Monthly Archives: November 2011

Getting Ready to Meet the Demands of Temporary Recruitment

Posted by on November 17, 2011 No comments

In September 2011, 52,000 new temporary/contract positions were posted in the US. This is an increase of 31% in temporary job postings since September 2010. One might think that since these jobs are not permanent, they are not as helpful to the economy. However, these temporary jobs offer great opportunities to the unemployed and help to get people back in the workforce quickly. In some cases, these positions could also lead to permanent employment opportunities later on.

Trends in the temporary job market

Market growth drives industry performance and there has been substantial increase in software & healthcare sector jobs in the temporary job market. The online ads have fueled the volume of and ultimately increased the market potential in these industries. Ultimately, temporary jobs play a vital role in marking the trend of the industry.

With temporary and contract positions becoming more commonplace in the market, businesses need to make sure they are equipped to handle this type of recruiting process. These positions tend to pop up very quickly and need to be filled just as quickly, so you need to make sure your recruitment process is firmly established. In addition, positions in the high tech or healthcare sector often have very specific requirements which also means your recruitment process can handle customized job requirements.

How to prepare for temporary recruiting
Recruiting for temp jobs requires your system to be able to process applications very quickly. Think of your recruitment process from beginning to end and ask yourself these questions to help you determine if your system is as efficient as possible:

- Can you post the job quickly to job boards and social media?
– How quickly and easily can you search through applicants to pull the most qualified candidates to interview?
– What’s the process of getting new employees set up in your system?
– Is your end-of-employment process easy or slow and complicated?

These are all questions you should be asking to handle temporary work placements. The faster and quicker you can place candidates, the better satisfied your clients will be. In today’s changing job market, your hiring process needs to be nimble and agile like the economy. The companies that will get ahead in the marketplace aren’t tied to complicated systems; they are using customized systems to follow the changing job trends.

Is your existing system flexible enough to handle the changing economy? If not, you might need to start looking for a better solution to manage your recruitment process. Many of these tasks can be managed through improved recruiting software solutions. If you decide to choose a new ATS, check out our post on what to look for in an ATS.

Have you had experience with temporary recruitment? Did you have to make changes to your process to accommodate it? Please share your experiences with us in the comments.

  

Three Primary Benefits of Software Customization

Posted by on November 10, 2011 2 comments

When you purchase a gadget like a smartphone, tablet or even GPS, you likely change at least some of the factory settings. You change ringtones, customize alerts, etc., to suit your preferences and needs. So, why is it that most people don’t bother to make these same customizations to software? Specifically, enterprise software solutions?

When you are searching for recruitment applications, you aren’t likely to find a solution that will meet all of your needs straight out of the box. With enterprise software, the settings are made to be generic in order to meet the most basic common needs for a wide customer base, which is why a customized solution should always be a preferred option when it comes to recruitment applications.

Why you need customization

There are many benefits to customization, but these are my top three:

1)     It works for your business — you decide which recruiting solutions work for your business and not the         other way around.
2)     Make your HR recruiting process more efficient — customize the process to better serve your clients           and candidates.
3)     Create dashboards and reports based on your requirements to help you better manage your business.

What to look for in an ATS

Using a customized recruiting solution that fits your business is a worthwhile investment but you need to make sure you find the right product for your business. Here’s a checklist when considering a customized recruiting solution such as an applicant tracking system.

- What are the set up costs? Are they one time or multiple?
- How much time is required to integrate into your existing system?
- Is the system easy to understand?
- How much support does the ATS offer with the initial set up?
- How much ongoing support do they provide?
- Are the fees monthly or based on a per user fee?
- How often does the ATS update their software?

Aside from these questions, the most important thing to consider is the level of customization the ATS will provide for you. Think about your unique business needs and look for something that will allow you to add or change the features that you need the most. Once you’ve found the right solution, make sure to make the customizations to get everything set up the way you need it to work.

Do you customize your software? What benefits have you experienced from customization? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.

 

  

Job Gains – slow recovery with increase in some sectors, Nov 2011

Posted by on November 8, 2011 No comments

Unemployment at 9.0% – a gain of 0.1% employment was an indication of a slow recovery but vulnerable to global shocks.

An interesting observations from some of the leading economic reports show the following trends

  • Private sector adding jobs including manufacturing which indicates a healthy trend to economic growth
  • Services industry gains as we move towards a service economy. Professional Services and Healthcare jobs growth increases
  • Business holding cash will need to spend it as shareholders require more returns. While M&A like Google acquire Motorola provide the use of cash, would also add more people off jobs as companies consolidate operations.
  • Younger people are giving up on job search (41% 16-19 year employed in 2008 vs less than 35% employed in 2011)
  • Older people are finding that they are in need of continuing with their current jobs
  • Many developed countries under pressure with labor participation like (in 2010) Italy (48.2%), US & Sweden (64.7%) to Australia (66.5%) and Canada (67%)
How to make sense of this infomation -
  • Find talents from M&A and layoffs in the industry as there are a lot of good talents.
  • Find and place folks in Professional Service and Healthcare
  • Provide training for younger generations as an opportunity to start full-time & part-time jobs. These resources when trained can prove to me much more cost effective than outsourcing it to developing countries.

  

3 things to consider when looking for an ATS

Posted by on November 3, 2011 No comments

Today there are numerous solutions available for managing your recruiting process, but choosing the right solution that fits your model can be a challenge. There are many factors that influence the buyer’s decision in picking the applicant tracking system (ATS), such as budget constraints, ease of use, and compatibility with existing systems. With so much to consider, how do you find a system that will be right for your business?

Company Requirements

Every company is unique and therefore will have a unique recruiting process, which means there’s no one system that will work for everyone. A good place to start is to talk to your recruiting team to find out what they want/need from an ATS that they currently don’t have. Once you have created your wish list, you can start looking around at different vendors.

Customization

Since your wish list is highly specific to your company’s needs, you aren’t likely to find a solution that fits all of your requirements right out of the box. This is why it’s important to look for a solution that allows for customization. This will allow you make additions or enhancements to the system to ensure that you have something that does everything you need it to do.

Business Impacts

You also need to think about how the system will impact your business during the implementation process. How much time and effort is required to learn the program? What is the turnaround time for your queries from the vendor? How long will it take to set up the system? Are there enough valuable features to justify the cost? These are some important questions you need to ask any vendor you are considering.

Determining what is most important to your staff and your business is the best way to find an ATS that will be a good fit. There are many great quality systems around, but not all of them will work for every business. If you are in the market for a new ATS, what criteria are you using? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments, as we would love to hear from you.

  

Nov 2nd, 2011 – ADP – Small businesses adding jobs

Posted by on November 3, 2011 No comments

October 2011 employment numbers indicates a improving market, atleast as of now !!!

ADP announced today that Private sector business have added 110,000 jobs in october up 10,000 jobs than earlier estimated.

Here are some of the highlights

  • Job numbers up at 110,000 for the monthun employment trends oct 2011
  • Fed report was not encouraging for 2012, indicating slower growth.
  • The October unemployment rate is expected to remain at 9.1%. The U.S. jobless rate has been 9.0% or more since April, a sign of how weak labor markets are.
  • The latest ADP report showed large businesses with 500 employees or more cut 1,000 employees from their staffs, while medium-size businesses added 53,000 workers in October and small businesses that employ fewer than 50 workers hired 58,000 new workers.
  • Service-sector jobs increased by 114,000 last month, and factory jobs fell by 8,000.

ADP is one of the largest payroll processors and a leading economic indicator provider in the private sector.

Recruiting trends should favor looking for job opportunities in small to mid-size companies while looking for candidates from large companies.