New Recruitment Media

When I joined TMP in 2012 and I was asked to look for a media planner, I thought to myself why does one even need a planner to build recruitment media plan. I knew only about job sites and LinkedIn and no matter what the need was or skills or profile, use one of the job sites was the answer. As my exposure to the global recruitment media grew, I did realize there is whole world there beyond the traditional media.

Job sites and LinkedIn are still important and continue to be the corner stone of every recruitment strategy. However, they come with uncomfortable dependencies. For starters, recruiters are forced to be locked with the set of products they chose for a year (irrespective of returns) and if they chose to be committed only for 3 or 6 months to pivot their strategy, they are penalized with premium costs. One has to live with the decision throughout the year. As an agency, I would like to have control on strategy, spends and be able to optimize as I move along and I would like to believe the recruiters also want the same. There are media few options like Indeed and SEM which are performance based models (Cost per click) offering leverage to optimize and there are media options like mobile, network advertising and re-targeting which are performance based models and also create extended reach. Moreover, recruiters can use digital and mobile to target based on user behaviors which is more potent and turns out to be a scalable / flexible model based on performance.

I do realize now, in India it is not about lack of options, but it is about the lack of understanding. Of course, there is always an advantage with job sites that would provide tangible results within seconds. With recruitment teams chasing the numbers and TAT for open positions, it becomes difficult to wait for the campaign to mature and give results. And there is always only that much money recruitment has and they have to balance between known and the unknown. It is understandable that most of us go with the known.

Personally, I try to keep it simple. I ask one question – Where do job sites spend most of their marketing dollars? Answer is simple, SEM and SEO. The reason is that even today, majority of the job searches originate on a search engine and that is where job sites (including LinkedIn and Indeed) are putting their money in. Having said that, it is not easy to compete with job sites whose marketing spends will be way more than the recruitment budgets. To start with, companies should at the least own their brand keywords on search engines. There is no point in a job site getting all the traffic from a branded key word on google. The brand should own the branded keywords. For specific skills and campaigns, one can try mobile or re-targeting. We at TMP India are using mobile advertising based on geo-fencing for a technology client and the results till now show that it is working well. From budgets perspective, start slow and make some low levels investments. Beauty of these options is that they give the control to the recruiter.

I hope that new media gets popular in India and as a result, job sites alter their engagement models that create a win-win situation for everyone.

Original Article by Pramod Chaganti at: https://notquiterandom.net/2017/02/05/new-recruitment-media-in-india/

The growth of "interested" on LinkedIn

I am a recruiter, a facilitator, a friend, a colleague, a business manager AND a jobseeker. Yes! All of us play all roles - sometimes simultaneously, sometimes individually and sometimes in the wake of necessity. And I too have been in all these situations.

Off late, I see people "interested" on posts on LinkedIn, and sometimes without even looking / caring / understanding what the post is all about. This is sometimes annoying at the same time as it is likely to create empathy.

LinkedIn is a professional networking site and a job site and jobs facilitation networking site. You will find a lot of jobs advertised on LinkedIn, you will find a lot of status updates from recruiters / HR's / business owners mentioning they are looking for people / talent. However, LinkedIn is not just for that. It's a professional site where people also want to share about their organization growth / recent events / culture at their company etc. etc.. This helps them in recruitment / business marketing. It helps them to reach out to wider and diverse audience.

Being a recruiter, I would appreciate if a candidate acts in a more responsible manner than just commenting - "interested".

Please don't just type "interested" because there is space in the comments box. Firstly, determine whether the post is a job advertisement or an update about some event / organization vision (refer to the picture above). Also, please give some thought as to who the post owner is. I have seen some postings about job openings from persons who are finance executives. The post mentions - "we have multiple openings with clients in Gulf - various positions and salary depends on position. Please like or comment in the box below for me to review your profile". First of all - how could a person working in finance responsible for recruitments??? And secondly, logically, does anyone believe this is possible? I see the like's counter reading in thousands or more and comments being in the excess of a few hundreds. I have been in recruitments for the past 10 years and I don't remember any time being able to view more than 100 (oh my God!!!) CV's / LinkedIn profiles a day thoroughly.

If it is indeed a job advertisement, reach out to the recruiter / post owner. Try to gather information about the role. Most of the times, we agency recruiters (or any recruiters for that matter) are not given too much information about the role and asked to gather candidates. Sometimes we are asked to prepare in anticipation. Reach out to us and we will talk to you. We will give you whatever information we have and we can. If you're interested in the role, show them in your actions. Let us see your resume. Let us verify your talent list with our check list. Let us present your CV to the client / manager if it is suitable and come back to you with feedback (Sometimes this takes ages and I agree it's frustrating. Believe me, it's more frustrating for us than you because we are trying to balance the expectations of you AND the client).

I understand and more so in GCC countries, candidates come on visit visa to look for jobs. These candidates run against time and it pushes them to apply randomly for any job / post available. However, a little structure in job search might not just get you a job, but also it will get you a job that you would like to keep for a longer period.

