Looking to the Cloud – Going Beyond a Tick-Box Exercise

shutterstock_164639090Cloud computing has transformed the way businesses operate, but choosing the right solution can be tricky. Toby Conibear, European Business Development Director at Bond International Software, explains why it’s important to avoid undertaking a tick-box exercise and instead choose a recruitment solution that is right for the business.

Remember floppy disks? Or perhaps you still have some CD-ROMs’ gathering dust at the back of a cupboard. Long gone are the days when we had to purchase a physical product just to install a programme on our bulky computers. Cloud computing (or Software as a Service (SaaS)), where software is accessed over the Internet, often via a pay-as-you-go or monthly subscription model, has become the norm.Not only has it done away with the need for organisations to buy, install and manage the software, but users can gain access from anywhere, as long as they have an Internet connection.

With the cloud service provider responsible for hosting, maintaining and upgrading the software, the cost for the end-user is kept to a minimum. Make the wrong decision, however, and SaaS can quickly become an expensive mistake. Here are a few points to consider in order to make the best choice for your business.

Multi-tenant vs. single tenant

Under multi-tenant, the software is 100% shared: a single code base and a single database will serve thousands of customers. Of course security is very high so that customers will only be able to see their own data, not anyone else’s. Every organisation will use exactly the same version of the software and there is only one Service Level Agreement (SLA) for every business. Think online banking.

Now compare this with a single-tenant model, in which each organisation has its own implementation, either via SaaS Plus (On Demand Plus) where the system has its own dedicated application server but hosted and managed by the provider; or On Premise where the system is located on the organisation’s own hardware/server, or on a third party hosted server. Organisations usually have the option of customisation, managed upgrades and business specific SLAs.

There is no right or wrong, so your decision will depend upon your business needs, your budget, what industry you operate in, the security needs and in-house IT capabilities.

Financial implications of SaaS

It is essential to understand the cost implications of a mixed On-Premise and SaaS strategy. Smaller or start-up companies often prefer multi-tenant SaaS as costs are controlled and there is no need to invest in IT resources.

For larger organisations, it is a different picture. Often they will move some things into the cloud, but retain others such as Finance or HR ‘on-premise’.  Under a SaaS rental approach, they will typically take just two years to reach the equivalent on-premise investment costs. If the focus is on the long term, then financial benefits are to be had from the reduction in internal IT resource and infrastructure costs.

Service Level Agreements

Under a multi-tenant model, the SLA, which covers the definition of services, performance measurement, problem management, customer duties and more, is predefined and non-negotiable.

With a single-tenant model the provider is often able to offer a tailored SLA. If this still isn’t good enough, then perhaps an on-premise solution is the way forward – but this time without the floppy disk or CD-ROM.

Again, there is no right or wrong way and the decision will fully depend on the organisation’s needsand skills within the IT department. If their skills are limited to creating email accounts and basic desktop troubleshooting, then SaaS will be a better fit. If opting for an On Premise solution, the team must ensure that the server is capable of hosting the database and have the knowledge to backup and maintain the database as well as the server on an ongoing basis.

What has become clear however is that simply looking at and ticking off the software’s functionalities is not enough. If recruitment organisations are to get the most out of their foray into cloud computing, then paying attention to the financial and legal implications is a must.

5 Tips for Using Google Alerts as a Recruiter

Have you ever used Google Alerts? If not, you are missing out on a great notification service that can help you keep up to date with areas of the industry that interest you. Your first stop is to visit https://www.google.com/alerts . If you aren’t already, you will need to log in to your Google account to start setting up your alerts. I won’t explain step by step how to create the alerts, as Google themselves to a great way of explaining this. Visit this page to see their support and help pages. 

