Forgot to mention, we are launching what we believe to be the first .jobs extension corporate careers portal in the region shortly. Not necessarily a good thing being first here, as not all jobseekers know yet about www.yourcompany.jobs as an option.
It made me think that some clients may also not yet know much about this. Well the powers that be behind the Internet have launched .jobs extensions, however there are a few rules associated to this new address. Firstly only employers can have and use the extension, so that means no recruitment agencies or jobsites should be allowed to register one (we'll see!).
I believe also that you have to have the same name registered under .com to be allowed to register the .jobs version. So in theory the company who own the career portal www.jamjoomjobs.com should able to register www.jamjoomjobs.jobs also, given that the company is called Jamjoom and that it is a direct employer.
I think that the .jobs extension if used properly could become a success as jobseekers should be able to remember and locate these sites easily, and without having to wade through any corporate sites to get to them, just type in the the company name, with .jobs on the end instead of .com
Contact me if you want any further details on this as the .jobs domain registration process is still a bit difficult.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
eRecruitment this week in Arabia
The Hiring Solutions Company, the company I run, held a few client discussions this week about careers portals we are currently building. The session led to us as usual surfing and brainstorming, discussing best practice, and also seeing some of the worst sites out there.
One site of note was www.thenewbreed.info which is the careers site of a video gaming company in the UK. They had creative freedom due to their business, but it isn't the cool factor that we benchmarking. The company in question had a poor reputation when it came to attracting talent. People in the market believed them to be a 'hire and fire' organisation, to work people too hard, etc.
The firm felt that some of the perception was unfounded, and that in some cases; yes they were a challenging firm to work for. Instead of hiding skeletons in their closet, they decided to attack, and openly discuss these issues on their career portal. If you visit the site you'll see that they state they seek to hire the best, and if you're not up to scratch then yes they will let you go. They are seeking to lead their field and innovate with great new gaming products, and that means hard work - so it isn't a place for the weak.
Does the same honesty occur in the Middle East markets? Not very often I must say. Clients tend to gloss over their issues, and try to push the positives such as a tax-free earnings environment and a nice lifestyle in a booming economy, where it is safe. Whilst it's hard to argue with promoting yourselves as a potential employer, I feel companies would do well to consider a better balance and start addressing the issues too. For example, would it be smart to tell families before they relocate their whole families that the environment is harsh; 50 degrees at times and arid (a desert tends to be!). Again I think employee blogs have a great opportunity here to add value and sincerity to a companies careers portal as they are more likely to provide useful personal info, and to be believed.
Mobile recruiting..
We launched great ATS functionality this week to allow further management of the recruitment process by recruiters and hiring managers when their on the road. And it's good stuff too. However having just launched that I then listen to a BBC documentary today explaining that there are 440Million mobile phone users in China, compared to only 110Million internet subscribers. Now you have to be careful with such stats, but it does make you wonder how important mobiles/PDA's are going to become for jobseekers. Currently we have great push technology in place to get info out to jobseekers via sms to their mobiles; but it looks as though it won't be too long before we should expect to see more demand for jobseekrs to be able to register basic interest in a company on the corporate careers site via their mobiles.
Regards for now..
Ben Fawcett
One site of note was www.thenewbreed.info which is the careers site of a video gaming company in the UK. They had creative freedom due to their business, but it isn't the cool factor that we benchmarking. The company in question had a poor reputation when it came to attracting talent. People in the market believed them to be a 'hire and fire' organisation, to work people too hard, etc.
The firm felt that some of the perception was unfounded, and that in some cases; yes they were a challenging firm to work for. Instead of hiding skeletons in their closet, they decided to attack, and openly discuss these issues on their career portal. If you visit the site you'll see that they state they seek to hire the best, and if you're not up to scratch then yes they will let you go. They are seeking to lead their field and innovate with great new gaming products, and that means hard work - so it isn't a place for the weak.
Does the same honesty occur in the Middle East markets? Not very often I must say. Clients tend to gloss over their issues, and try to push the positives such as a tax-free earnings environment and a nice lifestyle in a booming economy, where it is safe. Whilst it's hard to argue with promoting yourselves as a potential employer, I feel companies would do well to consider a better balance and start addressing the issues too. For example, would it be smart to tell families before they relocate their whole families that the environment is harsh; 50 degrees at times and arid (a desert tends to be!). Again I think employee blogs have a great opportunity here to add value and sincerity to a companies careers portal as they are more likely to provide useful personal info, and to be believed.
Mobile recruiting..
We launched great ATS functionality this week to allow further management of the recruitment process by recruiters and hiring managers when their on the road. And it's good stuff too. However having just launched that I then listen to a BBC documentary today explaining that there are 440Million mobile phone users in China, compared to only 110Million internet subscribers. Now you have to be careful with such stats, but it does make you wonder how important mobiles/PDA's are going to become for jobseekers. Currently we have great push technology in place to get info out to jobseekers via sms to their mobiles; but it looks as though it won't be too long before we should expect to see more demand for jobseekrs to be able to register basic interest in a company on the corporate careers site via their mobiles.
