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Professional networks driving jobs discovery |
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Date: 24/06/2010 |
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More than a quarter of people who use professional social networks in the UK say they have found a job using the service.
A survey of more than 1,800 people across Europe (Italy, Spain, France and the UK) who use Viadeo, one of the largest networks in the world, reveals just how important such services have become in developing a career.
Four out of every 10 people said they had secured a job interview using a professional social network, such as Viadeo or LinkedIn, with a better than 50% strike rate for success across Europe. In the UK the strike rate for success was 67%.
Viadeo also surveyed HR professionals (headhunters, in-house HR and recruiters) across Europe to find out just how they were using social networks to find new staff.
The survey illustrates the growing significance of professional social networking to the jobs market.
In the UK it found that 1 in 4 recruiters had found and placed a candidate into a position directly from Viadeo and half had used Viadeo to successfully find candidates.
"What this survey shows unequivocally is that professional social networks can be used both to find work and, just as crucially, to be found by recruiters," said Viadeo CEO and co-founder Dan Serfaty. Viadeo has 6.8 million users in Europe and 30 million globally.
Viadeo is in 226 countries, across five continents and covers 322 separate industries, making it the broadest reaching professional social network in the world.
"More than 70% of our members are middle and senior management, so in effect Viadeo is a killer application for doing business or finding business," said Mr Serfaty.
When looking for a job, 71.3% of users surveyed said they found social networking sites more valuable than job listings boards online and offline. 95.5 % said they believed professional social networks such as Viadeo and LinkedIn were more valuable than other services, such as Facebook and Twitter, when it comes to finding a job.
In the UK, 82.1 % of HR professionals said they used Viadeo and other sites as a business development tool, while 64.5% of users across Europe said they believed social networks were a good way to generate business leads.
Mr Serfaty said: "Using professional social networking boosts your chances of not just finding work, but also your career within an organisation. Social networks like Viadeo are now a fundamental part of a professional's career tool kit."
He added: "It's clear that professionals should pay attention to their business social network profile - because other people are definitely paying attention to it.
"The process is simply more fit for recruitment in the 21st Century - from highlighting your career successes, networking with colleagues and peers on forums, to setting up job alerts, searching for positions and researching potential career moves, Viadeo, for example, is a whole armory for professionals who want to take advantage of the networked age in a time and cost effective way."
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Employment contracts too much like hard work |
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Date: 10/06/2010 |
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At least 5.1m Brits fail to read their employment contracts properly, putting them at risk of unfair treatment by their boss, according to new research from the experts at Which? Legal Service.
In a survey of over 4,000 members of the British public, the consumer champion found that 26 per cent of workers only skim read their employment contracts, while six per cent admitted to not having read them at all.
Only three in ten employees received their contract before starting their job, and nine per cent didn't get a contract until they'd been in the post for six months or more.
Overall, at least two million workers in Britain do not have an employment contract.
Which? chief executive Peter Vicary-Smith says:
"Our research shows that many people fail to take the time to read their employment contracts properly, which means they have no idea what they've signed up to and could be in for a shock in the future."
"Always read your contract before signing it and check that the terms - such as salary, holiday entitlement, notice period and redundancy procedure - are in line with what your employer agreed at your interview. Dotting the 'i's and crossing the 't's could pay dividends in the long-term."
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Technology blurs boundaries between home and work |
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Date: 20/05/2010 |
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Clearswift, the software security company, today unveiled its next research report outlining the impact of social media and Web 2.0 on today's workplace. The research has brought to the fore the rise of a new group of workers - 'Generation Standby' - who never seem to fully switch off from work or home. Generation Standby are so attuned to this way of working that even in these economically challenging times, one fifth (21%) would turn down a job that did not allow them to access social networking sites or personal email during work time.
