Operating a Las Vegas job board is not an easy task.  It requires two core audiences….employers and jobseekers.  And without one or the other, a job board owner will not find any level of success.  Equally as important, without current and relevant content (jobs) …. a job board will struggle.  Recruiting Nevada works very hard at maintaining an equal balance so both of our clients are satisfied.  This is the business we are in. 

Unfortunately, there are companies selling job board technology to anyone willing to buy it.  And some organizations, for profit and non-profit, try and get into the job board business because it seems easy.  But without knowing the balancing act between employers and jobseekers, they ultimately offend one of the core audiences.  And then we are left with another job board carcass leaving a bad taste in the mouth of both the jobseeker and employer. 

The most recent job board to enter the Southern Nevada market is Goodwill of Southern Nevada.  They launched a job board called Power of Work (I do like the catchy name).  But, it appears that they acquired their technology from a third party resource – Geographic Solutions.  It appears Geographic Solutions simply aggregates a business directory from infoUSA, much of which is outdated or contains no employment information.  This bad data will quickly offend a jobseeker as they are looking for ‘real’ jobs right now. 

To counter balance this list of non-hiring employers, Geographic Solutions is aggregating job postings from what they call a PJB or Private Job Boards.  In this case, it looks like the ads are coming in from Yahoo Hot Jobs.  So now Goodwill must rely on Yahoo to provide real jobs in Las Vegas.  Unfortunately the majority of Yahoo HotJobs  advertisers are staffing agencies and multi-level marketers. 

What is even more concerning is that a jobseeker must provide their social security number to register.  This is a no-no that was abandoned over a decade ago by most job boards with the risk of identity theft and privacy issues. 

I am certain Goodwill of Southern Nevada had good intentions of launching such a service.  It always looks easy to operate a job board.  But really, they should leave the job board business to those who do it every day.  I would welcome the opportunity to partner with them to provide a clean database of real jobs.  That is a community partnership that would make sense.

A friend of mine publishes a podcast and blog on Living in Las Vegas.  He recently asked me to be a guest blogger on the website, blogging on employment in Las Vegas.  This is my first blogging effort written specifically towards the job-seeker.  I hope to find enough time to blog at least once per week.  Here is my last blog on the Las Vegas Job Market Getting Tougher for Job-seekers.

This opportunity has me thinking about creating a forum (of some sort) on RecruitingNevada.com and our network of employment websites.  There are some challenges creating a forum, especially managing the strings (or conversations) themselves.  We may offer an opportunity to our clients to moderate and contribute as well, giving them the opportunity to communicate directly with job-seekers if they choose. 

I’m still not sure and I would love to hear your opinions.  Please feel free to email me:  Doug[at]RecruitingNevada.com. 

Historically, the Las Vegas economy has been resilient to economic downturns.  And ‘Las Vegas has always been the last to feel a slowdown and the first to come out of one’ (as the saying goes).  This slowdown is different.  It has been deeper, and is longer, than all others. 

Some pointed to the presidential election as the turnaround day.  That did not seem make a difference (considering the stock market and the ongoing layoffs).  Now, folks are saying the turnaround will begin when president-elect Obama gets inaugurated.  Others say it will take a few months after the new president being in office.

I, on the other hand, believe Las Vegas’ turnaround will evolve around the opening of CityCenter.  Why?  It’s easy - job creation.  That is what drives most economies and has driven the Las Vegas economy for years….. 21 years to be exact.  Nevada has been the fastest growing city for 20 of the past 21 years.  And people move here for……Las Vegas jobs.

 
Historically, the turnaround for all Las Vegas economic slowdowns has been new casino openings.  The last time Nevada realized unemployment levels of 7.2% (as we are experiencing now) was over 20 years ago.  What turned it around?  The opening of the Mirage. 

Same thing in 1993.  As the entire country was experiencing an economic slowdown, Las Vegas opened up the MGM Grand, Treasure Island and Luxor.  Collectively they offered over 20,000 new jobs in Las Vegas.  And our economy took off.

Well, CityCenter will do that for us in 2009.  CityCenter will offer more than 15,000 jobs when it is opened.  And if history repeats itself, as it usually does, CityCenter will turn the Las Vegas economy around. 

We are officially live with “jobs” on the Las Vegas Sun website:

As I have mentioned in past blog posts, we have been actively working on expanding the Recruiting Nevada Network.  All clients posting ads on RecruitingNevada.com will now get automatic cross-posting to the Las Vegas Sun website.  This will have a tremendous amount of impact on our local level reach. 

Much, much more to come later…….

With 145,000 jobs being created in Las Vegas in the next few years, many employers will be looking for all types of employees, including bi-lingual employees.  Recruiting Nevada recently launched an area on its’ website to market those Bilingual Jobs in Las Vegas.  It will be heavily marketed throughout the United States and through our partnership with DiversityJobs.com. 

We all struggle to attract and retain remarkable talent.  Many times, the simplest talents are overlooked.  Take the opportunity to watch this movie titled “Johnny the Bagger.” You will be thankful you did.

Thanks to Gerry Crispin for finding this gem of a video.

