Posts

Secrets To Building A LinkedIn Recruiters Will Notice

/ /by

LinkedIn is the champion of social networking sites when it comes to recruitment, with 94% of recruiters using the site. Are they successful in finding hires on LinkedIn? The short answer is yes. Seventy-nine percent of recruiters have found a hire through the website. Social networking, especially on LinkedIn, is set to be a key recruitment trend for 2015. Whether you’re an active or a passive candidate, here are three insider secrets on how to get your LinkedIn noticed by recruiters.

Join Industry-Based LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn’s groups are still not given as much credit as they are due. Industry-based and skills-based groups are not only populated by hopefuls wanting to break into certain careers, they are also joined by recruiters who follow the group’s discussions. While intelligently contributing to discussions in the group is one way to be noticed by recruiters, there is another.

Once you are a member of a group, you are able to message other group members even if they are not you connections. By searching the “members” page of the group, recruiters can see all group members and whittle them down by keywords before sending a message. This feature is excellent for recruiters as they are able to reach out to passive candidates who have the right credentials for the positions they are looking to fill.

Contribute To LinkedIn’s Blog

Writing articles related to your expertise for LinkedIn’s blog platform is an excellent way to establish thought leadership in your field. In the beginning, only “influencers” were able to share content on LinkedIn, but in February 2014 LinkedIn announced that all members would be able to publish articles.

With over 270 million users on LinkedIn, articles have the potential to reach a massive audience. Of course, it also means that there is big competition to be the most widely read, and as such has caused an influx of articles on the internet on how to write clickable LinkedIn headlines and what topics get the most shares and so on. Nonetheless, the fact that there is a chance to get your content noticed, even if only by a fraction of LinkedIn’s users, certainly counts for something.

Grow Your LinkedIn Network

There is some debate as to whether you should accept invitations from people whom you don’t personally know on LinkedIn, but there are plenty of reasons that you should approach LinkedIn the same way you would Twitter. One of the big reasons is that the more connections you have, the more people there will be viewing your profile. Though you may be skeptical about the benefits of this, growing your network is a surefire way to gain clout and get noticed.

About the Author: Ron Stewart has worked in the recruitment industry for 30 years, having owned companies in the IT, construction and medical sectors. He runs the Jobs4Group, and is CEO of Jobs4Medical.

photo credit: IMG_1971 via photopin (license)

Modernize Your Resume For 2015: Part 2

/ /by

If you haven’t written a resume in a long time, but are considering seeking a new position in 2015, it’s important that you are up to date with the latest trends in resume writing and styles. Recruiters are set to focus on quality of hire in 2015, so your resume needs to be top notch, reflecting both your best skill set and an expert understanding of your field.

In Part 1 of this series, I discussed two of the five techniques: making a clear value proposition and using a professional layout. Here, in Part 2, I detail the remaining three techniques.

Cull Outdated Experience

In 2015, recruiters are looking for quality not quantity, so if you haven’t done so already it’s time to cut the deadwood. If your resume is more than two pages long, then you’re either listing irrelevant or outdated experience, or writing verbose job role descriptions. Cut out irrelevant and outdated experiences straight away. Highlight the experience that is most relevant to the job you’re going for, only list the skills required for the job roles you’re after and include achievements that make you a unique candidate.

Digital-Friendly

A digital-friendly resume that looks just as good via email or on a webpage as it does on paper will be essential in 2015. When you send your resume as an email attachment you want to make sure it opens without trouble, and that when it opens it looks good. To ensure the file format is compatible, make a copy of your resume as a PDF so that when you send it over to a recruiter or an employer, they will be able to view it exactly as you intended it. Links to a professional video, as well as your LinkedIn profile and possibly your online portfolio or blog (depending on your profession), are must-haves. There’s going to be an increased emphasis on social media — especially LinkedIn — in the recruitment sector this year, so make sure you have a stellar profile there too.

Professional Video

If you’re finding that recruiters and employers are frequently asking for a digital copy of your resume, now’s the time to supplement your main resume with a video. Though video resumes aren’t rivaling written ones, integrating a video into your digital resume can really enhance it. A short 30-second video is a great opportunity to introduce yourself and show off your personality, professionalism and how well you fit into an organization’s employee culture. A small link to the video at the beginning of your resume is all you need — an employer will be easily able to locate it and watch it. There’s plenty of advice available online for when to use a video resume and how to make it effective. Remember, a video isn’t there to replace content, but instead to add value and personality to your existing resume.

Modernizing your resume is vital to making an impression on a potential employer, but make sure it’s the right one. Formatting your resume properly and ensuring it’s digital-friendly can be exactly what you need to differentiate yourself from the rest of the pile. It could be your ticket to getting to the next stage of the hiring process.

