July 2011

NetHire News is published monthly and emailed to recruiters, HR professionals and managers with hiring responsibilities. It contains information on the latest hiring trends and best practices, particularly in the areas of online and social media recruiting.

Single Job Posting Special

Buy 4 get 2 FREE

Postings can be used any time up to 6 months from purchase. Buy any of our single job postings and get 2 more of equal value FREE. Includes the following postings:

• Medium posting
• Maximum posting
• Maximum 3 city posting
• Maximum 3 city Guaranteed Posting
• Maximum 5 city posting
• all multi-city single postings

Expires July 31, 2011

10 Job Posting Pack Special

Get 10 jobs to use for up to 24 months. $199.50/job.

• $1995
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Hiring success 

Senior Oil Field Service Tech - Calgary, AB

CLIENT

An employment consultancy where speed matters.

SITUATION

The consultancy needed a few top quality candidates fast, for an oil field client.

SOLUTION/RESULT

NetHire targeted Calgary, Edmonton and Ft. McMurray for oil field technicians. The result was 4 applications in 4 days and 29 applications in the first 14 days. Client is super happy.

HVAC Project Sales Rep - St. Paul, MN

CLIENT

A large mechanical contractor.

SITUATION

Position has been open for 2 plus months with no qualified candidates even though it was advertised on multiple job boards.

SOLUTION/RESULT

NetHire targeted Minneapolis, St. Paul, Iowa and Chicago. The client has received 16 quality applicants in only 8 days.

Bilingual French/English Call Centre Reps -  Montreal, QC and Toronto, ON

CLIENT

Manufacturer of heath care products distributed globally.

SITUATION

Client has been challenged with keeping their call centres staffed with bilingual speaking professional customer service agents.

SOLUTION/RESULT

NetHire targeted bilingual speaking call centre agents in both the greater Montreal area and the greater Toronto area. The result was 47 bilingual applicants in 9 days, more than enough to fill all the clients open positions.

Job Slot Package Special

5 Single City Package

• Sale $499/month
• Reg. $689/month

5 Three City Package

• Sale $773/month
• Reg. $955/month

Job slot packages include:

• 5 jobs showing any time
• Change jobs anytime
• Your own control panel
• 3 city job postings show and are marketed in 3 cities.

This is a 1 year agreement price. 30% extra for a month to month, minimum 3 months.

Skills shortage wreaking havoc on employers

The Canadian unemployment rate is at a two-year low and there are thousands of jobs advertised everyday in newspapers and websites across Canada. The pace of hiring is expected to increase yet again for the second half of 2011 with Career Builder reporting that 61% of companies plan to hire during this time. So why are many Canadians still complaining that there is a lack of employment opportunities available? For those in-the-know that is an easy question to answer: there is not a shortage of labour, but a shortage of labour skilled in the areas that are in-demand. 

Skilled labour demand in the areas of IT; health care; oil and gas; mining and trades is not expected to slow. In fact, it will prove to be detrimental to the growth of these industries in the coming years as they struggle to find employees with the skills their positions require. 

As demand for employees increases so does turnover of skilled employees. Companies are increasing competition and are enticing employed skilled individuals to move over to their organizations by offering large compensation and benefit packages. It will become more important over the coming months and years, as full employment for individuals with in-demand skills comes to fruition, for companies to have in place policies and employee support systems that encourage employee retention. 

That is not to say that all industries are experiencing these shortfalls, or that all job seekers will benefit from this demand. In the past ten years the economy has rapidly changed, outsourcing of many positions that were primarily catered to by new immigrants and unskilled workers have been outsourced to countries with cheaper labour. 

New immigrants continue to come to Canada in search of better employment opportunities, loaded with their education and experience in health care, engineering and skilled trades. Yet their credentials are not recognized as equivalent, their language and social skills continue to lack behind and inhibit their chances of attaining gainful and productive employment in their chosen fields. As a result they are less likely to benefit from the demand for skilled labour. 

NetHire recently posted an advertisement for an entry-level receptionist and in 4 days was bombarded with close to 400 resumes, all the while searches for skilled oil field engineers and miners receive an average of 30 resumes in 30 days. These numbers show just how different the skills differential is, and how the gap between the educated and skilled is growing in comparison to positions that require no post-secondary education or technical skills.

Recruitment is only going to get harder for employers in need of skilled workers and it is up to HR professionals, business owners and recruiters to look to other sources of recruitment to reach the passive job seeker if they are to be competitive in the hunt for skilled labour.

