there than women.

Research concludes that there is no specific correlation between the popularity of major sporting event organizing cities and recruitment success

Cities that try to increase their popularity in order to attract new people to work and live there, shouldn’t focus too much on organizing huge events like the World Cup soccer or the Olympic games. The Intelligence Group research showed that those cities as well as cities known for their soccer club don’t show high levels of popularity for an international mobile workforce. It could be that, at least for a shorter period, popularity rises because people are more aware of the city, as could be the case with Vancouver, but in the long term, both for men and women, no correlation was found.

Brought to you by: Intelligence Group

Intelligence Group (iG!) is a Dutch research and consultancy firm specialising in the recruitment marketplace. On the basis of innovative research methods, we analyse recruitment problems and provide employers with the information and advice they need to optimise their communication with the talent they seek in the labour markets. This can range from research reports and consultancy to all-encompassing solutions to recruitment, recruitment marketing and Employer Branding problems on both national and international level.

Generation Y Affecting the Global Labour Market

Rotterdam, 20 May 2010
Labour markets are globalizing. Not only is this affected by the economic state of a country. It is also affected by the presence of Generation Y. This is one of the results from the Global Talent Mobility Research, the world’s largest candidate behavior study, completed in the summer of 2009.

The Western economies particularly have an aging workforces, due to the presence of the baby-boom generation. In the near future these baby-boomers will retire, resulting in a decreased average age of the workforce. It is interesting to know what this decreased average age means for local labor markets.

Willingness to be mobile decreases with age
Research has shown that there is a negative relationship between age and willingness to work abroad. In other words, younger people are on average more willing to work overseas compared to older people. Apparently, younger candidates are more interested in an international career. For firms recruiting internationally, this means that attracting younger candidates is easier than attracting the older and (often) more experienced candidates.

Figure 1 Relationship between age and willingness to work abroad

Source: Global Talent Mobility Research, July-August 2009

There are different explanations as to why younger people have such positive attitudes towards international labor market mobility. One key reason is that the have been used to international travel, they experienced other cultures and feel confident and comfortable being real globetrotters.

The research also shows that the closer to retirement, around the age of 62, the willingness to work abroad again increases. One key reasons is the fact that at that age the children became completely independent. One thing is certain, the motivations to consider working overseas is very different for younger people than for older people. The youngsters are driven by career opportunities and the possibility to broaden experience, the older worker is interested in for instance the fact that a relative might live overseas or because they would like to work in and absorb different culture or simply enjoy a better climate.

Due to retirement of the baby-boom generation and the presence of Gen Y, attitudes on local labor markets towards international mobility will change. Within a couple of years local labor markets will experience higher levels of international mobility and a bigger percentage of people will be willing to move abroad.

Do you want to know more?
The impact of Gen Y on the global labor market is just one out of three major trends that will affect labor markets in upcoming years. These trends, and how to respond to these challenges to be successful when recruiting internationally, are discussed in the white paper ‘Get ready for the international recruitment rally’, which you can download here.

Grounds For Optimism - Economic Indicators suggest slow recovery is continuing

The latest JobsOutlook survey from the REC shows that employers are cautious about jobs growth for 2010 as political uncertainty helps dampen immediate job prospects.

The REC Confidence Barometer moved up 3 places in March, reaching it’s highest evel in the last year.

• Nearly 1 in 5 employers expect to take on more temporary staff in Q2 2010, and 1 in 3 will do so in the next year.
• More employers are also planning to increase their permanent workforce inthe short and medium term.
• Moves from temporary to permanent roles, assumed to be a positive sign for employment, have reached a new high on the REC’s score.
• About two thirds of employers still do not know which political party will do more for jobs growth if elected to government

Findings also suggest some of the specific attributes that employers are looking for from new recruits. Top of the list?

• Communication and interpersonal skills.

Impending Election: What would be the impact?

Which political party do you think would create most jobs if elected?

The date of the election was not known during the period of the survey (responses from January to March are averaged here) but it was clearly inevitable. Employment has not (yet?) become a central issue for the election, a curious aspect of the political scene given that more than 2m voters are jobless. Nearly two thirds of employers do not know which party will do more for jobs, but so far the Conservatives hold a slight edge in terms of confi dence from employers.

The charts and graphs illustrate some of the key findings of this quarterly report.

What impact have recent economic changes had on your workforce in the UK?

In the next 3 months, do you think that your organisation’s permanent workforce will
increase or decrease?

Which of the following skills and capabilities are most urgently needed among the new permanent staff that you are, or have been recruiting, in the last year?

About the REC

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) is the association for the UK’s £22.5 billion private recruitment and staffing industry with over 9,000 corporate and individual members.

JobsOutlook is based on a monthly survey of employers undertaken by independent market research agency Market Shape. Results are based on a sample of 200 employers each month and presented on a three month rolling basis (600 responses). The survey is structured to reflect representation across all sectors and size of organisation that use agencies to meet their temporary, contract and permanent staffing needs.

Analysis and commentary is provided by the Cordoba Group, a consultancy specialising in HR, recruitment and organisation management.

Cautious outlook among employers as political uncertainty dampens immediate job prospects

The latest JobsOutlook survey from the REC shows that employers are cautious about jobs growth for 2010 as political uncertainty helps dampen immediate job prospects.

The REC’s Confidence Barometer fell in February in spite of improving business confidence.

• Consumer confidence rose to its highest level in the last year, despite low earnings growth.
• Unemployment dipped but is expected to increase over the next few months.
• Redundancies and headcount freeze levels are up but employers still predict slight growth in permanent staffing over 2010.
• Overall temporary worker staffing levels are set to remain stable.
• Most employers (68%) are unsure which political party would be best for jobs after the election.
• The survey also reveals that redundancies and headcount freeze levels are up but employers still predict growth in permanent staffing over 2010.

Findings also suggest some of the specific attributes that employers are looking for from new recruits. Top of the list?

• Communication and interpersonal skills.

The charts and graphs illustrate some of the key findings of this quarterly report.

What impact have recent economic changes had on your workforce in the UK?



In the next 3 months, do you think that your organisation’s permanent workforce will
increase or decrease?

Which of the following skills and capabilities are most urgently needed among the new permanent staff that you are, or have been recruiting, in the last year?

About the REC

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) is the association for the UK’s £22.5 billion private recruitment and staffing industry with over 9,000 corporate and individual members.

JobsOutlook is based on a monthly survey of employers undertaken by independent market research agency Market Shape. Results are based on a sample of 200 employers each month and presented on a three month rolling basis (600 responses). The survey is structured to reflect representation across all sectors and size of organisation that use agencies to meet their temporary, contract and permanent staffing needs.

Analysis and commentary is provided by the Cordoba Group, a consultancy specialising in HR, recruitment and organisation management.

Jobsite has released preliminary findings from its Online Recruitment Quarterly Market Tracker. Insights from about 500 consumers and 200 recruiters are gathered each quarter.

As a major sponsor of TruLondon II this week, Jobsite's Felix Wetzel will be available to discuss the findings in more detail.

Some of the key findings from the Snapshot:

The split between active and passive jobseekers is about 50/50, with active defined as those who are likely or very likely to switch jobs within the next 12 months.

43% of job seekers only use 1 job board but the number of people using 5 or more has increased since the last research in Nov 09, with 25% registered on 5 boards and 24% registered on 3-5 job boards.

Surprisingly, only 2/3 of those registered on job boards state that browsing for job offers is their main reason for being there and just less than half are storing their CV on the job board database.

The number of people using online job boards to get career advice and research different industries or companies is increasing, while those signing up for job alerts is decreasing.

The number of people getting an interview from applying for a job online is down slightly year on year (75% in Nov 08 to 71% Nov 09) but the number then going on to get the job has increased (73% in Nov 08 to 77% in Nov 09)

What about the employers?
Recruiting via ads in newspapers and trade publications has increased between the last two waves of research (Sept-Nov 09) to 58% in total.

Use of recruitment agencies is consistently held at 27%. Surprisingly, online job boards and personal networks are listed at about the same level as a recruitment method as agencies.

Social media channels are still one of the least used options for recruiting, with the same number of employers using job fairs as use social media channels.

The Business Climate
Almost 50% more small businesses (employing under 49 people) were looking to fill vacancies in Nov 09 than Sept 09

The level of recruiting in large organisations has remained pretty consistent throughout Aug 08-Nov 09 with the exception of a noticeable dip in Feb 09 – perhaps an indication of when the economic climate really hit home

Businesses who see online recruitment as the most cost effective option is at it’s highest level, although only 45% of respondents have that attitude.

As an indicator of how far we still have to go, only 25% 'couldn't imagine recruitment without the internet', slightly lower than in August 2008.

The full research will be available from jobsite after 15 March.

Brought to you by: Social Recruiting 360

Social Recruiting – 360 degree view of all things Social Recruiting

Focusing on a range of aspects across Social Media, SR360 advises Australian companies on how best to maximise Social Media for not only their attraction and sourcing needs, but how Social Media can enhance the whole candidate and employee life cycle. Founded by Justin Hillier.

The Social Sofa Interview Series – Aaron Dodd

Aaron Dodd, Operations Director at the Mindset Group gives his insights to Social Media and its use in recruitment and how it adds value to his consulting company.

