Online recruitment marches forward

March 17, 2015/0 Comments/in Recruitment /by 1300 Hired

Development of online recruitment

Online recruitment has advanced significantly on the recruitment practices of the pre digital era – think post, fax, paper etc. One of the misconceptions that many make is that online recruitment has or will replace traditional recruitment methods. This is fundamentally incorrect because recruitment remains a relationship and people interaction business. Technology cannot replace the fundamentals, rather it can enhance the speed and processes in which processes are conducted, and in some cases add new ways to enhance recruitment delivery.

Let me explain – at a recent seminar by world leading recruitment expert @Greg_Savage said that there is a dawning of a new era where recruitment is now more about marketing and less about sales. It is about being able to deliver what perhaps the client can’t do as well as specialist recruiters, and that is identify the best talent and bring it to the table. In order to do that we have to be expert social marketers in order to identify (source) and then attract (recruit) talent. Technology allows us to source, however it is people that will recruit.

Online recruitment sourcing areas can include Google, Boolean searches, Facebook, LinkedIn and numerous other social media portals. Sourcing methods are now even more sophisticated and below is a great example:

Virtual Online Recruitment

@Greg_Savage explained that rather than attend expensive conferences in all parts of the country and around the world, you can attend virtually. Each event organiser typically has an event identifier or “hashtag” (a Twitter identifier). A great way to identify key talent is to keep tabs on the event hashtag and see who is attending, who makes (digital) posts, and where they “hangout”. Often the people that you may see attending an event may not necessarily hangout on Twitter – they could hangout digitally on Facebook or LinkedIn or one or more of the many social media portals. The message here is that the fundamental concepts of recruiting haven’t changed, but the technology, processes and methodologies have.

Talent and online recruitment

@Greg_Savage also said “Talent is not an online commodity. Identifying candidates is not the same as recruiting them. It’s the ability to bring talent to the hiring table, and manage the process that clients will pay us for.” Contrary to the sentiment that higher unemployment brings an abundance of candidates, that this is not necessarily true. If we drill down to the skills needed for particular sectors, the best people with the best skills are not in abundant supply, and they are becoming harder to find. More baby boomers are retiring than ever before and with fewer people working, talent in particular areas is and will be highly sought after and tightly held. We therefore need to be able to identify “passive” candidates ie those that don’t have their resumes on the job boards and who are not visible on LinkedIn and other social portals. In contrast, active candidates are easy to find, but in general the best candidates with the best skills are often “passive” candidates.

If you are a business owner, are you doing some or all of these things? How are you identifying talent? How are you attracting talent? What does your brand say about your business? Do you have digital footprint? If not, that is ok as long as you are connected to those recruiters with expertise, and who can source and recruit talent for your business. This is where online recruitment is a lot more than it appears and more involved than what it sounds.

Lowest cost recruitment

March 13, 2015/0 Comments/in Recruitment /by 1300 Hired

How to find Lowest cost recruitment

Lowest cost recruitment means many things to many business owners. For some it means minimum out of pocket cost by doing it yourself (DIY) and for others it means doing it through a third party or agency for the cheapest out of pocket cost. For others it is not about cost but about the value that the right person will bring, such that the value added far outweighs the cost of acquiring their expertise. The cost measured here is the difference between the value added less the cost of the hire. Lets look at all 3 options.

DIY lowest cost recruitment

Do it yourself lowest cost recruitment is common for businesses that are very bottom line focussed and believe they can get the best personnel themselves, or don’t want to pay an agency, or who may have had a bad experience outsourcing in the past. There are many downsides to DIY and they include not accessing the widest available field, not tapping into the insight that expert recruiters can bring, no service guarantee and no replacement guarantee.

Agency lowest cost recruitment

Some firms will engage multiple agencies to get a “spread” of expertise yet only pay the firm that delivers them the successful candidate. The client can often negotiate a reduced percentage or fixed fee with all firms who compete in the same space. On the surface this can work well because only one firm gets paid, but scratch below the surface and what really happens is the agencies compete based on speed to get as many candidates submitted to the client (the contingency model speed race). This doesn’t allow for quality recruitment processes, meaning that the client gets the first candidate but not necessarily the best.

