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Reality
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complex
than
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It's better to
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If you can't
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efforts
scale back
your plan.
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Tidbits

(March 05, 1998) Classifieds 2000 (C2K), the broad reach classified advertising database and distribution service has made its move. In an alliance with Junglee, the folks at C2K have positioned themselves as a very major player in the recruitment advertising marketplace. The Featured Employer Program automatically distributes unlimited job listings from participating companies to Classifieds2000.com and over 100 other high-traffic and specialty partner Web sites, with no effort from the employers. Charter employers include such high-profile companies as Amdahl Corp., AT&T Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., CNET, Hewlett-Packard Co., International Data Group (IDG), Millennia III, Stanford University and WebTV Networks Inc.

With a single agreement, you can have your job postings collected and distributed broadly around the net. This one's a winner of significant proportion. Coupled with a new resume database service and a variation on C2K's successful classified advertising notifier, the rules of the job posting end of the game have really changed.

The niches get tighter and more interesting. Take a look at HVAC Job Online. The Job Board and resume database are devoted exclusively to listings for contractors, wholesalers, manufactures, and building owners and managers serving both hiring authorities and job seekers in the HVAC refrigeration and energy management controls industries. With 180 paying customers and a monthly growth rate of about 15%, the team at HVAC Job Online is busily proving the value of services in tightly constrained niches.

Comparing these two services, you can begin to appreciate the divergence that's happening in our industry. In the world of job "postings" the options at both the broad and deep ends are rapidly expanding.

In an interesting play, Jobvertise offers a simple interface for adding job listings to your website. No cost or contact information is provided on their site, however. It's an interesting and straightforward idea. We imagine that they'll mature into a fully functional business and spawn a couple of competitors.

We got an interesting and somewhat grumpy note from a reader chastising our review of the Interim sites. While it wasn't clear in the article, our praise in the third party industry tends to be for efforts that stand out against the broad sea of mediocrity (and worse). Interim hardly has all of the pieces in place. But, they appear to be headed in the right direction.

Interim

(March 03, 1998) We're getting to be permanently impressed with Interim. On the road, their ads seem to reach us directly. (They advertise regularly on CNN Business segments in critical markets.) Their evolving web strategy emphasizes the full featured geographic and specialty niche plays. That's how you build a solid national presence...one niche at a time.

According to our research, their domain name expansion program includes:

HCWATSON.COM
4CAREER.COM
CAREERPARTNER.COM
FORCAREER.COM
FOURCAREER.COM
HRPARTNER.COM
INTERIM.COM
INTERIMHEALTHCARE.COM
INTM.COM
INTERIM.COM
UPSTATEJOBS.COM

By leaps and bounds, we were most impressed with Upstate Jobs, "Upstate South Carolina's Online Employment Resource: Sponsored as a free service of Interim Personnel". The site clearly and effectively targets a narrow geographic job market while politely funneling traffic to the parent company. This sort of targeted outreach, coupled with relevant links and jobs in the database, takes recruiting to its most practical level.

Rather than a fumbling attempt to move their brochure online, Interim seems to be leading the pack towards web based service for specific markets and targets.

Nice Job!

The "Big Players"

(March 02, 1998) In a fit of curiosity, we decided to take a look at the progress of the large Executive Recruiting operations. We wanted to get a grip on the plans and strategies of Korn-Ferry, Heidrik & Struggles and Christian and Timbers. The high end of Recruiting is where the opportunities of the web have been almost completely missed. We were looking for evidence that someone has gotten a clue.

The sad thing about this end of the business is that it's the only place where web demographics are actually decaying. If you want to find a time when the target population was perfect for high end executive recruiting, you have to look backwards. Networking, the strategy behind high end recruiting, is a natural tactic online. It seems like the big boys have yet to figure this out.

The Christian and Timbers site opens with a very brief report on Hot/Not Hot jobs. All well and good, but the tie to candidates or clients is elusive. Their out year plans include using the following domain names:

OPLINE.COM
OUTSEARCH.COM
PEOPLECHECK.COM
PEOPLESCAPE.COM
PROFILECHECK.COM

The Korn-Ferry Site centers around the notion of "building leadership capital" and includes a report on hiring trends during the third quarter of 1997. Bloated graphics and shoddy design do little to position the company as a leader. Their registered domain names include:

KORNFERRY.COM
KFAEUROPE.COM
KFSELECTION.COM

Finally, the Heidrik & Struggles site, with design and graphics that nearly equal Korn-Ferry, features The Art of Taking Charge, repurposed material from an internal quarterly magazine. While their domain expansion plans are broader than the competition, they contain the same limited sense of possibilities:

EXECUTIVELEADERSHIP.COM
EXECUTIVETEAMS.COM
H-S-JAPAN.COM
H-S.COM
HEIDRICK-STRUGGLES.COM
HEIDRICKANDSTRUGGLES.COM
HEIDRICKSTRUGGLES.COM
HSMENLO.COM
LEADERSHIPSEARCH.COM
HSDALLAS.COM
HEIDRICK-STRUGGLES.COM
H-SPERU.COM

For companies that specialize in what is arguably the most critical end of the staffing industry, the efforts of all of these operations border on completely embarassing. At a time when the management of large enterprises requires creativity and persistent attention to a rapidly changing environment, they seem to be following rather than leading. We think it demonstrates a solid market opportunity for entrepreneurial competitors on the web and off.

Tomorrow, we'll take a look at Interim. While the company has its roots in markets well outside of the Executive Placement industry, they appear to be using the web (and other electronic media) to full advantage. The big players in the Executive business would do well to understand their strategy.

Recruiting Online:
Advanced Seminar Series

(February 02, 1997): Our educational series has been expanded. We will be delivering seminars in 15 cities this Winter. We will be offering both of our successful courses, updated to reflect the changing web environment.

Seminar I: Management, Strategies and Tactics
Don't jump on the bandwagon to be cool. Don't use technology without a clear view of the payback. This intense seminar addresses the questions any manager, owner or director should ask before continuing to invest in Electronic Recruiting.

Seminar II: Advanced Searching and Sourcing
Learn how to mine the data fields. This one day presentation covers spidering, flipping, and depth searching...all of the tools required to unearth the passive candidate. The course includes a A CD Chock-Full Of Net Software and Tools.

Graduates of both receive:

$2,000 In Special Offers From 5 Online Recruiting Services

A One Year Subscription ($395 Value) To Our Protected Web Site

All Course Materials

Enroll today, seats are still available. There is a discount available for early registrations.

This is our Winter 1998 Seminar Schedule. We will be delivering both seminars in each city.

Feb 25: Minneapolis, MN
Feb 27: Chicago, IL
Mar 02: Kansas City, MO
Mar 04: Seattle, WA