Archive for the ‘press’ Category

Some of you requested a copy of my Wall Street Journal article.      

As seen in Arizona Republic on September 22:

Was it us, or them?

Some Valley technology entrepreneurs have asked that question since Google Inc. announced plans Friday to close its Tempe office by Nov. 21.

Most economic-development officials attributed the search-engine giant’s departure to an internal company decision, not a deficiency in metro Phoenix’s talent pool.

The company said moving some of the employees in the office to other Google locations will increase efficiency.

But some well-networked entrepreneurs question the message the decision sends to Arizona’s technology industry.

Aaron Post, director of business development for Chandler-based marketing firm Forty Agency, said colleagues he talked to took the news as a setback.

Google, which employs about 50 workers at its office on Arizona State University’s main campus, first announced plans to come to the Valley in 2005.

Some local software developers thought the Mountain View, Calif. company’s presence would shed light on the burgeoning startup community that has taken shape in the Valley.

They hoped that perhaps, venture capitalists would pay closer attention to the innovations taking shape in Arizona and invest more frequently in companies based here.

Post said he and others took the company’s decision as a signal that more needed to be done to highlight progress in the technology community.

Aaron Bare, chief executive officer of Scottsdale-based CareerTours, said the belief that Google’s arrival would somehow jump-start the technology environment here was misguided.

He noted that the positions housed at the Tempe office – engineers that worked on finance, billing and other internal matters – weren’t the type of jobs that would necessarily elevate a city’s status as technology hotbed.

One reason why Arizona lags when it comes to venture-capital investments, some business owners say, is that much of the investments are going to later-stage technology companies. A large part of the Valley’s technology base is startups.

“I think we definitely need to facilitate in getting the venture capital moving in this market by having more success stories,” Bare said.

Bare’s company, which creates online recruitment videos for businesses, received $1.2 million in venture capital this year. The company is considering additional investment offers worth as much as $3 million, he said.

“We just need more successful startups to come out of Phoenix and really create a Silicon desert,” Bare said.

Reach the reporter at andrew .johnson@arizonarepublic .com or 602-444-8280. Read his entrepreneurs blog at innovation.azcentral.com.

Getting to a new generation of Insurance Agents
By Aaron Bare, CEO of CareerTours

Since 1985, the full-time agent population has decreased from 275,000 to 175,000, according to the Life Insurance Marketing Research Association (LIMRA). With the median age of an insurance agent also being around 50, this is likely to create vast shortages in the future of the life insurance agents and leadership. As Baby-Boomer retire and the talent pool shrinks, there will be less agent yet more insurance needs. This creates a bright look at the future outlook for the occupation. With that said, traditional recruiting methods aren’t enough to get this information across, as recruiters and hiring managers need to be willing to use new methods in order to reach better qualified candidates.

So how do you get in front of the best candidates? Again, it should come as no surprise to many employers that they have to get creative and move a large portion of your recruiting efforts online. Today, it is all about technology, reach and showing candidates your company culture. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. Viral viral viral. There are many tools available that help employers directly reach passive candidates through email and online. You should want your job postings to land everywhere your candidates eyes are: LinkedIn, FaceBook, MySpace, etc.

2. Make your online recruiting more interactive. Show candidates your company culture through videos and podcasts with the CEO and hiring managers. For today’s candidate, they overwhelmingly want to see what their next job will look like.

3. Start a blog. If your company doesn’t already have a blog, they should. A blog not only opens up a line of communication with your customers, but it gives passive candidates a feeling for your company’s personality. A blog is a great way to express your company’s views on industry trends, share exciting milestones and highlight big accomplishments. All of these things are important to candidates.

4. Be an active participant in your industry associations. If you aren’t already out there networking, you’re missing a golden opportunity to interact with passive candidates face to face in your industry and new to the industry.

5. Invite them in for a first hand look. Plan a day where you can take a group of passive candidates on a tour of the company. Let them meet the top executives, and talk with other employees. This is a great way to showcase your company culture.

