Back to regular blogging — Blogging and the Staffing Industry
Alright, I think I’m back for good. Thank you so much for those who have sent well-wishes via e-mail over the last couple of months, and condolences over the last couple of weeks. The memorial can be found at http://lisaamorao.net/al.
I haven’t blogged much in the last couple of months but from the amount of offline chatter about this blog it doesn’t seem like I had a Blog Sabbatical at all. It seems, for reasons I still don’t understand, I have infuriated some people. Please excuse me while I do another housekeeping post.
This is my personal blog, not my employer’s blog. I blog on my own time, on my own computer. I pay for my own hosting. Please see the disclaimer. What I say here should not be attributed to ATR. As a matter of fact, my employer does NOT always agree with what I write here. I consider myself to be extremely fortunate that my employer recognizes my right to my own opinions and sees the value in having their staff openly converse about the industry — within reason, of course.
The technology industry, which most of us in the staffing industry serve, has embraced social media. So many staffing firms claim that they understand the evolving tech culture yet many still do not “get” the social web.
Case in point. It seems a bunch of folks do not agree with what I write here, but they have not posted a comment at all. Some write to me over e-mail, but it seems there are also those who talk about my blog in conference rooms. I blush at the thought, but it doesn’t accomplish anything. You can disagree with me and engage in a conversation under the comments so that the rest of the web community can be enlightened by it. Or…you can talk about it with 10 other people in a conference room. I don’t see anyone benefiting from the latter.
Also, please do not send me hate mail because my blog happens to come up higher in Google search results when people search for your company, instead of your corporate website. Google wrote the search algorithms. I’m just a humble blogger.
On Blogging
Ok, so your staffing firm has a blog. Great! But is it really a blog? Just because you have it on Blogspot or Wordpress and have an RSS feed doesn’t mean it is a blog in the social media sense. A good blog provides ideas and opinions that are up for debate and conversations. It is not the place to put your job listings or worse, tell people how great you are. Sure, you CAN do that on a blog and I know a lot of bloggers who do just that…but you’ll lose your readers quickly.
One thing that really irritates me is that the #1 Google search result for keywords “staffing blog” is this: http://www.insourcesolutions.com/blog/ or this: http://www.frontlinesourcegroup.com/fsg_blog.htm
Yes, it’s on a blogging platform, but it provides very little conversation value. This is not to slam Insource Solutions or Frontline Source Group, but I think Insource Solutions should take advantage of that highly coveted top Google ranking by conversing not just about how good they are and about their job openings, but by recommending best practices within the industry or by talking about trends beyond “we’re seeing more jobs now.” Again, not to slam, since Insource Solutions is the flagship “staffing blog” at least through the eyes of Google, I really would like to see it become more valuable.
Ok. Now on to the good stuff. I think Spherion has a great-looking career blog. The Big Time is content-rich on a variety of topics that are geared towards the job seeker. Unfortunately, it seems to rank low on search results. From a quick web analytics perspective, it’s because there’s a ton of career blogs out there with more inlinks and better authority ranking than The Big Time. I’m adding them to my blogroll…I doubt my two links will help push it up, but I like the blog, so I’ll do what I can.
On a separate note, I am not a big fan of the Temp Life, also by Spherion. Specific comments are for another post, but I can really see a concerted effort to dive into social media. I will make sure to follow Spherion.
Do you have a favorite staffing blog? Are you trying to start one of your own or for your agency? I’m trying to build a blogroll. Please let me know, I’d like to follow and converse.
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A quick thought
I use a ton of software and beta test a ton more. It’s a little hobby of mine. Apparently, I’m really good at breaking things.
As an early adopter I’ve seen a lot of models in how a particular application is paid for, whether they be a one-time fee as in the case of boxed software, licenses, subscriptions, to the Web2.0-ish ad-supported models. Don’t even get me started about open source.
So the question nags, so please feel free to educate me on this and at the same time excuse the ignorance as necessary - but I’m hard pressed to think of any other application where the end user is NOT the one paying for the use of the app, in one form or another.