There is officially an overabundance of Las Vegas job fairs being held.  There are several, if not dozens, being held each month.  I have seen some days where there are 2-3 different events going on in different areas of town.  This is true over-saturation. 

Some job fairs are trying to mix it up and move their event to different areas of town each time.  Others slap a ‘diversity label’ on it in hopes of attracting a different type of audience, not realizing they need to change their marketing strategy to do so.  And then you have colleges, universities and high schools holding events to introduce employers to their students.  And this is all on top of the recent barrage of employers hosting ‘open houses’ and ‘career fairs.’

So what happens?  Jobseekers get confused and irritated.  They go to one event, have a bad experience and then assume that all the job fairs are the same.  So they stop attending job fairs because they think they are a waste of their valuable time.  Jobseekers also get confused as to what job fairs are good and which are bad.  If they attend one bad event at the Palace Station, they assume all job fairs held at the Palace Station will be bad.  So the Palace Station becomes tainted.  Same goes with Cashman Field Center.  Simply put – jobseekers don’t know the difference between the promoters.  And they shouldn’t. 

Employers get equally as irritated because they are not certain which events they should be going to.  Some select events based upon price (which I do not feel is a good decision – see below), other based on the ‘diversity label,’ while others look at the true demographics of the jobseekers expected to attend.  I have seen some job fair promoters use celebrity introductions and giveaways to attract employers to their events.  (Never mind if you get good hires – you can meet someone cool and potentially win a trip to Mexico!!)

Anyway you look at it, it is confusing.  Recruiting Nevada has created a ‘calendar of Las Vegas job fairs’ on its’ website for its’ clients and other employers wanting to access it at any time.  We hope this will help sort through the clutter.  Although Recruiting Nevada is a partner in the Opportunity Boulevard Career Fairs, we post our competitor job fair events in the calendar.  If there are other events that we are not aware of, we hope that you will notify us.  We want to make sure that this calendar is the most inclusive calendar of job fairs in Las Vegas.

Side Note (Pricing):  Understand that a successful job fair requires two audiences:  Jobseekers and Employers.  In order for a job fair promoter to get a large audience to an event, they must advertise (and advertise beyond just their own media property).  Many unsophisticated promoters do not understand this and attempt to enter the market using price as a key driver.  It take marketing to get jobseeker attendance.  And marketing costs money.  So ask yourself – should you be measuring success based on the cost of the booth or the cost per qualified applicant/hire?

According to a recent Las Vegas Sun Article:

MGM Mirage is tapping Southern Nevada’s higher education institutions for help in staffing its more than $8 billion CityCenter development, scheduled to open in 2009.

How the company and schools will collaborate on filling some of the 12,000 jobs CityCenter will create has yet to be decided.

“All that we can really say at this point is that the Career Services Center at UNLV’s Hotel College is currently in discussions with MGM about helping them recruit UNLV students for the CityCenter project,” UNLV spokesman Gian Galassi said in an e-mail. “And, because talks are ongoing, it would be premature to discuss specific details of those efforts, but a partnership would likely include various recruitment components, including internships, job placements, etc.”

Besides assisting in recruitment, local schools could help potential employees develop skills that would help on the job. CSN and UNLV have well-respected gaming and hospitality programs.

MGM Mirage spokesman Gordon Absher said potential partnerships would benefit schools by giving students and alumni an opportunity to explore careers in the hospitality industry.

Not all CityCenter jobs will be in customer service. The development will also seek employees in fields such as technology and accounting.

If CSN and MGM Mirage strike a deal, it won’t be the first time the college has partnered with a major casino company.

Obviously this makes sense.  The reason for our local educational infrastructure is to be able to ‘grow our own.’  UNLV and CSN are both recognized for the hospitality programs they have in place. 

If you have not heard yet, RecruitingBlogs, sponsor of the Recruiting Roadshow, is hosting an after hours party at the MGM Grand Terrace Suites, the day after the big event.  Learn more about the shin-dig here.

Here are the basics:

RecruitingBlogs.com “Recruitfest”
Thursday, February 28, 2008
8:00 PM – ??
Terrace Suites – MGM Grand
Sponsors:  StandoutJobs , HireVue , Diversity.com and StaffingForce

RSVP Now

If you have not signed up for an account on RecruitingBlogs.com yet, it is easy to do so.  Simply visit the home page and click Join. 

Lots of questions have come to me about whether you have to be a ‘blogger’ to join.  The answer is – no.  Simply be involved in recruiting. 

Many times I get asked “why” we do what we do.  The simple answer is – passion.  We love being part of Nevada’s growth and adding to the economic diversification of Nevada by attracting the ‘right’ people to move here.  We feel that we have a talent to contribute, so we do.  We do so in many fashions from the services we provide our clients, to the volunteer work we do, to the in-kind donations we make.  We believe that the more you give – the more you receive.

We blog to educate.  We educate – because it is important to be informed and knowledgeable. 

We partner to collaborate.  We collaborate because many hands makes light lifting.  Again – in a high growth community such as Nevada, we need to help each other. 

We give.  We give to non-profits and charitable organizations because it is the right thing to do. 

And most important – we always do what is right.  That is part of our commitment to Nevada and Socially Responsible Recruiting.