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| The Latest Headlines From Bornto |
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Are recruiters losing the technology race to employers?
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14/03/2008 |
| 05-07-07
Two of the recruitment industry’s most notable commentators on technology and innovation are concerned that employers have seized the initiative from recruiters in terms of incorporating technology to enhance and streamline the recruitment process.
Colin Minto and Gareth Osborne of Bornto have issued a stark warning to recruiters to catch up and engage with existing and emerging technologies to stay ahead of the game in terms of candidate attraction, processing, matching and selection and the correct application of recruitment software or risk giving employers the upper hand in the so called ‘War for Talent’.
Colin has been monitoring the online recruitment and technology vendor marketplaces since joining jobs.co.uk in early 2003 and continued to do so passionately throughout his tenure at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and now at Bornto. He concludes that in this time the impetus has swung away from recruiters in favour of employers who now have by far the greatest appetite for engaging with technology to energise their recruitment processes.
Colin said; “Recruiters were quick to acknowledge the importance of recruitment software to streamline their operational processes and the efficiencies job boards and CV databases could bring to their candidate accrual activity, however, it is employers now who are embracing and implementing the latest innovations in integrated recruitment and employment technology.
How many recruiters can claim they have in place a fully integrated end to end technology suite giving them a job board style corporate website, advert creation and approval mechanism, multi-posting functionality, CV parsing, databasing, matching and selection abilities and fully automated back end processes!!!
Not too many, but when you look at the client lists of companies like Stepstone Solutions, Jobpartners and Vurv Technology, who have incidentally posted record growth and turnover figures quarter on quarter since early 2006, there are literally thousands of employers who now have the capability to attract talent to vacancies showcased on their corporate websites, multi-post these vacancies to job boards and screen and select the most suitable candidates to interview directly, without engaging a professional recruiter in the process.”
Colin recalls his days as a Corporate Account Manager at Securicor Recruitment Services and Randstad and the amount of times clients referred to agencies as a ‘necessary evil’ and confirmed their wish of a time when they didn’t have to rely on agencies to mange their temporary and permanent recruitment; “It was always said and meant in the best of faith, however, even in 1997, I personally experienced clients investigating ways to reduce their dependency on agency support.
Until now we as an industry have been effective at proving our value in the recruitment process, however, technology has advanced so much that in certain recruitment situations, employers do not need a recruiter to intervene. I saw a technology at the beginning of 2006, that when put to the test, chose the exact person a company hired for a position two months before simply by running the 5000 CV’s generated by the advert for the role through the software.”
Colin admits that technology will never remove the need for human intervention in the recruitment process but if technology can serve up a short list of the best five candidates for a role in seconds, will that human be a recruiter or an HR manager?
It’s not just the impact of employers’ self hiring aspirations that recruiters need to keep an eye on. Both Colin and Gareth have been observing the developments of the online recruitment industry, especially surrounding the ownership of the mainstream job boards migrating to the major press groups.
Gareth said; “Many are now predicting the effect press group ownership will have on job board pricing and some recruiters have commented that prices have started to rise disproportionately to the increases in reciprocal value provided, plus services are being split out and charged for separately, such as advert posting and CV database access, thus constituting a major increase in candidate accrual costs.”
Bornto accept and support the view from job boards that the more value you provide the more you can charge, but by combining the aspirations of employers to go it alone and the conspiracy theories surrounding increases in job board posting and CV access costs, Colin and Gareth believe this should no be the catalyst for recruiters to catapult technology and online presence to the top of the board room agenda and urge recruiters to join the technology debate.
Colin Minto said “It’s interesting to note that the recruitment industry dominates candidate flow already, it just doesn’t know it. We tried to harness this dominant position by operating a recruitment industry specific CV database service at REC, however, legislative constraints limited our ability to operate an industry job board to accrue candidates, therefore, the RE-source solution was ultimately unsuccessful.”
