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Welcome to issue 335 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. Recruitment software is a frequent topic on our forum. We've a comparison table of over 60 products from UK providers on our site (it's a PDF) if you are on the market! | 
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CONTENTS
Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs. |
My Favourites www.companieshouse.gov.uk - an invaluable tool for anyone whose job involves sales as it enables you to find out vital information about the company before you contact them. Most of the information is free and the rest is reasonably priced. www.google.co.uk/alerts - I can keep an eye on my clients and my competition by registering on this site for email updates of the latest relevant Google results. Based on my choice of query or topic I get regular information from both the web and news sites www.expedia.co.uk - it’s important to know where you would travel to if you had the time and money so I see this site as valuable for my research. Great for UK destinations as well as those further a field. Definitely one of the best travel sites.
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: Secret Identities Should be Kept That Way By expressHR As a sector with people at its core, the recruitment industry is built on the foundations of personal data. Millions of names, addresses, ages, and personal statistics are circulated in the recruitment space every day as part of normal operations, with little thought into the implications of this. Ironically, with growing legislation governing employment, the amount of personal information recruiters are required to hold is increasing. An applicant’s identity needs to be verified and citizenship or immigration status proven with a passport, identity card or appropriate visa documentation. For some jobs involving working with vulnerable sections of the community the results of criminal records checks are also stored. In some cases copies of key documents such as passports are even held as scanned images. With nothing but a small number of personal details it is possible for someone with the wrong motivation to do any number of illegal or inappropriate things, from opening false bank accounts to maliciously releasing private information. Data protection is generally not seen as the most interesting of subjects and is something that is assumed to be covered by the Data Protection Act. It is true that for organisations that abide by the law it does stop personal details being distributed and reused for unrelated purposes. However, it does not ensure the IT systems used to store this data are necessarily safe from individuals wishing to maliciously gain access to personal data. In fact the final of the ‘8 commandments’ set out by the DPA does hold the organisation possessing the data responsible for exactly this, stating: “Entities holding personal information are required to have adequate security measures in place. Those include technical measures and organisational measures.” This however is unfortunately not always true and some IT systems often leave personal data woefully exposed. In fact, according to recent statistics from the Information Commissioners Office, around half of all recruitment business in the UK are yet to take the appropriate steps and register as data controllers. Anyone who electronically holds personal data is legally obliged to register in this way and the fact that so many have yet to do so shows a serious lack of knowledge or willingness. With the majority of personal data stored electronically there are two specific threats – externally from those with malicious intent and internally as a result of poor security practice and human error. The security of these systems is often under-estimated, not well understood and on the whole the buck stops with an over burdened IT department. Foolishly many in the recruitment space just assume that IT security is a given and have little knowledge on how, or even who, to challenge to ask specific questions on what security measures are deployed. Malicious attacks on IT systems storing personal data are a major worry and a risk that recruitment companies must face. This means making sure any system handling personal data is as secure as possible by using robust technology such as encryption technologies, ensuring traffic between client and user systems is protected and employing any number of security measures which can be used to deny malicious code access to the company network. One of the best ways of ensuring that IT systems are secure is by using an independent 3rd party audit. Companies like NTA Monitor (www.nta-monitor.com) will audit security systems to ensure they are at the high level required to handle this vast amount of precious data. Audit companies can ensure that IT systems are compliant with exacting standards such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. These standards make sure that systems storing personal data are as safe as possible from any IT security breach – more than meeting the guidelines set out by the DPA. Aside from protecting against malicious breaches of the IT systems themselves the first layer of any IT security is to ensure that access controls are as rigorous as possible. This means ensuring that anyone wishing to access this kind of personal data must first be verified by username and password. It may sound simple but effective password control is the best way of protecting against the human risk to personal data. The most up-to-date firewalls and intrusion detection systems in the world become completely useless if passwords are written down, are too simplistic (the most common password is actually the word password, followed by 123456, then qwerty) or simply given out to all and sundry. This is the equivalent of leaving your housekey under the doormat and telling everyone down the pub where it is. Companies in the recruitment sector have to ensure good password policy is in place and enforced to minimise risk. Simple things like educating people against sharing passwords, ensuring passwords are changed at regular intervals, using alphanumeric passwords and blocking users after a set number of failed attempts are all good solutions to this password problem. In addition to this, the mobile computing revolution has added another threat to the safety of personal data. With so many companies nowadays relying on PDAs, laptops and Blackberries this provides an extra threat, if they are lost or stolen. It is therefore imperative that these devices are protected. On-device security such as biometrics, password protection or USB keys can help stop anyone gaining access. In addition IT Departments can also issue a ‘kill pill’ to render missing devices useless. By taking simple steps such as these, companies in the recruitment sector can make sure they are safeguarding their most valuable asset, as well as fully complying with the Data Protection Act. After all, if the sector is built entirely on people, then it is important to make sure that the trust of these people is maintained for the good of the recruitment market as a whole.
