Recruiting in Cyberspace

Over 60 delegates from Europe and beyond assembled last Friday in Brussels to hear speakers from 6 countries opine on the future of online recruitment at the Recruiting in Cyberspace hosted by onrec.com It was the first Conference of its kind in continental Europe and follows on from a similar event held with the LSE in the Spring of 2004. The Conference was kindly supported by Belgian newspaper, Lí Europeenne.

Delegates included HR directors from GlaxoSmithKline, Northcliffe Electronic, VNU Business Publications, Proctor& Gamble Eurocor NV, Lanier Europe and JobCentrePlus.

The first issue to be tackled was ëEmployer Brandingí . Todd Wheatland Asia-Pacific regional Director of Marketing, Kelly Services explained how online recruitment could bring benefits for the employerís marketing and HR departments.

The challenge facing employers over the next 20 years will be retaining and recruiting the best talent from a dwindling working population, companies (staffing and employers) should look to technology to improve their offerings to all applicants. Dealing sensibly and professionally with l those who are NOT selected for a vacancy, even keeping them ëwarmí through occasional communications, was seen as ërespectfulí, vital to maintaining good branding and would help in future recruitment.

Anyone skeptical about the need to manage unsuccessful candidates should consider:
ABN Amro received 1 million online applications last year (many applicants will be customers or potential clients).

Todd used original research to confirm that:
Employees recruited as a result of a worker referral were several times more productive than other recruits and also that the person referring was more productive. To prove the point CitiBank offered $4,000 to employees who successfully referred another worker. It was important to keep applicant and referrer advised of the status of the application.

Employer branding is generally poor with statistics showing that 56% of employees would consider moving to another job. Employers will need to strengthen branding to retain and attract staff.

Todd was not the only speaker to highlight improved use of technology enhance branding and make employers ore successful. Davor Miskulin, of Resumo, encouraged HR directors and recruiters to use digital tools to increase efficiency particularly with the screening and grading of applications. Artificial intelligence ñ properly modelled would be able to see through ëinflated cvsí and predict for example ëtenureí and likely career progression. Better use of technology would reduce manhours spent reading CVs, give all applicants and equal opportunity, help ensure that no ëgemsí were lost in the volume results that online recruitment advertising tends to generate.

Tips on making those adverts more effective came from Pierre-Emanuel Derriks, International Sales Manager of StepStone. Each European country had its idiosyncrasies and pan-European campaigns without country differentiation were unlike to work well. All adverts for jobs in France should be written in French but English was considered suitable for most other countries. Pierre stressed detailed preparation of the advert ; avoiding abbreviations, linking to sites of local interest to entice top talent and including an indication of salary were keys to success.

Overture spokeswoman, Sigrid Koch, confirmed the power of searches on line citing that 70% of e-commerce transactions originated from searches. The pay-per-click specialists predict a continuing rise in the expenditure on search terms and a corresponding reduction in banner advertising.

Giving a more long term view of the work place Jean-Louis Motte of France reckoned the continuing war for talent would be won by the USA. He sees no respite in the ëdrain of brainsí from the rest of the globe and the ongoing rise in population in the US In his view China and India will definitely not be leading the labour market in the next few decades .

Delegate, David Dourgarian of US-based staffing software providers Tempworks Software, (www.TempWorks.com), added ëThe staffing market in the USA is buoyant now and if Jean-Louis is right it will continue to be for some time. Tempworks.com needs to stay out front in terms of development and it was really useful to find out what is happening with recruitment technologies worldwide.í

David Hurst on onrec.com summed up the conference ëThe combination of speakers and delegates from all over the world made for a fascinating day. I look forward to organising the next one!í