For those of you who have been following us for some time it goes without saying that we´ve been through a number of changes lately, not the least of which is a slight change to our editorial policy.
In the past we would conduct monthly industry updates as part of our effort to keep you up to speed. These were called Analyst Updates. As of September we are no longer doing monthly analyst update webcasts. However, I will attempt to provide you with a summary every week of the latest trends and updates that we are privvy to here at HR.com. If you have any news you´d like us to share please email me at mmoretti@hr.com.
I took the month of August off so some of these updates might be a little dated but I thought it was important to include some of them anyway.
On some of these posts I´ll ad my own commentary if I feel the need. You´ll notice it´s in italics below the announcement.
Yahoo! HotJobs begins scraping job boards, papers and corporate sites for recruitment ad inventory.
Yahoo! has entered the vertical search market, quietly launching a vertical search engine on its HotJobs recruitment site. Now, a job search turns up listings from HotJobs advertisers first, but also includes listings from other job boards and from employer sites.
The move makes Yahoo! the first among the major search engines to enter the burgeoning - and competitive - vertical search market, and gives the company first-mover advantage over Google, which is widely believed to be developing a classifieds program of its own.
The HotJobs vertical search works by first presenting HotJobs´ postings on the results pages, followed by other listings. HotJobs´ own listings are further ranked to present the ads of HotJobs´ sponsors first. These sponsored job listings are a recent addition to the HotJobs site, though they are common on both Yahoo´s and Google´s search results pages. Vertical search sites like SimplyHired, WorkZoo (now owned by Jobster) and Indeed similarly aggregate listings from other sites, but present them based on how closely each posting matches the search criteria. Their order is based on mathematical relevancy. HotJobs is a premium style ranking, but within each grouping results are ranked by relevancy.
A search of several common job descriptions turned up postings from niche sites, regional and local job boards, newspaper sites and from some employers. Missing, however, were listings from Monster, CareerBuilder or other major job boards.
It will be interesting to see how Jobster positions its newly acquired Work Zoo technology in light of this move by Yahoo!
BrassRing Reports New Clients, Partnerships, Offerings, Strong Global Momentum for 2005
Driven by the growing global demand for BrassRing's WorkForce By Design(TM) solutions -- which include technology, consulting and service offerings - BrassRing announces that it has recently added several noteworthy clients to its roster including Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. of Japan, BrassRing's first Asia Pacific-headquartered client; Duke University and Healthcare; Sepracor, a research-based pharmaceutical company; Tyson Food, the world's largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork, and the second-largest food company in the Fortune 500; Teradyne, a leading supplier of automatic test equipment and interconnection systems; EMC Corporation, the world leader in products, services, and solutions for information storage and its management; Chiron, a multi-dimensional company with businesses in biopharmaceuticals, vaccines and blood testing; AECOM, one of the world's leading engineering and design groups; and Proffice, a global leader in flexible staffing solutions based in Sweden.
Additionally, four of BrassRing's US-based clients - Biogen Idec Inc.; Gartner Group, Inc.; BEA Systems, Inc; and Burger King Corporation -- have expanded their Enterprise implementations to support global operations, bringing to 190 the number of countries in which Enterprise is being used to process resumes.
Since the first quarter announcement of its Recruitment Services Outsourcing (RSO) offering, BrassRing has added 28 RSO clients from its Enterprise client base, bringing to 136 the number of BrassRing clients that have purchased additional services from the company in the first half of 2005.
BrassRing has also expanded its consulting services to include Career Site Optimization, Security Optimization and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Technology Development offerings.
In the second quarter of 2005, BrassRing released Enterprise 7.5 with feature enhancements including expanded recruiter and candidate language offerings; customizable and configurable system processes for users working with multi-national or multi-divisional organizations; universal candidate import capability, allowing clients to import "new" candidates from any client-approved third-party or existing ERP system; enhanced configuration and user interface design capabilities on Enterprise Gateways; advanced reporting capability for increased control and accountability; and, infrastructure enhancements to support high-volume recruiting.
BrassRing is scheduled to release Enterprise 8.0 later this year, which will include fully-configurable application workflows for both salaried and hourly applications; recruiter automation and usability enhancements.
