Louise's UK Recruiter Blog

The Human Resources Forum at Savoy Place - 2nd November

The latest addition (sadly temporary) to the UK Recruiter team is off to a conference on our behalf.  Here is her pre conference pre amble! ...

On Tuesday of next week I am putting on my UK Recruiter’s roving reporter’s hat(!) and heading to Savoy Place to attend the annual Human Resources Forum.

The event is where over 100 senior HR practitioners, service providers and industry experts join together to debate the burning issues of the day, forge new partnerships and develop personal networks.

This event is a CPD certified event which means that any individual who attends can use this as part of their Continuing Personal or Professional Development program. This can go towards their self assessment and give structure to how they share the knowledge within their business.

The speakers lined up for the event are a mix of heavy hitters and inspirational types and I am personally interested to hear what they have to say given that we are in a state of change with new government and a fairly unstable economic outlook currently!

I won’t list the speakers – it’s a lot easier to link to the conference program however I am particularly looking forward to hearing Jacqueline Davies, Global Head of Talent, Performance & Resourcing, Barclays Retail Banking talking about The Truth about Talent.

Jacqueline took a sabbatical to research and write the book of the same title and her thoughts and views on talent management and how organisations should consider changing their strategies will be interesting.

I will be tweeting from the event using @UKRecruiter and @LisaScales so please keep an eye out and I will be writing a review of the conference here after Tuesday.

Lisa Scales is the MD of Talent on View. Talent on View provides recruitment technology software including Tribepad, an online community platform and a Video interviewing tool called Talent on View.

Free eBook for recruitment owners

Terry Edwards of Drew Coaching has written a really nice little eBook entitled "7 Reasons Why Most Small Independent Recruitment Businesses Fail And What To Do About It".

Some research they did showed that only 1.5% of recruitment business owners have been taught how to run a recruitment business.  I'm not sure what the "national average" amongst business owners in other sectors is but nevertheless that means 98.5% of recruitment business owners have never been taught how to run a successful business.

So the eBook looks at 7 key areas in which recruitment business owners go wrong and tells you how to succeed instead of fail.
 
I have to say (as with most of these things) it's lots of common sense.  However, I would strongly recommend you take the time to read it.  Yes, we all know you should set goals (chapter one) but as Terry points out "despite all the information available about this subject, I’ve found over the years that in fact most recruitment business owners have not set goals for their business".

So pop over to his site, download the book and READ IT!

Summary of impact of spending review on recruitment industry

There have been quite a few industry comments on this week's spending review so I thought it might be useful to link to a few of them:

- REC response to Chancellor’s Comprehensive Spending Review
- Headline CSR figures understate full impact of spending cuts on public sector jobs (from CIPD)
- Comprehensive Spending Review 2010: key points for HR (from XpertHR)
- Comprehensive Spending Review: 490,000 public-sector jobs likely to go (HR Magazine)

If you've got any more please feel free to add in the comments.

Remember Remember the 4th November

I did briefly mention the National Online Recruitment Awards event recently but as they are such a big event in our calendar I thought I'd give them another shout out.  As with previous years UK Recruiter are hosting the awards ceremony for the NORAs. 

It's taking place on the 4th November in central London.  We've got a really nice venue and it's looking like it's going to be a great evening.  Don't worry though - it's not too formal (black tie/ball gowns are unnecessary) and we'll be keeping time for plenty of the networking you've come to expect from our events.

The bonus is that Bill Boorman is going to be running one of his legendary #tru (these use the twitter hashtag and the tru stands for The Recruitment Unconference) events during the day on the 4th; #trunoras.  It's not actually directly connected with our event but Bill has set up a programme which ties in superbly with the theme of the NORAs: the candidate experience.  It's a day long event, there are 12 different tracks (sessions) that you can dip in and out of as you wish.   Based on past events it's going to be an interesting, full on and buzzing event. 

Hope to see you at both #trunora and the Awards event on the 4th.

 

 

Private Sector Employees Considering Public Sector Switch

According to a totaljobs.com public sector survey, 97.11 per cent of private sector employees would think about a move to the public sector.

With the economy's recovery remaining uncertain, almost a third (30.6 per cent) of those considering the public sector said that job security is the most important consideration ahead of securing a new position.

