I’m about to blow my own trumpet so, as convention dictates, first I must self-deprecate.
I don’t have a qualification to my name, and have never been promoted. I did of course achieve my Gold Arrow in the Cubs, was a seconder then a sixer, and in the Scouts was made Assistant Patrol Leader and PL, before getting my Chief Scouts Award. But that’s where it all stopped. I got the usual pieces of paper from high school, but left my college course in chemistry after only 2 weeks, to take a real job. In employment, I have always worked either directly for the owner of the company, or been the owner of the company, making promotion pretty hard to come by.

Enough self-deprecation? Then I’ll begin.

I’m not what most people would describe as modest, but after 26 years in recruitment, it turns out I do know some stuff. It is now the 13th year of the National Online Recruitment Awards, which I started in 2001. In that time I have continually researched our industry’s online offerings, including job boards, recruitment agencies, employers and publications. In that research, I must have registered with thousands of websites; considerably more than even the most determined jobseeker. Given this, I’d be quite happy in a pub quiz, an episode of Pointless or Eggheads even, for the subject of Online Recruitment to come up. In fact, I’d fully expect Judith Keppel to remark “Oh shit, they’ve got O’Donnell”, if this ever transpired.

So last week, prompted by an article I’d written earlier in the year, I was helping a good friend prepare parliamentary questions on the subject of a particularly bad government recruitment website. This friend of mine,who has known me since the age of 11, asks in all seriousness, “Are you sure about this? Do you have anyone else as a second opinion to backup your assertions about this?” I would have been less taken aback, had I just heard that Nigel Farage was taking over as leader of the SNP! I realise that its not always good form to claim expertise in anything (especially when self-titled gurus are so lampooned), but I was forced to re-state that I really do know this shit. In fact, reluctant as I am, I know that in the UK, I’m actually considered to be an authority on the subject of online recruitment (amongst a few notable others, of course).

So the next time I’m asked to get my mum to sign my homework on this topic, don’t be surprised if I smack someone in the mouth.

“You can use social media to recruit however; if you use one medium in any recruiting strategy you limit the opportunity of success.  First you need to think - who am I looking for, where are they likely to be?  I would recommend that you use it to support and strengthen your overall recruitment strategy where relevant. Social media can be a useful tool for employers to find background information on a potential candidate – for example, understanding their interests, who they engage with online and their general personality.”

David Henry, VP of Marketing for Monster UK & Ireland

Not only can you use social media to recruit, but you must. Today’s candidate spends hours curating the world according to their interests via social platforms; your brand can become a part of that world. Social media helps you create a talent community where candidates, employees, and fans can come together to discuss your message and learn about and share your careers. Without a social recruiting strategy, you pass up access to candidates who are a “best-fit” for your company culture and are most likely to apply for your open positions. 

Stéphane Le Viet, CEO Work4 Labs

"With its ability to spread information quickly and efficiently, social media is now a key tool for any serious recruiter. In fact, the stats from the US are pretty startling, so the short answer is an unequivocal  'yes'!.  Social media accounts for 16% of all hires in the US and one in six people claim to have got their job through Facebook alone. 80% of employers are using social media to find people for jobs, 65% of US companies have made successful hires using social media and 55% of companies plan to increase their social recruitment budget."

James Uffindell, CEO of Jobbounties.com

Today social networks form a major platform from which recruiters source and interact with prospective candidates. But internal hiring managers are missing a trick when it comes to using social media to recognise and optimise the talent already in their organisations. Talent management software, which incorporates social media functionality, can help organisations to better understand their workforces through social collaboration and learning. By encouraging employees to share content and expertise with each other, companies will know which internal candidates are best qualified to fill vacancies during recruitment drives, thereby narrowing the gap between social networking and talent management.

Nicholas Roi, MD of SilkRoad UK

“If you’re not using social media to recruit then you’re missing out on thousands of potential candidates. The proper management of social networks is essential if recruiters want to extract as much value from them as possible. In order to reduce the amount of time-consuming admin involved, recruiters should use tools that enable automatic reposting on multiple networks, passive candidate identification, and content sharing – after all, recruiters that treat the networks like job boards won’t attract the best candidates – it’s necessary to engage an audience with interesting content.”

Peter Linas, International Managing Director of Bullhorn

“By building useful content at every available online touchpoint between client and candidate alike, the savvy recruiter can circumvent exorbitant CPC’s and ultimately engender an engaged community that is ripe for referral. Agencies that use social media to communicate vertical specific information or market snapshots will be viewed as a resource of genuine value and by offering content beyond a simple branding exercise will see their reputation enhanced. So, yes, you can use social media to recruit, but it is about using the right platform to deliver useful and relevant content for the candidates you are trying to attract.”

Ben Gibson MD of The Search Agency UK

To read the full magazine, click here

Previously, the Milwaukee Journal was partnered with Monster.com. The launch of JSJobs marks a turning point for Milwaukee Journal’s online recruitment strategy by moving to a job board platform which enables more control and responsiveness to the needs of their jobseeker and employer audiences.

Jobseekers can take advantage of the powerful job-search tools on JSJobs to browse hundreds of Wisconsin jobs, post their resume, set up email job alerts, share jobs on social media and more. JSJobs' sophisticated search engine is like having your own personal recruiter. It identifies your search patterns to help you find and consider the most relevant jobs. And when you take a break from your online job search, JSJobs continues the hunt, delivering alerts about job opportunities to your email and inbox around the clock.   

Employers can start posting jobs and searching resumes in just a few clicks by using the simple to use self-service employer services. JSJobs is designed to maximize recruitment efforts to attract new hires locally and fill positions more quickly with qualified talent. It’s a power-packed suite of online tools with the massive reach of the Journal Sentinel behind it.

After reviewing the needs of HR professionals and finding that they were looking for more advanced solutions, the Journal looked for a platform that was more robust, easier to use, and could be customized. After looking into other providers, and gaining positive feedback from other Madgex partners, the decision was made to move to the Madgex job board platform.

Madgex has many unique features, but what most impressed us was the ability to be iPad and smartphone ready. Since interaction from candidates via these sources will far surpass traditional computers, we needed a solution that would be more easily accessible to candidates.

Susan Quinn, Multi-Media Recruitment Advertising Manager for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel stated “My entire recruitment team and our clients are very impressed with the Madgex job board platform. It is very easy to use from both the jobseeker and recruiter standpoint. Recently at a SHRM conference, many clients came up to us to tell us what a great response they are seeing from our product. We look forward to bringing new features that Madgex offers.”

Moving forward JSJobs will benefit from ongoing upgrades, new innovations and enhancements thanks to the Madgex job board roadmap. This will enable JSJobs to remain at the cutting edge of job board technology whilst also providing user experience excellence.