Misconception 1: “We are a small company and we don’t recruit much!”

A very small company may only recruit 3 or 4 people a year, therefore is there any point in thinking too much about recruitment and its associated costs?

The answer is that perception is key.

Small companies do not want to be perceived as small companies, it’s not good for business image, for winning large scale contracts, or indeed for hiring talent. They want to be perceived as professional and cutting edge. A Recruitment Portal would provide the same high spec functionality as that of their bigger competitors. But it doesn’t stop there – small companies would also have the ability to attract talent more economically by utilising MyPeopleBiz buying power with candidate supply channels such as recruitment agents and job boards, rather than trying to negotiate something from a position of weakness. After all, it’s no good trying to sell to an agent the concept of reducing their fees if all they are going to be offered  is a couple of roles to fill a year. With MyPeopleBiz, a small company can benefit from our collective buying power, agree terms of business, set and fix the fee. Then there is the ability to hire direct utilising our platform consisting of thousands of job seekers. If you hire a couple of your new employees direct, you will have almost paid for your Recruitment Portal and from then on, everything is a cost saving.

Misconception 2: “We are an SME, we employ around 100 people and we are not really doing anything!”

It is true that there are companies out there planning to survive by doing nothing but this in practice is not what it seems. In reality the above statement is made because it feels the right thing to say or it feels like nothing is happening; but when you look at what the recruitment plan is, often most companies will say that they are growing by an average of 10% a year (10 new people) to support the growth of the business and in most cases there is also an attrition ration of 10% (another 10 new people). Put simply, “we are not doing anything and not recruiting” may well be what it feels like when you are immersed in the day to day, but there is a need to recruit 20 people and that is expensive and time consuming. Hence you do need a Recruitment Portal.

Misconception 3: “We use a spread sheet for tracking candidates – we DO NOT need an applicant tracking system or any other system!”

Organising recruitment is not rocket science. While using an excel spread sheet is not an ideal situation, it can be maintained and managed by an administrator. You can put up with emails containing CV’s coming in at you from every angle, you can put up with the odd agency dispute caused by duplicate applications and end up paying two agencies fees for the same candidate. Not using an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) might save you money up-front but it will cost you in the long run. Yes, all of the problems of under investment can be justified, even the over worked administrators who have to put up with the day to day issues can be dealt with, BUT what about the business? Are they being served? Are they getting the best support? Are you really saving any money by doing what you have always done and refusing to update? Here is an example that people don’t think about and it’s a typical scenario. A new role arises and a decision to post the role on some job boards at a cost of £1,000 (to get direct response and save money) is taken as well as calling all the agencies on the PSL and asking them to help you fill the role. An agency sends a candidate in, admin checks to see if that candidate is on the spread sheet and finds that indeed an application had been submitted 2 years ago. This is outside of the agency exclusivity arrangement and therefore the agency that has submitted the most recent application is logged and the candidate duly gets interviewed, gets the job and is hired resulting in a fee of £6,000 for the introduction. Including the money spent on the job boards, it has all cost £7,000. That’s all pretty efficient and it has all worked well.

Now consider how the same scenario would work with MyPeopleBiz.

A new role arises and you post the role on your career portal before deciding how you want to recruit it. You press the “Candidate Match” button and a candidate that had applied 2 years ago is a perfect match and had been bookmarked to your talent pool at the time you interviewed them. You press the contact candidate button and automatically attach the job spec requesting that, if they are interested, to send you an updated CV and apply via your career portal for the job. They duly get interviewed and hired for the job, resulting in a fee of a big fat £ZERO. There has been no admin hassle, all communications have taken place through your portal and are stored in one place. A vacancy history has been stored, the business has been well served, money has been saved and recruitment has been moved into another level. Now the focus can be on the quality of hire, time to hire, cost to hire, employer brand.

You now have a professional, cutting edge Recruitment Portal, accessible from your website providing you with the same high spec functionality as that of your bigger competitors.

Misconception 4: “We want a direct only recruitment strategy!”

The CEO of a fast growing company decided about a year ago that they had enough of agencies and that from now on HR would be banned from using them. The resources would be directed to bringing everything in-house and managing a self-sufficient “Direct only” recruitment strategy. The Company recruits an average of 20 people per month throughout the UK. The HR team has had to grow from 2 people to 12 people to be able to manage and resource the strategy; which consists of social media, job boards, CV databases and internal head-hunters. Because of the cost of people employed, there is no budget for an ATS and the whole thing is managed on a spread sheet.

