As we move through still-uncertain economic times, it’s not a surprise that many companies are looking for new ways to main a competitive advantage. The more surprising thing to learn may be that nearly a quarter of employers (23 percent) expect to hire for executive-level positions over the next six months, according to CareerBuilder’s new nationwide executive hiring forecast of more than 2600 hiring managers and human resources professionals.

Which industries plan to hire for executive-level positions most over the next six months?

• 35 percent of IT companies
• 25 percent of health care companies
• 24 percent of sales companies,
• 23 percent of professional and business services, financial services, and leisure/hospitality companies.

Introducing: HeadHunter.com

With this increasing need in mind, CareerBuilder has launched HeadHunter.com, a job search and recruitment site dedicated to helping experienced management and executive-level professionals easily find relevant career opportunities matching their advanced skills and talent.

Employers who use HeadHunter gain the ability to:

• Attract candidates serious about their next career move
• Choose from prescreened resumes that fit their specific requirements
• Enjoy an ad-free experience with no entry-level job seekers and no hassle

“Companies have a perpetual need to attain competent, agile senior leadership. At no time is this more important than during an uncertain economic recovery. HeadHunter.com is designed to highlight opportunities for talented professionals looking for jobs on multiple levels of an organization – from senior managers and department directors to vice presidents and C-level officers.”

To learn more about posting jobs or viewing resumes on HeadHunter, visit the employer info page, call
(877) 218-1309, or contact your CareerBuilder account representative.

What do employers want in an executive-level candidate?

Education

It’s not only experience that’s in demand when it comes to executive-level candidates; many employers are looking just as closely at a candidate’s education (and, as seen below, sometimes more important):

• One in five employers look for a candidate with an MBA, comparable degree, or higher level degree when recruiting executive-level positions.
• While prior industry experience is an important asset for many employers, 47 percent would still be willing to hire a candidate without it

The executive hiring forecast confirms that, for the most part, the right experience comes with age. According to employers, the average executive is 41 or older. Forty-five percent of executives are between 41 and 50-years-old and 29 percent are older than 50. Twenty-six percent of executives are age 40 or younger.
Other leadership qualities:

• Proven ability in addressing problems with effective solutions (74 percent)
• Adept at motivating others (63 percent)
• Can act with speed and agility in a changing market (55 percent)
• Creativity (52 percent)
• Emotional Intelligence (46 percent)
• Experience in different areas (44 percent)

This year’s HR Technology^® Conference & Expo promises to be “the largest and most exciting in our history” according to the registration site.

Hmmm…what a coincidence that this also happens to be the year CareerBuilder will be there. OR IS IT? (Cliffhanger!)

If you’re planning to be at HR Tech, don’t forget to stop by CareerBuilder booth #333 – where you can snag a free Supply & Demand Report – and see for yourself why it’s one of our bestselling new solutions.

Register now for your free Supply & Demand Report.

Go for the demo, stay for the party…
You’ll also want to check out the CareerBuilder Demo Room for two reasons:

1. See demonstrations (it’s not just a clever name) of Talent Network, CBMobile and Supply & Demand Portal – our newest, most innovative solutions to date!
2. Get a free ticket to our exclusive Unplug and Unwind happy hour on Tuesday, October 4th: Mix, mingle and relax with fellow conference attendees – compliments of CareerBuilder!

CareerBuilder Demo Room Hours and Happy Hour Ticket Pick-Up
When: Monday, October 3, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Where: Booth # 333

Unplug and Unwind Happy Hour
When: Tuesday, October 4, 2011, 5:30 – 7:30
Where: Mix Lounge (atop THEhotel at Mandalay Bay)

About the Supply & Demand Report

This report, generated from our new Supply & Demand Portal, is completely customized to your organization and provides real-time access to:

1. Supply: The availability of active candidates for any position.
2. Demand: Locations where you will find the most and least competition is for that talent.

See you in Vegas!

CAREERBUILDER PRODUCT ENHANCEMENT: Introducing ResumeFlip!

Sorting through resumes just got a little more exciting (sorry, we can’t help but get a bit geeked out by this new product enhancement). With just the click of a mouse, you can easily flip from one resume to the next. You’ll view full, complete resumes – the way candidates want you to see them – instead of just generic-looking resume summaries.