It´s about time we heard something out of BrassRing. Many of us were wondering if we´d ever hear anything from them again. It looks like they´ve been stockpiling announcements for a while. This many items in one press release lessens the impact each of these announcements could have individually. But there must be some reason for it. We´ll be curious to see how active they become this quarter as it´s been a while since we´ve heard of them in any deals. Time will tell.
Peopleclick Partners with FastTrack to Expand Global Reach
Continuing its international expansion, Peopleclick Inc. announced a strategic partnership with FastTrack, technology supplier for recruitment in Australia.
This alliance allows FastTrack to license and sell Peopleclick´s TWA products including Peopleclick´s Recruitment Management System (RMS) and Vendor Management System (VMS). TWA integrates the recruitment processes of diverse salaried, hourly, graduate and contingent workers and enables companies to efficiently manage their global workforce acquisition strategies.
Authoria Appoints Brian Hearing as Vice President of Professional Services
Former PeopleSoft Executive Joins Authoria to Maximize Customer Satisfaction and Reduce Implementation Cycles
Authoria, Inc. announced that Brian Hearing has joined the company as vice president of professional services. Hearing is responsible for managing the development of Authoria's professional services offerings, focusing on maximizing customer satisfaction and creating shorter, more repeatable implementation cycles.
Most recently, Hearing served as vice president of solutions delivery and consulting at PeopleSoft where he successfully increased revenue and grew margins. Prior to joining PeopleSoft, Hearing was founder and partner of TeamOne, a consulting organization that focused on rapid implementations. TeamOne was sold to PeopleSoft in 1997.
This bodes well for the Hire.com module now being offered by Authoria after the acquisition last quarter. Hopefully they will tear down the implementation plan for Hire.com and rebuild it. That was, and always had been, an inherent weak spot for Hire.com when you compare their services offering to the rest of the industry.
Taleo Launches Taleo Research
Formerly iLogos, Taleo Research Delivers Market Data and Intelligence on Talent Management Best Practices and Industry Trends.
Taleo Corporation announced the launch of Taleo Research, formerly iLogos Research. Taleo Research analyzes the best practices and economics of talent management for organizations of all sizes, worldwide. The specialty research practice focuses on business analytics that tie talent management technology and process improvements to shareholder value creation. Taleo Research also conducts primary research on critical issues in talent management and provides analysis on key trends throughout the industry that impact organizational performance.
In addition to the research and data it provides to the industry, Taleo Research helps Taleo clients understand and implement best practices in talent management. Taleo's on demand software model enables analysis of aggregated data from its customers. Because of this unique view into the talent management practices of leading organizations, Taleo Research turns "information into intelligence," providing best practice recommendations to Taleo customers. This data collection also allows Taleo customers to benchmark their talent management practices with like companies, providing them with the information needed to adjust and refine their talent management strategies to deliver significant organizational value.
As a matter of disclosure for those of you who don´t know...I used to work with Yves Lermusiaux as part of the iLogos Team. I left there two years ago to work for HR.com.
I´m very familiar with the genesis of iLogos even before the purchase by Taleo (then Recruitsoft) back in ´99. This is the type of move that positions the research arm where it should be. While iLogos does work for non-Taleo clients and has some credibility as an independent research arm it has been, for the most part, an advocate of all that is Taleo.
There are instances where the research team has its own voice and in some instances is at least one step removed from the Taleo message - in all actuality it was not received or perceived that way for the most part.
This move will hopefully bring some much-needed prominence to what is arguably the best potential differentiator that any vendor has in this niche market. Knowing the individuals personally might make me somewhat bias but I don´t know too many other people as knowledgeable as Yves and Alice Snell.
Entry Level Job Seekers Value Employer Ethics
Few college grad job seekers are willing to work for an employer with questionable ethics.
CollegeGrad.com released its survey results on whether college grad job seekers would be willing to work for an employer with questionable ethics.
Among respondents, 75% would not even consider working for an employer with questionable ethics. And of the 25% who would consider it, 64% say they would not personally do anything unethical, even if asked.
