HotLizard are pleased to announce the launch of another mobile recruitment website for leading health, scientific and social care recruiters Pulse.

The decision to launch a mobile site comes as part of an ongoing development strategy for Pulse, who approached web partners HotLizard requiring a mobile website that would enhance the application process for candidates, whilst maintaining company branding and reflecting the design of their main website.

The solution, delivered by HotLizard, redirects candidates from Pulse’s main website, www.pulsejobs.com, to the new mobile portal upon detecting a mobile IP address, allowing them to search and apply for jobs easily whilst on the go.

One user explains; “I found the listing of jobs by sector really useful – I was able to get quickly to jobs in my own area of interest, which is locum work in A&E in London Hospitals – I was pleased to see several jobs on offer in this field, too.

I also  liked the easy sign up procedure and the quick email back from the website. And as a busy doctor, often not at my own computer, I really liked being able to access all this from my I-phone! I see this mobile access as being especially useful in future.”

It was imperative to Pulse that, in addition to providing essential search functionality, the new mobile site reflected their international presence. This, HotLizard delivered through clear, dedicated colour-coded portals for their main locations overseas; Australia, New Zealand, The Middle East, USA and Canada. Each of these locations displays relevant vacancies and contact details to that location.

Other mobile recruitment websites from HotLizard include that of On Target recruitment, who specialise in engineering, commercial and construction sales recruitment. On Target recognised the need in the sales industry for an application that could be used remotely, as many sales professionals spend a lot of time on the road. Their mobile solution gives registered candidates the freedom to search and apply for vacancies quickly, using the CV and details that they have saved against their existing profile. The mobile site is fully administrable through On Target’s centrally administered Content Management System, providing the company more flexibility and allowing them to update it easily when required.

HotLizard launched their new mobile sites in response to recent statistics from Enhance Media, which reported that over 10% of job seekers now search for jobs on their mobile phones, something that has grown by 200% in 2 years. The mobile site model has been designed to be accessible from a vast range of handsets including the Blackberry and the Iphone and is simple and intuitive, providing candidates access to the key content on the site, from their mobile phone.

David Johnston, Business Development Manager at HotLizard comments; “As someone who is out on the road 4 out of 5 days a week, I can really appreciate the benefits that the new mobile model is going to bring candidates who don’t spend their days in front of a computer. Its simplicity and usability are impeccable and allow a no-hassle application process to those who otherwise wouldn’t have the time or flexibility to do so.”

www.hotlizard.net

MrTed Ltd., the global leader of Talent Acquisition Solutions, is offering a series of webinars designed to provide a glimpse of the unprecedented power and flexibility of its latest release, MrTedTalentLink Version 9, also known a Cloud 9. To learn more about the revolutionary software and how it will change the future of global talent acquisition, make plans today to attend one of our complimentary webinars introducing Cloud 9 at a time convenient for you.

“Cloud computing is a phrase being thrown around a lot today, but not everyone realizes how this technology will completely change the game in talent acquisition software,” said Jerome Ternynck, Chief Executive Officer of MrTed. “MrTed is offering these webinars to clearly explain the magnitude of this change and how Cloud 9 will bring the power and flexibility of cloud computing to talent acquisition software.”

With Cloud 9, users are completely free to personalize their desktop to fit their needs, thanks to: 

• Advanced cloud computing technology: This open architecture makes it fast and easy to connect with other talent management and HR applications, so users get the full benefit of cloud computing on their desktop. Think iGoogle.

• A world of apps: Our portable application modules allow clients to turn on, turn off, or completely configure to create a truly personalized experience that meets their individual needs and preferences.

• A dynamic user interface: Users are free to configure and rearrange apps in order to create a personalized workspace, rather than jumping from screen to screen or module to module.

“The on-demand user interface makes it easy for recruiters to personalize their own workspaces, and the open architecture makes it fast and easy to connect with other talent management and HR applications,” said Ternynck. “Users get the full benefit of cloud computing on their desktop. For talent acquisition software, Cloud 9 is the ultimate personalized recruitment platform.”

Make plans today to get your sneak preview at a time that works for you to witness first-hand the future of global talent acquisition.

Sage has launched a new online flexible benefits package to their UK employees in conjunction with Thomsons Online Benefits.

Sage is a FTSE 100 company and supplier of business management software and services to 5.8 million customers worldwide.

Sage chose to work with Thomsons to implement and support the flexible benefits package following an intensive selection process.