Just a thought.
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The VMS Workgroup…
Here’s a bit of a draft that I had going….
I’m still playing around with the content management system that I hope everyone can find easy to use, so that everyone can participate.
But please read through what I have now, please add to it by leaving a comment below, or you can e-mail me.
Mission
To create a set of evolving standards through dialog.
The need:
There is little conversation going on about the issues surrounding VMS. There are tons of information online, but most are sales and marketing literature from the individual providers, offering very little insight to clients and suppliers. Then something like Chimes filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy comes along and next thing we know that’s all there is to the staffing industry.
The dialog can be a valuable industry resource.
Selling staffing services is tough enough, it can definitely do without stories like Chimes.
While we do recognize that there are more formal organizations out there who have published their own best practices, there is still a need for a less formal venue for discussion:
- Lower cost of entry, more participants
- Open discussions will allow us to bring up and address items a lot quicker than a committee would.
- Information is useful only if it is accessible. Information is useless if nobody knows it exists or if it is locked away in a pdf somewhere.
Participants:
We’d like to see all VMS stakeholders participate: staffing suppliers, VMS providers, MSP providers, end clients, and that includes the contingent staffing population.
Rules:
- This workgroup is for the legitimate discussion of issues. Please do your selling in your respective websites. I can list the participants and the logos of your companies, but let’s try our best to avoid our selling tone.
- On points that you do not agree with, I urge everyone to discuss in a professional manner.
- Unprofessional and foul language will not be tolerated.
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Blogging Direction
<thinking>As 2007 ends I find myself thinking about this blog and where I want it to go.
It will always be a blog about contingent staffing and will always be written from that perspective for as long as I’m in the industry.I know I can always write about recruiting and the clients’ needs and how to deliver just that, and while this is valuable in itself, it’s just another voice for the reader seeking information to sort through.
What exactly do I want to provide? It’s not about being unique or different, it’s about trying to zero in on the information that the market is looking for. Based on my analysis of traffic and referrals to this blog, it seems there is much interest on VMS.
So. While it isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I started this blog, I’m going to take it that direction. This is what social media is about. It’s not about me telling you what I think you should know, it’s about YOU telling ME what you’d like for me to discuss.
No, this will not be a VMS blog. VMS is just a technology piece in the staffing industry, and in my opinion, there will be more technology pieces emerging that will need to be discussed. I’m experimenting with a lot of these new applications myself so expect to read a lot more about my observations and the issues — good and bad — that I run into. If you have experience with them yourself, please share your feedback as well.</thinking>
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A word on swag
It’s that time of the year for swag.
Being from the marketing side I hear the requests and suggestions for promotional items from sales who want to use the holidays as an excuse to drop by their clients and prospects and “leave something behind.”
I was in sales in my not too distant past and I could never have enough of these giveaways. It gave me an excuse to see people, and even those who normally don’t grant me an appointment all of a would let me come by and give them a present.
But now that I look at it from the marketing point of view, I don’t think swag is such a good idea. I believe there is a time and occasion for giveaways, but relying on promotional items to sell staffing actually hurts more than it helps.
1) One of the main things that hurt staffing firms today is that contingent labor is becoming more and more of a commodity. The process of bringing 30 people to work for company XYZ is not that much different from ordering reams of printing paper. We try to drive home the message that this is not the best approach, but yet we reinforce staffing as a commodity by sticking our logos on dime-a-dozen items like pens and calendars and mugs and other little items that offer absolutely no value to the recipient. Sure, your client sees your logo, and ok, maybe that item will remind the client of your company. But a client knowing what your logo looks like doesn’t necessarily equate to the client seeing the value of your services.
2) If you feel like you need to give your client a promotional item just to get them to see you, you haven’t demonstrated to that client or prospect exactly what value you have to offer. I think it’s nice to have something to leave behind. But if the main reason for the meeting itself is just to drop off a present, I’m not sure how effective that would be in getting not only that prospect’s attention but more importantly, his or her recognition of your brand’s value.
