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Determining the correct source of hire: the first step in recruiting excellence |
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Date: 21/09/2009 |
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A fascinating article by Dr John Sullivan on ere.net has today caught our attention. It highlights the issues around not having a system such as web-cruit to automatically track where every application is coming from. The article begins below.
One of the worst-kept secrets in recruiting is that source of hire data is inconsistently gathered and rarely accurate. To many corporate recruiters, the validity of source of hire data is a non issue; after all, once the hire is generated, their role is over.
However, if you view recruiting as a marketing and sales job (as I and many strategic recruiting leaders do), knowing what channels brought the prospect to the organization and what messages led to conversion (talented individual > applicant > candidate > hire) are by far the most critical bits of data the function can collect. Without this information, it's extremely difficult to scientifically budget for sourcing or build strategic sourcing systems capable of impacting organizational performance.
Luckily, however, there is a simple approach that ensures much more accurate and helpful information that doesn't rely on transaction-minded recruiters documenting the source of hire.
If you rely on weak sources, chances are you'll get weak results.
Why Source of Hire Data is Almost Always Wrong
There are numerous reasons why corporate efforts to capture accurate source of hire data are almost always doomed to failure. Some of those reasons include:
Recruiters don't care - not all recruiters are involved in selecting the sourcing tools they will have access to or even using them in general, so coding applicants is an activity that realizes little apparent direct benefit. Even recruiters who do source or play a role in their organizations' sourcing strategy tend to be overconfident that they already know which sources work and don't need data to inform them. Other recruiters are just old-school and will use the same sources over and over no matter what. Unless recruiters are made aware of how identifying source of hire accurately is critical to their success, no one is going to spend a lot of time on capturing it accurately.
Conflict of interest - while some recruiters may care about scientifically validating which sources produce which results, the truth is that capturing data that makes the recruiting function more efficient is seen by some as identifying ways to make line recruiters less necessary.
Not asking in a systematic way - most corporate recruiting processes are relatively flexible and give the recruiter a lot of leeway in determining source of hire. It's rare to find a process that forces recruiters to specifically ask candidates which source most influenced their decision to apply. In other cases, the way the question is posed to candidates is so inconsistent that it dooms the reliability of the answer.
Not segmenting clouds the data - many organizations that do collect source of hire data do so in such a way that the value of the data becomes so diluted it is virtually useless. For instance, can you segment your source of hire data by manager perception of candidate quality (used to validate their assumptions) or by post-hire performance rating? Knowing how top and bottom performers approach the organization is much more valuable than knowing the most common source, or how the average employee is found. Further, knowing how sourcing effectiveness varies by job family or region is essential.
Technology forces bad choices - many corporations use applicant tracking systems to capture the source of hire data at the time of application. Although this is a good concept in theory, studies show that asking prior to hire doesn't always yield the accurate answer, but rather the answer the applicant thinks might result in the best result. When recruiters enter applicants who have come via internal channels or who have been direct sourced, they tend to choose the first source in the drop-down list available. Few systems send validating questions periodically to confirm applicant data downstream, so errors in the front of the process produce bad data at the end of the process.
Forcing a single source - it is common for active candidates to use any and all sources available to apply to an organization, while passive candidates may first be exposed to an opportunity via one channel, but ultimately apply via another. Few data-gathering approaches identify how the opportunity was first encountered, what channels influenced a decision, and what channel ultimately produced the application.
Read the article in full at ere.net...
www.ere.net
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Job centres must be reformed |
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Date: 15/09/2009 |
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The Jobcentre Plus must be urgently reformed and equipped to tackle rising unemployment, said the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), following research showing one in three small businesses find Jobcentre Plus ineffective.
According to a survey of 2,500 FSB members, 34 per cent said they found Jobcentre Plus 'ineffective' or 'very ineffective', while another 49 per cent did not even know if it worked well or not.
With unemployment set to rise to three million by the end of the year, and the number of under-25s on job seekers' allowance having risen by 80 per cent in the past year, it is clear that urgent action is needed.
In another FSB survey, nine per cent of respondents said they planned to take on more staff in the next six months, despite the recession - which would amount to more than 400,000 new jobs. It is well known that small firms are the country's job-creators, with 84 per cent of new jobs across the EU created by small businesses between 2002 and 2007.
A new FSB report, entitled 'The job centre is not working', sets out recommendations for reforming Jobcentre Plus from an organisation that appears focused on processing benefits applications to one that supports work. Fewer than 20 per cent of small businesses said they used Jobcentre Plus to recruit, using instead costly advertising and recruitment services. On the 100 year anniversary of the establishment of the job centre, the FSB proposes the Government:
Establishes links between Jobcentre Plus, Business Link and skills boards, to create a focus on business needs and the skills needed for local employment;
Appoints a dedicated small business manager in each Jobcentre, who understands the specific circumstances and needs of small firms;
Commissions research to examine how funding allocated to unemployment, training and business support initiatives is spent;
Overhauls the Jobcentre Plus website, to make it fit for 21st century online recruitment.
