By Myriam Boussaboua
This is a real moment of editorial emotion...Here is my first post on this blog as a member of Johnson King, a Finn Partners company!
Today, obtaining a first job both in France and abroad is still not that easy. Many factors do not favour first-time employment – for example, the economic climate that we live in today, or even university education that doesn’t lead to ‘concrete’ jobs (especially in the artistic sector) – which is discouraging more and more young people to get their foot in the door. Fortunately, the vast world of ‘Web 2.0’ offers a range of significant options for the younger generation to find THE job of their dreams, although European statistics on youth employment reveal only a slight increase for the year 2015.
It is clear that social networks are increasingly being used and, in some ways, their new features are altering the ‘original’ purpose of social networks, going beyond the simple ‘keeping-in-touch’ function with our friends and family.
According to a recent survey from the French specialist in outsourced solutions for the acquisition and management of talent, Talentpeople, the number of job vacancies on the internet almost doubled between March 2014 and March 2015 in France, amounting to more than 700,000 jobs online. On the issue of employment, and with the obvious increase of social networks’ new users, the question is whether we are in a position to wonder about the efficiency of online recruitment?
As a reminder, online recruitment is fairly new. It wasn’t until the early 2000s that social networks had dedicated sections for employment. Two websites, where you likely had your first professional exchanges with colleagues and old classmates took place, come to mind: in 2003 the US company, LinkedIn, got the ball rolling, closely followed by the French group, Viadeo, in 2004. For me, these two sites have not been immensely helpful for finding a job. Nevertheless, when I was looking for job opportunities, they were for the most part posted on Twitter and Facebook. I only had to mention a couple of keywords and that was it!
A few weeks ago, an original and innovative idea that positively ‘breaks’ the usual recruitment process made the buzz via a YouTube video*, with nearly 250,000 views. It was the initiative of a well-known and off-the-wall French company (also located in England) that recruited people directly…on the tube!
The human resources director of Michel et Augustin, Anne-Claire Long, traveled on several trains in order to recruit six people as a graphic designer, purchasing manager, community manager, etc. We are yet to see if the company succeeds, but it's very pleasant to see the Parisians smile!
*Check the video out: [VIDEO]
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