Jobcenter seems to be a waste of time.

[Aspect Investments]

I put an advert in the jobcentre about 3 weeks ago, and I have not had one reply.

What a waste of time that was.

 

[barcode]

So is it a advise...not to put any advert in job centre

 

[Richie N]

Hi

Can I ask what job you are advertising for?
Some vacancies work in the job centre and others don't.....

 

[JoyDivision]

This is because my experience of the JC is that if you already have a job they tell you stop being greedy and *!#';! off!.

I just ignore the JC now and look at the council websites/NHS etc.

 

[bargain.print]

I think it depends on the job.

I advertised in the job centre for a sales rep a couple of months ago and got three replies in a couple of weeks. First was a consultant who wanted to sell me his consultancy services at a ludicrous hourly rate. Second was a hotel cleaner looking for a new challenge, and the third was unable to spell representative, let alone be one.

And dont get me started on recruitment agencies. No wonder they can afford new BMW's with their services at £3000 a pop.

Richard

 

[JoyDivision]

I am avoiding agencies too as they just drive me mad, and that is as a candidate. I find by far the best way is to apply via the companies website, this works well if you're a big company but for smaller ones it does not. I guess the local papers are a good source.

The problem with job centres is there is also a snobby value attached, I don't know a single person to have ever got a job via a job centre.

 

[copywritingjohn]

Job centres are weird places - I know of only one person who has ever got a job from a job centre....

He was unemployed for several months and they were recommending him all sorts of unsuitable jobs, before he finally got a job they advertised.

Unfortunately it was a job working in the jobcentre :|

 

[Aspect Investments]

Sales, but on a self employed basis. The self employed bit may have put people off.

Hi

Can I ask what job you are advertising for?
Some vacancies work in the job centre and others don't.....

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

The job centre should only be used if you've got a bit of spare time and you want a bit of a laugh. Partic if you're in certain areas where there is a strong disinclination to work.

We've used it several times, as in parts of Scotland, it's either or both Jobcentre or ad in local paper. And not a lot else.

Application forms where there is nothing but the contact details. Or better the ones that bascailly list for you why you wouldn't want to employ them.

I love the interviews,

"why did you apply for the job"
"because they'd cut my benefits off if i didn't"


Talk to Dave at Mytchmac - i think he's got a job section coming soon on UKSMF.

 

[maxine]

Not surprised with your comments re JC. We put an ad in last year for plasterer and got a whole load of weirdos apply even though we were asking for experience.

For sales staff I have found totaljobs.com to be very fruitful for telemarketing/telesales both employed and self-employed and it is quite good value for money but I find to get the best out of the fee it is worth paying to get access to the database to view CV's and email people rather than wait for them to apply to you from the job advert if that makes sense. I have just done some consultancy for a company and used this method to recruit 5 telesales people and it probably took around 15 hours of my time start to finish researching cv's, contacting them, interviewing etc but still cheaper than a recruitment agency.

 

[An Oasis]

A family member is very senior in recruitment, working for MP and that is the only time I have seen this type of sector actually working effectively, however, they are head hunting and it really bares no comparison. Low level, non skilled and entry to employment these organisations and companies might as well not exist, they are just paper pushing.

 

[serendipitybusiness]

Has anybody tried gumtree for advertising for staff, there seem to be a few adds on there but I don't know how effective the are. If you are looking for good face to face self employed sales people, it may be worth having a search on facebook for Cobra and post on there, ex cobra sales staff are normally good as the training is excellent and it is tough so if they still like them enough to join the group after then you know they were good. You are guaranteed to walk into a recruitment job if you have worked for Cobra or time share in the past. There is also monster as well. I haven't tried any of these methods yet but that is my plan of action when I need more staff after the ones lined up. So if you use any of them please let me know how you get on!!

 

[Fernhurst Solutions Ltd]

The JC is a place to advertise when the company can't afford to PAY for an advert and therefore tend not to pay well, which in turn attracts low level candidates.

The final nail in the coffin is agencies putting their ad's on there and getting 'free' candidates ..... The JC has it's place, the only problem is, is that agencies and taking a strangle hold on the market.

You might not like it, but in my humble opinion they are the future

 

[AMM Wiltshire]

You may feel that agencies are a waste of time, but you are not considering the time the recruitment process takes, from drafting an advert to placing it, to filtering out all of the rubbish applications etc etc.

Agencies do not charge you unless they find the right candidate for you and that is after they have gone through all of the above process with the prospect of no fee at the end. There is also a refund on the candidate should they leave within a given time.

And yes, I am in recruitment and yes, I have used a specialist recruitment to recruitment agency in the past and paid agency fees but only because they found me the 'perfect candidate' for my organisation at the time and 'perfect' meant a 'biller' who made me money and gave me return on my fee within a very short time.

Trick is to negotiate hard on the agency fee..

 

[Displaycentreuk]

Only this afternoon I was discussing with my staff the likelihood of finding a new employee through our local Job Centre. They were putting forward the view that the good people don't go anywhere near the Job Centre. I pointed-out that I had found all of them through Job Centre adverts!

My experience has been that a good advert and clear application criteria quickly rule-out the chaff. But the Job Centre advertisements have identified a number of very high calibre applicants for my business and I am very happy.

Chris