The FSB's report is released ahead of the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative party conferences over the coming weeks, at which the FSB will have a stand in the form of an employment centre, with a focus on small businesses - the country's big employers.
John Wright, National Chairman, Federation of Small Businesses, said: "FSB members feel let down by a service which appears to offer them precious little for the £3.36 billion Jobcentre Plus spends each year. As small businesses are the country's key employers, and are known to give a larger proportion of jobs to those who have previously been unemployed than big businesses, it's time the Government reformed Jobcentre Plus and made it work effectively. The FSB is concerned the lion's share of funding from Jobcentre Plus currently goes to large companies and multinationals, which would still provide training if public funding were not available.
"Small businesses are big employers, and with 57 per cent without employees keen to employ people in the future, they must be given all the support they need to create jobs, and so effectively tackle the problem of rising unemployment head-on."
www.fsb.org.uk
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Labour market 'at turning point', says report |
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Date: 09/09/2009 |
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The labour market is showing signs of recovery, with employers reporting positive hiring intentions for the first time in three years, according to a report out today.
The survey of 2,100 UK employers found that 80 per cent anticipated no change in headcount over the next three months, while 9 per cent intended to increase the numbers in their workforce. This raised the net employment outlook (the balance between reducing staff levels and hiring) to -2 per cent, up from -6 per cent the previous quarter.
The report, by recruitment specialists Manpower, also noted that employers in finance and business services were sending "positive signals" for the first time since the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers in September last year.
Mark Cahill, managing director of Manpower UK, said: "There are a number of positive hiring indicators emerging, which suggest we may have reached a turning point."
Employers in four out of the nine sectors surveyed reported positive hiring prospects over the next quarter but there was significant regional variation, with employers in the north-east being the most optimistic. Firms in the West Midlands remained the most downbeat, while in London recruitment intentions also declined.
Alan Clarke, UK economist at BNP Paribas, added: "The labour market situation is still weak, but the survey provides tentative signs that we are now headed in a more positive direction."
The Manpower report also found further evidence of the impact of the recession on younger workers, now dubbed a 'lost generation'.
Cahill said employers were using more experienced workers to fill roles traditionally resourced by graduates or first jobbers. He added: "Our advice would be to not underestimate the value that the perceived 'lost generation' can bring through apprenticeships and internships - indeed, there was a war for talent among this demographic only a year ago. However, since then we have seen pressure to cut costs push employers to resource tactically not strategically"
www.peoplemanagement.co.uk
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Record UK job applications and steady rise in vacancies |
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Date: 01/09/2009 |
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Kaonix, the UK's leading provider of joined-up online recruitment and talent management solutions, has today released its annual report into the state of the UK recruitment market. The report represents one of the most accurate snapshots of the UK jobs market, being based on actual statistical information compiled from hundreds of customers nationwide.
Overall, the number of jobs advertised in the past 12 months has fallen by 33%.
Each job is being advertised on an average of seven different channels, including companies' own websites and Jobcentre Plus, as well as commercial job boards and, increasingly, social media such as twitter.
The average number of applications per job has more than doubled to 35 compared to last year.
Interestingly however, the number of times each job is re-advertised has fallen slightly, suggesting that with an increase in applications, jobs are being filled more quickly from the first round of advertising.
Commenting on the report, Mark Keane, Product Manager at Kaonix, said, "Whilst the figures make for sobering reading, there is clear evidence of an upturn in recent months. From a low point at the end of the second quarter the number of new jobs being advertised has risen by over 16%." Mark went on to note that "The number of new jobs is set to increase even more dramatically as seasonal recruitment for Christmas begins to kick in over the coming weeks."
Other notable figures show that the average completion rate for online application forms has continued to rise year on year, and now stands at 83%.
The difference in completion rates between direct employer and recruitment agency application forms is notable however. When recruitment agencies are excluded, the completion rate for applications to direct employers stands at 91%.
Mark Keane observed, "This difference would tend to indicate that job seekers show a higher degree of commitment when applying directly to employers."
"In both cases however, Kaonix is pleased to note that our customers' average application form completion rates remain significantly above the industry average."
www.kaonix.com
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Unemployment 'costs nearly £350bn' |
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Date: 27/08/2009 |
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The cost of unemployment has reached nearly £350bn under Labour, the Tories have said after the Office for National Statistics released the latest figures.