The characteristics of this group is that they are regularly 'home-ing' from work due to the increased pressure to work longer hours, regularly carrying out social and private tasks at work. The trend is most pronounced amongst 25 - 34 year olds, with 57% undertaking personal tasks such as checking social networks, email, online shopping at work. Although 66% of all employees say they make up the time they spend using the internet for personal reasons by working later or through lunch.
And it is men who are more likely to 'home from work' than women:
Logging into social networking sites: 48% men vs 36% of women.
Checking personal email: 69% of men vs 54% of women.
Shopping online: 34% of men vs 20% of women.
Social networking and Web 2.0 key to employee morale
Whilst the majority of employees are willing to be flexible when it comes to longer hours or different hours, as the business demands, they do expect some 'give' in return:
79% respondents said over and above job role and pay, the most important things to them in a job included being trusted to manage their own time, and being trusted to use the internet as they wish.
62% of employees feel they should be able to access web / social networking content from their work computer for personal reasons (compared to 51% of managers) in order to complete 'home-ing from work' tasks.
Hilary Backwell, Clearswift - Global HR Director: "Call it multi-tasking or life-splicing but increasingly, fuelled by advances in technology, employees are blurring the boundaries between home and work. What this report has shown is that 'Generation Standby' employees are now enjoying, and expecting, greater levels of flexibility and mobility than ever before - but this cultural shift raises new questions about trust in the workplace, the use of new technologies, the balance of power in the employer vs. employee relationship and levels of control that businesses now have over people and content."
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Impact of social networking in recruitment yet to be realised |
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Date: 05/05/2010 |
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An interesting article by Anne Beitel, managing director of Executives Online, has today been published at www.hrmagazine.co.uk and is reproduced below.
While social networking is regarded as a promising tool for the future of recruitment, it has yet to be effectively or extensively harnessed.
Our research shows 4% of 1,264 senior executives surveyed said they have hired someone via social networking sites, while a third have used them to search for positions for themselves and 7% have actually secured jobs via this channel.
Respondents were asked how they use Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, Bebo and Twitter to find work or recruit staff. They were also asked to indicate how important they consider these types of sites to be in the recruitment process.
Social networking did to the recruitment industry what pollen does to honey bees; it created a feeding frenzy. There are websites with details of people, lots and lots of people, and most of those people have careers and with the click of a button you can access their details - it sounds like every recruiter's nirvana. Except in reality often you can't access them - not if they don't want you to, and even if you do find a way to communicate with them, they may not be looking for a job or have the right skills, or, for a whole bunch of other reasons, they might not be suitable. This is not an entirely dissimilar situation to when you place an ad in a newspaper or on a job board. The fact is efficient recruitment is all about identifying the most appropriate candidates that have experience relevant to the organisation's priorities, amid the vast universe of possibles and hopefuls. Just because you can see lots of people does not make them the right people. For companies facing urgent business challenges, efficient access to the right talent can often be the difference between success and failure.
Social networking sites fall into one of three broad types of activity: first, there are those sites geared to managing friends; second, sites for following the lives of celebrities; and third, there are sites dedicated to professional contact management. With regard to the latter, our research indicated that the only professional social networking site of any standing is LinkedIn, with Xing occupying the same spot in some Continental European countries. If you are serious about managing your career and networking effectively it appears that swapping business cards is being strongly supplemented with an electronic invitation to 'join my professional network'. Therefore we can safely say that for business needs the dedicated professional business network is currently the best source of potential talent - and currently the most highly regarded is LinkedIn. So the question now is: how does this new phenomenon fit into the business of recruitment; who is using it successfully and what impact can we expect it to have moving forward?
David Norman, CEO of 600 Group, says: "Professional social networking is an enabler to keep people in contact in an embarrassment-free way because it offers a degree of professionalism. It is far more suitable to approach an ex-colleague via a professional website for advice or with a recruitment strategy than to contact them out-of-the-blue without knowing their current employment status. A recruitment company should not see social networking as a threat but as a tool. I have turned to LinkedIn when filling consulting, interim or permanent positions - because I am taking less risk with people in my network."