Get ResumeFlip free when you subscribe to Resume Database!
CareerBuilder’s Resume Database contains millions of resumes from candidates across nearly every industry, skill level, and geography. Narrow or widen your search based on various search agents to find the candidate that’s right for you. And with 15,000 new resumes added every month, the Resume Database candidate pool is always plentiful and fresh.

ResumeFlip Features and Benefits:

• Free with a Resume Database subscription
• Full-screen resume views – not just summaries
• One-click technology to flip quickly and easily from resume to resume
• Keyword highlighting and ratings features show the highest matching resumes
• User-friendly buttons to automatically email, forward, print or download resumes
• Easy “Like” buttons to save favored resumes

All current Resume Database customers now have access to ResumeFlip. Go ahead, give it a try and let us know what you think!

Editor’s Note: This five-week series is dedicated to examining the five most common Ps of a typical marketing mix and assessing how they relate to recruitment. Today’s post focuses on placement, and next Tuesday will cover the concept of promotion. For a look at assessments on product, price and people, view my previous posts.

In marketing, placement involves getting your product or service in front of your target customers. This means selecting the right stores and determining the best place to display it – like the end of an aisle or rack, with a special stand-alone display, or within a check-out counter. The act of distributing the product and ensuring consistent supply within key markets is also involved. Marketers must estimate how much demand they can create in a certain area and supply the right amount of product to meet anticipated demand. Often, pricing strategies fluctuate with changes in placement, thereby adding another layer of complexity to strategy. Logistics – the act of physically transporting a good – must also be considered. As demands grow, additional distribution channels and manufacturing sites closer to where the product is sold are often needed to minimize transportation costs and increase speed to market.

In recruitment, talent acquisition strategists employ these same principles to sell their product: jobs. We plan placement strategies to support regional hiring – say when a new location opens or during periods of growth. To hire, a national job advertisement is often posted, along with state and local advertisements, to source talent already residing in a specific market. Other times, if the role is specific or highly specialized, job ads will be placed on niche boards to reach a defined audience of the workforce. Some geographic areas have less supply of specialized talent, so relocation costs are paid to overcome talent shortages and secure the right candidate for a job. Recruiters attend career fairs at colleges and universities known for strong academic programs to put their product in front of graduates who will have skills and education applicable to a role at the company. Other times, recruitment can resemble a commission sales model and a staffing agency is paid to help fill a job. Similar to a rebate offered to reward consumers for purchasing a good, recruitment marketers may also offer a signing bonus to candidates who accept certain jobs.

So how do you put your product in front of the right candidates at the right time?

One way is to rely on outside data. For instance, a tool like the Supply and Demand Portal shows where labor pressure is highest for key positions across the country. It helps recruiters see where the most jobs are posted for that type of position and where the most candidates reside to fill those positions. With this information, you can see where supplemental sourcing is required to successfully fill a job.

For example, say you are looking to fill a position for a software engineer in the Pacific Northwest – specifically Washington. According to data, it is harder to recruit for this job in Washington and Oregon, and the demand for talent there is significantly higher than in the Northeast. Knowing this, you will need to supplement your placement strategy to get your message out in new channels, reach a wider geographic audience, and consider paying relocation in order to effectively compete for top talent. The data also shows it is easier to recruit software engineers in New Mexico, Florida, and Louisiana; therefore, a targeted campaign could be run in those markets to attract qualified candidates to move and meet the need in Washington. Hosting job fairs at relevant universities and working directly with local IT professional groups are two simple ways to take your message straight to the audience you need to reach. Use social networks and display ads to target online messages to people in specific markets, too.

Another way to be successful in this area is to get to know the profile of your target talent inside and out. Most product and service providers know their customer (person who buys the product) and the consumer (person who ultimately uses the product) down to the nuances of their behavior. Marketers use a VALS model to understand the psychographic attributes that impact decision-making within their target audience and place products based on what that analysis reveals. An acronym for values, attitudes, and lifestyles, VALS (according to www.strategicbusinessinsights.com) asks you to bucket your customer into one of eight categories that best describes their motivation:

• Innovators
• Thinkers
• Believers
• Achievers
• Strivers
• Experiencers
• Makers
• Survivors

Recruitment marketers should think seriously about what motivates candidates when shopping for a job – or even better, which deep-seeded switches can turn on a passive candidate’s desire to make a change.

