Recruitment 2.0

Put your best foot forward

You never get a second chance to create a good first impression.

In many cases the first time a potential employee is exposed to your company is through your web site. Your best candidates come though this channel, so its creation and maintenance deserve your utmost attention.

At the very least your career site needs to include an up-to-date listing of open positions and information about your company and its products. A fully developed site can include bells and whistles such as an online profiler, interactivity and streaming audio content.

Here are some items to think about when developing a top-rate career site:

• Understand your target group's expectations, preferences and priorities.
• Design a simple layout and navigation scheme around this, and test it on your target audience.
• Keep a consistent employer brand throughout the entire website.
• Explain your company’s recruitment process, include a “How to Apply” section to lead a potential employee through the process, with a very prominent “Apply Now” button.
• Include a list of compelling reasons to work for your company.
• Add a system for managing applications, and make it easy to find. An online application form has the benefit of standardising information from candidates. 
• Have a mechanism to receive feedback, and then use this valuable information.
• Use the fact that the career page is the most visited page on your site (after the homepage) to get much deserved budget from senior management.

Above all, keep it easy to use and friendly.

For more online recruiting tips, download our guide (www.advorto.com/guide)

- Susanna

Think "out-of-the-box" when it comes to graduate recruitment programmes

The PR Agency Brazen is changing the way it attracts graduate recruits. They are giving graduates 15 minutes to "pitch" the exec team - using all the bells and whistles that web 2.0 has to offer. The top pitches will be offered full-time graduate trainee positions.

This is a great way to put their potential recruits to the ultimate test.

There are lots of good examples out there. Some of these "crazy" ideas might work for your company, some of them may not. Have a read. It can work a bit like brainstorming – one idea leads to another and then to another and finally to one that is right for your company and its culture.

1. To get noticed, Google sends out pizzas to dorm rooms during exam times .
2. Use your top brass, such as your CEO or other top executive, to make a "surprise" offer phone call. This will get your graduate's attention.
3. Brainteasers and contest are a great way to attract and screen for talented students. Google posts brainteasers on billboards.
4. Star students write papers and win scholarships – you can find these people easily through Internet searches. Just type in something like:" UK engineering scholarship winner".
5. Ask your last crop of graduates for their recommendations for potential hires. They are the best position to know.
6. Have your Facebook users post notices to their "friends" about your exciting graduate programme and how to apply.
7. Professors, lecturers and teaching assistants have the good pulse on bright students. Start a relationship with these people to leverage their knowledge.
8. Create mini student "projects" on your web site. These can be case studies (ala Harvard Business Review style) or small contained projects that students can complete and send in for review.

I could go on and on here but I hope you get the picture. If it suits your culture - do something out of the ordinary. You won't regret the results.

Look out for our upcoming "15-minute guide to graduate recruiting" to be published soon. Watch this space.

- Susanna