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Leveraging Mobile Recruitment

Many online job boards, such as Beyond.com, have recognized the value of the mobile movement and are offering mobile recruitment strategies that benefit both job seekers and employers alike. For example, Beyond.com offers mobile job searching across its network of thousands of niche career communities and also boasts two mobile applications which provide recruitment capabilities across three major smart phone platforms, including iPhone®, Windows Mobile® and Blackberry®. Mobile applications are growing in popularity and offer an excellent venue for employers to distribute their job postings and connect with job seekers on-the-go. When selecting an online recruitment vendor, employers should research if the job board offers automatic job distribution to mobile devices, which allows the company to accomplish both online and mobile distribution at once, extending their reach to job seekers and yielding faster applies.

Another effective way for employers to quickly connect with candidates is through text-messaging. Text-messaging is the only universal mobile platform for the masses, and is available on over 98% of all cell phones, according to CellSigns.com. Employers can invest in mobile marketing through short codes, which is a 5 or 6 digit mobile code that has the ability to send and receive text messages. There are also many text-messaging applications available to help employers deliver a mass quantity of text-messages at one time. If leveraged correctly, text-messaging could prove to be a powerful, yet personalized recruitment tool for employers.

While mobile recruiting may be the wave of the future, it is important that employers continue to keep their options open and never invest too heavily in one type of recruitment solution alone. Mobile recruitment is an excellent tool that can help employers maximize their recruitment program when used as part of an integrated campaign that includes a variety of other tactics such as: online ads, email marketing, banner advertising, resume searching, and more.

To learn more about the mobile recruitment options available through Beyond.com, please visit: http://www.beyond.com/career-resources.

Is it Time to Make a Career Change?

In today’s economy, it can be intimidating to consider a career change.  In fact, many people have probably held on to their jobs longer than they would have in the past because they knew it would be a difficult task to find a new job.  With many new government incentives for job creation, it may finally be the time to consider changing careers if you are unhappy.  Of course, it is important to carefully analyze whether it is your actual career you dislike or whether your employer, supervisor, or office situation is the problem.

So what are some reasons to consider a career change?

• Feeling Unappreciated - many employers underestimate the power of employee praise and recognition. Many people are motivated by these forces and thrive off of appreciation. If those needs are not being met, then the person will slowly lose their drive and motivation and will resent their job. This is a big reason why many people will switch careers - so that they feel their efforts make a difference and are appreciated.
• Poor Company Culture – If your office environment exhibits poor communication, lack of teamwork, micro-management, and you feel like you don’t fit in, it could be time to consider a new career.
• Compensation - You are not compensated enough to sustain your cost of living, are not being paid your “market worth” or are being overworked for the amount of pay that you receive.
• Commute – Most professionals want to live less than 25 miles from where they work. How close or far you live from work affects your level of satisfaction with your current job. Dealing with constant rush hour traffic and long commute times is often enough to make many people decide to consider leaving their current position.
• Boredom – Your career no longer challenges or excites you and you find yourself dreading work every day which can affect your productivity and level of career satisfaction.
• Benefits - medical and supplemental benefits are an important part of any job and if an employer fails to provide adequate benefits, it could lead employees to want to make a career switch sooner than later.
• Company Downsizing – the company you work for is not doing well and may downsize in the near future which puts your job in jeopardy. Time to turn the negative into a positive by exploring your interests and pursuing work that will make you happy and satisfied.

There are many online communities that offer free career advice and resources to help you “put your best foot forward” in presenting and marketing yourself to potential employers.  Before you take a leap of faith, research your options, know what is available and do your best to make yourself stand out to potential employers.  Good luck in whatever you decide!

Job Outlook for 2010

As 2009 came to a close, employers cut 4.2 million jobs, the unemployment rate averaged 9.3 percent, and nearly 15.3 million people were unemployed, leaving numerous business professionals across many different industries looking for work. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate was unchanged at 10 percent in December, even though employers shed 85,000 jobs that month. To put it in perspective, at the very start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed was at 7.7 million with an unemployment rate of just 5.0 percent. Needless to say, even though some would predict that the economy is bound to improve in 2010, the nation has a long way to go with consumers remaining hopeful that 2010 will be the year of positive change especially with President Obama’s new Bill to create new jobs. 

Few companies that were indeed hiring in fourth quarter 2009 received an overwhelming amount of interest in their positions, making it difficult to sift through thousands of applicants and making the competition for jobs fierce amongst applicants. Desperate times call for desperate measures. For those that are or would be considered unemployed, it seems as though most are willing to take on any job they can get to stay in the workforce. In December, four in ten unemployed workers were jobless for 27 weeks or longer according to the US. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is important that professionals out of work for a long period of time realize flexibility is important. Not only is it important to keep your options open, but to consider part-time employment or going back to school to increase knowledge or change careers towards a more recession proof profession, such as healthcare. It’s also a good way to keep your skills and resume fresh. On the flip side, during tough economic times, employers often look to increase temporary or part-time resources to handle work without long-term commitments. It’s no surprise that according to our fourth quarter 2009 data, employers posting part-time positions increased by 5% over the previous quarter, compared to employers who posted full-time positions which increased by only 2%.

