Attention All Job Fair Exhibitors!

STEP UP YOUR GAME

While organizing 4 job fairs in different states this month, I've been keenly aware of our need to differentiate our events from the rest. When it comes right down to it, all that really matters is that local job seekers find good opportunities, and the local employers who exhibit connect with high quality local candidates. Sounds simple, hunh?

Actually, it really is. When we hosted events earlier this year and last fall, we were able to get a much higher quality of job seeker than we usually see at other fairs. We send out tips to seekers to ensure they have access to the info they need to be prepared, and we make sure we only allow real employers at our events, no multi level marketing or up front investment opportunities.

We also collect have job seekers pre-register and have them fill out surveys to help us, and the exhibitors, prepare to make the event special. We provide this info to the employers in a ppt, and ask them to be sure to pay attention to this information to best prepare for the career fair.

I just got an email from one of the job seekers who we sent updates to, and this person raised a very good point. He, I don't have the name in front of me, but I think it was a he, had recently gone to another event, where he travelled 90 miles round trip to find opportunities. He was surprised that there weren't actually any decision makers staffing the booths- only lower level employees. That's a very important point. The people staffing the booths, promoting these companies as the employers of choice, and trying attract the best possible talent, were lower level inexperienced employees for the most part.

Wow. That doesn't seem to make sense does it? If the whole point is making face to face connections and prescreening candidates why not send the hiring managers? I'm throwing this out to the blogosphere- have employers become so jaded of face to face events like this, that they merely use it as a way to collect resumes only? Is this the best practice?

YOUR GUIDE TO THE RECRUITING FRONT LINES

Hi and thanks for checking out my blog! I realize that many people are still getting used to this new world of blogs- the blogosphere, if you're hip. Because of this, I wanted to point out some features of my blog environment. Please take a moment to read the mission of the blog located on the right of the page.

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Mission of the Recruiting Front Lines Blog

Hi everyone. Through this blog I will be recording the pulse of the recruiting market as I see it. When I refer to the front lines of the recruiting market, I am alluding to both sides of the market- job seekers and employers- and the goings on in employment and recruiting trends at the street level across new england and the gulf coast. (New England and the Gulf Coast? That's right. Those are two regions that I cover as the Field Operations Manager for JobsInTheUS.com, so while they may be a drastically different in geography, culture, personality, and industry profile, I am acutely focused on the front lines of the recruiting markets in these two regions)

As the Field Operations Manager for JobsInTheUS, I have a unique opportunity to spend my working life talking with employers, mostly recruiters, and job seekers from all walks of life, in all industries, from all sizes of companies, with the discussion focused on finding work and finding qualified employees. While our company does an excellent job of providing quantitative analysis of the labor market through the JobsInTheUS Employment Indexes, published monthly, I felt a lack of any qualitative information about the look and feel of the recruiting market- the pulse of the employment sector if you will. This is why I decided to start this blog- to provide a street level perspective of the issues, concerns, assumptions, and hopes from both sides of the recruiting coin. I hope this information provides interested parties with a better view of the market, based on real conversations with the people who deal with these issues every day.

J.Chasse.Blais

Ad agencies in the 21st century- thoughts on casting for big ideas.

If you haven't read this book, and you operate an ad agency in any capacity- stop reading this blog and go to Amazon and order it. Okay, that sounds like I'm making money on it. I absolutely am not, and don't know anyone involved with the book either. I do consider it, along with a few others including Good to Great as bibles of organizational dynamics and business management. Casting for Big Ideas of course is much more agency specific.

Basically, the book speaks to increasing the value, and revenue, of intellectual capital and creative ideas. The shift in media is squeezing out "agency rates', in some cases eliminating the % margins on ad buys. To stay whole, agencies need to place more value on the ideas they have, rather than relying on buying media to generate income. good book.

SO... that's just my intro to really start this discussion: How do you pitch the value of advertising to smaller companies in times of economic hardship? With the economy where it is, are you finding it difficult to get new companies on board, or even get old customers to keep drinking from the well?

Maybe no one will want to share their feelings or thoughts on these issues- which I can understand. I am not in advertising directly, but work with HR Ad Agencies, who create employment ads for companies. It's easy to work with agencies, because they understand the value of advertising resources, and make good logical decisions based on good data.

I think I'm seeing fewer companies being represented by HR Ad Agencies- is it simply due to the downturn in the economy, or is there more to it?