How can you argue with that?

It may be that companies with very recognizable names have to work less hard on the web. It may also be that they have to work harder. On Monday, we mentioned the all day Executive Recruiting marathon on CNBC. We listened in awe as $150K marketing VPs called in for negotiation advice and job hunting clues. The sponsors (and participants) in this bold experiment were HR managers from really big companies (GE, MCI and so on).

The web, significantly more intimate and private than TV, offers more than a simple advertising medium. It creates an ambient environment that is predisposed to feel safe. It's just not as public.

In fact, overcoming the inherent anonymity is what much of electronic marketing is about for recruiters.

You have to be remembered. That takes time, repetition and a combination of solid website skills and advertising. As potential candidates gain familiarity (a lot of it is subliminal), trust emerges and a transaction begins to be possible.

On the web, branding is a one to one experience. Big companies relying on name recognition may well be placing themselves at a disadvantage.

Older Workers Arise

The U.S. Bureau of the Census estimates that 62 million people, or almost one in five, will be aged 65 or older by 2025. By 2045 this population is expected to reach 77 million - more than the total population of the U.S. in 1900.

What does this mean to you?

For one, it may mean learning how best to use an experienced work force. As people expect to live longer, they will not retire as quickly. Too much is at stake financially. In addition, look what just happened in Spain and Turkey.

El Mundo reported on 8/26/97 that both Spain and Turkey were raising their minimum retirement ages. There has been talk that the U.S. may do the same-- the Social Security age of retirement may move from age 62 or 65 to 65 or 70. This will clearly increase the number of older workers in the labor force.

Secondly, we can no longer afford "ambivalent and mixed" attitudes about this population. The typical perception of the older population as less than healthy and less than able to keep up in fast paced environments is based on old beliefs about aging. In fact, the U.S. Health and Human Services News says that while the older population grows, there has been a decline in the occupancy rate at nursing homes.

Thirdly, as Negroponte points out:
"It is the age group in the middle, particularly the 'baby boomers' of the sixties, and the forty to fifty year olds where the largest numbers of the 'digitally homeless' are to be found."

Surely this has massive implications for business professionals.

Carol D'Amico, of The Hudson Institute, sums it up quite nicely in an interview at SHRM. She says:
"For instance, older workers may require a different mix of benefits or different working arrangements than many companies now have in place. In addition, this trend will occur in conjunction with another trend—the exiting of the baby boomers from the workforce. As the baby boomers exit the workforce, finding people to replace them at the same high skill levels will provide a real challenge for U.S. companies. And, if the baby boomers decide not to leave the workforce, building career ladders for those beneath them will be another great challenge for U.S. companies."

In addition, those who will be joining the "graying" workforce are currently among the digitally illiterate, a variety of training will be essential.

A Toolbox Refill

Recruitment Extra bills itself as a "complete business to business recruiting site". They may not be too far off. Here you can find salary surveys by profession, unemployment figures, and rankings of top industries, colleges, and places to live. A golden page is their Lead Sheet which offers tips (by state) about which companies are looking for what.

The new site at The Minorities' Job Bank lacks interactivity but is loaded with jobs, corporate information, and articles of interest to minorities. A good site for recruiters committed to diversity in the workplace.

You might consider the new online newsletter put out by Source Services Corporation which covers industry and career trends. You need to fill out a registration form to receive it.

Response Design Corporation has a new product called Hire Solutions . Hire Solutions is a cooperative venture between Response Design, Spanlink Communications, and Miller & Wimer, L.L.C. It's designed to save money for call centers who have a 25% to 40% annual agent turnover rate.

The Insurance Web Career Center is a new site. It's developed a recruiting centers for those in the insurance industry.

Although not new, it's recently experienced a surge in traffic. Teachers and school districts have discovered a meeting place at Ed Jobs. A searchable database allows you to view job availability, locations, requirements, grade levels, benefits, and resumes.

Need an auto technician? Check Auto Tech.

You can now host your own business Usenet group. CS.WEB was founded in April 1997 with a mission to deliver collaboration services over the Web for the public and businesses.

A daily listing of Commerce Business Daily (CBD) VA business opportunity announcements is available at Office of Acquisition and Material Management.

New and Improved Designs

You really ought to watch ESpan over time. Bookmark them and visit every month or so. We think that the agile team at ESpan demonstrates effective Website management. They've managed to elevate design to an ongoing component of their routine operations. This sort of attention to site effectiveness is a fundamental hallmark of a Web business that will survive and prosper over time.

Not to be outdone, JobTrak has also launched a site redesign. The simple and elegant graphic is a marked improvement over the old version. We bet that continuing success has enabled the team at JobTrak to focus increasingly on substance. It's another nice piece of work that emphasizes adding value to the user's experience. JobTrak is single-handedly converting the entry level niche into a broad advertising platform.

We ran across a solid way of describing the generational labor shortage:
For the first time, there are more parents than children in America.

CNBC: Integrating TV and The Web

With a program called Opportunity Knocks, CNBC is running an alternative Labor Day Marathon. It features web integration, career experts, recruiters and HR managers. The partnership includes participation from AboutWork. The CNBC Career Center appears to be hosted on the AboutWork site.