Regards for now..
Ben Fawcett
Friday, August 11, 2006
MonsterGulf launches - more choice has to be good
Quick post.. It was great to see our first client job postings appear on MonsterGulf today. They launched this week and Monster India are running the show which I think will work well to start with.
The job site scene is at last hotting up now, and a few major offline publishers are also getting into the market with their own jobs sites, aswell as one of the leading ISP's who are launching a regional site next month in 6 countries. Of course there is CareerMidEast and Bayt, who are already being given a run for their money by NaukriGulf a new site of Naukri.com, which is one of India's top 3 jobsites and employ something like 900 people which is quite staggering.
The choice and competition is already giving recruiters food for thought. I expect to see vertical sites tailored for this region, and the obvious sectors would have to be Oil & Gas, Hotels & Aviation. Let's see what else unfolds in 2006 as there is certainly room for many more good sites.
Got any more scoop on upcoming job sites??
The job site scene is at last hotting up now, and a few major offline publishers are also getting into the market with their own jobs sites, aswell as one of the leading ISP's who are launching a regional site next month in 6 countries. Of course there is CareerMidEast and Bayt, who are already being given a run for their money by NaukriGulf a new site of Naukri.com, which is one of India's top 3 jobsites and employ something like 900 people which is quite staggering.
The choice and competition is already giving recruiters food for thought. I expect to see vertical sites tailored for this region, and the obvious sectors would have to be Oil & Gas, Hotels & Aviation. Let's see what else unfolds in 2006 as there is certainly room for many more good sites.
Got any more scoop on upcoming job sites??
Internet for Dummies
The title of the post is meant to be a joke, and probably more to do with the person I sat next to on the flight back from Riyadh, than the recruiting issues I went there to discuss.
I spent a day working out an eRecruitment strategy for a large retailer across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is the largest market in the Mid East, with 25M population. A wealthy country spoilt by endless natural resources and the price of oil, often getting Saudi nationals into the workforce is the biggest recruiting challenge a company can face.
A key Saudi recruiter was trying to get to the bottom of how to get Saudis to apply for jobs on the Internet - especially for sales roles, which culturally are not that cool for a Saudi which I learnt today and found quite interesting.
Any pioneering users of recruiting technology will have faced the question: "do our candidates really use the Internet, will they apply?"
Well the signs here are good and getting better. The Middle East has amongst the highest growth rates in the world in terms of internet usage, 266% last year, whilst penetration is only at around 8-10%.
It was a great sign that a group of company Directors came in to work on a weekend today to work out how they were going to get the Internet to drive their recruiting program, but I wonder if enough education about how to use the Internet is happening across the region. I also question whether browsers are easy enough to use for those who have had only basic touch time with a PC.
These were really valid concerns for the group today, and whilst we all know retailers in particular now rely heavily on the Net for sourcing hires; more across this part of the world needs to happen in regards to languages, browsers and education of just how useful and simple the Net can be.
We decided to launch a bi-lingual (Arabic-English) careers portal, create CV kiosks and offer support to would-be candidates that may need support to make an application, to put some snazzy posters up in the shops to promote the site and to slip a promotional careers card into the bag of all Saudi national customers for 3 months along with their receipt. We're hoping a combined online/offline and customer visible approach will help to spread the word.
I guess this is viral marketing in a developing country (in terms of Internet usage) with a very Arabic flavour. I think it's a neat and practical approach, and really hope it works as well as we expect. As always, if you have any thoughts tips or practical experience to share then I'd love to hear them.
Ben.
I spent a day working out an eRecruitment strategy for a large retailer across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is the largest market in the Mid East, with 25M population. A wealthy country spoilt by endless natural resources and the price of oil, often getting Saudi nationals into the workforce is the biggest recruiting challenge a company can face.
A key Saudi recruiter was trying to get to the bottom of how to get Saudis to apply for jobs on the Internet - especially for sales roles, which culturally are not that cool for a Saudi which I learnt today and found quite interesting.
Any pioneering users of recruiting technology will have faced the question: "do our candidates really use the Internet, will they apply?"
Well the signs here are good and getting better. The Middle East has amongst the highest growth rates in the world in terms of internet usage, 266% last year, whilst penetration is only at around 8-10%.
It was a great sign that a group of company Directors came in to work on a weekend today to work out how they were going to get the Internet to drive their recruiting program, but I wonder if enough education about how to use the Internet is happening across the region. I also question whether browsers are easy enough to use for those who have had only basic touch time with a PC.
These were really valid concerns for the group today, and whilst we all know retailers in particular now rely heavily on the Net for sourcing hires; more across this part of the world needs to happen in regards to languages, browsers and education of just how useful and simple the Net can be.
We decided to launch a bi-lingual (Arabic-English) careers portal, create CV kiosks and offer support to would-be candidates that may need support to make an application, to put some snazzy posters up in the shops to promote the site and to slip a promotional careers card into the bag of all Saudi national customers for 3 months along with their receipt. We're hoping a combined online/offline and customer visible approach will help to spread the word.
