30.6.09

Ireland creates ‘Innovation Taskforce’ to make smart economy a reality

Something I am passionate about is Ireland becoming a true "smart economy" fit to compete with the best other "smart economies" the world has to offer. Technology in all its guises will have a huge part to play in how Ireland will consolidate, rebuild and refocus. With that in mind I applaud the recent set up of the Innovation Taskforce. Attracting the best minds the world has to offer to these shores will be a challenge in suceeding with a "smart economy"- that's where recruiters have a part to play! To learn more go here.

iGoogle for the iPhone

One of the tools I use to automate certain searches I do to map out talent pools around the world or construct a boolean search I want to automate is iGoogle. So far its probably the nearest I'm come to having a recruiter's personal operating system. Now it's gone mobile which has saved me some time as I can now access my configuation instead of having to go to multiple sites as before. iGoogle mobile is available for the iPhone and Android.

Here's what one of the Google representatives had to say about it:
“This new version is faster and easier to use. It supports tabs as well as more of your favorite gadgets, including those built by third-party developers … One of our favorite new features is the in-line display of articles for feed-based gadgets. That means you can read article summaries without leaving the page. You can also rearrange gadget order or keep your favorite gadgets open for your next visit.”

To learn more check out the below videos:


For the first video go to 1 minute 41 seconds to skip the intro.



26.6.09

Get ready to see more YouTube interviews

Mobile uploads to YouTube up 400% after iphone 3GS launch. This trend has been steadily going upwards but this is a signifigant spike that looks set to mark a new platform of growth from which we'll see YouTube video numbers push much further higher. We are entering the world of the informal, off the cuff, cloud interview. I can see these devices coming in very handy at a graduate conference.  Read more here.

25.6.09

Yahoo's HotJobs offers new Pay Per Candidate model

Here's what HotJobs say on their site, here.

"Yahoo! HotJobs Pay Per Candidate is a revolutionary new product never before seen in the online recruitment landscape. It lets recruiters pay per candidate, rather than per job post. You now have the ability to directly tie recruitment dollars to the desired outcome — the candidate's application or click-through to your site.

Recruiters can choose from two application methods:

a) Candidate completes the entire job application on the HotJobs site, or
b) Candidate clicks-through to your company's hiring site

With option (a), recruiters have the ability to pay only for pre-screened candidates. You pre-screen candidates by creating a customized questionnaire, so you only pay for candidates that pass the questionnaire.

With option (b), recruiters keep candidates on their career website for the application process.

Pay Per Candidate lets you:
  • Closely manage costs for your online recruiting needs.
  • Cap the number of Applies per job and re-allocate unused Applies to other jobs throughout the term of your contract.**
  • Save time, because when you use the HotJobs application process, you no longer have to evaluate candidates that haven't been pre-screened by your questionnaire."
 “Recruiters are being asked to find top talent using fewer resources than ever, and Yahoo!’s Pay Per Candidate model gives them the tools to increase the accountability of their listings,” said Chris Merritt, vice president and general manager, Yahoo! HotJobs. “With recruiters facing resume overload in today’s job market, the Pay Per Candidate solution will allow them to spend their time and budget on only the best candidates.”

Sony/Ericsson get in on the App game

Not wanting to be the last person with out a chair in a game of muscial app chairs Sony/Ericsson have decided to add to their PlayNow arena  where you can already downloadable games, songs, ringtones and wallpapers for its handsets by launching their own App store which with more than likely see a flury of messaging, social networking and productivity apps flowing in. Sony Ericsson has stated that it will be collaborating with independent app store GetJar in order to offer as wide a range of applications as possible. GetJar currently has hundreds of free Java and Symbian-based mobile apps for handsets ranging across Sony Ericsson to the BlackBerry, Palm, HTC and Samsung. The app wars have truely begun!

24.6.09

Two interesting polls being run on LinkedIn at the moment

One poll asked whether respondents plan to use social and professional sites more to recruit - 86% said Yes, 8% said No, and 5% said Unclear. The second questions asks: which social sites have you used most successfully to hire? I wonder would we see a similar result if the polls were run in Ireland!