Noted US author, commentator and workplace Expert, Liz Ryan, recently wrote this post on Glassdoor.com. With their permission, we are republishing the post here.

A woman called me from out of state. “I want to apply for this call center manager job I found,” she said, “but I don’t have call center experience.”

“Do you have another kind of leadership experience?” I asked. “I ran an animal shelter,” she replied.

Hurrah! Now we were in business. An animal shelter has lots in common with a call center. My client and I wrote a pain letter that said to the hiring manager, “I wouldn’t be surprised to find that your new call center manager’s typical day will careen between on-the-ground fire-fighting and long-range planning. When I ran a high-volume animal shelter I juggled the same competing short- and long-term priorities, enabling an average of 150 adoptions per week. At the same time, I trained and coached the staff, oversaw the animals’ health and vaccination schedules and navigated a web of complex regulations. I’m happiest in high-energy, high-stakes environments.”

No shock — the woman got an interview for the call center manager opportunity. She didn’t conclude that because she’d never set foot in a call center before, she had no chance at the job. She found the relevance between her old career and the one she was pursuing, and laid it out on paper. Who could resist a candidate who already has a strong sense of what her target job requires – who tells us clearly in her letter that she’s already played a role in that movie?

For twenty years or more, job seekers have been fed and have swallowed the Kool-Aid that says that only title, function and industry carry any relevance weight in a job search. That is a ridiculous fiction. There are huge areas of overlap between roles in completely different industries and business sectors. Our task as career-changers is to find that relevance between past and future, and spell it out. Once we do, hiring managers will roll along with us. They know what life on their open job is like. When we say “Yeah, I have a pretty good idea of what that new hire will be up against, and I’ve actually slain a similar dragon more than once in my career” we have a massive advantage over the typical candidate whose letter reads “I have sixteen years of progressively responsible experience in yada, yada, yada and poached eggs on toast.”

We have a name for the process of spotting and articulating the relevance between roles in different functions and industries. We call it framing. If you’re looking at performing work that is in any way different from work you’ve done in the past, you‘ll need a new frame. You have to first see for yourself, and then describe for the reader, how the Old You will fit comfortably into the New You’s chosen profession. It isn’t hard to find relevance. But if we don’t do that work, we won’t get hired. Employers will say “Why should I hire someone who comes from outside the industry and hasn’t even worked in this function before?” The relevance — the familiarity with the movie that plays out in the hiring manager’s organization every day — is the key, the bridge and the missing link. As soon as we see it, it seems obvious.

Thus a lifelong software engineer can build and step into the frame that says “I’m passionate about helping non-technical people understand and enjoy technology, and excited about the opportunity to become a math and science teacher at the Oakfield Academy” and get nary a raised eyebrow back from a headmaster, although the software engineer hasn’t officially taught school in his life so far.

A former Wall Street money manager can start a business helping artists, thought leaders and public speakers realize their creative and financial aspirations and say with 100% sincerity “I’ve been guiding people to plan for and reach their dreams for over twenty-five years.”

It is 2010, and left-brain thinking is reaching the limit of its usefulness in the career and workplace arena. Linear, data-driven analysis is out, and relevance, context and meaning are in. (Thank goodness.) Complex humans like us have every right (and thanks to whatever entity or evolutionary mechanism created us, also the ability) to see connections between situations and activities that might look disconnected on the surface. We don’t do it just for ourselves, but also to help employers gain the advantage that a fresh pair of eyes and non-stale perspective can bring. Framing is an essential ability for any job seeker in 2010, but a mission-critical tool for career changers. Try it!

About Liz Ryan
Liz Ryan is a member of the Glassdoor Clearview Collection and a former Fortune 500 HR executive; she is the Workplace Expert for Business Week Online and the Networking Expert for Yahoo! Hot Jobs. Liz’s advice columns reach 50 million readers per month. Ryan leads the 25,000-member Ask Liz Ryan online community, where she shares business, career and life advice with members every day. She authored the book: "Happy About Online Networking: the virtual-ly simple way to build professional relationships" and is a sought-after keynote speaker. She has addressed a wide range of audiences including the United Nations, CEOs, HR leaders, and entrepreneurs.

Last Chance ot sign up for: A New Year Networking Event from EngageFirst, MetaShift and MindCombat.

Why should you venture out in the snow?

We know that it is really cold, and slippy and this slush isn't great for your trouser bottoms but inside Adam Street will be warm, wine will be flowing (although it is a cash bar so please go to the cash point before hand) and the bravest (risking the journey), most passionate recruiters will be waiting to learn a little from each of our speakers and network to lay a grheat foundation for 2010.

What can you expect?

We have 3 great speakers lined up for this event - presentations wiil last about 20 minutes each and will be fairly relaxed (no power points or microphones - I might even have to stop to blow my nose!).

Charlotte Hogg (Founding Director of www.engagefirst.co.uk) will Review 2009 looking at what has affected the recruitment industry and how and share her viewpoints on how the industry is looking as we move into 2010.

Khody Demastani (Business Change expert, author of Stuck! and Founder of www.mindcombat.co.uk) will share his unique formula for business change explaining how to be best prepared for changes that lie ahead in the New Year

Matt Alder (all round recruitment Legend, Founding Director of www.metashift.co.uk and Recruiting Futurologist) will share his recruitment predictions for 2010.

Who will be there?

There will be opportunity to network with the agencies account handlers and media buyers, recruitment consultants, recruitment media and direct clients who will be coming to the event.

Click here for Registration or Pay on the Door, but plesae please please let us know if you are planning on coming - we need to put your name on a guest list by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

RCEuro is continuing its series of conversations with Recruitment Thought Leaders. This series will be comprised of 10 minute video (or sometimes audio only) conversations between RCEuro founder Alan Whitford and the interview subject. We have a few 'in the can', with more scheduled.

We lead off with Daniel Christian, the Director-Business Development for QX, a firm specializing in providing Accountancy Outsourcing Services to UK Companies. QX's head office is in the UK, and is supported by 150 professional in its offices in India. QX have specialised accounting experience within the recruitment sector. In this inteview, Daniel explans how the QX off shore model ensures that every client has its own dedicated team/employees, rather than taking the pool approach. His key phrase: QX provides Knowledge Process Outsourcing Services.

Elkie Holland, Director at Prospectus IT Recruitment, (and star of Mike Taylor's Social Media in Recruitment Conference this spring) has put together another of her poignant videos for the recuitment industy. Titled: Interview Faux Pas, it is an interview created from real life Q&A’s as reported by a variety of HR and Recruitment professionals. She then strung them together into a script for this video. Watch and enjoy.

Social Media is the hot topic in Recruiting across the world.

Continuing our series of republishing interviews of key thought leaders in the US from Jennifer Jones, we feature Meg Toland of Boston based staffing firm Hollister. Meg also writes regularly for the blog Boston HIring, including a terrific piece on GenY needs and priorities. Recruiting is an industry that needs more edgy marketing. Having worked with some recruiters over the years, Jennifer was curious to learn from Hollister about social media techniques they have employed. Meg Toland of Hollister spoke about new ideas they are using including Twitter, Facebook and other tools.

Jennifer Jones & Partners is a marketing firm providing strategic counsel and communications implementation. JJ&P’s clients include the nation's renowned venture capital and private equity firms, law firms, investment banks, technology, and healthcare companies. Founder and President, Jennifer Jones is also the creator and host of a successful weekly podcast called Marketing Voices. This podcast gives thoughtful insight regarding how social media is impacting strategic marketing today for businesses worldwide.

On Monday 29th June specialist business consultant to the recruitment industry, Bill Boorman, is launching a new radio talk show.

Airing live at 12 noon (GMT), and again at 6pm (GMT) for the US market, this first edition “Ready for Lift Off” will discuss what recruiters should be doing to plan for the economic recovery. The show promises to be the first of many interesting, controversial and thought-provoking discussions about the recruitment market, so join Bill plus special guests by calling the dial in numbers below or listen online at www.blogtalkradio.com

The caller dial in number for the 12:00 GMT show is +1-646-727-3988
The international show at 18:00 GMT number has been changed to +1-347-838-9882

You can also reach Bill by email at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Participants will include recruiters, technology experts, social networking commentators and European recruitment commentators.

Audio files of the broadcast will be made available via the RCEURO site later on this week.

Many recruiters are now finding increased volumes of badly written CV’s. CVCO believes that there is still a gap in the market that needs to be filled in today’s turbulent times. 
 
“There is a dearth of high quality professionally written CV’s” according to Gerard Brayley Sales Director of CVCO. “The CV is the foremost selling document candidates have – a well written CV increases the probability of interviews, a badly  written CV will not attract interest and therefore reduces the chances of that all important interview”.  

Brayley continues “Despite an abundance of CV writing companies, candidates have experienced many organisations offering CV layout/copy typing expertise rather than a consultative approach, often college/university graduates looking to bolster their earnings in between jobs and write freelance for CV companies. CVCO only hires experienced business people, often ex recruiters, who absolutely know what should go where and how to expertly craft a CV that stands out for all the right reasons. We speak to our clients in conjunction with a completed personal profile document. What this means is that we always hit that sweet spot and give our clients a personal service to ensure that they get the CV they want, so it’s not surprising that they also get more interviews”
 
CVCO provides professional CV writing services that create interest and help people get the interviews that they want.

