Students flog CVs in flagging market
March 26th, 2009In an unfortunate reversal of fortune, more than 70 percent of upcoming graduates have yet to secure a job.
"Normally about 70 percent of graduates have job offers in March, but now the situation is completely upside down," Wu Xiaohui, senior campus recruitment consultant with Shanghai Foreign Service Co Ltd (SFSC), told China Daily yesterday.
According to SFSC's report, two-thirds of students have sent out more than 30 resumes since last autumn, with one frenzied student even sending out 600 copies to recruiters, Wu said. "The financial turmoil is forcing us to take advantage of every possibility to find a job because many companies have stopped recruiting," said Xiao Qin, 22, a student from Shanghai International Studies University.
Jia Dong, a computer major graduate, said, "I have hardly missed a chance to hand out my resume since last year - job fairs, campus recruitment sessions or even by e-mail. With more than 120 copies of my resume out there I think I deserve better."
The report, released Saturday by SFSC, the city's largest employment agency, surveyed 519 undergraduate and graduate students from 12 local universities.
"The time after the Chinese Spring Festival, especially March, is usually the peak season for fresh graduates to sign job contracts with employers," Wu Xiaohui, senior campus recruitment consultant with SFSC, said.
According to another survey by SFSC, about 55 percent of the city's 104 multinational corporations didn't intend to recruit new staff this year amid the deepening recession.
Among those who plan to hire, half will recruit fewer than 10 people, compared with an average of 50 to 100 people in previous years.
Earlier this month, the SFSC teamed up with 157 multinational corporations to offer 1,000 vocational training opportunities, 1,000 internship positions and 1,000 job openings for graduates in the city to help ease the shrinking job market.
The Outlook for Recruiting
March 25th, 2009The recession we’re in will have long-run consequences for employment and consequently recruiting. The world is about to see the biggest increase in unemployment in decades. The World Bank and the IMF predict that global trade will contract at the fastest rate since 1930 and global economic output will drop for the first time since the Second World War. Employment is a lagging indicator of problems in the wider economy, so unemployment will continue to rise even if economies start to recover today. The consensus estimate among economists is that in the developed world average unemployment will exceed 10% before the end of 2010.
There are glimmers of hope. Inventories have fallen to such low levels that production will have to be increased just to meet the current level of demand. The fall in consumption is beginning to level out. In the U.S., auto dealer and homebuilder surveys are heading up. Japanese automakers have announced production increases. A broader indicator of an upturn — JPMorgan’s global manufacturing index — posted a second consecutive gain in February, and its new-orders index is rising. A realtor friend just wrote that she has five closings this month. 5. F-i-v-e. 5. Way to go.
What Will Emerge?
Regardless of when we emerge from this situation, there are some major changes in the employment landscape that will change recruiting in terms of where it occurs and how it is done. Where recruiting occurs will depend on where there is growth — somewhat debatable but getting clearer. Where it will not occur is in finance and housing construction; they will not return to past levels for a very long time. Also, if you work in an industry that’s heavily dependent on exports, then don’t expect an upturn either. Domestic demand is also falling overseas, and countries will increasingly strive to protect their domestic industries, further reducing the need for imports.
Where?
A recovery will be weak: losses in asset values and the need to reduce debt will all but guarantee that. But there will still be pockets of growth. These will be largely in infrastructure, IT, education, healthcare, government, and energy.
Infrastructure will be an early winner because so much stimulus and other funds are being directed at it — not just in the U.S. but also overseas. In particular, India and China are channeling billions of dollars at infrastructure projects to both boost employment and enhance economic activity. That means industries that support infrastructure — heavy equipment, architecture, cement, safety equipment, etc. will see near-immediate upturn in demand.
IT and engineering are perennial job creators, and will remain a source of employment for recruiters. For the simple reason that supply cannot match demand, a problem that will be exacerbated by restrictions on companies receiving stimulus funds from hiring foreign workers. This gap is even wider overseas. In India and China, compensation in IT is estimated to increase this year by 11% and 8% respectively because of the extreme shortage of qualified professionals.
Education will see jobs growth because of three factors: 1) large cohorts of teachers reaching retirement age; 2) a massive expansion in funding for education and student aid in the current federal budget; and 3) large increases in enrollment in higher education by people unable to find work.
Healthcare is another engine of job growth. Enough has been written elsewhere on the shortage of nurses, doctors, etc. that it doesn’t need to be repeated here. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics also predicts an increase in social services jobs as a swelling number of retirees check-in for medical care.
