Inside Recruiting: A podcast with Don Ramer, Founder and CEO of Arbita 

"We're brothers of a different mother," - Shally Steckerl

Don Ramer

Don Ramer’s commitment to recruitment spans over 30 years. Back in the early 90’s driven by his vision of the relationship between proactive recruiting and the up-and-coming universe of online job boards, Don created the concept of a central marketplace that would streamline HR professionals’ connection to many vendors. In 1996 he and his partners launched RecruitUSA, Inc. and have since helped define web recruiting for many of the world’s premier employers through partnerships and knowledge management. Today, RecruitUSA is called Arbita, and recently, Arbita, and JobMachine, (owned by our friend Shally Steckerl), announced the companies were merging.

We’re delighted to have with us Arbita’s founder and CEO, Don Ramer for an exclusive interview on the merger between Arbita and JobMachine.

Questions Peter Clayton asked Don Ramer:

Tell us about Arbita - how does the company relate to your vision of a streamlined marketplace for recruiters?

Can you expand somewhat on the services Arbita provides its clients?

Do you work mainly with Fortune 500 companies?

So Shally has referred to your business partnership as “brothers of a different mother,” and you’ve referred to it as “two magnetic poles.” What is it and how will it benefit both of your organizations?

Will  the JobMachine brand still exist?

Don what’s your sense of the job market right now?

Are there any skills that are still in high demand?

I’m sure you’ve heard the standard job seekers complaints about the resume black hole - they submit - and wait - and hear nothing - or spend hours filling out these frustrating cookie-cutter ATS forms - and hear nothing. Is the recruiting industry doing anything to make this more human?

Do you think more companies are starting to view recruiting more strategically than transactionally - you know,  the "we need to put a body in a chair" mentality.


About Don Ramer:
(Source: Arbita)
Don Ramer’s commitment to recruitment spans over 30 years.  He began his career in executive search in 1974. Over the next 6 years he worked in both contingency and retainer environments serving as Assistant to the President at two AESC registered firms.

In 1980 he formed The Ramer Group a recruiting firm specializing in the placement of Data Security executives for major financial institutions in New York City. In 1986 he launched The Recruitment Research Institute and served as Executive Director.  Under the auspices of the Institute he began publication of a newsletter for the Human Resources community entitled The Alternative Employment Marketplace and delivered seminars throughout the US on “Improving Quality and Reducing Costs Through the Alternative Employment Marketplace.” Much of the Institute’s research was subsequently published and distributed by The Bureau of National Affairs.

In 1988 Don launched the Employment Management Group a high-level management consultancy focused on change management in recruitment and selection for very large employers. In addition to intensive review of recruitment and selection effectiveness, the EMG team planned, directed, organized and controlled recruitment and selection strategy, tactics, and operations on behalf of clients in the telecommunications and enterprise software industries.

In August of 1993, Don began working with the America Online Career Center to accelerate sales of their Online Recruitment Advertising products. Driven by his vision of the relationship between proactive recruiting and the up-and-coming universe of online job boards, Don created the concept of a central marketplace that would streamline HR professionals’ connection to many vendors.  In 1996 he and his partners launched RecruitUSA, Inc. and have since helped define web recruiting for many of the world’s premier employers through partnerships and knowledge management. 

About Arbita:
(Source: Company Web site)

We are an accomplished team led by subject matter experts.  Our core competencies include:

    * Corporate Recruiting & Change Management.
    * Business & Corporate Development.
    * Web Recruitment Media & Systems.
    * Platform Independent Middleware Solutions.
    * Systems Development & Project Management and
    * Operations & Technical Support.

We create and execute innovative recruitment media, technology and consulting solutions for many of the world’s most respected employers.

We work in an intense yet collegial atmosphere of mutual trust and respect. We believe that transformational leadership is the essence of change management.  Value flows from values in our culture and throughout our sphere of influence.

Our work produces measurable results for clients at the strategic, tactical and operating levels of their businesses. We add value for our partners by broadening their reach and deepening their market penetration. We improve the quality of people’s lives by delivering a world of opportunity through our matrix of relationships.

Arbita provides job posting distribution services, enabling companies to select the most productive places to post job openings from among thousands of different job boards around the world. The 30-person company tracks the results, providing recruiters data to help them maximize the ROI of their ad spending.
Job Machine works at the other end of the pole, teaching recruiters how to find and qualify candidates who might not even consider looking at a job board, let alone search for another job. Steckerl's five-person firm also consults with companies that want to develop a stronger sourcing component to their overall recruitment strategy.

Press Release Announcing Merger:

Arbita and JobMachine Join Forces
Merger Enhances Recruiting Capabilities for Customers
Minneapolis, MN – May 22, 2008 – The March Continues
Global organizations are well aware that dedication to acquiring top–quality candidates will enable them to thrive and grow in the midst of fierce competition. Finding efficient ways to directly recruit the best candidates are needed to stay ahead in the war for talent and control the cost of recruiting in today’s market.

Arbita, the Internet Recruitment Powerhouse, headquartered in Minneapolis, has merged with JobMachine to further empower its customers to hire more and better people faster. The merger will give customers access to an integrated line of services, combining job ad distribution and recruitment solutions with alternative methods for candidate sourcing.
Arbita’s customers will have access to workforce development and consulting services designed to add value to their sourcing and recruitment teams by developing their research skills. JobMachine’s renowned seminars, onsite workshops, webinars and strategic sourcing consulting will help customers to implement long–term internet recruitment capabilities. Customers will be better equipped to consistently mine top candidates using the best available techniques – enabling them to find talent not obtainable from mainstream sources.

"JobMachine delivers real value to the recruitment market by empowering practitioners and organizations with workforce development programs and consulting services that transform individuals and organizations,” says Don Ramer, Arbita’s CEO. "Shally’s research and thought leadership have changed the way that thousands of recruiters and hundreds of companies view Talent Acquisition Strategy and Recruiting Tactics,” he continued. "This merger flows from strategic alignment of vision for the industry our companies serve and the shared values of our leadership teams,” Ramer concluded.
"Arbita is defining industry standards through recruitment best practices,” says Shally Steckerl, Founder and Chief CyberSleuth of JobMachine. "The merger will further expand the ways in which customers pipeline talent. Our combined products and services will bring recruitment to the next level by adding core competencies in research and facilitating just-in-time sourcing from every possible channel. Through the merger we will enable our customers to obtain world class talent globally, and bring premium candidates to the right jobs with a high level of precision,” he continued.

About JobMachine
Founded in 1998, JobMachine provides consulting and training solutions for recruiters and recruiting agencies. JobMachine focuses on helping its customers build organizational capabilities around sourcing and research. It has architected sourcing and research teams at well over 160 Global 500 corporations and top Search Firms worldwide. JobMachine is based in Atlanta, GA and is located at www.jobmachine.net.

About Arbita
Since 1993 Arbita has posted jobs to job boards globally. It has provided services and recruitment advice to hundreds of customers. These include General Dynamics, eBay, Pfizer, and Cox Communications. Arbita partners with the HR-XML Consortium, the International Association for Human Resource Information Management, and the International Association of Employment Web Sites or IAEWS.  Arbita is based in Minneapolis, MN and is located at www.arbita.net.

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