CVCO Professional CV Writers
Gerard can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Work:   (  +44 (0) 203 151 0 747
Mobile:  (  +44 (0) 7915 109 383 (preferred)

On Monday 29th June specialist business consultant to the recruitment industry, Bill Boorman, is launching a new radio talk show.

Airing live at 12 noon (GMT), and again at 6pm (GMT) for the US market, this first edition “Ready for Lift Off” will discuss what recruiters should be doing to plan for the economic recovery. The show promises to be the first of many interesting, controversial and thought-provoking discussions about the recruitment market, so join Bill plus special guests by calling +1 646 727 3988 or listen online at www.blogtalkradio.com

You can also reach Bill by email at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Participants will include recruiters, technology experts, social networking commentators and European recruitment commentators.

Audio files of the broadcast will be made available via the RCEURO site later on this week.

Neil Wilson, Managing Director at recruitment consultancy Badenoch & Clark, recently delivered a report, Recruitment in Challenging Times, which looked at some key tips for moving your business and candidate marketing efforts forward as we come out of the downturn.

These tips work for both the inhouse recruiter and the external provider of staffing services.How do you unearth the right talent and position your organisation to take advantage of the wealth of candidates on the market?

The top ten tips, with one key thought for each follows. To download the full report, please visit the Badenoch and Clark website.

Don’t feel compelled to recruit someone if they don’t have the right skill set for your organisation

Spot the difference between enthusiasm and someone whose long-held aspirations fit with your organisation

Position your organisation as a more interesting prospect than others by keeping yourself visible and accessible.

Get in front of the right people and make sure they know what your organisation has to offer

Don’t be tempted to oversell your organisation and what it offers to new recruits

6. Look beyond the tried and tested

Don’t just recruit from the tried and tested routes

Get the cultural fit right and make the most of the skills and experiences available from other industries

Build relationships now, and when opportunities do arise, you will get the best talent quickly

Take advantage of your recruitment partners and get full use of their services

Consider your company’s vision, where you want to be and whether you already have the skills and talent to get you there

Global Gathering For The Second Social Media In Recruitment Conference - 22^nd April 2010 - London

Around two hundred forward-thinking Recruiters from the UK, New Zealand, South Africa, USA and nine European countries have gathered in London for the UK’s second Social Media In Recruitment Conference.

The conference closed with a panel debate, chaired by RCEuro founder Alan Whitford. The panelists are: @BillBoorman, founder of the TruConferences movemen; @MattAlder, long time industry thought leader, now running Metashift; and the doyen of building recruitment networks in the UK, @LouiseTriance, founder of UK Recruiter.

Dave Martin's (@TopBananas) team from AllTheTopBananas created this video of the beginning of the panel discussion.

Monday 17 May

A few hundred recruiters gathered in Minneapolis for an industry discussion on social recruiting at the third #socialrecruiting summit. The event kicked off Monday morning at 9:15 a.m.CDT/15:25 GMT/16:25 CST

We will have keep Twitter stream live here (hashtag #socialrecruiting) for another day, as it is often the post event chatter that delivers additional value.

You can view the entire agenda and what was streaming here.

The goal for this event is not to tell you WHY you should be using social recruiting tactics, but to help you learn HOW you can successfully implement them into your recruiting function. The session leaders shared stories from their successes (and things they have learned from their failures) that have all been tried at their organizations — organizations like Best Buy, Facebook, Principal Financial Group, DAXCO, AT&T, APCO Worldwide and Marriott, among others.

The event will featured several unconference sessions, where the agenda was shaped directly by those in attendance.

Twitter Stream:

Split Fees - Free and Paid Recruiting Networks

Brought to you by: NPA, the Worldwide Recruiting Network

NPA is a global network of professional recruiters working together to facilitate split-fee placements. The network enables members to better serve their clients through extended geographic reach, greater access to industry specialization, and improved operating efficiencies. In the process, NPA members benefit from increased profitability and a stronger competitive position.

Dave Nerz, President of NPA, compares the business advantages of recruiter split fee networks, comparing the advantages of the free and paid for models.

There are a few sayings that come to mind when comparing free and paid split-fee networks...

"You get what you pay for."

"Free is a good price."

It is obvious that both free and paid split-fee recruiting sites, groups, and networks have their benefits. One is not inherently better or the correct way to go. So much depends on what you expect from a split partnership. The more splits are a part of your business plan and strategy, the more you need to consider paid networks.

FREE NETWORKS

The free sites, groups, connections offer lots of choice and much specialization. Some are local to a city, country, industry or occupation. With specialization comes opportunity to save time and make the right connections quickly. If you place government administrators in Washington, DC there is not much reason for you to belong to a group that covers the world and all industries.

The members of free networks are by nature likely to be less committed to the group and will likely float in and out of the networking mode based on the assignment they are working and the time they have to dedicate to splitting. The fact that they have joined a free network means they have an interest in the topic...it does not mean they are committed to splitting.

Advantages:
Free, broad offering of options, many specialty areas and geographies covered, great way to see if splitting is for you.

PAID NETWORKS

The obvious draw back is the cost. It should be noted that the cost is only a factor of significance until you start doing splits that you would have otherwise never shared revenue for. Costs are typically in the form of dues and in some cases "brokerage", a percentage of the split paid to the network. When revenue exceeds the cost of membership other qualities of paid networks take precedence.

Paid networks are organized in many ways, some around specialty areas or geographies and others are more "generalist" their structure and focus. The member of paid networks are typically committed to doing splits. That means they will fill things in-house but it is rare. More frequently they are looking for others to provide candidates too or are looking to bring in talent to the positions they control. Paid networks have rules and typically support when the rules are not followed or you get cheated out of a fee. These networks promote member to member partnerships and offer technology tools that allow for the sharing of candidates and positions. In time of need you can have confidence that deals will get done and you will have someone working side by side in sharing the workload with you. Paid networks are for those that are always in need of candidates for hard to fill positions, work one side of the deal (the candidate or the client side) more comfortably and effectively, and are committed to the premise that "half a fee is better than 100% of nothing."

Advantages:
Committed partners, rules of engagement, financial coverage in the event of a deal gone bad, technology tools, member discounts for services, meetings, training, experience and proven revenue results.

Both free and paid split networks offer opportunities to gain revenue that otherwise may pass you by. It might make sense to test your ability and commitment to splitting with a free site before joining a paid network. If you enjoy structure and are comfortable with some limited rules and some cash going out in order to gain a return, then paid networks can work for you. Top producers in paid networks may do in excess of 50 splits per year. So if you are planning split revenue into your business plan, you might want to join a committed and paid network.

By the way there are exceptions to every "rule". Some free network participants can run circles around their paid network counterparts. As with most thing in life, some generalizations have been made but in the end averages do come true.

A final thought...if your life depended on it, would you rather have your parachute packed by someone that has made a career choice to get trained, dedicate themselves to the practice of packing chutes, and packed thousands of practice chutes and even more real parachutes or would you like someone that has read lots of articles, is interested in skydiving and dabbled in the area of packing chutes to pack your parachute? If your business depends on getting deals done on time and effectively for clients and splits is one of the way you intend to deliver on this strategy, you really have to consider paid networks as a strategic component of your overall business plan.

If you want to have a look at a video explaining a bit more about the ROI recruiters have achieved by partnering with NPA members, click here.

Our attention was recently drawn to the publication of a previously unknown (at least in the public domain) essay from American literary giant, Mark Twain. US news organisation and public broadcaster, the PBS NewsHour, brought to light the 10-page handwritten essay which has been sitting for more than 40 years in the archives of the Mark Twain Project at the University of California, Berkeley. It was written in either 1889 or 1890, a time that coincided with the rise of “yellow journalism.” Although the essay, "Concerning the Interview", is a direct commentary on journalistic interviewing, I could not help but see the parallels in the Candidate Experience of the interview process. The first paragraph alone, comparing the effect of an interviewer to that of a cyclone is worth the price of admission alone. With thanks to the Mark Twain Foundation and its trustees for making this document available.

Read and enjoy:

Concerning the 'Interview.'

No one likes to be interviewed, and yet no one likes to say no; for interviewers are courteous and gentle-mannered, even when they come to destroy. I must not be understood to mean that they ever come consciously to destroy or are aware afterward that they have destroyed; no, I think their attitude is more that of the cyclone, which comes with the gracious purpose of cooling off a sweltering village, and is not aware, afterward, that it has done that village anything but a favor. The interviewer scatters you all over creation, but he does not conceive that you can look upon that as a disadvantage. People who blame a cyclone, do it because they do not reflect that compact masses are not a cyclone's idea of symmetry. People who find fault with the interviewer, do it because they do not reflect that he is but a cyclone, after all, though disguised in the image of God, like the rest of us; that he is not conscious of harm even when he is dusting a continent with your remains, but only thinks he is making things pleasant for you; and that therefore the just way to judge him is by his intentions, not his works.

