Stepstone launches new CV database in Germany
The more than 218,000 registered candidates at Stepstone.de can now choose to publish their CVs in Stepstone’s new CV database. According to the company this is one of the most important technical project innovations over the last few years.
The new database displays key facts about a candidate at a glance. Knowledge sharing is possible in the form of comments and recommendations. It is also possible for the candidates to deny their current employer access to their profile.
Stepstone has launched a comprehensive communication campaign to let potential users learn about the new database.
‘The future of job boards’ — interesting nuggets, video posted
Kevin Krim of Yahoo HotJobs, Brian Donahue of CareerBuilder, and Terry Baker of Adicio all joined me for a 40-minute discussion of “the future of job boards” at the OnRec conference in Chicago last week. Chris Russell of JobBoarders.com videotaped the panel; you can watch it by clicking on the link below.
I’ve reported a bit about the panel already, but it offered some very interesting nuggets: None of the three panelists, for instance, would comment on Monster’s major site relaunch planned for January, but Krim noted that Monster bought Trovix, a qualifications-matching engine, a few months back, and suggested (but didn’t outright say) that Trovix would probably be a key to Monster’s new platform.
Fun stuff. More important, if you’re in the online or print recruitment businesses (or both), it’s worth watching.
http://jobboarders.com/video/video/show?id=882452%3AVideo%3A33115
“The next big thing” in recruiting? Matching technology
CHICAGO — It was pretty easy getting consensus today on “the next big thing in online recruiting and advertising” among the three panelists at the OnRec recruitment technology conference. “Matching technology” — which ranks, rates and identifies appropriate candidates for employers based on various “hard skills” like degrees and years of experience, and “soft skills” like personality and ethics — will become essential for recruiters during the next few years.
All three panelists said matching technology is in its infancy, but will improve over time so that employers can reach both active and passive candidates. Matching will eliminate unwanted and inappropriate candidates, and allow recruiters to focus on people who are an excellent fit for the job.
Terry Baker of Adicio, Brian Donahue of CareerBuilder and Kevin Krim of Yahoo HotJobs said video has already arrived as a major force in recruiting, and a show of hands among the 140 recruiter-attendees seemed to bear that out. Only one raised his hand when asked if they were looking at video resumes, but about three-quarters of the audience replied positively when I asked if they were using corporate videos in their recruiting efforts.
Another “next big technology:” Mobile. But Krim said the smart way to use mobile in the States, for now, would be to focus on SMS. Curiously, mobile was essentially ignored at the conference. Our panel’s mention of mobile devices was the first at the conference. At 9:30 a.m. on the second day!
At least two exhibitors at OnRec were focused on matching technology: TalentFilter, offered by TalentDrive, and JobStick.com. JobStick won the “2008 game-changing recruiting technology award” from OnRec. At least one other recruitment site, Redmatch, offers matching; it’s the back end of TheJobNetwork.com, a network of newspaper recruitment sites in the U.S. CareerBuilder, Monster, HotJobs and many other sites offer at least some form of matching, as well.
The session was videotaped by Chris Russell of JobBoarders.com. We’ll link to it when it’s posted.
Why isn’t video growing faster in recruitment? Two theories.
CHICAGO — Video is clearly growing in importance as a tool in recruitment, but it’s been pretty slow to take off. I’ve always wondered why it hasn’t been growing much faster.
Two theories, both pretty plausible IMHO, at the OnRec conference:
— Kjetil J. Olsen, director of business development at European recruitment site StepStone.de, noted that audio is an important component of watching video online. And since most job-searching online happens not at home but at work — (imagine that!) — no job-seeker wants to be sitting at a computer in the office looking at videos of companies he or she might want to join. (Makes sense to me.)
— And several people pointed out that scanning a text resume takes merely a second or two, or a fraction of that if it’s done by an automated filtering device or applicant tracking system. Just waiting for a video resume to download and open takes longer than that, even if you’ve got a fast broadband connection. It may not matter if you’re looking at three or four candidates, but when you’re screening dozens or hundreds a day, that time demand becomes overwhelming.
In some industries, like television news and theater, video resumes are obviously a remarkably important screening tool for hiring, and have changed the way job-seekers are viewed. (When I was in television news, there was always a stack of hundreds of video tapes from prospective job-seekers in every news director’s office. Most of them unviewed. And if you think it takes a while to watch video resumes online, imagine how much time it took to put one into the machine, wait for it to start running, watch as much (or as little) as you want, take it out, and start over.)
Even with the challenges, everyone I spoke to agreed: Video is coming. And it’ll be critical in a few years. Two video production companies were at the conference — one offering professionally edited interview videos shot at exhibitor booths for just $500.
Want a job? Keep your Facebook clean
Job candidates have for some time now been warned to keep their Facebook pages clean in case a future boss goes snooping. Now it’s official: some 22 percent of hiring managers say they use social networking sites to scope out potential employees. That’s double the percentage from 2006.
The survey of more than 3,100 employers was conducted by CareerBuilder.com. An additional 9 percent said they don’t currently use social networking sites to screen potential employees, but plan to start.
With such statistics, you’d think job seekers would get the hint and keep incriminating details off their public personas. Not so, apparently. Of those hiring managers who have screened job candidates via social networking profiles, one-third (34 percent) reported they found content that caused them to dismiss the candidate from consideration.
Here’s why:
- 41% – candidate posted information about them drinking or using drugs
- 40% – candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information
- 29% – candidate had poor communication skills
- 28% – candidate bad-mouthed their previous company or fellow employee
-27% – candidate lied about qualifications
- 22% – candidate used discriminatory remarks related to race, gender,
religion, etc.
-22% – candidate’s screen name was unprofessional
- 21% – candidate was linked to criminal behavior
- 19% – candidate shared confidential information from previous employers
But it’s not all gloom and doom. A significant, albeit smaller, 24 percent of hiring managers said that social networking sites helped solidify their decision to hire a candidate. Top factors in this case:
- 48% – candidate’s background supported their qualifications for the job
- 43% – candidate had great communication skills
- 40% – candidate was a good fit for the company’s culture
- 36% – candidate’s site conveyed a professional image
- 31% – candidate had great references posted about them by others
- 30% – candidate showed a wide range of interests
- 29% – candidate received awards and accolades
- 24% – candidate’s profile was creative
The survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com
From the Demo conference: new recruitment Web site PaidInterviews launches
The startup technology conference Demo concluded yesterday in San Diego with a whopping 72 companies delivering 6-minute presentations on stage. One startup, PaidInterviews, caught our eye as an interesting new take on Internet-based recruitment.
For job seekers, it works like this: Candidates upload a picture of themselves, along with previous employment references and examples of their work. They then put together a list of qualities about a new job they’d like such as salary, health benefits, education and “lifestyle factors.” There’s a nifty drag and drop feature to set the order of importance.
Candidates also indicate how much they want to be paid if they’re hired. It’s a flip on the usual model where the employment agency or Web service takes the commission. A recommended asking price is 5 percent of the employee’s first year salary.
Candidates then turn to the PaidInterviews “watercooler,” where they can check out potential positions that meet their criteria and look at ratings of the hiring companies posted by previous and current employees. Candidates can also join groups centered around professional interests.
Employers see a list of candidates who are interested in their available positions. PaidInterviews ranks candidates in order of the likelihood of a match.
PaidInterviews calls its service a “disruptive model that is poised to transform the hiring process.”
There are only a few jobs posted so far on the company’s Web site. We’ll be interested to see what kind of traction PaidInterviews gets as it signs up more job seekers.
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