Image is everything, right? Well, only if you have the rights to use it! The internet has put millions of images at our fingertips that we can copy to our desktops at will, but that doesn’t mean they’re ours.
I once worked for a man who LOVED retro imagery and would clip shots out of old magazines for us to scan in and place in designs. His thought was that if the client liked the concept, THEN we’d hunt down the rights to the work. Thankfully our clients never went in these directions, because as difficult (or impossible) as it would have been to find the source, it would have been ethically and legally our responsibility to do so.
There was a time when we scanned in a road-map as a background image. It was tilted back in perspective and the image was adjusted a bit further by adding pins and flags through an image editing program. Any map would have done the job and there was nothing special about the one we used – to us. But after the piece was printed, the map people noticed it and requested a fee, which we were obliged to pay. The point is that even a simple, non-critical background image that has been changed is still someone else’s image, and you need permission to use it.
Some images are called “rights restricted”, which means you pay to use them a certain way and may need to pay again to use them another way. For example, the perfect image you purchased for your postcard might not be able to be used on your website without additional fees.
Vice versa is true too. You may have had another company design your corporate web-site, but that doesn’t mean that you have the right to use those images whenever and however you’d like. It’s important that you know for certain how the images can be used.
Last time, we learned about getting images in the proper resolution. Now that we know that the image we’re using is both of good quality and OURS to use, what do we do if it’s not quite right? That’s for next time! – j
The world’s largest supplier of commercial airplane assemblies and components, Spirit AeroSystems, was on a mission to go to as many college campuses that offer degrees in aerospace engineering as possible. The schools were identified, the events planned and the schedule set. That my friends, was the easy part. The hard part – deciding on whether to have a give-away item on hand.
Whether it’s a pen, a lint brush, a pack of mints, a magnet, you name it, these items emblazoned with your company’s logo and website can be seen by recruiters as:
A.) A great way to connect with talent and for them to reconnect with you
B.) More junk for me to lug to a job fair
C.) An opportunity to make a memorable experience – first impressions count!
This particular company may have had a mission, but after travel expenses were factored in what they didn’t have was much of a budget. A recent company name change left their supply closet full of dated materials – nothing was handy. So what to do?
The last thing I was going to do was click onto an online catalog, sort by price and give the client back a list of chochkey items that fit the bill for price and quantity. Even with a low to no-budget challenge, I’ve got to make sure that the end result is an A or C solution – we all know junk when we see it and that’s not the impression you want to give.
Reviewing the data we collected on aerospace engineering students we learned a couple of very helpful things about their common personality traits – including that many grew up making lots of model aircraft and rocketry and that they enjoy problem-solving.
Alstin’s solution exemplified the beauty of simplicity. We gave this aerospace company – a company behind some of the coolest stuff in the industry – a paper airplane.
With one 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper we told the story behind the name change, hilighted their key accomplishments and shone more light on the career paths they offered. Along the margins we printed fun instructions on how to fold the sheet into a paper airplane.
The students got a kick out of them, the recruiters had a great (lightweight) tool to bring along to break the ice and in the end the increase in traffic to their website and applications by the soon to graduate beat any effort in the past – all for pennies on the dollar.
Twitter. Sure, I was a bit skeptical the first time I dipped my toes in the Twittersphere. I understood the basic premise-in 140 characters or less announce to the world (or at least your followers) what you’re doing/viewing/contemplating/reading/whatever. Search around for like-minded people, your friends, family, colleagues, clients, etc. and start “tweeting.” I tweeted as more of an experiment. About my blog, my current projects, a question about a work-related puzzle, etc. To my surprise, a bunch of followers came out of the woodwork. Interesting. Some were a bit odd (like the pro-Christian fellow who was tweeting about Pamela Anderson – blocked, no thank you) but others were industry-related (web site designers, fellow ATS gurus, etc.).
More recently, I started to dive right into the Twitterpool, and then I really started to be amazed. For me, the greatest thing about Twitter is it’s applications (or Apps) that have been developed. TweetMyJOBS, TweetDeck, TweetBeep, Twello…it’s the Apps that make Twitter so amazing from a recruiting standpoint.
