- Wanted Technologies inks deal with third-largest U.S. newspaper chain
Quebec City-based WANTED Technologies is a leading supplier of monitoring solutions for recruitment, real estate, and media classified advertising industries. On February 20, the company announced the signing of a contract with McClatchy, the third-largest newspaper company in the United States, with 31 daily newspapers and approximately 50 non-dailies. McClatchy-owned newspapers include The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Kansas City Star and The Charlotte Observer. Wanted Technologies already provides its classified ads analysis tools to prestigious customers such as The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and The San Francisco Chronicle.
- Government of Canada supports the integration of skilled immigrants
Monte Solberg, Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, announced that the government of Canada will invest more than $2,700,000 to support employment integration for skilled immigrants. Titled Bridging the Gap: Integration of Skilled Immigrants into the Canadian Workplace, the project will be led by the University of Ottawa and will work with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), skilled immigrant employees and human resources professionals. One of the objectives is to develop and test learning modules for understanding the barriers to integration into Canada's workplaces, and then implement strategies to overcome them. With 11,000 participants involved, various strategies for overcoming integration challenges will be developed and best practices will be shared among employers.
- Taleo acquires JobFlash
Founded in 2002 in California, JobFlash specializes in telephone recruiting. Its tools enable its more than 60 customers and over 1,000 hiring locations to select candidates and schedule interviews, all by cellular phone. Leading customers such as Ramada Hotel and Casino, and Securitas mainly use this technology for mass recruiting of hourly workers. This acquisition will allow Taleo, a Quebec solutions provider, to add interactive voice response (IVR) to its talent management line of software, which enables employers to evaluate and develop their staff to enhance performance. Taleo paid US$3 million for JobFlash.
- Monster Worldwide targets passive candidates
On March 22, Monster Worldwide launched a new online communications offering developed to reach passive job seekers in the U.S. Called the Career Ad Network, the product completes the distribution of job postings from Monster or MonsterTRAK by adding links to these postings via strategic placements throughout the Web. The new offering will provide employers with visibility not only on Monster sites like Military.com, Tickle.com and Jobs.com, but also on sites where Monster has purchased advertising space. These campaigns are based on a sophisticated set of algorithms, which allow ad placement optimization in real time in accordance with the needs of each employer. Monster is also adding three new products to its offering: “Job Spotlight” to highlight positions that appear within job search results; “TargetMail”to launch targeted direct mail campaigns via-e-mail; and “Homepage-Featured Employer”to give employers prominence on the Monster.com homepage.
- Vurv launches Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO) Center of Excellence
Vurv Technology (formerly Recruitmax), a U.S. provider of HR software, announced the launch of its new support center for customers specializing in Human Resource Outsourcing (HRO). It was specifically created to provide a dedicated HRO services team to support this growing sector. Research firm IDC estimates that the HRO market in the U.S. will continue to grow at over 16% through 2009, reaching almost US$16.5 billion. Vurv already works with large HRO specialists such as ARINSO International, Accenture and Convergys.
- Record year for recruiting firms
The Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) comprises 1,200 member recruiting firms in 42 countries all over the world. It has just published a study describing the activity of its members, whose year-end revenues rose 17.2% from 2005 to 2006, representing the third consecutive year of positive industry growth. 2006 will remain a record year, with total revenues exceeding even those of 2000. Demographic shifts and new requirements from emerging markets drive strong demand for senior managersNorth America represented 43% of the executive search market, with Europe at 34% and Asia/Pacific at 15%. Search activity was highest in the financial industry with 25%, followed by the industrial sector at 22%, and consumer products at 17%. Professional services saw the largest increase over 2005 (+16.5%), while technology was the only sector to show a decrease (-5.5%).
- Good luck to Agency Connect
A new magazine will shortly be published in Canada: Agency Connect. It targets all recruiting professionals, along with recruiting firms and placement agencies. The first issue, in April, will be sent to more than 5,000 subscribers, mostly in Ontario, and will feature privacy protection. The second issue, in July, will be on applicant management systems. The Toronto-based publisher hopes to quickly double its subscriber base. The magazine will be available in English only.
- UQAM officializes moonlighting amidst controversy
In fall 2006, the Université du Québec à Montréal created a human resources management consulting service, resulting in the official approval of moonlighting by professors—a Quebec first. This Observatoire de gestion stratégique des ressources humaines [strategic human resources management observatory] of UQAM’s school of management science will allow professors to offer their consulting services to companies on the University’s behalf. The Observatoire will receive 25% of the consulting fees generated. ORHRI was not long in denouncing this unfair competition. The professors in question are not members of the professional association and do not comply with its code of conduct. They also benefit from many in-kind advantages such as offices and telephones, while some 1,500 of ORHRI’s 8,000 certified human resources and industrial relations professionals are self-employed.
Source: La Presse