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Article Two: Telephone Systems for overseas offices – part 2 by Chris Malcolm I have lived and worked in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands for the past 6 years, operating deAnsaPlus a research company for headhunters and executive recruitment consultants. Although we do research worldwide, 100% of our assignments are for UK based firms. Last time we discussed using an internet based telephone system (VOIP) for our office abroad. This time we will discuss the hardware options available. Because we have developed our telephone system in Spain as the VOIP technology has progressed we have used various types of both software and hardware. Our hardware has been bought from different European countries and it all appears to be interchangeable. Generally the best is to buy online as the choices and prices are far superior to anything you will find at your local computer supplier. There are a couple of different hardware options. The first is the use of telephone adapters. Simply put they are a small box which connects to your internet router, and into which you plug an existing telephone. The adapter is programmed to connect both incoming and outgoing telephone calls through your service provider. Your computer system does not have to be turned on for them to work and starting at about £30 they are a very inexpensive option, particularly for a small office. Call quality is very good, and in our experience well within the parameters for business quality. They generally will not offer you all the bells and whistles, such as call transfer or music on hold that the more sophisticated systems offer. Another hardware route is to purchase actual VOIP telephones. A word of warning, do your research before buying. Some of the phones are of poor build quality, have poor sound quality or constantly tend to freeze up or deregister from your VOIP supplier and with prices starting at around £100 expensive mistakes can quickly add up. On the plus side, call quality is superior to that of adapters, a second line (or more) is usually included with each handset, allowing you to switch quickly between callers, and in our case we find them wonderful to use with headsets. Again, it is all a question of budget and needs, but if you do go down this route, the VOIP phones will be where you end up. Other hardware/software systems work, but in our experience will not provide the quality needed by a business. One option is USB phones. These can be purchased very cheaply and look just like a regular telephone. They come with two problems. The first is that as they connect to the USB port of your computer, your computer system must be on for them to operate. This can be very important for out of hours, incoming calls. Their second problem is that as they are routed through your computers, call quality can be hampered if they are being used at the same time as your computer. Great for home use calling Granny but nowhere near the quality for business use. In the same arena as USB phones are “soft” phones. These are software phones with your dialing pad on your computer screen, using a headset plugged into your computer. The same problems apply as with the USB phones although for someone new to the whole idea of VOIP, not a bad place to start to get a feel for what the technology can do and with a cheap headset starting at around £10 it is fairly risk free. There are of course other add-ons that some businesses require with their telephone systems. For example with VOIP it is possible to save a fortune on mobile phone calls while abroad using a type of call back service. This is not something we use as I find it too fiddly for our purposes, but for certain businesses it can be a huge saving. Another is a fax line. My best recommendation is to not use VOIP for faxes. There seems to be a problem with converting those awful screeches from a fax machine into computer speak. They rarely work and frankly you are better to work around it using your computer system and a fax to email service. Don’t forget one huge cost saving advantage is that if you run two or more offices on a VOIP system, as long as you use the same supplier your internal calls between offices are free, no matter where their location. This is more or less how the big calls centers operate. Calls between offices are directed through the internet only and do not actually go through a telephone exchange, giving crystal clear reception. Next time we will discuss our recommendations for operating a telephone system abroad.
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Don't Miss This (sponsored by http://www.alljobsUK.com "The UK’s Jobs Portal") Recruitment Matters December
training courses exclusive offer Press Release: Xansa Recruitment triumphs at ATSCo awards This section is sponsored by http://www.alljobsUK.com "The UK’s Jobs Portal" |
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 24th November 2007 Louise's UK Recruiter blog Discussion
Board Summary Press Release: Aviation-jobs.net - the UK's first free aviation job board 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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