 1. Your own name

As a recruiter you typically work for a recruitment agency, but you also want to build your own brand. Get a good name in the industry, and you build trust and recognition. To find out if you are mentioned online, be it good or bad, create an alert using your own name. If you have a name that is fairly popular, you could be overloaded with alerts which is more of an irritant than helpful in anyway. I have two alerts, one as “Megan Walker” “Bond International Software” and then the other which is my full name, including my middle name. Ideally someone would let you know if they are mentioning you in an article or discussion online of any kind, but that doesn’t always happen. This alert should be helpful! 

2. Your online profiles (Twitter/LinkedIn etc.)

This is similar to tip 1, but you could use to get notifications if your online profiles are linked to in any way. You can use site:twitter.com/meganwalkeruk (or your specific URL of course) without the http://www prefix. Maybe you have been added to a list of some kind online? Use this to get notified so you can communicate and be present where you are being mentioned. This is not a suggestion of using in place of the Twitter and LinkedIn notification settings, but in addition to. 

Download our free eGuide to understand how mobile technologies are changing the recruitment landscape

3. Your company or product name

Just as important as alerts for your own name and profiles, make sure you have at least one alert for your company name. As with your name, if your Company name isn’t a one off, you might get lots of alerts that don’t pertain to you. If you want to be sure that you don’t get an alert each time you post something new on your website (that obviously you already know about) use the minus sign in part of your alert. For example, “Adapt” -bondinternationalsoftware.com would give alerts for Adapt but not those that are found on the domain for our own website. 

4. Existing clients and prospects

Ideally your clients are notifying you immediately when they have a job they are recruiting for. However, if you want to know of job openings for other companies, a Google alert can let you know as it happens. You could use something like “job” AND “IBM” AND “Manchester” as your alert, to show any links online that include those words. Consider also using a combination of the job title and the company name, or a job title, company name and even URL for that company’s website. You can do several different alerts until you find what might be useful and what works for you. 

5. Candidate specific alerts

For any of your ‘hot candidates’ who may have unique or sort after skills, consider setting up alerts for specific people. This can help you in your search and finding potential positions for a speculative CV send. 

Google Alerts is a very handy free online tool that can really help cut down on manually searching the internet yourself. Using it for work is just one way of taking advantage of the service, but can also be used for hobbies, updates for your favourite music band, or other interests. How will you use Google Alerts? 

Top Dogs: Our Experts Offer Their Favorite Recruiting Strategies

Our “Top Dogs” Offer Recruiting StrategiesAlthough the average Twitter user spends almost three hours a month on that network, busy recruiters who are prepping for the morning meeting, tracking their submittals in their recruiting software and checking out the latest laugh-out-loud dog memes likely don’t have the time.

To help you get the most out of Twitter, we created our list of the top recruiting experts who you can follow for insight and advice that helps you grow in your career. This month we’re highlighting advice from these “Top Dogs” on topics from staying organized to connecting with potential candidates at conferences. Instead of spending three hours on Twitter looking for the best recruiting strategies, you can scan them here in about three minutes.

And since you spend part of your workday chuckling at the latest pet memes, here are some entertaining ones. Fetch!

 

squirrelSniff Out the Details – Take Time to Research

@Work_GR – Miles Alters

“Knowing the job description is not enough; you must know the job. What is an actual day like in that position? Searching keywords on Monster or CareerBuilder will pull thousands of resumes for the job description yet may not yield one person great for the day-to-day job. If you know intangible soft skills that make a person a great candidate for the position then focus on those skills during the search.”  

 

 

gate-openHeel! Stay! – Remember the Basics

@blogging4jobs – Jessica Miller-Merrell

“Organize and plan your day. Keep a detailed calendar and focus on hitting certain targets to meet sourcing and recruiting specific goals.”    

 

 

selfiePlay Outside – Maximize Conferences

@shally – Shally Steckerl

“To source candidates from conferences – people who attended or presented at conferences can not only be prospects, but also fabulous networking connections who can introduce you to others they met at that event, even those who don’t have much of a social footprint.”

