Recruitment and the human factor

Finding the right job in London is like walking along a really long tightrope. Whilst juggling. Thankfully there are agencies to offer support and guidance along the way. Whatever their reasons for helping, it works for me.

For employers, finding the right candidate for a position generally comes at a hefty price. So you can understand why companies are looking to use latest technologies to cut out the middle man. Last year recruitment accounted for a quarter of all online advertising, and brands continue to experiment with new technologies to gain direct access to potential candidates.

Last year a virtual recruitment fair was held on Second Life which was hailed as a success by the companies participating. Blogging has become quite important in attracting candidates, as have PPC campaigns and (some would say) Social Networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. 

I tried using Facebook to search for jobs and I found it confusing and unprofessional. However it's not a bad place for recruiters to advertise, as ads can be targeted towards the right candidate profiles. Having said that, most people I've asked aren't even aware of any advertising on facebook - a phenomenon known as 'banner blindness'. An innovative approach to advertising is needed for this kind of advertising to pay.

From my perspective recruitment agencies are in no danger of being ousted for now. They provide a valuable service to people like me, and it's in their interest to get it right for all parties. They connect the right people to the right jobs and it seems to work. 

It's certainly the right thing to do for companies to divert their ad spend from offline to online. And there is a great deal of untapped potential for recruiting using new media methods. But the loss of recruitment agencies would mean a loss of the human factor, and isn't that what the recruitment industry is all about?

Video CV's - a novel approach, but not always the right one.

London, Japan and Round the World flights

Now that we’re all content with reading, writing, listening, watching and buying online, is there anything left for us to try? It’s important to ask yourself this now and again in order to keep up with the internet’s ever-changing technologies and uses.

Central to any advances in the internet from now on is internet speed. This will change the entire ethos of media distribution. What's the point in having a tv or dvd player if you can watch the same programme at the same high quality over the internet?

According to The Washington Post article: "Japan's Warp-Speed Ride to Internet Future,” the Japanese are already way ahead of us in internet connection speed. Broadband service in Japan is eight to 30 times as fast as in the United States, and considerably cheaper. Japan has the world's fastest internet connections, delivering more data at a lower cost than anywhere else, recent studies show.

So once we’ve caught up with Japan’s technology, where will that leave us?
One of the major changes we’ll see over the coming years will be in media. News and publishing will all move even further online and we’ll be able to watch, read or download a good deal more than we do currently.

Another advance which I’m hoping for is in schools education. Schools (rather than universities) are still quite behind in making the best use of internet technology and I think that there could potentially be some leaps forward in the coming years.

And finally, the last change which I hope we’ll see sometime in the next 10 years or so will be that network security concerns will be resolved and online voting will take off, resulting in an increased voter turnout.

One thing that I don’t think will change is our need for the human travel agent. Try to book a round the world flight online and you'll notice your blood pressure rising, eye twitching and fist clenching from the frustration of it.