About the Author: Ron Stewart has worked in the recruitment industry for 30 years, having owned companies in the IT, construction and medical sectors. He runs the Jobs4Group, and is CEO of Jobs4Medical.

photo credit: jsawkins via photopin cc

 

Modernize Your Resume For 2015: Part 1

/4 Comments/ /by

If you haven’t written a resume in a long time, but are considering seeking a new position in 2015, it’s important that you are up to date with the latest trends in resume writing and styles. Recruiters are set to focus on quality of hire in 2015, so your resume needs to be top notch, reflecting both your best skill set and an expert understanding of your field.

In this first of a two-part series, I detail two of the five techniques that top candidates will be using to get potential employers’ attentions this year. The second part will detail the remaining three techniques.

Value Proposition

Make a statement with your resume right the at beginning. What makes you a valuable asset to this company? What’s your big selling point? A concise, evidence-backed sentence that illustrates to the employer why you would be worth having on its team is the perfect way to open your resume. For example, a marketing professional might start with:

With 10 years of digital marketing experience, I have the creative solutions to increase engagement and get clients noticed. In one month, I can boost social media followings by 25%.

A sales executive would opt for something along the lines of:

Proven track record of increasing annual sales by 40% and consistently beating sales goals in all of my previous positions.

It’s likely that your value proposition will have to be adjusted slightly for each different employer. Remember, not every company is looking for the same thing: they want to know why you will be valuable to them. Make sure you’re clued in on the company vision and culture so that you know exactly what to propose in your headline.

Professional Layout

What is the purpose of layout? To make it easy for the person reading it to find the relevant information from the resume. A dense wall of text won’t get you very far, but neither will a resume that is all style and no content, unless perhaps you are working in a creative industry. If you’re struggling to format your resume in Word, try using online resume builders such as KickResume and VisualCV.

Generic resume templates aren’t going to cut it in 2015. The average time a recruiter spends reading one resume is just six seconds, so you really need to make those seconds count. While sticking to black and white text is still a good rule of thumb, your headings need to be bold so they jump out when a recruiter or employer is scanning through. Make them stand out with a subtle shade of color, a stylized font, or even graphics. This resume, from Hongkiat, is a good example of both creative font and color, while this resume on the other hand might be considered too much style, too little substance. Be careful not to go overboard here, as outlandish designs and crazy colors can get your resume thrown into the bin without a second glance.

Modernizing your resume is vital for making an impression on a potential employer. It could be your ticket to getting to the next stage of the hiring process.

To learn three more resume-modernizing techniques, keep on the lookout for part two of this series!

About the Author: Ron Stewart has worked in the recruitment industry for 30 years, having owned companies in the IT, construction and medical sectors. He runs the Jobs4Group, and is CEO of Jobs4Medical.

 

photo credit: flazingo_photos via photopin cc

5 Key Recruitment Trends For 2015

/5 Comments/ /by

Widening gaps between demand and supply of skilled workers mean that recruitment will see a more competitive hiring and spending environment in 2015. In the coming year, 69% of recruiters expect to see competition increase. In the face of more challenging recruitment, what trends do recruiters need to keep up with to ensure successful sourcing and hiring in 2015? Here are the five key trends that you need to know about.

Increased Focus on Quality of Hire

It’s no secret that hiring the best people is the way to boost organizational success, and 2015 will see the quality of candidates becoming an increasingly important factor. Global recruiting leaders have cited quality of hire as a top priority, and as the most valuable metric for measuring a recruiting team’s performance. Four years ago, referrals were the best channel for sourcing quality hires. Today, job boards and social professional networks are preferred.

Increased Emphasis On Using Social Networks

Social recruiting has been big in 2014 and it’s set to be even bigger in 2015. With this in mind, 73% of recruiters plan to invest more in social recruiting. But currently 33% of recruiters don’t spend anything at all on social recruiting, so there are still big changes that need to be made in this area. LinkedIn remains the clear champion social site for hires with 79% of recruiters having found a hire through the site. While 94% of recruiters are using LinkedIn, next in line is Facebook, used by only 66% of recruiters. Social is now one of the most ripe platforms for finding top candidates, with both quality and quantity of candidates proven to improve when a social recruiting strategy is put in place.

Closing the Gap Between Active and Passive Candidates

2015 is going to see a big shift toward closing the gap that exists between active and passive candidates. Active candidates (those currently seeking employment) have been the main focus of recruiters for some time, but passive candidates (those who are not looking but are open to speaking to a recruiter) are a key talent pool that is not to be missed. In fact, 75% of professionals would categorize themselves as “passive,” yet this potential is greatly untapped, with only 61% of companies recruiting passive candidates. A recent poll has revealed that on LinkedIn, at least 63% of members are not actively looking but would still be interested in new job leads. 2015 is certainly the time for companies to capitalize on the passive talent pool.