According to the ONS, there are now 3.3m households with no one over the age of 16 who is working. This figure is 240,000 up from last year. There are now 1.9m children living in families where neither parent works. This means that over £100bn is being spent on housing benefit to people without a job, £36.6bn on jobseeker's allowance, £92.5bn on incapacity benefit, £90.7bn on income support and £20.3bn on council tax benefit.
The Conservatives said the figures show that that unemployment didn't somehow disappear during the 'boom years' but that "it was merely disguised, renamed, and hidden away in ever growing pockets of poverty".
Shadow work and pensions secretary Theresa May said that 3m people have not had a job since before 1996, and a further 2m people in England and Wales have never had a job at all. She reckoned that far from being a product of the recent recession, the clear majority of the people without work were already on benefits before the recession began.
"These are people that have been hidden away by Labour for the past 10 years", she said. Describing the "steady growth in welfare ghettos", she went on: "Labour's failure to reform our welfare state in the good times has lead to a huge social and economic cost. They have slowly built a wall between the working and the workless, hoping to keep their failures out of sight."
However, the employment minister Jim Knight blamed the figures on the recession and pointed out that the government was "investing an extra £5bn" to help get people back into work.
"The number of children in workless households remains over 200,000 lower than in 1997 as a result of Labour's reforms," he insisted, "but the credit crunch is still affecting families everywhere and that's why programmes such as the £1bn Future Jobs Fund to create 150,000 new jobs are so important."
Steve Webb, Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman, commented: "Labour's claims to have tackled worklessness have been exposed as fantasy. The alarming jump in the number of households where no one is working is a sure sign that the recession will have a devastating impact on hundreds of thousands of families."
Newham Mayor Sir Robin Wales didn't think much of Theresa May's choice of words. "The talk of 'welfare ghettoes' is a cheap shot at vulnerable people who deserve better," he said. "It's the talk of the ignorant, a shorthand for stigmatising and scapegoating. In reality, the figures on employment and worklessness ask complex questions which demand intelligent answers. Here in Newham we don't believe in demonising the unemployed. We want to give them a leg up when they are down, not a kicking."
www.publicservice.co.uk
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Where have all the jobs gone? |
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Date: 18/08/2009 |
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The volume of vacancies advertised on UK job boards has fallen by 69% in the past 2 years. This is in a market that is abandoning print advertising for digital - The Sunday Times contained only 8 actual job adverts this week. So do we know just how the job boards that we all use, on a daily basis, are faring in the current economic climate? We do know, for example, that the official number of unemployed now stands at 2.4 million, and has increased by 220,000 in the past three months.
When people are losing jobs and not finding new ones, we also know that demand is far outstripping supply. There are of course many firms still recruiting, but not in enough numbers, and not for the skills possessed by many of the newly unemployed. In a healthy job market, brisk circulation is vital; people have the confidence in their ability to move from one job to another, and therefore create a vacancy when they resign. Lack of confidence, fewer new vacancies and low circulation are all part of the same spiral.
So, fewer advertised jobs, and many more candidates, leads to a sequence of events that is very difficult to reverse.
Read the article in full on norauk.com
www.norauk.com
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Internet allergy causes HR concern |
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Date: 13/08/2009 |
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Reports in the UK have surfaced which, if found true, could prove to be a major headache for HR executives and recruiters alike.
According to reports, a British DJ by the name of Steve Miller has claimed he has a medical condition that he defines as being "allergic to the Internet". It may sounds implausible, but Miller isn't alone. In fact, according to one study by British newspaper the Daily Mail, two percent of the population claim to suffer from the condition, which professionals are referring to as "electronmagnetic sensitivity."
It causes sufferers to feel dizziness, nausea and a feeling of confusion whenever they are close to a WiFi signal. In fact, Miller has complained to missing several important DJ-ing gigs across the EU because hotels, airports and trainms offering wireless internet access affect his condition.
The condition is not just affecting the UK though, as a group of residents in Santa Fe, New Mexico, last year asked the city to remove WiFi from public buildings. Residents claimed they too, like Miller, were allergic to the frequencies and that Santa Fe authorities were violating the Americans with Diabilities Act by limiting their access to specific buildings.
In terms of recruiter issues, given the degree to which the internet is used in the modern workplace, if electromagnetic sensitivity proves to be a regular complaint of potentional employees, HR professionals will be forced to take it consideration when filling positions. And, while experts say that it's unlikely nausea problems would be caused exclusively by wireless internet, that probably won't stop suffering employees from trying to argue their cases in court.
www.hrmreport.com
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Job boards emerge as most effective recruitment method |
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Date: 11/08/2009 |
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A survey of hospitality HR and recruitment managers by specialist jobs website Caterer.com reveals that more than half (53%) reckon the internet is the most effective source of recruitment.