 

 

wont-throw-itselfPlay Nice at the Dog Park – Connect with Prospects

@Work_GR – Miles Alters

“Treat every person you interact with as if they will be the most important business contact of your career.  Why? Because they may be or one of their referrals may be the most important. Referrals are your bread and butter. Your Lifeblood. Your secret sauce.  Word of mouth spreads like wildfire. When you’re a good recruiter or good employer and you ask others for referrals you will receive quality candidates. However, when you’re a GREAT recruiter/employer, people come to you.”

 

fasterInvisible Fences – Know Your Technology

@mattcharney – Matt Charney

“To reach mobile job seekers, source their number and use the phone part of a mobile device. It’s amazing but it still works – and is easier to reach them.”

 

diguise-masterDon’t Bark Without Purpose – Pinpoint Content

@WinningImpress – Katrina Collier

“If you are going to add social media to your current recruitment methods, find the right social network to find the right people for your clients. Then remember that it’s social and not an advertising platform. You want to create a profile that represents you, share great content, engage as you would in real life, and pay it forward, then when you do very occasionally share a job, your followers will be happy to share it.”

 

cheeseGood Boy! – Value Personal Connection

@greg_savage – Greg Savage

“Please don’t confuse candidate identification (via technology often) with candidate recruitment, via human beings (always).”

 

let-me-inUse Your Stellar Hearing – Search out Connections

@shally – Shally Steckerl

More on sourcing candidates at conferences, “For example, use Twubs.com to find #hashtags about a specific event or conference, then use tweetchat.com and tweepz.com to find tweets from people mentioning or participating in the event. You can also find folks who attended, were following or spoke at specific events by searching the listings at destinations such as Plancast.com, Lanyrd.com, and ConferenceHound.com which has a neat index of speakers by topic.”

Take it from our “Top Dogs” in recruiting. Apply their recruiting strategies, save yourself three hours and find five great JAVA developers. Then go reward yourself with a doggy snack! Good boy!

For more expert advice, check out our recruiting and staffing software resource download center, which is full of in-depth whitepapers, webinars, e-Books and more.  

Recruitment Software Buzzwords – Should They Matter?

Cloud‘True Cloud’, ‘Big Data’, ‘Social’ – Buzzwords quickly catch on and before you know it, lots of people are using them. If I was paid £1 every time I read or heard one of the ever increasing buzzword terms, I would be a rich man!

It is easy to get caught up in the latest trends though – either from industry peers, magazines or online publications – so I would like to explain what some of the most popular buzzwords really mean and dispel a few myths:

True Cloud: The word ‘True’ in ‘True Cloud’ means nothing.  ‘Cloud’ is just a word for the internet.  Software delivered via The Cloud is simply accessed online – choose your preferred device and securely login from wherever you have internet access.  Cloud delivery offers many great benefits, but make sure the Software as a Service (SaaS) you choose is the best fit for your business.  SaaS is available from single or multi-tenancy servers.  Single-tenancy is your server, delivering only your software. Multi-tenancy is a server delivering software to multiple businesses.  Each version offers key differentiators, be sure to find out which suits your business best.  Our ‘De-mystifying SaaS’ eBook will certainly help you decide.  Some recruitment software providers use the word ‘True’ to describe multi-tenancy only, especially if that’s the only SaaS model they provide.

Big Data: If you run a Wikipedia search on the term Big Data, this is the result: ‘An all-encompassing term for any collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand data management tools or traditional data processing applications.’ Which is correct, but how does it relate to the recruitment industry?  The question is, is your company effectively using and analysing your own, existing data? If not, why collect even more from the internet? What is your goal? ‘Analysis and prediction’ is a sound concept, but begin with your own system’s reports. Look closely at ‘time to fill’ numbers for specific clients and make smart decisions on where to focus your efforts.  Get a handle on your own data first. Perhaps ‘My Data’ should be a new buzzword!

