New Year List

The beginning of a year is a good time to reflect on the previous year so here goes!

Learning Online - For me, the most exciting new HR/training solution comes from China. Itís the Mandarin lessons from www.chinesepod.com. The podcast lessons are free, but thereís a paid a premium subscription online to help you build on the audio lessons.

The lessons are short (around 12 mins) and can be downloaded onto your audio-player which to me suggests that the study time will be flexible and mobile. They also have a free trial to the premium subscription, so you can try it out for yourself.

For local PRC staff, thereís also http://zh.englishpod.com/. This offers a (for now) completely free service with podcasted English lessons, plus some online support. Itís only matter of time before payment is necessary so get in there now. Itís Berlitz without the Big Bill.

Internal Referrals - Jobster and H3 seem to have the buzz when it comes to Internal Referral Systems. The good news is that internal referrals are the most effective means of hiring quality staff and this is proven by research. The other good news is that very few people actually use referrals well in China and so Jobster or H3 should be able to offer a real value proposition when they hit this market. Those of you using Taleo will soon have Jobster built in, whether you need it or not.

On-Demand Software The ERP is dead, long live the ERP!. New systems for HR, including the ATS and Referral System like Jobster, are based on Application Service Provider (ASP) technology so they are rented, not bought. The prices reduction and flexibility of these systems ensure that they will take off in China.

Moblogs Ok, so they have not hit the market in a big way in China yet, but with 6 million blogs in China, over 300 mobile phones and 3G about to be launched in 2006, this could really take off. Imagine checking candidate blogs on your phone while you sit on the beach in Bali (during your holidays of course). Not necessarily a bad way to work ..

www.company.jobs HR has a brand new trick!. Now candidates can figure out where the jobs are without having to think, or make too many clicks. Good for the low attention online world. I havenít seen it yet in China but once the basic idea is understood it looks like a winner. The downside risk is that the registration of .jobs sites is not an easy process.

Landed.FM This podcasting site is such a value to anyone who wants to know what is happening in HR or career development. It covers a wide variety of different issues and stories, and with a twice weekly output. Brilliant idea, and effectively executed.

Blogging The future for Resumes? Maybe not, because there are other contenders, but at the very least blogs will be an extremely important issue for recruiters. When everyone has a blog they will be used as easily as a business card.

Frank Mulligan is the Managing Director of Talent Software, which is based in Shanghai, China. The company is a producer of Talent Management Systems (TMS) for a broad variety of industries. The flagship product is simply called Talent and is a fully featured, bi-lingual English/Chinese Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

Talent offers support for Skills Testing, Phone Screening, Job Interviewing, Psychometric Profiling, Reference Checking, Exit Interviewing, Job Offers, Background Checks and Recruitment Metrics & Analytics.

This article first appeared in Talent China