 
 

45 examples of some really creative CVs

Check them out here.

23.6.09

Saongroup.com appoints ADTECH to Serve Online Advertising

I'm only catching up with this now but ADTECH last week announced that saongroup.com, has chosen its ad server solution to deliver online advertising campaigns across its job sites globally. To learn more go here. Worth checking out their platform-a technology, here.

Jane Lorigan, Managing Director Ireland at Saongroup commented: “Our business has expanded rapidly over the past few years but so too has the market. Advertising models have matured and it is a more accepted part of life now. We’ve established trust with users so they readily accept adverts as an integral part of our sites. Advertising is a key part of our business strategy and getting delivery right, is critical for campaign success.”

She continued: “Initially we used our own ad server software which was good but it required lots of internal development and the IT department were spending a lot of time managing it. Given this, we made the decision to outsource the ad serving to an external provider We wanted a solution which would work for the whole team – something everyone could use. After doing research and talking to other companies, ADTECH’s name came up time and time again. We went on to do some trials and found the software easy to use, the customer service very good and above all the technology was the newest software out there so no legacy issues to inherit that other products might have had.

The ADTECH team came over, set everything up and off we went! Their software is very intuitive so it did a lot of the work for us. Any queries we’ve raised have been answered really fast and its not been the painful process I anticipated. In terms of our ad sales, we have outsourced a portion of this again, but the providers work closely with ADTECH and are able to log in and use their ad serving software as well – making the most of the great reporting features which help to demonstrate campaign success. As an industry recognised solution its given us a great level of comfort about the accuracy of our data and that, is invaluable.”

22.6.09

Jason Kennedy whipping Grafton into shape

Jason is one of the seminal thought leaders in the Irish recruitment industy and is well known to those who have worked in Marlborough in the past and Manpower of late. He has now embarked on an exciting new project as group chief executive with Grafton. Learn more here.

LinkedIn launches new search technology

LinkedIn, has been working hard of late to improve its LinkedIn Recruiter product and as an enhancement has launched a new offering called Dynamic Refinements which is a service that helps recruiters source for passive and active candidates in the network’s database.

The new Dynamic Refinements provides recruiters filters to refine candidate searches and drill down results to the expertise, geography, education and industry background.

It makes searching for candidate faster and allows recruiters to source passive candidates in fewer clicks and less time than before. It also provides guided navigation throughout the search and eliminates the need to construct complex boolean queries.

“The new search technology and capabilities come at a time when recruiters are fully recognizing the value of passive candidates,” said Francois Dufour, LinkedIn’s Senior Director of Enterprise Marketing. “Our recent research shows that 60% of recruiters believe they get better hires when hiring passive talent and an overwhelming majority of recruiters are using LinkedIn to find passive candidates for job opportunities.”

Did you register your URL on Facebook? Massive "land grab" taking place

Have you managed to get your personal or business URL registered on Facebook. To learn more read here or here.

Owners of Facebook Pages - public profiles for companies, organizations, or public figures must have been registered before May 31 in order to be eligible for a custom URL. Additionally, the Facebook Page must have had at least 1,000 fans as of May 31 in order to get a username now.

16.6.09

Google to lauch micro-blogging search engine?

Search engines's like IceRocket have integrated Twitter searches for some time now. When are Google going to do the same? We already have Google blog search, so it seems like a logical next step for Google to introduce a Twitter like index feature for the public. What will be interesting will be what approach they take to do so. Rumours abound that they have been recently rebuffed with their attempt to buy Twitter so I would guess instead of "buy" it's now a case of "build".

So what should they be studying at the moment to decide on what they'll build. Twitter's search engine has two important drawbacks. It's limited to Twitter and results or sorted by date. Other search engines like Tweefind try at least sort Twitter posts by relevancy and search engines like Twingly try index multiple microblogging sites. I reckon none of them have hit the marke yet. I think Google will take a much more holistic view on the searchability of the index and the presentaiton of the results. Maybe a company like Topsy is company they should take their lead from.  They've done a great job with their UI and the engine is gaining in popularity. 

