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Powerful Social Website Platform Strengthens Commitment to Community Focus and Its Members

It was announced yesterday that Beyond.com, Inc., the world’s largest network of niche career communities, had acquired Orbius, a powerful social website platform that allows businesses to create and govern their own full featured social or professional networking community website for their members, employees or customers.

So what does this acquisition mean?  Well, according to Beyond.com, CEO, Rich Milgram this acquisition shows Beyond.com’s commitment to it’s community focus and will allow its members to evolve beyond the employment experience into new ways to connect and engage throughout their career, business and life. Milgram, also added that “This is an exciting time for business professionals and we want to help them as much as possible.”
 
Thought of as a “Facebook for small businesses,” the Orbius platform and technology has been very successful in providing flexible, scalable and search engine optimized social websites enabling businesses to provide content and community rich website features to connect and engage users through forums, blogs, calendars, videos, expert columns, feeds, groups and other forms to encourage personal and business interaction.

“For years, Beyond.com has remained focused and committed to providing our members with valuable and relevant communities in which to connect and interact across a variety of industry, geographic and specialty areas,” said Milgram. “Our members are embracing these communities and are hungry for more content and information and want to create their own online persona and evolve their personal and business networks. We continue to develop new ways in which to facilitate this evolution and the Orbius platform will enable us to further this vision.” 

Online Recruitment: Past, Present & Future

The evolution of recruitment has certainly changed over the years.  Back in the day you would post an ad in the local newspaper and wait for the resumes to come in via mail or fax, but now that everything is so instantaneous and there are so many paths that the recruitment process can take it is hard to pin point where the online recruitment process is going to end up. 

Luckily, a few weeks ago, Mark Anderson, Senior Director of Enterprise Sales from Beyond.com presented on the topic of Online Recruitment, how it started, where it is now, and where it will go in the future at HR Florida. 

Thanks to everyone who attended Mark’s session and for those of you who were not able to be there, you can watch it here:

"Mobile is the Glue for Everything We Do"

I recently stumbled across a quote that got me thinking about what a huge impact the mobile movement has made on the world. 

"Mobile is the glue for everything we do," said Oke Okaro, Vice President of ESPN Mobile.

I thought this was a pretty accurate observation.  When you think about it, most people are only in front of their computer for a limited amount of time, but they have access to their mobile device for about 18 hours day.  Not only are people spending more time surfing the internet on-the-go, but mobile devices have opened up a gateway to an entirely new and more diverse audience than ever before. 

With more people demanding quicker access to information on-the-go, it has caused nearly every industry to rethink their strategy to ensure they are not left behind in the mobile trend - and the recruitment industry is no exception!

The closest comparison I can think of to the current mobile movement would be the rise and popularity of the internet.  For example, the newspaper industry chose to ignore the internet trend for many years, even though their business heavily relied on classified ads that the internet also had the ability to provide.  By the time newspapers realized the value in aligning their business strategy to leverage the internet (not compete with it), it was too late. 

Well the same goes for the recruitment industry.  However, instead of classified ads, candidates are the bread and butter of our business.  In order to keep job seekers happy and returning our sites (whether it is through their PC or their mobile device), it is crucial to incorporate mobile technologies into our business to avoid being left behind.

In March of 2009, we optimized the Beyond.com network to provide mobile job searching to business professionals across thousands of top-tier industry and local web sites.  Soon after, we aligned with Viigo to provide job search capabilities and career content to BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices through Viigo’s popular mobile application.

As we continued to expand our mobile program, we also launched a Beyond.com iPhone application in June 2009, which has continually exceeded our expectations in terms of downloads from the iPhone App store.

                                        

Most recently, Beyond.com launched two new iPhone applications for TechCareers.com and PhillyJobs.com.  With an increased focus on local and industry-specific job searching, these applications offer a more targeted approach to recruitment than many of the other traditional job applications available. 

We also launched a Beyond.com Blackberry application, which is now available through Blackberry App World.  Currently, Beyond.com is the only job search application available on the Blackberry device that allows job seekers to search and view available jobs by keyword, location or industry. 

So it is safe to say that Beyond.com has not only recognized the importance of the mobile movement, but we are working hard to stay ahead of the curve and offer our job seekers as many mobile options as possible.  We plan to continue making updates and exploring new devices and technologies to incorporate into our mobile program and refuse to be left behind!  

