Two hellos / welcomes from us today.

Firstly I’d like you all to meet Amy. “If it seems too good to be true then it most probably is” is something I’ve often heard said – well we’re hoping that Amy proves “them” wrong. A trilingual Project Manager with specific Recruitment and Start Up experience, who’s already spent some time using HARBOUR ATS and has experience of other ATS’ to bring to the party too. Oh – and she lives in our neck of the woods. I’ve had to make some tough calls in setting up this business – but I’m sure you’ll agree that this hire probably had to be one of the easiest. This is a great hire for our clients (existing & potential) as Amy can not only assist in delivery but also bring fresh perspective and relevant experience to the table, but I’m mostly hoping she’ll help maintain whatever shred of sanity I still have left 

Secondly – say hi to Kimberly. Kimberly Clark that is (of Kleenex and Andrex (amongst others) fame).

Screen grab of Kimberly-ClarkGraduate.com - Graduate recruitment site underpinned by HARBOUR ATS

www.Kimberly-ClarkGraduates.com – A nicely integrated grad recruitment site underpinned by a quickly turned around HARBOUR ATS – it’s so beautiful when things fit together so nicely it brings a tear to my eyes (reach for Kleenex – as the strapline says “it’s time to let it out”).

Quite a perky start to the month of March really

Towards the end of last year we set about recruiting to expand our development capability (which has, thankfully and with some great results & delighted clients, been working flat out for some time). I can confirm what I’ve read other people reporting to be true, in that irrespective of the swelling ranks of the unemployed, when you’re looking for talent you’ve still got to search damned hard (although ironically in this instance it turned out we actually hired one of the very first applicants).

I have to say as well though,  the quality of many of the applications was appalling. I wonder if anyone could create an index for the %age of job seekers who deserve to stay where they are/without a job on the basis of number of random applications outside of skill set they make (many have a clear inability to read a simple job description), terrible overall presentation (be that CV or answering questions in legible English) and overall seeming apathy towards life?!  :-/

So firstly let’s welcome Brett on board. A few weeks in and he’s clearly a nice guy who, I think, has settled in well (certainly there’s plenty to keep him occupied) and quickly become part of the team, but most importantly he clearly “LOVES code” – which is what you want in a developer in our opinion. We all spend more than enough time doing our day to day, so having a passion for what you do makes such a difference to both your life and the end result, so here’s to many years of keeping his passion stoked and delivering great facilities and service for our clients.

Secondly – I thought I’d just share with you some of the recruitment MI, because that is, after all, what we built HARBOUR ATS to do, and because it’s good to share .

The media channels used were: our website; twitter; google docs; PHP forums; Gumtree; CWjobs; Planet Recruit (& Hot Group network); Jobserve.We paid for CW Jobs, Planet Recruit and tried the new Pay Per Application model with Jobserve (limiting it to 10).

The specifics were that this was a Junior Developer role in North Essex (although we were pretty flexible about remote working).

The applications came from:

• 3dmarcomms.com – 3
• Jobserve – 6
• Gumtree – 9
• Planetrecruit (et al) – 12
• CWjobs – 35

The campaign MI headlines are:

• Worth testing: Planet Recruit – 1; 3DMarComms.com – 2; Jobserve – 3; Gumtree – 5; CWjobs – 15
• Telephone interview: Jobserve – 1; Gumtree – 1; 3DMarComms – 2; CWjobs – 2
• Talent Banked: CWjobs – 2; 3DMarcomms – 3
• Hire: Gumtree (specific cost = £0)

My personal feedback:

I thought that Planet Recruit was, to be blunt, absolute bobbins. The team there were very nice and tried hard (with a lot of additional collateral), but for this role I was very disappointed with such a poor response (particularly in quality – but also in volume, which may, considering the quality, have been a blessing I guess). My conclusion is that Planet Recruit (& network) has a very poor for Junior PHP Developer reach, particularly in the East of England.