The Interview was not a happy invention. It is perhaps the poorest of all ways of getting at what is in a man. In the first place, the interviewer is the reverse of an inspiration, because you are afraid of him. You know by experience that there is no choice between these disasters. No matter which he puts in, you will see at a glance that it would have been better if he had put in the other: not that the other would have been better than this, but merely that it wouldn't have been this; and any change must be, and would be, an improvement, though in reality you know very well it wouldn't. I may not make myself clear: if that is so, then I have made myself clear--a thing which could not be done except by not making myself clear, since what I am trying to show is what you feel at such a time, not what you think--for you don't think; it is not an intellectual operation; it is only a going around in a confused circle with your head off. You only wish in a dumb way that you hadn't done it, though really you don't know which it is you wish you hadn't done, and moreover you don't care: that is not the point; you simply wish you hadn't done it, whichever it is; done what, is a matter of minor importance and hasn't anything to do with the case. You get at what I mean? You have felt that way? Well, that is the way one feels over his interview in print.

Yes, you are afraid of the interviewer, and that is not an inspiration. You close your shell; you put yourself on your guard; you try to be colorless; you try to be crafty, and talk all around a matter without saying anything: and when you see it in print, it makes you sick to see how well you succeeded. All the time, at every new change of question, you are alert to detect what it is the interviewer is driving at now, and circumvent him. Especially if you catch him trying to trick you into saying humorous things. And in truth that is what he is always trying to do. He shows it so plainly, works for it so openly and shamelessly, that his very first effort closes up that reservoir, and his next one caulks it tight. I do not suppose that a really humorous thing was ever said to an interviewer since the invention of his uncanny trade. Yet he must have something "characteristic;" so he invents the humorisms himself, and interlards them when he writes up his interview. They are always extravagant, often too wordy, and generally framed in "dialect"--a non-existent and impossible dialect at that. This treatment has destroyed many a humorist. But that is no merit in the interviewer, because he didn't intend to do it.

There are plenty of reasons why the Interview is a mistake. One is, that the interviewer never seems to reflect that the wise thing to do, after he has turned on this and that and the other tap, by a multitude of questions, till he has found one that flows freely and with interest, would be to confine himself to that one, and make the best of it, and throw away the emptyings he had secured before. He doesn't think of that. He is sure to shut off that stream with a question about some other matter; and straightway his one poor little chance of getting something worth the trouble of carrying home is gone, and gone for good. It would have been better to stick to the thing his man was interested in talking about, but you would never be able to make him understand that. He doesn't know when you are delivering metal from when you are shoveling out slag, he can't tell dirt from ducats; it's all one to him, he puts in everything you say; then he sees, himself, that it is but green stuff and wasn't worth saying, so he tries to mend it by putting in something of his own which he thinks is ripe, but in fact is rotten. True, he means well, but so does the cyclone.

Now his interruptions, his fashion of diverting you from topic to topic, have in a certain way a very serious effect: they leave you but partly uttered on each topic. Generally, you have got out just enough of your statement to damage you; you never get to the place where you meant to explain and justify your position.

About Mark Twain (Based on information available on Wikipedia)

The Photo: Mark Twain in his gown (scarlet with grey sleeves and facings) for his D.Litt. degree, awarded to him by Oxford University.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), well known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which has been called "the Great American Novel",and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He is extensively quoted. Twain was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. Twain was very popular, and his keen wit and incisive satire earned praise from critics and peers. Upon his death he was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age", and William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature.

TruUsa kicks off on Monday19 April for two days of outstanding Unconference sessions in Madison Wisconsin. Organised by the TruCrew, Bill Boorman, Geoff Webb and Maha Akiki, this is the 3rd event in the TruUnconference series.RCEuro founder Alan Whitford was slated to be one of the Track Leaders, but the Volcanic Ash has kept Alan, Bill and a host of other European TruCrew from going to Madison Wisconsin.

We have set up a specific TruUsa page on our events section here. We will be running regular updates, Twitter streams, video and more in this section, as well as post event blogs and articles. Radio shows will be taped and run in our Audio Visual section as usual.

Anybody who wants to comment, join us on the Twitter hashtag: #TruUsa. You can follow the Twitter stream here via the Twubs.com app, if you log in with your Twitter ID, it will refresh regularly.

On 5th May 2010, Allthetopbananas.com is running the TalkBack Mobile Recruiting event.

Talkback Mobile Recruiting aims to discuss your ideas for mobile solutions to support the recruitment industry.
Dave Martin's blogs about the event and the Twitter hashtag conversation, #tbMobRec, can be read in his blogs below or on his blog site, akatopbananas.You set the agenda, tweet your views via the hashtag.

Dave's video introduction to the event, and an additional interview follow:

Global Gathering For The Second Social Media In Recruitment Conference - 22^nd April 2010 - London

Around two hundred forward-thinking Recruiters from the UK, New Zealand, South Africa, USA and nine European countries have gathered in London for the UK’s second Social Media In Recruitment Conference

Questions for the speakers, comments from the delegatres can all be found on the Twitter hashtag: #SMIR. We are still running the Twubs stream below.

A short video of comments from speakers and delegates regarding the best 'take away' of the day has been produced by Dave Martin's team at Allthetopbananas, running on Dave's blog. Or you can watch it here. There is a lot of background noise, but the key points are well made.

While Mike Taylor will be putting up the presentations for the delegates, Andy Headworth has put his slides up on his blog, Sirona Says and on Slideshare. Or you can view them here.

Key Strategies for using Twitter in Recruitment

The delegates are vey engaged with Social Media, with over 70% having Twitter accounts.
The #SMIR hashtag will run on with comments from delegates, presenters and more in the recruitment fraternity.

Global Gathering For The Second Social Media In Recruitment Conference - 22^nd April 2010 - London

Around two hundred forward-thinking Recruiters from the UK, New Zealand, South Africa, USA and nine European countries will be gathering in London on the 22^nd April 2010 for the UK’s second Social Media In Recruitment Conference

With a broad mix of delegates, including Corporate Recruitment and HR professionals, Recruitment Agencies, Recruitment Advertising Agencies, Recruitment Software Providers and Job Site owners there should no shortage of questions for the expert speakers!

Mike Taylor from Web-Based-Recruitment.com, organiser of the 2010 Social Media in Recruitment Conference, has programmed the event to show how a wide range of Social Media tools can be used effectively as part of an online recruitment strategy.

2010 Social Media in Recruitment Conference Programme

The subject areas to be covered at the Conference (including some brand new social media case studies that will be published for the very first time at the 2010 Conference) will include:

• Strategies for using LinkedIn as part of your online recruitment plans.
• Insights from Google to help you recruit using social media.
• How to maximise the use of Facebook pages as a recruitment tool for your company.
• Key strategies for using Twitter effectively in recruitment, including the use of automated tools.
• How online communities can play a part in your social media recruiting strategies.
• The legal issues surrounding social media and employment.
• Social media strategies for Generation Y job seekers.
• Social Media Success Stories
• Social Media Discussion Panel

Social Media In Recruitment Success Stories

Taylor is particularly excited that two delegates from the first Conference will be sharing the Social Media strategies they have implemented since attending the July 2009 Conference. “I have never heard of delegates from a previous event coming back as speakers for the next event and sharing their success” commented Taylor. “They have a unique story to tell and both have seen their businesses grow as a result of using social media.”

“If you are a Recruiter and you are unsure about how you should be using Social Media in Recruitment then the Conference offers an ideal opportunity for you to learn from others who are already embracing social media as part of their online recruitment strategy” continued Taylor.

Jobsite Announced as Gold Sponsor

In a further development, MIke announced that Jobsite have become the gold sponsor of the 2010 Social Media In Recruitment Conference. “We’re thrilled to have Jobsite on board as gold sponsor, particularly as they share the same sentiments as us that social media is only worth doing as part of a wider, well planned strategy."

Felix Wetzel, Group Marketing Director of Jobsite, adds; “Social media is a hot topic but the danger for brands is that they jump on this bandwagon without a clear idea of what they want to get out of it. We’re sponsoring this conference as it focuses on helping recruiters understand what social media channels are right for them and how they can best utilise them to achieve their recruitment aims. We’re following this same philosophy at Jobsite and have recently launched social media activity which helps us perform better for our candidates and clients e.g. our Jobs-by-Twitter service. For us, this is when social media is most powerful.”

Registration and Discounts

Full details of the conference and speakers, including how to register, can be found at: www.SocialMediaInRecruitment.com (Twitter #SMIR). RCEuro is a sponsor of the 2010 Social Media in Recruitment Conference. Delegates who use the Code: RCEuro20 qualify for a 20% discount on entry tickets, a savings of £75.

ERE Expo 2010 Spring Returns to San Diego for the Tenth Year
Recruiting. Talent management. Process improvement. The incomparable recruiting conference that delivers it all.

There are other events, but none in the recruiting space that feature as many real practitioners sharing their successes and secrets with you. Now entering its 10th year, ERE Expo continues to reinvent its agenda and speaker faculty year after year, featuring sessions led by recruiters like you. That is something you won’t find at any other recruiting conferences this year!

What will take place in San Diego goes well beyond the session rooms. ERE Expo is not your typical large conference, where you are shuffled between sessions, forced in front of vendors and then sent on their way to try and digest the information thrown at you.

Through a variety of planned, and spontaneous networking opportunities, you will probably go home learning almost as much from your fellow attendees as you did during the sessions, and this is not due to a lack of learning from our speakers.

