Louise's UK Recruiter Blog

Hitwise Social Networking Update

I know this isn't recruitment specific but I still thought it might be of interst.  I got some stats through from Hitwise the other day about the top 10 websites in the UK ranked by market share of page views in September 2009.

They are

Facebook 14.5%
Google UK 5.8%
eBay UK 5.5%
YouTube 2.5%
Windows Live Mail 1.9%
Gmail 1.7%
Bebo 1.5%
Yahoo! UK & Ireland Mail 1.1%
Google 0.9%
Google UK Image Search 0.9%

In September Facebook was actually the second most visited website in the UK after Google UK (www.google.co.uk), but because users view a much larger number of pages per visit, Facebook was the clear leader in terms of page views. UK Internet visits to Facebook increased by 86.1% between September 2008 and September 2009, and have more than doubled over the last 14 months. During September, Facebook accounted for almost half (49.2%) of all UK internet visits to a social networking website.

Networking and National Online Recruitment Awards

Last Thursday we ran a recruiters networking event which also hosted the annual National Online Recruitment Awards (NORAs).

There was a superb turnout on the night with nearly 250 recruitment industry professionals in attendance.

Our sponsors were TheLadders and Astoria Rec2Rec - joined by a great line-up of awards sponsors from 1job.

After a spot of general networking and drinking activity (with the sponsors enjoying the VIP room with the "interesting" smoked salmon served in hot dog rolls!) we had a few sessions of speed networking organised by Natalie Campbell.  Then it was onto the awards. 

Stephen O'Donnell was the compere for the night and he entered the stage to the theme from Kill Bill (it was fairly dramatic and all that was required was a bit of dry ice to finish the scene perfectly). Each award was presented by the relevant category sponsor and the winners were:

BEST GENERALIST JOB BOARD: http://www.jobsite.co.uk
BEST SPECIALIST (NICHE) JOB BOARD: http://www.retailchoice.com
BEST REGIONAL JOB BOARD: http://www.key103jobs.co.uk/
BEST NATIONAL RECRUITMENT AGENCY WEBSITE: http://www.rhr.co.uk
BEST SMALL RECRUITMENT AGENCY WEBSITE: http://www.mccarthyrecruitment.com/
BEST NATIONAL EMPLOYER’S WEBSITE: http://www.armyjobs.mod.uk
BEST SMALL EMPLOYER’S WEBSITE: http://join.gcsltd.com
BEST ONLINE RECRUITMENT BY A CONSUMER PUBLICATION: http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/
BEST ONLINE RECRUITMENT BY A TRADE PUBLICATION: http://www.drapersjobs.com/
BEST EMPLOYMENT ADVICE WEBSITE: http://www.careerplayer.com
BEST NEWCOMER IN ONLINE RECRUITMENT: http://www.careerplayer.com
BEST INNOVATION IN ONLINE RECRUITMENT: http://www.twitterjobsearch.com
 
Representatives of all the winners (expect one which I won't mention as I understand he was meant to be there!) were there to collect their awards.  There was some disappointment that the chap from The Army wasn't in uniform - but you can't have everything.  We'll have photos of all the winners receiving their awards available in the next day or so.  I managed to get myself up on stage by pulling the business card for the bottle of champagne given away by Perms Connect.
 
After the awards it was back to the networking with the winners receiving congratulations and buying celebrationary rounds of drinks. 
 
It was a great night and as usual a pleasure to work with Stephen and his team from 1job.  If you want to follow Twitter chatter about the event you should use the hashtag #NORAs and you can follow http://twitter.com/TheNORAs
 
Details of 2010's events will be coming soon!

APSCo Charity Ball

If you like a good party and the opportunity to do your bit for charity you should be attending the APSCo Venetian Masquerade Charity Ball on Friday 27th November.  The ball is in aid of Childline and in previous years they have raised a very significant amount of money for the charity.

Last year's event had a "lost in space" theme and raised over £70,000.

It's a very popular event and one which is a testament to our indsutry.  If you want more inforamtion (and to see phtoso from last year's event) visit the APSCo website.

The Agency Central Employment Index

With an online presence since 1999, Agency Central was built with the recruitment agency model in mind – allowing Employers & Candidates to find Recruitment Agencies under the detailed roles an agency is able to recruit for; selecting an agency based on skill specialisation or geographic location.  Interestingly, in a market where the use of agencies is apparently declining, their figures show that the company has seen a 34% like for like increase in unique visitors when comparing 2007 to the last 12 months, with 4.51 m visitors between October 2008 and October 2009.
Figures for September 2009 show a 24% upturn in Employer Requirements when compared with February 2009.  The findings are produced via Agency Central's new Employment Index, which effectively “takes the pulse” of the job market by gathering data from a range of employment sources.

This index is based on statistics, (specifically relating to the Recruitment Agency Marketplace), compiled from the companies using the website and tracks the employment market activity across a variety of variables.  The index shows a steady improvement in employers’ usage of Recruitment Agencies since February 2009. 

Agency Central plan to make these figures available on a monthly basis via the UK Recruiter community.

For more information about Agency Central or this data contact stuart@agencycentral.co.uk

Networking - 5th November

We are just a few weeks away from our next networking event so thought I ought to do a quick update.  This event combines our standard networking with the newly introduced speed networking session that was so popular last time - as well as hosting the National Online Recruitment Awards run by alljobsuk. 
 
Our sponsors for the event are TheLadders who specialise in vacancies in the £50,000 + salary range.  They'll be there on the night helping us man the door!
 
If you've not registered to attend yet you need to do so before the end of play on the 2nd November. If you don't register then we can't guarantee entry on the night (and we'll be charging a fee for you to get in).  You can find out more about the event and our sponsors on the registration page.