Markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open and honest, sometimes even direct.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only

know how to engage in a corporate monotone of mission statements, product

strategies and marketing brochures.

Everything is now changing. People are connecting and working together. The

Internet is enabling these conversations and there is nothing corporations can do to

stop it.

Michael Specht in 21st Century Recruiting e-book (http://inspecht.com.au/products-page/

) citing The Cluetrain Manifesto by Chris Locke,

Doc Searl, David Weinberger and Rick

Levine.

The Future of:Recruitment and the Web

Clayton Wehner

Markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open and honest, sometimes even direct.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only

know how to engage in a corporate monotone of mission statements, product

strategies and marketing brochures.

Everything is now changing. People are connecting and working together. The

Internet is enabling these conversations and there is nothing corporations can do to

stop it.

Michael Specht in 21st Century Recruiting e-book (http://inspecht.com.au/products-page/

) citing The Cluetrain Manifesto by Chris Locke,

Doc Searl, David Weinberger and Rick

Levine.

The economic context• Canberra has been resilient so far, but evidence of change

(ABS, Geoscience)

• Small drop in job advertisements last month in ACT, compared to Adelaide (the worst) which had 15% drop

• Unlike interstate, no rise in unemployment yet

• First of the states/territories to go into ‘recession’

• Likely to slow down considerably in second half of 2009 as ‘cocooning’ occurs

• Still a good volume of applicants in the market, but are these likely to be the best candidates? Probably not.

Great time for change

• This economic uncertainty provides an opportunity for you to try some new things!

• Implementing a web strategy now may give you the edge over your competitors when the economy turns

Recruitment Today• A) Employer has a job opening• B) Employers post job ads on job boards for a fee

– ‘wait and see’• C) Job seekers visit job boards• D) Job seekers apply for job by submitting a CV• E) Employer reviews CV • F) Employer conduct interviews• G) Employer offers a job

• Sterile, reactive, not based on a ROI model, not career oriented, source active seekers only, many applicants, poor matching

Recruitment Tomorrow• Jobs found almost exclusively online (not in print)• Networking – much more referral-based recruitment via groups,

alumni and communities of interest• Organisations focus on Employment Branding• Job seekers focus on Employee Branding – individual ‘brands’

showcased through personal websites, video CVs, self-publishing• Syndication of information – multiple channels to find jobs• Rich media– video, audio via hi-speed broadband, wifi & mobile

devices• Use of search – to find jobs, to check job seekers, to check

organisations• ‘Reverse’ candidate driven recruitment – advertising people,

rather than advertising jobs

• Interactive, proactive, sources active and passive seekers, meets short and long term needs, saves time and money

It’s called Web 2.0

• Web 2.0 is a term describing changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and its hosted services, such as social networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, etc

– Source - Wikipedia

Topics for Today• Virtual communities• Mobile Web• Social networking• Micro-blogging• Bookmarking / Tagging• Employer / Job seeker

‘research’• Generalist job boards• Niche job boards• Job aggregators• Other job boards• Job posting services

• Websites• Search engines• Search engine

optimisation (SEO)• Search engine

marketing (SEM)• RSS• Blogs• Podcasting• Video• Instant Messaging /

Chat• Wikis

Websites

• Does your business have a website?

• Are you proud of your website?• Does it DO anything? Is it just a

‘brochure’?• Fundamental part of your Web 2.0

strategy• Fix this first before doing anything

else!

Websites

• Things you can do:– Show all your vacant jobs on your own

website!– Register candidates through your website

and link it with your internal database– Offer useful content on your website

designed to attract candidates and clients – CV templates, ‘how to’ guides

– Build an Employment Portal containing video, case studies, FAQs, testimonials about working at your company

Search Engines

• Websites that retrieve information based on specific keyword search terms

• What are the three big ones in Australia??– Google– Yahoo!– Windows Live/MSN (NineMSN)

Effective Search Techniques

• Search all – project manager SAP canberra

• Remove job ads– project manager SAP canberra -site:seek.com.au

• Limit your search to a particular site– project manager SAP canberra site:linkedin.com

• Remove references to ‘jobs’ in results– project manager SAP canberra -jobs -job