The average hire is on a base of £25k with OTE of around £40k and previously the recruitment agencies were supplying candidates at 10% on a PSL resulting in an average fee of £2,500 per hire. So under the previous agency strategy, recruiting 240 people would have cost £600,000.

Now with HR team salaries averaging £30k for 12 people £360,000 plus NI £46,800 plus factoring in desks, laptops and all other employment associated costs, which is difficult to guess but we will use the service office model and allocate a cost per desk of £300 per employee per month costing £43,200. There are 12 job boards used ranging from Reed, Monster, to specialist sales & marketing boards plus LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and a number of CV databases that are subscribed to annually in order to acquire candidate names, identities and contact details at a cost of £90,000. Total cost of the direct strategy is £540,00 A saving of £60,000, but a huge increase in risk.

We suggested a Recruitment Portal with a multichannel recruitment strategy.

The portal including the career site, ATS, communications suite, interview management system,  2 user licenses , all jobs being “socialised” to the social networks by MyPeopleBiz, all jobs appearing on job board aggregators at a cost £14,690.  We would purchase job board credits at our reduced rates amounting to £72,000

Results show that:

• 50 % of the recruits (120) will be “no-fee” candidates generated by people coming directly to the company’s Recruitment Portal, social networks and job boards.
• Referrals will account for another 20% of recruits and utilising our unique referral schemes, these will cost £147,000.
• Finally, the use of recruitment agencies for the remaining most difficult to fill jobs (72) will result in £180,000.

The total cost of a professional system and multichannel approach cost £383,690 representing a saving of £216,310.

Even if you take the view that the office space doesn’t cost you and the laptops are free, etc; you may be able to lose £43,200 of costs, bringing the direct strategy down to £496,800. You could take the view that you may need two extra administrators to the Recruitment Portal approach with an additional cost of £60,000, meaning that you increase the MyPeopleBiz costs to £425,690, but compared to going completely “direct strategy” route,  it’s still a saving £53,110 in year one.

Has the business been served? Are they getting the right or best support? Are you really saving any money by not having an applicant tracking system? The Holy Grail of direct only is not always what it may seem.

Misconception 5: “We do not have time for all of this, besides we like our agencies and want to continue to use them!”

I am never too sure what this statement means, but I guess it is saying that the team is far too busy to look at the recruitment service it provides to the business and whether that service is providing value and the quality required. I assume that it is also saying that managing a spread sheet or paper application process is time consuming and mind numbingly boring, which I understand. I guess it’s also saying that we don’t have either the time or the inclination to go outside of the agency candidate supply channel because it “fills me with dread”, which again I understand. Finally, having built up valuable relationships with certain agents, I completely understand why you would wish to maintain those relationships.

So let’s deal with some of these myths starting in reverse order.

Implementing a Recruitment Portal does not change your relationship with a recruiter. It simply means when they submit an application, it automatically goes into your tracking system rather than to your administrator to input into a spread sheet. You can use the same PSL if you so wish, you can continue to pay the same fee levels if you wish, although using our buying power you can also reduce those fee levels, fix them and agree your terms online. But you can continue to talk to your agents in exactly the same way as you always have.

Being far too busy to provide the right service to the business is an issue and we can help you to change that by providing you with a professional, cutting edge Recruitment Portal. This can be accessed from your web site, providing the same high spec functionality as that of your bigger competitors with a complete ATS, communications  suite and interview management.

You will have the ability to attract talent more economically without the hassle of having to do it yourself, by utilising our platform which consists of thousands of job seekers from social networks and job boards. If you hire a couple of your new employees direct, you will have almost paid for your Portal. From then on, everything is a cost saving and you will have more time to support the business in other ways such as development, appraisals etc.

Contact us for further information info@mypeoplebiz.com.

Social networks are now an increasingly important part employer’s recruitment strategies. Engaging with job seekers and promoting vacancies to generate response is one thing but the issue for many employers has been that utilising Facebook and other sites is time consuming and the response is difficult to manage. However, Kantar Media UK commissioned MyPeopleBiz to build its new Recruitment Portal and to provide the functionality to allow the UK Human Resources team to post all the roles on the company’s corporate website, corporate Facebook page and Twitter feed with all the response from the social network site being captured directly into the Recruitment Portal.

Hannah Poulton, HR Advisor at Kantar Media said “We’re very excited about our social networking endeavours and the fact that we can have our career site, our facebook page, applicant tracking, interview management and communications all fully integrated is a huge benefit to the business”.