I didn’t take to the Jobserve experience at all really. The lack of ability to integrate directly into an ATS (something I’ve long rallied against as a real barrier to use on this site) proved an issue here where out of 10 applications I paid for (on the PPA model) 4 then couldn’t be arsed to complete a simple application form I directed them to (although of course I’m sure some bright spark at Jobserve will try and sell this as a useful “motivational fit” sift :-s). However when you’re on a Pay Per Application basis, that kind of lazy candidate reflects very badly on the site. The lack of human involvement I also found made it a poor overall posting experience & actually as it all worked out rather expensive for only 3 OK applicants (despite the filters set in the Jobserve facility) who were even worth inviting to partake in our online test. On this experience (and if I can make the time I’ll blog some more on this for sure ) – Pay/Cost Per Application isn’t a model I’ll be looking to use again (or at least certainly not on the Jobserve site).

I have to admit to always having like CWJobs as a site – but perhaps the thing I liked best about it was the fact that it generally delivered for my clients in the past. And I wasn’t let down this time either. Good service that delivered good volume and decent quality of applicants. Thanks guys.

And what can you say about Gumtree? Well for me it just emphasised what’s so difficult about the crowded web, proving that you have to do your damndest to think like a candidate in a very noisy market place – in this instance thinking local to “get our man”.

I also, of course, had quite a lot of interest from recruitment consultants trying to sell me their “stella” candidates. There’s probably a blog post there too in regards to how important it is to get the attention to detail right first time every time, particularly when you’re trying to open a door that’s pretty firmly closed anyway. All I can say is there are a lot of Recruitment Consultants out there who will rightfully (and hopefully) go out of business if their terrible attempts to win my business accurately demonstrates their overall integrity, ability & professionalism. However, it’s always good to find the exception that proves the rule – and I was so impressed with Kirsty Brewer’s quirky, personal & through that ultimately stand-out approach (she’s from Senitor (although god knows their website needs some serious overhaul!!)) – that I’ve made sure I’ve kept her details just in case.

Anyway – that’s more than enough reminiscing about how we stepped into this year. It’s back to the grind stone, but all very much feeling glad that we have a grindstone to return to and that it’s thankfully seeing some serious action already this year

Before we all get swept up in the New Year we thought we’d just salute an evergreen presence in the HR/Recruitment blogging community who won through (for the 3rd year running no less) as the Best UK Recruitment Blog of the rather testing business year that was 2009. Yup, Peter Gold & his Hire Strategies Blog did it again in the UK Recruiter blog awards – the X Factor of the Recruitment Opinio-rati.

Peter’s blogging style may often be quite “marmite” and he certainly likes to stir things up to “stimulate” the debate, but his retention of the crown for a triple is great credit to his stamina and dedication to blogging (and having a wheelbarrow full of opinion and observation to share). We were pleased to sponsor the awards this year and so hopefully by now Peter’s already received (and ideally sunk before his other passion, rigorous physical training, undoubtedly re-starts in the new year) his very own competition Champers courtesy of HARBOUR ATS

Best UK Recruitment Blog 2009 winner - Peter Gold's Champagne

As far as we’re concerned at 3D MarComms the first generation of blogging has seen far too much blogging “wallpaper” being produced. So here’s hoping Peter’s style of “telling things how he see’s them” from a perspective of first hand professional experience will long continue and come to epitomise the style of personal and professional commentary and engagement that will rise to the surface as we embark into the next decade.

Well done Peter.

Are you:

• looking for an opportunity to prove yourself?
• interested in getting in early with something that will certainly test you?
• hungry to build something you can put your mark on? Something that you can be proud of?

If you are and PHP means something different to you than the alkalinity or acidity of a swimming pool you’ve just used as a toilet, and Linux isn’t just a misspelling of a kid with a blanket in the peanuts cartoons – then we could be looking for you & you could have been waiting for us. Check out the opportunity here

One of the things that Alex and Tony told me about 3D MarComms and HARBOUR was the speed at which they could deploy a facility. And not just an off-the-shelf system, but a bespoke system designed to fit a client’s particular recruitment requirement like a glove. AND not just a great back-end , but a front-end that looks just like the rest of the clients’ site, meaning seamless integration, improving the candidate experience. AND I’ve just witnessed first hand what they mean.

