April 2010 Hiring Trends Show Slow Improvements
U.S. employers in April added 290,000 new hires, more than Wall Street expected and the largest gain since March 2006, according to a recent WSJ article. The unemployment rate rose to 9.9%, a sign that more Americans are looking for jobs.
At the end of April 2010, the major job aggregation sites released hiring data and analysis, indicating slow but measurable growth. Below is a summary job report from Indeed.com, SimplyHired.com, and Execunet.com.
The slow job growth demonstrates some early signs of a recovery. However, job growth was inconsistent, effecting some cities, industries and job functions more than others. Indeed.com publishes a monthly report of where the jobs are, giving insights into which job market is strongest and which is weakest. Indeed’s job market survey shows slightly stronger job advertising activity, demonstrating slow growth.
Indeed’s April 2010 survey of job advertisements show the job market is strongest in Washington DC and San Jose CA. Washington has been at the top of the list for a while, as Federal government spending has been high. However, San Jose CA improved in April to sharing a 1:1 ratio of unemployed per job advertisements. The top 10 job markets are geographically spread throughout the US (with the exception of the Southeast US). Baltimore, NYC, Salt Lake City UT, Oklahoma City OK, Hartford CT, Boston MA are all at 1:2 ratio of unemployed to job advertisements. Seattle WA & Austin TX, both at 1:3, round out the 10 best job markets.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is Detroit MI (#48, 1:7), Los Angeles CA (#49, 1:8), and Miami FL (#50, 1:9). Florida has the unfortunate distinction of having 4 of the worst 10 job markets – Tampa (#40, 1:5), Orlando (#42, 1:5), Jacksonville (#44, 1:6) and Miami (#50, 1:9). California has 3 of the worst 10 job markets – Sacramento (#46, 1:6), Riverside (#47, 1:7), and Los Angeles (#49, 1:8).
It’s interesting to note that these ratios have been slowly improving month over month through 2010. This indicates that there is some job growth, but it’s growing at a very slow pace.
Proactive Recruiting
Over the years, one of the biggest challenges Hire Velocity has faced is communicating the importance of proactive recruiting to our clients. A large majority of US companies approach recruiting from a much more reactive standpoint. For example, many companies fail to build the relationships and talent pipelines they should be building, when hiring is down. Instead, many companies wait until five electrical engineers are needed, and they post jobs expecting to get the five best electrical engineers out there. Although this approach does work occasionally, we have come to find that the best talent is acquired through continuous proactive recruiting. Creating a talent pipeline can enable your company to pick from the best available prospects when the time comes. Generally, companies may view proactive recruiting as the more expensive approach, but the cost of reactive recruiting can reach similar heights while necessarily bringing back the quality talent you’re looking for in a timely manner.
Instead, find a recruiting partner that can build relationships with prospective applicants and passive candidates in order to streamline the hiring process. The University of Illinois at Chicago did a study on proactive recruiting particularly pertaining to finding qualified female candidates. In two different job searches for the same position, proactive recruiting nearly doubled the number of qualified applicants and showed a huge increase in the number of female applicants. Proactive recruiting was defined as an aggressive search for talent rather than a simple job post.
In recent years, Technology has eased the pains of creating an effective proactive recruiting process. Applicant tracking systems such as Silk Road’s Open Hire, iCims, and Taleo, (for example) have enabled companies to build robust talent pools and ease the process of finding qualified passive candidates. Leveraging the right technologies can create the infrastructure and foundation needed to lower your recruiting costs and enhance your recruiting process. Thus, it’s essential to look past the “reactive” recruiting methods such as job postings, and create a proactive recruiting process that will build a much more qualified talent pool.
Finally, remember that it is always a good practice to continuously promote your brand from a recruiting perspective. Your career site is the door to your company and should display the goals, values and culture of your company. Once you do proactively get the candidate to your front door, make sure you leave a great impression!
Valeri Marks
CEO
Your trusted HIRING PARTNER
Let us help you HIRE the BEST, FASTER and PAY LESS
Technology Industry On Hiring Spree
The past few years have been hard on the recruiting industry, especially in the technology industry. With companies like Microsoft and Intel having mass layoffs last year, the industry seemed to get hit hard by the recession. However, many tech companies began a hiring spree late last year and continue to be actively hiring. ISI Group, a research firm, says that they believe overall revenues will rise more than 10% for the first quarter for many large tech companies. That is a major improvement when looking at a 16% decline just last year.
Take a look at Intel, a company that laid off 79,800 employees at the end of 2009. The popular computer chip maker said that it plans to hire 1,000 to 2,000 people in 2010, the first substantial hiring spree for the company in five years. Google, the world’s leading search engine company, said that it hired 786 new employees in the first quarter and that it expects to continue hiring.