Any recruiter can start tweeting out his/her jobs on the appropriate channels of TweetMyJOBS (like eQuest just started doing for its customers) and reach Twitterers who have the exact skillset/interest/geolocation that you’re seeking. (Cuts out the job board, I mean middleman, huh?). Jobcircle.com recently announced a Twitter-based recruiting tool for employers. Their “Social Media Recruitment Pack,” provides companies the ability to create a privately branded Twitter job channel, which is an account on Twitter that allows them to tweet open positions to the Twittershpere in real time. Your jobs are wrapped and automatically “tweeted” to the company channel and distributed to over 160 vertical and industry niche job channels (established by JobCircle.com on Twitter as well). One of Jobcircle’s first clients on board with their new product was QVC. QVC was in the discussion stages internally and considered building this Twitter job channel themselves. Once they heard that Jobcircle would have their channel built and functioning in 48 hours, their decision to outsource this task was made. With over 120 followers already retweeting their open positions out into the market, QVC has seen 20-90 more views per job posting. Soon they will have updated SEO data to report and they expect a significant uptick in organic traffic. Pretty amazing.
I signed up (all in the interest of research of course) for a few Twitter job channels related to my skill set/industry. I was amazed that within 3 minutes I reviewed an “On Call Copywriting” job in West Chester, PA and emailed my friend on Facebook about it (a copywriter living in West Chester, PA) and she started chatting with me on FB (she’s a FB-addict like myself). After this all happened within 10 minutes of me viewing the job-tweet, I really started understanding the sheer power Twitter, and social media recruiting, possesses.
I’ve read all the blogs, posts and articles on NYTimes, CNN, etc. about Twitter and the “fad” of tweeting, but until you witness it first hand (or know someone who got a writing gig or publishing deal from their “novella” tweets or a friend who landed a new job from a Tweet) you don’t really grasp the power and (in my opinion) longevity, this type of communicating possesses within the business and recruiting world. Tweeting isn’t a fad, it’s a form of communication, and I’m thinking this could get seriously addictive! Well,…gotta get back to my TweetDeck notifications, it’s been chirping non-stop.
Ready to learn more about the impact social networking has on recruiting? Alstin offers on-site workshops, consultation and customized strategies for implementation with sociability – a full suite of service offerings for when employer marketing meets social networking. Contact us today at blog@alstin.com.
As VP of Client Development for Alstin, I (happily) find myself on the road a lot, talking to clients, prospects, people in the media, etc.- and I attend numerous industry functions each month. In future posts, I’ll let you know where I am and what I’m hearing in the wonderful world of recruiting, but for my first “Where’s Tony?” post, I thought a “state of the union” report might be in order.
Obviously, the last 6-12 months haven’t been fun for anyone in the recruiting industry. I know too many talented, extremely hardworking clients, industry colleagues and friends who have been downsized. This past fall was particularly bad, as it seemed that every time I attended a monthly association meeting, I would learn about another person who had lost their job.
Overall, I find HR people to be an optimistic bunch, but this sure has been a tough stretch. There was a lot of fear and uncertainty, and each day over the fall and winter the media reported (gleefully for some strange, unsavory reason) about a key financial being the worst it had been in decades. (Note to all readers of this blog: My future posts will be much cheerier! I promise!)
So what am I hearing recently? Are things getting any better?
Actually, the answer is yes. A slow, shaky, unsure, it-better-be yes, but a yes.
The stock market is continuing to come back, certain industries are seeing modest rebounds and many of the woeful economic financial indicators are improving. Most importantly however, optimism and confidence seem to be on a cautious rise. Don’t get me wrong, things are nowhere near where they should or need to be, but a lot of the recruiters, search firms, etc, that I’ve talked to over the last two months are definitely starting to see some breaks in the clouds. Recently, I even saw this headline on abcnews.com: “Recession Is Over According to Financial Experts: Leading Economic Indicators, Improving Housing Market Makes Experts Optimistic.”
While I don’t think anyone would say we’re out of the dark, scary woods yet, I think nearly everyone I’ve talked to thinks we’ve hit the bottom, and are beginning to see signs of slow improvement. I just returned from a local SHRM conference and many people told me they believe that because companies are being so overly cautious and fearful to make that first recruiting move, when the recruiting rebound does occur, we’re all going to get really busy in a hurry. I think/hope they’re right.
That’s all for now. Any questions or comments, please respond. We want to hear from you!