TheLadders.com announced the addition of four new job search channels
OpsLadder, TechnologyLadder, HRLadder and LawLadder
This expansion doubles the Company's existing consumer offerings of FinanceLadder, SalesLadder, MktgLadder and UpLadder, and is an innovation for the online job search industry. For the first time, high-end professionals and executives in operations, technology, HR and law have the opportunity to access unique channels that comprehensively offer $100k positions in their distinct fields.
Now posting 20,000 new jobs each month, TheLadders.com has grown exponentially since its launch as SalesLadder.com in 2003. After more than doubling in member size from 200,000 in January 2005 to 470,000 in August 2005, these new Ladders come as a response to the increased demand of job seekers looking for more targeted job channels and ease of use in their employment search.
Deploy Solutions has launched Deploy Restaurant AdvantageTM
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment growth in the food services industry has more than doubled the pace of general employment. In a large and growing industry with turnover rates exceeding 110%, restaurants are often challenged to quickly staff new locations and to replace outgoing employees. Because a restaurant wait staff is such a critical component of customer service and is inextricably linked to the restaurant´s brand, it is essential that restaurants hire reliable, service-driven employees.
Deploy Restaurant Advantage directly addresses these challenges by enabling restaurant managers to increase their applicant flow and quickly find the most qualified candidates. It allows candidates to apply at their convenience through a greater number of venues - in the restaurant, on the Web, and over the phone.
While this increased number of applicants would normally put a greater burden on restaurant managers, Deploy´s system pre-screens and assesses candidates so that managers only need to spend time interviewing pre-qualified candidates. Because applications, pre-screening, evaluations, and interviewing can all be achieved with a single visit from an applicant, restaurant managers have the option of giving on the spot job offers to highly qualified candidates, to help hire them before the candidate can apply with a competitor.
With Deploy Restaurant Advantage, managers are able to hire and retain a better workforce. Some proven results of the solution include:
-Increased unsolicited compliments from customers by 500%
-Improved customer loyalty and sales
-Reduced no-show employees by 80%
-Decreased turnover by 35%
-Reduced company policy violations by 40%
-Dramatically reduced the cost of hiring quality hourly employees
-Better support for event-based hiring (e.g., opening new locations, seasonal hiring)
-Streamlined onboarding of new hires (reducing time-consuming paperwork)
There are quite a few niche vendors who have tackled the restaurant business as of late. Most of them are local and/or retail focused and have done a reasonable job providing good technology. It will be interesting to see how aggressively Deploy goes after the potential clients in this vertical. They have made some headway lately in expanding their install base in various verticals. Perhaps they´ll be able to gain significant enough traction to be considered one of the top five vendors in the number of signed deals they have on the books.
Recruitmax Sales Soar 140 Percent in Record Second Quarter
For the fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2005, bookings increased 140 percent over the same period last year and the company added a record 23 new enterprise clients and had strong add-on and renewal sales.
During its second quarter, Recruitmax welcomed six new Fortune 500 clients, including the world's second largest media conglomerate and one of the fastest growing insurance providers in the United States. The company also added NVR, Inc., Ann Taylor Stores and Sapient, a global provider of business and technology services, to its growing client roster.
Results were also impacted by a strong performance from the company's international operations. In the quarter, Recruitmax added international clients Rentokil, a U.K.-based business and consumer services provider with more than 90,000 employees; AMEC, a European-based engineering and construction company with more than 44,000 employees; Capital Consulting, the U.K.'s top provider of outsourced permanent hiring and redeployment solutions; and Ambit, the largest staffing company in Australia. In total, Recruitmax added more than 400,000 on-demand users (full-time employees) in the second quarter.
Other key events during the fiscal quarter included the addition of Mark Silverman as chief financial officer, the expansion of the company's international presence with new hires throughout Europe and Australia, and the formation of several new strategic alliances, including one with Australia's BML. Recruitmax received two prestigious accolades, recognizing its strong growth, as well as thought-leadership regarding the introduction of the industry's first employee onboarding application, Aloha. Recruitmax client, Humana, also received an award for its innovative use of Recruitmax applications.
Interesting announcement given the fact that it was rumored not so long ago that their burn rate was over the top and that they were low on cash. Hard to believe given their recent cash infusion and the number of deals won.
