Job Boards Tap Facebook For Gen Y Workers

Job Boards Tap Facebook For Gen Y Workers-->Recruiters are getting a vital new tool to hire Generation Y workers as major job boards such as CareerBuilder, Jobster, Yahoo HotJobs, and begin linking to the social networking site Facebook.-->
October 2, 2007

Job Boards Tap Facebook For Gen Y Workers
Recruiters are getting a vital new tool to hire Generation Y workers as job boards begin linking to the social networking site Facebook.

CareerBuilder, Jobster, Yahoo HotJobs and JobsinPods.com are among those developing Facebook applications in hopes of helping recruiters and hiring managers reach out to some 41 million active users of the popular site.

Many experts consider Facebook the leading Generation Y networking platform, not only for its reach but also because of the audience it attracts. Facebook’s fastest-growing demographic is people 25 years or older. More than half of the site’s users are out of college and many are seeking full-time jobs in a career-oriented environment, which makes them a coveted workforce group among employers searching for young talent, recruiting specialists say.

“Facebook is the sixth-most trafficked site in the country,” says Richard Castellini, vice president of consumer marketing at CareerBuilder. “It is a great medium for employers to become more relatable to this important segment of the workforce.”

CareerBuilder launched its Facebook application in late August. It matches Facebook users with job and internship opportunities. CareerBuilder’s technology sifts through Facebook users’ profiles, gathering information such as college major and hometown.
Job boards testing Facebook applications are ahead of the curve, says industry consultant John Zappe.

“It’s a fairly inexpensive way to help their clients—recruiters and hiring managers—gain brand awareness among young, passive job candidates,” Zappe says.
Chris Russell, founder and president of JobsinPods.com, developed a Facebook application because it gives employers additional visibility among members of Generation Y, who typically are defined as those born between the late 1970s and 2000. Launched in March, JobsinPods is an audio job board allowing employers to record podcasts containing information about career opportunities within their companies and distribute them electronically.

The company’s Facebook application was introduced this month and allows recruiters and hiring managers who are members of Facebook to embed their podcast in their personal page. Russell hopes to enhance his Facebook application, making it more interactive and creating a function to allow podcasts to be e-mailed.

“The iPod generation is bored with the conventional communication techniques that employers use to reach them,” he says. “They want something fresh and real, like podcasts, which are very commonly used within this group.”
Jobster also has launched a Facebook application. The Seattle-based job board has partnered with more than 230 companies, including Verizon and Boeing, to create an employer talent network.

“Facebook’s open philosophy makes it easy for job boards to develop applications for the networking site,” says Jonathan Duarte, president and CEO of Go Jobs Inc., a job board and recruiting consultancy in Orange, California. “I anticipate a lot more recruiting specialists will be turning to this tool for reaching Gen Y’ers.”
—Gina Ruiz

News in Brief Archive

Outsourced Jobs May Come Back to the U.S. because our dollar is worthless - Fed just laughs & prints another trillion.

Dollar's fall raises costs of outsourcing to India

Indian technology industry is slowed

By SAM ZUCKERMAN
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Like many U.S. startups, RFQConnect, a broker of shipping and warehousing services based in Santa Clara, Calif., looked to India for its software. The program that runs RFQConnect's Internet auction site was produced by a shop of six developers in Pune, a city in the western state of Maharashtra.

Now, the decision to buy Indian has suddenly gotten more expensive.

As the dollar was plunging against the Indian rupee a few months ago, the Pune programming shop raised its hourly fee from about $22 to $25, an added expense an infant company such as RFQConnect could ill afford.

"It hurts. The profit margin suffers directly," founder Sergio Retamal said. "But it's understandable."

Around the globe, the falling dollar is touching everyone in the business world, from Saudi oil princes to U.S. computer makers, making American goods and services cheaper while raising the cost of foreign products.

One effect that hasn't received much attention is how the dollar's relentless drop is throwing a bit of sand into the gears of India's vaunted technology machine. That movement of technology operations to India is a trend that has emerged as a prime symbol of globalization in recent years.

The reason U.S. companies went to India for technology in the first place was to save money. Workers there in the outsourcing sector earn roughly one-eighth as much as their American counterparts, according to experts on India business. And software development services that might cost $200 to $275 per person per hour in the United States can be bought from an Indian company for $25 an hour or less, those experts note.

The past year, the dollar has fallen from about 45 rupees to about 39. That 13 percent drop, on top of significant pay increases there, has shaved part of the Indian cost advantage, forcing buyers and sellers of technology services to adapt. Economists expect the rupee to strengthen over the long term as India's economy matures.

"We are facing some tough questions. It's not an easy process," said G.K. Murthy, senior vice president with Sierra Atlantic, a Fremont, Calif.-based business software services company that does most of its programming in India.