Government payrolls at the federal level will swell to accommodate the administrative needs created by the vast expansions of regulatory authority being proposed — over banking, transportation, education, labor, and healthcare. The situation is likely to be the opposite at the state level where most states find themselves facing huge budget shortfalls.
Energy in general and green energy in particular will see significant growth. Biofuels, wind energy, and solar all will benefit from new investments and tax incentives. Consequently jobs that are related — research, infrastructure, maintenance, and sales can expect to benefit. However, the number of jobs in these industries is small to begin with, so the overall impact may not be much.
Interestingly, much of the increase in employment is expected to occur in small businesses and startups. One impact of a recession is that more people start businesses because they can’t find work. With expansions in federal grants for some of the above industries, expect to see a lot of new companies emerge. Also expect to see geographical shifts in areas of employment growth. California and New York continue to shed jobs as employers move away because of high taxes and burdensome state mandates. The beneficiaries are many Midwestern and southern states that have low taxes and fewer restrictions.
Recruiting will become more difficult in this new landscape that emerges. Unemployment is not evenly distributed, and for many of the industries mentioned above there is not an abundance of unemployed talent. The employed are also less interested in changing jobs in an uncertain economic climate and will likely remain so for years. Finally, mobility for many is restricted by their inability to sell their houses. Many people will be forced to delay retirement, but that will not solve the supply problem. Many of the new jobs that will be created cannot be easily filled with skills available in the current labor pool.
How?
Changes in how recruiting is done are harder to predict, but some trends can be discerned. Given that a recovery will be weak, employers are more likely to turn to part-time and contract recruiters than have full-time staffs. This will be reinforced because much of the growth in jobs is expected to occur in small and medium-size businesses that have no need or cannot support full-time recruiters. An increase in needs for sourcing, as opposed to full-service recruiting, will occur as employers seek to minimize costs.
Technology will need to adapt. The major boards are not designed for use by the occasional recruiter. It’s likely that products and services targeting small-businesses will be where we see most changes in recruiting technology.
The Legend of the Phoenix
What we’re experiencing is known in economic theory as creative destruction. Jobs are destroyed and new ones emerge. In the past it has been a somewhat gradual transition, but not this time. In past downturns the mood has never been so sour. In 1990 and 2001 most saw the recession as a slow-down, a readjustment, perhaps even a necessary realignment of the business cycle — something to be concerned about not a lot. The future was bright. After all, this is America. But this time is different. It shows up in many little ways. Several people I know have asked that we use Skype to talk to lower their phone bills; that they’ve cancelled their magazine subscriptions and only read online; that they’ve changed their home page from CNN to the BBC because there’s less negative news. Larger numbers of friends than I’ve ever seen are online late at night and available to chat. Someone I know to be an eternal optimist wrote to me that the American dream was an illusion and they don’t believe it in any more. Much has gone wrong if it has come to this.
This time it’s like the legend of the Phoenix. It lives for a thousand years and once that time is over, it builds its own funeral pyre, and throws itself into the flames. As it dies, it is reborn and rises from the ashes to live another thousand years. We’re at the end of the thousand years.
How to Do Twice As Much With Half the Recruiting Team
March 24th, 2009Times are tough. Even those companies that are doing reasonably well are cutting their recruiting teams by a minimum of 30% to a maximum of 90%, and tightening up expenses to the absolute barest minimum.
Half of these cuts are probably necessary anyway, the balance most likely an overreaction to the dismal economic conditions most companies are now facing.
There is an expectation that along with the cuts these recruiting departments need to drastically improve their productivity by 30%-50%, almost overnight.
The good news is that while most corporate recruiters are working hard, the majority are not working smart.
As a result, getting 50% or 100% productivity gains isn’t that hard to do. With this in mind, here are some things recruiting leaders can do to increase overall productivity by at least 100%.
An Almost Endless Stream of Ideas on How to Increase Corporate Recruiting Department Productivity by Over 100%
Only hire recruiters who are, or can become, partners with their hiring managers. Recruiters who are partners with their clients get more time to discuss real job needs, they send out fewer candidates, make more hires, and overcome natural hiring manager resistance to see top candidates who don’t fit the bill on paper. Partners make twice as many placements per month than recruiters who are perceived as vendors to their clients, so this is a huge productivity opportunity.
Make sure your recruiters are competent to do the work assigned. One way to increase productivity is to ensure all of your recruiters are as good as those in the top 10% on your team. (Contact me if you’d like to check out our new online recruiter assessment tool we’ve created with Profiles International.)