Mobile: The Next Revolution in Recruiting

Mobile technology has changed the way people communicate in all aspects of their lives.  Whether it’s staying in touch with friends and family, closing a business deal, keeping up with the latest news or searching for a job, mobile phones are the key to staying in touch with the outside world.  Most people today rely on their mobile phone as an extension of themselves and will rarely be caught without it. 

According to Global System for Mobile Communication Association (GSMA) and Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), there are currently 4 billion mobile subscribers worldwide, with a projection of 6 billion subscribers by 2013.  Mobile communication remains the most widely adopted of all mass media channels, far surpassing the number of PC owners, which only accounts for 1 billion people worldwide.  Not only are there are a large number of mobile subscribers, but more than 3 billion users leverage their device for text messaging, which is the most popular data application in the world. 

So What Does The Mobile Movement Mean For The Recruitment Industry?

It has become increasingly necessary for companies and recruiters to leverage targeted recruitment tactics to build and cultivate a qualified talent pipeline.  While there are a variety of effective recruitment solutions available online such as general job boards, niche career communities, social media sites and email campaigns, the mobile recruitment revolution is opening up an entirely new window of opportunity for companies to engage with targeted candidates in a more personal way.

Professionals today are often on-the-go and are no longer waiting diligently at their desk for a phone call or email from an employer, which is why mobile recruitment is now beginning to play a greater role in the way employers and candidates connect with one another.  More and more job seekers are turning to their mobile device to search for jobs, allowing them to gain a competitive edge over other job seekers by proactively staying informed, quickly reacting to new job opportunities and getting in front of prospective employers before the competition.

As a result, many employers are finding it necessary to incorporate mobile strategies into their overall recruitment program to ensure they are able to effectively connect with their target audience from anywhere, at anytime.  Mobile recruitment options, such as texting and mobile job search applications, provide employers with extended reach into both active and passive job seeker communities who search for jobs directly from their mobile device.

Career Assessments are Quick, Easy and Informative

During your job search, you may find that your career needs change from time to time. Don’t worry.  This is completely normal. To ensure that you a headed in the right direction, it is important to continually evaluate yourself and learn how to best apply your skills to succeed professionally. 

A career assessment will help you better understand yourself and your interests to ensure that you make the right career choices.  It also gives you the opportunity to evaluate your short-term and long-term goals to achieve career success.  Career assessments also allow you to:  

• Identify strengths and weaknesses.  Career assessments are one of the most valuable ways to measure the success of your career and determine areas that could be improved or adjusted.  By pinpointing your strengths and weaknesses, you can focus on the areas that need specific attention before they cause a roadblock in your career.
• Learn your personality type.   Better understand your personality type and use it to enhance the quality of your job search.  Leverage the characteristics and traits that are indentified with your personality type to determine your ideal working style, what motivates you and how you communicate best to achieve your goals.
• Find out what jobs are right for you.  Learn why you are drawn to certain jobs and why others are not as appealing.  Reduce wasted time in your job search by identifying what industries or job roles would be the most satisfying for you and go after them!   You might be surprised.
• Plan for career changes.  Career assessments map out vital information about you and help you understand how to leverage this information to plan for career changes and advance your career. 

Take a Career Assessment

If you are struggling in your job search and want to know how to target the right jobs to advance your career at a faster pace, we recommend that you take a few minutes to complete a career assessment.  You may be surprised what you learn about yourself!

What’s New, Notable and Work-related on the Web

Are you one of the 2.2 million people who read the NY Post on a daily basis? If so, you may have stumbled across an article on the front page of the “@ WORK” section today titled “The Site Stuff – Our picks for what’s new, notable and work-related on the Web”.  And in case you didn’t pick up the latest edition of the NY Post, I thought I would take the opportunity to share the insightful article by Brian Moore and Chris Erickson. 

The article is comprised of a list of eleven unique career-related sites that according to the writers are “worth a click.”  See below for the full article and feel free to chime in with any other cool career-related sites the article may have forgotten. 

The Site Stuff

By now we all know Monster.com and LinkedIn, but practically every day new Web sites launch that aim to help you find jobs, stay on top of your industry, improve your career prospects or otherwise help you along in your work life. We sifted through the latest offerings and compiled the following list of sites that are worth a click.