Is it desire for recognition and status, opportunity for greater pay or benefits, emphasis on work-life balance, or an employer committed to activism? Without knowing what is most critical to your ideal candidate, how will you know which qualities of your product (job and culture) to play up?  Collect this information through surveys of staff in a specific role or division. Also, purchase insights from people outside your organization, or gather anecdotal insights from ongoing interactions with candidates.

Try this exercise: Choose any opening and envision your ideal candidate. Which of the eight VALS categories does this person fit into best?  Next, use a site like Pinterest, or cut pictures out of a magazine to create an inspiration board of what specifically defines your ideal candidate. Focus on strong motivators and the characteristics of successful placements you’ve made for a job or location in the past. Think about hobbies, family profile, issues they might support, and pop culture (websites, movies, TV). Understanding what values, attitudes, and lifestyle will be a match for this job and geographic area can help you place your message in the right spot and obtain a hire that is less likely to turnover. Use what you gather to re-write the job posting so it emphasizes what is important about the job or your company. Run that job ad in geographic markets and niche sites where your desired talent lives, works, and plays. Vary the images on your branding so they reflect the lifestyle of the applicant you seek to reach – consider using your own people that fit the profile. Choose the top three defining characteristics and feature those on social media sites when promoting the opening.

Bottom line: Not all positions and the talent needed to fill them are alike. Tailor your message to your audience and play on the strengths you know will appeal to ideal applicants. After all, quality is far preferred over quantity when it comes to sourcing candidates that stick.

Are you keeping up with talent supply and demand in your market? As the most recent BLS Employment Situation Report revealed, 192,000 jobs were added in February 2011 — but how many candidates are applying to those 192,000 jobs? By understanding the labor demand in particular markets and the ways in which talent pools grow or shrink depending on that demand, you can more effectively guide your recruitment strategy in terms of employment brand, compensation and overall advertising strategy.

CareerBuilder’s Supply and Demand Portal helps you be smarter by giving you real-time access to 1) the availability of active talent for any position (supply), and 2) where you will find the most and least competition for that talent (demand).

The following information from Supply and Demand Portal shows examples of hot industries where there is a growing demand in the number of workers needed to fill job openings, based on data from the last six months.

1)      Nurse Practitioner: .23 active job seekers for every position
This year, the first wave of more than 70 million baby boomers will turn 65 and join Medicare – equating to approximately one every eight seconds. At the same time, there are more than 30 million newly insured Americans as a result of health care reform, driving the need for more medical services. Couple this with an increase in retail health clinics and a deficit in primary-care physicians, and you’ve got a huge need for nurse practitioners to help fill the gap.

2)      Database Administrator:  .26 active job seekers for every position
From the explosion of sites like Twitter and Facebook, to the evolution of the smartphone’s presence in both our home and work lives, the world’s dependence on sophisticated technology is getting more prevalent every day.  Companies, in turn, are using technology to make better business decisions and create new solutions for clients that live up to their ever-changing needs — and they need people who can effectively manage data to help create those solutions.

3)     IT Security:  .59 active job seekers for every position
Although it’s a concern when individuals like you, me or Ashton Kutcher get hacked, IT security is especially sensitive for companies, as they have to not only protect their own sensitive information, but that of their clients. It’s not surprising, then, that IT security jobs are often hard to fill, requiring candidates who need to be experts in various aspects of IT such as programming, hardware, network and database expertise.

4)      E-mail Marketer:  .69 active job seekers for every position
The way people consume information is becoming more and more selective — as are their e-mail spam filters and propensity to hit that worn-down “Delete” button on the keyboard. With all the noise coming at people from every direction, it’s now harder for companies to grab consumer attention — and e-mail marketers who know how to cut through the clutter and help them get in front of their target audiences are in high demand.