• Get results containing resume/CV– project manager SAP canberra -jobs -job ~resume OR cv

• Use of quotes returns exact keyword matches– “project manager” SAP canberra -jobs -job ~resume OR

cv

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

• Optimising a website so that it achieves a higher ranking in the search engines for particular keyword combinations

• This is a big topic – and we can’t do it justice here…• Things that you can do:

– Review your page copy, metadata and include keywords– Get links to your site from thematically similar sites– Submit your site to Google, Yahoo, MSN, dmoz.org– Submit your site to Google Local Business Center– Consider listing with TrueLocal.com.au and

YellowPages.com.au sites• Speak to me after if you are interested in further

information about this

Organic results

Paid results

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

• Pay-per-click advertising in search engines– Google Adwords– Yahoo! Search Submit– Facebook advertising

• Instant traffic• Trackable for ROI• Relatively cost-effective• $60 of free Adwords – go to:– www.google.com.au/contactadwords

RSS

• RSS = ‘really simple syndication’• A ‘push’ method of content distribution • Allows users to receive automatic

updates• RSS feeds generally viewed in RSS

readers – inc. browsers, Outlook• Can also distribute to mobile devices

and social networking sites• All recruitment companies should be

using RSS!

Blogs

• Blog = ‘web log’• An online diary or journal• Anybody can be a content

generator and an expert in their field – bad for traditional media

• Can be setup within minutes online:– Wordpress.com– Blogger.com– TypePad.com

Blogs

• Things you can do:– Have your staff contribute to a weekly

blog about their area of expertise– Write a blog for job seekers – CV,

interview, career tips– For larger organisations, have the CEO

write a blog as an internal communication tool

– Syndicate your blog content– DO NOT start a blog if you are willing to

make regular, useful contributions

Industry Blogs• Things you can do with Industry Blogs:

– Monitor industry blogs via RSS or email subscription– Make friends with an industry blogger and glean information from them– Sponsor or advertise on an industry blog– Contribute to an industry blog as a guest poster– Write comments on blog posts (ensure you include your website URL for

SEO effect) and set yourself up as an expert

• Industry blogs:– http://www.capitaljobs.com.au/blog– http://www.recruitmentblogs.com.au– http://www.destinationtalent.com.au/blog/– http://rossclennett.blogspot.com/– http://www.recruitmentdirectory.com.au/Blog– http://geoffjennings.com/– http://specht.com.au/michael/– http://familyandworkflexiblity.blogspot.com/– http://blog.sixfigures.com.au/

Podcasting

• An audio file distributed over the internet

• Can be downloaded for playback on portable media devices

• Takes some effort to podcast effectively and video is often a better solution

Online Video

• YouTube, Google Video, etc.• Higher bandwidth = more video, better

video• TV via internet protocol very shortly…• Organisations increasingly using video

for recruitment• Video services for candidates:

– HireVue– Candidates Alive– VisualCV.com

Online Video• Things you can do:

– Release a clever viral video and watch it spread!– Interview your staff on video for use as testimonials– Tour of your premises on video– Interview your clients about their vacancies and post

on job boards– Offer a candidate video CV production service for a fee– Improve morale by creating a video library of funny

company events on your intranet and elsewhere– Create a YouTube channel to house all of your videos– Embed videos into your website and into your job

advertisements on CapitalJobs.com.au

Videos…

Instant Messaging (IM)

• Real time communication between two or more people

• Services include:– AIM– ICQ– MSN Messenger– Yahoo Messenger– Google Talk– Facebook Chat– Skype (great for voice over IP too)

Instant Messaging (IM) & Chat

• Things that you can do:– Integrate chat or IM into your

website so that prospects can ‘talk’ to you straight away

– Use instant messaging internally for quick communication

– Adopt voice over IP for your external telephone communication

Wikis

• Hawaiian term for ‘quick’• A website created by a group of people who

have the ability to contribute and modify content

• Often used to create collaborative and community sites – best known site is Wikipedia

• Great for internal collaboration – think intranets, knowledge management

• What you can do:– Set up an internal wiki for your in-house

processes, forms, policies

Virtual Communities

• Anybody heard of Second Life?• Initially well supported, but no

longer flavour of the month• Think about how you could

influence communities through other ‘virtual’ pursuits – eg. video game players

The Mobile Web

• Still a way to go before we see wholesale take-up of mobile content consumption

• Will candidates use mobile devices to view job information?

