by Fiona Housiaux | Aug 9, 2016 | News
With news today that Dutch based global HR experts Randstad are to acquire US rival (ish) Monster we are excited to see how this merger impacts the global HR arena in the next few years. The general consensus at ThinkinCircles is that this could be a positive step for these two giants.
The key to the partnership is technology. Tech has always been at the heart of Monster and by combining their experience and innovative approach to recruitment alongside Randstad’s significant reach into the marketplace can only mean exciting times ahead.
Not just bigger but smarter seems to be the thinking behind the acquisition. Bigger is obvious given the size of these two companies, but smarter and more technologically advance is the vital ingredient.
Jacques van den Broek, CEO of Randstad expanded on this further, “With its industry leading technology platform and easy to use digital, social and mobile solutions, Monster is a natural complement to Randstad. The transaction is aligned with our Tech and Touch growth strategy and reflects our commitment to bringing labour supply and demand closer together to better connect the right people to the right jobs. We look forward to welcoming the Monster team and working together to shape the evolving global job industry.”
Both companies share this vision towards transformation. Tim Yates, CEO of Monster said “Joining Randstad provides a unique opportunity to accelerate our ability to connect more people to more jobs“.
Monster will retain its’ own identity – for now anyway. Global mergers on this scale can often damage the heart of the companies purchased as they become more and more absorbed into new company cultures. Hopefully Randstad will seek to embrace all that is good with Monster and not stifle it’s technologically pioneering spirit.
It is worth considering as well the implications of a company the size of Randstad now having access to the data held by Monster. For other recruitment agencies in the market the decision to use Monster may well be compromised as concerns grow about potentially sharing their data with the competition.
Many in the industry saw Monster as a troubled brand and somewhat under pressure. This move by Randstad may be an innovative way to reboot the fortunes of both companies but with jobs boards under increasing competition and pressure have they simply bought a really expensive candidate database?
This is certainly going to be an interesting purchase. One which could be a positive move for job seekers around the world. It’s definitely true that Randstad’s positive and proactive stance towards investing in technology on this scale is a hugely positive step forward in the transforming the HR arena globally. We think It could be an exciting merger not just for now but for the next generation of job hunters!
by Fiona Housiaux | Jul 1, 2016 | News
A report from market insight providers SMB Group and sponsored by Adobe outlines three key technology trends for small to medium-sized businesses in 2016.
The study defines SMEs as having between one and 1,000 employees, and summarises the three trends as follows:
- SMEs that make a performance connection between business and technology outpace their counterparts.
- Mobile technology is a greater part of the ‘IT real estate’ for SMEs.
- Security is the elephant in the room for SME technology.
In general, the study found that three in ten SMEs are ‘progressive’ in terms of embracing technology as a means to boost their business performance.
This substantial minority perform better than their peers – investing 29% more into technology than their counterparts, adopting emerging technologies like cloud, integration and analytics, and are 18% more likely to forecast increased revenues.
In terms of mobile IT, 65% of medium-sized businesses and 55% of small businesses say mobile solutions are “critical” to their productivity. However, use of mobile is much more widespread than those figures suggest, with 90% of all SMEs using mobile contact management, calendars and email on a regular basis. With the internet increasingly moving towards being mobile-friendly – particularly on Google, where responsive web designs now achieve better search rankings – it is no surprise that more SMEs are publishing mobile-friendly websites too.
These are supported by mobile apps in many cases, as companies find new ways to reach out to their potential customers. But the report adds that businesses need to invest more to protect their mobile IT assets, as mobile management often lags behind the overall adoption rates of apps and devices themselves.
This leads into the third part of the report, a warning on outdated security that in many SMEs has hardly progressed since the 1990s. Data now has more places to reside, whether on a physical hard drive, an external or portable storage device, a smartphone or tablet, or online on an internet server or cloud storage platform. All of these add to the potential for data to be lost, leaked or stolen, either deliberately or by accident, and these security risks must be addressed to fully protect SMEs against such risk. Security ranks highly for SMEs, but is not the highest issue on average – instead, it comes in at second for the typical small to medium-sized business.
The report recommends risk-based and rule-based security, rather than point solutions, to create a holistic end-to- end approach to network security and data storage. Commenting on the three trends, the report states: “Increasingly, SMEs view technology as a critical part of their overall business strategy, and they are using it to empower employees with new, more effective ways to work, gain market and competitive advantages, and help improve business results. Although technology certainly isn’t the only priority for SMB decision-makers, those that underestimate its importance do so at their own peril.”
by Fiona Housiaux | Jun 8, 2016 | News
A happy workforce is generally a more productive workforce – research shows happy employees work harder in their roles, are more likely to remain in their job for longer, and are more willing to go the extra mile to try and win promotion opportunities.
But how do you track the overall happiness of your workforce? Employee satisfaction surveys are one option, but you need to make sure you get them right if you want the results to be actionable.