It was nice to see that they lightened the burden of Jim Philip, their President, and hired a full time CFO. Jim was pulling double duty for a while and at their rate of growth that must have taken quite a toll on him. Jim´s one of the nicest guys in this business and it´s been my pleasure to sit down with him on a number of occasions to discuss Recruitmax´s vision of the future. Jim and Founder Derek Mercer are two of the nicest and most honest and open gentlemen you´ll meet in this space.
Peopleclick Signs 42 New Customers in Best Business Quarter to Date
Q2 Marks Ninth Consecutive Profitable Quarter
Peopleclick announced that it signed 42 new clients in Q2 2005, making it the company´s best business quarter to date and its 9th consecutive quarter of GAAP profitability.
As a result of Peopleclick´s continued investments to ensure client success, several Fortune 500 companies, including RBC Financial Group and SunTrust Bank, signed multi-year renewals in Q2. Overall, Peopleclick continues to have a renewal rate of more than 95 percent.
New clients include Port of Portland, Detroit Edison & Michigan Consolidated Gas, The Manitowoc Company, SecureLogix Corporation, L-3 Communications Holdings, Prudential plc and University of Vermont.
This announcement caps what has been quite a turnaround for Peopleclick. They appear to have dealt with many of the issues that plagued them for most of 2003/2004. Steve Sasser, once rumored to be in as the ´clean it up and package it and sell it CEO´, seems to be committed to not only righting the ship but moving it full speed ahead back in to a position of prominence in this market. It will be interesting to see if they can sustain this momentum over the next year or so given all the change happening at their main competitors.
Authoria's Revenue Jumps 42% in Record-Breaking Second Quarter of 2005
Two-Thirds of New Deals Will Be Delivered Via Authoria On-Demand
The second quarter included nine large deals, and two-thirds of all deals will be delivered via Authoria On-Demand(TM), the company's fully-hosted, fully-managed, secure, Internet-based solution.
New deals for the second quarter include contracts with:
* Iron Mountain
* McDonald's
* Rotech Healthcare
* Sun Life Financial
Authoria also closed new deals with a Global 500 pharmaceutical company, a Global 500 financial services company, and a Fortune 500 food and beverage chain company.
In addition, during the quarter, Authoria completed its acquisition of Hire.com, Inc., an Austin, Texas-based recruiting software company that delivers its solutions entirely on-demand. Authoria has integrated Hire.com's recruiting management solutions with its broad Authoria Advisor(TM) Suite as Hire AdvisorTM.
Executive Parents Risk Coworker Resentment for Taking Leave to Raise Kids
Most Want to Keep Working at Reduced Load, According to Survey by Executive Jobs Web Site TheLadders.com
For all of the working-mom success stories like Brenda Barnes, who came off a six-year stint as a stay-at-home mom to become CEO of Sara Lee this February, executives still face workplace ambiguity when it comes to parenthood. According to a survey conducted by TheLadders.com, the majority of executives want to continue working after having kids, yet the specter of coworker resentment for extended parental hiatus´ looms large.
When asked to describe their perceptions of executives who return to the workforce after a multi-year hiatus to raise children, 42% of the survey respondents said the execs were "resented for taking time off." Another 23% feared that anyone taking an extended leave was "too far removed from the action to be effective." In stark contrast to those negative sentiments, 34% said that executives returning from an extended maternity/paternity leave would be "valued for their renewed perspective" (see chart below).
Likely due to those perceptions, executive parents are determined to keep one foot firmly planted in the workplace. When asked what they would do if money was no object and they had young children, 53% of executives said they would continue to work, but at a reduced load. Thirty-nine percent of the executives surveyed said they would devote themselves full-time to the family, opting to become a stay-at-home parent. Just 9% said they´d continue working full-time.
According to the survey, the average allotment for paid maternity leave is nine weeks. Forty-four percent of respondents said they receive six weeks´ paid leave; 27% receive 12-weeks; 17% receive eight weeks; 6% receive 16-weeks; and 6% receive more than 16-weeks.
When asked: Are the maternity policies at your company sufficient, the response was split down the middle. Fifty-three percent said "yes" and 47% said "no."