So let me introduce you to our www.heinzgraduates.co.uk

Heinz Graduate Recruitment site 2009/10 (c/o ThirtyThree & 3D MarComms)

ThirtyThree created the quirky but very on brand design and our job was to create an application facility to seamlessly underpin this – and so only those of you with the keenest of eyes (fixed on the URL bar) will spot the transition to www.heinzgraduates-apply.co.uk for the application section.

Happy client and happy Ad Agency – what a nice combination.

So it seems that 3D MarComms do indeed ‘walk the walk’ as well as ‘talk the talk’, but hey – if I had doubted that I really shouldn’t be here anyway. However, it’s still good to see first hand how the 3 pillars of the 3D MarComms Ethos (Dynamic solutions; Delivery focussed; Digitally-centric) translates to delighted clients – maybe that’s the 4th D?.

OK – week 2 and I’m like Johnny 5 in Short Circuit – input, input and more input!  (furrowed brow? click here).  In any case, what I mean is that I’m immersing myself in 3D MarComms, HARBOUR® and the whole ATS market, so that I can add value to our client base as quickly as possible (and add a few clients too, of course).

In the meantime, Alex took part in the first ever Recruiter Cast (61 mins) as put on by CareerSiteAdvisor last week.  I thought it might be useful to link to this, to demonstrate the angle that we are coming from.

An abridged version of just Alex’s input (10 mins – quite succinct for him! ) can be seen below, covering where 3D MarComms and HARBOUR® ATS came from, to the state of the economy and the future for job boards:

It’s with a great big smile across my face that I can reveal some of the most exciting news for 3D MarComms since we sent out our first invoice. We’ve got a new member joining us. Someone to share the dream and help make it a reality. I’d like to introduce you all to our Commercial Director – Adam Gretton.

I’ve known Adam for a number of years as he worked as a leading Sales Rep with Exec-Appointments.com, and has consistently been right at the top of my list of Media Reps when it came to people who knew their stuff, putting delivery and integrity of product first every-time, building the brand’s reputation for excellence along the way and played an integral part in making it the success that saw the FT buy it up recently.

Adam’s coming on board to help out day-to-day as well as shaping the business going forward and, of course, spreading the good word of HARBOUR® as far as we can – but only after he’s taken a little break to go on a long postponed holiday to Australia for a month with his family. So he’ll be back mid September with a healthy glow, probably a funny twang to his slight west country lilt, and raring to get wading into all those shooty green things everyone’s falling over themselves on the BBC to tell us may well, possibly, could be sprouting (although you have to wonder why we’re still listening to the very same buffoons that didn’t foresee what we’ve recently been living through until that was already a bandwagon of misery and despair they could jump on and wallow in – if you excuse the mixed metaphor).

So quite a second summer this is proving to be – but boy am I looking forward to Autumn!

Not only is this the question I’ve heard alot lately as I drove down to South Wales with the family to combine a coastal break back in the mother land with an appearance at the AGR (Association of Gradate Recruiters) conference at the very smart Celtic Manor in Newport, but it’s also a business question I’m asking myself and the team as we close in on a more public launch of HARBOUR® ATS.

Anyway – we are indeed nearly there – and once I’m back at 3D MarComms HQ and have polished off a few bits and bobs then we’ll be in a position to launch www.Harbour-ATS.com – probably mid next week TBH. And if you want to be amongst some of the first to know then go there now and leave your email address and we’ll ensure you’re top of the “people to tell” list.

What a busy summer this is turning out to be – best I make the most of family time at the pleasantly warm beach and get offline while I can

If you’ve never come across Sirona Consulting’s blog (Sirona Says) but like a regular good thought provoking post then I can’t recommend it strongly enough. A consistent mix of  insight, humour and debate generation – exactly what a blog should be about IMHO. My only trouble is I can’t seem to help myself from getting drawn to comment (at length) – and his recent post “Would you recruit someone with a visible tattoo?” got me good.

I recently contributed the following to an ONREC magazine article (if/when I spot it online I’ll add the link here too):

How widespread / popular are recruiting blogs now?