One ironic bit of fallout from the falling dollar: Big Indian software companies are stepping up their hiring of American tech workers, who have suddenly become a lot cheaper to employ. For example, Bangalore technology giant Wipro Technologies recently unveiled a plan for a software development center in the Atlanta area that ultimately could hire 500 programmers.

To be sure, India's tech sector is still thriving. So far, the dollar's fall hasn't appreciably curbed the readiness of most U.S. companies to use Indian technology services, experts say.

"Even a reasonably sharp appreciation of the rupee doesn't change the fundamental cost difference between the two countries," said Johan Gott, an offshoring consultant with the firm A.T. Kearney.

But the combination of higher Indian salaries and a rising currency is prompting Indian vendors to pay closer attention to their costs and push through small price increases. And U.S. corporations that set up major technology centers in India are finding that their operations there aren't saving them as much money as they expected.

"It's a challenge," said Atul Vashistha, chairman of neoIT, a San Ramon, Calif.-based consulting firm. "They have to send over more dollars than they have in the past."

The giant Indian technology conglomerates such as Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Infosys Technologies are hedging their bets by expanding in countries such as China, where costs are lower than in India. They're also building business with European countries whose currencies have stayed relatively stable compared with the rupee. And they're bulking up in the United States.

Tata says it's pushing for greater productivity in India while reviewing where it invests around the world.

"Over the longer period, does it make sense to incur more expenses in the United States?" asked S. Mahalingam, the company's chief financial officer in India. "If the rupee gets down to 37 or 35 to the dollar, then it would make sense to create another development center in the United States."

Meanwhile, Tata says it is imposing price increases of 3 percent to 5 percent on existing contracts and 5 percent to 8 percent on new contracts. The company feels pressure to keep those increases small, because currency movements "are not a great argument for raising prices," Mahalingam said.

Q4 Labor Trends

CareerBuilder.com and USA TODAY released the results of our Q4 U.S. hiring survey today. Cautious, but steady hiring is the general consensus as employers keep a watchful eye on economic indicators. Twenty-seven percent of employers plan to add full-time, permanent employees in Q4. Six percent expect to decrease headcount while 62 percent expect no change and 5 percent are unsure.

Other highlights include:

• Hiring is expected to remain strongest in the South and West.
• 44 percent of employers say they currently have positions for which they can't find qualified candidates;
• 27 percent say they are currently retaining workers whom they otherwise wouldn't because of performance issues or a slowdown in work.
• The majority of employers plan to increase salaries in Q4. One-in-five estimate salaries will increase 4 to 5 percent.

empleosCB.com, a subsidiary of CareerBuilder.com focused on online job search for the Hispanic community, issued today a press release regarding Spanish-speaking job candidates.

Highlights Include:

• Nearly half of employers (48 percent) say they are hiring Spanish-speaking job candidates in 2007 and 2008.
• Twenty-nine percent of hiring managers say they are placing a greater emphasis in 2007 and 2008 on finding employees who can relate to the Hispanic audience.
• More than one-in-five (21 percent) hiring managers say they plan to target Hispanic workers more aggressively in 2007 and 2008.
  

Selling Employment Branding

By Matt Kelm
Sales Trainer
CareerBuilder.com
October 4th, 2007

This morning I attended a training on selling employment branding and the impact of advertising your companies brand in the marketplace. There were a few things that occurred to me during this presentation that I thought I'd share.

Branding, especially employment branding, is a long-term plan.

If you were running for president you wouldn't begin campaigning the night before the election and expect people to vote for you. Likewise, you wouldn't build your employment brand the day before you need an A-Sales player and expect them to apply for your opportunity.

BRANDING: WHY I HATE THE TERM ANCILLARY PRODUCTS!!

Every company has them in their offering and they are a great revenue driver for any sales rep who sells them. So why do I hate them? In truth, I think ancillary products are a fantastic way to penetrate an account and reach deeper into the pockets of our clients and prospects. The trouble I have with ancillary products is the term "ancillary products".

I think you'll understand where I'm going with this if we first take a look at a few synonyms for the word "ancillary." Synonyms for ancillary include: Secondary, Additional, Supplemental etc.

Should your company brand be secondary? Should attracting top talent by branding your company as a choice employer be supplemental?

Lets all pause and listen intently for the collective "No." I would rather associate these products, especially branding products, with terms like: "Value", "Market Share", "Choice Employer", "Revenue Driver". We've all read the countless survey results like the one recently conducted by Accenture that all say basically the same thing: "Attracting and retaining skilled staff ranked highest on executive agendas." So if we agree that brand should not be considered ancillary and that attracting and retaining top talent is at the forefront of the minds of executives I offer you this question:

Why are we not talking to executives about branding? The answer...Mindset

Because we do not truly understand what branding is or how it effects our customers business coupled with the fact that we often times view branding as something "additional" or "extra", more than 90% of the time we are not including branding anywhere in our initial sales pitch to prospects. Sure we'll pitch the basics because that is what we're used to and that is what we're comfortable with; it's what WE know. The truth is that branding should be included in every single pitch we make to our prospects.