But that’s just me. If you’re a client on the receiving end or a hiring manager, how many times have you chosen a staffing firm to work with because they gave you a promotional item? Or how many times have you found yourself with a staffing need and thought of the staffing rep who gave you that mug last Christmas?
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A word on my blog
I’ve received a few comments and quite a bit of e-mails about the VMS series. Quite a few readers have pointed out that I have wrong or misleading information and a few have said I shouldn’t be writing about it because I really don’t know what I’m talking about.
I’m not writing as an expert but as someone who want to facilitate a discussion, which is clearly happening, based on the amount of e-mails and phone calls I’ve received about my VMS posts.
- So a few housekeeping notes here about my blog.
- This is my personal blog. I work for a staffing firm, but as it says on my sidebar, what I say here is my personal opinion and not that of my employer. I am writing from the point of view of someone who has about 10 years of experience in the contingent staffing industry. That experience pales in comparison to those with 20-30 years of experience. I have a lot to learn and I’m using my blog to give people a platform in which they can converse with me, and in effect, educate me. My blog is my listening tool.
- Now that I’ve explained the “personal” label…yes. Of course. It benefits my employer, albeit indirectly. But this is not my employer’s propaganda outlet. None of the stuff I say here is pre-approved by anyone. This blog is not even hosted on any of our servers. So how does it benefit my employer? I’m in marketing. To do my job effectively, I have to continuously educate myself. I have to listen to conversations. I have to keep tabs on the industry. I have to know what the industry is doing. This is my listening tool. Please see #1. Some of us go to conferences, some read trade publications, some attend webinars. Me? I blog.
- Also, I just happen to love blogging. I have another blog where I write about almost anything, and I started this as my career blog. What’s a career blog? Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst at Forrester, talks about it here, and I wrote a post about it here. Someone commented to me over e-mail that this blog could very well benefit my employer. I’d like to think so, because I do aspire to be a value to my organization. I write knowing that my personal brand affects my employer’s brand. But other than that, this is NOT part of my employer’s marketing arsenal.
- In addition to my blog being my listening tool, this is also my public notebook. I’m a big believer in the power of collaboration. It’s the Web2.0 way. I post my thoughts and people weigh in. I ask questions and people respond with their opinions or sometimes they will point me to a certain direction. Sometimes they will point out certain things I haven’t really thought about. It’s just like going to the library. I’m not going to try to read all the books they have available on a subject, but I will ask for help. I will ask for the librarian’s help, I will ask other people in the aisle which books they recommend. Those recommendations mean more to me than the database search results. So in addition to my blog as a listening tool, my blog is also my research tool.
- And a few housekeeping notes about the VMS series:
- I work for a contingent staffing supplier and my experience with VMS comes from that perspective. I’ve recruited for VMS accounts in the past. Some were great experiences. Some were horror stories. My intent is to highlight what made the first group great experiences, and highlight the reasons why the second group were horror stories. The end result, hopefully, would be that we’d work with more with accounts from the first group, and hopefully those who stumble upon my horror stories will avoid those mistakes.
- There are those that said since I work for a staffing supplier, that I must be anti-VMS and that my ultimate goal is to discourage prospects from using VMS. I recognize that VMS will be around. There are a myriad of reasons why companies implement VMS. Theoretically a product or service will not exist in a free market if there was no real value for it. But any solution is only as good as the way it is implemented. A few have pointed that out that it’s quite a lofty goal to aspire for some sort of VMS best practices that will benefit all parties – clients, MSP, VMS, suppliers, HR, purchasing, hiring managers and contingent staff – and a few have said it’s not going to happen. That may be true, that it’s too much to aspire for, but the conversations that result from the postings whether they be on my comments section or via e-mail, are priceless.