Value lowest cost recruitment

So, DIY and Agency lowest cost recruitment model both come with their pros and cons. So how can we eradicate the parts we don’t want and combine the best of what we do want? To recap, we want to get the best available and quality candidates at minimal cost of your time, using agency expertise, delivered at the lowest possible cost to you and with a service guarantee and a replacement guarantee. The answer lies in restructuring the traditional recruitment industry model and not tweaking existing processes, but coming up with a solution that answers the problems posed above. In essence, it means blowing it up and starting from scratch. It means creating a service that delivers expertise and quality while saving your time and the high costs of traditional agency recruitment. At 1300Hired we posed these questions with a respected & leading consultant and what we came up with was a wishlist from which we created a business that:

Eradicated part or all of the DIY model
Eradicated the contingency model / speed race
Provided agency expertise in advertising, sourcing and recruiting
Delivered the best available candidate to Clients at the lowest possible price
Provided a service guarantee
Provided a replacement guarantee

For more information on lowest cost recruitment, and how this model can deliver value to your business, call us on 1300 447 330.

Recruiting Digital Marketing Specialists

January 29, 2015/0 Comments/in Recruitment /by 1300 Hired

Recruiting a Digital Marketing Team

Coming from a technical and engineering background myself recruiting in a new space like digital marketing, I understand and generally quickly grasp matters of a technical and technology nature. Despite feeling like a novice, it’s surprising the number of times friends and colleagues call me up asking for advice about how to approach different problems or challenges.

A physiotherapist mate wanting to make a start on some Facebook marketing, a colleague in the construction industry looking to do the same, and a mate who is raising $100,000 for an Anti Cancer Charity by competing in and completing a marathon on each of the worlds 7 continents. He has completed 4 so far and is an inspiration to many.

Recruiting in 2015

Having raised $25k in his first 4 marathons, he now needs to raise another $75k over the next 3 marathons. Enter digital world. Facebook sponsored adverts, organic posts to his network, Groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, hashtag strategies for Twitter, Google searches, crowdfunding and much much more.

Having learned digital marketing and digital strategies through a combination of being self taught but mostly through real life business experience with paid SEO and Adwords (where I was ripped off by an unscrupulous supplier), through to a web developer and very smart digital marketing strategist who we use as website developer and who doubles as our digital marketing mentor.

Along the way we were approached by an innovative and much awarded digital strategy firm to recruit a Digital Marketing Specialist, a Digital Project Manager and a Creative Digital Designer. Our CRM and Cloud based systems were working overtime searching for expertise in web design, SEO, Adwords, Google Analytics, paid search, conversion rate optimisation, email, social and content, as well as those who understood psychological marketing, and sales strategies to bring it all together.

The concepts in marketing and sales for the “digital” age are the same as the “pre-digital” age, however the technologies available and the knowledge needed to deliver results, are much more complex and far more advanced than in the past.

No longer is marketing the domain of a commerce graduate, it is the domain also of those with skills in IT, web and cloud based systems, in programs and Apps. The traditional marketing theories and strategies as well as sales strategies and execution are equally important, however that alone is not enough.

Being “left behind” digitally would be daunting, like missing a big chunk of schooling and being expected to stay abreast of todays learnings. Imagine waking up out of a coma after 10 years and seeing all the changes that have occurred.

Recruiting and Technology

At 1300Hired, we stay abreast of technology and business trends through constant reading and through subscription to news publications, seminars and by engaging with suppliers who not only educate us, but help keep our business technology and operations at the forefront of recruitment.

Only when we can talk the talk, can we walk the walk and this is crucial when liaising with and understanding the clients’ businesses and the candidates they need to run a successful and profitable business. Recruiting is a tough task, why not let the experts handle it.