5)      Financial Adviser:  1.2 active job seekers for every position
With the after-effects of the recent recession still being felt, people are looking for guidance on how to build financial security after depleting their short-term savings, tapping into retirement funds and losing home equity. And with millions of baby boomers on the verge of retirement age, the demand for financial advisers to help build retirement plans is about to become even bigger.

6)      Environmental Engineer – 1.25 active job seekers for every position
“Green jobs” or “green-collar jobs,” otherwise known as jobs focused on environmental preservation, are all the rage. Green jobs are expected to grow at the rate of a whopping 1.3 million jobs per year through 2030, and, fortunately for green employers, more and more job seekers are seeking out employment with environmentally conscious companies. In addition, federal, state and private funding is fueling openings for those able to develop solutions for pollution control, recycling, waste management and other public health initiatives.

7)      Sales Engineer:  1.72 active job seekers for every position
As the economy begins to bounce back, companies are once again expanding their sales forces to increase revenue — and are relying on sales engineers to help close and manage deals around more sophisticated products. These experts are a key part of the sales process, as they compare solutions to competitor offerings, and troubleshoot any issues along the way.

8)     Social Media Manager:  1.78 active job seekers for every position
Social media (rapidly becoming known as simply “media”) moves quickly — and so does the need for those able to manage it. Sites like Facebook and Twitter have seeped into just about every aspect of both our personal and professional lives — and more and more companies are “getting it” and jumping on board to engage people in their brands, build relationships, market products and reach more individuals in new ways. To do this successfully, companies need people with social media savvy and strategic delivery — and fast.

9)      Compliance Analyst:  2.52 active job seekers for every position
These days, companies are being held under greater scrutiny and must meet with more stringent local, federal and state regulations. Health care and financial firms in particular need people who can understand relevant laws and help to establish policies and training programs.

10)  Writer (technical and other):  3.31 active job seekers for every position
From chip manufacturers to software companies, technical writers are needed to clearly explain new products, upgrades and features that are often very specialized. The race to stay on the cutting edge matched with increased investment in new technologies drives continued demand for this technical skill set.

More about the Supply and Demand Portal

How does it work?

The portal pulls data from national employment resources like CareerBuilder.com, Wanted Analytics, and EMSI, in turn getting access to more than 45 million jobs, 40 million resumes and 140 million worker profiles — meaning a ton of rich, relevant data turned into meaningful intelligence. Based on the number of available jobs and available candidates, the portal identifies occupations and corresponding markets with the greatest supply and under-supply of candidates.

The portal can also help your business understand:

• Where to open a new business or school
• Top markets with greatest supply of candidates for a particular position
• Top markets where demand for talent exceeds supply for a particular position
• Top employers hiring for the talent you need for a particular position
• Location intelligence through heat maps
• Common job titles for a given skill
• How to better hire for emerging or hard-to-fill positions
• How market saturation may be impacting compensation trends

By using talent intelligence to stay on top of trends in the current labor market, you’ll have a more clear sense of where to find your talent (and your competitors) — and stay one hire ahead.

Just a couple of years ago, the world watched as Wall Street began to rapidly unravel, and we continued to watch as the weeks and months to follow showed further signs of trouble and revealed cracks in our economy that many of us hadn’t the slightest idea existed. When what we were going through was finally officially labeled as a recession, many employers had already thinned out staff levels, cut back budgets, and slashed benefits. Consequently, businesses were forced to “do more with less” (you know, that phrase you’ve heard 1,000,001 times by now.)

No money, no problems?

Faced with fewer resources, many companies decided to roll up their sleeves, get creative, and find new and inexpensive ways to communicate with their clients and job candidates. Some of those inexpensive ways of communicating included Web-based tools like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, and they were really starting to take off. Not surprisingly, many human resources professionals were suddenly tasked with taking them on, in addition to all their other responsibilities.

Without proper methods of tracking candidates found through sites like Facebook and Twitter, however, HR managers and recruiters were spinning their wheels and wasting a lot of valuable time. In fact, according to a recent CareerBuilder study, 60 percent of recruiter time was being wasted on non-value-added activities, the majority of recruiters weren’t measuring ROI, and candidate tracking was often only 25 percent accurate due to ATS limitations. Executives were expecting HR to perform miracles through social media — and it wasn’t happening.

