Search.co.uk applauds initiative to improve approach to local government recruitment in Scotland

Search.co.uk has praised local authorities in Scotland for harnessing the benefits of online recruitment through their adoption of a new jobs portal and a partnership trial with commercial job boards in Scotland.

Search.co.uk has welcomed continued moves by UK government bodies to step into the 21st century with the adoption of online recruitment procedures.

Recent months have seen several government agencies switch from traditional newspaper advertising to listing available scottish jobs online, with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) being at the forefront following the creation of the ‘myjobscotland‘ portal and trial advertising agreements with leading Scottish recruitment websites, including Search.co.uk/Jobs . Praising the Convention for responding to a fundamental shift in recruitment practices, Scotland’s leading jobs site believes that the move will deliver a number of key advantages.

“Recruitment is not a science, it’s an objective and logical process when done properly and is all about matching jobseekers with the right skills to the right jobs. Entering into the digital age can, however, make the process smoother and easier, attracting a wider selection of jobseekers and improving candidate selection processes and timescales,” said Peter Gillespie, Managing Director of Search.co.uk.

“It’s not simply about making savings on advertising budgets. There are greater benefits to be gained; notably changes to working practices which will free up staff and allow them to focus on more value adding work whilst also enabling local government to compete with the private sector for quality staff, particularly in sectors where there are skills shortages.”

The progress made by COSLA’s launch of the myjobscotland portal and the trial deal to post all Cosla member vacancies across 6 leading Scottish job sites, including Search.co.uk/Jobs, means that local governments can measure and implement a more effective use of their resources to deliver improved performance, by reducing advertising costs and competing more effectively for the right candidates. The all-council recruitment website, seeks to maximise the benefits of both online advertising and technology to improve the quality of responsesreceived by the 32 councils offering jobs in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness and the rest of Scotland.

Improved efficiency is one of the driving forces behind the newly created application and online advertising trial. Cosla’s new online recruitment function will reduce the costly, long-winded process of advertising in print outlets, harnessing the latest innovative online technologies to make it a more painless, speedy and cost efficient exercise.

Christmas – A Great Time to Get Your Job Search in Top Gear!

As the build-up to Christmas gathers pace and parties come thick and fast, the recruitment market goes into its traditional quiet period, vacancy numbers on job boards dwindle and clients put off those hiring decisions until next year.

However, if you’re actively seeking a job, now is the perfect time to make sure your job hunt is ready to move into top gear. Although times have been undoubtedly tough and job vacancy numbers are generally still considerably lower than a couple of years ago, January is a key period for recruitment. And, some sectors are showing real healthy signs of growth in terms of job vacancies and recruitment activity for 2010.

So, is your CV in great shape to make the most of you? Are you contacting all the right people now to make sure they have you front of mind when the upturn starts in January? A first step could be to check out our own ‘CV Tips’ and ‘Interview Tips’ on Search.co.uk/Jobs to make sure you are following the basic ‘golden rules’ for success.

Never assume you know everything, as some great candidates make some basic errors at every stage of the process – errors that can seriously affect their chances of getting the right job. So, make sure you are not one of them!

Some other advice may be to contact a career advice company like ‘TCMO’, or ‘the career management organisation’, based in Edinburgh. They are experienced recruitment professionals who offer the ability to help you achieve your potential when looking to change career, find a new job or even just chase promotion more effectively. Visit www.tcmo.co.uk for more information.

In the meantime, check your CV again and follow our own basic ‘golden rules’, then check out almost 4,000 current live job vacancies on Search.co.uk/Jobs today! Or, register your updated CV via ‘My Search’ and create some ‘job agents’ and we’ll email you matching vacancies as they are added to Search.co.uk/Jobs.

We hope you have a great Christmas break and a happy new year and we wish you all the best for your job search in 2010!

Language Jobs in Edinburgh – Now you’re talking!

With the business ‘outsourcing’ firmly established as a growing industry and the Call & Contact Centre sector now established as one of Scotland’s largest and biggest growth industries, the job opportunities for foreign language speakers in Edinburgh and Glasgow are more numerous than ever.

Although most industry sectors have suffered as a result of the current recession the demand for foreign language speakers in the business outsourcing sector in Edinburgh and Glasgow has remained strong.

In particular, there has been a consistently strong demand for French, German and Scandinavian language speakers in Edinburgh’s Call & Contact Centre sector. In response to this, Scotland’s largest recruitment business, Search Consultancy, recently established a specialist ‘Language’ division dedicated to offering specialist language based roles with clients with jobs across Scotland.

They are current recruiting for a number of French, German, Finnish, Swedish and Danish speaking jobs in Edinburgh with good basic salaries and benefits packages. To view these roles on Search.co.uk/Jobs simply click on the ‘Search Your Language’ client profile to view all current language jobs in Edinburgh.

‘Bonne chance’ on your job hunt!