The HR Connexions Blog

Thank you for visiting HR Connexions Online Recruitment Blog. Designed to keep Employers & Recruiters up to date on all the developments in Online Recruitment. Please feel free to express your point of view and share your experiences with us. We look forward to communicating with you!

• 18Feb

  Apprenticeships Seminar in Yorkshire

  Developing Talent, Online Recruitment, Recruitment Strategy, Reporting Back No Comments
  I attended a really good & well turned out seminar this morning; hosted by TheBusinessDesk.com in association with with National Apprenticeship Service (NAS).  The event follows the National Apprenticeship Week which was at the beginning of the month and the seminar was designed to highlight the benefits to Yorkshire’s business community in employing an apprentice.

  I am sure there will be some film footage uploaded soon by TheBusinessDesk.com, but I thought I would do a quick synopsis of the event for those who missed it or want more info:

  Anthony Knowles (Employer Services Director for NAS in Yorkshire and Humber) very eloquently explained the benefits of taking on an apprentice.  He highlighted that by doing this, employers have a great opportunity to compliment their existing recruitment strategies.  Their online vacancy system is designed to be easy to use and FREE have a look at the site and see for yourself. They also offer full support in helping employers through the apprentice  recruitment process.

  Gary Verity (Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire) as usual, did an entertaining & engaging presentation on the successes of the recent campaigns to promote the regions tourism.  Highlighting some fantastic facts:  Yorkshire is the fastest growing region in the UK with the number of visitors up by a staggering 31% and the money spent by visitors in 2009 increased by 13%.

  Alison Ashworth Brown (Head of NG Bailey’s Engineering Academy) presented the practical side to taking on an apprentice.  NG Baily have been employing apprentices since 1934 and she highlighted some great examples of improved staff retention, career development, bridging the skills gap and promotion of an employer of choice.  Her overall message was designed to encourage people to change the way we view apprenticeship schemes.

  Overall this was a great introduction to apprenticeship schemes, the support that NAS can offer and how an employer can add real value to his/her recruitment strategy and bottom line.  For more information, visit their website or check out their facebook page

  Lis Wilson is a Director at HR Connexions and helps businesses use the internet to recruit and manage talent.

  Tags: apprentice, Recruitment Strategy

• 15Jan

  Do YOU Know…..the Pitfalls of Recruiting?

  Law & legislation, Recruitment Process 2 Comments
  

   

  HR Connexions are guest speakers at a series of FREE Employment Seminars run by Levi Solicitors in Leeds City Centre.

  Over a course of 3 breakfast seminars titled “Do you know….the pitfalls of recruiting”, relevant HR and Employment related topics will be covered which will appeal to HR Managers, Business Owners and Directors.

  Attending the seminars will be Claire Rolston (Head of Employment) Kathly Pool and Harvinder Sehmbey from Levis Solicitors and Lis Wilson and Joanne Vose from HR Connexions.

  The first seminar is to be held on Wednesday 20th January 2010 at 8.30am - 9.45am and will focus on the recruitment of staff.

  Topics will include:

  1.   Employment Status:  Employee, Agency Worker, Contractor
  2.   Contracts of Employment verses Statements of Terms and Conditions of Employment
  3.   Things to know about recruiting staff (including discrimination)
  4.   What to do when things go wrong - compromise agreements and tribunal claims
  5.   Attracting staff to your business in 2010
  6.   Insured employment advise

  The following seminars will run on Wednesday 10th February and Wednesday 24th February.

  If you are interested in attending any of the seminars then please contact Lis Wilson on 0113 239 5670 or email:  lis@hrconnexions.co.uk   Hurry as only a limited number of places remain!

   

  Tags: Employment Law, Events, Recruitment Strategy

• 12Jan

  How do you Cope on the Busiest Day for Job Seekers?

  Applicant Tracking Systems, Recruitment Process, Recruitment Strategy 3 Comments
  According to MyJobsgroup.co.uk, this lunchtime (12th Jan 10) is going to be the busiest time of the year for job seekers, as they stick to their new years resolutions to look for jobs or change employers.  If you add this is to rising unemployment levels (stretching towards 3million this year), it begs the question as to how employers & recruiters are going to cope?

  The majority of the large corporations are now fully equipped for the rush, thanks to the big Talent Management/ATS providers and their own in-house recruitment teams, but the small and medium sized companies could be missing out on top talent!

  Why? 

  A robust recruitment process and effective online software system ensures that all job seekers, enquiring about working for your organisation, are dealt with professionally and efficiently.  They  are also filed in the right place for future recruitment requirements and they have engaged with the employers brand on numerous occasions.  If you think about the big corporations who have taken advantage of the availability of talent today and managed this flow effectively, they are much better positioned to recruit these people tomorrow.