Embracing the Concept of Talent Branding

Talent branding is the social, public version of your company brand that seeks to promote your company as being a great place to work so as to attract new talent. Companies are increasingly noticing the impact that a good brand and company culture has on their hiring process. Research from LinkedIn has found that costs per hire can be reduced by 50% and turnover rates lowered by 28% when a company has a strong talent brand in place. On top of this, three-quarters of talent acquisition leaders have said that talent brand significantly increases their ability to hire good talent. To give themselves as edge against other employers, 73% of organizations plan to highlight company culture in the coming year. There is no doubt about it, the line between recruiting and marketing is blurring, as recruiters are finding that marketing a strong talent brand helps them to attract better candidates.

Using Mobile Recruiting

This key trend is one of the least tapped into by recruiters so far. There’s a growing disparity between the 43% of job seekers who use a mobile device for their job searches and the 59% of recruiters who don’t invest in mobile career sites at all. Not to mention the fact that the number of candidates searching and applying for jobs on mobile devices is on the rise. Companies and recruiters need to increase their mobile recruiting behaviors to match candidate demand. 2015 is the time to make recruitment websites mobile-friendly and to mobile-optimize job postings. The easier it is for candidates to search and apply, the more applicants companies will be able to screen.

2015 is going to be a competitive year for recruiters who are facing skills shortages but high demand for quality hires from companies. Tapping into these five key recruitment trends will guarantee that companies and recruiters can keep up with the competition; there’s no option for lagging behind next year.

About the Author: Ron Stewart has worked in the recruitment industry for 30 years, having owned companies in the IT, construction and medical sectors. He runs the Jobs4Group, and is CEO of Jobs4Medical.

photo credit: The Daring Librarian via photopin cc

Tackling the Talent Challenge

/1 Comment/ /by

Businesses have survived the recession and are now looking toward the future. In the face of global megatrends, including technological development, demographic change and urbanization, businesses are changing and so is the workplace. We are in an era where the focus is firmly on expansion, growth and innovation.

In this changing landscape, business leaders are encountering profound challenges when it comes to sourcing and retaining talent. But what can businesses do to tackle the talent challenge and ensure they remain a competitive and attractive workplace in the eyes of the very best workers?

Embrace Flexibility

The availability of skills has been cited as a serious concern by 63% of CEOs, an increase of 5% from 2013. With overwhelming levels of skills shortages still affecting many industries, the competition for top talent has never been higher. Businesses willing to embrace flexibility in the way they source and manage employees are the best equipped to match demand with supply.

In the current market, recruiting locally is no longer enough to keep companies operating at the top of their game. Thanks to leaps in technology, our workforce is now more mobile than ever before. This means that employers can widen their talent search by sourcing talent from further afield by introducing remote working and flexi-hours for their employees.

Founder of online digital marketing company Exposure Ninja, Tim Kitchen, commented: “When it came to sourcing talent, all I knew was that I wanted the best. My business is multi-faceted and naturally all the best talent isn’t just sitting in one place. I set up an innovate online workplace which has enabled me to source talent from across the world.”

Re-Skill and Up-Skill

While it’s the employers who need to put their best foot forward to attract and retain the best employees, we also need to see employees being willing to adapt their skillsets to remain competitive in the job market. Given that 1 in 3 job roles are set to become automated by 2020, now is clearly the time to begin this process.

Jobs that are in greatest danger due to technological advances include “repetitive processing, clerical duties and support services” across multiple sectors. If you have good employees in this area, now is the time to consider their potential and plan out how you might reskill them so that they remain relevant in your company. Be especially aware of employees with transferable skills that, with the right training, can be valuable elsewhere in the workplace.

One of the main areas that could benefit from re-skilling is HR. Forty-two percent of business leaders believe their HR teams are underperforming. In the face of the changing landscape of business, companies need their HR teams ready to capitalize on transformational trends. Re-skilling is an essential component of ensuring success.

The Millennial Generation

By 2020, Millennials will make up 46% of the workforce. All smart business owners know they need to be attracting younger, tech-savvy employees to be successful in the future. Though many companies are still tentative when it comes to hiring Millennials, you can’t ignore the benefits.

Speaking to PwC, Brian Molefe, Group Chief Executive of Transnet, commented, “We have embarked on a comprehensive programme to train young people in different vocations using modern technology.” Transnet are one of the businesses participating in South Africa’s National Skills Development Strategy, an aim of which is to encourage better use of workplace skills programs.

While this is an excellent way to build the skills of Millennials, not all governments are investing in these programs. Another way independent businesses can connect with the Millennial generation is to liaise with university career advisors, attend career fairs and give lectures at universities. Not only is this a good strategy for raising awareness about vital skills gaps, it’s also a surefire way to promote your company as an organization that is interested in hiring Millennials.

Take Action

While 93% of CEOs recognize there is a need to change their strategy for attracting and retaining talent, in reality 61% of CEOs still haven’t taken action. Only the strongest leaders who are willing to take action will be able to successfully tackle the talent challenge.

About the Author: Ron Stewart has worked in the recruitment industry for 30 years, having owned companies in the IT, construction and medical sectors. He runs the Jobs4Group, and is CEO of Jobs4Medical.

 
photo credit: Matthew Wilkinson via photopin cc