Recruiter News Line

As budgets shrink in the face of the hard economic times most companies are facing training dollars, now more than ever, have to be spent with the best return on investment.

First look for a training program closer to home:

While some seminars may only be presented in specific cities there are thousands of seminars that are offered in smaller cities than New York or Chicago. Seminar sponsors like Skillpath, Fred Pryor and National Seminars, to name just three, offer their programs all over the United States and Canada. The odds are that you can find one of these seminars within driving distance - saving travel expenses.

Save travel expenses by booking more than one seminar:

Should you have no choice but to send an individual to a seminar only presented in a distant locale check what other seminars are being presented around the same time frame that offers needed skills and schedule one of those. It will combine travel costs and double your training dollar.

Bring the seminar to a location of your choosing:

Check around your company and see if other departments have the same training needs.
Why not get a group of attendees together and arrange for the seminar sponsor to bring the course to you - saving on travel expenses for the larger group. Presentations for groups of 15 or more are very cost effective and can even save you money on individual participation costs for the same program had the participants attended a public session. You can even check with companies in your area to see if they need the same training and offer them the opportunity to attend your “in-house” session. You can even defer some of the cost to you while they share the expense of instructor travel.

Is there a webinar that you could “attend”?
Many of the seminar companies are now offering webinars of the same seminars they present as live training events. While you may not get the same interaction as a live presentation it is a cost-effective way to get the training you need.

SeminarInformation.com offers a database of over 360,000 seminars and conferences. Users of the website www.SeminarInformation.com (http://www.seminarinformation.com) can find a seminar, date and location, read the complete brochure and enroll online or toll-free at (877-736-4636)

. Seminar experts are available to answer questions, assist with registrations or make recommendations.

The SeminarInformation.com website lists seminars from over 600 sponsoring organizations including Skillpath, National Seminars, Fred Pryor, Cross Country Education, Linkage, Learning Tree International, the American Management Association, Lorman, Federal Publications, Cornell, UCLA and ESI to name just a few.

Coldfire offers customizable training modules that cover everything from design and productivity software to writing skills.

“Our new programs are specifically designed to meet the needs of companies that are struggling to do business effectively, despite smaller budgets and shrinking workforces,”

says Catherine Stone, principal of Coldfire, a training, design, communications and corporate optimization consulting firm.  “These new skills will also increase the value of employees who are concerned about keeping their jobs in difficult times.”

“Our talented and personable trainers make themselves available when our clients are ready—at their location and their convenience,” adds Don Heymann, a writer, consultant and teacher who is Coldfire’s director of communications. “We also offer a unique follow-up mentoring program to help participants get through frustrating or particularly challenging projects.”

Increasing Productivity
In addition to acquiring practical new skills, many employees may be unaware that they are wasting time and energy by doing their jobs inefficiently or even incorrectly, notes Stone.  In today’s economy, companies and employees should be looking for ways to improve productivity and efficiency in every task they do.

Principal Coldfire training modules include:

•   Complete Software Training – with a focus on the most widely used design and productivity software titles: Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel, Outlook Express, Adobe Photoshop and Quark Xpress, among many others. Whether companies need to produce captivating presentations, coerce a computer to print out 500 separate addresses on 500 separate envelopes, or draft a persuasive proposal or sales pitch, there are skills and techniques to help employees get the job done fast and effectively.

•   Effective Communications –  basic and advanced training to help employees at all levels write more quickly and effectively – from emails and letters to reports and RFPs to presentations and speeches to marketing communications. Communicating properly is one of the biggest hurdles employees must overcome to do their jobs well, but it doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming, says Heymann.

•   Efficient webinars – a way to connect with key stakeholders without the high costs and wasted time of travel. Coldfire will help companies develop the in-house tools needed to produce and conduct webinars for both internal and external audiences.  From production and transmission to content development, Coldfire can help develop webinar capabilities used for training or communicating sales, marketing and other timely information.

Coldfire’s Approach
All Coldfire courses are completely customizable, with a focus on the specific skills each client needs.  After a thorough consultation, Coldfire will bundle needed courses to create the most efficient learning experience possible.

“We don’t do generic courses that sound good but are irrelevant to your needs,” says Stone.  “We bundle our courses so you can learn exactly the skills you need in the most efficient way possible.

“We also understand the value of a live teacher who, unlike videos or online courses, will actually answer your questions and help you solve problems in real time,” she adds. There is much greater satisfaction when employees really understand what they’re doing and learn the skills they need to know.”

In the worldwide economic slump, which saw over 533,000 US workers lose their jobs in November alone, niche job boards are delivering value for both employers and job-hunters, competing increasingly strongly against the big employment sites.

Brendan Delaney, founder of our US media-oriented jobs board MediaJobs.net, believes that niche job boards offer employers access to stronger candidates. “Job boards connect them with smart and qualified candidates, who have done their due diligence planning their next career move or just finding a new job in this market climate.

“The big employment sites like Monster.com deliver the mass audience to employers but are steadily losing market share, that trend will continue. Savvier job seekers are increasingly foregoing the big employment sites in favor of a more targeted approach utilizing an ever-increasing number of niche job boards”.

Delaney’s belief that job boards are collectively capturing increasing market share is backed up by research from internet marketing specialist eMarketingSilo.com. Out of 3,900 HR professionals and recruiters, 84% said *niche sites* provide access to the best talent, while only 11% gave the nod to general-purpose recruitment sites.

Nearly 54% of respondents agreed in eMarketingSilo’s recent studythat geographic and *industry-specific*

job sites are most effective when searching for a job. Some 24% of job-seekers indicated their resume is posted on 1-2 job boards, with 29% posting resumes on 3-4 job boards and 18% posting on 5+ boards.

Delaney comments that even in the current dire economic climate “where the pie itself is temporarily shrinking, job boards that deliver value by connecting employers with talented candidates will get a bigger piece of the pie.”

JobBoarders.com’s Chris Russell observes that specialst boards which are both well-established and marketed, will have the upper-hand in current market conditions. “Smaller job boards can offer value over the big guys by offering better content and targeting their niche very specifically, simultaneously building a community, not just a job board.

Russell refers to approximately 40,000 job boards operating online in 2008. “i’ve seen stats that say anywhere from 4-20% of people now get hired this way.”

Delaney said his experience with Media Jobs Network and other specialist sites demonstrates that niche job boards attract quality candidates. “They know they are more likely to stand out on a targeted site than on a site catering to millions of general job seekers.”

That viewpoint is shared by Trip Young, Account Manager at The Q Works Group. Depending on the industry, I think niche job boards bring significant benefit over the traditional Monster/CareerBuilder.

Niche job boards are more difficult to identify, so the casual applicant most likely is not on such sites, so you have a tighter pool from which to target. From a candidate’s perspective, niche boards are also a great resource as their information does not get lost in the “flood” of resumes that Monster and CareerBuilder are known for.”

The next few months are going to be challenging, but promising too, for the job boards sector of online recruiting.