Developing great creative isn’t really the hard part. With the right team of writers and designers – and good information to build on – Alstin’s usually got that part in hand. Sure, there’s sweat, and sometimes tears, but the lightbulb usually flickers on and the fun part, the creative process, begins. The tricky part is getting buy-in from the client particularly when the “client” is actually many clients.
The more people involved in reviewing and (gulp) revising the creative, the more the work will suffer. There’s nothing sadder than walking into a conference room to present really great work and watch it die a slow and painful death as it is passed from hand to hand, person to person, around a crowded table. Creative is subjective. Some people like blue, others yellow, that’s just the way it is. We can work with that. Even in a crowded room.
But, what if you had to design to please not a handful, but millions, of people.
Douglas Bowman was the first visual designer hired by Google. This was nearly three years ago and, up until that time, Google, the most-used search engine in the world had, tellingly, been running for more than seven years without a designer on staff. At the time he accepted the position, Mr. Bowman viewed it as a plum opportunity. What designer wouldn’t want to be in a position where his or her work would be seen by literally millions of viewers? But in his three subsequent years at Google something went very wrong.
You can find the details on Mr. Bowman’s personal blog in a post entitled “Goodbye, Google” that outlines the reasons for his departure. It makes for interesting reading on its own, but at its heart you’ll find a challenge that every person in the creative industry and those who turn to us for help are facing in the digital age. How much of digital design is driven by aesthetics and how much is driven by data?
At Google, for instance, Mr. Bowman cites a time when Google conducted online tests of more than 40 shades of blue when the in-house design team couldn’t decide between two blues. That’s millions of viewers, with a click, determining what shade of blue to include in the “design.” Creativity by proxy. Other examples abound.
The moral of the story isn’t simply that one person didn’t like a design atmosphere driven by data, it’s that a world-class designer one who was intimately involved in the process says that design was harmed, not helped, by too much information. Too many opinions.
Design, by definition, is an art. It seems that something is lost if we try to make it a science.
A couple of months ago while heading to the office, I ran into one of my coworkers at the elevator. As I proceeded to turn off my iPod to say “Hi”, her twenty-something eyes took notice. She then said to me with some surprise, “Youhave an iPod?!!”
Honestly, I admit that the rock snob in me questioned the comment first – why wouldn’t I have one? But then it set in a bit – does she think I’m too old for an iPod? What gives? And no – that’s not a picture of me to the right there. I’m 37.
While I know that the remark didn’t mean much of anything, I was reminded of a blog post I stumbled upon several months ago about Brian Ried, an accomplished computer engineer in his 50′s who was told he wasn’t a “cultural fit” (in addition to being called an “old fuddy duddy” and “lethargic” among some other not so-nice things) for the youthful atmosphere of Google. He was ultimately terminated.
I was reminded of this particular post because the average age of a person working in advertising is well … let’s just say it’s under 37. And I was really feeling my age for a moment there.
In addition to highlighting the case, the author also believed that copy in Google’s current job postings was questionable – questionable because Google is in the midst of a major age discrimination case brought on by Ried that’s now headed to the California Supreme Court.
The copy in Google’s job postings reads “We have a preference for those who like to work and play hard.” Is this copy really “code” for: only those of the younger-set need apply? After looking at the inner workings of the case the author felt so.
What do I think? Cultural fit should never be a cover for discriminatory practices whether that’s in the workplace or in messaging used to recruit talent. Not so sure that Google is crossing the line with their job posting copy though – that seems to be a bit of a stretch.
The economic downturn has led to many layoffs and we’re seeing age discrimination cases at record levels. This timely report from the Wall Street Journal has some more to say on the overall subject, what’s your take?
The job market is tough, no need to remind a job seeker of that fact. Check out some of these unique, non-traditional ways the unemployed are getting themselves noticed and getting their resumes circulating. From singing in “Careereoki” to standing on a street corner handing out resumes to dressing up in a gorilla suit to drop off a resume, here are some links to stories that are sure to make you laugh at some of the ways people are trying to get their foot in the door.
Singing for a career makeover: CAREEREOKI! “Nicole Nagy had gone back to school, hoping that a new career would lead to a better job. When she was turned down for financial aid, Nagy was told that she could, as a song goes, “sing for the money.” She was directed to a contest called Careereoki. Anyone brave enough to videotape themselves singing — and sometimes dancing — about their dream career karaoke-style was qualified to enter the competition.”