The future of recruiting will be interesting with the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasting a shortage of over 10 Million workers in the US by 2010. So recruiting Insurance Agents will take sharing more about your culture and work environment through Open Houses, Videos and Blogs. New Candidates will be looking at your training programs and how you bring new talent into the industry successfully. Retention, workplace awards and recognition will become more important for companies to get the quality employees as the labor pool shrinks. The good news is that there are many more effective ways to recruit today than just a few years ago.

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Aaron Bare is the former CEO of the National Association of Sales Professionals and current CEO of CareerTours, an online recruiting platform that offers video career postings and a unique viral marketing strategy. See more at www.careertours.com.

A Positive Outlook for Sales Professionals in 2008 and Beyond

By Aaron Bare

The workforce will face a shortage of 10 million professionals by 2010 according to U.S. Department of Labor. This might sound surprising as we are facing an uncertain economy and stories of job loss around the country increases. The truth is, the mix of talented professionals in the corporate world is shrinking due to baby boomers retiring or stepping away, and no position is harder to fill than sales. This has always been true and will remain so in the foreseeable future.

There is a reason why sales positions are so difficult to keep filled. Businesses cannot grow without them, and the best sales people are rarely on the job market. Recruiting this class is extremely difficult for employers and will only get harder as the work force shrinks overall and the market gets saturated with more and more messages.

For the HR industry, this information is not new and many employers are already ramping up on new technologies to help keep their sales teams staffed. Here are a few ways how they’re doing it:

1. They’re attending Sales Conferences like Career Concepts Sales & Marketing Events. Getting in front of many candidates at once to learn about as many candidates to make the best decision for their sales team. Candidates are also drawn to these events as they take a room full of quality employers and allow top sales talent to interview the employers.

2. They’re getting viral. Most employers have already learned that to get in front of the best sales candidates, they need to be right in front of them all the time. This means they have to be online. Interactive job postings, are finding their way to every major online networking tool such as LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook. They’re also finding their way directly to the email boxes of sales pros through viral marketing technologies and word-of-mouth tools like CareerTours.

3. They’re showing passive candidates what a job within their company looks like before they even walk through the door for an interview. Sales pros will start to see more videos, podcasts, flashy presentations and invitations to visit the company as we move through the next year.

4. They’re blogging. Blogs have proven to be a great way to give passive candidates a feeling for their company’s personality. Employers are increasingly using blogs to express their company’s views on industry trends, share exciting milestones and highlight big accomplishments. All of these things are important to candidates.

Despite a downturn in the economy, experience shows us that sales professionals will remain high in demand. Sales jobs are in abundance at Career Concepts events, on CareerTours and other online recruiting sites, more so than most other industries. Sales professionals always need to be hired to grow business…as nothing happens in a company without a sale.

Aaron Bare is the former CEO of the National Association of Sales Professionals and CareerTours, an online recruiting platform that offers video career postings and a unique viral marketing strategy. See more at www.careertours.com.

CareerTours Podcast – Word of Mouth Recruiting
A Day in the Life of Aaron Bare, CEO, CareerTours

Aaron Bare”I have CADD, better known as Corporate Attention Deficit Disorder. I learned as much as possible bouncing around as many careers as possible and took as many classes as possible to put myself in a place where I can make a significant difference. Now, it is time to create Frictionless Recruiting and bring CareerTours to the world.” – Aaron Bare

Several weeks ago, CareerTours, the fast growing online recruiting company known for audio & video career “tours” announced it acquired an interest in WorkBlast.com, an innovator and industry leader in video resumes. According to a CareerTours press release, they will now host more than 15,000 Audio and Video CareerTours on WorkBlast.com. This whole segment of the recruiting industry is exploding, with new video sites launching to take advantage of Gen Y’s preference for using rich media for everything from resumes to talking snowmen. Peter Clayton, host of Total Picture Radio, caught-up with Aaron earlier this week, to find out about the partnership with WorkBlast and how CareerTours is creating, what Aaron refers to as “frictionless recruiting.”