Welcome to issue 279 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. 

CONTENTS

  • My Favourites  
  • Article One (CV Database Review – Jobsite by Louise Triance)
  • Article Two (Employment Status – When is a ‘Temp’ an ‘Employee’ by Gareth Williams)
  • Don't Miss This (Press Release: Zubka, The Revolutionary Platform to Drive Recruitment - 2nd Annual IT & Comms Conference: Delivering Value in IT Recruitment - Press Release: Saville Consulting's Verification of Online Ability Tests - Press Release: Absolutely Business Launch - Apology to CareersInRecruitment)
  • Discussion Board Summary
  • Online Recruitment Update (Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites - 10 Biggest Mistakes Companies Make Recruiting Online - Survey: Spending on Online Recruitment Set to Increase - Press Release: The Latest in Internet Technology Drives Midlandjobs.ie - Louise's UK Recruiter blog)
  • Subscribe/Unsubscribe
  • Feedback & Advertising Information

Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs.

My Favourites

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ - Dictionary with a load of extras; quote of the day, this day in history, today's birthday, etc.

http://www.download.com  - I use this site for freeware and shareware downloads.  A bit cumbersome to search - but worth it when you find what you need.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/ - Online Citizens Advice Bureau.  

This week's favourites were donated anonymously

 Why not submit your 3 favourite web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

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Article One: CV Database Review – Jobsite by Louise Triance

Site Name: Jobsite

URL: http://www.jobsite.co.uk

Site Statistics:
Sectors covered:
37 different sectors covered (with 9 key sectors including banking and finance, IT and Sales) 
Target candidate level: Wide range of salaries covered. Not strongly represented above the £50,000 salary band. 
Number of CV's held: 258,583 (as of 26th June 2006)
Geographic split of candidates: 241,457 EU candidates
Site Launched: 1995

Cost to recruiters: Direct employer – £1,000 per month (1-10 users). Recruitment Agency - £800 per month (1-5 users) (Cost is dependant on number of users and length of time the client signs up for). 

How it works:
The search form gives a wide variety of criteria you can search on. You can conduct a Boolean search on the candidate’s job title, main skills and text within the body of their CV. You can also select tick boxes for industry sector, education level and year of graduation. To search based on salary you can select from drop down boxes giving a “from” and “to” figure. For location you type a city and then select how far a candidate can live from that location and if you will take people who will relocate.

The results show a list of candidate’s who match the criteria. The information at this stage is an overview and includes such information as their name, age, location, skills, salary, preferred job title and some text from the candidate summary and CV highlights. You can then choose to view the full CV as a web page or Word document (which you can save to your hard drive), save the CV to a shortlist or email the candidate.

Three and six months after a candidate adds their CV, an email is sent out asking if they would like to modify it. After 12 months another email is sent to the candidate asking them to reactivate their CV on the searchable database, if they don’t it is then made non-searchable. 

Strengths

  • A variety of search options allow you to either search the CVs themselves or query the details candidates complete at registration. This should allow you to find candidates for even the most obscure jobs.

  • The candidate overview you get after a search is comprehensive enough to ensure you don’t waste time viewing CVs which are unlikely to be right. 

  • Jobsite offers a “CV Watchdog” service, enabling you to create a search and receive all the latest relevant CVs by email each day.

  • The format of the Web “CVs” means you see an overview, the form the candidate completed at registration and their own CV.

  • You can save the criteria of up to 20 searches to run again at a later date.

  • When you are viewing a saved “shortlist” of candidates you can choose to email them all to yourself at once in a zip file. This may be quicker than saving the word versions one at a time. 

Weaknesses

  • When viewing candidates that match a search you have to add each one at a time to the shortlist – you can’t select a number of them to add at once (this apparently is to stop misuse of CV database and spamming).

  • The default date range for “search CVs from the last..” is 7 days. I think this is too short a timescale and means that you will probably have to remember to change this every time before pressing “submit” for a search. If you were using the database on a daily basis this wouldn’t be a negative. 

Summary

A comprehensive and easy to use search facility. The results are easy to scan and CVs easy to retrieve. The sites strength appears to be in Engineering and IT roles with 45% of salaries between £15,000 to £35,000.


Louise Triance is the Editor of the ukrecruiter newsletter. This article is the fourth in an ongoing series of CV database reviews.  We have reviewed CV-Library in issue 273, Monster.co.uk in issue 275 and Constructionjobsearch in issue 277

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Article Two: Employment Status – When is a ‘Temp’ an ‘Employee’ by Gareth Williams

Question

I have a client who’s Finance Director is becoming increasingly concerned that changes to the law on the employment status of temps may be exposing them to unnecessary liabilities. He is suggesting they stop using temps. Are these dangers significant? What can they do to mitigate the risks? 