- A few have pointed that out that someone’s gotta be paying for my blog to come so high up on Google’s search results. I’d like to take that as a compliment to my SEO skills, but the real reason behind it is that there isn’t much information about VMS on the Internet. There are plenty of whitepapers and there are plenty of corporate sites that talk about it, but it isn’t addressed much in the Blogosphere and Google’s algorithms tend to have a preference for blogs due to their high trust ranking. But no, there is no advertising at all to drive traffic to this blog.
To summarize all of the above, this blog is my conversation tool. I’m glad you’ve found my blog and I’m grateful to those who have weighed in and pointed things out to me and to those of you who have taken the time to e-mail and call me. That right there, is this blog’s main goal.
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Reading…
I’m trying to build up my blogroll but for now I’d like to share some of the links that I’ve tagged in the last several weeks. I’m going to try to post reading links at least once a week and since this is the first, I apologize if some are a little dated.
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Redesigning
If you happen to come here Labor Day weekend, you’ll probably notice that the Wordpress theme has been changing. I’m redesigning for maximum functionality and for ease of use. Information is no good if you can’t find it, I always say.
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Blogging Dilemma
As you know I have been maintaining another blog, Just Another Digerati Wannabe and I have been talking about recruiting and contract staffing there too but more on the social media aspect. I’m still struggling whether I should be maintaining two separate blogs. I really want to keep this one specifically for staffing. We shall see, I guess.
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The Way of the Blog
Maybe something was wrong with Google the first time I was searching for other contingent-staffing specific blogs…because as it turns out, there’s a lot of them. But then maybe it’s not Google’s fault that I can’t find them either. It seems it’s just the way recruiting blogs are set up that’s making it difficult to find them.
I’ve always known of ERE, but I’ve always thought they were more for internal/contract recruiters or for direct placement agency firms. They have their own recruiter blogosphere populated by various people from the recruiting industry. Now, given the recruiting industry is huge (are we talking recruiters, direct placement, contingent staffing firms?) to lump all the recruiting bloggers doesn’t make sense.
Please don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great resource and it’s huge. I just think there would be more active conversations if more recruiters blogged as individuals instead of as a part of a branded recruiting blogosphere.
Again. That’s cool. But in the true sense of blogging, I’m not sure this is the way to go.
The posts look really interesting and definitely worth a lot of discussion, however the site and the individual blogs are not set up to encourage the “conversation.” First, it requires you to register at the site just to comment. Now I know our industry is really paranoid about bad things being said about us, but if they’re not being said in the staffing blogs (and they are being said…just not as apparent as they are in Technorati or other authorities) they are being said elsewhere and not being addressed.
Also as a narcissistic blogger, I don’t like it that when one clicks on my name (on the comments section), that it doesn’t take the user to my blog, where I might be saying more things. One must understand that bloggers bother commenting not only because they are passionate about what you have written, but also because they want to promote their own. It’s a way to drive traffic to their own sites. It’s The Way of the Blog.
And because ERE is such a closed system, it limits the individual bloggers from harnessing the full power of blogging. ERE bloggers already seem to have decent Technorati Authority figures just from linkage with each other. That’s the other observation I have. The ERE bloggers are blogrolling each other. Which is cool and all… I mean…it isn’t against Blogging Law to blogroll your own network but you would get more incoming links if you were also open to linking others outside of your network. Imagine how much higher that Technorati Authority number would be if there were external linking activity as well.
I’m definitely not in a position to make any marketing recommendations to ERE here as my Technorati Authority is kind of in the dumps (my Technorati Authority is 1 and my Technorati rank is in the millions…). My goal is not to criticize any blogs but to just put in my two cents because I really want to get the conversation on contingent staffing rolling.
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About This Blog
Lisa Amorao is currently the Marketing Programs Manager for ATR International, a Silicon Valley-based contingent staffing firm.
Lisa has held roles in recruiting and sales before moving on to her current role in Marketing.
The opinions expressed here are her personal opinions and does not reflect those of her employer or any of its clients.
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