A recent copy of The Journalist, a German magazine, featured a recruiting ad from Siemens that included a QR code. Users who scan the barcode with their mobile phone are taken to an Internet site providing further information about the company and its positions.

QR codes are 2D bar codes that contain data. In order to read a QR code, a mobile phone user simply launches a reader on their device and takes a picture of the image. The software then triggers the appropriate response, which can include launching a URL in the phone’s browser or streaming a video or MP3.

While QR codes have mainly been used in Asia so far, they are beginning to gain more popularity throughout Europe and the United States.

The HR-focused magazine polled 262 HR professionals nationwide that utilize RPOs.

“We are thrilled to be recognized as a World Leader as a result of this survey, which was voted on by small and mid-size customers who realize that their hiring solutions need to be solved differently than in the enterprise space,” said John Younger, CEO, Accolo.  “Small and mid-sized companies require a more flexible delivery model, and this recognition is part of a broader trend of small and mid-sized companies looking leverage an outsourced model.  Our unique blend of process and technology allows us to support a market segment that has been largely overlooked by other RPO providers.”

Accolo offers a full-service recruiting solution that replaces or compliments the internal recruiting functions for companies in the software and technology, digital media and marketing, engineering and manufacturing, and sustainable enterprise industries.

Employers pay $50 to post a job on MBJ. When an applicant is hired, companies also pay 12 percent of the candidate’s salary to the job site.

Here’s the kicker: MBJ offers job seekers cash rewards to remove their resumes from job boards. Most likely job seekers will be reluctant to comply with such a request, especially in such a sluggish economy where people looking for a job want to get as much exposure as possible.

“With MoneyBackJobs.com, we wanted to give people a break from the standard, stuffy, and boring job board,” said CEO Mark Thomas. “Job seekers who use our site get cash for accepting a job, and employers pay substantially less for getting their pick of the talent pool. Both parties get incentives for making their listings exclusive to MoneyBackJobs.com. We’re pioneering a more efficient model for connecting job seekers and employeres that rewards both sides.

The concept of the sides sounds lot similar to NotchUp.com, in which companies pay job seekers for the opportunity to interview them. In this case, job seekers have a couple different ways to earn some extra cash. But does the site offer enough incentive to keep a monogamous relationship between job board and job seeker?

Thomas thinks so. “This will eventually result in a more efficient job market with businesses spending less money to attract the right talent and professionals getting bonuses for finding the jobs they want. When people get used to our rewards structure, it will be difficult for them to go anywhere else.”

“The addition of Vurv’s employees, products and domain expertise will enable us to enhance our solutions for customers, increase efficiencies and significantly expand our opportunities for growth,” said Michael Gregoire, Chairman and CEO of Taleo. “This acquisition reinforces our leadership position and commitment to delivering continued innovation to our growing customer base. The combined power of Taleo and Vurv will allow customers to better leverage the benefits of a unified talent management platform, providing a cohesive view of recruiting, performance, succession, and compensation to drive improved business results.

Taleo first announced it was acquiring Vurv on May 6. The completion of the acquisition comes after Vurv laid off 79 employees mid-June.

The combined companies serve over 3,400 customers around the world, including 48 of the Fortune 100, and more than 2,800 small and medium-sized businesses.

About 2,900 hiring managers and HR reps and 7,900 workers in private sector companies responded to the survey, which was conducted May 22 through June 13.

Thirty-four percent of employers reported that they have slowed or ceased hiring this year compared to 2007. Only 19 percent of employers expect the economy will improve in the second half of 2008. A larger percentage, 32 percent, predict that the economy will strengthen in the first half of 2009.

Twenty-six percent of employers said they would increase their number of full-time employees in Q2, which diminished to 24 percent in Q3. On the up side, only nine percent of employers predict a decrease in headcount in Q3, compared to the 13 percent in Q2.

According to the survey, recruiting is stronger in the South and West, with 28 percent and 27 percent of employers expected to add new staff. The Northeast and Midwest forecast 22 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Nineteen percent of the workers polled said that they are actively looking for a job. Among those not actively looking for jobs, 83 percent of workers said they would be open to a new opportunity.

A shortage of talented workers was also reflected in the survey. Thirty-five percent of employers reported that they have open positions that have proven difficult to fill.

Industries that are hiring include the IT industry, which says it will add 37 percent of employees to the roster, while retail is the lowest at 18 percent.

Over 68 percent of respondents said no, they were not satisfied, whether it’s due to pricing, technology, or lackluster results.

A whopping 75 percent of respondents said that resume databases do not uncover quality candidates. No surprise there, since finding the right person via a large database is like searching for a needle in a haystack. One might spend hours typing in various acronyms, adjectives, and well-worn phrases like “problem-solver” or “top earner 2007,” when they really wish that the perfect candidate could be packaged with praise and hand-delivered to their in-box with minimal leg work.

Job sites like craigslist, which offers free postings in many cities, are fast-becoming the preferred method of posting jobs over sites like Monster and Careerbuilder, which can cost anywhere from $115 to $300 per posting, as opposed to the $25 (or nothing) that craigslist charges.

