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Archive for the ‘Recruitment’ Category

Another recruitment agency in examinership case

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Friday will be a tough day for one recruitment agency.  They face a day in the high court for an examinership case.  It seems that winning a National Recruitemnt Federation award for one of the “Best in Sector” categories is not enough to save some agencies from the ravages of the recession.

It is a sign that competition in the Recruitment Industry is hotter than ever.  Obviously I don’t know the ins and outs of it all.  My personal view is that the particular agency had not placed enough emphasis into their online presence.  I know it is a pet topic of mine, but while advertising in national media is great, it no longer has the same effect as a good presence on Google.

Search engine optimisation is no longer a nice thing to do that has some beneficial effects on a business.  It is absolutely vital in a market as competitive as recruitment.  In fact, it is absolutely vital for all Irish business.

Here is a simple rule: If it appears above you in google get your name on it!

(Of course that is not always possible.  But where it is, and your competition are there….)

While some of the agencies that have floundered over the past year can be put down to bad management or sharp practices, to see a recruitment agency that has been recognised for good practice in trouble is unsettling.

Webshed would like to wish the agency in question luck over the coming months.

SEO for Jobs

Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Search Engine Optimisation is not some mystic science

Search Engine Optimisation is not some mystic science

We have all heard of search engine optimisation (SEO).  Recruitment agencies in general have more than a passing interest in ranking well.

In the past we have had to rely on job boards to advertise our jobs.  This was because jobs on our own sites do not rank as well.  What can we do to improve that?

There are a few things.  Unfortunately some of them require some effort on our parts.

  1. Write unique content.  Search engines love unique content.  Most of us use syndicating software to post our jobs.  We post them once and they get sent to multiple sites.  This saves us a ton of time and time is money.  There is a downside though.  In cases of duplicate content (the same text in various places) Search engine algorithms try to find the original source and rate that while giving less importance to other sites.  Since, in general, big job sites get crawled by search engines more regularly than recruiters websites the end result is that your job on a job board is given priority over your own site.  The solution: Rewrite the job description for your own site.  That means that more of your own site has unique content.  It means doing the job twice, but it’s worth it.
  2. Keywords:  Make sure you include terms that you think that people will use to look for that type of job.  “Tiler urgently required” will not have the same impact as “jobs for Tilers” or “Tiling Vacancies”.  Put keywords in both the title and the body of your job description.
  3. Interesting Meta Descriptions: The search results in google and other search engines show the page title followed by the contents of the description tag from the page (<meta name=’description’ content=’blah blah blah’ />).  If this is not filled out google uses content it gets from the page directly.  Don’t leave it up to google.  Sell your job with the description.  Use descriptive words that excite like “fantastic career opportunity”.
  4. Tags: Several job sites allow you to use tags.  (Jobshot.ie and all the associated sites do)  Use them.  Most sites make separate pages out of each tag.  If you are not using them, you are not showing up as well as someone who is using them.

Text A Job (txtajob.ie)

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
Youve subscribed to ringtones.  Now you can spend €30 a month on jobs

Youve subscribed to ringtones. Now you can spend €30 a month on jobs

A new jobs website hit the market over the last few weeks.  The site is www.txtajob.ie.

Free job posting seems to be par for the course these days. (insert shameless plug for www.jobshot.ie and www.mynextjob.ie here)

Recruitment agencies can post their jobs to www.txtajob.ie for free.  It is the job seekers that pay for this service.

It costs €1 per text alert received by a job seeker (to a maximum of €30 per month). People who sign up for the text service only receive texts for the categories they sign up for.  This is about as targeted as it is possible to make a service like this without doing it manually every time a job is posted.

For instance, if I sign up for Healthcare/Medical jobs I will receive txt alerts for Pharmacists, Nurses, Medical Sales Reps etc.  I am unlikely to be all of these things.

I’m wondering how many job seekers are willing to spend €30 a month to get access to jobs.

Searching the website itself is straightforward enough.  When you get to the part where you would normally apply for the job though there is a sting attached.  It will cost you €1 euro to get the application details.

Given that most (if not all) of those same jobs are available free of charge to job seekers on multiple job boards, I’m really not sure if the convenience of having them delivered by text rather than RSS or email (many mobiles are now able to handle both)  is worth €30 a month.

It is certainly a bold move, Competition in the job site market huge.

Survival of the obvious

Friday, November 20th, 2009
Twitter becomes more useful to recruiters by integrating with Linkedin

Twitter becomes more useful to recruiters by integrating with Linkedin

What has the recession taught us?  We went from times of plenty to something approaching mass hysteria in 0.6 seconds flat.  It gave us all a bit of a scare.  More than that; it killed a few agencies completely.

Why have the other recruitment agencies survived?  For most it was a combination of factors.

Recruitment takes place on the internet.  That’s a sweeping statement but largely true.  It is more imperative than ever to be visible online.

We have so many new tools at our disposal too.  Twitter, Linkedin, Blogging, Forums, Facebook.  No longer are we confined to our own websites and a few job boards.  Now we can grow networks and interlink them too.

Linkedin - Facebook in a suit!

Linkedin - Facebook in a suit!

How many of you have linked up your twitter job posts to your linkedin status?  That way every time you post a job it goes directly to Twitter, and from there to your Linkedin status (which of course gets sent in status update messages to all your contacts!).  Fantastic.  From posting one job you can have it reach hundreds or even thousands without even having to touch on the number of people the job boards reach.

I knew twitter was good for something!

I’ve drifted a bit from my “Survival of the obvious” heading.  The point is that if you do not make yourself blindingly obvious as a recruiter then you are behind the curve.

If you are not utilising all the great new tools we have then you are trading in a backstreet instead of the main street.

Good marketing is all about visibility and getting your name out there.  If we get it wrong we won’t survive.  How high does your website rank for your chosen keywords?  Who are internet searchers finding first?  If you are not in the first three results of an internet search you are losing out in a big way.

A little investment in Search Engine Optimisation pays for itself.  A little time invested into social media is the best free marketing you can get.

Recruitment News is back

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
Recruitment News

Recruitment News

Hi folks,

Recruitment News suffered a little setback.  The machine it was hosted on corrupted and it started acting up.

I have now moved it to the main site, but the original backup content also corrupted.  So to cut a long story short I’m starting it off from scratch.

My apologies to those of you who were subscribed to the original feed.  The good news is that everything is working well in the news sections new home!

Contributions: If anybody has any news connected to recruitment let me know.  (It might even get you a link).