Newsletter Issue 13 2008
....to the 13th issue of our newsletter.
Marston's Plc, one of the UK's leading brewing and pub retail businesses, and Marston's Inns & Taverns, which owns and runs over 500 managed pubs and bars across England and Wales, have chosen to implement networx complete e-recruitment management system, apoint+, to help improve their current recruitment process.
The system, due to be implemented within the next few weeks, is specifically designed for employers with regular or high volume recruitment activity and will include the development of a new corporate micro site, providing HR with a real-time overview of all recruitment activity.
Marston's Recruitment Manager,Helen Stuttard said: "Choosing a system was, from the outset, a little more complicated than normal as we needed to take into consideration the needs of both the Marston's Corporate Business and Marston's Inns and Taverns. Marston's Inns and Taverns attract a high volume of candidates for all vacancies within our 500 managed pubs. Through the implementation of apoint+ we are confident we will be able to deliver a first class application process whilst helping us achieve the strategic control we require."
Attracting the best quality candidates and improving the candidate experience were both primary requirements for the implementation. apoint+ offers the flexibility and advanced functionality to not only provide candidates with immediate access to Marston's current vacancies but also ensure that each and every candidate is contacted and notified regarding the outcome of their application; Key factors to improving the candidate experience.
A bespoke candidate registration process and integrated job alert functionality will also enable Marston's to reduce costs further through the development of a talent pool - potentially eliminating the need to advertise certain vacancies in the future. A comprehensive reporting suite completes the advanced functionality of apoint+ and will help Marston's stay in control by monitoring all recruitment activity, measuring costs against budget and evaluating performance of methods used.
25 March 2008 07:22 - www.personneltoday.com
Top retailers including Marks & Spencer, O2 and House of Fraser are losing out on thousands of talented job candidates because of badly designed websites, research has revealed.
Only 40 out of 100 retail recruitment sites evaluated by independent adjudicators were deemed good enough to attract candidates. Even many of those judged attractive to jobseekers were said to be far too difficult to use.
At some famous high street names, less than 2% of visitors to their recruitment pages complete an application form, equating to a cost of £300 per job applicant.
Peter Gold, managing director of recruitment consultancy Hire Strategies, which commissioned the research, told Personnel Today: "Imagine going to a shopping centre, being unable to find your favourite store on the map, and finding that the people you ask for directions can't explain how to get there.
"That is how difficult some retailers make it for jobseekers looking for their careers websites."
The 60% of retailers that researchers gave up with before even trying to apply for jobs were difficult to find on Google and from major careers sites. They also lacked clear information on company culture, diversity policy and corporate social responsibility.
Even those sites that were easy to find and attractive to jobseekers often required candidates to spend hours looking for information on jobs and filling out forms, the researchers found. "Far too many retailers are not taking e-recruitment seriously, instead no doubt relying on recruitment agencies to fill vacancies," said Gold. "If HR wants to show real value, and reduce some heavy operational costs, this is an obvious area to concentrate on."
A British Retail Consortium spokesman said: "Retailers have created half a million new jobs since 1995. Retail has the best record of any sector of offering flexible working and employing people who traditionally find it difficult to get back into work. That confirms they are doing a good job. "But no retailer would want to lose customers or job applicants because of website failings and they are always looking to improve their sites."
Making your website attractive and easy to use is a difficult task but one that you may consider should be a lot easier for the top retailers. Especially considering the simple fact that they have the budget to not on constantly re-design the website but also conduct the necessary research to identify users needs and wants etc If these kind of companies are struggling perhaps this highlights the truly difficult nature of getting it 'right' and making sure your website stays in tune with changing demands.
Attracting candidates is also very competitive but a strong brand name can help considerably. For those of us who do not have such a direct flow of potential candidates to our websites, it makes sense to 'piggy back' those who do attract high volumes of job seekers. Advertising vacancies on a selection of job boards helps you achieve exactly this and ensures that your vacancies receive maximum exposure.
To then direct these candidates through to a dedicated careers page ensures quality of information and branding whilst an online application process presents a first class candidate experience to each and every applicant. A simplistic and low cost approach that makes attracting and guiding candidates through the required areas of your website accessible to all businesses.
According to Business Green (31.03.08), Business was the only major sector of the economy to see its carbon footprint rise with emissions from transport and residential properties remaining at 2005 levels.
As the current sales force which spans across the UK continues to grow, travelling to and from client meetings is one of the company's main contributors. The simple introduction of online meeting technology has enabled networx to conduct meetings with clients via the Internet and reduce the need to travel throughout the UK. This alone has helped reduce the number of client visits by 30%.
Through the introduction of an online application process to companies across the UK we are also helping other businesses reduce the amount of paper required throughout the process.
When is the best day to place an advert?
When are job seekers most active?
Whilst many companies continue to believe that vacancies need to be placed on a Friday to target an expected high volume of weekend job seekers, reports show that this is in fact the slowest period for applications.
Following a phenomenal surge of 80,000 adverts posted on Thursday prior to the Easter Bank Holiday, Broadbean has revealed that the high volume of vacancies was NOT met with the high number of jobseekers that many expected - infact jobseeker activity was extremely low.
The data collected by Broadbean actually highlighted that the least effective time to advertise a job is on Friday with little activity recorded over the weekend and before noon on Monday.
This trends seems to be applicable throughout the year with adverts receiving the highest response on Tuesday and applications slowing as the week continues.
The presented information has also been supported by the Telegraph and jobs.telegraph.co.uk. In September 2007, they too reported that despite the fact that Friday witnessed the highest number of adverts being posted (accounting to 25% of the weekly total).. "the majority of jobseekers do their job searching during work hours on Monday to Thursday"