Another interesting sub plot in all of this will be if Twitter tries to stop Google's bots from spidering and indexing their sites or whether they will give them access up front like they have IceRocket. Maybe Google have already anticipated this and it is just a matter of time that we see Google simply bring out their own Twitter functinoality in Gmail or Wave and they create their own. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with but whatever it they need it soon. In the meantime check out the video on the very cool Topsy.

15.6.09

Eircom goes mobile and check out Fennec and SkyFire

It's taken a very long time but it's a welcome entry by Eircom into the mobile internet world with it's new 3G broadband which is offering free access to the company’s 1,000 Wi-Fi hotspots around the country.

It will be providing 7.2Mbps broadband over 3G to users living in Dublin, Cork city, Dundalk, Drogheda, Bray, Naas and Newbridge. The company said it will be extending the coverage range to well over half the population by the end of the year. Unfortunately, Waterford has been forgotten again in the first phase but hopefully there'll be coverage there soon. While 7.2 Mbps is welcome I still think we will need to get to 25Mbps + before click through speeds on your mobile provide enough of a seemless experience for recruiters to really start searching the likes of LinkedIn or there own SaaS mobile enabled ATS become a reality but with the alpha entry of Firefox's Fennec and the increasing development of SkyFire the world of true seemless mobile broadband is becoming much more credible.

To learn more about Eircom go here.

To learn mroe about Fennec and SkyFire check out the below videos.



12.6.09

Who wants to learn to build an iPhone job app?

I've gone to a couple of iPhone app conferences now and it's very interesting to see the variety of business men and women from all different types of industries that have been at them to learn about harnesssing the power of the iPhone platform. For those of you who know how to code and have been scratching, and twitching to know more about iPhone's fastly growing ubquitous platform  than more than likely you'll be very glad to hear about the launch of Apps School which will run its first course from the 20th to 24th of July in Dublin and is built for programmers with strong object-orientated programming skills to teach how to use Apple's iPhone Software Deveroper Kit.

The course, co-designed by the very talented Patrick Collison, co-founder of start-up Auctomatic, will be taught by SQT training with Havok intern and Intel Open Source Award winner Daniel Heffernan on board as tutor.

The course is very reasonable at €1,500 euros and the syllabus looks great for beginners. So far those recruiters amongst us that know a little C++ or Java or have access to a developer who you can afford to send on this course it might be a very cheap way to enter into the world of phone apps and launch Ireland's first Jobs App!

Who knows maybe you'll even better the iTie iPhone app that teaches you how to prepare you tie before an interview :) And it's free. Thank God for that!

Have a great w/end

10.6.09

Interesting interview from the CEO of Hays UK & Ireland

You can get the interview here.

REC in the UK crack down on non compliant agencies

From time to time I do some research into the UK and this caught my attention today. Taken from REC web site here

"The REC's 2008 Annual Complaints Report highlights its continuous crackdown on member agencies found in non-compliance with its ten point Code of Professional Practice.

During the year, the REC’s Professional Standards Committee issued four Reprimands, seven Inspections – four of which were for one agency, two Compliance Orders and in one instance expelled an agency from membership following revocation of its Gangmasters Licensing Authority licence.

Commenting on the Committee’s decisions, the REC’s Chief Executive, Kevin Green, said: “The action taken in these cases sends out a very clear message - that we will deal with those members accordingly who are found wanting in their delivery of the exemplary services demanded through our Code.

“At the heart of our activities is our relentless work in raising standards within the recruitment industry and our Professional Standards Committee ensures that we can identify those members who are not performing to our optimum requirements.”

Last year, the REC’s Professional Standards Team handled 827 complaints and inquiries – seven more than in 2007 with around 35 per cent of these being against members, nine per cent less than in the previous year.