"Companies need diverse workforces to thrive in today´s economy. Varied, well-informed perspectives are critical to any business´ interaction with customers," said TheLadders.com president and CEO, Marc Cenedella. "But, for those executives who want to take an extended leave, the key to a smooth transition back into the workforce is to stay engaged: keep reading and sending e-mails, meeting with colleagues and reading the trade publications. It is important not to get too far removed."
TheLadders.com´s look at parental leave is based on a series of surveys of registered $100k executives conducted on TheLadders.com Web site between July 8th, 2005 and August 18th, 2005. The number of responses and margin of error for each survey is as follows:
- If money was no object and I had young children, I would ______. 1530 Responses; Margin of Error: ±3%.
- I believe that executives who return to the workforce after a multi-year hiatus to raise children are______. 1206 Responses; Margin of Error: ±3%.
- How much time does your company allot for paid maternity leave? 478 Responses; Margin of Error ±5%.
- Are the maternity leave policies at your company sufficient? 487 Responses; Margin of Error ±5%.
You´d think with all the talk about a shortage of skilled workers that someone would figure out some way to incorporate these people back in to the workforce a little more seamlessly.
If you´ve heard of any company offering some sort of packaged services in this area please let me know. I know there is a lot of talk about it but I haven´t seen any sort of service providing re-entry services to either company or candidate. There are some programs in place for war veterans but other than that nothing for civilians.
CollegeGrad.com released its survey results on what is most important to college grad job seekers when choosing their first job.
The largest percentage of respondents said that finding a job in their major is the most important consideration when deciding which job offer to accept.
This places finding the right type of job well ahead of other considerations, including salary and location.
Following are the overall survey results:
What's most important to you when choosing your first job?
Finding a job in my major - 34.2%
A high salary - 26.6%
Location - 14.6%
Making a difference - 12.7%
Company culture - 11.9%
The survey was conducted nationally by CollegeGrad.com between May and
August, 2005. The results are based on more than 1,200 respondents.
Taleo Appoints Debbie Shotwell Group Vice President, Human Resources and Talent --Former PeopleSoft executive with more than 25 years of industry experience to lead Taleo's global human resources practice
In this role, Ms. Shotwell is responsible for overall operations and initiatives throughout Taleo's global human resources (HR) and talent management functions. Ms. Shotwell reports directly to Taleo President and CEO Michael Gregoire. Prior to Taleo, Ms. Shotwell served in a variety of HR management positions at PeopleSoft, most recently serving as vice president, global human resources services. During her four years at PeopleSoft, Ms. Shotwell led the organization through several acquisitions and growth periods, including the transition of talent from JD Edwards to PeopleSoft and Oracle's acquisition of PeopleSoft. Ms. Shotwell also led the development and delivery of company training programs, leadership development, and talent retention and growth strategies. Through her value-added, consultative approach, Ms. Shotwell was a key catalyst in PeopleSoft's global talent management initiatives that helped to further the organization's performance.
See my earlier post about Taleo. It is destined to become the default place to work for ex PSFT employees.
Taleo Unveils New Branding and Corporate Website
New Brand Identity Reflects Company's Focus on Driving Business Performance through Talent Management
With the new tagline, "Talent Drives Performance(TM)," Taleo's new brand identity clearly reflects the company's focus on helping its customers drive business performance through its talent management solutions.
Interesting that they should use the word performance in their tagline but don´t yet offer performance management as part of their suite of offerings.
BrassRing Strengthens Executive Team; Names Arlene Hammel Vice President of Marketing
Hammel joins BrassRing's executive team with over 20 years of marketing, sales and management experience. Prior to joining BrassRing, she served as the vice president of marketing for Genesys where she developed and executed strategic and tactical marketing communications plans that significantly increased brand awareness, and drove customer demand for a full range of human capital management outsourced and software solutions. Previous to Genesys, Hammel served as vice president of marketing for Eliassen Group, Inc., introducing comprehensive marketing communications programs that increased both client acquisition and retention. Prior to that, Hammel was the senior vice president of marketing at Randstad North America (formerly Office Specialists), a $1.4 billion employment services company where she directed national and regional marketing activities for more than 450 branch and franchise locations in North America.