Recruiting via social networking sites is not without its critics. Initial feedback from the research found that some think it is potentially dangerous for privacy and security reasons. One respondent commented 'social networking sites are becoming trawling ground for shady recruiters' while another said "[Social networking sites] can absorb colossal amounts of time while their effectiveness is questionable."
The 'time consumption' factor can be detrimental to the purpose. Dominic Rowles, global sales manager for Anite Telecoms, said: "I was looking for a new development manager for our Indian R&D office. It's quite a niche industry area so I was worried about the reach of local headhunters. I decided to use LinkedIn using the term 'world class salary'. Unsurprisingly, I was inundated; some of the candidates were ridiculously inappropriate. However, I found a development manager and a sales and marketing manager as well; two for the price of one. But it was time-consuming weeding out the improper candidates. I find that hiring through executive recruitment saves me time."
In my opinion social networking sites do present some real opportunities to identify talent. In contrast to advertising or traditional executive search, they may create a more targeted, speedier way to get in touch with people whose prior job titles or companies indicate they may be a fit for a particular role. However, they're far from the 'be all, end all' solution - they're just one tool in an effective recruiter's box, whether that recruiter is the hiring manager, HR department or professional recruitment firm. That initial glimpse of an interesting candidate is just the starting point. There will still be a need for significant amounts of the recruiter's time and judgment in the process, to screen and separate the suitable candidates from the rest, and to persuade them to join. Although social networking is becoming more prevalent in the recruitment processes it has significant limitations. At Executives Online we view social networking as a promising and exciting new way to engage with prospective candidates. Whether used as a screening tool, a directional tool or a cautionary tool, social networking sites are here in the recruitment industry to stay. It may sound clichéd but the presence of social networking puts recruitment in the dawn of a new era. It is here but it is going to take time to make its impact.
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CIPD/KPMG quarterly survey reveals stark differences |
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Date: 28/04/2010 |
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Despite widespread cuts in the public sector, private sector employers are growing more optimistic about hiring opportunities for the rest of the year.
The latest quarterly CIPD/KPMG Labour Market Outlook survey of almost 800 employers signals that the UK's emergence from recession is now leading to better job prospects. Yet it also reveals a stark difference between job prospects in the private and public sectors: while private-sector employers are more optimistic about creating jobs in the second quarter of 2010, public-sector employers are radically more pessimistic about employment intentions compared with three months ago.
The overall net balance between the percentage of employers expecting to recruit and those expecting to cut staff across all sectors of the economy is now positive (+5%) for the first time since the winter of 2008.
This represents an overall increase from -5% in the previous quarter. The findings show this positive growth is down to a sharp rebound in the private sector, which recorded +29% (up from +5% in the previous quarter). The growth extends to sectors that have been badly affected by the recession, such as manufacturing (+24%).
In contrast, the net balance for the public sector is -43%, the largest negative balance since the survey began in 2004. Falls in employment are particularly widely anticipated among local authorities and central government (-59%), in education (-45%) and in healthcare (-38%).
The upturn in the economy is increasing demand for migrant workers. The proportion of employers expecting to recruit migrant labour has more than doubled over the previous three months: 15% of employers are now planning to recruit migrant workers, up from 7% in the winter report. In addition, the proportion of employers that have recruited migrant workers in the first quarter of 2010 has increased to a quarter (25%) from around a fifth (19%) in the previous report.
Just under four fifths of new recruits (78%) will be full-time workers, which is broadly in line with the current make-up of the labour market. This may signal a return to more full-time employment following the surge in part-time employment over the past 18 months.
But only 14% of employers plan to hire 16-17 year-old school-leavers, almost a third (32%) plan to recruit school-leavers aged 18 and above and almost half (47%) of employers plan to hire graduates in the three months to July. All these figures are slightly lower than those recorded in the spring of 2009.