While HR was focused on time and cost to hire candidates, business executives were stressing the need to convert HR data to business intelligence.

Now what?

CareerBuilder realized companies needed a solution that accomplished both parties’ objectives — and soon after, Talent Network was born.

Okay, but what is it, exactly?

Talent Network, a custom career site that helps employers build their own pipeline of talent,  enables employers to connect the dots of all the things they are doing to attract job seekers, engage interested candidates, and measure the success of their efforts. Let’s break it down:

Awareness

Talent Network builds awareness for your jobs through five key areas:

1. Social — Add a link to your Talent Network on social sites all over the Web, including Facebook (via CareerBuilder’s Work@ employee referral system) and Twitter.
2. SEO — Turn your internal job terms that may be abbreviated, vague or full of company lingo into title descriptions that job seekers instantly understand, and in turn, show up in more search engine results for job seekers looking for your open position.
3. Mobile — Your Talent Network site is mobile-enabled, giving you instant reach to people searching for jobs on their mobile devices. Tap into a market with explosive growth.
4. Career Site – Get a designed, hosted and supported career site, drive your target candidates there, and track your progress.
5. Job Distribution —CareerBuilder’s partnerships with sites like Indeed.com help you gain strong referral links to your jobs.

Engagement

Interact with candidates who have expressed interest in your business or open positions and give them a more satisfying experience.

• With the click of a button that exists on sites all over the Web, potential employees can arrive at and join your talent network, stay keyed into your available job opportunities, and get personalized alerts with jobs at your company that most match their interests and experience.
• Capture job seekers’ information before they leave your site, welcome them to your community, and start connecting with them on a deeper level.
• Send members of your network tailored job recommendations and customized messages. You can even send automated communications when you need to get a broad message out to many people at once.

Measurement
Quality measurement matters. Drive informed business decisions with accurate and in-depth information about your Talent Network’s search traffic, job interactions, and candidate conversions; in other words, gain the most insight available about members of your network.

A Better Way

How does Talent Network solve some of the biggest recruitment and business challenges companies are facing? Let’s take a look:

Old way: Potential candidates are gone before you can get them to take any action on your website.
Talent Network: Encourage visitors to leave a footprint before leaving your website.

Old way: You’re missing out on job search traffic because your jobs are hidden behind your ATS.
Talent Network: Expose and search engine-optimize your jobs, driving relevant candidates to your job openings.

Old way: Your recruiters keep contacts in their own databases, which creates a lot of one-off lists.
Talent Network: Keep all recruiters’ candidate contacts in one location.

Old way: You know who your target candidates are, but you’re struggling to reach them.
Talent Network: Take advantage of the custom SEO landing pages developed exclusively for your organization, and get in front of those elusive candidates.

Old way: You’re not really sure where your website traffic is coming from.
Talent Network: Get detailed, helpful insight into where your visitors are coming from, as well as what they’re doing once they get there.

Still have questions? Learn more about Talent Network:

Watch a short video or view product demos

Visit the Talent Network page

Read the press release

Feel free to post comments and questions here as well, and we will do our best to answer them.

In honor of Halloween, we’re holding a SPOOKtacular contest for those of you looking to makeover your social media presence on Facebook.

Here’s a quick rundown -

• Five grand-prize winners will receive an updated custom tab as well as 10 innovative status updates.
• 50 runners-up will each earn one voucher worth half off any CareerBuilder page-set up or makeover.
• All you need to do is tell us in 100 words or less why your company deserves the revamp before October 31st!

We all know that social media is becoming more and more viral – so why not utilize the tools for building brand awareness and recruiting your target talent? Don’t miss the chance to makeover your social media presence starting with your Facebook page today: http://bit.ly/CBcontest

For more information about CareerBuilder’s social recruiting solutions, visit our product page or call 1-877-345-5256.

What’s Niche?

Let’s start with the word “niche.” What does it mean? Is it something you snack on with cheese? (Example: “A little niche would really amplify the flavor of that Gouda.”) A compliment you give to nice fella who pointed out to you that you had stray toilet paper dangling off your stiletto heel? (Example: “That was so niche of you to notice — let me buy you a coffee.”) Or a quick fix for that scraped knee you got while chasing after the ice cream truck and… failing to catch it? (Example: “Quick! Put some niche on it to stop the bleeding and chocolate cone cravings!”)