We are happy to feature the live streaming broadcast from the event here: Live streaming commences at about 08:30 PST, 16:30 GMT, 17:30 CET

LAST DAY TO SIGN UP FOR THE MANCHESTER CONFERENCE

To support your industry simply visit www.rec-con.co.uk/conference to book your places.

10% discount for RCEURO members for individual bookings or book one place at £110.00 and receive 50% discount on a second place.

IT and Technology – Are you ready for the recruitment revolution?

Supported by RCEURO, this conference will answer the industry’s concerns about disintermediation, the rise of social media recruitment and what we can do regarding the growth of client-owned databases.

Manchester April 7 2010 – Hilton Deansgate Hotel

Speakers to discuss these hot topics are;

Felix Wetzel – Marketing Director, Jobsite

Alan Whitford – Owner, Abtech Partnership and co-founder RCEuro

Raymond Pennie – Commercial Director, Kamanchi, recruitment IT services

REGISTRATION
As a member of RCEURO you are entitled to a 50% discount when booking a
second conference place.

To take advantage of your membership and support your industry
simply visit www.rec-con.co.uk/conference to book your places.

Registration fee £110.00 per delegate.

10% discount for RCEURO members for individual bookings or book one
place at £110.00 and receive 50% discount on a second place.

For further information, venue updates and booking please visit
www.rec-con.co.uk/conference, call Gary King on 0845 094 8022 or by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it


BE READY BY BEING THERE!

GenY - we have written about the potential impact of this generation on the 'state of work', ways and means of attracting GenY to your company, how do you handle the different generations with the workplace and whether there is even one GenY profile. What would have more impact on the state of work than the leadership of the UK over the next 5 years? Isn't this where GenY may make the most impact?

Christoper Lomas of Naked Generations shared with us their blog and slides about the potential impact of GenY on the UK election.

The State of UK PolitYcs

Debates, Bigot-gate, Clegg-mania, and ‘last week I met…’ are some of the exciting, embarrassing and hilarious anecdotes of the 2010 general election, which has taken the UK by storm. Not since the 1997 election has the public been so engaged in British politics, so anxious to find out who will be the next leader of our country.

In particular, this is the first election in which Generation Y has taken a real interest. In 2001, the first election in which many Gen Ys could vote, 46% took to the polls. But in 2005, this dropped to 37%. Youth voter apathy was at its highest for decades.

The 2010 election is different. Two key factors that have engaged this generation are the leaders’ debates and social media. The debates have helped people connect with the leaders and get a feel for what they would be like as PM. The popularity of the debates was reflected on Twitter, as over 154,000 tweets were dedicated to the subject. And on Facebook, tens of thousands of users became fans of the leaders, most notably Nick Clegg and David Cameron.

The Electoral Commission reported there has been a surge in registrations by young people, with 40% of visitors to the website falling into the 18-24 age-bracket. Generation Y, it seems, is looking to make a stand.

But will UK Gen Y swing the vote, as their peers did in the US? I guess we’ll find out on Friday...

The Recruiting Unconference, organised by Bill Boorman and held at Barclays Bank Tower in Canary Wharf on Thursday 19 November will close with a one hour online radio broadcast from the venue, carried on Blog Talk Radio.

RCEuro founder Alan Whiford will host the show, with radio expert Bill also at the helm. Bill moderates three regular shows on Mondays in his Ready for LIft Off and Down Under Recruiting series.

Guests will include Session Track leaders from the UK and North America, delegates from the Unconference and callers from around the world.

RCEuro RECRUITMENT LEADERS SHOW DETAILS

• Show Time: Thursday 19 Nov, 17:00 GMT
• Listeners/participants can join the show via the web link Show Address
• By dialing in to a US number via telephone, Skype or other VOIP methods
• Listener dial-in number: +1 347 857-1109
• Or by clicking on the Blog Talk Radio player below

The Recruiter Awards for Excellence 2010, sponsored by Innovate CV, were held at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane on Wednesday 14 April.

Nominated by RCEuro founder Alan Whitford, Matthew Jeffery, Director of Talent Brand for the world's Number 1 publisher and developer of computer games, Electronic Arts, scooped the inaugural award for Recruitment Personality of the Year. An example of Matthew's work in developing and extending the EA brand across a range of social media can be seen here.




Three Double Winners
Network Rail picked up the award for best candidate experience and most effective recruitment strategy, while Joslin Rowe were recognised in both the best CSR strategy and the best professional services agency categories. CBSbutler won in the best technical recruitment agency category and came away winning agency of the year.

2010 Winners
Best Newcomer Agency
Sponsored by Back Office Support Servies

Winner: Availl

Best Candidate Experience

Winner: Network Rail

Best Candidate Care
Sponsored by Innovate CV

Winner: Career Teachers

Best Client Service
Winner: Parkside Recruitment

Best Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy

Winner: Joslin Rowe

Best Diversity Recruitment Strategy
Winner: Guinness Northern Counties

Innovation in Recruitment

Sponsored by Mayday Healthcare

Winner: The Learning Trust

Most Effective Recruitment Campaign

Winner: Wm Morrisons Supermarkets with Jupiter Advertising

Most Effective Recruitment Strategy

Sponsored by Itris Recruitment Software

Winner: Network Rail

Most Effective Use of Technology / Online

Winner: Barclays Capital with Stafford Long & Partners

Most Effective Use of Technology / Online
Winner: British Heart Foundation

Best Interim Recruitment Agency
Winner: Russam GMS

Best Industrial Recruitment Agency

Winner: The Transline-Resource Group

Best Public Sector Recruitment Agency

Sponsored by Liquid Friday
Winner
Winner: Morgan Hunt

Best International Recruitment Agency

Winner: Robert Walters

Best Commercial Recruitment Agency 

Winner: Tate

Best Professional Services Recruitment Agency
Winner: Joslin Rowe

Best Technical Recruitment Agency

Winner: CBSbutler

Best Job Board

Winner: Season Workers

Best Embedded Recruiting Team

Winner: Capita Resourcing at Sellafield

Most Effective Employer Brand Development 

Sponsored by HRS Pro
Developed by Cordis
Winner: East Sussex County Council

Best Recruitment Agency to Work For

Sponsored by Jobs.co.uk

Winner: The Stopgap Group

Recruitment Personality of the Year

Winner: Matthew Jeffery, Electronic Arts

Outstanding Outsourced Recruitment Organisation

Winner: Omni Resource Management Solutions

Agency of the Year
Sponsored by Excellium Umbrella
Winner: CBSbutler

Best Recruitment Team

Sponsored by Innovate CV
Winner: Atkins

Set for central London on 29 April, the Jobsite Jobseekers Unconference is organised with one simple objective: To help candidates to be successful in your quest for employment or your next move. Twitterers can follow developments on the Hashtag: #JobsiteJU

Jobsite are constantly looking for new ways to offer the best experience when you entrust us with your next career move. Whilst there are plenty of resources and networking opportunities on-line, the best networking and learning happens face to face. There are no presentations and no PowerPoint, just good conversation, shared experiences, support and the opportunity to focus the discussion and ask questions in the areas YOU need most help.

An unconference is like no other event you will have attended before. For a start, it's not a conference. There are no presentations or PowerPoint and the focus is on conversation, where the attendees dictate the agenda. The topics are divided in to "tracks" or small groups, where the discussion is lead by "track leaders."

The track leaders are chosen because of their experience and expertise in the topics. Their role is to start the conversation, input where needed, answer questions and give expert advice where needed. The agenda for the track, the questions and the content is dictated by you, and most of the talking comes from the attendees. The track leaders are available throughout the day if you want a one - to - one conversation.

We positively encourage you to drop in and out of tracks, when you have the help you want move to the next one. You don't have to wait for the finish out of politeness. At the same time, if you want to have a conversation away from the tracks, or to start your own,

The location in central London will be announced soon. Registration Information can be found here

A terrific awards ceremony on 5 November saw the best UK recruitment websites honoured as the winners of the 9th annual 2009 National Online Recruitment Awards were announced.

Hosted by Stephen O'Donnell of alljobsuk.com and held in conjunction with UK Recruiter, the event saw many of the thought leaders and business innovators of UK recruitment in attendance. Louise Triance of UK Recruiter has pulled together the photographs of the evening, including photos of the winners receiving the award from the individual category sponsors.

November 5th Networking & NORAs

The 2010 onrec Awards - the Online Recruitment Industry’s most prestigious Awards Ceremony - took place in London on 31st March 2010.



Celebrating the success, growth, innovation talent and achievements within the Online Recruitment Industry, the Awards are now in their fifth year. Attended by over 200 guests, the Awards followed on from the annual 2010 Onrec Trade Conference held at the same venue in the afternoon.

The Award Winners:

Innovative Online Marketing Award
Niche: CWJobs.co.uk
Generalist: Redfgoldfish Jobs
Supplier: s•com

Innovative Offline Marketing Award
Niche: IEEE
Generalist: Jobsite

The Best Use of Online Recruitment by A Recruitment Agency Award
Hays

The Best Corporate Use of Online Recruitment Award
John Lewis

onrec Education Award
Enhance Media Ltd

The Best Technical Innovation Award
Niche: eteach
Generalist: Monster.co.uk
Supplier: 02 Rewards

The Best Corporate Graduate Site
BAE Systems

The Best Public Sector Recruitment Site
The London Borough of Barnet

The Candidate Service Award
Jobsite

The Niche Job Board Award
Rate My Placement

Newcomer of the Year Award
STV Jobs

Personality of the Year 2010
Lee Biggins of CV Library

A terrific awards ceremony on 5 November saw the best UK recruitment websites honoured as the winners of the 9th annual 2009 National Online Recruitment Awards were announced.