Given the additional pressures on candidate flow costs and employer self hiring, Gareth concluded by saying “Perhaps it is the right time for a recruitment industry exclusive job board and candidate database to exist and the formation of a recruiters technology champion. Bornto would consider operating such a solution and assuming this role, if there was a real demand from recruiters for it to do so.”
Colin and Gareth can be contacted at www.bornto.net if you want to pass comment or express your interest in the existence of a series of recruitment industry exclusive technologies and innovations.
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The Association of Personal Assistants Launches
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14/03/2008 |
| 04-06-07
The Association of Personal Assistants (www.paprofessional.com) successfully launched this week to represent and support Britain's 500,000 PAs. Visit their website for more information.
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Bornto change the way we do business
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14/03/2008 |
| 31-01-07
The recruitment industry has today been given notice of a pending Armageddon in the battlefield of innovation and technology linked to its marketplace, courtesy of two of its stalwarts; Gareth Osborne and Colin Minto . The two long-standing colleagues, both formerly with the professional body, REC, have joined forces to launch Bornto Limited (Bornto), a company billed by them as the A-Team of recruitment IT and technology. They promised to get to grips with the melee of mismatched products and services available in the recruitment arena and offer intelligent advice to busy owner managers and operators struggling to embrace recruitment technology and online solutions for maximum effect.
Gareth Osborne, formerly the Chief Executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) had many years in the field of innovative technology before joining the trade body and holds a doctorate in Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Colin Minto is the ex Managing Director of REC’s technology subsidiary and a leading traditional and online recruitment industry technology specialist. Both have been outspoken about the ‘confusion’ in the marketplace and the cavalier way in which developers see the recruitment industry as a soft touch. “Some are charging top notch prices for bargain-basement products and services and our users, clients and workers are losing out as a result”, says Osborne. “Colin and I have teamed up to level the playing field for jobseekers in the employment markets and support the global staffing community to embrace and integrate good technology and the latest innovations into their operational processes”.
By forming Bornto they will bring emerging and innovative technology, support services and business protocols to the forefront of employment stakeholder’s current and future strategic thinking, which will enable staffing businesses to reduce and limit their cost of candidate acquisition, improve their ability to manage and retain jobseeker talent and deliver enhanced service levels to their clients.
“Jobseekers in our opinion are the most important element of the recruitment process because they are the lifeblood of the staffing solution", Gareth commented. "Manageable volumes of suitable jobseekers need to be accrued in line with clients’ demands, otherwise candidates are potentially left disappointed and placements and assignments obviously don’t get filled, which impacts on a recruiter’s bottom line”.
Gareth’s and Colin’s considerable experience in both the traditional and online recruitment industry’s and their frustration regarding the lack of clarity in the existing and emerging technology markets has led them to formulate a business, which will support innovative thinking recruiters to identify, appraise and understand how technology and progressive business thinking can add value to their operation and achieve an optimum return on investment.
“Technology can make the single largest positive or negative impact on a business or industry! The difference between achieving one or the other is dependent on how you integrate or apply technology into your processes”, said Colin.
He continued; “It is disappointing to hear that many jobseekers feel they are treated as no more than a commodity in the employment landscape. We believe this is simply a result of how easy it is these days to send CV’s and apply for positions via email, online recruitment channels and emerging technologies, which has the unfortunate affect of overloading the recruitment consultant or corporate recruiter. There is no-one to blame here, it’s purely a consequence of technological progress. Technology developers are focussing on the issues and are creating outstanding solutions and it is these we want to showcase to recruiters”.
Collectively, Gareth and Colin have an unrivalled profile and network in the traditional and online recruitment, emerging technology and innovation community, which is why the formation of Bornto has been seen by many in the recruitment industry as an obvious and welcomed move by them.
Gareth concluded; “If you are an innovative thinking recruiter and want to be one of the informed then please get in touch. If we can build a community of recruiters who embrace and adopt progress and change in one of the most dynamic and challenging marketplaces, we can ensure the staffing industry continues to lead the field in the provision of ethical and valued work seeking services to the jobseeking population”.
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