No, but all are good guesses. We sometimes talk about niche job websites, as several of them are associated with CareerBuilder, but we don’t always define what “niche” really means. So here, I want to break it down for you in the case that you’re not familiar with them, tell you about some of our niche job sites, and talk a bit about why these job sites are an important way to complement the ways you’re reaching candidates.

Niche Job Sites — A Definition

The word niche, in the manner we’re using it here, is most simply defined by Merriam-Webster as “a specialized market.” Niche can also mean “a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted” — which is also related to what we’re talking about.

How so? Well, niche job sites are those websites dedicated to a specialized market — whether that market is health care or retail or Gen Y folks — and the people who frequent a certain niche job site are attracted to it because they identify themselves as a great fit to that job site’s specialized market.

A website focused solely on a particular market + job seekers interested in that market seeking out and flocking to that website = a pretty great way of connecting the right candidates with the right types of employers. You might say these Internet users have “found their niche.”

Finding a Niche — Why It Works

These days, job seekers have more choices than ever before when it comes to where they’re able to find jobs online. The Internet is huge, and one way to narrow in on job listings is by going to very specialized sites.

For example, if I want the latest celeb gossip, I don’t always go to a huge news site. I might look at celeb gossip while I’m on a big news site or click on a celeb gossip item of interest, but more times than not, I’ll go to a blog that focuses exclusively on celebrity gossip ’round the clock when I’m really looking for my gossip fix, rather than a site that’s focusing on many different types of news coverage. This way,  I don’t have to sift through all the unrelated stories to zone in on what I want. My celeb gossip blog is dedicated to giving me exactly what I want, when I want it. It’s easy, it’s content-rich (yes, I realize we’re talking about celeb gossip here), and it cuts down on time.

Niche job sites work essentially the same way, as job seekers are going to these sites to connect with employers who are in their field and offering the type of job they are looking for. Niche sites are specific — which is why both job seekers and employers are drawn to them. They enable you to cut down on time sorting through unrelated candidates applying to your jobs, and focus only on those candidates in your specialized market.

CareerBuilder’s Niche Job Sites

CareerBuilder has launched several of its own niche job sites – some of which have been around for a bit (like WorkInRetail.com), and some which are brand new (like MiracleWorkers.com). These niche job sites are all very different as far as the specialized market on which they focus, but they have a common thread: They bring job seekers and employers who are looking for each other together in the online place that caters most to their specialized market needs.

What Can CareerBuilder’s Niche Sites Do For You?

If you’re looking for extra, exclusive exposure to those job seekers in your specialized industry or market, posting your jobs on a niche job site may be the perfect solution for you:

• As an employer, you can post your jobs on any of these sites to get in front of the exact type of candidate you’re looking for, whether that’s a line cook, a contract consultant, an employee fresh out of college, or a physical therapist.
• Our niche sites are a great way to complement the other ways in which you’re currently reaching your target audience; as there isn’t a lot of overlap between CareerBuilder.com’s audience and the audiences on our niche job sites, you’re significantly extending your reach to your particular market.
• Post your jobs directly on your niche site of choice, and enjoy access to a large pool of job seekers serious about the types of jobs you’re listing. It’s like a special interest group for jobs!

Below, I list each of CareerBuilder’s niche sites so you can get a little more familiar with them.

Sologig.com

Sologig.com is a niche CareerBuilder job site that connects your company with consultants, contractors, contract-to-hire, per diems, and other seasoned professionals geared toward the IT/Engineering fields. Sologig is perfect to use when you’re looking for more short-term or part-time help, particularly in IT or Engineering. On average, 62 percent of job seekers classify themselves as IT/Engineering professionals. (Access Sologig.com)

JobsOnTheMenu.com

JobsOnTheMenu.com specializes in corporate, management and hourly restaurant and food service jobs. Job seekers range from experienced servers, to district managers. to those just starting a restaurant career — but all are in the restaurant and food service business. (Access JobsOnTheMenu.com)