Brazen Careerist

Imagine a slam mix of LinkedIn and Facebook catering to the professional networking needs of Gen Yers, and you’ve imagined Brazen Careerist. The idea behind the site is to combine the professional foundation of the former with the interactive, social features of the latter so younger workers can actively create a professional network.

Careerist profiles focus on ideas rather than the job experience that LinkedIn emphasizes, says CEO Penelope Trunk.

“There’s a reason why the average age of a LinkedIn user is 40,” she says. “Brazen Careerist levels the playing field.”

Careerist takes its Gen Y mandate seriously in other ways, as well — its blog is filled with how-to videos which spare young up-and-comers the trouble of reading, you know, words and stuff. brazencareerist.com

Bintro

Bintro is a job-search site that uses inferential matching rather than keyword-based matching. So if a trapeze artist is looking for a job, Bintro won’t simply search for trapeze artist openings but for all job listings that come under the broader rubric of performer.

“We’re looking at the [general] definition of what you told us,” says CEO Richard Stanton.
Bintro has some other notable features. Every 3.5 seconds, it re-searches its database for matches. It’s free to both potential employees and employers. And it allows potential matches to communicate anonymously, so you can keep your job search on the DL if, say, you’re currently employed. bintro.com

Jobulous

Manhattan-based Jobulous is the latest in a series of sites designed to give the inside scoop on working at a given company, direct from anonymous employees. Founder Ross Siegel launched it after he graduated from business school at NYU and going to work for a new media company that had a great rep but proved a disappointment. Having had more info before taking the job would have spared him the trouble, he figured.

Hence, Jobulous, where visitors post “job reviews” that cover how much they earn, what the workplace culture is like, how their bosses treat them, and so forth. Then they can peruse others’ ratings, which can be searched in various ways. Given the newness of the site, it has yet to generate a meaningful database of responses, but it’s smartly put together. Jobulous.com

Tweet My Jobs

Twitter is nothing if not fast, and Tweet My Jobs is a free job search engine that puts that idea into play for job seekers. The process is simple: post your resume and a brief “tweet” about yourself and the type of job you’re looking for. When a job match appears, you’ll receive instant notification — perfect for Twitter obsessives who constantly check their cellphones for updates. To keep you from being buried under an avalanche of other tweeting job seekers, the site allows you to “retweet” your resume every 24 hours so you can stay at the top of the list.

Tweet My Jobs looks to be a killer ap, at least until someone comes up with Pwicter.com, where people send messages using only 25 or fewer emoticons. Give it six months. Guaranteed. Tweetmyjobs.com

CoWorkers

This brand-new site follows the model of Ed Koch, who as mayor famously queried constituents with “How’m I doin’?” The concept is to aim that question at work colleagues, requesting feedback by forwarding various review forms for them to fill out. In addition to general reviews of your job performance, you can request feedback on your interpersonal skills or “core values,” as well as on a specific achievement such as a report or a presentation.

The site — which calls itself a “career development and reputation management” tool — offers a dizzying number of options. Feedback can be made anonymously or not, it can be requested or offered unprompted. Results can be kept private or made public for bosses and recruiters to see, and can be viewed in various formats, such as graphs and pie charts. So it takes some navigating, but it may be worth it to see how you stack up in your colleagues’ eyes. Coworkers.com

FiredUp Network

In spite of its name, the Manhattan-based FiredUpNetwork.com is primarily a resource site and secondarily a networking site. Expanding the range of possibilities for the unemployed beyond simply outlining resources for finding work, the site lets visitors research opportunities such as starting a new business, potential business investors, post-graduate degrees and buying or selling a business.

“It’s kind of like Linked-In meets Wikipedia,” says founder Matthew Pizzi. “I basically created a foundation of starting points, of resources. Now it’s up to the community to use them and add to them.” Firedupnetwork.com

Zoosa

For those of the do-gooder persuasion, zoosa.org is the site to visit. It lists jobs and volunteer positions in the clean-tech, education and non-profit arenas. It’s a perfect destination for those who can’t find a job but would like to keep their skills hot by volunteering for a nonprofit, a move that networking experts say can often lead to a paying gig. zoosa.org