Someone please find me a company that does not want to promote their brand. If you find one, I guarantee it won't be around for very long. Think about it. This applies to every size business. Starbucks needs to foster its brand to stay competitive and gain more market share. Ever heard of Matt's Electronic Shoppe? Me either. Want to work for them? Maybe, but I'd rather work for Best Buy. Sounds like they need to build their company brand and promote themselves as a choice employer.

I'll say this more than once: The only way to understand how to sell branding is to sell branding.

That's right, pick up the phone and start talking to your clients and prospects about it and you'll be amazed at the overwhelming response.

As a sales trainer I am tasked with training sales teams how to sell branding products and not surprisingly the trainings I run regarding this topic have the highest attendance numbers. Everyone is looking for that "magic bullet" or the one phrase that will make executives want to purchase every branding tool we have in our product suite. The answer however is that there is no magic bullet or one way to sell branding.

Looking back on my own experience selling branding, I learned a really important lesson early on. I was preparing to run a face to face appointment with a company and I had never pitched a branding solution before. I spent an enormous amount of time researching data on branding trends, preparing a 30 slide Power Point presentation, researching case studies, reading articles/books on the subject etc. and at the end of all of that I was no more prepared for the meeting than when I started. When it came time to sit down with the executives of the company I was meeting with and discuss brand I learned more in the hour I spent having a conversation with them about branding than I had in the days I spent researching the topic.

Why?

Because for the first time I was able to truly see how brand impacts an entire organization. I was able to see the forest and not only the trees. It was now more than just "you can put your logo here", it was "here is how you can attract an A-Sales player that will allow you to replace the under performing sales rep and increase your revenue by $500,000 this year alone" Those are two COMPLETELY different conversations. There is a huge difference between being "book smart" and being "street smart" and when it comes to selling branding you need street smarts.

What's the best way to sell branding? The only way to understand how to sell branding is to sell branding.

PICK UP THE PHONE AND TALK TO SOMEONE!

There aren't any books that will give you the talk track needed to hold a conversation with any business executive regarding this subject. Statistics, articles and books are great guide posts along the way but the only way to learn how to sell branding is to start selling it and not be afraid to screw it up a few times. I promise you that executives will not take you to the cleaners if your branding presentation is not perfect. These executives NEED you. They need a consultant to be a resource to them.

GET OVER IT AND GET STARTED!

To get you started I offer you the following conversation starters:

• HR Executive: What is your current employment branding practice? How effective is it?
• Marketing Executive: How does your corporate brand fit into your overall hiring strategy?
• C-Level Executive: What is your companies core value proposition?
• Anyone: How do you think your company can become a “choice employer?”

People to call:

• C-Level Executives
• VP of HR
• CMO/VP/Marketing Director

PICK 3 ACCOUNTS, CALL 1 NEW CONTACT IN EACH OF THEM AND HAVE A COVERSATION WITH THEM ABOUT BRANDING TODAY!

We're 91!!!!!!

CareerBuilder made Business Week's list of the best companies to start a career!

Take that, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office! (They came in 92nd place.)

Check out the rest of the list:
http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/career_launch/index.asp

CAUTIOUS, BUT STEADY HIRING EXPECTED FOR Q4, ACCORDING TO CAREERBUILDER.COM AND USA TODAY SURVEY

Chicago, October 3, 2007 – CareerBuilder.com, the nation’s largest online job site, and USA TODAY released the results of their latest survey, conducted by Harris Interactive®, tracking projected hiring trends for the fourth quarter of 2007. The survey, titled “Q4 2007 Job Forecast,” was conducted from August 10 through September 4, 2007 of more than 2,700 hiring managers and human resource professionals in private sector companies.

“Given the housing slump and tight credit market, caution is to be expected when it comes to hiring in the fourth quarter,” said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder.com. “While employers are keeping a watchful eye on economic indicators, they are still planning to expand staffs at a steady pace and are actively competing for qualified labor. Forty-four percent of employers said they currently have open positions for which they cannot find qualified candidates.” One-in-four employers (27 percent) report they will add new employees in the fourth quarter. Six percent expect a decrease in staff levels while 62 percent anticipate no change and five percent are unsure.

HIRING BY REGION

Consistent with previous surveys, hiring activity is expected to remain strongest in the South and West. Twenty-six percent of employers in the West and 31 percent in the South plan to increase their staff levels compared to 23 percent in the Northeast and Midwest. Plans to reduce headcount ranked highest in the Midwest at 7 percent, followed by the Northeast and South at 6 percent and the West at 5 percent.