Research and make a list of companies where your skills could be in demand or will fit. Search jobs in categories and give some thought to the industries. If you're not a mechanical engineer, no organization will jump to hire you as an MEP manager. If you've done customer service in your previous roles, organizations will not hire you for a network engineer roles. Skill matching is important.

Network online and in person with people in your industry and the industries of your interest. That will introduce and expose you to a larger network of people and your chances of finding a job increases. "Wasta" work in this part of world - however you have to tirelessly make efforts even to build that "wasta". Ask us "recruiters" for references and not "just" jobs. Many a times it happens that we do not have a role suitable for you just in the moment; however we may know someone who is looking for a candidate like you. We may know, we may not know. But we will never forget a candidate who approached us. If a suitable role arises in the future, we will turn to our emails / internal databases for people who approached us. Believe me, we do this all the time.

We recruiters will want to be able to help every candidate we come across! We want you to get jobs. We would be delighted if you find jobs through us (because that means $$money$$ for us!!!). Moreover, there is a great sense of satisfaction of helping the society at large! Trust me - it is our own personal CSR!! However, this is not possible all the time and we feel too bad about it!

Bosses Reveal: 7 Things That Will Get You Promoted

You want a promotion this year—but you’re not sure what moves will make it happen. You’re in luck, because while we couldn’t ask your boss for the answer, we did ask eight managers what they want to see before they’ll give their own employees a boost. Try their suggestions at your own workplace, and you may just snag that promotion soon.

1. Make your manager look good.
“The No. 1 thing an employee can do to get promoted is to make their manager successful,” says Ben Brooks, founder and CEO of PILOT. “Think of yourself as their agent and career coach. What are they on the hook for to deliver this year? What do they want their legacy to be? Worry less about your own advancement and promotion, and instead go all in on supporting them. You’ll engender a great deal of loyalty with this approach. A good manager has a psychological contract between them and their employees that is basically, ‘make me successful and I’ll make you successful.’”

2. Keep a kudos file.

“Put together a report or summary of all your accomplishments and how they specifically contributed to the success of the company in 2016,” says Valerie Streif, senior advisor at Mentat. “Having concrete data points that directly correlate to company growth and success makes it very difficult for a manager to shut you down when making your case to be promoted.”

3. Ask for the job you want.
“The most important thing you can do is ask,” says Emily LaRusch, CEO of Back Office Betties. “When you meet with your manager, make your intentions clear and then ask for opportunities to work on projects that will help showcase your skills. I’ve received all of my biggest breaks simply by letting my manager know that I am happy to work on projects outside of my daily duties.”

4. Develop a can-do attitude.

“Employees who have a clear desire to move up need new behaviors to get noticed for all the right reasons,” says Katy Caselli, owner and president of Building Giants. “One of the best is to become more positive. A ‘can-do’ attitude raises your productivity, and you become more innovative, creative, and all around nicer to be around. These skills help you to be more effective with people, showing your leader that you are ready to influence others and get more accomplished through your ability to work with other departments and even difficult employees.”

5. Keep up on industry news.
“Create a daily habit of learning about your industry,” says Megan Bedera, COO of Amplify Relations. “This hunger for knowledge shows me that the employee so engaged in their work that they are spending time in the off-hours making themselves better at their job. It is critical to learn about the hot new ideas and tactics in your industry because every year there are thousands of people seeking jobs who have fresher, newer knowledge and who want your job.”

6. Lend a helping hand—to other employees.

“I want to see an employee reaching out to other employees to find ways to help,” says Mike Catania, founder and chief technology officer of PromotionCode. “All of the promotions we have involve direct management, so it’s of paramount importance that the applicants are demonstrating a proactive stance shouldering some of the joint load by seeking out what other employees need. It’s easy to pick up a new skill or take a class, but it’s challenging to develop the personality traits necessary to be in the middle—where you’re responsible for people but still have people working above you dictating large portions of the agenda.”

7. Sharpen your skills.
“The single best thing an employee can do to earn a promotion in the coming year is to show an eagerness to learn and improve their skills,” says Jessica Holbrook Hernandez, executive resume writer and president and CEO of Great Resumes Fast. “This can be expressing an interest in attending new training in their industry, going to an industry conference, earning a new certification or credential, or finding and following thought leaders and subject matter experts in your field that you can glean knowledge and wisdom from on a regular basis. An employee who shows a desire to learn and grow continually is the first one I look to promote.”

Original Article from Glassdoor: http://tinyurl.com/zpcutab 

LinkedIn's "thank you" to recruiters

Original Article: https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/inspiring-stories/2016/a-holiday-ode-to-recruiters

Indeed's take on 2016 job search history! Interesting trends!

Original article: http://blog.indeed.com/2016/12/28/2016-year-in-job-search/

Retaining the right Talent

How to retain the right talent?