Social: The key question to remember is: are you using social media properly? Don’t just ‘spray and pray’ jobs, be sure to protect your brand – one bad move can have a negative effect, perhaps more so than many good moves.  I recommend reading Lisa Jones’s blogs in this area.  On the recruitment software front, many providers claim to be able to ‘scrape’ data from LinkedIn, but this would contravene their terms and conditions and you may find yourself being sued.  Consider all the social media integrations available to you and make the right choice.

If you select solutions based on ‘tick-box’ buzzword requirements, are you reviewing the market in the best possible way? Budgets for technology remain under close scrutiny, so making the right choice, ensuring best practice, safeguarding revenue streams and proving your ROI is imperative.

Let marketers worry about buzzwords – above all, they’re an exercise in branding.  What will ‘The Cloud’ be called in five years’ time?  Or two?  Often, buzzwords unhelpfully muddy the water.  Every recruitment business is different and has its own particular set of requirements, what works for one company isn’t necessarily going to work for another.  The most important thing is to pick the right solution for your business, irrespective of the buzzword used to describe it.

Bond Complete Strong Year of Recruitment Industry Event Sponsorship with NRF Awards

NRF Awards 01 365x507On Friday 5th December ‘The Great Room’ at Dublin’s Shelburne Hotel was buzzing with excitement as 360 recruitment industry peers gathered for the annual National Recruitment Federation Awards ceremony.  This years’ event, hosted by Ireland’s ‘Dragon’s Den’ judge Gavin Duffy, was the biggest so far, with a substantial rise in entries on 2013.

Bond sponsored the Best Online Agency category and Bond’s James Payne (right) presented the award to Declan Murphy (left), MD of the winning agency, Servisource.

The NRF Awards round out a solid year of recruitment industry events for Bond International Software.  Always keen to support the industry, Bond have a great history of attending and sponsoring events and 2014 has been particularly notable.  This year, Bond have sponsored or exhibited at twelve different events, including-

Global Recruiter UK Summit, 11th February in London 

Recruitment Agency Expo, 25th – 26th February in London

NRF Conference, 1st May in Dublin

CIETT Conference, 14th – 16th May 2014 in Brussells

TREC 2014: Talent, Recruitment & Employment Conference, 24th June in London

Recruitment Agency Expo, 1st – 2nd October in Birmingham

Staffing Industry Analysts Executive Forum Europe, 3rd – 5th November in London

Global Recruiter Recruitment Live, 25th – 26th November in London

UK Recruiter events throughout the year in London

James Payne, Head of Business Development, Bond International Software UK comments: “Bond are proud to have supported so many exciting events throughout 2014.  Passionate people at all industry levels have put a huge amount of effort into delivering this years’ events and they’ve been a great success.  The knowledge shared will inspire recruiters to achieve even more in 2015 – and we look forward to delivering the tools to help them exceed their goals.”

Plans are currently being made for Bond’s 2015 recruitment industry event schedule.  Be sure to check our events page for the latest news.

Our Top Blog Posts for Recruitment, Training & Education

What are you reading? I was recently inspired by the recent post of ’10 Best Barclay Jones Blogs of the Year’. It’s a great round up of their most popular blogs. I was interested in reviewing the blogs for Adapt and seeing what seems to really resonate with our readers. Take a look at the round up below!

1. What should a recruitment software implementation look like?

projectSo you’ve been tasked with reviewing your current recruitment software. Or perhaps you are still using Excel spreadsheets as a CRM system for your staffing agency. Before you get distracted by all of the bells and whistles you will no doubt be shown, it’s important to know what the entire journey of selecting a new software will look like. Making the decision of which software to purchase is really the easy part. It’s what follows that needs additional thought, focus and effort.

 2. Three ways to make recruitment software training engaging

Blog 2Let’s be honest, it can be difficult to make recruitment software traininginteresting, especially when you have a group of individuals who would rather be someplace else. Getting the right mix of engaging material yet establishing an informative basis to maximise training can be tricky. So how do you turn a course from drab to fab?