Another 14 per cent were against non-members while the other 51 per cent were general inquiries including misuse of REC logos and notifications of scams.The team also started 22 formal investigations last year, two less than in 2007.

Last year, temporary workers were again the main group of complainants accounting for around 23 per cent of all queries compared to 30 per cent the previous year.Most of the complaints centred on pay problems, terms of engagement, holiday pay entitlement, unprofessional conduct and more general comments about poor communication and customer service.

Queries from permanent candidates also decreased slightly from 21 per cent last year to 20 per cent in 2008.

Fola Tayo, the REC’s Head of Professional Standards, said of the figures: “The downward trend in the number of complaints against our members is very encouraging and demonstrates their commitment to providing a first-class service.

“The introduction of inspections by our assessment team has provided a practical way of helping members uphold the regulations and this is an area of work we shall continue to expand this year.”

Findings of the report included:

* The greatest number of complaints came from the London region with 42 per cent of the total received. However, around a quarter of all members are located within this area. Next was the South East region with eight per cent which was more than a four per cent decrease on 2007. Lowest levels were recorded in Northern Ireland with one per cent followed by Wales with two per cent.

* Nine per cent of the total number of complaints related to sector groups – again a fall on the previous year which stood at 11 per cent. Most related to the Technology Sector with 24 complaints, six lower than in 2007.

* Most of the complaints received in the Technology Sector related to problems with unsolicited mail, poaching, contractual issues, payment and harassment.

* Next was the Drivers Sector which recorded 11 complaints most in relation to unprofessional conduct. The Education Sector was next with most of the nine complaints arising from difficulties with the portability of Criminal Records Bureau checks."

Copies of the report are available from the REC website: http://www.rec.uk.com

Adecco's North American CEO tells it as it is

Adecco Group North America's CEO Tig Gillam provides insights on the job market and the work place economy.

9.6.09

World Map of Social Networks

I tried to embed it as an image but it didn't look great, but check it out for yourself here.

Eoin Brown - Launches Sales Franchise

Motivational Sales Trainer Eoin Brawn has recently launched the first ever Sales Training Franchise in Ireland to be developed and written by an Irishman. This business model has been designed to help Senior Sales Professionals who have been made redundant or those who are looking for a new enterprise to purchase a low cost franchise and start their own business as a Sales Trainer.

“Nearly all of the Sales Training and Business Coaching Franchises in Ireland come from the USA” says Eoin. “My training courses are a lot more relevant to the Irish Market and the Irish way of selling. I have a reputation of being very practical and I have developed training courses which will have a direct impact on increasing revenue.”

Might be of use to some of the recently made unemployed recruiter. To learn more go here.

New iPhone 3GS Video

At Apple's annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) yesterday it luanched its latest iPhone development, the Apple iPhone 3GS (with the 'S' standing for speed). This is its 'third generation iphone', and it has been built for power and speed.

The iPhone 3G S boasts a 3-megapixel digital camera with a "tap to focus" lens. It also supports full 30 frames per sec video recording and even has video editing capabilities. And at last cut and past functionality has been included as well as powerful new voice recognition.

With this type of functionality we are now very much moving into the type of functionality needed to counduct phonecasts and the world of mobile recruitment is getting ever more interesting. To learn more go here.

7.6.09

Google Wave

There's been a lot of talk about Google Wave. It is a a real-time communication and collaboration system. It's open source and also a protocol.

Google have been trying to figure out "what would email look like if it was invented today"- this is what they've come up with. To me it looks like a live transmission hybrid email instant messenger all rolled into one

This is a long video so set some time aside for an hour before you check this out. When you go to 7 minutes, 30 seconds you start to get an idea of what the UI looks like.

As I mentioned in the Irish Recruiters conference Unified Communications is definitely going to be one of the main technological trends in FY10. Google Wave falls clearly into this category. Will be very interesting to see how the platform develops when it launches later this year.

5.6.09

Is the Irish Recruitment Industry Rebooting itself?