The new scheme, called “Sage Select”, includes core benefits such as pension and holiday, plus additional benefits employees can choose to fit in with their lifestyle. Pension Salary sacrifice was introduced to generate savings on National Insurance contributions with a 98% take up.  The savings were used to provide a Healthcare Cash Plan to all employees. Using Thomsons’ technology, Sage employees can now view their personalised total reward statements, and make benefit selections online. They are also offered a wide range of employee discounts and online payslips to reduce paper and energy and to keep people visiting the site regularly.

Leisa Docherty, Head of HR and Reward comments: Offering flexible benefits enables our people to mould their package to their lifestyle. Since we are such a diverse and growing business, we also wanted to make the most of benefit efficiencies through salary sacrifice and improved administration. In addition as a technology business we wanted to use partners whose technology and regulated advice was market leading. We had login rates of 98% which we were very pleased with and is testament to the way we communicated Select. We are looking forward to continuing to develop Sage Select in the future.”

Recruitment Juice Ltd (UK), leading supplier of inspirational DVD training programmes to the international recruitment industry, were enjoying hearing the positive business stories and refreshingly optimistic news from their Australian customers so much that they sent their MD Matt Trott down under to investigate.

Matt currently in Sydney reported, “Australia makes up the largest part of our customer community outside of the UK, so it made real sense for us to make a personal appearance here, not only to see and hear first hand how business is going for them, but also to go that one step further in strengthening the relationships with some of our biggest fans. It’s been so enjoyable to be talking to a recruitment industry beginning to thrive again in a more optimistic economic climate and I’m sure the Australian recruiters more positive attitude and openness has helped enormously in their seemingly swifter recovery. I hope that some of their confidence and upbeat energy rubs off on me so that I can bring it back to recruiters in the UK to benefit from.”

Australia’s RCSA’s ‘Quarterly Business Manager Survey’ completed earlier this month mirrors Matt’s experiences and reports that expectations for business growth are at record-high levels. Agencies are expecting business volumes to rise by 8.5 per cent (compared with 5.7% last July), and business confidence – the proportion of managers expecting business to improve – has risen six percentage points to 72.5 per cent.
In the past quarter permanent placements made up seven per cent of total placements (up from 4% in October), and recruitment services revenue has risen from 33 per cent to 38 per cent.

“When there’s a rise in permanent hiring, it’s a sign that employers are confident they have the work and the revenue to keep people on long-term,” says RCSA CEO Julie Mills. “And in past downturns, it’s been a sign for the recruitment sector that the worst is over and the recovery has begun in earnest.”

Juice’s Matt Trott who is nearing the end of his five week Australian tour has enjoyed the trip so much he is already planning his return. “It’s been absolutely brilliant for me meeting in person our Australian customers and business counterparts discovering what impact the Juice DVDs have had on businesses out here and finding out what next they would like to see from us. Considering the success of our recent Juice LIVE event in London, and the positive feedback from our customers here I wouldn’t be surprised if I was back very soon with the whole Juice team to tour the country with a seminar road show. Can’t wait!”

www.recruitmentjuice.com

MrTed announced today that users reaction to the newest release of its flagship product has been overwhelmingly favorable, particularly for the way MrTedTalentLink Version 9 – also called the Cloud 9 release – brings consumer-level friendliness to enterprise-level talent acquisition.

“This is an all-new breed of talent acquisition software, and its general release has met with a great response,” said Jerome Ternynck, CEO at MrTed. “Cloud 9 is a very special product. It transforms in the best way imaginable the user experience for an enterprise platform.”

Clients directly benefit of the advantages of the new release, MrTed has upgraded all its clients at the push of a button. Cloud 9 leverages the full potential of cloud computing. It is built on true service-oriented and open architecture, allowing for a world of application modules and an interactive, on-demand graphical user interface (GUI). The result is that Cloud 9 makes it easy for end users to personalize the solution to create the most suitable solution for their business.

“MrTed had said this version of MrTedTalentLink would be user-friendly, and it really is,” said Chris Herrmannsen, Group Managing Director of Ochre House. “It’s intuitive and easy to learn. Despite how robust and flexible the new design is, we didn’t need any training to start using the new features.  We can already see how this will truly enhance our recruitment service delivery to our end clients and will make the collaboration with our client managers easier’’

The formal release of Cloud 9 follows major recognition of the system in its beta stages by respected industry analysts who specifically cited the new version’s vision and potential.