HIRING BY COMPANY SIZE

Hiring is expected across all company sizes, from small and medium-sized businesses to larger corporations. Thirty-two percent of organizations with more than 1,000 employees plan to recruit new staff members. Twenty-six percent of employers with 501 to 1,000 employers and 30 percent of those with 251 to 500 employees also plan to recruit. Comparatively smaller organizations will be doing their part with 27 percent of organizations with 51 to 250 employees and 19 percent of those with 50 employees or less anticipating an increase in staff levels.

HIRING BY INDUSTRY

Comparing select industries, 35 percent of banking/finance, 34 percent of retail and 33 percent of sales employers expect to recruit new staff members in the fourth quarter, followed by 32 percent in information technology and 29 percent in both large healthcare (with over 50 employees) and hospitality organizations.

COMPENSATION IN Q4 2007

“The shortage of skilled workers has inspired more generous offers to job candidates and has resulted in companies holding on to existing employees who aren’t necessarily top performers,” said Ferguson. “Twenty-seven percent of employers say they are currently retaining workers whom they otherwise wouldn’t due to performance issues or a slowdown in work. In Q4, employers are ramping up their departments for the coming year and are likely to pay a higher price to attract and retain the right talent.” The majority of employers plan to increase salaries in the fourth quarter. Compared to the same time last year, 39 percent of employers say salaries for permanent, full-time employees will be 1 to 3 percent higher, while 22 percent estimate 4 to 5 percent. Six percent of employers say raises will range from 6 to 10 percent. Twenty-four percent of employers anticipate no change in compensation levels while 1 percent anticipate a decrease and 5 percent are unsure.

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 2,929 hiring managers and human resource professionals (employed full-time; not self-employed; with at least significant involvement in hiring decisions) ages 18 and over between August 10 and September 4, 2007 (percentages for some questions are based on a subset of either 2,793 or 2,865 hiring managers, based on their responses to certain questions). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income, as well as industry and company size, were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online. With a pure probability sample of 2,929, one could say with a ninety-five percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/-2 percentage points. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies. However that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

About CareerBuilder.com

CareerBuilder.com is the nation’s largest online job site with more than 22 million unique visitors and over 1.5 million jobs. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB), The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), the company offers a vast online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers. CareerBuilder.com powers the career centers for more than 1,100 partners, including 150 newspapers and leading portals such as America Online and MSN. More than 300,000 employers take advantage of CareerBuilder.com’s easy job postings, 23 million-plus resumes, Diversity Channel and more. CareerBuilder.com and its subsidiaries operate in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.careerbuilder.com. Media Contact: Jennifer Sullivan 773-527-1164 Jennifer.Sullivan@careerbuilder.com

Getting Around Your Current Contact and to the Economic Buyer by Bob Miller

Hey,

Below is the link to download an article (PDF) that was published by Miller Heiman. It has some interesting thoughts on how to get around your current contact and to the PEB or EB.

Enjoy!

http://www.mediafire.com/?adcemdzce3e


Here is a menu of time-proven techniques that have worked for us at Miller Heiman and for many of our clients to get around your current contact:

• Ask the Blocker directly what the Basic Issue is that prohibits her from taking you to the Economic Buyer. (You are trying to get a handle on why the person feels it would be a Lose.)

• Executing the above, however, means that you need to develop a Valid Business Reason for wanting to see the Economic Buyer. “Valid” here means valid from both the blocker and the Economic Buyer’s point-of-view, not from yours.

Valid Business Reasons may include:

• “I do not ever want to place you (i.e. the Blocker) in the position of doing my selling for me.”

• “I am not suggesting I go alone. How about you and I together giving her an Executive Briefing about what we are proposing? 15-20 minutes.”

•”I will be glad to introduce you to my Vice President and have him go with you to meet the Economic Buyer.”

• “The Economic Buyer is spending a lot of money on this project. We feel it is important that she know us face-toface. Also it is in your own self-interest to do this. Coach us as to when it would be best.”

• Bring in a completed Blue Sheet, Green Sheet or Gold Sheet about this sale. Emphasize Red Flags of concern and verify Strengths. Be transparent about why you want to see the Economic Buying influence

• Tell your Blocker that your management will not let you (the Sales Rep) book the business without us (or a member of your management team) meeting the Economic Buying Influence.

• Offer to give the Economic Buyer an Executive Briefing about some new knowledge or research that would be of interest to him. Ask the blocker to set it up.

• Offer an Executive Briefing with a senior person in your organization.

There is no one-size-fits-all silver bullet. Stay Win-Win. Probe to find the Basic Issue that is driving the Blocker. It is always some sort of trust issue. Therefore, reassure the Blocker that you understand, and will not go around him. But it is important to the relationship that at some point you meet the Economic Buyer. Companies do not build relationships, people do.