The Street Corner Resume:
“Joshua Persky, 48, stood on Park Avenue, handing out résumés to passers-by and wearing a sandwich board that said, “Experienced M.I.T. Grad for Hire.” The sign included his name and contact information.”
Tampa Woman Uses Streets Smarts in Job Hunt: “At the break of dawn, she stood at the corner of Humphrey Street and North Dale Mabry Highway and handed out 100 resumes. Her face-to-face style may have paid off. About an hour after she started, she had gotten three bites.”
Some Gimmicks do Backfire!
A couple of highlights:
…A junior marketing professional tried sending his resume to a company hiring manager via homing pigeon, says Cynthia Shapiro, a job-search coach in Chatsworth, Calif. But as far as the job hunter knows, the recruiter wasn’t interested, because the animal never returned….
…Ms. Shapiro says a job hunter in a gorilla suit once dropped off his resume at her office at a construction company. Then, she recalls, he burst into a song describing why he would make a strong candidate. “The receptionist said he couldn’t come in, but he kept running around with balloons and calling my name,” she says. “Everyone thought it was my birthday. The CEO came out. It wasn’t cool.”
Since starting my internship with Alstin Communications in January 2009, I can honestly say that I have not had a bad day while working here. I’m lucky to have this opportunity to work comfortably with people who are willing to help me get a real first-hand look at the advertising world. With no prior ad agency experience, I came in eager to learn, but not knowing exactly what to expect.
Luckily, since I started I’ve been able to bounce around between projects and learn more about Alstin and the business of advertising with each new task. I have been able to use effective methods for researching potential clients to help maintain various sales databases, write entries for the “Client News” section of Alstin’s newsletter “Alstin Answers”, and learn more about how recruitment advertising is growing with new trends in technology. So far, what I have enjoyed most is seeing how technology and social networking are playing bigger roles in the recruitment and retention arena. As a frequent social network user who enjoys keeping pace with technology, I can recognize the direct and immediate impact that these developments have on the current job market. It’s really interesting to learn how practices I’m already pretty familiar with are now being used to benefit more people and companies on a much larger scale.
As of May 17, 2009, I will have my Bachelor’s degree (and my experience and eagerness to learn) from LaSalle University. I am about to enter the job market at possibly its worst since the Great Depression. Knowing this, my internship experience could not be more valuable and I’ve put everything into developing new skill sets that are marketable while I have been here. No matter what I end up doing with the rest of my professional life, I will always be grateful for this opportunity and fondly remember the people at Alstin who have served as a big step in my transition into the professional world.
If Alstin wasn’t so good at retaining employees, we’d be considering Abby for our team. For the recruiters out there that may have an entry level position related to Marketing, PR or Communications, we encourage you to connect with Abby via her LinkedIn profile.
As the daughter of a newspaperman, I view the current state of the newspaper industry with some real sadness. With so many papers facing bankruptcy or shuttering altogether, I can’t imagine a Sunday without The New York Times or what might happen to my beloved paper (and Sunday ritual) if it were sold to Rupert Murdoch and turned into an online-only format.
But as an advertiser and marketer, I’ve got a different perspective. Print may not be the go-to solution it once was that’s for sure, but sales reps from papers, journals and magazines are often telling me that I can (almost) name my own price when working on a media strategy/plan.
About 80% of newspaper revenue comes from advertising, and the Newspaper Association of America expects those sales to drop 9.7% in 2009 to $34.2 billion, after falling 16.5% in 2008.
As newspapers reinvent their business model – as many of you out there have reinvented your recruiting strategy – the market has given me plenty of negotiating power. Wide reaching packages that combine both print (and not necessarily an ad in the classifieds) and online options can be had at a fraction of the old, trusty rate card cost.
So, if the price is right should you go for that great deal? Keep in mind that even with the Internet’s ubiquitous presence in our daily lives, nearly half of all adults read a newspaper every day and spent $10.5 billion last year to do so. But also keep in mind that something on sale doesn’t always equate to a good deal, or the right solution for your needs.
Your AE will help guide you on the right decision. Coming soon to our blog, one of our AEs will profile a client that’s successfully using print as an integral part of the mix for their recruitment plan.
I recently read an article about two New Jersey restaurant employees who created a forum on MySpace and trashed their company, customers and supervisors. They invited other coworkers (who used personal computers/email addresses) to join the forum. Well, you can guess what happened next – the employer discovered the forum.