Almost one in four employers (24%) plan to hire apprentices in the six months to September, while more than one in five employers plan to hire interns (21%). In the summer 2009 report, almost a quarter of employers planned to hire apprentices (23%) while just 13% planned to recruit interns.
The report also highlights a divide in the job growth prospects between London and south England, which are going to be the main engines of growth, and the rest of UK regions. The overall net balance for London and the south of England has risen sharply to +21% from -3%; while employment looks set to continue to fall in areas such as Scotland (-25%) and Wales (-23%).
The predicted average pay award in the private sector in the 12 months to April 2011 will be 2%, which compares with just 1% in the public sector. Almost one in five (17%) public-sector employers plan to freeze pay, which compares with just 4% of private- sector employers.
Gerwyn Davies, CIPD public policy adviser and author of the report said: "The recession represents a long, dark winter for the jobs market. However, a return to spring could mean a growth of full-time jobs in the private sector that may continue if the global economy continues to recover at the same rate. This will boost private-sector workers' prospects as the majority will no longer face potential overwhelming unemployment, pay freezes and lack of promotion. It also raises hopes that we may be close to a peak in unemployment.
"In contrast, public-sector employers will be looking to close the lid on employment, pay and promotion. This will present huge challenges to public-sector managers in their attempt to keep employees engaged; particularly if the cost of living continues to rise. It will also present challenges to the employment participation rate of women and the economic development of some UK regions, which have both been boosted by record increases in public spending in the past decade."
Alan Downey, head of public sector at KPMG, added: "The survey shows that public- sector employers have woken up to the scale of the financial challenge that is coming their way. It has been clear for some time that the steady increase in public-sector jobs would have to come to an end. So the change in attitudes is not in itself a surprise. What is surprising is the speed and extent of the U-turn in attitudes.
"Just three months ago public-sector employers were relatively optimistic and many were continuing to recruit. Now they are massively more pessimistic than their private-sector counterparts about job prospects, with more than 40% contemplating a reduction in headcount and a significant number planning a pay freeze.
"It is clear that the chill wind of the recession has reached the public sector with a vengeance."
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Recruitment levels growing at fastest rate for 12 years |
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Date: 08/04/2010 |
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Recruitment levels are growing at the fastest rate for 12 years, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG.
The number of permanent staff appointments made by UK recruitment consultancies increased in March, with growth picking up to the strongest since October 1997. Higher placements were underpinned by a further expansion of permanent staff vacancies, albeit the slowest in three months.
The Report on Jobs from the organisations shows growth of short-term staff appointments quickened to the strongest for 34 months in March.
And recruitment consultants signalled another improvement in the availability of staff during March. The supply of both permanent and temporary/contract candidates increased at slightly faster rates compared with one month previously.
Permanent staff salaries also rose again in March. The rate of inflation was solid, despite easing slightly from February's 20-month high. Temp pay increased at a pace that, although modest, was the sharpest since June 2008.
Kevin Green, chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, said: "Permanent appointments increasing at the fastest pace for over 12 years is the clearest sign yet of a revival in the UK jobs market. A rise in both temporary and contract work at the sharpest rate for nearly three years shows how they continue to provide vital flexibility for UK businesses as well as a valuable route back into work for job-seekers.
"But, the overall outlook is tempered by public-expenditure cuts which are already impacting on recruitment in this sector. Deep-rooted reforms and innovative approaches to public-sector resourcing will be needed in order to maintain frontline services. While high-end sectors such as IT and engineering continue to show strong growth, demand is also increasing for secretarial and back-office support roles."
Bernard Brown, partner and head of business services at KPMG, added: "The UK jobs market seems to be going from strength to strength with permanent job placements growing at the fastest rate for over 12 years. These figures show that private-sector confidence is returning and that the UK is exiting recession at a pace. However, a lot of the current hiring activity is going on in the public sector. The public-sector recession, which clearly is on the cards, hasn't hit the jobs market yet but when it does, the upward trend we have seen over the last couple of months may come to a halt."
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