Executing a public job referral model in a down market is a very tough challenge, in fact executing a public job referral model is challenging in a healthy market.

The team at 2Vouch have made the very hard decision of switching this service off for a while whilst we focus our team and resources on building out the new application we have developed The JobGenie.

Jeremy and I would like to say a big thank you to all of those early adopter companies who advertised jobs on 2Vouch and also a BIG thanks to all of you who signed up as referrers on the 2Vouch platform.

We are still very passionate that there is a market for job referrals globally but recognise that you have to have the right business model and funding. We think we are heading in the right direction with the JobGenie.

A few points on what we have learned through the 2Vouch experience.

1. Ensure your start up is well funded to get you through the development phase with enough cash to execute your sales and marketing plan.
2. Focus, focus, focus - build enough functionality in your web application to execute your core offering. We built a BIG comprehensive application that did a lot and it probably did too much. We only know this with the benefit of hindsight. Think Twitter!
3. Venture Capital funding from Aussie venture firms is not realistically a funding option if you are a pre-revenue start-up in Australia.
4. Build the parts of your applications that generate revenue as a priority.
5. Launch early and iterate. If people like your design and think your application is slick at your launch. You’re too late to market!
6. Have the right project management and collaboration tools to manage your agile development. We use Atlassian’s Jira and Confluence. Thanks guys you rock!
7. Make sure you have direct access to your development team. We do now! We didn’t initially and that was a disaster! I will go public with who the Australian Web Development Company was that we engaged first time around but now is not the right time. Needless to say - I would never use them or recommend them!
8. As a Recruiter and then CEO of a tech start-up - I have learned so much. The last three years have been a wonderful ride and I am taking everything I have learned and applying those lessons to the development and deployment of JobGenie On Demand Employee Referral Platform.

All the Best,

Riges Younan

CEO, 2Vouch.

@rigesyounan

By Riges Younan

I’m preparing my presentation on Social Recruiting for the Australiasian Talent Conference in Auckland and I would like to know what questions you have about social recruiting.

What do you think about this definition?

Social Recruiting harnesses the evolution of Web 2.0 technologies and social media to communicate, engage, inform and recruit our future talent

So, it would be great if you could help me craft my presentation.

By Riges Younan.

As you know, even in an economic downturn great talent is hard to find and attract. Why? because most of these people are still working. So the job ad you place is largely about marketing your business as a great place to work.

This is even more important when you are trying to convince passive candidates to leave their current job to come work for you. You need to demonstrate that – for the right person – you are offering a real leap in experience, career development and benefits.

As you go about creating your job ad, think about what might interest the kind of people you are looking for. From my years working as a recruiter and speaking with thousands of executives, sales people and other professionals, some of the key influencing factors people look for in new opportunities are:

• Your reputation – what do customers and employees say about you? (yes, you can include testimonials in a job ad)
• Work environment – high achievers want to be part of a high-achieving, positive culture where they are valued and listened to. If this is what your company is like, it would pay to say so. Why not make a YouTube video to show what’s on the inside.
• Opportunities for advancement – the best people want to be challenged and then rewarded when they meet those challenges. How will you help develop the people who join your company?
• Work/Life Balance
• Secret sauce – what is it about your business (or even your current role) that makes you special? Why do people love working for you and doing business with you? Spell this out as clearly as you would to a prospective client

Professionals know what most jobs entail. Rather, follow the old marketing rule of focusing on your “customer’s” needs – show them the benefits of working with you – then you are more likely to attract the kind of people you want.

And, using the 2Vouch JobGenie, you will also attract referrers who know the kind of people you need and motivate them to pass your job on to them. (That’s why It Pays 2Vouch.)

Job hunting can be a very difficult time for candidates. Looking the the right job, dealing with recruiters, getting the interview, and finaly receiving a suitable offer.

Most jobs end up having only a few candidates make the shortlist for the interview stage. For a candidate getting to the interview stage means they are one or two steps away from a potential offer, they just need to pass the interview and not crash and burn.

The best way to get through the interview is knowing what sort of questions will be asked and then practice. Interviewers like to ask behavioural based questions, such as “Tell me about a time when you resolved conflict within your team?”. The best way to handle them is to follow the STAR method:

Situation: give an example of a situation you were involved in that resulted in a positive outcome

Task: describe the tasks involved in that situation

Action: talk about the various actions involved in the situation’s task

Results: what results directly followed because of your actions

While many questions are fairly standard you always get unique ones, and they tend to be the important ones. Coming up with a good reply to meet the STAR method can be tough.

This is where the art of story telling comes in.

Shawn Callahan from Anedote posted a really good introduction to how to tell stories during a job interview.

Job interviewers these days know the importance of stories. They know that stories give a good insight into your capabilities and experience. They call it behavioural interview technique, which is just a fancy title for collecting stories from you. So you’d better have some stories to tell that reveal your character, skills and attitude to life.