Good employee satisfaction survey design
Time spent designing your initial employee satisfaction survey will save you time in the long run – you might think you can tweak the questionnaire later, but that risks leaving you with data that you cannot compare with the previous time you carried out the survey.
Invest some time into creating a set of questions you can ask to all employees, and which will remain relevant in six months or a year or beyond, and you’ll start to build up a picture of satisfaction levels throughout your organisation and over the course of time too.
While it’s good to have multiple choice questions or satisfaction scales from 1-5 or 1-10, which you can analyse numerically and calculate averages and anomalies from, make sure to include some open questions too so people can write in any extra feedback they want to give you.
Net Promoter Score
One question should ask: “How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?” with a scale from 0 to 10 for the answer.
Anyone who responds with a score of 9-10 is a ‘Promoter’, anyone who rates you 0-6 is a ‘Detractor’ and those in between are ‘Passive’.
Take your percentage of Promoters and subtract the percentage of Detractors – the result, from -100 to +100, is your Net Promoter Score.
It’s a simple calculation but firms with a higher Net Promoter Score tend to outperform their competitors and the market as a whole – and if your competitors calculate their NPS too, it’s a chance to make a direct comparison.
Like the rest of your employee questionnaire, it is the ability to compare the results – between different individuals, different points in time, or with your competitors – that really delivers the insight you need to improve, allowing you to increase employee retention rates and productivity.
by Fiona Housiaux | May 4, 2016 | News
The team at ThinkinCircles have been delivering mobile solutions to our clients for years. We see it as a standard approach to any web development strategy. It still amazes us then when we see recruitment agencies and companies not embracing this vital area of web implementation.
Why is it so important to go mobile?
Recent research has suggested nearly 80% of job seekers search and apply for vacancies via mobile devices – yes that’s right 80%. It’s not surprising though is it really? After all people are mobile, and people in the job market use mobile devices, but amazingly, despite this, nearly 50% of FTSE 100 companies, and 93% of SME businesses, have sites that are still not mobile optimised. The figures are even worse for recruitment focused websites, from a candidate perspective it simply won’t do.
Consider the following top six benefits of “going mobile” with your online recruitment strategy:
- Communications – The hiring process as a whole generally becomes a more positive experience for the candidate. Simple things like ease of viewing and user experience make the whole recruitment process more efficient with a well crafted mobile experience
- Speed – Having vacancies at the fingertips of candidates means quicker response times to your job advertisements. Enquiries can be responded to at any time of day. This helps to reduce the hiring process time.
- Social – 86% of job seekers have an account on at least one of the six social networks. Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest. Social job seekers are younger and more highly educated. This key demographic are glued to their mobiles and expect a seamless integration between social channels and recruitment engagement
- Google – With Google announcing that they are going to be boosting the effects of their mobile friendly algorithm it’s a huge chink in your search engine armour not to be mobile.
- Brand – candidates searching for vacancies will identify with the brands that deliver the best online experience, not going mobile will not only lose you candidates but also damage your reputation
- Local – GPS is at the heart of most smartphones and smart recruiters know this. Tapping into the potential of GPS in order to match vacancies with candidates can drive engagement to your website.
Creating a website that is seamlessly mobile from end to end, from the moment your candidate arrives to the moment they leave is to capitalising upon all of these benefits.
Make sure your site is easy to navigate and ensure it reflects your brand image. Don’t lose your potential talent before the hiring process has begun. Your candidate experience must be streamlined, smooth and straightforward.
ThinkinCircles are experts in creating online recruitment experiences that transform the recruitment process for candidate and recruiter alike. Tap into our knowledge and find out how we can help you.
by Fiona Housiaux | Mar 22, 2016 | News
‘Marketing automation‘ is much easier to understand than you might first imagine, especially if you already use marketing methods like email newsletters and mailing lists, or social media channels.
By combining these methods of reaching out to your customers with software that automatically decides the message based on past records of each customer’s buying intent, you automate the process.
Your messages become more direct, more personal and more relevant, providing customers who did not complete their purchase with a reminder of what was in their basket, or which items they viewed.
The simplest examples of this come from the B2C space, where many online retailers will follow up a browsing session with an email suggesting related items.
‘Related‘ can be defined in many ways, from reminding the potential customer of what they viewed recently, to informing them of what other people bought after viewing those items.
There are even upsell opportunities, by emailing converted buyers and advising them of the availability of any spare parts or accessories for their purchased product.
If you have a high rate of basket abandonment, marketing automation can help you to entice those lost customers back to your website, where they may decide to make a purchase after all.
Even with a low abandonment rate, it is a chance to chip away at that last remaining small percentage of non-converting visitors.
Marketing automation has applications in all disciplines, from the B2C market – especially over a long sales cycle – to ongoing B2B relationships and even B2G (business to government) sales opportunities.
It drives demand and new leads, and by virtue of its design the results are easily traceable and measurable, allowing you to determine the positive ROI you achieve and tweak your campaigns accordingly.
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