According to Peter Weddle, 50,000 job boards are operating now and 110,000 are expected to be live by 2011. The gap between employers and job seekers is widening.

Employers have more choices that can be customized to suit their company’s needs. They will no longer need to fork over $30,000 for a standard pack of postings on a general job board, and another $2,000 to have access to a vast database that is like pawing through a giant pot of gumbo for that prized bite of shrimp.

Instead, according to the survey, which stated that 64 percent of HR reps would prefer a pay-for-quality pricing model over the traditional pay-per-post option, staffing and human resource professionals would either like the model of the traditional job board to be vastly improved upon, or they will be turning to niche job sites to find candidates in a less costly, time-consuming manner.

Rafael Cosentino, VP of Business Development for Realmatch, says because of the cooling economy and a general dissatisfaction when dealing with traditional job boards, hiring professionals are seeking more cost-effective approaches at a rapid rate, explaining why some job boards have shown a recent decline in purchases.

“Realmatch differentiates itself with technology, reach, features and pricing. The technology makes the process fast, the network provides access to lots of users in lots of industries, the features make the process simple and the pricing removes the risk because employers only pay if they decide to open the resume of a matching and interested candidate,” Cosentino said. “We believe our pricing model lets the genie out of the bottle by lowering the barrier and making it risk free for employers to post their jobs.”

One wonders why traditional job boards are still being utilized by any company, when considering the blazing ads, muddled resumes, and costly features that are in the end a detriment and a poor representation to the job seeker. Just as Marketing must present customer-focused, results-driven ideas to their clients, job boards need to do the same to keep their customers happy. No longer is it the case that one HR rep refers Monster to another; instead, HR is getting together over lunch to talk about another fruitless day spent searching through a job board database. And next year, they might be taking their budget dollars elsewhere.

Vurv was recently acquired by Taleo for 128 million dollars. The combined companies serve over 3,400 customers around the world, including 48 of the Fortune 100, and more than 2,800 small and medium-sized businesses.

Taleo expected the acquisition to close in the second quarter.

It’s one of the highest valuations for a Silicon Valley start-up since Facebook’s $15 billion dollar valuation by Microsoft last year.

With 23 million members in 150 countries, more than half overseas, LinkedIn has said it could generate as much as $100 million in revenue this year from premium subscriptions, blue-chip advertisers, job listings and corporate services.

The company has yet to address rumors of a possible buyout by Microsoft and News Corp.

“With the infusion of capital, LinkedIn is poised to roll out corporate services and explore potential acquisitions as it swiftly adds users, customers and employees,” Chief Executive Dan Nye said.

CEO Nye, who has been aggressively growing LinkedIn since he was hired in 2007, expanded the employee base from 60 to 300 in a little more than a year.
In May, LinkedIn was the fourth most popular social network with over 7 million U.S. users. The demographic of the average user is late 30s, early 40s, with an annual income of around $100,000.

Other tiers of pricing include an unlimited usage plan, which costs about $100 for six months, or a one month plan for $10.

MyCredentials recently launched its publisher program through Commission Junction with over 40 advertisers signed up through the program. It will also be launching a Podcast service to announce new user options.

The investment comes after Bullhorn achieved a 400 percent revenue growth rate during the past 3-year period. Bullhorn CEO and co-founder Art Papas discussed why the achievement was so important for Bullhorn, especially in their market space.

“With regards to the funding, I think it might be a record for the staffing and recruiting space,” Papas said. “I don’t know of any other company in our space that’s created this much capital, even inflation-adjusted, so it should have a real impact.

“Most of the capital investment will go towards developing and enhancing products and taking the products internationally, which will require new salespeople. Bullhorn will be recruiting very aggressively over the next 18 months, so the bulk of money will go towards people.”

Bullhorn began over 9 years ago during the dot-com era as an investment for venture capitalists. After a few shaky years, the company gained its footing in the marketplace and began to pick up steam mainly through referral-based business.

Papas said that a large part of their continued success can be attributed to a forum for their clients called Bullhorn Brainstorm, where users can make enhancement suggestions about the product which are then evaluated and voted on by other Bullhorn clients. Suggestions that receive the most votes are passed to a product manager for evaluation, enabling Bullhorn to quickly improve upon functionality and also remain in constant communication with users.

When asked if Bullhorn’s competition is also tapping into Web 2.0 capabilities, Papas said he was fairly certain that competitors are not utilizing new tools.

“I don’t think our competition knows what the Internet is yet,” Papas said. “They think it’s for buying books and selling your used stuff.”

In addition to bringing on new staff, Papas said Bullhorn will also be aggressively broadening their client base within the global market. Current targets are Australia and the United Kingdom, whose companies rarely employ in-house recruiters and typically rely on staffing agencies to fill vacancies.

“Much to the chagrin of our competitors, we will also be doubling our marketing budget to gain a larger footprint overseas, Papas said. “We have a goal of being the go-to recruiting software for search firms all over the world.”