London Calling
May 2, 2008 2:45 PM
Some people might think that you build a job board and once it's doing pretty well you move on to the next one, but this isn't the case. We're constantly looking at new things we can do with Jobsite to make it even better for the existing candidates and clients we have using us and also to help us win new customers.
As an example, this week we announced our new partnership with The Evening Standard, Metro (London) and LondonLite newspapers. It's collectively known as RecruitLondon and means that advertisers' job vacancies from those three newspapers now also appear on Jobsite.co.uk.
This means our candidates will benefit from access to new vacancies and our recruiters will see their vacancies placed in front of new and different jobseekers from within London and across commuter areas. We also get branding and advertising within the papers which helps us to inform other people about what Jobsite does.
This new partnership is part of our on-going vision to make jobhunting quicker and less frustrating and also to cover the entire country's recruitment needs, in any sector or market. Watch this space for more announcements soon as we continue to make Jobsite even better for you.
The BBC previews Jobsite's new interview website
February 20, 2008 12:47 PM
I have complete sympathy with anyone who gets nervous at interviews, as last week I was in the hot seat myself, under the studio lights at BBC2's Working Lunch. I had been invited onto the programme to discuss Jobsite's new BeMyInterviewer website, offering candidates interview practise with real business bosses from some of the UK's leading companies such as Dragons' Den's Duncan Bannatyne, Ruth Badger of BBC's The Apprentice fame and Jacqueline Gold, CEO of Ann Summers and Knickerbox.
My part of the program was set up like an actual job interview with the presenters grilling me like an interview candidate; it put an inventive angle on the report as the guys from Working Lunch often do. It was good fun - though I know what side of the interview chair I prefer!
It wasn't the only bit of television attention that Jobsite got that day either. BBC Breakfast News carried two reports on BeMyInterviewer. The report was based around the research we carried out from 5000 candidates on their preparation for interviews.
Our candidates tell us that it's one thing to find a job that matches your skills and experience, but quite another to be able to sell yourself in an interview chair. With 13.4 million people looking to change jobs in 2008, we have created BeMyInterviewer.co.uk for everyone that wants to be successful at interviews.
We are all really excited about BeMyInterviewer and have had some great feedback. As well as giving users a chance to get a feel for the interview situation and what they can expect, candidates gain genuine insights from real business leaders into how they interview and what kind of answers they look for. Like it or not, interviews are a fact of life and unless we get better at them we'll continue to miss out on pay rises and promotion.
Another exciting addition to the growing Jobsite family
February 13, 2008 9:51 AM
The Jobsite family increased yet again earlier this week with the exciting acquisition of OilCareers.com, which is a niche job board for the oil and gas industry based in Aberdeen.
Launched in 2000, OilCareers.com is an important part of the oil and gas industry, appealing to both UK and International jobseekers. We believe it's a really exciting fit for Jobsite and will help us continue to increase the number of relevant jobs we as a group can bring to UK job seekers.
This is the eighth acquisition I have been part of at Jobsite. From a business perspective the performance and profitability of each business joining our group is important for me, however as important is that culturally the businesses share the same values that we do at Jobsite - very much like a job seekers finding an employer that they want to work for. So what for me are the key criteria?
As a business group we spend a lot of time planning and working closely together, so it's important that we all share a common ethos and have a mutual respect for each other - unfortunately we have yet to invent the Jobsite Personal Profile for company's to help speed up the process! Though I may put this on our innovation list. (To find out more about how Jobsite helps to culturally match candidates with employers visit our Jobsite Personal Profiles).
So for us, as for candidates it's a process of on-going interview meetings and research before we make the right decision and having the confidence to ask the right questions. For example I want to know whether they have a long term vision and where do we fit in? How do they solve problems? Do employees seem happy and content and most importantly do I think we will both benefit from working together. As candidates checking out a future boss and workplace you will have a slightly different list from the one I have when investing in a business. But remember preparation is always key and it's a two way process - you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you.
....And if you want to check out some very exciting developments around interviews look no further than the Jobsite home page or visit our new Jobsite service BeMyInterviewer.co.uk where you can practise for your next job interview with interactive videos of real business bosses - a UK first from Jobsite. More coming soon....
Here's to health and happiness!
November 21, 2007 11:37 AM
At Jobsite we've just done some research into the effect of a good or bad day at work on your evening at home. You may say that it's fairly obvious that a bad day will lead to a bad evening, but what's fascinating about this project is just how much of an influence the wrong job can have on the rest of your life.
More than a third (35%) of workers will take their mood out on their partner and just over one in 10 (13%) will pick an argument following a tough day at work.
In contrast, workers are twice as likely to avoid fast food and twice as likely to take exercise - whilst smoke and drink much less after a good day at work.
With one year old twins, I know how important family time is. So the statistic that really struck me was that 68% of parents with children return home after a good day at work to spend quality time with their kids, from helping with bath-time and homework to reading bedtime stories. After a bad day at work this decreases to just 36%.
I personally really enjoy my job as there are always new challenges and I always make sure that if I'm at our HQ in Havant, I get back to help with bathing and putting the kids to bed.
Most jobs bring their own stresses and strains but this experiment really hits home the impact of having a good and bad day at work. Close to a quarter (24%) of UK workers are currently unhappy with their job; we are urging you to make sure you are happy at work because there are repercussions on your diet, well-being and happiness if you are not.
We have teamed up with a leading psychologist to put together a simple test to help you assess how happy you are and how your work life impacts on your home life. As well as giving you personalised feedback, the test also identifies areas that may be causing you the most unhappiness - from money issues to stress - with positive suggestions showing what you can do to change them.
If a good day at work is a rarity and a bad day is happening all too often we would encourage you to take the Jobsite Happy Days test and take some action.
Celebrating the best of the best
November 14, 2007 3:44 PM
Making job hunting easier and more enjoyable for candidates is at the heart of what we do at Jobsite.
Two years ago we asked you what you thought about the job seeking process and you answered in your thousands. And it was pretty dis-heartening. For the most part you felt frustrated and isolated during the job seeking process, however your main grievance was the lack of communication by the recruitment agencies. I remember my own days of Job hunting when I was an IT contractor all those years ago and pretty much disliked the process. We felt that something needed to be done to raise the bar and encourage better customer service in our industry so we launched RecruitRank.
RecruitRank is the industry's first candidate feedback tool (you can find it on the home page) which allows you to feedback anonymously to agencies on the service you have received.
Today over 200,000 thousands pieces of individual feedback have been received by RecruitRank. It is updated dynamically every day allowing agencies to understand where they might be able to serve you and other candidates better. Hundreds of agencies have taken this feedback on board and many have modified the way that they work as a result (click here for examples of how they have used RecruitRank feedback to promote best practice).
Last Thursday our second RecruitRank industry awards took place based on feedback from nearly 45,000 job seekers over the course of the year through the very act of using RecruitRank.
With several thousand recruitment consultancies eligible for inclusion in the RecruitRank awards, I would like to personally congratulate all the finalists and the winning agencies who have done a brilliant job of impressing you, the job seekers. Click here to find out more about the winning agencies.
Coming soon, we have lots more exciting developments taking place with RecruitRank. In a couple of weeks time we will be introducing a new function which we hope will provide even more insight by allowing the recruiters to respond to your comments, moving RecruitRank on from just feedback to a proactive dialogue hopefully solving more and more of the issues raised.
So keep on feeding back. Not only are your comments being taken on board, but you can also help your fellow job seekers work with the best of the best!