Tip Top Recruitment Totty

By @charloot

When you work across a number of recruitment and HR accounts it is necessary to keep abreast of traditional news sources, i.e. magazines and online publications. But it’s also increasingly important to know which blogs hold the most sway over the recruiting masses.

At TopLine we like to make life easy for you, so here’s our rundown of the top ten recruitment blogs on the beat (in no particular order). Please feel free to disagree…you won’t be able to change the list but it may make you feel better to tell us we’re wrong.

1) T Recs

If a recruitment blog includes a blog roll you can be sure that T Recs (by Mervyn Dinnen) will appear. The blog is clearly branded with a Recruitment Blog of the Year logo and a British Business Bloggers emblem; both signs of quality right? I especially like the distinct lack of advertising content.

Mervyn demonstrates strong writing while the majority of his mid-length posts take a serious tone. And, with nearly 4,000 followers and a page on his favourite things (including The Flaming Lips) – what’s not to like? Ok fine! If I had to complain about one thing it would be the lack of colour and imagery. Maybe it’s just me but I find colour makes content interesting and less dry.  That’s personal taste though and there’s no way I could deny Mervyn his place here.

2) Recruitment Views

Stephen Fowler has a sense of humour. Currently his top blog is on the strangest job titles found on LinkedIn (a topic also covered by UK Recruiter), and the accompanying image is powerful enough to make you think you are viewing a gaming review site as opposed to a recruitment blog. Who on earth calls themselves a Digital Overlord!?

Of all of the blogs reviewed here, Recruitment Views is the one which most comes across as a mini-magazine (without being affiliated with a publication). With news focused articles and clearly defined topic subsections including a books to buys and directory section, his is the most commercial feeling of top ten – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Good, well written content more than makes up for its advertising edge.

3) Wise Man Say

Hung Lee, the wise man who says things is a sociable character – which is good as his blog focus is social recruitment.  Probably the snazziest looking of the ten blogs here, Hung clearly splits his categories, making for ease of navigation, and loads some very interesting interviews with vendors and industry figures. All topics are interspersed with relevant imagery which also goes some way towards breaking down some of the longer articles into bite-sized chunks. He appears to be a neutral fellow and won’t be found to be unfairly biased towards his clients, but above all, you feel that Hung really knows what he’s talking about.

4) Boolean Black Belt

The first thing to say about this blog is; where on earth does that name come from? Well, three years after he started the blog Glen Cathey decided to explain here: http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/2011/10/what-is-a-boolean-black-belt-anyway. It’s all a bit long-winded for me but still, the blog is colourful, easy on the eye and has 4210 followers so is obviously influential. My main complaint is that he takes a fairly, how shall I say it…egotistical…approach to blogging. Less analytical, this blog is great if you want to know what Greg’s been up to this week.

5) Recruiting Futurology

Those who know me know that I LOVE a good video blog. Maybe it’s because I’m lazy but all those words on a page can be tiring – especially when I’m reading and writing all day. So for me Matt Alder’s most recent approach is perfect. He has been using the medium of vlogging alongside blogging with plenty of pictures to boot, and has been placing a strong emphasis on recruitment trends.  He’s not above name dropping but it’s not done in a sneaky way so we’ll let him have this one.

Recently Matt attended Recruiting Innovation 2012 in the USA and has posted some note-worthy articles summarising his key findings. He has also promised that some interviews from the show will appear soon. I’ll certainly be tuning in for those.

6)  Inside My Head

An interesting social commentary on the life of a recruitment consultant, Gareth Jones comes across as ‘one of us’ and writes a very personable blog. Like T Recs he proudly displays his British Business Bloggers emblem.

Packed full of reviews and views, Inside My Head is one of the easier blogs to digest and holds back on the technical guff. It also manages to – thankfully – keep the self promotion to a minimum by creating a separate page to advertise his comings and goings and the events he will appear at. Much better for those of us who simply don’t care.

7) UK Recruiter

Louise is a stalwart of the UK recruitment industry. With a weekly newsletter and a sideline in journalism she has her finger in most pies. She recently wrote a great blog about Sonovate (hands up, it is my client so I’m biased) and generally publishes a good mixture of content, from showcase event reviews, to top ten lists and personal views. Her weekly newsletter is also extremely comprehensive providing a round up on the week’s news, top visited sites and upcoming events.

If you are interested in UK recruitment blogs you should be reading UK Recruiter.

Recruitment 2.0

The new kid on the block, Recruitment 2.0 is showing lots of early promise. So maybe it doesn’t yet deserve its spot here but I’m including it because it not only includes its own copy, but sources in top ranking blogs on relevant topics from around the net. This is a one stop shop blogging environment!

Each week Recruitment 2.0 (which has three editors) posts a roundup of the week’s news meaning you only really have to visit once a week without losing your place. Keep it up Recruitment 2.0, we like what we see so far.

9) The Recruiting Unblog

Bill Boorman tells us that he is the person behind the #Tru brand. Now many of you may wonder what on earth #Tru , but wonder no more. #Tru is the brand of events such as The Recruting Unconference.  So now you’ll want to know what an Unconference is? The answer is that “an unconference is a gathering of minds, experiences and opinions where the attendees (or active participants) lead the conversation.” Interesting.

Bill encourages guest posts and is happy to promote the blogging of others. You get the impression that this man is anything but insular. His constant use of the # is slightly irritating but the content is interesting and don’t worry, if you don’t care about #Tru because other topics do get a mention.  Many of his posts pose questions and encourage interaction. #GoodStuff

10 ) Hire Strategies

With one spot in the top ten left, it is difficult to make sure no one is left out. Peter Gold first gained his place through word of mouth. Recommended as influential by another blogger on this list (who shall remain nameless J ) and also included within other blog rolls, Peter is a man that the industry big wigs pay attention to.

Like some of the other bloggers here, he owns his own consultancy – linked to the blog – and so has his own agenda. Nonetheless his content is interesting and varied, focussing specifically on social recruitment. He conducts his own research and reports on the findings, thereby ensuring that his copy is unique. He also uses video – which I have already expressed my love for – and uses tabs to clearly split his topics across the main social platforms.

Accessible, interesting and integrated with other social media platforms; top ten for sure.

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