July Hiring Deals

Applicant Tracking Systems are reducing quality applicants

There are now hundreds of applicant tracking system (ATS) providers. Some of the names you may see include: Hire Desk, Taleo and Talent Flow. The purpose of these systems is to help companies take in applications, organize them and track them throughout the hiring process.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the problem that these systems are creating: the reduction in quality applicants. Two main problems that exist are: asking candidates to create an account with a user name and password and asking them to spend 30 minutes to 3 hours filling out an application.

The companies selling these tracking systems are training clients to build online application forms with questions and requests for information in the hope that this additional information will provide better and deeper insight into the prospective candidate. They are also convincing clients that the longer and deeper the questionnaire, the more likely you will be to hear from qualified candidates or those who want to work for your company.

The problem

The best and brightest people are usually already working, busy and don’t have a half hour to 3 hours to fill out an application. Who has the time? Unemployed people, people not working and people stealing time from their current employer -  the people you are probably not trying to attract. If you are in an industry where labour is tight and there are a lot of job openings and you are chasing a small labour pool, forget the questions and make the application process simple. Those with simple application processes will have more encounters with qualified candidates than those with lengthy questionnaires. If you have hundreds of qualified people chasing your jobs then by all means use a lengthy application process to reduce the number of applicants.

Some of the better applicant tracking systems have parsing technology whereby an applicant emails or forwards their resume and it parses or breaks out the information into database manageable pieces. This parsing can usually find the important bits of information in a resume to bring it to the top as a resume of interest. This way there are fewer barriers in the way for talented people to give you their application. It’s okay to ask a few questions along with the resume submission, but beyond 5 minutes and you will start losing the talent you are trying to find.

Base your application process around methods candidates are familiar with. This may vary  by industry or position type. In the case of sales people, there is nothing wrong with putting a phone number in a posting; phones are a tool salespeople use everyday and this allows you to hear their voice and phone etiquette. For truck drivers and owner operators, let them just give you their name and number as most are on the road and don’t have a resume. For professional positions and senior management you should expect a professional resume and cover letter.

Applicant tracking systems are fine administrative tools however as labour shortages grow in many industries and professions it should be the convenience of the job seeker you are concerned with and not the convenience of your HR staff. Make the application process simple so the best and brightest talent can apply simply and easily.

It’s time to start hiring to replace those summer students

It’s been nice having those extra hands around, but in about 5 weeks those hands and feet will be heading back to school.

Many companies who bring on summer students find it difficult to operate without those bodies once they go back to school, especially companies that have had good growth over the summer months.

If you currently have summer students working, you should be checking with your staff to see if they need to replace them come September with full or part-time people.

If you need to be replacing students you need to start hiring now. Come September the labour pool shrinks dramatically because of the students going back to school. The best candidates will be snapped up early. It’s also an opportunity to start targeting parents who have been out of the work force for a year or two who are now ready to re-enter the workforce as their children go to school.

So if you have students working, start thinking about replacing them now.

Unemployment statistics 

CANADA

Canadian monthly unemployment rate (%) seasonally adjusted 

The Canadian unemployment rate is at a two-year-low 7.4 per cent after nearly triple the expected amount of Canadians started new jobs in June. The economy created approximately 28,000 new jobs, putting Canada on a three month up-swing in job development that contributed to a 12-month national growth of 1.4 per cent. The expected increase of jobs was to be around 10,000, making the months growth all the more surprising and enticing to economists.

The number of jobs was dramatically increased in thanks to 51,000 public sector jobs and 22,000 new private sector jobs, which offset the only significant decrease of 44,000 Canadians who were identified as being self-employed.

Most industry employment figures held steady this past month, with the exception of transportation and warehousing which rose by 19,000 jobs and set the record with the fastest growth of any industry: 5.4%. 

Ontario and Alberta led all growth with 40,000 and 22,000 new jobs respectively. Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec had declines in jobs in June, while everywhere else was largely unchanged.

There was an increase in part-time jobs in June, however over the past twelve months full-time positions accounted for 205,000 or the net 238,000 jobs created.

UNITED STATES

US monthly unemployment rate (%) seasonally adjusted 

The unemployment rate in the USA now sits at 9.2 per cent after announcing that just 18,000 new jobs were created in June. The government also revised the May numbers to reflect a growth of 25,000 jobs that month. This is in stark contrast to the months from February to April where the average job growth was 215,000 jobs per month.

These figures, while sobering, are not totally unexpected. The financial uncertainty facing the government as it approaches the debt ceiling has halted all growth as organizations brace themselves for changes that must come.