Although it is not yet clear how the employer found out about the forum, MySpace is a password-protected site. Someone provided the employer access to the negative content.
The identified employees were ultimately fired. Is this fair? If an employee is not at work and is using their personal property to conduct this activity does a company have the right to take disciplinary action against them? The employees are making the case that their managers illegally accessed their online communications. A federal court will now decide who was in the right.
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA), commonly known as the “wiretap law,” allows employers to monitor employee conversations if the monitoring occurs in the ordinary course of business or with the employees’ implied consent. Some states also protect employees for their “off-duty” behaviors, but statutes specifically for instances related to social networking or blogging are not on the books yet.
With this particular case, the federal court will soon decide:
Are negative Internet postings about employers by employees grounds for discipline or termination?
Do password-only postings have special privacy protections that preclude any type of discipline by employers?
Can employers establish policies about employee expression and attitude that extend to Web postings?
No matter what the court decides employers are going to have a difficult time controlling the Internet content posted by employees. Once something is posted it’s viral – spreading like wildfire, especially when it is something that’s potentially controversial.
My advice is to frequently monitor the Internet to see what is being said about your particular company. Warren Buffet once said it takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. Make that one minute on the Internet.
We’ll continue to follow this landmark court case and keep you updated on the outcome.
Research by Gartner reports that more than 25% of the content that workers view each day will be dominated by pictures, video or audio by 2013.
Sound futuristic? It’s just four years away.
Embracing the popularity and power of new media is about more than throwing together a video and posting it on YouTube. It’s thinking about who you’re targeting, the message you want to get across, the idea that will deliver that message in the most memorable way, and which sites (your Career site may or may not be part of the mix) will get you the traffic you want.
It may seem like a lot to wrap your head around. But by collaborating with some of the best multimedia minds out there, creating talked-about audio and video is as simple, affordable – and dare we say fun? – as it is smart.
Alstin Communication’s exclusive innerviews solution makes it easy and affordable to add multimedia to your message. From script ideas and production to final editing and content delivery options, innerviews gives you an essential tool to introduce your organization’s true “self” to a world of curious potential applicants.
Alstin is partnering with Peter Kuhn Creative Visuals (PKCV), an award-winning media development house, and we wanted to bring you a bit more about his company’s shared philosophy for creating talked-about multimedia solutions for recruitment and retention. Q&A with Peter Kuhn
AC:What excites you most about what’s going on with the web? PK: It’s the growth potential and the unbelievable traffic flow you can get with something when you take it viral. PKCV has a project right now with a big name company – a training video. How many people line up to see a training video? We built a trailer for it, put it up on YouTube, and emailed it out to certain people in their industry – the increased traffic on the client’s website was completely unpredictable. Usually, people gloss over training and HR pieces, but the client has people calling their rep and saying, “We’ve got to get a copy of this training video.” And the thing wasn’t even done yet!
AC: What’s the key to all the great new media development you’ve done? PK: We pre-interview. There are preconceived notions about any job in any industry, and breaking stereotypes requires talking to a lot of people before we even get started filming or recording. On a typical shoot, we might interview two or three dozen people, but it’s quite possible only half will make the final cut. We choose the interviews with the answers that have the most heart.
AC: How does brainstorming for a script begin? PK: Once the project is greenlighted, we sit down with the client and really get to understand them, their environment and their opportunities. By getting to know them and getting familiar with what they do and where they do it, we determine what they want to highlight and what we want to show. I get to meet a lot of great, diverse people. From presidents of Fortune 500 companies to somebody just starting out on the job, everyone has a story to tell and if you listen to them, there’s a real strong chance you’re going to learn something.
AC: Which of your services are you seeing the most demand for right now? PK: The market is definitely trending toward online. The old web video/camcorder standard has changed. The web is a viable channel of distribution and right now, it’s about where it’s going, taking viral and the web more seriously from a business standpoint, and putting a quality product out there. Videos on homepages, personalized messages, what’s new and great – we’re seeing a lot of that now. What’s going to make a better impression: something flat and static, or a face-to-face, personalized look at the opportunity and the organization that candidates check out from the comfort of wherever they are?
Learn more about Alstin’s innerviews (cost-effective and results-driven) solution by emailing us today: blog@alstin.com.
