BT suspends graduate recruitment as recession ends?

Telecommunications company BT announced today that they would be suspending their graduate recruitment scheme with no current plans to reintroduce it, citing the recession and “headcount pressures” as the reason for the axe.

This comes on the same day as The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) claim the recession is over, thanks to the biggest increase in business confidence since 2007.

Findings from the survey of over 1,000 chartered accountants show a record rise in confidence from -28.2 at the end of March, to +4.8 at the end of June, "suggesting the UK recession is at an end" according to ICAEW’s CEO Michael Izza.

Also today, the CBI have called for part of the Government’s £500m recruitment fund to be used to create 50,000 new apprenticeships, and for businesses to be given a subsidy of £2,500 for training younger employees.

Director General of the CBI, Richard Lambert said “Young people are being hardest hit by unemployment, and the government must increase the opportunities available to limit its scarring effects."

So, how will BT’s decision affect graduate unemployment? Have your say in the comments below.

5 Tips On Recruiting The Perfect Person Using Social Media and 5 Tips On Getting The Perfect Job Through Social Media

Afternoon readers. As you may be aware, there’s a recession going on. And in the true spirit of money-saving, many companies are turning to advertising for free on social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin to name a few) to save those all-important pennies.

This growing social media phenomenon can work to your advantage whether you’re a recruiter, a job-seeker, or simply using Twitter or Linkedin for your business.

Have a look at our handy tips below:

1. If you’re a recruiter, create a Twitter profile, a Linkedin Profile and Group, a blog, and a Facebook Page for your company. This way you can reach a massive user base of potential recruits. We’re going to assume you already have a website!

2. If you already have said profiles, are you using them effectively? Keep your tweets around 100 characters so that your followers can RT (Retweet) your posts to their contacts with more info if necessary. Make sure you are including the link to the advertised job as a shortened URL so it takes up less of your 140 characters. You can use a variety of websites for this. We recommend bit.ly, as it comes with free tracking stats so you can see how many people have viewed your job posting. Keep your Tweets, Facebook updates, and Linkedin statuses concise, clear and refer users to more information on your website.

3. Cross-pollinate your posts on all of your social media profiles and blog. Posting on all of those may sound like a lot of work, but it’s easy to post your update on Twitter, and then connect it to your Facebook and Linkedin profiles and your blog, saving you time and effort. Check out TwitterFeed for connecting everything together using RSS Feeds (Really Simple Syndication).

4. Add connections from Twitter, Facebook, jobseekers on Monster etc., and then go one step further by being a little more creative… Search Twitter’s “Trending Topics” for keywords like “job-hunting” and “unemployed” and add people who are in the market for a new job.

5. Of course, it’s easier to get followers (connections, friends and readers) to come to you, rather than hunt them down yourself, but this will happen naturally once you have a solid enough follower-base, and as users find your status updates, tweets and posts through other people they subscribe to. Don’t forget to keep marketing your profiles using your websites, business cards, and company documentation.

And for the job-hunters?

1. Follow recruitment companies such as @MonsterCareers, and @UKHub (and have a look at their blog) on Twitter for up-to-the-minute job Tweets, and register on their main sites too. @NickWalrond also provides great links to articles on CVs, Professional Networking and other interesting career and business info. Also, check out TwitterJobSearch. This great tool uses Twitter to find job posts.

2. Get on Linkedin to find job postings in your area and use the search facility to find the kind of companies you are interested in. Don’t forget to build up your Linkedin profile and seek a few ‘recommendations’ from old bosses to make you gold dust to employers. On the same token, make sure you have an up-to-date and proofread CV.

3. If you have a blog, write about what kind of job you are looking for, and similarly keep followers, friends and connections in the know about what you are doing and what jobs you are trying to find. Chances are one of your contacts will know someone who knows someone and will get in touch.

4. On a similar note, subscribe to the Blogs of companies you’d like to work for and you’ll be one of the first to know whenever a job is advertised.

5. Whilst Facebook is used more for keeping in touch, job postings are put on the Marketplace fairly often depending on your location and you never know when you might find something promising there.

For more great tips and info, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our Blog. And whether you are recruiting or jobseeking, let us know how you get on in the comments below.

In other news, the UK Government has launched a 20-page guide to Twitter today encouraging MPs to start using the service to keep citizens informed. [Source: http://bit.ly/kFzP2]

Someone’s got the right idea eh?


Posted by Ady Harold - Web Marketing Manager

If you would like to get in touch with Sticky Media Group please visit our web site for contact information and further details on our web services.

Recruitment Microsites - What's the point?

Recruitment microsites are fast becoming the tool of choice for the recruiting employer, but what's that I hear you shout? we have Monster! Jobsite! newspaper ads! our own candidate database! Ahhh well let me tell you - the microsite is not simply the candidate magnet that you may think... Brand development is a principal force behind the popularity of the microsite, and I intend to explain this.

Microsites offer a chance for employers to explain their background, promote their brand, history, working ethos, current market position and all manner of messages that any company may wish to communicate to the masses.