Since the program originates in a high-end demographic, it appears to be fertile ground for executive recruitment. Certainly, the HR manager from General Electric (parent of CNBC) has been actively pitching opportunities. It's a very interesting harbinger of the future. Topics discussed have focused heavily on "career transitions" rather than pure job hunting.

The experiment strikes us as particularly innovative. It runs from 6:00 AM to 3:00 PM (EST). If you have a moment today, you ought to check it out.

It must be our month for developing bragging rights. The Dow Jones Business Directory rated this publication #1 in content for Human Resources Reference sites. Three other sites made the cut!

Duh, Pass The Stupid Pills

Dear interbiznet:

A year ago you mentioned our company as doing a a poor job on market analysis. Well today we have over 5400 member headhunters, 10,000 Free Links to employment resources, databases and searchable want ads. Placing a person every 3 minutes and averaging 150,000 hits per month.

Perhaps you could mention us again?

Well, we went and visited the site anyhow.

The 10,000 links turned out to be about 200 pointers to other companies that actually catalog pages. The first page claimed both 4500 and 2600 recruiters. On the same page!

The page itself opens with the following blurb:

The current employment market is a Darwinian reality where only the fittest and most prepared survive. Why not utilize an organization of over 4500 headhunters who are actively searching for thousands of job candidates, many in your area of expertise?

Someone should tell these hyper inflating scare mongers about the labor shortage. But, that would break the bubble. It turns out that, in spite of the hype, their real market is unsophisticated and unsuspecting web novices who want their resumes broadcast to recruiters. They make their money hustling the job hunters.

So, lets see:

• Bogus Business Proposition
• Overinflated, Non Credible Claims
• Taking advantage of novices
• Inconsistent representation of facts

The lessons here are many. As consumers get increasingly intelligent about using the net, the validity and depth of your claims will have to increase. Consistency in reporting is a critical component of cedibility. If you overstate your effectiveness, you're likely to get caught.

Recruiting Online:
Options and Search Techniques

Sep 22-23: San Francisco Sep 29-30: Chicago Oct 02-03: Houston Oct 06-07: Atlanta Oct 09-10: Orlando

Oct 16-17: Metro DC Oct 20-21: New York City Oct 23-24: Philadelphia Oct 27-28: Boston Oct 30-31: Los Angeles

Directions to the hotels in each city are available by clicking on the city name. You can register online or call our offices for more information at (800) 358-2278

Advanced Internet Recruiting Seminars

Click here to learn more about the Advanced Recruiting seminars. Class size is limited to 30 per seminar. The seminars run from 9:00AM to 4:30PM and are designed for owners and managers. Take a look at a list of companies who have been to the seminars.

See a detailed index of our past issues

September 01, 1997 HR and Recruiting Software Breaking News Does Email Work? More Search Tips Alliances	August 24, 1997 Alternate Future Staffing Page NorthernLight Tidbits Search Tips
August 17, 1997 MRI Berkeley Bits & Pieces Links Are Relationships You Are Your Links Here It Comes	August 10, 1997 WSJ Careers Desktop Search Tool Immigration Notes Computemp Job Fair ESpan Again
August 03, 1997 Seattle Metricom Who's Pushing Whom Bits'n Pieces From The Trenches	July 27, 1997 Training On Recruiting Sites Modest Proposal Gossip Resume Robot Tidbits
July 20, 1997 What's It Cost Computer Jobs Store Writing Tips Market Readiness Recruiting Surprises	July 13, 1997 Creating Privacy Netscape 4.0 Security Knowing hat You Want Pre Employment Screening
July 06, 1997 Tidbits Slow, Slow Medium=Message Why People Leave Audience Balancing	June 29, 1997 Email Etiquette Workforce Changes Employment Projections Hits and Stats Overload
June 22, 1997 Net Growth Good PR Who's Recruiting? Net Demographics PEOs Online	June 15, 1997 References Right Coast Careers Newspaper Mania Aleph Cover Your Assets
June 08, 1997 Not Just Resumes Hodes More Junk Mail Survey Sez Ad Service	June 01, 1997 Bad Design, Bad Timing The Last War Mail Security Gimmicks Fed Stats
May 25, 1997 Blueness What Works Job Smart Consolidation Marketing Your Site	May 18, 1997 Searchbase Email Job Smart Specialty Recruiting What's an Ad?
More Archives The past 21 months of the Electronic Recruiting News	More Archives

"Recruiter's Resolutions For 2003:

1. Finally, clear the resumes off my desk
2. Take a speed-reading course to get through resumes faster
3. Find three new places to source good people
4. Lower cost-per -hire (make that, determine cost-per-hire...then lower it!)
5. Find a talent Management system to help with all of the above.

We know what you're up against. And we've got the answer.

Hodes iQ, brought to you by Bernard Hodes Group. From adopting our talent management system or enhancing your own system to providing new sourcing strategies on the web, we have proven solutions to make your recruiting enterprise better. Find out how Hodes iQ and Hodes iQPost can help you in the new year and beyond.

Put Hodes iQ to the test.

Call 888.438.9911 or visit http://www.hodesiq.com today.

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