• Technologies include Google Android, HTC, Blackberry and Apple’s iPhone

• Use of SMS is already quite widespread in the recruitment industry

The Mobile Web

• Things that you can do:– Consider getting a mobile-enabled

version of your organisation website– Check the mobile version of your

existing site here: http://ready.mobi– If you don’t use SMS yet, then

consider it because it is useful for job notification, inteview reminders etc.

– Keep your eye on technology in this area….it’s evolving quickly

Social Networking• Web based services that allow users to create

online communities based on shared interests and activities – there are over 2,000 of them!

Facebook• Who has NOT got a Facebook account?• Straw poll – number of Friends?

• Over 175 million users worldwide• Has beaten MySpace in Australia – 41.88% of social

networking traffic goes to Facebook (Source: Hitwise)• Are any of your organisations blocking access to Facebook?• Over 90% of people in a recent survey said they would

prefer to work for an employer who gives them access to Facebook and similar tools

• What does banning Facebook say about your organisation? It says you don’t trust your staff

• But most people remain dubious that Facebook can be of any benefit to business…

Facebook• Rubbish – we’re in the business of people and MOST

people love Facebook!

• Things you can do:– Create a Facebook Group or Page for your staff and

encourage them to publish work-related news, photos and video (and invite prospective applicants to join too) – demonstrates that you are an Employer of Choice and boosts employee loyalty/morale

– Start an alumni group on Facebook to stay in contact with past employees

– Create a group for a graduate recruitment round– Join Facebook Groups that relate to your industry and join

in the conversation– Trial pay-per-click advertising on Facebook, limiting the ads

to your geographic region

Examples of Facebook PPC Ads

LinkedIn• Who uses LinkedIn here?

• Over 8 million users worldwide• Unlike Facebook, it is a professional network that uses the

‘six degrees of separation’ principle• Things you can do:

– Create a company profile (good for SEO)– Actively ‘recruit’ people to link to you after you deal with them

– send a LinkedIn invite after a meeting, add a link button to your email signature

– Respond to Q&A and set yourself up as an expert in your field– Let people know if you are after staff– Recommend others and get recommended – good for your

own individual ‘brand’– Ask for introductions to key people via your network

Twitter

• Fastest growing, hottest property right now – anybody using it?

• Micro-blogging; 140 character limit – basically ‘SMS on the web’ (but also can be done via mobile device)

• You follow people, they follow you; your ‘tweets’ are seen by your followers, you see the ‘tweets’ of people you follow

• But who would be interested in this seemingly banal, nebulous information?

Twitter• Trick is to ‘tweet’ useful information, not things like:

“I am eating a pie”

• Things you can do:– Sign up and experiment!– Syndicate a feed of jobs through Twitter– Notify followers about vacancies and ask them to

‘retweet’ to their followers (viral effect)– Offer a referral fee for candidates referred via Twitter– Notify followers about new blog posts, articles or useful

links– Connect to job seekers and industry specialists –

approaching somebody on Twitter is less intrusive than other networks

Bookmarking/Tagging

Bookmarking/Tagging

• Basically these sites help to sort the good stuff from the bad on the web by user ‘votes’

• Things you can do:– Add social networking buttons to

your content so that readers can bookmark your content (eg AddThis toolbar)

– Bookmark your own content using some of these sites (good for SEO)

Employers researching Candidates

• Who has googled themselves?• Who has googled a candidate?• Ethical? Legal? Why wouldn’t you?• My recommendation – make sure that your

own internet ‘footprint’ is ‘above board’!• And educate candidates and employees

about this too (particularly Facebook!)• Be aware that it is sometimes impossible to

erase information posted to the internet…think twice before posting those drunken images

"Kyle Doyle is not going to work, f*** it I'm still trashed. SICKIE WOO!"