The NORA ceremony is an annual event organised by Stephen O'Donnell of alljobsuk.com and held in conjunction with UK Recruiter, designed to recognise excellence in the recruitment industry – from technology providers to employment agencies. Now in its 9th year, the evening was held in the exclusive Orchid Bar in Piccadilly and was well attended by a wide range of recruitment industry participants, from sponsors to nominees, from industry experts to recruiters.

Full coverage of the evening will be in the upcoming issue of event Media sponsor Recruitment Consultant Magazine, including photos of the winners and the evening.

RCEuro sends its thanks to the event organisers, event sponsor and individual category sponsors (details of all sponsors in our previous article). More importantly, we extend our sincere congratulation to the category winners and best wishes to the category finalists.

The 2009 NORA AWARD WINNERS
Best General Jobsite category: Jobsite

Best Specialist site: Retail Choice

Best Regional Site: Key 103 Jobs

Best National Recruitment Agency Website: RHR

Best Small Recruitment Agency Website: McCarthy Recruitment

Best National Employer Site: Army Jobs

Best Small Employer Site: GCS

Best Online Recruitment by a Consumer Publication: The Guardian

Best Online Recruitment by a Trade Publication: Drapers Jobs
(Award sponsored by RCEuro)

Best Employment Advice Site: Career Player

Best Newcomer: Career Player

Best Innovation in Online Recruitment: Twitter Job Search

All sponsorship opportunities for each of the twelve award categories for the 9th annual NORA awards on 5th November have been filled, as well as the event title sponsorship and the media partnership. The most recent sponsor to sign up has been RCEuro, which is delighted to come on board to sponsor the category: Best Online Recruitment Website by a Trade Publication

This is the ninth year of the awards, and is expected to be the most hotly contested ever. The awards strive to honour those sites that, through either innovation, inspiration, or sheer hard work and attention to detail, actually offer something tangibly valuable to job seekers. It is not easy to be in tune with those looking for work, and it is certainly very difficult to build a recruitment website without genuine insight into the minds of your targeted market. When a website gets the balance just right, and strikes a chord with potential candidates, the vacancies and clients soon follow.

If the National Online Recruitment Awards can shine a light on the very best examples of excellence in our industry, we hope that other other websites will see what is possible, and be inspired to make the same progress. Ultimately, this can only be interests to those looking to progress their careers, as simply and efficiently as possible.

The awards ceremony for this year will again take place at the exclusive West End venue, Orchid London, near Piccadilly Circus, on Thursday 5th November.

The event will be held in conjunction with UKRecruiter, whose events very much focus on business networking within the UK recruitment industry, and will also involve extensive networking opportunities. It is essential that interested attendees pre-register to attend the events,which you can do here.

2009 NORA SPONSORS
Title Sponsor
permsconnect

Media Partner
Recruitment Consultant Magazine

Category Sponsors
RCEuro
The Ladders
recruitersite
OptimalinternNet
Cordis Technologies
Jobg8
HotLizard
CV Library
Gabem
ExecutivesontheWeb
Actonomy
Bullhorn
Chameleon-i

September 2009 Index Highlights:

• The Monster Employment Index UK dipped by two points as online job availability declined for the second consecutive month
• Online job demand fell markedly in the public sector, with losses also seen in the technology sector. Offerings grew in sales
• Job demand held steady in London and the Midlands, whilst hiring in North England and the South West fell most

Summary Overview
Online employment opportunities across the UK dipped by two points (two percent) in September, as job demand dropped slightly for the second straight month. Despite this fall, online hiring has remained largely flat since the turn of the year. The overall European Index also dipped three points (three percent) in August and fell by 37 percent year-on-year.

Year-on-year, hiring levels in the UK are down 33 percent. September saw a notable decrease in hiring activity in public sector, defence, community. There was reduced availability in education, training and library; and healthcare, social work – possibly reflecting pressure on government spending amid widening deficits. Declines were also seen in IT, engineering and R&D, indicating that the technology sector continues to be hit by the economic slowdown. By contrast, demand for workers in sales increased, suggesting retailers are more optimistic amidst the recovery in consumer confidence.

“Hiring among UK companies remains worryingly stagnant. As long as the macroeconomic outlook is uncertain, companies will remain reticent to hire workers, which in itself could slow the actual recovery,” commented Hugo Sellert, head of economic research, at Monster Worldwide. “Despite sharp drops in hiring in the public sector and among technology companies in September, there is some cause for optimism in the broader business sector. Recruiting increased in the third quarter for areas such as sales, management and office and administrative support.”

The National Online Recruitment Awards 2009 (NORAs), now in their ninth year, have closely plotted the emergence and growth of the UK online recruitment sector. Devised to recognise the very best recruitment websites, from a candidate's perspective, the NORAs are respected as the definitive award in the industry, and a tangible achievement for those sites which truly excel in delighting job seekers.

Uniquely, the awards are initially nominated by job seekers themselves, in order that the perspective of those who utilise each site remains paramount. This year almost 25,000 nominations for 654 separate websites were received.

The NORA selection panel of industry experts (see below) then carefully assessed each site, from a candidate’s point of view, to arrive at the shortlist of tremendous sites in all 12 categories. The Categories recognise all manner of recruitment websites, including not only dedicated job boards, but also recruitment firms, publications, advice websites and employers themselves. There will be hotly contested awards for Best Newcomer and Best Innovation in Online Recruitment.

To ensure absolute integrity, the Finalists will now be judged by a separate panel of Judges, and the Winners will be revealed at the awards ceremony on Thursday 5th November 2009 at Orchid in London.

As an example of the quality of sites, The Best Innovation in Online Recruitment finalists are:

Career Player
Company Explorers
SalaryTrack
Schools Recruitment
Twitter Job Search

Stephen O’Donnell AlljobsUK.com

Andy Headworth Sirona Consulting

Alan Whitford RCEuro.com

Matt Alder Barkers

Steve Evans Net Natives

Paul Harrison Carve Consulting

Ben Nunn Thirty Three

Alex Hens 3D Marcomms

To view the complete list of Nominees and category information, please visit the NORA webstite. You can also follow developments on Twitter.

Contact:
Stephen O’Donnell, Director AlljobsUK.com
Chairman of Judging Panel
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Tel: 0141 572 5301

Creating a completely integrated candidate experience:
The project involved creating an Employer Brand, a campaign of nine recruitment advertisements, an Employee Referral Programme, a recruitment microsite and a menu of various candidate communications and templates - all of them ‘joined-up’ to the original employment branded proposition.

The solution was crucial in enabling United Biscuits to embark upon a new era of sourcing candidates directly and reducing its reliance on 3rd party recruiters. The campaign was cited by HR Magazine, January 2008, as an example of best practice in branded recruitment communications.

“The work Entity produced was superb and the results exceeded my expectations. Entity’s team of Planning, Digital, Brand and Technology professionals offer a very powerful service. I could not ever imagine being involved in any client project that had recruitment communications issues, without speaking to the team at Entity.”

Heather Buglass
HR Business Partner, United Biscuits.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Monster®, the leading global online career and recruitment resource and flagship brand of Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: MWW), today unveiled its new global seeker experience. Launched in 24 countries, the new site offers job seekers an innovative, intuitive, and personal experience designed to deliver a fulfilling career management resource.

“Monster has made a significant investment in product and technology in an effort to design and develop new tools and applications that help job seekers manage their career,” said Sal Iannuzzi, chairman, president and CEO of Monster Worldwide. “The result is an entirely new site experience which allows job seekers a more engaging and dynamic way to find the career that best matches their talent, background, aspirations and professional goals. We set out 18 months ago to deliver the best seeker experience possible. Given what is going on today with the global economic crisis and its effect on employment, we are even more gratified to be able to provide these valuable tools to seekers.”

The new site will allow seekers to more efficiently register with Monster, upload and maintain their resumes, conduct job searches, and apply to jobs. In fact, it is now over 70 percent easier to upload a resume to Monster, and registered seekers can apply for a job in as few as two clicks. This improved functionality will roll out in 24 countries immediately. In addition, unique new career management applications have been designed to not only attract, but engage and appeal to both the active and passive seeker. Available initially in the U.S and rolling out to other countries in the coming months, these include:

* Monster Career Mapping – patent-pending career exploration tool that leads people to explore their careers via many possible and interconnecting paths. This tool will provide an unrivaled ability for seekers to explore career paths taken by people similar to them in skills and experience, enabling them to set reality-based immediate and future career goals, and understand the steps to get there. Monster leveraged the depth of its resume database to analyze work histories to provide empirical evidence about the most commonly chosen career paths people take.

* Monster Career Snapshots – a tool that allows users to access thousands of occupational profiles describing various roles, the skills required, the compensation and work/life balance associated with them. This tool will also provide the ability for users to share their similar careers and experience to provide a dynamic and deeper understanding for seekers.