Make sure every recruiter understands the jobs they’re filling. Sadly, most recruiters don’t know much about the jobs they’re representing. Whether it’s a call center in Chicago, a sales rep in San Jose, or a J2EE architect in Ashtabula, recruiters need to know what drives on-the-job success, why the job is critical to the company, and why a top person should consider it.
Make sure your recruiters totally understand their target market. Recruiters need to be subject-matter experts regarding the job, the industry, and especially the needs of their ideal “target” candidates. Creating candidate personas is the first step, including demographics, associations, first- and second-degree networks, conferences, recognition awards, academic connections, and motivating needs. This allows them to write compelling ads, post them in the best places, know exactly who to call, what to say, how to get great referrals, and how to convince the best people your job is the best of the bunch.
Make sure your recruiters know how to recruit. Recruiting means getting more candidates interested at the beginning, ensuring that few drop out in the middle, and 95% of all offers are accepted on fair terms. Effective applicant control is at the core of this and most recruiters don’t even know what this even means. Do you know how many candidates you’ve lost because your recruiters dropped the ball somewhere in the process?
Make sure your recruiters are respected by the candidates they represent. If recruiters aren’t seen as subject-matter experts and career advisors by their candidates, you’re losing some great people before the process even begins. You’ll get a good sense of this by calculating how many “A” level candidates your recruiters uncover and place on a typical search. If it’s not 70% or more, you’ve found a huge productivity improvement opportunity.
Make sure your recruiters can accurately assess candidate competency. Recruiters should be able to get this right 80% of the time with a 30-minute performance-based phone screen, at least to the point of not embarrassing themselves by recommending a totally unqualified person. Think of the time wasted sending out a candidate who shouldn’t be seen in the first place.
Make sure your recruiters are tough-minded, confident, and persistent. The best recruiters don’t take no for an answer, they defend their candidates from superficial assessments, and they close on career opportunities more than money. These recruiters are 2-3 times more productive than those who cave at every negative. Double your team’s productivity by making sure your recruiters are those who don’t give up without a fight.
Manage time. Cold-calling people you don’t know is a big time-waster. Calling people who are good who will call you back is an ok thing to do if a great ad didn’t work. A sequenced sourcing strategy based on the “low-hanging fruit principle” of selling should be established for every search assignment. Then, measure your recruiters on qualified sendouts/hour to start finding out where your team is wasting its time.
Don’t let your recruiters call people who won’t call them back. Start tracking voice-mail return rates. Those with the highest percentages (target a minimum of 75% to start) usually spend more time calling referrals, are seen as subject-matter experts or come across as extremely professional. To improve productivity 300%, either train your recruiters to increase their callback rate from 25% to 75%, or hire those who already do it without complaining how hard it is.
Make sure your recruiters get 2-3 high-quality referrals on every call. The ability to get high-quality referrals is the secret behind passive candidate recruiting. A great referral will call you back if you mention the name of the great person who provided the referral. Recruiters then need to prequalify every referral and only call those who are worthy. If you track great referrals per call, you’ll quickly know which recruiters are able to play in the passive candidate recruiting talent game.
Prepare a process-flow diagram of every step in your hiring process and calculate the yield at each of these steps. Look at each step in your hiring processes and see where you lose the most candidates. First, track ad response and apply rates. At the back end of the process, figure out how many good candidates were poorly assessed or excluded for dumb reasons. Then start working on those process steps that can double or triple your team productivity.
Make sure you’re attracting early-birds, not leftovers. When you examine the problems associated with most active candidate sourcing programs, you quickly discover that they’re attracting leftovers, or candidates who have been in the market a few weeks or more. If you’re not attracting the best of the bunch as soon as they start looking, you’re wasting time and resources going through electronic stacks of resumes of unqualified people. Implementing an early-bird sourcing strategy can increase your active candidate sourcing productivity by 100-200%!
Eliminate all barriers-to-entry. The best people, whether they’re active or passive, are more discriminating and don’t want to be pushed into filling in an application before they’re ready. To address this critical need, establish an open-door policy where you allow candidates to “just look around” before getting serious. This is what Web 2.0 is really about — establishing two-way relationships using a variety of entry points to attract someone’s attention.
Manage your 500-pound gorillas. A huge productivity loss is managers who can’t recruit, don’t know real job needs, or can’t accurately interview. If you’ve ever lost a good candidate for one of these reasons, or if managers refuse to see a top-notch person with a slightly different skill set, you know how much time is wasted here. Getting hiring managers inducted into the real world of hiring top performers will double your productivity almost overnight. Not doing it will diminish the impact of everything else mentioned here. (Contact me if you’d like to find out about our new gorilla taming programs.)