The hiring spree in the technology industry is not just affecting the big players, smaller startups are also beginning to hire. LinkedIn, the social networking website for professionals, hired 184 people last year and 154 so far this year to bring its employee count to about 500. The company said it also plans to add an additional 300 hires this year. Another social media startup, Twitter, said it hired about 125 employees since last May, which brings the company to a total of 170 employees.
Source: Wall Street Journal
The Importance of Diversity Recruiting
Most American companies view recruiting diversity as a burden for business, unrelated to the idea of having diversity in the workplace but rather the hassle associated with finding diversity candidates. It’s no secret that diversity recruiting is not a common result of the standard recruiting process. Many companies find that diversity candidates are not resembled in the majority of resumes on Monster, Careerbuilder, and other large job sites. However, there are overwhelming benefits to integrating a diversity of cultures in the office. Several companies have found first hand that the diversity of culture has led to several new ideas that have increased efficiency or led to new products.
Take the Frito Lay organization for example, their desire to recruit diverse candidates led to their product Doritos. Increasing diversity in the workplace will also increase creativity. Not all problems can be answered with one solution; other cultures can bring new ideas, which a homogeneous culture might not stimulate. Therefore, diverse recruiting strategies will bring benefits to the workplace, which are always worth pursuing.
Additionally, in an examination of common western culture in comparison to eastern culture, one noticeable difference is the view of relationship management. Eastern cultures rely on strong relationships between whom they work with. As a result, many customers of companies in the Far East have strong relationships with those they work with. Recruiting diversity more specifically from Asian countries can create stronger relationships with customers and strengthen the ties between those you work with. One downside to diversity in the workplace can be barriers in communication, however those barriers subside over time leaving the benefits of recruiting diversity.
Byron West
President
Your trusted HIRING PARTNER
Let us help you HIRE the BEST, FASTER and PAY LESS
Generation Y
As we look forward to emerging out of this recession and reducing unemployment, a new and highly anticipated generation of employees is moving into the workforce. There seems to be a lot of skepticism about how effective the “me” generation will be. Growing up in a culture centered on instant gratification and focused on efficiency, this new generation of the workforce will bring a new set of cards to the table. No longer is the time dedicated to a job, a justified means to being promoted. Generation Y will now see their performance as the most justified reason for upward mobility in the company. In addition 35% of Generation Y employees wish to communicate with their boss several times a day. What is to be expected from these new employees should be clear, obtainable, and concise. Focused on efficiency, the more communication will be essential in obtaining the optimal performance from new workers.
In addition, Generation Y, or the “me” generation, seeks to obtain the security and status their parents obtained much earlier in life. In a recent survey Generation Y respondents ranked “working with a manager I can respect and learn from” as an 8.74 on a 10 point scale. With most new employee’s eyes set on upward mobility, the ability to gain wisdom from their managers is becoming ever more crucial. Skepticism about this new workforce has led Generation Y to be referred to in a negative connotation. However, I believe that the new mold of employees can bring new effectiveness to companies through their aptitude with technology and ambition to jump through the necessary hoops to achieve success. Most of Generation Y has grown up with computers and has become extremely proficient at navigating the Internet. Their awareness with new developing technologies will bring technology options that may have gone unnoticed. Nevertheless, with the new employees coming into the workforce, I think we can all anticipate what Generation Y will bring to the table.
Resources:
Questions and Answers about GENERATION X/GENERATION Y. www.bc.edu/wfnetwork. Sloan Work & Family Research Network, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2010. <wfnetwork.bc.edu/pdfs/GXGY.pdf>.
Byron West
President
Your trusted HIRING PARTNER
Let us help you HIRE the BEST, FASTER and PAY LESS
Powerful Tools: For Recruiters
A good recruiter not only finds the best talent, but does it quickly and efficiently as well. With Salesforce.com’s application exchange recruiters can find myriad applications to do just that.
While Salesforce is not an applicant tracking system, by utilizing its extensive database of applications, Salesforce can be equally as valuable as a Candidate Relationship Management tool. The PowerDialer application uses a powerful telephony tool, changing the way you reach out to candidates. For high-volume recruiting environments, the application can increase call efficiency by up to 400% through automatic updates of activities, automatic pre-recorded voicemail tool, and their powerful auto-dialer feature. Other applications such as Jobscience allow recruiters to distribute job openings and manage resumes all within the Salesforce platform.
Organization is fundamental in recruiting and that is where the Customer Relationship Management aspect of Salesforce comes in. By embracing Salesforce’s activity and task management features, recruiters can create a more organized and efficient workflow while keeping up a fast pace.
The true value of accurate candidate tracking truly adds to a more pleasant candidate experience. Qualified candidates are more likely to apply to a requisition after speaking to a recruiter that is familiar with them and any previous conversations they may have had.
Byron West
President
Your trusted HIRING PARTNER
Let us help you HIRE the BEST, FASTER and PAY LESS