Parker Crockford, Director of MyPeopleBiz: “I speak on a daily basis to businesses who are struggling to convert their Facebook following into tangible and measurable job applications. Our new functionality gives employers the ability to do this, and to track the results. Additionally, the Recruitment Portal powered by the MyPeopleBiz platform allows employers to funnel the response from multiple locations into one easy to use system, freeing up email inboxes and reducing administration”.

Jessops the highly respected high street retailer with over 200 stores has partnered with recruitment platform MyPeopleBiz, to develop its new recruitment portal. The partnership is aimed at further improving the Jessops employer brand as well as improving the recruitment function and managing the overall cost.

The relationship between the two companies began back in September 2010 when MyPeopleBiz started working with Jessop’s, assisting them with their recruitment strategy and providing additional resource to HR during a recruitment drive to recruit new Store Managers.

Jessop’s attract a considerable amount of applications to vacancies advertised and needed a way to manage these effectively. To reflect these specifications MyPeopleBiz have developed a fully bespoke recruitment portal that is accessible through the Jessops corporate site and will benefit from the latest functionality including parsing technology that processes text i.e. in a candidates CV and extracts required information for easier CV search and registration.

Jessops will now be able to use their new recruitment portal to manage all their requirements from one place, attracting direct candidates, talent pooling, creating talent databases and referral schemes to tap into the growth of social media and additionally managing all their agency suppliers.

Parker Crockford at MyPeopleBiz said “Jessops has already experienced the benefits of having its own portal and the support MyPeopleBiz can provide as and when they require additional resource.” The new functionality will allow Jessops to capture thousands of candidate details currently from different places, into their own searchable talent database which will mean that they can recruit from their talent pool without incurring any additional costs.

Every new vacancy can be tweeted, shared to professional network LinkedIn or messaged to Facebook friends.

Making it easy for your employees and external referrers to introduce their friends, ex colleagues and family to your new jobs is now even easier:

Facebook is populated by your ‘Friends’. This more personal relationship requires a more personalised and targeted message.

This new functionality will result in an increase in the number of visits to your career site, as well as an increase in the quality and number of job applications.

And it doesn’t end there; we are also really excited with the new Facebook integration for career sites, check out Kantar Media below:-

Interested in maximising the growing influence of social media? Call us to discuss the latest MyPeopleBiz 2.0 functionality on 0203 176 3737 or email info@mypeoplebiz.com.

The Teenage Cancer Trust (http://www.teenagecancertrust.org/) is to manage their recruitment from one location, greatly reducing the time spent on administration and improving the efficiency of the hiring process.

Sandra Cotty, Human Resources at TCT said  “As a charity we continually seek to make the most effective use of our resources and implementing an efficient recruitment management system which helps us to make savings on recruitment cost is a great for us.  We are delighted to be working with MyPeopleBiz and greatly value their commitment to the not for profit sector.”

David McGlashan, Charity Relationship Manager at MyPeopleBiz: “We are extremely excited to be working with Teenage Cancer Trust, and hope to build a long lasting partnership with them.  Bespoke recruitment portals are an excellent fit for not-for-profits, reducing the high costs typically related to recruitment and reducing the administrative burden on HR teams.”

As part of its commitment to the not-for-profit sector, MyPeopleBiz donates back 10% of any costs that it generates from a charity over a 12 month period.

Daniels Group, a leader in its market with a £160 million turnover, make and sell fresh food and drinks in five categories – fresh soup, fresh drinks, fresh fruit, chilled ready meals and hot eating traditional desserts. Their brands include New Covent Garden Soup, Johnson Juices and Farmhouse Fare.

Daniels Group are as passionate about their people as they are about their products therefore they are fully committed to excellent employee relations, recruitment, training and development of their people. With sites across the country in Peterborough, Ashford, County Durham, Leeds, Clitheroe, and Grimsby it was important that access the system is available from all the locations and also whilst travelling between sites. The fully hosted solution developed by MyPeopleBiz will also handle the Graduate Programme and benefits from the latest functionality including parsing technology for easier CV search and registration.

Daniels Group’s new recruitment portal has delivered many benefits to the HR department, including the attraction of direct candidates, the ability to talent pool, create talent databases and referral programmes to tap into the growth of social media; in addition to managing all the agency suppliers. The new functionality allows the HR team to upload all the candidate details currently held in many different locations and sites, to their own searchable talent database which will mean that they can recruit from their talent pool without incurring any additional costs.

