So, how many applications will I get?… Just be active!

A frequent question we get asked by new clients is “how many applications will I get?”

Unfortunately for us, this is an impossible question to answer. There is no answer.

This isn’t science, after all. There aren’t a bunch of easy equations that we can use to somehow evoke the answer they want to hear.

Of course, we’re a very honest bunch. So we tell them we can’t answer that question. We explain to them that there are many factors at play, all of which are beyond our control. For instance, where the job is, what the salary is, what kind of job it is, how well the job is written, who the job is for, which company is advertising the role etc etc.

Our role, and what we can tell them, is that our site welcomes many excellent, targeted candidates. We offer the potential, a ready audience. That’s our skill. That’s what we’re really good at. Beyond that, it’s down to the consultant.

We can also give the very best tip to get you started. We have more experience of how jobseekers behave online than recruitment consultants. This means we know how to give the candidate-seeking recruiter the very best chance of attracting applications and finding the right CV.

And, in fact, it’s extremely simple, our top tip. All we ever say is “be active”, and our jobs board then delivers.

That’s it. Just be active. Just do the simple things well and frequently. Easy.

What is “being active”

Below are our tips about being active. And before you say it’s too simple, please bear in mind that those clients who do these simple four things are the ones that stay with us year after year and report success. And, yes, we have had clients who haven’t posted jobs and then told us they’ve had no applications….

1. posting all of your vacancies, not some – all

2. reposting all of your vacancies once a week – once a week, all your live jobs

3. searching through CVs daily – each day

4. acting on applications immediately – instantly

Sound simple? It’s because it is simple.

If you’ve read this far it’s because you’re someone who’ll be active. And if you’re reposting jobs, or you’re searching through CVs or you already ensure you reply to applications straight away you already have an edge over those competitors that don’t.

Working in online recruitment – 2001 to 2011

I think job boards have it tougher than they used to. Job boards generally charge less than they did ten years ago.

We’re also expected to deliver more. Ask anyone at a jobs board what they hear most from their clients and it will be the discussion about how many placements have, or haven’t, been made. A jobs board is fully expected to deliver placements. Not just “placeable” candidates, but actual placements.

Whatever your view about this, it’s fair to say that this wasn’t the case 10 years ago. Sure, we had to supply good candidates, but the responsibility lay more heavily on the consultants to turn those opportunities into placements.

The intervening period has also seen a phenomenal increase in the number of job boards. Onrec’s directory lists over 700 in the UK. And that’s not nearly all of them. Some are good, some are hopeless. But the prices of the good sites are compared against those of the hopeless.

The net result is that we face a lower expectation in terms of costs, and a higher expectation in terms of delivery.

Reconciling these two tricky elements has made us become a better business. 10 years ago it was enough to be first to market. Now a jobs board needs to be smart, able to run its business affairs well, and it must be very alert to the quickly changing trends in online media.

It’s generally tougher, and generally more enjoyable as a result.

Interview with Dr Dave Barton about nursing, academia stylee

We run quite a few interviews with nurses and people involved in nursing on Nurses.co.uk now. It’s become a bit of a feature.

I recently got rather excited when Swansea University agreed to an interview with their Head of Department for nursing. It’s a big department with almost 1,000 nursing students. I was interested to find out how someone goes from being a qualified nurse, working in an ICU, to heading up an academic department on the subject.

It seems the answer is hard work, interest and a large dose of passion. It’s fascinating, for any nurse I should think, to read about the trajectory of Dave’s career.

For me the most striking part of the interview was this, when I asked Dave how the job of the ICU nurse has changed since he first worked as one in the 1980s:

“Very sick people are the same today as they were then and they and their families are just as frightened, scared and bewildered. The technology has of course developed hugely, and the ability of critical care intervention to preserve and save life has improved.  The ICU Nurse has huge demands on them in understanding the pathology of their patient’s illness, in monitoring vital signs, interpreting key clinical signs, administering drugs and infusions.  Today’s patients are supported with multiple systems collapse, they are on respiratory support, cardiac support, renal support, nutritional support and other interventions.  But what has not changed is that first and foremost there is a human being in the bed, who needs basic fundamental care, hygiene, mouth care and eye care – and most of all dignity and love.  It is no less important in an ICU to hold a patient’s hand, or to put your arm around a terrified relative.  These are the humanities that must prevail despite (and in spite) of all the technology.”

You can read the full interview here.

Nursing and midwifery – the most popular searches for would-be students

I discovered today that, on Hotcourses.com, “nursing” and “midwifery” are the two most popular phrases punched in by people in the UK looking for university courses.

It’s in my interview with Ed, from Hotcourses.com - Nursing and Midwifery – the hottest courses in the UK!

I was surprised and pleased. I thought it might be “media” or “journalism” or “business”.

At a time when the Government is making it more expensive to be a student it’s going to get harder for nurses and midwives to pay back their loans, one would assume? Even so, people’s desire to enter the industry remains undiminished.

Of course, it’s good news for Nurses.co.uk and any other site listing nursing jobs or midwife jobs. But it’s also great news for the industry in general.

The same bunch of stats from Hotcourses.com also highlights that “social work” is the third most popular term. Again, so much to be optimistic about: midwifery, nursing, social care – three industries so important to the welfare of the country and so many people still so very keen to enter them.

About Rethink – the mental illness charity

Just a quick one. Do have a look at our article about (and interview with) Rethink – the mental illness charity.

It’s on SocialCare.co.uk, and linked from our mental health jobs pages.

Rethink campaigns, and provides practical care for, anyone affected by severe mental illness in the UK.