CareerRookie.com

CareerRookie.com is dedicated to the complete collegiate solution. This job site connects students and recent graduates seeking internships, part-time jobs and entry-level positions with the employers looking for them.
(Access CareerRookie.com)

WorkInRetail.com

WorkInRetail delivers both hourly and salaried candidates to fulfill your company’s retail hiring needs. Need an hourly sales rep, retail manager, or executive? WorkInRetail’s got you covered. (Access WorkInRetail.com)

MiracleWorkers.com

Miracle Workers, launched in July 2010, is a niche job site connecting health care organizations to qualified nurses, physicians, CNAs, pharmacists, social workers and many other types of health care professionals. (Access MiracleWorkers.com)

Questions about niche job sites or success stories to share?

According to a Personified survey of 250,000 job seekers, nearly 60 percent of job applicants reported they never received a response from the last employer they applied to for a job.

With millions of job seekers applying to hundreds of thousands of jobs every day, it’s increasingly challenging for you, the employer or recruiter, to provide applicants with useful information about your hiring process. In fact, the “black hole” applicants enter once they apply to a job is considered by most to be the biggest challenge in recruitment today.

What are the consequences?

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that this absence of contact and communication leaves job seekers lost, frustrated, and lacking the information they need to manage their job search and career path. They don’t know who they’re up against, how they compare to other applicants or where the hiring process stands.

We’ve talked about this application black hole and the importance of communicating with applicants before, and while personal communication is ideal, it can be very time consuming to respond to candidates individually, particularly when the volume of applicants has increased in light of the recession.

But by not communicating with candidates, you are:

• Tarnishing your employment brand — frustrated candidates will start to think of your company negatively,  and will likely share their frustrations with others.
• Disrespecting candidates and showing them you don’t care about their needs in the application process.
• Making it difficult to maintain engagement with the talent pool into which you’ve invested so much money.

So, what can you do?

It’s apparent that employer/recruiter communication to candidates is very necessary — but often isn’t happening because of time or resource limitations. With this in mind, what can you do to protect your candidate relationships — and your company’s reputation?

Introducing hireINSIDER

hireINSIDER is working to solve the No. 1  issue facing employers and recruiters today: How can I communicate with candidates during the application process, when the time and resources necessary often don’t exist in a tough economy?
CareerBuilder’s new hireINSIDER solution serves both sides of the “black hole” problem by letting candidates know how they stack up against other applicants for a job, while also reducing the burden on you to provide constant, relevant communication to those whom have applied.

By getting an inside peek into the qualifications of other candidates, job seekers are able to better assess if they are a viable candidate for your job and the likelihood of you contacting them.

How?

Currently, hireINSIDER includes four key products, two of which are for candidates, and two of which are for employers.

A quick breakdown:

Job Competition Report –

• This report gives applicants a better understanding of who they are competing with for a job position.
• The report aggregates user-generated information (like education level, years of experience, and average current salaries) from applicants for a particular job listing.

Hiring Status Report —

• In exchange for sharing at which stage they are in the hiring process, job seekers receive an update on how many others in the aggregate applicant pool reported they were contacted by you, interviewed, hired or not contacted at all.
• Candidates can see if an you have made any actions on the job posting and, from there, evaluate his or her chances of getting an interview.

AppView —

• You, the employer or recruiter, can a deeper understanding of the type of talent applying to your open positions with AppView, a report that provides a real-time snapshot of the candidates whom have applied to your open positions.
• Quickly compare applicants (through metrics like current and desired salary, employment status and education level), ensure you are attracting the right candidates and become aware of changes you can make to your live job posting to enhance results.

Branded Job Competition Report –

• Get in front of job applicants with your company’s custom branding while they are using hireINSIDER data to evaluate their chances for a position.
• Job applicants who use hireINSIDER will get the higher-detail premium version of Branded Job Competition Report, wrapped in your customized branding and full of helpful, contextual communication provided by you.
• Let your applicants know what to expect from your hiring process, other roles that may be suitable for their profile, and more.

“hireINSIDER benefits employers who may not have the time or resources to respond to an increasing amount of applications in a tough economy.  By providing the feedback that job seekers need, it helps to alleviate the negative impact that a lack of response can have on a company’s employment brand,” said Brent Rasmussen, President of CareerBuilder North America.