The economy is unstable right now, oil prices are crashing and the labor bans have been lifted in Dubai meaning turnover is going to increase, the purchasing power of the consumers hasn’t yet decreased to a great extent however they are cautious now more than ever before. Everyone is talking about a big recession that will hit Dubai before or after 2020. All this fear, all this speculation. Some companies are making their employees redundant, others trying to cost cut and some lucky ones expanding. This is a crazy time!

So in the middle of all the fiasco HR is stuck with the main problem being, we want to retain the right talent and hope that the ones that are more of a cost than a profit find a job elsewhere. We want to incur minimum or no costs and retain the right talent through the storm. How do we do this?

·         Make your employees feel like an asset and not an overhead. Do the simple things, greet them by their name, let them know that you know who they are and are aware of their contributions to the company. Before making changes in rules consult them, make them feel like their opinions are valuable and are considered (besides this will also help you in change management). Make them feel like they matter…. like they are an asset not an overhead. Costs incurred ZERO.

·         Don’t assume that they are all utilizing their abilities to 110%. Talented employees normally like challenges. This is what keeps them going, the adrenaline to do more, fix something, create something. Hence always ensure that you are feeding their needs for challenge. If you look the other way for too long you might let an ace employee become mediocre and always remember it is very easy to become mediocre. Costs incurred ZERO.

·         Remember all your employees are different. Yes, each one is an individual and even though you may be able to categorize them with their common traits, in the end each one is different. Therefore, always remember the thumb rule, different strokes for different folks. Just because one employee is motivated by a pat on the back doesn’t mean the other would be. Don’t be blind or frustrated by their differences, instead appreciate them and nurture them. You will see the results. Costs incurred ZERO.

·         Don’t get confused between high performance and full potential. Just because someone is a high performer doesn’t mean he or she is using their full potential. Each one is different. Costs incurred ZERO.

·         The HR departments should play an active role in following up and keeping an eye out that line managers are making an effort in the motivation of their employees. This is something that is especially important for larger companies. As the HR Department is traditionally located in the headquarters of a company they then delegate down the management of top talent to the line managers. Yes, HR can’t keep an eye on all the employees however they can keep an eye on the top talent. Reason being when you leave the task of identifying and cultivating tomorrow’s leader exclusively to the business units; candidates are then selected solely on the basis of recent performance, they are offered narrow development opportunities by the business units’ scope of requirements and the focus is more on what is required now than tomorrow. Also sometimes talented employees can be hoarded by line managers, collected, protected and not shared as they want them to be where they currently are because of their talent. This in return after sometime causes frustration on the side of the talented employee as they aren’t able to use their full potential and feel neglected as they aren’t developed and then they more to “better opportunities”. Costs incurred ZERO.

·         Don’t forget Abraham Maslow’s theory of needs. Yes, everyone has needs they vary as they are different individuals however they can be put under umbrella terms/ categories and that’s where Maslow’s theory comes into place. Identify where your talent is on their needs and try to show them how you are assisting them in meeting their needs. Costs incurred ZERO.

·         Take performance reviews/ evaluations more seriously. There is so much value in performance reviews when done right. Sadly, what we see is managers who try to just fill in some forms, rush the performance evaluation, submit the forms to HR and go back to business. They fail to understand that during the performance evaluations it is the best time to take inventory of your employees’ skills, their potential, career plans, succession plans. When all these factors are considered during the performance evaluations then the employees feel they are more than just an employee id, they are a human being and their manager is taking an interest in their development. This also lets the managers see how they can use the full potential of their employees, which in turn increases the overall productivity and efficiency of the company. Costs incurred ZERO.

·         Make the company vision, expectations and goals clear. The employees need to know what they are working towards. This would also help them think of ways to achieve those goals in an efficient manner. If you don’t make the destination clear, how will they know what is the best route to get there. Costs incurred ZERO.

·         Emotional Intelligence and positive thinking. My two personal favorite topics. Train key personnel on emotional intelligence and positive psychology and see the effect. It has a ripple effect and the environment in the offices will change evidently. They will spread this awareness and deal with situations differently in a positive aspect. It will lead to a better working environment. Costs incurred ZERO.

Simple, no cost involved and yet effective ways of retaining the right talent. There are many more ways to retain the right talent and these are just some of those ways.

Written by,

Sabahatt Habib

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/retaining-right-talent-sabahatt-habib#

Dubai Government Annual Leave Law

Dubai Government Human Resources Management Law No. (27) 2006

1. Expatriate employees are entitled to annual leave air tickets on the date of work 
joining anniversary and as follows: 

• Grade 14 and above: Business Class for self, spouse and up to 3 children under 18 years old. 
• Grade 9 - 13 : Economy Class for self, spouse and up to 3 children under 18 years old 
• Grade 8 and below: Economy Class for self only 

2. Expatriate employees are to receive a cash sum in lieu of the cost of the entitled 
air tickets to their original employment country of nationality - even if they 
acquire another nationality during their service - and irrespective of whether they 
travel or not.