Leading research and advisory consulting firm Bersin & Associates, in its September 2009 assessment of the state of the talent acquisition market, said MrTedTalentLink Cloud 9 “brings the next generation Talent Acquisition Solution towards the market, (as it) will fully embrace the cloud computing technology and enhance its partnerships.”

The international online job board for the oil and gas industry, OilCareers<http://www.oilcareers.com/> has opened its first office in North America and has embarked on an international candidate attraction programme, to increase its users from the current total of 640,000.

OilCareers’ new office in Houston, Texas will serve the USA and Canada, both of which are already strong markets for the company.

Building on its ten years of experience and position as the leading player in oil and gas jobs, the new marketing campaign reaches relevant oil and gas workers across multiple platforms to deliver the best candidates for OilCareers’ clients.

The ‘Oil and Gas Jobs Giant’ creative encourages candidates to register and leave their CV. In the UK, activity is centred around the oil hub of Aberdeen – with Houston being the focus of the US activity. Aberdeen benefits from promotion across roadside posters, airport/heliport branding, bus advertising, taxi livery and radio advertising. Candidate attraction in Houston is driven through search engine marketing, targeted online advertising on professional networks e.g. LinkedIn and Facebook, billboards and a radio campaign.

OilCareers presence at major industry conferences and exhibitions around the globe will also ensure the website is top of mind for oil and gas job seekers. By powering the online jobs channels of international trade magazines WorldOil and Petroleum Economist, OilCareers also reaches potential candidates as they search for industry news.

Mark Guest, MD of OilCareers.com, comments: “Given the nature of the oil and gas industry, OilCareers has always been a global brand. However, the launch of our international candidate attraction campaign will go even further to cement our position as the leading site for oil and gas jobs. Our highly targeted, multi-channel approach ensures we’ll reach oil and gas workers throughout the day and drive the most relevant candidates to OilCareers for our clients. Last month saw us break the record for unique visitors to OilCareers, a 14% increase on the previous highest month. This latest activity, including our new office in Houston, is not a one-off but is part of our long term commitment to making our leading service even better.”

(London, 04 February 2010) Cisco have launched a new online benefits package to their UK and Irish employees in conjunction with Thomsons Online Benefits. The scheme is called i-Benefit@Cisco and is designed to allow employees to interact and enrol in all their benefits.

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) has shaped the future of the Internet by creating unprecedented value and opportunity for its customers, employees, investors and ecosystem partners and has become the worldwide leader in networking – transforming how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Cisco has over 2,500 employees in the UK and Ireland.

Cisco chose to work with Thomsons to implement and support the online benefits package following an intensive selection process.

i-Benefit@Cisco includes core benefits such as pension, life assurance, income protection and holiday, plus additional benefits employees can choose to fit in with their lifestyle. Salary sacrifice was introduced to generate savings on National Insurance contributions which Cisco put back into the benefit budget with the addition of company paid health assessments as part of its desire to promote a proactive health and wellbeing strategy. Using Thomsons’ technology, employees can now view their personalised total reward statements and make their benefit selections online. The scheme also involved a ‘first’ in the UK market by allowing employees to elect to transfer their old pension scheme to the new scheme completely online with no form filling. This online process was extremely effective with 85 percent of employees completing the transfer process.

Charlie Johnston, HR Director, UK and Ireland comments: “Our reward strategy is driven by our desire to underpin making Cisco a brilliant place to work and help people understand the full breadth of their reward and benefits package, wherever they work and whatever they do. We wanted to drive some real innovation into the delivery of benefits and feel that we have achieved this, although this is only phase one. Since we are such a diverse and growing business, we also wanted to make the most of benefit efficiencies through salary sacrifice and improved administration. 

As a market leader and innovator ourselves, we wanted to use a partner whose technology was market leading and for us Thomsons stood out from the crowd. The launch of i-Benefit@Cisco has been a great success with 94 percent of employees logging into the system. We look forward to continuing to develop i-Benefit@Cisco in the future both in the UK and Ireland and beyond.”

According to research by technical and engineering recruiter CBSbutler, staff are becoming increasingly disillusioned with so called management jargon.  The survey, undertaken through the CBSbutler Bulletpoint Briefing newsletter which goes out to over 4000 businesses, found that almost a third of people said that they used jargon and ‘management speak’ to liven up dull meetings and over a third thought that jargon made them look more credible.  However the overwhelming majority thought that jargon was pretentious to the point of being comical with one respondent comparing his manager to David Brent!