If you want to find out more about how hireINSIDER can help your company manage your application process, call 866-438-1485 or send an e-mail to hireINSIDER@careerbuilder.com.

Leading up to tomorrow’s unemployment report, CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” this morning to discuss regional job market trends based on CareerBuilder.com listings. 

Regional Job Market Trends
Among the highlights of Ferguson’s interview:

• In terms of jobs opening up, there has been a continual, but moderate increase of job postings on CareerBuilder.com, indicating that employers are starting to hire again
• Big cities, like New York and San Francisco, are seeing the most improvement in terms of the number of jobs available
• General positions, such as those in the sales, marketing, healthcare and hospitality, are making the biggest comebacks right now
• The Silicon Valley job market is also tightening up, with IT execs claiming they are having a hard time filling open positions

New Tool to Help Employers
Ferguson also discussed the official launch of hireINSIDER, a new tool from CareerBuilder with benefits for both job seekers and employers. According to the press release:

hireINSIDER also benefits employers who may not have the time or resources to respond to an increasing amount of applications in a tough economy.  By providing the feedback that job seekers need, it helps to alleviate the negative impact that a lack of response can have on a company’s employment brand.  Employers can also utilize hireINSIDER’s technology to gain a better understanding of the demographics of their applicant pool.   

Tomorrow, the BLS releases it’s monthly employment report. Check back here for highlights from the report.

We at CareerBuilder have created this e-book for you, the employer.

• For the small bait and tackle shop owner, as well as the restaurant franchise owner.
• For the small tech firm, as well as the Fortune 500 corporation.

Because while your recruitment needs may be vastly different from every other business, you still do have recruitment needs. And whether you are concerned with getting less application drop-off, building a stronger employment brand, delving into the world of social media, providing more training opportunities for your employees, or a myriad of other challenges, CareerBuilder’s team of experts can help you isolate and tackle the specific areas of concern in your recruitment process and move forward to meet your next challenge with confidence and ease.

Use this e-book to discover our best tips around:

• Recruitment benchmarking
• Talent intelligence
• Compensation strategy
• Employment branding
• Social media recruitment/ social recruiting
• Employee engagement and retention
• Candidate attraction
• Recruitment process optimization
• Employee training
• Succession management
• Employee onboarding
• Interview questions
• …and more!

Download CareerBuilder’s Ultimate Recruitment Guide e-Book, our brand new how-to-hire guide stocked with the latest tips and advice – and designed to address your unique recruitment needs today.

Well, kind of. If you’re imagining a bunch of ladies sitting around spilling their deepest, darkest employee secrets a la “The View,” replace that image with an independent report obtained with survey results from 41 companies and representing a total of 176,000 positions and 1.8 million U.S.-based employees in CareerXroads’ 9th Annual Source of Hire Study.

Still, the study’s findings are pretty interesting — and include survey results about how many companies plan to fill job openings this year,best sources of hire, and information on how companies can use and leverage this sources-of-hire data.

A couple of highlights from the study:

Best sources of hire

• According to survey results, U.S. employers said referrals, career sites and job boards accounted for the majority of their new external hires in 2009 (62.2 percent).
• Career sites and job boards accounted for 35.5 percent of new external hires in the U.S. in 2009.
• CareerBuilder was ranked as the No. 1 source of hire within the job board category at 41.6 percent compared to 11.6 percent for its largest competitor.

Majority report more job openings this year

• As far as job openings, almost half (48 percent) of company respondents say they plan to grow this year, while 37.9 percent of respondents say they will hold steady this year.
• Only 10.8 percent say they will fill fewer openings in 2010.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Although we strive not to self-promote on The Hiring Site, this survey reminded us that some of you who are not customers may not be aware of our T-E-A-M philosophy and the new solutions we’ve recently launched as a response to the changing job market. As we have evolved beyond just a job board, we’ve started offering a suite of human capital solutions like talent consulting, in-depth data analysis and talent flow tracking, niche industry job sites, social media brand management, outplacement services and more. If you want to learn more or get a brush-up on the solutions we’re working on with other customers, you can check them out here.