* Monster Career Benchmarking – assessment tool that helps candidates measure themselves against other individuals or jobs in their industry so they can compete more effectively for the positions they desire.

“The new Monster is a dynamic, interactive, intuitive destination experience – not a static, one-way job board,” said Darko Dejanovic, executive vice president, global chief information officer and head of product, Monster. “Ultimately, these changes create a platform that will enable us to continue to introduce new and exciting functionality in the future. Similarly – and equally important – employers will benefit from increased candidate engagement and activity, and improved reach and presentation of their jobs to the right seekers.”

In addition to Monster’s new seeker capabilities yielding more qualified candidates, Monster’s new Audience Sponsorship product leverages the new seeker experience by providing employers with increased exposure through expanded media solutions. The product allows employers to target desired seekers by advertising where relevant seekers are searching and navigating the site. Also benefitting employers, Monster has begun rolling out a new employer site experience designed to improve the overall recruitment process. New enhanced resume search, job and candidate management, job posting wizard and online resource center tools are designed to help employers increase productivity and maximize their recruitment return on investment.

“Today's ‘new’ Monster not only provides the resources to help people find a job now, it also helps people begin to identify and plot out career aspirations over time,” said Iannuzzi. “We’re delivering on our promise to make Monster a personal, relevant and exciting place to search for the perfect job. Simply put, there has never been a better time to visit Monster.com.”

Talkback Mobile Recruiting Ran on 5 May

Organised by Dave Martin of allthetopbananas.com, with the Twitter hashtag #tbmobrec throughout the day, add your comments, thoughts and projections. We ran the Twubs stream as well.

If we can carefully avoid mistakes made in the desktop Internet, we can deliver a candidate enriching service and deliver high quality services for the employer / recruiter. This is the next stage in the evolution of job boards and career sites. Coupled with the Social Networking boom, Mobile Recruiting is online recruiting of the future.

Agenda…

1. Where mobile is today – facts, figures, catch up.
2. Discuss points from Twitter…
a) @alexhens & @TristanGreaves Is Mobile really so Big? Or is it just hype?
b) @RecruitmentDad I think that there is a future in mobile recruiting. Would I sit on a bus and do an organic job search? (eg Google) No.
c) @RecruitmentDad Would I want to apply immediately? Yes.
d) @SiteAdvisor how will we overcome the difficulties of applying from a mobile phone?
e) @JobNet_AUS should Mobile Recruiting just target White Collar? What do you think?
f) @andyheadworth what effort is being taken for those who don’t have a BB or iPhone?
3. Results of our candidate survey?
4. What do you want to see in your future mobile applications?
5. Anything else (mobile only)?

London/Texas 2 August 2010

StepStone Solutions, a global leader in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Talent Management solutions, has signed a binding agreement to acquire privately-owned e-recruitment software provider MrTed.

Over 100 customers use the MrTedTalentLink product to recruit staff across 100 countries and over 90% of MrTed’s current revenues come from ‘Global 500’ businesses, including large Recruitment Process Outsourcers (RPOs). The acquisition accelerates StepStone Solutions’ global growth, extends its product set and strengthens its SaaS capability.

“For our customers and staff this is extremely exciting. Looking forward, the strength of both companies will enhance the experience and means by which business managers interact with their talent and HR colleagues, generating greater value for their businesses,” said StepStone Solutions CEO, Matthew Parker. “This combination creates an even stronger player with unique capabilities to meet customer needs in terms of global reach, financial strength and product set. Following our recent MBO in conjunction with HgCapital, this is an important milestone in our ambitious plans for expanding and developing StepStone Solutions.”

The acquisition accelerates StepStone Solutions’ global growth, adds a substantial new revenue stream, expands its customer base worldwide and brings leading-edge technical capabilities in terms of product architecture and future development capabilities. MrTed has operations in the US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, China and Poland, substantially strengthening StepStone Solutions’ international presence and ability to service truly global customers.

"This acquisition marries StepStone Solutions' global execution expertise and infrastructure with MrTed's thought leadership and true SaaS capabilities. This is a very welcome early demonstration of HgCapital’s commitment to the global Human Capital SaaS market," commented Naomi Lee Bloom, Managing Partner, Bloom & Wallace.

MrTed has built an impressive customer base since its founding in 1999, with global brands that include Heineken, Tommy Hilfiger and France Telecom. MrTedTalentLink, a fully SaaS-based offering, is recognised for a high level of innovation in its architecture, particularly in the latest “Cloud 9” release. “Cloud 9” has earned top marks from industry analysts like Gartner Group, (which positioned MrTed in the “Visionaries” quadrant of the 2009 Magic Quadrant for e-Recruitment Software), and Bersin & Associates because of the solution’s advanced cloud architecture, application portability and dynamic user interface.

“As the industry consolidates, integrating the MrTed business into StepStone Solutions makes a lot of sense for both sets of customers and provides a safe pair of hands for the future. It creates a powerhouse software company with a truly global footprint, an unmatched product set and great financial strength,” said MrTed CEO, Jerome Ternynck, who will continue to work with StepStone Solutions in an advisory capacity.

Talent2 International has emerged as a global market leader in Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) and Talent Acquisition solutions as HRO Today Magazine publish the results of its Baker's Dozen List for 2010.

The magazine’s annual list is developed based on a comprehensive survey of RPO buyers and experts. Provider rankings are based on quality of service, breadth of service and size of deals.

Talent2 ranked number 12 in the Overall Rankings and an incredible number seven on the Global Market Leaders list. Of the 13 organisations ranked in the Baker's Dozen Overall Rankings, only eight were included on the distinguished Global Leaders List. Talent2’s number seven placing is testament to the commitment and dedication of a team that won its first RPO deal in Australia in 2005.

"I am immensely proud of our global team achieving such a prominent ranking on the Global Market Leaders List. It is a considerable achievement given we only established the company in the Australian market five years ago. Since then we have grown at an exponential rate, with 40 offices in 19 countries and a total of 20 RPO clients globally." says Andrew Grant, Global RPO Managing Director, Talent2. Talent2 has invested heavily in organic growth over the past three years, going from 150 employees in their global RPO division to over 300.

Less than a point separated Talent2 from achieving the top spot in the Breadth of Service scoring and Talent2 came in second in the Global Clients tally. The race to lead the pack in the Quality of Service ranking was certainly a close call, with only 49 points separating number one from number eight.

Over the last two weeks, RCEURO founder Alan Whitford has been participating in a series of Blog Talk Radio shows hosted by Bill Boorman discussing Mobile Recruitment. Recordings of all of the shows can be played from the home page in our Audio/Video section below. One of the participants, Dave Martin of allthetopbanans.com, has posted his blog comments here and is a regular contributor to the site. His latest blog, includes a wonderful video detailing his personal experiences and convictions about the arrival of the mobile Internet, We publish the blog and video below.

Over the last few weeks I have spoken to many people about mobile recruiting strategy. I believe we still have a number of marketing managers who don’t believe that Mobile Internet is popular or mainstream. I have one thing to say to anyone with that view – WAKE UP!

Not only has Mobile Internet arrived, it is growing – rapidly. Today there is an estimated 10m UK Mobile Internet users.

If you look globally there are about 23% of the world population online. Currently over 70% of new Internet subscriptions are Mobile Internet subscription. (although this include mobile broadband USB sticks)

If you don’t have a Mobile strategy you need one.

Your Mobile Recruiting strategy should see you supporting a Mobile optimsed website. Then you should be focusing on native Mobile Apps. The first App should be an Iphone App.

Why is an iPhone app important – because iPhone users actually use the features on the phone. Your brand along with job seeking keywords are being searched in AppStore / iTunes by the 60m+ iPhone users. There are great examples of presence in AppStore dramtically increasing mobile site usage, sometimes by more than 200%. You should be getting business on the back of Apples huge marketing spend promoting the catch line “There’s an App for that”.

Start thinking Mobile.

If anyone has queries just drop me a line or Tweet me @topbananas

RCEuro is continuing its series of conversations with Recruitment Thought Leaders. This series will be comprised of 10 minute video (or sometimes audio only) conversations between RCEuro founder Alan Whitford and the interview subject. We have a few 'in the can', with more scheduled.

Danny Steel of Rocket Software talks about the challenges of starting up a recruitment business in the blue collar temporary labour market, particularly drivers and warehouse staff. How did Top Gear Recruitment thrive during the recession? Why did they build their own back office software? Today, Danny has stepped back from the Top Gear business and focusses on Rocket Software, bringing to market the system they developed for their own needs. Over the last 8 years, Rocket Software has developed its professional TempID product in conjunction with the temporary industrial and driving sectors' top consultants to fill a void in the market left by the permanent recruitment software suppliers.

RCEuro is continuing its series of conversations with Recruitment Thought Leaders. This series will be comprised of 10 minute video (or sometimes audio only) conversations between RCEuro founder Alan Whitford and the interview subject. We have a few 'in the can', with more scheduled.

Martin Lee is the Principal Consultant at Zubed Geospatial division, Zubed.com. Martin recently led a track at the TruAmsterdam Unconference, with an audience of 50 recruitment professionals, to discuss the potential impact of location based recruitment services.