I have a longish commute. It starts at around 7 a.m. with one two year old and several bags of miscellany in tow. I catch the 7:35 (OK, OK it’s usually the 7:50 … and sometimes the 8:20) train into the city – a trip that’s an hour and five minutes. Nine times out of 10, I am at my desk by nine. I do sometimes bring work-related tasks along for the ride, but if it’s between a spreadsheet, a good book or even (yes!) a nap, the latter options will always win out.
As Alstin winds down on the lease for our current office space, our team has started to give some thought to telecommuting. I’ve often wondered how much more productive I could be starting my day at 7:35ish from a home office.
According to WorldatWork, nearly 29 million Americans now work remotely. Their Telework Trendlines 2009 report based on data collected by The Dieringer Research Group found:
· Many workers not currently telecommuting think some of their job tasks might be suitable for remote work
· The most common locations for remote work are home, car and a customer’s place of business
· Occasional telecommuting is on the rise
Will there someday be a virtual Alstin?
The flexibility to work from anywhere simply put sounds great – great for overhead and great for attracting and retaining our talent. However, I am talking about “the a-team” here. What happens when you farm a great team out to a different playing field?
Does your company offer telecommuting as an option for select positions? Are you one of the 29 million Americans working remotely? Do you wish you were?
Give us your take on this topic and we’ll come back around to update you on how Alstin is evaluating and assessing the possibilities of telecommuting.
How will the passage of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 affect the job market now and in the future? Billions in appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy and science, extended unemployment insurance, monies for state and local governments have been allocated. But will it work and where is the money going?
I found a fun place to keep track! While you can go to the fluffy government website recovery.gov and not find much of anything with detail, see what’s proposed for stimulus money in your community and the estimated number of jobs each project will create at stimuluswatch.org instead.
This watchdog group was built “to help the new administration keep its pledge to invest stimulus money smartly, and to hold public officials to account for the taxpayer money they spend.” Visitors to the site are encouraged to search for and view the proposed projects, vote on whether you think they are critical or not and post comments about each project. (Note: These projects are not actually in the stimulus bill, but are candidates for funding by federal grant programs once the bill passes.)
This is a great outlet for adding your two cents, that is, if you have two cents to spare and see what this money could be used for in your area.
Next year I’ll be closing in on (gulp) twenty years at Alstin. I remember when, as a fresh-faced Account Coordinator trying to learn as much about recruiting as quickly as I could, I was told that referrals were the most cost-effective way of recruiting the best people.
Twenty years later the mighty Employee Referral Program is still at the top-and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a booming economy or a deep recession; a burning need for high volume openings or trying to find that needle in a haystack, nothing beats ERPs-and nearly every recruiting study will tell you the same thing. I’ve found time and again that ERPs are good for employee engagement, morale, retention and can turn your whole team into recruiters. Plus, when you think of all the different ways you spend money to recruit (outside recruiters, tuition reimbursement, sign-on bonuses, even your favorite ad agency!), what better way is there than giving those dollars to your own employees?
Of course, that doesn’t mean ERPs haven’t evolved. Here’s just a few ways I’ve watched them change:
Proactive – 15 years ago many companies would set up a referral program, put their posters in the lunchroom, and cross their fingers. Not anymore. Knowing the power and effectiveness of ERPs, the push for referrals often comes from CEOs and top leadership. At many companies, specific managers, divisions and departments are expected to deliver a certain number of referrals per quarter.
Serious – Some companies used to treat an ERP like a casual, supplemental offshoot of recruiting, a way to reach candidates they weren’t hitting through newspaper ads and job fairs. No more. In this lean, mean, metrics-driven economy, organizations are putting their energy into only what works, and because they have a great ROI, referrals are often at the top of the list.
Smarter – One of the things we focus on at Alstin is helping companies encourage solid, qualified referrals and discouraging the unqualified referrals that waste everyone’s time. It all starts with being very precise about the terms of the ERP (who is eligible, who isn’t, the terms of the program, what qualifications must the person have to be considered a qualified referral, etc.)
Easier – The use of email, emarketing and Talent Acquisition Systems that handle referrals has drastically cut down (and in some cases eliminated) the paper administrative burden that was once tied to ERPs.
I’m always pleased when I hear that one of our clients is moving forward with an ERP project because I know that they’re going to see a good return, reach a different, higher-qualified audience and get measurable results.