Answer

Historical Position

Traditionally temporary workers (‘temps’) were considered to be neither the employee of (the ‘end-user’) nor the staffing company that supplies them (the ‘agency’). 

This was because the Court said that the two essential elements of an employment relationship did not exist between the temp and either the end-user or the agency.

These two elements are, firstly, the need for a ‘mutuality of obligation’ between the employer and the worker. In simple terms this means that each party must be contractually obliged to do something for the other (i.e. one provides work, the other provides a wage). Secondly, there must be an exercise of ‘control’ by the employer over the worker. 

Historically it was felt that because the end-user didn’t make payment to the worker they could not be an employer, and because the agency doesn’t exercise control the temp could not be employed by the agency either.

What Has Changed?

There have been two legal cases that have changed the way these issued are viewed. In the first case, Brook Street –v- Dacas, the Court of Appeal said that the agency could not be the employer because they did not exercise any control over how Mrs Dacas performed her job. However the Court went on to say that Employment Tribunals should consider whether the end-user may have been the employer of Mrs Dacas by virtue of an ‘implied contract’ between them.

The second case, Cable & Wireless –v- Muscat, reaffirmed these comments and went on to apply the principals of this case to a Contractor who was supplying his services to the end-user, via both his own limited liability company and an agency.

Are All Temp’s Now Employee’s?

No, this would be the wrong conclusion to draw from these cases. Both cases were based on extreme facts and are not indicative of the scenario in respect of every, or even most, temps. The law will have to develop further before we can say with a high level of certainty exactly where the boundary is drawn between a self-employed temp and an employee.

Why Does This Matter?

There are various issues that become relevant when a temp is found to be an employee. Most obvious amongst these are the potential right of an employee to lodge a claim for unfair dismissal. There are however a range of issues that could be relevant, relating to redundancy, the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (known as 'TUPE'), and (in respect of contractors) potential unpaid NI and PAYE liabilities.

What Can Be Done?

There are various steps that end-users may seek to implement. On a basic level this will include not treating the temp as an employee – end users who give temps ‘employee numbers’, who approve their holiday leave, and who hold disciplinary meetings, might be seen to be acting the temp’s employer. Likewise end-users may consider having a maximum period for which a temp can be on an assignment. However it is important to be alert to the risk of exposure to claims for indirect discrimination when implementing such a time limit. 

Perhaps more interestingly, better advised end-users will pay close attention to case law suggesting that innovative contractual solutions could also prevent implied contracts of employment from arising - thus apparently solving this whole problem. 

Gareth Williams is a Solicitor specialising in Recruitment Law and writes for the newsletter on a regular basis. You can currently contact Gareth via contact2@ukrecruiter.co.uk

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Don't Miss This

Press Release: "Zubka – The Revolutionary Platform to Drive Recruitment"
“Zubka is a brand new online platform that will facilitate all parties involved in the employment and recruitment chain - from the individual, to businesses, to recruitment agencies alike. Rather than spending a great deal of time and money trying to find likely prospects for vacant positions, recruitment agencies and HR managers can now advertise positions on Zubka and let Zubka Referrers do the hard work and narrow down to a short list. Recruitment agencies can still add value to their clients with the results and act as the first layer of scrutiny. They simply pay the Zubka fee whenever they successfully place a prospective candidate. Zubka is the first service to reward those making successful referrals and remunerate the people providing this valuable resource.” www.zubka.com

2nd Annual IT & Comms Conference: Delivering Value in IT Recruitment, 5th October 2006 
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation’s IT & Comms Group is holding its second annual conference at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in London on 5th October. The full day conference is open to both REC and non-REC members and will bring together recruiters who specialise in permanent and contract roles in the IT and communications sector. Featured speakers include: David Taylor (author of the best selling business book “The Naked Leader” and European Business Speaker of the Year 2004), David McHattie (Head of Recruitment Team, Barclays Bank), Stuart Dodds (Efficio, A Leading Procurement Consultancy) and Mike Walmsley (MD The Recruitment Training Company).  The day will also include 3 Breakout Sessions and will end with a Panel Discussion on "Winning Recruitment Business – A Procurement Perspective".  For more information and to book your place, call 020 7009 2172 or email lauren.street@rec.uk.com