 3. LinkedIn Request Etiquette – avoiding boring & bland

LinkedIn_Offices_2How many times have you seen the same LinkedIn request? It’s the bland, boring, and standard request message sent by so many of us. In the grand scheme of things, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just a little meaningless when the recipient knows that no thought has gone in to it. You simply clicked Connect. Consider an active job seeker who receives several requests a week from a recruiter. Don’t you want your message to stand out?

 4. Thinking of Changing your Recruitment CRM?

lisa-jonesLisa Jones is a Director of Barclay Jones, a consultancy working with agency recruiters on their recruitment technology and social media strategies. Prior to Barclay Jones she worked in a number of Recruitment, IT, Web and Operations director-level roles. She is a technology and strategy junkie with keen eyes on the business process. Her guest blog post was extremely popular with our readers!

 5. Mobile Recruitment Technology is Keeping the World Spinning

Blog 5Recent research suggests that more people are choosing to use mobile devices for job searches due to the convenience factor – over 50% according to results from Indeed Research. In addition, 66% of respondents would apply for a job via mobile if the process was simplified – so what does that mean for recruiters?

 6. 5 Migration Myths – understanding & moving recruitment software data

data moveA key question when implementing new software is what to do with your current data. Unless you are using pen and paper, you have candidates, clients and contacts in a different system. Moving that data from one system to another requires a migration engineer to perform the process. Let’s try and dispel a few myths!

7. Going Back to Basics: Online Training vs Offline Training

WebEducationIn this blog Carrie Roberts, Training Team Leader at Bond International Software, discusses the benefits of online and offline training. Training is no longer limited to the classroom. With an increase in web-based learning technologies, such as interactive webinars, companies are inundated with different ways to train their team members. Amongst the mix is traditional face-to-face training, which for some learning styles is still the most effective way to train.

8. Are you making the most of your Account Manager?

Are you making the most of your Account Manager?In this blog post, our Account Management Team explains the purpose and benefit of providing a dedicated service to our clients. The Adapt Account Management Service is a complimentary service offered to all clients who have an annual support and maintenance agreement with Bond.

9. Bond Adapt V11 / 9.2 with superior recruitment functionality unveiled

Blog 9Having carefully listened to our customers and their needs, we have enhanced the Bond Adapt software with features that make it easier for recruiters to manage their recruitment activities and monitor business performance. Bond Adapt is our sophisticated staffing and recruitment software system. It manages the entire placement cycle, simplifies processes and provides consultancies of all sizes with cutting-edge tools, enabling recruiters to be as effective as possible while gaining a competitive advantage.

erecruit™ Releases Volume 1 of eBook “Leadership Insights: Featuring SIA’s Staffing 100”

Boston, MA – December 11, 2014 – Today, erecruit™ announced the release of Volume 1 of its eBook “Leadership Insights: Featuring SIA’s Staffing 100” as part of its thought leadership series designed to provide valuable content and thought-provoking ideas for customers and professionals in the talent acquisition and management field. erecruit, the leading innovator in enterprise staffing software, vendor management systems (“VMS”) and onboarding solutions, is the exclusive sponsor of The Staffing 100 North America and The Staffing 100 Europe, presented annually by the Staffing Industry Analysts. Read more

What are LinkedIn Recommendations?

LinkedIn_recommendations_image_1What are LinkedIn Recommendations?

In one of my previous posts, I wrote about LinkedIn request etiquette. I love LinkedIn and strongly advise anyone not already on the networking site to join. If you view someone’s profile, and scroll down to their experience, you might notice recommendations from other LinkedIn members. Think of these as references, or positive (ideally!) commendations validating your work in that role.

Recommendations can be given directly from someone’s profile. Simple click the arrow next to the Endorse button and select Recommend. Endorse relates to the skills a person has, which isn’t the same as a recommendation. You can also ask to be recommended from the same arrow on your own profile

Does anyone even read them?