How I Got Laid Off

It’s no surprise that not all employers handle layoffs gracefully. HowI-GotLaidOff.com is a blog that calls these reprobates on the carpet, allowing victims to chronicle their horrific tales of getting the boot. And horrific they are, from a p.r. exec who was fired by her alcoholic boss after her abusive husband attacked her at work to a nonprofit worker in Kenya who got canned after witnessing the misappropriation of funds. (Naturally, his boss waited until after he finished a seven-day stint laid up in a rural Kenyan hospital before letting him go.) Visitors can submit their own tales of woe or spend hours reading about the misery of others. The blog won’t land you a job, but it’ll make you feel better about not having one. HowIGotLaidOff.com

Path 101

Path 101 is for job seekers wrestling with the ultimate question of what they really want to do. It has a personality test, career advice and a fancy resume analysis service that helps users pinpoint, among other things, where their skills are valued and what skills they need if they want to make a career switch. All you have to do is upload your resume.
Rather than finding specific jobs, “We’re more focused on helping people figure out what they want to do and where they might fit,” says CEO Charlie O’Donnell.

In a couple of weeks, Path 101 will add a search function to its resume database, allowing employers and others to take a gander.

Beyond

Beyond.com compiles job listings and resumes from about 15,000 niche job sites from around the country broken down by industry (e.g., accounting) and geography (e.g., Miami). The result is a more targeted approach to the job-seeking process which eliminates much of the dross, particularly for employers seeking candidates.

Just for laughs, we searched for “shoemaker,” figuring the career is about as niche as you could get, and actually found a listing, for a shoe-designing job at Oakley, the sunglasses firm. Then again, the search also yielded an accounting professorship in Nebraska, with resumes submitted to a certain Dr. Shoemaker. beyond.com

The Office

Here at @work we’re attuned to what wage slaves really need, so to that end this list wouldn’t be complete without a Web site that offers cube jocks nothing more useful than a prime way to waste time. At “The Office” home page, you can indulge in the great workplace tragicomedy with archived episodes as well as games and other extras. nbc.com/The_Office

Are Social Networking Sites Replacing Online Job Boards?

Social networking sites seem to be all the rage now, and have definitely changed the way people interact and communicate information with one another.  Yes, Facebook and Twitter might be a cool place to bash the latest celebrity foul (Kanye West stealing Taylor Swift’s moment at the 2009 VMA’s) or to talk about Sunday’s football game (Donovan McNabb broke a rib during the Eagle’s season opener…oh no!), but is it really the most professional setting for job seekers to find a job and employers to recruit candidates?

Probably not.  In my opinion, there is an avenue for work and an avenue for play.  Although social networking sites seem to have really blurred that line, there is still a need for professionalism when recruiting.  Not to mention, with the entire world jumping on the social networking “bandwagon” it is only a matter of time before these sites share the same fate as Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com...an overload of irrelevant information and no simple solution to easily sift through the mounds data to efficiently recruit candidates.  Also, the majority of social networking sites don't offer a very advanced search interface capability, with the exception of LinkedIn, and even theirs doesn't compare to the capability of a resume search database on a job board.

Now I’m not saying to disregard social networking sites all together, but it would be your best bet NOT to put all your eggs in one basket.  Any successful recruiter knows they shouldn’t rely solely on one recruitment method to source candidates.  As long as your recruiting efforts on social networking sites are supplemented with other tactics, such as online job postings, email marketing and resume searching, it can prove to be a very useful tool.  In fact, social networking sites do a great job of increasing corporate brand awareness and driving additional traffic to existing job openings. 

So how are social networking sites impacting online job boards?

While it is true that the job board industry has taken a hit as a result of the growth in popularity of recruiting on social networking sites, it does not mean in any way that job boards will soon be extinct.  Job boards that offer a unique value to employers and job seekers, especially career communities that offer targeted local and industry-specific recruitment, are the most likely to stick around.

As a result of the social networking movement, many job boards are introducing new tools into their business that are more social media friendly to stay competitive and encourage more personal connections between job seekers and employers.  For example, Beyond.com recently launched My Career Network, which allows job seekers to easily refer a friend, share jobs and connect with other job seekers.  The job boards who do not adapt will likely be left behind...

What are your thoughts?