As companies try and find an authentic voice for their employer brand (as well as be seen to be deploying web2.0 facilities) we’ll only see more of them. As for how popular they are – I think they’re popular with the business deploying one in the first instance because it makes them feel cool and “down with the new web” and then they realise how much work it is to keep one up, so the popularity (certainly amongst those targeted with producing content) wanes.

From a candidate’s perspective I think they’re popular as a reference point when they are considering an employment proposition, it will generally give you a good indication of at least how the business perceives itself – but there are very few, if any, examples of particularly engaging corporate Recruiting Blogs, blogs that you’d read up on all the time, so in that sense they still have a long way to go (or at least the people contributing to and managing them do).

Do you think recruiting blogs have much influence?(Any examples of companies that have done it well?)

They can have – both good & bad. One of the better blogs I’ve come across is the PwC blog, because if nothing else they’re really trying. I think they’re missing some pretty fundamental tricks with it, not least by not having a single page where you can read all recent comments & posts rather than hard categorising them, but those contributing clearly try their best to keep it up to date and personal, and those managing it I’m guessing work hard to keep them motivated and contributing (although a number of contributors haven’t for quite some time).

An employee blog isn’t about setting the world alight, but rather an efficient way of showing a human face – a genuine, authentic voice for the employer brand.

If you put yourself in the shoes of someone looking for a job – they will have preconceptions about Company X & Company Y, some good, some mixed, some maybe bad. The Corporate line that you’ll see trotted out on the careers site will in truth do little to influence this as everyone knows that the messaging is carefully crafted to sound alluring, but if there’s a blog that sounds honest (whether it be recruitment specific or not) and conveys real personality then all of sudden you have an insight into what that corporate personality really is, what it’s really like to work there. Just having an open blog is a statement in itself.

What are the possible benefits and risks for a company considering a recruiting blog?

You can really differentiate yourself from the competition. A blog should represent a voice that is more human, more believable and through that offers the best chance to enforce positive messages about your employment proposition and the opportunity to make people at the very least question any negative preconceptions they may have.

But blogging is not easy – for many individuals and for many corporate cultures. Blogging takes quite a bit of time, and after you’ve let lose all your “pent up” stories, how do you keep up the writing about day to day life? And for many businesses then there’s a real nervousness about letting people have their say, which waters down any commentary to the degree where it’s too dull to bother reading and too demotivating to have your thoughts picked apart to bother writing.

In the worst instances there’s the fear of whether what you’re saying is going to be career limiting – do you go down the ‘brown nose’ route and ruin your personal brand/integrity or say what you think and risk getting a stop put on your career progress? Fears that will lead to most people just refusing to contribute.

But in my opinion the worst risk of all in blogging is for the business that launches a blog and then lets it fall into disuse. Coming across a website that has a blog but no updates for the past 6weeks or more sends a louder message about that company’s corporate culture than not having one at all. And I’m afraid many many companies have been guilty of this (particularly in the graduate space where websites with blogs were the hot thing to have from about 2 years ago onwards) and it shows the company as the kind of place where they pick up an idea without thinking about how to execute and sustain it.

Do you think recruiting blogs are here to stay? How do you see them developing in the future?

I think there’ll be more of them as companies grow up to realise what the new web reality is all about, namely that there are conversations going on about them whether they like it or not, so do they want to get involved and direct, influence or contribute to those conversations or just hope they can still exist within a walled garden? The problem with the latter being that it becomes ever harder to get people into your garden when they have no idea what it’s really like.

Blogging is a great way to engage candidates, employees and customers – or at the very least show them your human face. Blogging ensures that your site is kept current, even if the rest of the ‘static’ content lags a little. Blogs are loved by search engines and so can see good returns in terms of SEO. Blogs reflect a level of employer brand integrity that you simply can’t generate in any other way on the corporate careers site.

But blogging is no quick fix, not some simple but sexy web2.0 bolt on to your corporate career site, nor should it be treated as a cheap way to manage a companies PR. It needs buy in from the senior management and investment of time and belief – belief in your brand, belief in your employees: belief in your true Employer Brand.