Of course they do! At least, I know I do for sure! Having been in a position of interviewing and hiring people in the past, it’s one of the first things I would always look for. 1, are they on LinkedIn, and 2, do they have any recommendations. I am not only interested to see how many they have, but also what quality they are. Not all recommendations are created equal. LinkedIn provides a generic example, which I have had previously from a connection. There was also a connection that provided the same recommendation word for word for myself and a current work colleague. If you are going to provide a recommendation, be sure to be genuine and write something unique to them, otherwise don’t waste their time and yours in providing something they can’t use.

If you don’t ask, you don’t get!

Do LinkedIn Recommendations help you get noticed by recruiters? Yes! Do LinkedIn Recommendations help you network and give you credibility to potential new employers? Yes! But those aren’t the only reason for doing so. If you are looking for a new job, sending out requests for recommendations fast and furiously isn’t ideal. It could tip off your current employer that you are indeed out on the market for the next best thing. Instead, focus on requesting recommendations throughout your career. Just finished a project for a client? Send them a brief, professional request to see if they would be happy recommending you based on the completed work. Perhaps you have moved in to a different team within the same organization. Consider requesting recommendations from key members of your old department. It’s all in the way you ask, and if you leave the door open for someone to decline if they aren’t comfortable, you still have a great connection when needed! NOTE: although some have the best of intentions for providing your recommendation, not everyone will. People forget and are busy… so be sure to thank anyone that does take the time and effort to do so.

The season of giving and receiving

In return, be sure to give recommendations also. It shouldn’t all be about ME, ME, ME! I have given recommendations for people who were my manager, to clients, vendors and partners. If someone has made a lasting impression, and gone above and beyond in providing a service, I send them a recommendation. It’s great to put in to ‘print’ how much I value them as a person. Think long and hard about who you do this for though. They shouldn’t be given out to everyone, and only do it if it feels genuine to do so. So, this holiday season, consider the gift of giving! Are there 3 people you could consider giving a recommendation to today?

Online Recruitment Software: Increased Efficiency With Lower IT Costs

shutterstock_104345897Buying recruitment software can be a significant outlay for any recruitment agency, whether it is an SME or a chain operating globally. Toby Conibear, European Business Development Director at Bond International Software, argues that the right solution can keep costs down while improving business efficiencies.

“We need a new system.” It is a sentence likely to fill even the most seasoned IT manager with dread. As the technology expert, the IT manager will have a huge role to play in shortlisting and eventually choosing the new solution. Then the real work starts as it will be up to him (or her!) to ensure the smooth roll-out and training of end-users.

Which solution is decided upon will fully depend on the organisation’s needs, there is no right or wrong. What is essential is that organisations choose a solution that works for them, not the other way around. In other words, the solution must be straightforward for staff to learn and start applying in their day-to-day activities, without the need for day-long training sessions.

From an IT perspective, the less time spent on managing the new solution the better. For some organisations, hosting the software on their own servers is the best option; but Cloud Computing/SaaS, where the solution is accessed over the Internet, has some great additional benefits.

First of all, by opting for the cloud the IT department has an immediate reduction in hardware infrastructure. Second, the cloud service provider is responsible for hosting, maintaining and upgrading the software. This frees up valuable time for the IT department and also keeps the costs associated with software maintenance and support to an absolute minimum.

With the cloud provider assuming that much risk, surely it is more expensive? Not necessarily. Payment is often via a monthly subscription model, which will help the business with accurate budgeting and cash flow predictions – without constant surprises. Having that peace of mind is incredibly valuable.

When choosing a recruitment system, it is essential to consider the short and long-term implications. The initial set-up and training costs are likely to cause a spike in outgoings, but a reduction in internal IT resource and infrastructure costs can make it an extremely cost-effective solution in the long-term.

10 Key Questions Before You Sign an Enterprise Software Deal

Sara-Moss-LinkedInToday’s blog features our very own Sara Moss, Vice President of Staffing Best Practices for erecruit™. Sara gives her best advice on the final stages of the enterprise software selection process, providing her top 10 list of key questions to make sure you ask yourselves before signing an enterprise software deal. Read more