The workplace is full of clichés, buzzwords and industry jargon that often leads to a “disconnect” among co-workers says Managing Director of CBSbutler, David Leyshon. “When people hear others speaking in strategic/management gobbledygook they quickly get turned off; complex ideas have to be explained in the most simple and accessible manner for them to be accepted.”

The survey’s tip five most hated phrases were:

• Blue sky thinking

• Getting all your ducks in a row

• Thinking outside the box

• Touching base

• Opening windows of opportunity

The last decade saw social media grow into a cultural phenomenon which has become a realistic and fundamental tool for generating traffic and filling vacancies within the recruitment industry; and 2010 is proving to be another big year for the social media revolution. Search giant Google announced in December the launch of real-time indexing of social networking site Twitter, which will see Twitter status updates appear prominently on many of Google’s search engine results pages.

AllTheTopBananas.com are market leaders in the online job technology field. The jobs search engine has successfully developed and created job seeking iPhone applications for job boards including Monster, the IT Job Board and Total Jobs. They are now aiming to share their successful Twitter integration expertise and success to assist other recruiters in getting an increased market presence within the social media space.

So what can your business do with Twitter? Dave Martin, MD of AllTheTopBananas explains that: “Social networking is not something that is going to transform your recruitment business overnight. Having a presence on Twitter, Facebook, Blogs and within the Smart Phone market takes time, but the results are certainly worthwhile. And with Google indexing these results in real-time, it provides the recruitment industry with yet another way to increase brand awareness, generate new users and fill job vacancies. The task ahead will be to learn from Google and its complex algorithms to work out how best to infiltrate those real-time results for maximum exposure and true SEO value.”

Not all tweets will appear in Google’s search results, and more weight will undoubtedly be given to those Twitter users that Google deem to have the most worthwhile content. How Google will determine this is still relatively unknown, but it is likely to share similarities to Google’s current PageRank system, rewarding those Twitter accounts with a good quality follower base, that are all generating useful content. The tendency for Twitter to attract spam will also mean that Google will be thinking carefully about how to stop these spam accounts from appearing in their real-time results, perhaps by giving a negative weight to the overuse of hash tags, which are invariably used by spammers.

Dave Martin, MD of AllTheTopBananas.com explains “The fact that Google has turned their attention to real-time social media, and has begun to acknowledge its weight in their search results is very interesting for the recruitment industry. We have always put a high value on the power to reach new audiences through social networking, and the fact that these platforms will now have a significant presence in Google suggests to us that no-one should be shying away from using social media. If you’re business is not on Twitter, Facebook, and the iPhone- you may well be left behind in the race.”

AllTheTopBananas.com have been actively utilising Twitter to engage with jobseekers and post jobs since July 2009.
They have sent over 100,000 tweets to thousands of followers on Twitter.
AllTheTopBananas have over 200 targeted Twitter accounts that users can follow for targeted job type or location based job tweets.

The jobs search engine are currently finalising their Twitter package to provide a powerful turnkey technical solution for job boards. The package will allow recruitment businesses to utilise the success and expertise of AllTheTopBananas’ Twitter service, to gain a market presence for their own brand.

It is expected to be released towards the end of Q1.

To get involved or for more information call 0844 800 1616.

http://www.allthetopbananas.com/PressRoom/PressRelease.aspx?id_I=41

HR professionals and line managers at the sharp end of recruitment are at risk of undermining the whole talent management process according to a leading HR think-tank. At its latest meeting the Ochre House Network think-tank, which includes over 650 major employers such as GE, IBM, NCR, PwC and Telefonica O2 pointed out the necessity of giving a clear and honest picture of corporate culture, even if this countered public perceptions. “The problem is that in recent years HR specialists and line managers have learned from professional recruiters to ‘sell’ jobs heavily,” says Ochre House’s Helena Parry, who leads the think-tank. “However in many instances this has gone too far.” To prevent a mismatch between truth and perception line managers must be educated to deliver the right messages about the role and the organisation and must buy into this. Furthermore, messages should be simple and small in number to avoid miscommunication. HR and line management need to understand that messages cannot be delivered by one specific set of individuals – often the best ‘storyteller’ is a mirror of the potential recruit. “Unless recruitment is effectively joined up to the rest of the talent management process it can actually end up doing it serious damage,” says Parry. “Individuals need to get a clear and honest picture of the role, the organisation and its culture. Failure to do this can only lead to mis-match, staff attrition and poor morale across the board.”