The good new is (yes, there is some good news) certain segments of the job market did show areas of growth. Over 73% of industries had some percentage gain in online jobs over the previous quarter. In addition, over 54% of new employer registrations had 50 or less employees, proving that small businesses can remain strong even in a down economy and provide numerous job opportunities for business professionals. According to President Obama, over the past fifteen years, small businesses have created roughly 65 percent of all new jobs in America. With his plan to increase new jobs and provide tax breaks, largely for small businesses, we are hopeful that we will have even more good news to share next quarter.

Top Five Reasons Why Hiring a Contractor is Beneficial to Employers

This week in Washington, DC a bipartisan meeting at the White House addressed the economy and job creation.  However, with jobs being one of the President’s top priorities how likely is it that the Senate will accept a $400 billion budget to create jobs when it was just announced that employers are being hit with a hike in unemployment insurance taxes?  How are employers going to be able to afford to hire new workers?   This will certainly be putting a crimp in the desired job bill.  So what does this mean for employers looking to hire new workers? 

With this added expense employers may turn to hiring contractors instead of full time employees. Here are the top five reasons why hiring a contractor is beneficial:

1. Don’t stretch your current resources thin. Bring in a contactor when a proposed project requires a subject matter expert who has one specific focus.
2. Get ready to move fast! Contractors are usually hired to focus on one thing unlike your full time staff…so your contractor can work without interruption and get a project up and running quickly.
3. New contractor not meeting your standards? As an employer you make a big investment in your full time employees, but with a contractor you don’t have that level of commitment, so if you need to let them go you’re not as impaired as you would be if that job was filled by a full time staff member.
4. Save your HR team valuable time. Hiring a contractor doesn’t take as long as it does to hire a full time employee.
5. Success through osmosis! Bringing in a contractor with knowledge that your current employees don’t have is a great benefit to your team—everyone can gain from a new skill set.

Monster.com Attempts to Reclaim Throne as #1 Job Site by “Acquiring” HotJobs.com

Last week, Monster.com announced their intent to acquire Yahoo! HotJobs from Yahoo! for $225 million in cash.  As part of this deal, Monster entered into a three year traffic agreement with Yahoo!, the #2 search engine, and will now be the exclusive career site on the Yahoo! home page in US and Canada.  Monster also gained the right to negotiate similar traffic deals with Yahoo’s international organizations (such as UK, France, India and Brazil), which was a huge consideration since Monster earns a significant portion of their revenue internationally.

One thing is for sure - the $225 million spend is not justified on a multiple basis of HotJobs revenue.  So what made this deal so appealing?

“Well first of all, this was Monster’s way of reclaiming their throne as the #1 job site in North America based on traffic, causing CareerBuilder.com to fall to #2,” says David Brensilber, Senior VP of Business Development for Beyond.com and former VP of Business Affairs for Yahoo! HotJobs.  “The deal was never about HotJobs revenue, clients or branding.  In fact, it is still yet to be seen if Monster even plans to keep the HotJobs brand.  The deal was about aligning their company with Yahoo! and creating a baseline source of traffic similar to other players in the career space, such as CareerBuilder.com who has exclusive traffic deals with MSN and AOL.”

Another huge selling point of the “acquisition” was HotJobs’ newspaper consortium deals, which is an enormous access point for millions of customers across North America.  By gaining the opportunity to work with over 600 newspapers, Monster now has the ability to drive “local” traffic to their website and further expand the “local” approach to their business, which they have been struggling to do thus far. In a time when sites like Beyond.com are focused solely on local and niche recruitment, Monster needed to do something drastic to try to keep up

It is also worth mentioning that the HotJobs announcement was a well calculated move by Monster. 

“It is certainly no coincidence that the PR regarding the HotJobs “acquisition” was published only one minute after the release of their fourth quarter and full year 2009 financial results,” says Rich Milgram, CEO of Beyond.com.  “This was a good move for Monster in an attempt to deflect their 33% decline in revenue in 2009.  Monster experienced a tough year and the news of a new acquisition was their way of trying to turn it around."

So what does this deal between Monster and HotJobs mean for their customers?  More job seekers will be going to the same site, but the content will likely remain unchanged.  With more job seekers and the same job inventory, it can only result in one thing – more job applies, further overwhelming employers who are already inundated with mounds of unqualified applicants.  Another source of frustration will likely arise from the overlap in customers and product sales between the two organizations.

As for the career space in general, the consolidation of similar product lines from Monster and HotJobs is great news for Beyond.com, as it creates an opportunity for niche sites to be an even bigger player at the table as employers look to diversify their recruitment ad spend.  When you think of the top players in the career space now, HotJobs.com has left a huge void in the top three that Beyond.com is more than willing (and capable) to fill.  Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com and Beyond.com…it has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

Beyond.com Career Trends Report: Small Businesses Offer New Hope to Unemployed Americans

Part-Time, Temporary and Small Business Jobs Experience Growth in Fourth Quarter of 2009

In the wake of President Obama’s proposal to provide more loans and tax credits to small businesses to promote jobs, Beyond.com, Inc., the world’s largest network of niche career communities, today issued its Q4 2009 Career Trend Analysis Report indicating that small businesses continue to serve as the backbone of the United States economy.