I guess this is viral marketing in a developing country (in terms of Internet usage) with a very Arabic flavour. I think it's a neat and practical approach, and really hope it works as well as we expect. As always, if you have any thoughts tips or practical experience to share then I'd love to hear them.
Ben.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Search Engine Optimisation for Careers in Saudi
The topic of SEO for recruitment is a subject that deserves a fair amount of attention, and I'll serve up some of the ingredients later in the week. However, it has just dawned on me that I neglected to mention a bold client in my last post. I touched on the confusion in Kuwait forgot to share with you the wonderful client who asked for advice in how to get their careers site on top of Google et al.
For many/any of you reading from the States this may seem trivial, however we are not aware of MEA clients who have any significant spend from their recruitment advertising budget going on search engines. Postbacks from any corporate recruiters in the Middle East or Africa who are, would be great!!
So there we were having a classy business lunch in the food court of Faisaliah Tower in Riyadh, which incidentally would not be out of place in Manhattan, Moscow or Kuala Lumpur, and the recruiter responsible for attracting SAP consultants to projects in Iran, Saudi and surrounding countries is asking how we intend to get them to the top of Mount Google.
This was somewhat of a turning point in my week. A great conversation ensued about how much effort/budget might have to be redeployed into any new and creative means that were likely to reach the eyeballs of overseas technical skills. The diversity of thought and effort going on in places like Saudi Arabia to address recruitment challenges would astound many people I think. I hope some of our suggestions over lunch come to light and really help source some great SAP people. Once we're done with the CPM's, banners and sponsored newsletters, I'll report back on how it went.
For many/any of you reading from the States this may seem trivial, however we are not aware of MEA clients who have any significant spend from their recruitment advertising budget going on search engines. Postbacks from any corporate recruiters in the Middle East or Africa who are, would be great!!
So there we were having a classy business lunch in the food court of Faisaliah Tower in Riyadh, which incidentally would not be out of place in Manhattan, Moscow or Kuala Lumpur, and the recruiter responsible for attracting SAP consultants to projects in Iran, Saudi and surrounding countries is asking how we intend to get them to the top of Mount Google.
This was somewhat of a turning point in my week. A great conversation ensued about how much effort/budget might have to be redeployed into any new and creative means that were likely to reach the eyeballs of overseas technical skills. The diversity of thought and effort going on in places like Saudi Arabia to address recruitment challenges would astound many people I think. I hope some of our suggestions over lunch come to light and really help source some great SAP people. Once we're done with the CPM's, banners and sponsored newsletters, I'll report back on how it went.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Confusion in Kuwait
I have been looking for the inspiration to start my blog for some time, and found it this week when visiting Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Firstly I'll aim on the blog to share my perspective of the eRecruitment landscape from across the Middle East, Africa and the Far East markets.
The inspiration initially came from seeing yet again just how confusing eRecruitment is being made by a multitude of sinners (read: Vendors). I visited a Corporate in Kuwait City who thought they has bought an ATS, only to find they had actually procured a Pychometric test product which handles Assessment Centres. Clearly the client needs to up their vendor selection process here, but this is something we see time and again across the region, and in my mind only serves to slow down progress.
In researching the various blog providers I did see a related article discussing the difference between, an ATS, a TAS and a TMS - see how easy it is to confuse - but maybe more on that in a future blog.
One of the most interst things I've seen recently when reviewing blogs, is all the talk about companies having blogs dedicated to recruiting. Seen good work from Skype, Microsoft in this regard and PwC have just launched their own too. We're working with a retailer who represent The Body Shop in the MEA market and have been discussing adding a blog to their popular www.kojcareers.com careers site. The debate so far has been whether each employee should have their own blog, or whether a collective approach is wise. Any opinion on this would be most welcome as we are breaking new ground for the Middle East here and it would be good to have some sound reference points.
Blog you shortly..
The inspiration initially came from seeing yet again just how confusing eRecruitment is being made by a multitude of sinners (read: Vendors). I visited a Corporate in Kuwait City who thought they has bought an ATS, only to find they had actually procured a Pychometric test product which handles Assessment Centres. Clearly the client needs to up their vendor selection process here, but this is something we see time and again across the region, and in my mind only serves to slow down progress.
In researching the various blog providers I did see a related article discussing the difference between, an ATS, a TAS and a TMS - see how easy it is to confuse - but maybe more on that in a future blog.
One of the most interst things I've seen recently when reviewing blogs, is all the talk about companies having blogs dedicated to recruiting. Seen good work from Skype, Microsoft in this regard and PwC have just launched their own too. We're working with a retailer who represent The Body Shop in the MEA market and have been discussing adding a blog to their popular www.kojcareers.com careers site. The debate so far has been whether each employee should have their own blog, or whether a collective approach is wise. Any opinion on this would be most welcome as we are breaking new ground for the Middle East here and it would be good to have some sound reference points.
Blog you shortly..
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