  What can the SME do?

  The last 5 years have seen great strides in technology and in particular the Online Recruitment Software arena.  Many of these relatively new entrants to the market, such as the HRC Live Talent Management System have more bells and whistles than many of the big software providers and can be implemented within days.  This is because the systems are accessed online, either in the “cloud” or from an ASP provider and so do not require big IT integration projects, HR or business owners can make the right decisions at no risk to their business.  They also cost much less (if not free) and because they are usually provided by smaller organisations, the client has much more say in tailoring system updates to suit their requirements.  Our clients also receive full recruitment support when attracting staff and managing the talent pool, which practically eliminates their admin & resource responsibilities.

  With these advances in both technology and service, even the very small companies can now take advantage of today’s job seeker rush, build talent pools, reduce their costs, promote their company as an employer of choice and finally compete with the big boys!

  Tags: Applicant Tracking Systems, Online Recruitment, Recruitment Strategy

• 11Dec

  Recruiting through Google

  Applicant Tracking Systems, Online Recruitment, Recruitment Process, Recruitment Strategy 4 Comments
  Although geared towards the recruitment industry, The Understanding Online Jobseekers article by Jennifer Fernandez from the Google UK Classifieds Team, raised some interesting points.  This does help to stengthen the argument that HR needs to either work closer with their marketing department or develop their own marketing skills if they are to get ahead of the recruitment game.

  It’s not surprising that there has been an increase in the number of job related queries on Google this year (25%), however, what is interesting is that jobseekers are now becoming much more specific when searching for jobs.  The article highlights that year on year there has been a dramatic increase of 3 or more words used for job queries.  (see graph below)  If you couple this with the increasing sophistication of ATS systems & careers sites, there is a great opportunity for direct employers to increase the amount of traffic to their website through natural SEO & PPC with minimum effort and cost.

  

  And if that isn’t enough to convince HR to adopt a more direct hiring strategy, since March this year there has been a 33% increase in branded queries for employers (company names) rather than service providers (such as Total Jobs or Reed). 

  Obviously Tesco and Vodaphone have a well known household name which may help them gain brownie points when appealing to online jobseekers today, but imagine the possibilities for the medium sized employer if these job seeker habits continue to develop.  By simply creating an effective & localised job related online PR exercise and then effectively engaging with all the prospective talent that is presented to the business, why would you need a recruitment consultant to sell your brand?

  In addition, Google have announced this week that they will soon be implementing a “real time search” which will include a social media, live stream on their key word searches.  (see video below) This could really have an impact on getting employer vacancies to the top of search engines quickly and in real time.

  So, with a bit of research into job seeker habits and planning in their recruitment marketing strategy, HR Managers stand an excellent chance of promoting their employer brand through online media and increase their chances of staying ahead in the recruitment game.

  Tags: ATS, in-house recruitment, Recruitment Process, Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Recruitment Strategy

• 11Nov

  Is YOUR HR Strategy in Place for the Recovery?

  HR Services, Online Recruitment No Comments
  Now that there are signs of brighter futures on the horizon, many organisations are starting the process of planning their HR Strategy, in line with their corporate objectives, to sustain their recovery.

  Having stripped their businesses to cope with the recent economic pressures or strived to maintain the status quo, we can formulate a HR plan to help us move forward.

  HR strategy is built up of a number of components, including:

  • ‘hard’ aspects – The competences and resources an organisation needs.  This will include the people and the specific skills
  • ‘soft’ aspects – The behaviour it needs to encourage to achieve a competitive advantage.  This is often shown in the culture and organisational structure.

  The HR strategy should work with the company objectives, helping the organisation plan their human resources to achieve success. 

  If, for example, an organisation plans to grow and increase turnover in the next 12 months, the HR plan will probably involve recruiting additional staff to meet demand.  By planning for this process, we have the time to properly asses the market and review our recruitment options to ensure we attract and retain key employees.  This should be from a wide talent pool with the correct skills and competences.  If we do not plan, we leave ourselves at risk of panic recruiting; taking on new staff who are immediately available but who do not necessarily meet our selection criteria, or spending high recruitment fees to meet our short timescales.

  So, to move forward and achieve success and growth it is essential to plan and develop an effective HR strategy at the earliest opportunity.

  HR Connexions can offer support and guidance in putting together an HR strategy, working together to achieve your business goals and objectives.  Call our HR Helpline on 0113 239 5672 today

  Tags: HR, HR Strategy, Recruitment Strategy

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