While online recruiting practices in the UK are strong in areas such as employer branding, adoption rates for the more proactive search methodologies are not yet as high as in the US.

This is the verdict of Chris Foreman, chief executive of US-based recruitment technology and outsourcing specialist AIRS, which will be hosting its SearchLab 2008 advanced internet sourcing workshops in London in December.

"If you use the internet appropriately, it can make the process of recruitment more efficient but used inappropriately, it can push things backwards not forwards," he said. "Our research shows the UK market is not only ready for these tactics, but clamouring for them."

Some of the techniques taught in the workshop, such as x-raying and flipping, are designed to quickly search out passive candidates by inputting particular commands into search engines (see Recruiter's supplement Guide to e-Recruitment, March 2007).

US-based Bluespeed Technology is a search firm which focuses mainly on the IT consulting, healthcare and life sciences sectors. Its director of sourcing, Eric Gilson, has been using AIRS tools and techniques for more than five years. "This is the recruiting world — it's chaos, so anything that helps us bring some order to it is welcomed," he told Recruiter.

The SearchLab 2008: Internet Sourcing Redefined workshop will be held on 3 December in London. For more information, visit

www.airsdirectory.com

www.bluespeed.net