Zubed Geospatial delivers bespoke web-GIS mapping solutions for private and public sector organisations that want to identify geographical patterns in their data, or provide a user friendly map-based interface to their products or services. Zubed has a suite of recruitment related products that have been developed with the recruitment consultant in mind. Semantic tools that match candidates to jobs then scour the internet for any other relevant jobs

RCEuro caught up with Martin during a break to discuss his background and how he sees the future of geospatial based services in recruitment.

The last time the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano erupted in 1821, it lasted for three years. Peter Linas, UK Managing Director, Bullhorn Recruitment Software, looks at modern-day solutions to ‘Acts of God”

With flights grounded for a week and around 50,000 Britons stranded abroad, the Icelandic volcano no doubt set many a CEO’s pulse racing. Almost a month after the initial eruption, the ash cloud is showing no signs of abating. When the crisis originally occurred, an estimated £3 million a day was lost in working hours alone caused by cancelled flights to the UK. For some companies, this required dusting off their disaster recovery and business continuity strategies, frantically calling in temps and freelancers to cover for absent employees, or reducing business activity to core levels to enable work to be spread among those who were present.

However, a cloud of ash need not cast a shadow over a company’s ability to operate at its optimum, and those who have already adopted cloud-based client management systems were already seeing the silver lining.

The benefits of Software as a Service (SaaS) have never been more apparent than during the past month when organisations that have chosen cloud-based services (in which the application, such as the recruitment management system is hosted on the internet rather than in a datacenter or server) were able to continue with business as usual, despite an unusually dispersed workforce. Recruiters who were ‘stuck’ outside of the country simply had to have their phones diverted, find an internet connection and they could continue working on their typical business applications, using all the integrated resources, from LinkedIn to candidate and client lists, as they do when they arrive at their desks in Britain on a regular morning.

Whilst the Volcano was hopefully a once-in-a-generation event, SaaS users benefitted in a similar way when the UK came to a standstill in January, due to the harsh winter conditions and heavy snowfall. SaaS is a technology that can effectively eliminate the impact of adverse weather conditions and natural disasters by providing borderless access to work. The lesson to be learned now is that the value of cloud computing extends well beyond its scalability, and regular invisible upgrade cycles – it is also an important element of any disaster recovery strategy.

Brought to you by: AllTheTopBananas.com

AllTheTopBananas.com provides a unique job seeking experience for its users as the site uses innovative technology to provide a hassle free experience for job seekers. The AllTheTopBananas.com Job Search Application for the iPhone and iPod touch puts the power of the UK's most helpful job search engine in the palm of your hand. Our free iPhone app is available to download from the iPhone App Store.

Candidate Mobile Recruitment Research - The Impact

We released the candidate mobile research gathered last week during the #tbMobRec event. The Slides have appeared here on RCEuro and on Slideshare

So what does the research mean?

It illustrated that many job seekers with a smart phone, such as an iPhone, download dedicated job seeking apps and many regularly check for new jobs using their chosen mobile job search app.

The research provided multiple choice questions but included the opportunity for candidates to complete a free text feedback. Many candidates spent the time to provide extra feedback, sharing great ideas and their views with us. The most commonly voiced demand was for job alerts on the phone. Many iPhone owning candidates asked for push notification. This enables the job board or recruiter to push jobs to the candidate’s phone over the web. A pop up message similar to a text message alerts the job seeker.

The next versions of the AllTheTopBananas iPhone & Android apps will support push notification. The mechanism is very powerful and will deliver high response as does SMS today. Unlike SMS the app is far better positioned to fully understand what vacancies the candidate is looking for which will drive stronger conversion to application. Job alerting via the app is also cheaper for the job board/recruiter as there is no message delivery charge.

I am very excited that candidates want this service. Mixed up in a digital cocktail with our Digital Portrait technology the alerts can be 1:1 targeted. There will be some choices for job boards / recruiters. Alerts could be used as an additional revenue stream upselling targeted push promotion to recruiters/employers. Perhaps the most important thing is that each alert is helpful to the candidate and does not frustrate them,

Many job seekers also want to apply from the mobile. Now this sounds simple, but there are multiple technical difficulties, not least the fact that one cannot store a CV/Resume on an iPhone, as of yet.

StepStone ASA agrees sale of its software division, StepStone Solutions, to HgCapital

StepStone ASA has signed a binding agreement to sell its StepStone Solutions talent management software division to European sector focused private equity investor HgCapital for a purchase price of EUR110 million. The transaction is expected to close by the end of April 2010, subject to usual closing conditions. In 2009 StepStone ASA recorded revenues of EUR100.1 million, of which EUR50.3 million relate to StepStone Solutions. The software division, which serves more than 1,400 customers, operates in 17 countries and employs around 450 people, will continue to be led by its current Group MD, Matthew Parker, and his management team under HgCapital’s ownership.

StepStone ASA is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Germany-based media company Axel Springer AG, which will continue to own and operate StepStone ASA’s Online job board division as an integral part of its digital strategy.

“Since 2004 our StepStone Solutions software business has become the leader in the European market for talent acquisition and management solutions, demonstrating strong, profitable growth. It is also now growing well in the US and Asia-Pacific markets. This development is clearly good news for the entire global customer base, who will have the reassurance of strong backing and continued investment in StepStone Solutions’ business strategy,” said StepStone ASA CEO, Colin Tenwick.

“Since Axel Springer has set a clear strategic focus on online job boards for StepStone ASA, the acquisition of the software division by HgCapital will allow the Solutions unit to enter a new phase of expansion under HgCapital’s ownership,” added Dr. Jens Müffelmann, Head of Electronic Media at Axel Springer.

“StepStone Solutions exemplifies our investment policy for mid-size European TMT businesses with excellent long term growth potential based on strong technology and sound management,” said HgCapital’s Kai Romberg. “StepStone Solutions has already built a position as one of Europe’s leading SaaS vendors and as the leading European player in the talent acquisition and management space. We look forward to actively supporting the management team’s plans for continuing global development.”

Full press release can be read here:

Following on from the UK Ready for Lift Off radio show yesterday (the full show can be played in our Audio Video section), hosted by Bill Boorman, Felix Wetzel of Jobsite has written a terrific post on his blog, People, Brands & Random Thoughts. Felix brings his unique marketing eye and view to many topics in our industry (you can see him in person in Manchester on 7 April at the Recruitment Consultant Conference, along with RCEuro founder Alan Whitford and Raymond Pennie of Kamanchi). The full text of Felix's blog follows:

On hold: Making mobile mistakes

Let’s not repeat the same mistakes with mobile that we did with social media

Being a participant of Bill Boorman’s radio show yesterday about mobile recruitment made me reflect a little more on mobile in context of the recruitment industry. My biggest worry is that we’ll be repeating the same mistakes that we did and do with social media:

• hyping it as the next best thing
• broadcasting instead of communicating
• seeing it as an add-on promoted by a host of so called mobile experts

Yes, mobile is an incredible and fascinating phenomenon. We’ll continue to see growth beyond belief. I mean, an increase in 12 months by 532% of visits from mobile devices to our website at Jobsite is just staggering. At the same time, it’s only 3.5% of the overall traffic and it’s heavily driven by a joined up and driven marketing campaign.

That’s my first point: mobile needs to be part of the entire mix, it needs to fit into the user journey, it needs to enrich the service to our customers, in our case it needs to follow our overall cause, taking the frustration out of job hunting and make it quicker, easier and more convenient. Have a read of Gary Robinson’s very observant and considered post, on how to integrate mobile into the overall marketing/brand framework.

Yes, as the IAB stats show, already one third of all mobile owners in the UK are using mobile internet browsing on their phone, but that still leaves two thirds that don’t. Only 4% of the entire mobile demographics in the UK are iPhone users. Let’s not forget the other 96%.

And that leads me to my second point: Let’s not just create app after app, but let’s create user centric communication and engagement channels – cover all touch points in the most relevant way for the participants of our network. How do candidates want to communicate with us? At what stage? I agree with Stephen O’Donnell it will be most likely be after the application process – several recruiters already use SMS with a greater success than email.

In the radio show the conversation, as with all new apps, moved quickly on to technology, but technology is only an app in itself and an app for apps sake is not going to help anybody now, isn’t it?

Yes, the precision of the data that we’ll be able to collect (which reminds me to switch off my location service) will be incredibly powerful. Much more powerful (or scarier – depending on where you stand), then anything we’ve seen at TruSource.

Here’s my third point: Let’s collect data, let’s increase our knowledge, but let’s only use it for the benefit of our brand’s citizens. And remember: nobody owns the individual. The individual owns himself/herself. The citizens will decide who stays & who goes.

The next big debate will be about privacy and will result in an even bigger power shift towards the candidate. Any brand that is loose with their usage of knowledge and attitude to data will get punished by the individual. Trust will become the highest currency (use your real name on Twitter!), anonymous CVs/resumes will become the norm and multiple identities for fleeting transactions a possibility.

So, instead of so-called mobile experts following the social media experts (will it be the same experts that just jump onto the next emerging trend?), I’d like to see some ethics experts mixing it up with privacy experts, technology experts and business experts to draw up a manifesto on the ethical use of data that goes beyond sheer profit orientation and retaining the status quo.