Meet the recruitment advertising agency team that can help you get it done! Alstin Communications is an employer branding firm with an impressive array of CEA, NAA and Philly Gold awards. More than 300 local and national clients turn to us for strategies, communications and results. […]
Alstin Communications’ portfolio of creative work, including employer branding, ERPs, ecards, direct mail, social networking, SEM campaigns and more. Our interactive and print-based communications get companies in front of the candidates they seek. Recruitment advertising with “the power of done.” […]
Recruitment advertising meets employer branding. Alstin is an award-winning full service recruitment advertising and employer marketing agency with more than 300 local and national clients in all industries. See some of them here! […]
Employer branding is about being the first choice. Differentiating your organization is what will make you memorable, create positive perceptions, and sustain favorable familiarity. With Alstin Communications, the award-winning recruitment advertising agency, recruitment advertising means empowered hiring. […]
Alstin Communications is a recruitment advertising agency focusing on employer branding located in Philadelphia, PA. Need smaHRter recruitment advertising? Alstin serves more than 300 local and national clients. Contact us today at 215.568.3200 or email us at powerofdone@alstin.com […]
Image is everything, right? Well, only if you have the rights to use it! The internet has put millions of images at our fingertips that we can copy to our desktops at will, but that doesn’t mean they’re ours.
The world’s largest supplier of commercial airplane assemblies and components, Spirit AeroSystems, was on a mission to go to as many college campuses that offer degrees in aerospace engineering as possible. The schools were identified, the events planned and the schedule set. That my friends, was the easy part. The hard part – deciding on whether to have a give-away item on hand.
Twitter. Sure, I was a bit skeptical the first time I dipped my toes in the Twittersphere. I understood the basic premise-in 140 characters or less announce to the world (or at least your followers) what you’re doing/viewing/contemplating/reading/whatever. Search around for like-minded people, your friends, family, colleagues, clients, etc. and start “tweeting.” I tweeted as more of an experiment. About my blog, my current projects, a question about a work-related puzzle, etc. To my surprise, a bunch of followers came out of the woodwork. Interesting. Some were a bit odd (like the pro-Christian fellow who was tweeting about Pamela Anderson – blocked, no thank you) but others were industry-related (web site designers, fellow ATS gurus, etc.).
As VP of Client Development for Alstin, I (happily) find myself on the road a lot, talking to clients, prospects, people in the media, etc.- and I attend numerous industry functions each month. In future posts, I’ll let you know where I am and what I’m hearing in the wonderful world of recruiting, but for my first “Where’s Tony?” post, I thought a “state of the union” report might be in order.
The more people involved in reviewing and (gulp) revising the creative, the more the work will suffer. There’s nothing sadder than walking into a conference room to present really great work and watch it die a slow and painful death as it is passed from hand to hand, person to person, around a crowded table. Creative is subjective. Some people like blue, others yellow, that’s just the way it is. We can work with that. Even in a crowded room.
Honestly, I admit that the rock snob in me questioned the comment first – why wouldn’t I have one? But then it set in a bit – does she think I’m too old for an iPod? What gives? And no – that’s not a picture of me to the right there. I’m 37.
The job market is tough, no need to remind a job seeker of that fact. Check out some of these unique, non-traditional ways the unemployed are getting themselves noticed and getting their resumes circulating. From singing in “Careereoki” to standing on a street corner handing out resumes to dressing up in a gorilla suit to drop off a resume, here are some links to stories that are sure to make you laugh at some of the ways people are trying to get their foot in the door.
Since starting my internship with Alstin Communications in January 2009, I can honestly say that I have not had a bad day while working here. I’m lucky to have this opportunity to work comfortably with people who are willing to help me get a real first-hand look at the advertising world. With no prior ad agency experience, I came in eager to learn, but not knowing exactly what to expect.
As newspapers reinvent their business model – as many of you out there have reinvented your recruiting strategy – the market has given me plenty of negotiating power. Wide reaching packages that combine both print (and not necessarily an ad in the classifieds) and online options can be had at a fraction of the old, trusty rate card cost.
I recently read an article about two New Jersey restaurant employees who created a forum on MySpace and trashed their company, customers and supervisors. They invited other coworkers (who used personal computers/email addresses) to join the forum. Well, you can guess what happened next – the employer discovered the forum.
As Alstin winds down on the lease for our current office space, our team has started to give some thought to telecommuting. I’ve often wondered how much more productive I could be starting my day at 7:35ish from a home office.
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