Imagine you receive 25 CVs through a microsite, 4 of which lead to a hire. The number of people likely to have looked at that site without submitting their CV could be well in excess of 100. All those people looking through your carefully chosen words about your company, that's a potential candidate who would usually have been lost in the web of a national job board, has now visited a branded site specific to you on a personalised URL, and is therefore far likely to return to your job spec at a later date (or impart some useful information taken from said microsite to a chum).

The microsite offers your company it's own little space of absolute freedom to promote any message you so choose in a manner that is as concise or as detailed as you wish; with your level of branding, images, downloads, logos, maps, whatever you so choose as an added bonus.

So is that it? Brand Development?

Mais non! Important not to forget the following:

• Small site = small set up time
• Small site = reduced costs
• Ongoing improvement: Easy to maintain a small site
• Widespread job advertising: Job aggregators can be signed up to the microsite, meaning you post your job once - it gets posted to 10+ national job boards FREE OF CHARGE
  
• Links to your own site and other sites of interest, all helps SEO and your Google-presence, plus offers an increase in your own company web traffic.

In short, microsites are not a painful process, and come with a whole goodie-bag of benefits to a business, its not a suprise they are being snapped up like wildfire. We like making them and our clients love them. Long may it continue.....


Posted by Mike Wedge

If you would like to get in touch with Sticky Media Group please visit our web site for contact information and further details on our web services.

What website best represents my business...

We've just been handed a spec for one of our largest projects. A web redesign for a market leading RPO consultancy to more closely reflect the scale and reach of their business.

It became clear to us right from the beginning that their current site (http://www.resource-management.co.uk) does little to demonstrate their capability and strengths, and provides us the opportunity (one that we relish) to grasp a company's core beliefs and ideology and truly reflect that online.

After a little research, we realised their is no better tool for a visually impactive yet professionally impressive web site than tailored use of CSS. Flash websites can be appealing on the eye but often it is all too easy to get carried away in the intricacies of animation and neglect the widely saught-after search engine optimisation for example.

Contraversely a lack of CSS or web graphics savvy can easily make a web site look cheap, aged or out of touch. It is again a case of finding the comfortable middle ground that both exceeds expectations yet meets with the coding, accessibility and search engine friendly criteria that simply cannot go overlooked.

After a few discussions with Resource Management about their online 'shop-front', and having pencilled over a selection of 'first drafts', we are now getting stuck in up to the armpits in web site production, beavering away at website coding while RM wait with baited breath for the end result. We pride ourselves on our ability to turn a brief discussion into a fully functional website as quick as a flash, prepare for the link to come in the very near future...


Posted by Mike Wedge

If you would like to get in touch with Sticky Media Group please visit our web site for further details here.

Banner Advertising - Flash or Static?

A pivotal element in recruitment advertising, the banner advertising, when provided with (usually) such a small area to play with, how does one create impact in a space roughly the size of a few postage stamps?

Flash! This made a massive impact when it was introduced, every banner had a gawdy flashing element proclaiming 'Congratulations! you are the 1,000,000th visitor and you have won £1,000!!', or 'Poker at its best, Play online against real people now!' - it almost seemed like having a static image was the classy alternative, 'no flashing lights required here - my logo is strong enough' they seemed to say.

But now the techniques used with Flash to draw attention without detriment to commercial integrity are on the up. We recently composed the below 468x60 banner for our client Sanderson Recruitment - to demonstrate their breadth of experience in the recruitment market as well as their commitment to providing excellent service; all within the realms of attention-grabbing yet professional and effective.



As Adobe and other related companies march forth with their innovation - the ability to use a small space with devastating effect will only improve. It's acheiving that middle ground between corporate and attention grabbing that will remain a challenge throughout.


Posted by Mike Wedge

If you would like to get in touch with Sticky Media Group please visit our web site for further details here.

Greetings and Salutations

This is the first post (as you will no doubt notice) from Sticky Media Group. It seems that over the course of the last few years, recruitment advertising has snowballed massively in both variety and market acceptance. Gone are the days of the standalone job advert, welcome the days of brand development, employers of choice, banners, buttons and a whole host of alternatives.

Just to give you a little background in where we are coming from... Unlike several other recruitment advertising agencies, we are from a recruitment background - we have over 30 years in the recruitment market hailing from Resource Solutions Group: one of the UK's largest independent IT recruiters. We applied this extensive experience to produce a media company without the fuss, delays and lack of relevant knowledge that we so often saw in our experience.

We have undertaken work for MI5, Lloyds Banking Group, Reckitt Benckiser, and Nutricia to name but a few. We are confident in our solutions given our experience has taught us to be effective and innovative in our advertising and marketing process.

From PPC to CSS, Flash to Print, Logos to Whitepapers, we have a wealth of experience and pride ourselves in our ability to pick a bespoke solution to satisfy and exceed the expectations of every one of our clients.

Posted by Mike Wedge

If you would like to get in touch with Sticky Media Group please visit our web site for further details here.