Doing everything described will absolutely result in a 100%-200% productivity gain. If not, you didn’t do them right, so start over and try again. Even if you did achieve the productivity improvements, start over again anyway to get another 100%-200% productivity improvement.
Things are changing so fast you need to keep at it by establishing a continuous improvement program. Bottom line, this is what this article is really about.
Taiwan job seekers expand search to China
March 23rd, 2009Taipei - Taiwan's economic woes are causing an increasing number of the island's residents to search for work in China, a job placement agency said Friday.
According to the 104 Job Bank, an average of 22,000 Taiwan job seekers a day contacted the placement agency in March, asking for for jobs in China, up 20 per cent from February and up 30 per cent year-on-year.
The figure is the highest since the human resources agency started operations in 1996.
In March the company could offer 5,300 jobs in China so far, one job for every four job seekers wishing to work in China.
All those jobs were provided by China-based Taiwan companies for which the placement centre serves as as online 'matchmaker.'
Taiwan's jobless rate hit a record 5.33 per cent in January, driven up by the global financial crisis.
Taiwan media reported on a growing number of people committing suicide after losing the jobs and running into debts.
More teaching jobs for graduates
March 20th, 2009Schools across China will hire 50,000 college graduates as short-term teachers this year to help ease employment pressure.
That is almost triple the number of teachers hired last year.
They will work under three-year contracts with local education departments and be paid by a special central government fund, the Ministry of Education said.
"Most of the jobs are only open to students who will graduate from colleges this year," ministry spokeswoman Xu Mei said on Wednesday.
"But some teaching positions are open to outstanding degree holders who graduated in past years, such as those who have volunteer teaching experience in rural schools," she said.
The short-term teacher project was launched in 2006 to help college graduates find employment.
The teachers will work at primary and high schools, mostly in rural areas.
Besides salary from the central government, they may get bonuses and subsidies from local governments, Xu said.
After the three-year contract expires, schools will decide whether to renew the contracts.
The teachers will be recruited through public job fairs.
The ministry also announced other policies this week to help ease employment pressure on college graduates.
Graduates recruited by the army will have their education loans paid by the government and those who are awarded an honor in the army can be recruited as postgraduate students without taking the difficult entrance examination.
The country will also provide subsidies and reduce taxes for small and middle-sized enterprises that recruit college graduates this year.
To promote employment, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS) urged local departments to create more jobs for graduates.
"Local governments will provide special subsidies for college graduates who work at the grassroots," Wang Yadong, deputy director of MHRSS' employment promotion department, said in an earlier interview.
Special funds and subsidies have been earmarked to encourage college graduates to work in rural and grassroots positions or to start their own businesses.
However, "most graduates are focusing on jobs in large cities and few would like to start their own businesses", Wang said.
A recent study by the MHRSS found only 0.3 percent of college graduates in 2007 started their own businesses.
That is much lower than some developed countries where the rate is about 40 percent.
A total of 6.11 million fresh graduates - 520,000 more than in 2008 - are expected to enter the job market this year.
Nokia Plans New Round of Job Cuts
March 19th, 2009Nokia has announced more job cuts, and they’re unlikely to be the last. On March 17, the company said it is eliminating 1,700 jobs, including about 700 in Finland. The announcement comes a month after Nokia said it was closing a research and development center in Finland, while imposing temporary layoffs at a Finnish handset factory.
But more cuts will be needed for Nokia to meet its goal of saving $900 million, says analyst Jari Honko at eQ Bank in Helsinki. He estimates the measures disclosed so far will save about $390 million. So Nokia isn’t even halfway there.
Compared to what’s going on in some other industries, the scale of the latest job cuts is modest—though that is certainly no consolation to the Nokia employees affected. The 1,700 jobs, including about 700 in Finland, represent only about 1% of Nokia’s total workforce. It’s also worth remembering that Nokia increased its headcount by 16,000 people in 2008, so the most recent round of cuts represents less than two months of recent hiring.
Most Nokia watchers still believe that the company’s scale and history of innovation will enable it to emerge from the downturn stronger than competitors such as Motorola. But 2009 will be a perilous year for Nokia. The company lost market share in smartphones to Apple and Research In Motion in the fourth quarter (though Nokia may have gained some share back after rolling out its touch-screen 5800 XpressMusic handset in recent months). Growth in emerging markets has stalled. Nokia Siemens Networks, the company’s telco equipment unit, faces a strong challenge from China’s Huawei.
Nokia investors can only hope that the company will show the same pluck and creativity that has rescued it from big setbacks in the past.