For those who couldn't make the first Irish Recruiters Future of Recruitment conference I am sharing out the introductory presentation which I used to spark the debate and learning on the day. Also for those of you that don't already know i've added a small section on what "Irish Recruiters" is all about and a small number of slides on Prima.ie who sponsored the event.

For those who did attend I will be getting out the rest of the presentations to each of you including my "Cloud Recruitment and what is an Internet Recruiter" deck as soon as I can.

    4.6.09

    Part 1 down Part 2 on the way!

    A BIG THANK you to Anne Heraty of CPL, Jane Lorigan of Saaongroup, Joe Ffrench of Microsoft and Patrick Traynor of LinkedIn for their very insightful and provactive presentations at the "The Future of Recruitment: Part 1: The Road Ahead" conference. Also,thanks to the sponsor on the day Pairic O'Dowd of Prima and all those who attended. It was great to see so much education taking place and open and honest dialogues about the times we find ourselves in and the speed at which technology is evolving the industry.

    There was a lot I took from the session. Just some of which were:

    1. Anne Heraty's opening slide " Bad and Getting Worse" - was a very interesting way to kick off a presentation! Her thoughts on where the recruitment agency industry needs to get to in the next few years was an intersting perspective on "talent scouting" or "collaborative consultancy" with businesses.

    2. LinkedIn's presentation was great! Learning about their concepts around"Super Groups", their Opensocial ideas and how this will evolve their apps platform, and their future development roadmap around wanting to be the defacto "online address book" for professionals and their plans on how they intend to do this was an excellent example of how progressively they are thinking about the future use of technology. They are most definitely a leader in their field and will become more important than ever for recruiters in the near future, especially in-house recruitment teams with the next iteration of their "recruiter" product. But at 29k US for 3 user licenses it will be interesting to see how people react to the cost.

    3. Jane Lorigan's insights into moving of the IrishJobs platform to career mangement, skill gaps assessment and analysis and her open and honest admission that the Irish recruitment industy had "taken their eye off the ball" the last couple of years, set the tone for some very good debate and was very welcome.

    4. I also took from the meeting a lot of positive feedback in relation to my "Recruitment Darwinism" concept and why it is critical to be able to analyse technology trends if a company is trying to respond to change "it is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive the change" . For FY10 and beyond: Cloud Computing, Green IT, Unified Messaging, Social Software and Virtualisation will certainly be key technology trends that will call be the clarion call that will summon through a lot of recruitment innovation in the near future.

    5 Likewise, it was great to see such a positive response to the concept of the "cloud recruiter" that now exists amongst us and how automation and aggregation are going to evolve the industry dramatically enhanced by mobility and applets in the near future.

    And "Yes" we can try keep the momentum, networking and learning moving forward and I will do my best to see if we can organise Part: 2 of the conference before the end of the year!

    2.6.09

    Thank you to Prima.ie for sponsoring the first Irish Recruiters conference

    It's only a day away from the inaugral Irish Recruiters conference and a big thank you to all those who have agreed to make presentations and also those who have invested hard cash in coming along to the event. It should be a great day of networking, learning and debate and it will be very interesting to hear people's opinions on the evolution of the industry.

    Also, a BIG THANK YOU to Páraic O'Dowd the CEO and founder of Prima (www.prima.ie) "a specialist provider of Accountancy Services to Contractors, providing Private Limited Company & Umbrella Company options" for sponsoring the conference. 

    Alot of you who are involved in fianncial contract recruitment may know of Prima and Páraic already but if not he'd be happy to meet you at the conference or receive any requests for information at: Paraic@prima.ie

    Microsoft Bing getting great reviews!

    So by now you may have heard that Microsoft has launched its new next generation search engine. I'm a big fan and looking forward to it even getting better in the future. Don't take my word for it though try it yourself here. The logicial category functionality and improved relevancy is a huge step in the right direction.

    Check out why Steve Woz, the enigmatic joint founder of Apple, is such a big fan here.

    Also, check out the video tour: