November 2002 Column

HALEY MARKETING 

I was reading my recent copy of Network News, the Top Echelon network newsletter, and noticed an excellent article on building client relationships by David Searns of Haley Marketing. Thinking client relationships is what it is all about right now I decided to give them a ring and see if any of their services would be appropriate for the Fordyce readers. I am glad I did as they do have at least one very slick service available to the recruiter community. 

Haley Marketing designs unique, custom marketing programs to help businesses in competitive markets clearly stand apart from the competition, stay top-of-mind with decision makers, and nurture life-long customer relationships. They specialize in relationship marketing programs for the staffing and recruiting industries. 

For this column I will write about one of their flagship products, HaleyMail, a permission email marketing service that beats out the competition for sure. It is a web-based service for building relationships with both candidates and clients. It allows you to easily keep in touch with the people important to your business, add value to your service and get the results you want. 

HaleyMail is a fee-based service whereby you log into the site with a user name and password and create an email message, manage your list or anything else you need to do. You have two databases. One is for your candidates and the other for your clients. It is up to you to enter the names and email address of whomever you would like to send emails to as they do not create the mailing lists for you but simply manage them. So...your first step in using the service would be to create the mailing list you want to get started on. Let’s say you have a list of a couple of hundred candidates you would like to keep in touch with. Hopefully, it is in some type of database already...maybe an Excel spreadsheet or Access that you can upload to the server.  

Once your list(s) are created you can begin the process to develop your e-mail marketing.  Custom content, written specifically for our industry, is provided on a monthly basis as part of this service.  

When you first get started with HaleyMail, you have to pick a “theme” for your marketing. There are currently four themes...each containing a suite of articles or “content” specific to your target audience. In addition to these themes, Haley Marketing can custom tailor a campaign with content for most industry niches using a 3rd party database of more than 10 million articles. 

As for the themes, the first is called “Simple Move”, and it is designed to sell the strategic value of staffing. “Lifesavers” is designed to sell to the order placer level with the idea that the right staffing firm makes life easier. “Great Ideas” promotes the value of staffing as a means to improve performance. And finally, “Technical Staffing Solutions” is designed for IT and engineering staffing firms. 

Each month, Haley Marketing provides new content for each of the themes.  However, if you should happen not to like a particular article, each theme has a number of content items you can choose from as an alternative. For example...if you are creating a mailing to go to you clients (employers) you might select the Lifesavers theme and are presented with a list of email content items of possible interest to that group. Included in the lineup are articles titled: 10 Ideas for Better Staffing Results; Staffing Survey Results; Easy Everyday Morale Boosters; or Experience Counts! Appreciating the Over 40 Worker. There are many, many other content topics to choose from. These are all article written by the Haley Marketing personnel and available for you to send to your clients. There are literally dozens and dozens of content items to choose from. Something for everyone. When the client gets the email it looks like it came directly from you.  

Once you pick the content for your mailing, you get to set up the e-mail that will go to your clients or candidates.  Haley Marketing provides starting text, and you can customize the subject line, recipient information, sender information, and whether you want to send your mailing in plain text, html or both. You then get to preview the e-mail message and then schedule it for sending. The message is sent complete with a “remove” link to comply with federal regulations.  The article itself is linked to the e-mail and appears on a web site that looks and acts just like it’s your web site.  When people respond, they are responding directly to you. 

Talk about an excellent way to keep in touch with all those people important to you and your business. It’s easy...it’s automated...it’s professional. Think about all those hundreds of candidates you have. I know how hard (impossible) it is for me to keep in touch with all of them. Think of the dozens of employers you have placed with over the years...keeping in touch...another impossible task. HaleyMail gives you an easy to keep in touch with everyone with a few keystrokes. Keeps your name and company in front of them and at the same time offers them information helpful to them without the hard sell tactics many employ. 

Haley Marketing Group also offers a free newsletter, The Idea Club, that is full of great ideas to make your company more profitable containing proven techniques for creating customer relationships. You can sign up and receive this newsletter by clicking the link on the Haley Marketing home page (www.haleymarketing.com). 

Pricing...there is a $395 start-up fee to set-up your HaleyMail account and provide training. The monthly service starts at $320 and includes a monthly e-mail newsletter for clients, a monthly e-mail newsletter for candidates, a HaleyMail account (standard web site template included), hosting of your HaleyMail web site and data and exclusive rights to your HaleyMail theme in your market. There are also multi-theme and volume purchasing agreements available.
 

My contact for this article, David Searns, President of Haley Marketing Group can be reached via voice at 888/696-2900 or via email at dsearns@haleymarketing.com. Also, please visit the HaleyMail website at www.haleymail.com.

 

RESUME DOCTOR

 

Resume Doctor, www.resumedoctor.com, is a resume consulting service that caters to our candidate base. I would not normally write about a service like this but in my inbox recently was a request for the things I hate most about resumes. Like most of you, I have spent many; many hours over the years reviewing one resume after another and have developed strong feelings about how a resume should look. Evidently, I am not alone as Mike Worthington, the proprietor of Resume Doctor, spoke with over 500 recruiters from all walks of life about the subject and developed a list of the top 20 things recruiters hate most about resumes. For your information, Mike has given me permission to reprint this list for this article. Send this to your candidates, please, and let’s all waste less time in the future. Here is the list: 

TOP 20 THINGS RECRUITERS SAY THEY HATE ABOUT RESUMES 

1.         Spelling Errors, Typos and Poor Grammar

2.         Too Duty Oriented – A resume that reads like a job description and fails to explain what the job seeker’s accomplishments were and how they did so.

3.         Dates not included or inaccurate dates

4.         Contact Info - none or inaccurate contact info, unprofessional email addresses

5.         Poor formatting - boxes, templates, tables, use of header and footers, etc

6.         Functional Resumes as opposed to writing a Chronological Resume

7.         Long Resumes - too long

8.         Paragraphs - Long Paragraphs instead of Bullet-points

9.         Unqualified Candidates - Candidates who apply to positions in which they are unqualified

10.       Personal Info included not relevant to the Job

11.       Employer info not included and/or not telling what industry or product candidate worked in

12.       Lying, misleading (especially in terms of education, dates and inflated titles)

13.       Objectives or Meaningless Introductions

14.       Font Choice - poor font choice or style

15.       Resumes sent as PDF, ZIP files, faxed, web page resumes or mailed - not sent as WORD Attachment

16.       Pictures, Graphics or URL links no recruiter will call up

17.       No easy to follow summary

18.      1st or 3rd Person - Resumes written the 1st or 3rd Person

19.       Gaps in employment

20.       Burying important info in the resume

 

I also wanted to mention they do have an affiliate program whereby you can get a finder’s fee for any candidate you refer to Resume Doctor that purchases their service. You won’t get rich but it could be helpful for your candidates from time to time. The link to the affiliate program information is www.resumedoctor.com/affiliateprogram.htm. 

Mike also writes a weekly column for Net-Temps (www.net-temps.com), one of the oldest and largest career hubs on the Internet. Go to www.net-temps.com/crossroads/index.htm?this=2 for the articles. 

Anyone with any pet peeves of their own or that have any questions or comments can reach Mike via email at mike@vtjobs.com or voice at 802-865-4243.

 

CareerXroads - FYI

 

CareerXroads, who we have written about and quoted in this column before, has a monthly newsletter free for the asking. This newsletter keeps you informed of special events, services and staffing technologies of interest to recruiters and job seekers. You can also ask any Internet related job question here. I read their newsletter each month and you should as well. They promise not to sell, trade, barter, or give your e-mail to anyone. Sign up at http://www.careerxroads.com/registration/index.html.

 

SearchFirm.com

 

They say they are the largest free web site connecting corporate HR departments with the recruiter community around the world. Recruiters can enter the site and add their search firm to the listings…for free. Employers then go to their site and seek out the search firm best suited to their needs based on the information in your profile. Employers can search for you by region or specialty.  To add your free listing…go to www.searchfirm.com and click the link in the middle of the page to add a new record. Can’t hurt.

 

TALENTHOOK UPDATE

 

Straight from the email…updates galore for one of the premier passive candidate search tools available. Check them out at www.talenthook.com. 

Google: We have mapped the Google search engine to augment your open web searches.

Microsoft Word [DOC] Resume & CV Search: MS Word is the next most common resume format, after HTML and plain text. This exciting new Internet search finds resumes and curriculum vitaes written in the MS Word [DOC] format and returns them as HTML.

Acrobat [PDF] Resumes & CV Search: You are probably familiar with Adobe Acrobat files. Now you can find resumes and curriculum vitaes in the Adobe Acrobat [PDF] format and read them as HTML.

DICE - New Interface: DICE is migrating its users over to its new and improved interface. When DICE moves your account over, simply use the "DICE - New Interface" resource. The old interface is still available as "DICE - Old Interface". Hint: New accounts have 2 login words (Email & Password) and old system accounts have 3 (DICE Id, Username & Password).

HeadHunter - CareerBuilder: HeadHunter was bought by CareerBuilder several months ago. Their new interface is now stable and we have mapped it. If you are searching for resumes on HeadHunter, please use CareeerBuilder now. We will leave HeadHunter up for a little while to ease the transition.

Medical Informatics Assoc: This is a good source for medical related technologists.

 

HELP ME…PLEASE!!

 

Even in this slow economy I still get an amazing number of calls and emails regarding recruiting software. As you all know I am continuously reviewing recruiter  (ATS) software for this column and do plan on continuing to do so. However…I would like to do a better job in the future. I am going to create a simply form containing a very few questions regarding recruiter databases. I would like to hear from each and every Fordyce subscriber…that means you. I am going to ask what database you use currently, your level of satisfaction with that database, and then I am going to ask the things you like most and like least about that database. I will compile and publish the results in a future issue of Fordyce…sometime in the next few months, but I will give a status report in next month’s issue.

 

Please visit www.swatrecruiting.com and click on any graphic to enter the site. At the bottom of the home page is a link – ATS Software Survey. Click on this link to retrieve the form…fill it out then click the submit button. Won’t take long…promise…and it will be a big help to us all. Once I get this information compiled I can offer better ATS reviews, as I will have a more standardized approach.

 

Regarding those calls and emails…keep them coming, as I am always happy to help out. But…I do wonder how much assistance I can give in these situations. I have reviewed many, many software packages but since I have such a limited amount of time with each one I never get to know any package very well. Furthermore…in order to properly recommend any software package one would normally need to know a lot more about a given agency than I normally know. Just so you know.

 

WORKPLACE DIVERSITY

 

For any of you that are diversity recruiters here is a site you might want to check out. I know nothing about them as I received an unsolicited email from them but wanted to share the info with anyone who has an interest. Straight from the email…

 

“I wanted to share some information with you regarding www.workplacediversity.com an excellent resource for diversity recruitment and branding. I am interested to know when you will be looking at different websites to enhance your recruiting efforts.” 

Dan Honig, COO, was listed as the contact person and can be reached via voice at 973-992-7311 or via email at dhonig@workplacediversity.com 

TIP – OUTLOOK USERS

 

This month’s tip is very simple and easy to do. It is an MS/Outlook tip and although I am sure this trick works with other mail programs I do not know how. But for Outlook users…it is very handy. It is simply what they call a “read” notification. For those that send a lot of emails…you never know if the person you are sending the email to ever reads it. Now…you know. Whenever someone read an email you sent them you get an email from them…without them even knowing it…that the message was “read” and when it was read. This clues you in to who is reading the emails you send them and then not getting back to you. It also lets you confirm that the email address is good. Also, for those who peruse ads for job leads…you can sometimes get information not available to you in the ad. Let’s say you are asked to send resumes to info@abc.com. Not very informative but if you send an email to that address you will get a read notification from the person reading the email you sent…often including the email address of the individual responsible for reviewing the ad responses.

 

Setting it up in Outlook is easy. On the menu bar, click Tools, then Options. Click the Email Options button then click the Tracking Option button. Check the box “Request a read receipt for all messages I send”. That is all there is to it. If you like, there is also an option to decline “read” requests from people who send you messages.

 

Very interesting to see who is reading and not responding to your emails.