Press Release: Saville Consulting First in Supervised Verification of Online Ability Tests 
"Several months ago Saville Consulting launched its comprehensive portfolio of analysis aptitude parallel tests with Invited Access versions for unsupervised administration and a choice of Supervised Access and Hard Copy versions for secure verification. After years of promoting testing online without a matched supervised verification component, the industry is finally following suit.  25 years after founding SHL, Professor Peter Saville left the company and set up his new business, Saville Consulting, in 2004. Professor Saville comments: “One of the profound concerns that I had before I left SHL was the general lack of security in online testing. At Saville Consulting we launched separate unsupervised and verification versions of our online aptitude tests and styles questionnaires some months ago. SHL and others are now following our lead. It is good to be leading the industry again and I am also pleased that others have woken up to the need for secure verification even if late in the day and without the matched hard copy and secure questionnaire options.“ http://www.savilleconsulting.com

Press Release: Absolutely Business Launch
Denise Walker has launched her own management consultancy, Absolutely Business, which specialises in business consultancy, interim management and training services for recruitment businesses in the UK.  Denise is the Former Executive Director of the REC’s RITE (Recruitment Industry Taskforce for Enterprise).  If you would like to know more about Absolutely Business, please visit www.absolutelybusiness.co.uk or call 0118 9821535.

Apology to CareersInRecruitment 
If you use MailScanner you might have seen, in last week's newsletter, the following text "MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from www.careersinrecruitment.com" . This was entirely caused by a typing error I made in the production of the newsletter. We would like to apologise to CareersInRecruitment and emphasise that it in no way resulted from any action taken by CareersInRecruitment. 

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Discussion Board Summary

Don't forget to visit The Discussion Board. Current topics on the site include:

Any postings you or anyone else makes will be included in the weekly digest. Sign up for the free digest here or hit reply to ask me to include your email address

It is free to use the discussion board and you don't have to register to view messages. Visit the site; ask questions and share your knowledge

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Online Recruitment Update (sponsored by http://www.broadbean.co.uk for "the UK's favourite job posting system")

Hitwise top 10 Recruitment Sites, week ending 9th September 2006
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk, www.monster.co.uk, www.totaljobs.com, www.jobs.nhs.uk, www.reed.co.uk, www.jobsite.co.uk, my.monster.co.uk, jobs.guardian.co.uk, www.eteach.com and www.jobsgopublic.com. Hitwise don't aggregate data from sites who form part of a network such as fish4.co.uk For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

10 Biggest Mistakes Companies Make Recruiting Online
OnlineMediaExperts (OME) have produced a pdf document entitled “10 Biggest Mistakes Companies Make Recruiting Online”. They have kindly made it available on their website for ukrecruiter readers at http://www.omexperts.co.uk/news.html

Survey: Spending on Online Recruitment Set to Increase 
More than 40% of organisations intend to increase the amount they spend on commercial recruitment websites over the next six months, according to the latest findings from the Recruitment Confidence Index (RCI), produced by Cranfield School of Management. The latest research shows that while 44% of the 1,078 organisations responding to the survey intend to increase spending on online recruitment over the next six months, the proportion of respondents using commercial job sites for recruitment is not increasing, remaining stable at around 25%. The number of organisations using their own corporate website for recruitment also remains static at 32%. Those organisations using commercial or corporate sites have reported a marked increase in their use of online recruitment over the past year with 42% increasing their use of jobs boards and 49% increasing their use of their corporate website. The full report is available priced £50. To obtain a copy contact Dr Emma Parry, Cranfield School of Management on 01234 754808 or e-mail emma.parry@cranfield.ac.uk

Press Release: The Latest in Internet Technology Drives Midlandjobs.ie 
New entrant onto the local Irish recruitment market Midlandjobs.ie, has sourced Zero-One Design Ltd’s Virtual Consultant Jobs Board System to manage its recruitment database. "Up to now the benefits of such internet-based recruitment systems have been the preserve of HR Departments of large companies and recruitment agencies. Administered from an office in Mullingar itself, Midlandjobs.ie brings into much sharper focus the recruitment requirements of the three principle regional towns of Mullingar, Athlone and Tullamore. This will have obvious benefits for both local employers and job-seekers alike. In addition Midlandjobs.ie provides recruiters with a very specific channel through which to attract in and manage applications from candidates from outside the region. This should prove to be a useful solution for employers dealing with certain “hard-to-fill” technical vacancies within the region."  www.midlandjobs.ie 

Louise's UK Recruiter blog
Just a quick update on what I've been talking about in my blog.  On Monday I gave my opinion on the No-recruitment-consultants.com website.  On Tuesday I posted up the full press release from Cranfield (the basic press release is above) and later in the week I hope to do a posting giving a bit more information about what I think of the new Zubka offering. You can read "Louise's UK Recruiter blog" at http://ukrecruiter.typepad.com 

This section is sponsored by http://www.broadbean.co.uk; "the UK's favourite job posting system".

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Regards
Louise Triance
UK Recruiter http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk

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