According to the report, which gathers information across thousands of top-tier industry and local career sites, the largest majority of newly registered employers in Q4 2009 were companies with fewer than 10 employees with 31.94 percent, up from 27.25 percent last quarter.  Additionally, more than 55 percent of employers who registered with Beyond.com in Q4 2009 had 50 employees or less, an indicator that small companies are continuing to lead the pack in terms of hiring.

According to the GDP Report released by The Bureau of Economic Analysis, the U.S. economy grew at the fastest pace in more than six years during Q4 2009 – providing hope that the recession may be nearing an end.  While the economic recovery is beginning to gain strength, job growth is clearly lagging.  In 2009, not a single industry was able to sustain steady, incremental growth quarter over quarter according to Beyond.com.  Sectors such as Healthcare and IT, which have proved to be resilient throughout the recession, even experienced a slight dip in jobs over the past quarter.

 “The government incentives for hiring couldn’t come at a better time, as we are beginning to see employers test the waters in terms of hiring again,” said Rich Milgram, CEO of Beyond.com, Inc. “In Q4 2009, Beyond.com recognized a 4.52 percent increase in part-time positions, which is not surprising since this option provides less financial commitment to employers in uncertain economic times.  As the economy continues to strengthen and small businesses begin to stabilize, companies can finally start reinvesting in themselves, providing more opportunities to get Americans back to work.”

To view the complete Career Trend Analysis Report and Industry Outlook Reports, please visit http://www.Beyond.com/Media/QuarterlyReports.asp.

Top 10 Tips On How to Be a Successful Entrepreneur

As an entrepreneur, it is important to understand: who you are, what you are good at and what you are passionate about.  Once you understand yourself, it is important to surround yourself with the right people to help you achieve your goals.  It can be extremely rewarding to own your own business, but it takes a lot of determination and sometimes risk in order to succeed.

I have been fortunate enough to work at a company which grew from the basement of our CEO’s home to a successful organization that now employees over 70 people.  Through the years I’ve been able to witness and identify many of the ways Beyond.com continues to grow, and thought it would be beneficial to share some tips on how to be a successful entrepreneur.

1. Push Beyond your comfort zone. Many business leaders, especially in technology, end up falling into what is the most comfortable for them. If you are an introvert, it is important to try your hardest to become an extrovert. If you are most comfortable coding, it is important to step back and allow employees to take care of this aspect of the business, so you can focus more on leading the business to success.
2. Be willing to be the hardest worker in your company. No one cares about your business as much as you do, which is why it is important as a CEO to demonstrate your dedication to the company. You can’t expect more out of your team than you are willing to give yourself.
3. Grow your business conservatively. It is important to understand your marketplace and who you are in your marketplace. Don’t try to grow beyond your means.
4. Make strategic hiring decisions. It is important to hire employees based on their ability to grow and succeed within your organization, which does not always mean they are going to possess the perfect skill set. Skills can be learned, however knowing how to be a team player is not something that can always be taught.
5. Trust your instincts. When you think something is right, it is almost always right. When you are questioning if something is right, it is probably wrong. Remember to trust your instincts when you are evaluating a major company decision. You need to feel comfortable that you are looking out for the best interest of the company and your employees, but you also don’t want to pass up a good opportunity because of uncertainty.
6. Focus on strategy. As an entrepreneur, it can be easy to get caught up in every minute detail of your company…after all, it is your baby. It is important to realize when to step back and trust your employees. In order to make room to focus on the strategic growth of your company, you must let go of some of your lower-level responsibilities.
7. Learn how to be flexible. In today’s fast paced world, it’s not always possible to follow a plan exactly. Consumer interests are constantly changing, which is why you must be able to adapt your business at any given time. While it may not be necessary to change your entire strategy, you should be prepared to adapt along the way to reach the same end goals.
8. Ensure customers are satisfied. If you want to grow your customer base, make sure you are properly servicing your customers. At Beyond.com, we are dedicated to providing a superior level of service to our customers, and even offer live chat via the internet.
9. Create a fun and rewarding atmosphere for your employees. Team spirit is critical to the success of a company and because employees are your best resources, it is important to provide them with the necessary tools, resources and support that they need to accomplish and exceed their individual and corporate goals. At Beyond.com, we believe in the creation of a healthy and productive work environment which promotes and rewards collaboration, creativity, continuous learning, flexibility and leadership.
10. Take the time to network and give back to the community. Take the time to share ideas, network and give back to the community, which will allow you to grow both professionally and personally. Participating in community service as an organization allows your employees to work together to achieve a common goal, allowing them to feel good about themselves for giving back to the community, while also learning how to work together as a team.