EOJD 2010

EURES Online Job Days Pilot Project – White Paper December 1 & 2 2010

Cleverwood December 2010

Writer: Rey Tuplano – rey.tuplano@cleverwood.be

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In a nutshell 1 & 2 December 2010 – Cleverwood conducted the pilot project EURES Online Job Days, alias EOJD, in Brussels – Belgium. During two days, the EURES Online Job Days advertised a new way of providing jobseekers information about working in the EU. The event gathered 4 EURES advisors of 4 selected test countries: Estonia, Finland, Italy and the Netherlands. Together with the help of 5 New and Social Media experts from the selected countries, they were able to provide jobseekers with personalized online counseling. Even on a sufficient promotional budget, the event gathered more than 10,500 visitors and resulted in more than 500 live chat sessions with Jobseekers. This pilot experience really proves the importance of Social Media platforms for the recruitment sector. According to a survey results 1 , Social Media is becoming a mainstream hiring channel for companies, 83% are using (or planning to use) Social Networks for recruiting. This is due to the innovative technology of social recruiting; with cheaper channels, easier ways to use and better tracking of talents, companies have the opportunity to achieve greater ROI for recruitment.

                                                                                                               1 Jobvite 2010 Social Recruiting Report, September 2010, http://slidesha.re/gapb1i

« Online tools are much more efficient. Especially for long-term follow-up, I can be far better and more productive » - Italian EURES Advisor  

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Overview

Objectives and organization With people’s changing approach about Social Media online recruitment services, EURES took the leap by trying an online alternative to their physical Job Days. Being a pilot project for all stakeholders, the most important objective was to gather feedback for the next editions. EURES Online Job Days (EOJD) happened on the 1st and 2nd of December 2010 with 4 test countries: Netherlands, Estonia, Italy and Finland. Each participating country dispatched a local EURES advisor to Brussels. Bringing with them job offers from local employers. To guarantee its online impact, EURES tapped into the expertise of Consilia and its privileged partner: Cleverwood new media agency. Cleverwood contributed with strategic expertise, support and five Community Managers, who acted as work assistants and new media coaches for each of the five EURES advisors.

Social Media for job hunting Jobseekers were able to:

• Discover practical tips through the tweets by the EURES advisor,

• Receive tweets and status updates for available job openings in Europe,

• Search jobs in the EURES database, • Book a live chat session with one of the

available EURES advisors via their favorite Instant Messaging service (Skype, Gtalk or MSN messenger),

• Find information about working and living in another country

• abroad.

Thanks to a dedicated interface on the portal which provided automated support for administrative tasks, the advisors were able to filter Jobseekers by status after their registration (pending, open, follow-up, closed, unreachable). The advisors were in complete control of the sessions.

« Feedback is crucial at this stage because we are building EURES’ new ways of communicating » - Mark Rogerson, Consilia  

« This is a new and rapid way to find job offers in EU » - Jobseeker  

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Results & Key learning The initial objective was to reach 250 chat session requests. This has been double, as the event reached more than 500 requests. The modest promotional budget on Facebook and LinkedIn showed the power of Social Media by bringing a significant traffic on the platform (more than 10,500 visitors in a single week).

As for the EOJD relevance, we’re stressing the strong interest in job-hunting through new media and especially Social Networks. Jobseekers are looking for opportunities and information on the on the network they visit daily, like for instance LinkedIn, Twitter of Facebook. This statement is also valid for EURES advisors; they are very optimistic about this type of project and the ways they could inclued it in their daily work.

Conclusion This event definitely triggered a change in EURES’ way of working. It was also beneficial for all participants especially all EURES advisors. They gained online communication and Social Media skills. The results and feedback surely highlight the jobseekers’ expectations for this type of event. With a sufficient promotional budget, and the decision to work on a set of 4 countries for this pilot exercise, the online event reached many people throughout Europe. We can conclude that this topic is at the heart of EU citizen’s debate. With 83% of companies using (or planning to use) Social Networks for recruiting 2 , Social Media enables companies to recruit with a very high ROI. The results show that Social Media is becoming a major hiring channel for companies.

                                                                                                               2  Jobvite 2010 Social Recruiting Report, September 2010, http://slidesha.re/gapb1i  

« All of you were best to support me during the 2 days. In the future, we will join those kind of Online fairs for 100% » - Estonian EURES Advisor, sharing her work experience with the Cleverwood consultants  

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The actors  About EURES Set up in 1993, EURES is a European-wide employment service, supported by all the PES (Public Employment Services) in Europe. EURES provides information, advice and recruitment/placement (job-matching) services across the European Economic Area (EU plus Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland) for the benefit of workers and employers or any other citizen wishing to benefit from the principle of the free movement of workers. www.ec.europa.eu/eures EURES on social networks

   

 

   

About Consilia Consilia is a unique partnership of communications professionals. They are highly experienced specialists in the handling of complex and intractable communications issues, including crisis communications and information management. They offer plain, candid advice based on extensive expertise in media, journalism, technology, broadcasting and public relations. www.consilia.co.uk

About Cleverwood Cleverwood is your New Media Consulting partner, providing expert new media profiles, expertise, knowledge and consulting services for Web, Mobile, Interactive Television and emerging channels. Cleverwood consultants work for medium to large corporations in the public and private sector. Every day, we help our clients find « New (ways of using) Media ». We work in partnership with our clients, very often on-site within the marketing or communication teams, taking up roles such as strategic consultants, project manager, e-marketing manager, web & mobile product managers, community managers, web copywriting & editorial strategist, conversion marketing, usability and information architecture, blogger, e-reputation, social media strategist… and many more! www.cleverwood.be

EOJD - Cleverwood team Raphaël Thys: Project leader Caroline Maerten: Project account manager Johan Van Mol: Project analyst Rey Tuplano: Assistant project manager Julien Mourlon: EURES community manager Stijn Vogels: Community Manager Cleverwood useful links

         

         

Contact information Contact Caroline Maerten, our Head of Social Media @ Cleverwood if you would like to know more about or want to work with us. +32 (0) 474 94 09 00 caroline.maerten@cleverwood.be @rollingtalks www.cleverwood.be