As health care workers, or recruiters, you’ll be aware of the Government’s current efforts to put mental health illness on an equal footing with physical illness. You may have also read or heard in the news recently about the increased focus on speech / talk therapies and psychological therapies.

Arguably, if it wasn’t for the tenacious and organised campaigning by mental health charities like Rethink, the Government wouldn’t feel pressed to act on these issues.

If you’re unaware of what Rethink does, please do check out our interview.

CV Alerts – again

In two out of four meetings yesterday I was asked why we don’t offer CV alerts. I’ve talked at length about this previously. But it’s worth reiterating the key principles as I see them:

I think, undoubtedly, CV alerts are a good thing from the perspective of a recruitment agency. I’m less convinced they work in the candidate’s favour.

However, arguably, candidates may get bombarded by phone calls as soon as they publish their CV. With a good job board having over 100 clients, that’s a lot of recipients of the same alert.

Secondly, perhaps, CV alerts may also unfairly benefit agencies who would send out unsolicited CVs. Consider your clients and the way you work. You have a client who needs to find a home manager for their nursing home in Kent. Bingo, CV alert comes in from just such a person. You call the candidate, verify their details, determine their wishes, discuss the role you have and the client you’re representing…. and they eventually permit you to speak to your client about them.

Unfortunately, a less scrupulous consultant at another agency has also received the same alert. But instead of checking and verifying details with the candidate they just get on the phone canvassing for clients, using the CV as a sales tool to leverage a new client. Your client.

My feeling is that sometimes tools need to be considered. I never say never, but at the moment I need to be convinced that a CV alert is good for the recruitment industry.

I’m up for hearing a debate about it!

Why we have released a new look for Nurses.co.uk

This week we released an attractive make-over for Nurses.co.uk. Well, we hope it’s attractive. Of course, everything’s subjective. But I like it. Nice blue.

It’s more than just good looks though. These changes bring the following virtues:

• nurses will find jobs quicker
• better click-routes to nursing sector job lists
• improved search functionality for faster job searching

In all, it just operates a little more easily on the eye and makes more sense when you click around.

I think what I have enjoyed most about the guiding principles behind the new design is that I’ve concentrated on little else other than the end-user’s experience. It’s been liberating.

I first learned HTML in 1996. Working in London in the late nineties for a site that offered travel information was interesting and chaotic. No one really had any guiding principles of online design or search. Google was still uber-hip, small and cosily associated with hippy ideals. All cool and underground. Web sites were created to allow better, faster access to information. It was all very democratic and leftfield. Things have changed quickly. Not least, Google. Google recently made £1.4bn net profit in the last quarter. Good for them – no, really. What’s less good, and not their fault, is the un-democratic approach to some web-site design. Forget the end-user, many web sites are now designed to perform well on Google. Everything else comes a long way behind.

While we take some of these issues into account, I believe we ultimately follow Google’s stated suggestion: create a good site, with good content that users can find easily.

It’s beautifully simple. And makes for a very enjoyable design process.

Development work’s never complete, of course. For instance, we need to make the pages load faster and that’s no mean feat with the information our pages need to filter. But I’m happy that we’re fulfilling the online brief (as I see it), even if it is a bit old-school: delivering a useful site with relevant information for those that want to find it.

Govt cuts affect morale but the longer-term jobs situation is still good

Sarah’s survey of almost 300 nurses on Nurses.co.uk shows that there’s a cold wind blowing through NHS wards at the moment. In my own conversations with nurses and midwives there’s a sense that something’s coming (and for midwives this is coupled by the current changes happening in surgeries).

My own view is much more optimistic. Of course, I’m not at that particular coal face and, also, my outlook is much longer-term. But one thing’s for sure, the skills (and therefore jobs) required to ensure a cared-for, and healthy population will remain even if we can’t fund it through the state.

The fear among some is that HCAs will be asked to take on more responsibility, so as to reduce the number of qualified nurses needed to carry out those duties. Time will tell. But, given the demand of nursing skills in the independent sector, it’s arguable that any NHS cuts will provide a welcome supply of nursing staff to specialist private hospitals (many of which supply outsource services to the public sector anyway). We shall see.

Being chatty

Running a jobs board can make you feel a bit like an outsider, neither one thing or the other. Take our small team of 8 here at Nurses.co.uk; you could argue that we’re neither recruiters or representatives of the nursing industry.

I’d strongly argue that we are, partly, both. We certainly understand and have experience of both.

It’s why I enjoy attending nursing events and it’s why I enjoy speaking with people in the industry: I learn things and I discover that, well, we know quite a bit about both industries, as it happens. Our view is valid. Small, but a valid part of the whole industry. Talking to people in nursing is educational and reaffirming.

So I’m really pleased (proud even) to see that we have an interview with Julie Greenwood, MD of Hays Healthcare, on Nurses.co.uk. It’s nicely targeted to nursing recruitment – our patch. I found the subject matter engaging and interesting. Just as I found the conversations I had at Monday’s Learning Disability Nurse networking event fascinating.

Learning new things and becoming well-versed in your own, very small, niche in life is surely what it’s about. And it’s an endless education.

It IS good to talk.

Nurses.co.uk survey – NHS nurses reject Govt plans

Sarah has just completed and posted the results of a fascinating survey. She asked almost 300 UK nurses about the coalition Govt’s plans. The results show that NHS nurses surveyed mostly reject the plans, with many fearing financial difficulties ahead, as well as pension issues and longer working lives for UK nurses….

Read the Nurses.co.uk survey.