Emma Proudley, HR Business Partner for Daniels Group said ‘Having an external partner to focus our recruitment drive at Daniels Group is proving incredibly useful. By hosting all our existing recruitment methods through one ATS (Applicant Tracking System) saves the HR team time, effort, and money. It gives us the ability to monitor the results of all applications and be able to communicate back to applicants in a timely and effective manner. We want to employ the best people, so using MyPeopleBiz which provides us with a multichannel approach to see the whole candidate market place, including a system that taps in to the passive market of applicants who are not actively job hunting. Additionally, MyPeopleBiz allows us to manage our relationships with our established recruitment suppliers effectively, as well as reducing our agency spend.”

Parker Crockford at MyPeopleBiz said “although our partnership is in its infancy the Daniels Group has already benefited from having its own recruitment portal and the support MyPeopleBiz can provide as and when they require additional resource.”

The bespoke recruitment portals that MyPeopleBiz provide contain a built in Applicant Tracking System to enable much more effective management of the application process. The portals also enable employers to develop a recruitment strategy that brings down their recruitment costs and exploits every candidate channel open to them.

To improve the recruitment portals that they provide, MyPeopleBiz have launched their analytics functionality, which can give instant reports on candidate flow, cost to hire, time to hire and budget management. This functionality will increase the level of control that HR personnel have over their recruitment budget and give key information about candidate source so that the budget can be more effectively distributed.

These detailed reports can play a huge part in determining recruitment budgets and as a result growth estimates. This level of control and depth of information can help companies to plan for the future, by developing a proactive, but pragmatic approach.

Director of MyPeopleBiz, Parker Crockford. ‘This new release clearly demonstrates our commitment to providing our clients with the levels of functionality that our larger competitors offer. We understand that budget control and financial reporting are as important to small businesses as they are to very large ones.’

2^nd Thorntons Chocolates – the largest, independent chocolate and confectionery company in the United Kingdom.

3^rd ACO Technologies – the leading supplier in the design, development and manufacture of surface water drainage systems.

The competition was created by MyPeopleBiz to celebrate the launch of its latest functionality which now includes parsing and artificial intelligence technology through the partnership with Burning Glass. MyPeopleBiz’s  Recruitment Portals are  an end-to-end web-based system, accessed from the Employers Corporate Website and include a Career Site, an Applicant Tracking System, Interview Management functionality and provide the ability for the Employer to communicate requirements to all the Candidate supply channels including Job Boards, Social Networks, Recruitment Agencies, Head-hunters, Careers Site and Internal and External Referrals schemes. Recruitment Portals help to reduce the cost of Recruitment and also save HR time, simplifying the recruitment process for applicants and providing better management information for hirers. Portals can include Talent Management Systems that allow Candidates to register details and skills.  Another key benefit is that it makes the application process far simpler, helping to improve the employer brand.

The winners will benefit from unique, easy to use features and the latest technology , which learns and looks for patterns using artificial intelligence rather than hard-code tables, allowing the user to search a complete CV rather than key fields. This eliminates inefficiency, allowing the matching of jobs with candidates; and the processing of CV’s and data extraction to improve the more you use it, as it learns intelligently what you require.

Parker Crockford, Business Development Director at MyPeopleBiz, said ‘We had numerous entries as expected and I have to say that its the first time I have actually enjoyed giving something away – It is a great feeling, and it will get even better when we start to see the 3 winners start to enjoy using their portals, organising their recruitment and enjoying the cost to hire savings that they will be able to achieve – my congratulations to the winners.’

Phase Eight hire hundreds of staff every year across the UK; their new recruitment portal allows them to effectively manage the processes from the beginning to the end.

Simplicity is essential when encouraging people to apply for their jobs, so Phase Eight have made the application process as easy to understand as possible.

Parker Crockford, Director of MyPeopleBiz. “We are delighted to have provided Phase Eight with their recruitment portal; understanding the way that people approach the job market means that they can develop better relationships with prospective employees.”

Please contact Parker Crockford for any further information, or visit their website.

pcrockford@mypeoplebiz.com www.mypeoplebiz.com

MyPeopleBiz are delighted to be able to offer this improved functionality, and with it an improved level of service that can really benefit Gerald Eve’s recruitment strategy financially and liberate some of their busy HR team’s precious time.

Mr. Parker Crockford, Director of MyPeopleBiz. “We are very proud to have provided Gerald Eve with their recruitment portal; we believe that our quality of service and improved functionality will be a platform on which to build their own recruitment strategy.”

Please contact Parker Crockford for any further information, or visit the website geraldeve.com/careers.