Every story we tell gives people an insight into who we are. They are quite revealing. So before you tell them to an interviewer it’s a good idea to tell your stories to a friend and ask them about the qualities they inferred about you based on the story. Is it resilience, courage, persistence, creativity etc.? You will surprised to find that a story which you thought, for example, was about persistence, comes across to the listener as arrogance. You will want to avoid those ones.

Shawn goes on the give a great step by step approach to developing your own stories. If you are in the process of trying to find a job this is a must read blog post.

By Michael Specht, Consultant to 2Vouch on Social Media and Recruiting

Over the last five to ten years the process of finding a job has changed dramatically! Now not only do you have to have a resume, you have to know how the internet works, visit job boards, be on LinkedIn and other such tools, search online social networks. It can be very confusing.

Here are a 10 ideas to help you kick start your job search in 2009.

1. Set up specific job alerts on your favourite job boards, make sure you are targeted in your keywords so you receive relevant results.
2. Let your network of contacts know you are looking for a job, many times someone will know of a job.
3. Upgrade your resume, cull old irrelevant information and add new information.
4. Do a Google search on your name, see what potential employers might find about you.
5. Setup your own website to promote your professional activities, try and secure your name as the domain as this will help the site appear in the first page of search results. This can help if some not so good information is appearing when people search for your name.
6. Set up or update your LinkedIn profile, make sure it matches you resume!
7. Speak to you friends and work colleagues, get an idea what improvements you can make both professionally and personally.
8. Practice interviewing techniques with friends and family.
9. Start an exercise routine. People who exercise regularly tend to be happy, not to mention fitter and healthier, which can help during those “down” days during your job search.
10. Also sign up for 2Vouch ;-).

What are your tips?

By Michael Specht, Consultant to 2Vouch on Social Media and Recruiting

After one of the longest bull runs in the history of the markets, the winds of change are blowing through the financial markets. It seems like the effects are flowing through different parts of the economy and big companies have already started announcing lay-offs.

Since we have just launched a recruiting business, a lot of people have asked us “how do you think a down-turn in the economy will impact your site?”

Our answer has stayed the stayed the same, “There is still lots more demand for professional people - especially in IT - than there is supply. Also, good companies always need good people. The only thing that will really change is that referrals will become even more valuable.”

Why do we think referrals are even more valuable in tougher times? There are at least 5 reasons:

1. As things get tougher, adding value to your network will help position you if your own situation changes (you get retrenched, your company starts to run into trouble, you just want a change)

2. As more people are looking for work, employers will get more irrelevant applications. This will increase their cost and time to hire. In this environment, referrals provide a great filtering mechanism

3. Good people - even in tough times - are usually working. As the external job market gets tighter, those people are less likely to be out looking for work. Referrals are a great way to get to those people

4. Cash is king. Other income sources may be effected during tough times. If you participate in a referral program that pays you a reward, you can earn some much-needed extra cash AND help people in your network

5. What goes around comes around. If you make great referrals to recruiters and employers, they may well look favorably on you if you ever come to apply for a job with them… or even help you transition when you want a change.

So, help yourself and your network by making quality referrals to people you know and recommend… especially as times get tougher.

By Riges Younan

10 trends for recruiting in 2009 by Michael Specht

‘Referrals. Time and time again referrals provide the highest quality hire at the lowest cost.’

By Riges Younan

Good overview by Dr. John Sullivan. Number two on the list is “referral programs”

‘Reinvigorating referral programs. Despite the growth of career-related Internet sites, the highest volume and quality candidates still come from well-designed employee referral programs. While heavy adoption was initially hampered by cultural issues around the world, today such programs are proving highly effective everywhere. Key focus areas include proactively approaching key employees for referrals (program targeting), leverage non-employee referrals, making reward systems more comprehensive, immediate, and visible, and last but not least, helping employees leverage social media to restore relationships, make new relationships, and build stronger relationships. Firms to watch: AmTrust Bank, Edward Jones, Whirlpool, and Amazon.com.’

By Riges Younan

Nice post by Mick Liubinskas on why it’s a good time to start a business, it’s positive and the logic makes sense.

I agree that people are more important then the idea but don’t agree that the supply and demand equation for hiring rockstars will dramatically change. I won’t go into the detail but demand for highly skilled and professional talent is a long term demographics based issue that even a downturn in the economy won’t change. You may get your hands on the back up vocalists in the band but the rockstars who are essentially the the heart of the business will be well looked after by their companies, so that when things turn again ( and as we know they will ) then those smart companies can capitalise because they have the superior talent to execute. Spoken like a true recruiter i know but hey I’m betting my business on it

By Riges Younan

I was contacted by David Campbell from lovedigital last week to get my views on how digital & social media is impacting the recruiting industry. Listen here

how do you think it’s impacting our industry?