Within the internet, the single most effective method of filling vacancies emerged as specialist job boards such as Caterer.com (29%), followed by employer websites (14%). Other recruitment methods such as word of mouth (13%) and specialist recruitment consultants (10%), were seen as more useful than print advertising and general websites (both 9%).
These findings are in line with a marked increase in job-seeker traffic on Caterer.com. The hospitality CV database has grown by 44% in last 12 months, with more than 5,000 new CVs uploaded every month. Similarly, visits to the site in the six months to June are up 6% on the same period last year.
"We are increasingly seeing companies in the hospitality industry adopt the internet as their key source of recruitment. Our research tells us that recruiters not only value the quality of candidates they can access on the internet, but they are able to realise substantial cost-savings when compared to traditional recruitment means such as print advertising," said marketing manager Jonathan Hedger.
www.freshbusinessthinking.com
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Will you start job hunting when the recession ends? |
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Date: 03/07/2009 |
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In a recent Guardian poll, a quarter of employees say they intend to leave their current employer once the recession is over, according to a survey of 1,000 workers.
Some 16% cite the behaviour of their line managers during the recession as a reason to move on and 9% claim they have been bullied.
www.guardian.co.uk
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War for talent 'has gone global' |
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Date: 01/07/2009 |
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The war for talent has not ended with the recession and in fact now operates on a global basis, leading HR professionals said.
Speaking at a talent management conference organised by the Economist, Accenture's head of talent Peter Cheese said that demographic changes in Europe and different aspirations among the UK's young talent meant that organisations needed to reassess their strategies in the war for talent.
"McKinsey's 'war for talent' context has changed over the past five years - it's become global," he said. It was possible the recession could wrong-foot HR into missing this big picture, he added.
"We are not creating synergies and this is the time to be thinking about them," he said. He encouraged the use of marketing-style strategies to attract talent and said one problem for HR professionals was that "lots of young people don't want to work for large companies".
"There's a pressure to understand young workforce skills and capability, their performance, aspirations and engagement. The war for talent is not over," he said. "What we will see coming out of this global recession is an increased mobility of the workforce and we will get caught out if we don't react to this. Technology will play a profound role in rethinking talent management. Young people will teach us this stuff."
He continued: "We will see different models of working. We need to recruit from different talent pools and we have to be more inclusive."
Cheese highlighted countries such as India, where workers' cultures and aspirations differ to the UK and Europe.
Sharing the platform with Cheese, Sonia Wolsey-Cooper, AXA UK group HR director, also recognised the opportunity of people moving globally. She said her organisation had had to think more creatively about talent management during the downturn. She said staff had been "happy to move internationally to gain skills, rather than moving down the road", meaning talent has stayed at the company.
www.peoplemanagement.co.uk
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Kaonix media buying solutions |
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Date: 01/07/2009 |
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Regardless of the size or type of your organisation, buying recruitment advertising media can be time-consuming and expensive.
To help you save time and enable you to buy media at a more competitive price, you can take advantage of the comprehensive, one-stop-shop service provided by Kaonix Media Buying Solutions.
With negotiated deals in place with hundreds of job boards of all types - at discounted rates because of the amount of media we already buy - you simply select the media you want to use. The time and money you save is automatic.
We offer a number of media options, including competitive rates on:
Job board postings.
Banner advertising.
Pay-per-click online marketing.
Online campaigns.
To discuss your requirements in more detail call us on: 0845 604 4006 or click here to contact us.
www.kaonix.com
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Barkers calls in administrators |
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Date: 01/07/2009 |
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Recruitment advertising agency Barkers has gone into administration and its remaining assets bought by rival Penna.
Barkers, which operates in both print and digital advertising and employs 250 staff, along with its subsidiary TCS, was forced to call in the administrators after struggling with significant debts. But the administrators were able to announce an immediate sale of the company's assets to Penna for £8.6 million.
With eight offices in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Bristol and Slough, Barkers has one of the longest pedigrees of any advertising agency, having been founded by Charles Barker in 1812. The selling price for the remaining assets is indicative of the troubles of a firm that has an annual turnover of around £120 million.
All existing staff have been offered employment by Penna. No decisions have been made about whether or not the Barkers brand will continue, but the two businesses will continue to trade for the present as Penna Barkers and Penna TCS.
Despite Barkers' poor financial position, Penna said it believes the underlying business is sound and that the acquisition would enable it to trade on successfully.
Anne Riley, managing director of Penna Creative Communications, said: "It's very much business as usual. We're placing orders as of now, and the business is backed by Penna, which has substantial resources behind it. The message for clients is that the level of service will be as good as before, if not better."
She added: "Over the next 90 days we'll be looking at how best to make our businesses fit together. There will be a lot of work to do over the next few weeks before we're able to make any further announcements."
www.peoplemanagement.co.uk
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