Employers researching Candidates

• Try these tools:– Google– Yahoo!– Live Search– Facebook – of course!– Spock– ZoomInfo– Pipl– Spokeo– ZabaSearch– Checkster– 123People– PeekYou– KnowX

Candidates researching Employers

• Beware! It works in reverse• Candidates are connected and

informed• Somebody is watching you…• Take a look at:– http://www.jobvent.com– http://www.glassdoor.com– http://forums.whirlpool.net.au– Blogs like http://geoffjennings.com

Monitoring the Chatter

• People are going to blog, comment, tweet about your organisation

• People are going to learn about your organisation through Google and other online tools

• Things that you can do:– Monitor ‘chatter’ about your brand by using

Google Alerts, Twitter Search, Hitwise, Buzznumbers or other monitoring services

– Actively respond to criticism where you believe it is warranted

– Sometimes it’s best to ignore it…

Job Boards

• 200 in Australia• 40,000 worldwide• 88% of Australians use them• 86% say that they will use them

for their next job• Will continue to take market share

from print – why pay $1,000+ when you can pay less than $100?

Generalist/National Job Boards

• Majors– SEEK – clear market leader– MyCareer.com.au - Fairfax– CareerOne.com.au – News Corp

• Minors– JobsJobsJobs– JobX – merging??

• Trends:– Likely to be consolidation – market too small to

sustain more than 3– Upheavel in print media will flow through to online

media at Fairfax and News Corp (job losses, internal consolidation)

Niche/Regional Job Boards

• Proliferation of these in recent times• 90% of boards fighting for 20% of advertising revenue• But niche boards are also uncovering new markets that

haven’t used a generalist board or newspaper for advertising• Major positive – more qualified traffic = better quality

applicants

• Niche boards– Hippo – for teens– Six Figures - $100K+ jobs– OlderWorkers – middle aged– CareerMums – for mums– RagTradeJobs – for the fashion industry

• Geographic boards– CapitalJobs.com.au!

Other types of Job Boards

• Candidate driven job boards / CV repositories– LinkMe– nt3– NowHiring– CapitalJobs.com.au

• Referral services – new phenomena– Hoojano– 2Vouch– Jobster

Job Aggregators• Sites that pull content from existing sites to

‘aggregate’ content in one place for convenience, and then redirect the job seeker to the source website

• They make money from pay per click and banner advertising

• There has been a proliferation of them in recent times:– SimplyHired– jSeeker– WorkCircle– Recruit.net– CareerJet– Indeed.com

Job Posting Services

• Services that post jobs to multiple job boards at once

• Useful if you advertise on multiple sites because it saves time and effort

• Two major services in Australia:– AdLogic / PostJobsOnce– JobAdder

• More innovation likely; efforts will be made to integrate in-house recruitment systems and posting services

Job Boards

• Things you can do:– Write good job ads!!– Keep your eye on the job board industry– Understand the benefits of each type of job

board – and ‘value’ is more important than ‘cost’– Use the full benefits of job boards – eg. CV

repositories– Understand where your traffic comes from and

measure your ROI– If you have an RSS feed of jobs, contact job

aggregators and they will generally add your jobs for free

What now?• Information overload – my head hurts• Review this presentation• Do some independent research• Write a strategy and implement it• Your strategy should include:

– Need to identify target market– Need to concentrate on what will work for you – Need to be transparent, honest and open– Need to engage, engage, engage– Need to ‘push’ information and content– Need to devote time to doing it properly – it takes time

and effort– Need to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing– Need to manage your online reputation

Thank You

• Email me: info@capitaljobs.com.au• Read my blogs:

– http://www.capitaljobs.com.au/blog– http://www.netpreneur.com.au

• Follow me on Twitter:– http://www.twitter.com/bluetrain– http://www.twitter.com/canberrajobs

• You’ll also find me on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Skype…

Thank you to Thomas Shaw, Michael Specht & Philip

Tusing for elements of this presentation

Markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open and honest, sometimes even direct.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only

know how to engage in a corporate monotone of mission statements, product

strategies and marketing brochures.

Everything is now changing. People are connecting and working together. The

Internet is enabling these conversations and there is nothing corporations can do to

stop it.

Michael Specht in 21st Century Recruiting e-book (http://inspecht.com.au/products-page/

) citing The Cluetrain Manifesto by Chris Locke,

Doc Searl, David Weinberger and Rick

Levine.