Challenges With Video Recruitment

Although many employers are weary of whether or not to accept video resumes, it is becoming a more acceptable way for job seekers to communicate with employers.  Some job seekers are leveraging video resumes as a way to market themselves to employers and stand out amongst other candidates who do not yet utilize this tool.  However, before employers jump on the bandwagon and start incorporating videos into their recruitment program, they should make sure they are aware of the challenges associated with video recruiting.  Some of the challenges include:

• Legal ramifications - A significant disadvantage to employers who utilize video resumes is the possibility of a discrimination lawsuit. Candidates who are rejected could claim bias based on race, gender or age which is evident in the video, but not necessarily on paper.
• Time constraints - Many companies receive such a high volume of resumes that it might not be feasible to sit down and watch a 3-5 minute video for each applicant, especially when they can skim through each paper resumes in about 20 seconds a pop. 
• The candidate is in control - Video resumes are basically like an interview, except the candidate is in control and only presents information limited to what they want to share an employer. This can sometimes give a false pretense of how the candidate would react in a live interview.
• No guidelines, anything goes - Currently, there are no set guidelines on what content a video resume should include or what it should look like. Because of this lack of structure, many candidates include information that is not pertinent to the job opening and does not help the employer determine whether or not they would be a good fit for the company.
• Mistakenly pass on qualified candidates - Many times recruiters who search for candidates through online video resumes sometimes eliminate highly-qualified candidates by mistake because they may not present themselves well on camera. It is best for employers to look at the full package before eliminating a candidate and take into consideration what sort of position they are applying for. (For example, a video resume for a news broadcaster is much more important than it would be for an engineer.)

Hopefully by bringing these challenges to light, it will help your organization make an informed decision on whether or not to incorporate video resumes into your hiring program.  While I'm sure there are many circumstances where video resumes could be beneficial, it is important to always supplement video recruitment with traditional recruiting methods to ensure the most success. 

Beyond.com Releases New iPhone Application!

Beyond.com is excited to announce the availability of its new application enabling users to search jobs across thousands of top-tier industry and local career sites directly from their iPhone or iPod touch devices. In addition to adding a new layer of convenience for job seekers, the app provides human resource professionals and recruiters with extended reach into both the active and passive job seeker communities who search for jobs on-the-go.

The announcement comes on the heels of Beyond.com’s recent relationship with Viigo to bring interactive job search capabilities and career content to BlackBerry^® and Windows Mobile device users via Viigo’s popular mobile application. With the launch of its iPhone/iPod app, Beyond.com now provides job postings across the three major smart phone platforms on the market today.

Employers and recruiters not only gain increased visibility to their job postings, but they can also access valuable articles and information on recruitment advertising and other HR-related topics. Job seekers can use the app to search jobs by keyword and location, view job details, forward jobs to friends and bookmark jobs. In addition, users can browse career articles for advice and tips on a variety of topics including job searching, resume writing and interviewing.

According to Apple^®, iPhone sales for the second quarter 2009 represent a 123 percent increase in unit growth from the same quarter a year ago with more than 37 million total iPhone and iPod touch devices sold as of April 22, 2009. Mobile broadband technology has changed the way people gain access to information, interact with one another and search for jobs, requiring employers to re-evaluate their recruitment programs to be sure their job postings are receiving the most exposure through a variety of distribution mediums.

“Beyond.com continues to invest in and expand its technology to deliver the most complete set of tools and resources to HR professionals and job seekers,” says Rich Milgram, CEO of Beyond.com, Inc. “With this new app, Beyond.com provides users with access to the latest information to help drive their careers; and employers with the ability to reach these job seekers where they learn, work and live online. With a growing number of savvy mobile users, we recognize the value of creating multiple channels for job seekers and employers to make connecting easier than ever.”

The new Beyond.com application for iPhone and iPod touch users is available on iTunes^®. Beyond.com will automatically roll-out additional app features and functionality to users to ensure they continue to benefit from the best Beyond.com Network experience, regardless of time or location.

A demonstration of the new app is available at Beyond.com’s booth at the 2009 SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition, booth #1213.

Beyond.com Teams Up With Viigo To Provide Job Search Content To Professionals On-The-Go

Beyond.com, Inc., the world’s largest network of niche career communities, and Viigo, an award-winning developer of a popular mobile content and services platform for smartphones, have teamed up to provide job search capabilities and career content to users of BlackBerry® and Windows Mobile devices via Viigo’s popular mobile application.