market

Here is an interesting post on Mashable about the influence of social media on talent acquisition. The maturity of social media has reinvented the way recruiting is done, yet many businesses still haven’t figured out how best to integrate and leverage social networks as part of their recruiting and hiring processes. They are continuing to figure out optimal ways to harness the reach of social media and translate its usefulness into results. While social media has been adopted well at the consumer level, the gap between consumer and corporate adoption is widening.

So just how does social media benefit the environment of talent acquisition? Here are five shifts that are taking place now: It’s personal, it’s transparent, it’s no longer just for HR, it’s marketing, it’s being shared.

According to Ruth Mantell, a repoter for MarketWatch, networking requires strategy, research and social grace. Because competition for jobs is intense, there is a lot that we can get wrong when trying to build business relationships and generate business opportunities. First and foremost networking is about building relationships – not simply selling yourself. In that sense, here are 5 important networking “don’ts”.

• Don’t misuse the Internet – Don’t rely too much on email and networking websites such as LinkedIn. Nothing beats meeting face to face.

• Don’t be vague – Tell networking contacts about specific ambitions for your career or professional growth so they know how to support you

• Don’t stop – Keep networking, even when you’re not looking for a job. That way, your network is in place when you do need it.

• Don’t be selfish – Networking solely for your own goals is a mistake and doesn’t work. Also help your contacts.

• Don’t misuse your network – Distributing your references’ contact info too frequently can lead to burnout. Don’t abuse your network with too much contact either.

Hi all,

today we released a small membership account, called the “Starter” membership!

With this release we have added an additional, flexible membership option to projektwerk.

As a “Starter” you can use projektwerk for only 8€ a month, enabling a more extensive use compared with the “Basic” membership. The “Starter” membership probably suits you if you wish to proactively contact other users now and then and want to publish projects or profiles on a small scale.

Your benefits as a “Starter” user:

• Contact up to 3 project partners proactively each month – instead of having to wait for requests as a Basic member
• View complete project descriptions and profiles
• Receive detailed matching information on suitable project partners
• Bookmark interesting projects or profiles

More:

• Publish one profile or project at a time
• Receive daily updates for interesting new matches
• Refine your matches with location and relevance filters

The Cisco Connected World Technology Report provides insight into challenges that companies face as they strive to balance current and future employee and business needs amid expanding mobility capabilities, security risks, and technologies.

Cisco examined nearly 3,000 college students and young professionals in an international workforce study and questioned them about their behavior and expectations and looked at how their demands for information access is changing business communication and the future of work.

Among other findings, the 2011 report revealed:

• One of every 3 college students and young employees believes the Internet is as important as air, water, food, and shelter.

• Two of five said they would accept a lower-paying job that had more flexibility with regard to device choice, social media access, and mobility than a higher-paying job with less flexibility.

• Regarding security-related issues in the workplace, seven of ten employees admitted to knowingly breaking IT policies on a regular basis, and three of five believe they are not responsible for protecting corporate information and devices.

Mobile job searching is on the rise, according to a recent survey by Kelton Research. While smartphones are mainly used to browse the Internet, take photos/video, check email and conduct general search, there is a growing number of people who use their devices to search for work. According to the study, some 86% of smartphone owners said that they would use their phone to find a job; nearly 50% reported that they would even apply to jobs via their mobile phone if they could.

This JIBE infographic shares additional Kelton Research survey data and reveals that jobseekers are increasingly using downtime to hunt for jobs. Unlike traditional methods, mobile job searching can be done anytime and anywhere: Respondents specifically mentioned portability and immediacy as major benefits of applying to jobs via mobile.

What does the rise of mobile job searching mean for businesses? With smartphone usage increasing rapidly – this is definitely a recruiting pool too big to ignore. Companies can attract these tech-savvy jobseekers by optimizing online job boards and making the application process simpler to complete via mobile phone.

Check out the infographic on mashable.com. Would you search for your next job or project with your smartphone?

“Tom Malone, professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of the HBR article “The Age of Hyperspecialization,” explains why breaking jobs into tiny pieces yields better, faster, cheaper work — and greater flexibility for employees…”

The future of work 2.0

We’ve built a great widget that has been released and is now available. We would like to take a moment and describe some of the features our widget has and how you might take advantage of it.

Do you offer employment services and solutions, human resource consulting or manage a database for recruitment and permanent placement?

As one of the leading online  project marketplaces in Germany, we’ve been connecting freelance professionals and innovative businesses on our specialized industry platforms since 1999. Benefit from co-branding with projektwerk.

The widget enables you to offer your website visitors a customized project marketplace with valuable, daily updated content. By utilizing the projektwerk widget, you can provide your website visitors with interesting, sector-specific freelance work on individual project basis and simultaneously provide access to the best database for excellent freelance professionals. The widget can easily be added to your website and is totally integrated into the look and feel of your corporate design. No updating or editing necessary – the information is pulled automatically and syndicated over to your site.

Have a look at the widget on two of our partner sites:

For more information please contact:

Daniela Chikato

Mail: d.chikato@projektwerk.de

Phone: 040-43 21 30-36

“This interesting post, published by TechCrunch on February 4^th 2012, does not only remind us of how one of the greatest inventions of our generation has already changed the way we communicate, share information, or shop but also gives us a taste of what is still to come: The Internet is changing the way we work – the web is disrupting labor and transforming the definition of employment as we know it!

The post discusses the rise of the “independent worker”, who is one that operates independently and flexibly in today’s work environment – unattached to any particular company. The author, Nick Cronin, summarizes what he believes are the main factors contributing to this development, how these changes are affecting companies’ hiring processes, and the increasing importance of labor efficiency for maintaining a competitive edge.

“The era of the lean, flexible workforce is here and guess where both companies and independents are increasingly locating each other. Yep: The Internet.”

Read the full post “Labor Efficiency: The next great Internet Disruption” on TechCrunch

In that sense, check out the leading online project marketplace for freelancers and businesses in Germany:

projektwerk

According to an article on fins.com (2011), the job market for freelance technologists is continuously growing. Research company Forrester Research estimates the total U.S. business and government spending on IT goods and services to grow to $876 billion in 2012, up 8.8% from 2011 and a 16.2% increase over 2010 levels. Read the full post here:

We have known for some time now the rocketing demand for mobile app development, however, the fact that firms are literally scrambling for engineers who can write software for mobile devices is somewhat amazing. Apparently, the supply of sufficiently experienced software engineers is seriously lagging behind the high demand. According to the WSJ, companies have reacted with increased wages to retain top talent and outsourcing to third-party developers. Mobile apps have worked their way into various industries. As stated in the WSJ article, Google Inc. and Apple Inc. expect revenues for the App Store and Android Market to tripple to about $15billion in 2011…

Check out the full article here: Mobile App Talent Pool Is Shallow