By contrast, just 12.24 per cent of respondents believe pay is the leading factor, while a meagre 4.03 per cent cited their pension as the most important thing to bear in mind.

It appears that individuals are remaining realistic about salary expectations too, with the most common wage bracket in the public sector being between £15,000 and £20,000.

Almost a quarter (23.06 per cent) of respondents said they would be happy with a salary between these figures, while a further 21.57 per cent said they expected to earn between £20,000 and £25,000 in public sector jobs.

Despite the findings, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) recently announced that public sector employment had decreased by 22,000 during the second quarter of this year compared to the previous three months. However, employment in public corporations increased by 1,000.

The ONS also revealed that employment in the private sector increased by 308,000 during the same period of time.

Careers in the public sector are markedly varied, with professions including teaching, nursing, the emergency services and the armed forces. However, according to totaljobs.com's poll, the most popular roles are within local government, with 53.24 per cent of respondents interested in a position in this field.

These roles aren't limited to governance, though. Local councils are responsible for environmental protection, sports facilities, rubbish and recycling collections and traffic and parking control; all areas that require a team of employees.

Many potential recruits are also believed to be drawn to the NHS, which remains Europe's largest employer with more than one million members of staff. While the immediate positions that spring to mind are doctors, nurses and medical staff, the NHS also has a large administration team and maintenance, cleaning, security and catering departments.

Almost half (48.1 per cent) of respondents to totaljobs.com's survey said they were interested in jobs in London and the South East. Both regions have among the UK's lowest unemployment rates.

With London and the South East being the most densely populated region of the country, there is a constant demand for teachers; a field that many people made redundant from the private sector are retraining in. There are vacancies right the way from nursery through to university.

A further trend the totaljobs.com survey revealed was the emerging popularity of job sharing. Over half (52.06 per cent) of its survey's respondents said they would be willing to share a position if it meant securing it. While this is common in the banking and insurance industries, job sharing has also become commonplace in the teaching and library professions.

With so many diverse opportunities available in the public sector, jobseekers should always keep their minds open to switching away from private employment.

The Apprentice in a snapshot

Feel like you are missing out if you aren't watching The Apprentice?
 
It does feel like the entire world is watching The Apprentice.  However, for various reasons not ALL of us are managing to watch it.  If like me you want to know the gist of what is happening and get all those useful "business takeaways" of information then I have a solution.
 
As in previous years Gavin Ingham is doing a weekly roundup on his blog (and in his email newsletter).
 
It's a really great way of catching the highlights (and lowlights!) from the show.
 
The format for the posts is to give a very good overview of the entire show but to also share his main sales tips.
 
From the first week these were:
 
Sales training tip 1: Do not have an ego bigger than a house.
Sales training tip 2: Plan your sales campaign meticulously.
Sales training tip 3: Protect your core selling activities like a bear with a honey pot.
Sales leadership tip of the week: Set high targets, be an over-achiever, be inclusive and involve your teams.
 
To be honest, even if you are actually watching the programme I'd suggest you read Gavin's blog posts on it!
 
 

Social Recruiting Conference

 
My very good friend Alan Whitford is organising a social recruiting conference on the 30th November (in London) and I think you should go.
 
 What?  You want more information?  Ok.
 
So, Alan is working with a chap called Vic Okezie to host a conference which focusses on social recruiting case studies - with measurable ROIs.   What Alan found is that while there is a lot of talk about the subject of social recruitment what can be lacking are those real case studies of social media recruitment within UK and European organisations.  Nothing wrong with conferences that tell you HOW to use Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc or WHY to use them.  However, it's got to be useful to hear HOW and WHY and with what RESULTS other organisations have used them.
 
The focus is around how these social media tools can be (are being) used for employer branding, engaging with and attracting talent.

His speakers include:

Matthew Jeffery, Global Talent Brand Director, Electronic Arts
Jennifer Candee, Group Head of Talent Acquisition, SABMiller
Colin Minto, Global Head of Resourcing, G4S Plc
Lennart Sloof, e-Recruitment Manager, Deloitte NL
Jon Ingham, Former HR Director, EY & Owner, Strategic HCM
Mel Carson, Community Manager, Microsoft Advertising
Marie Pavelka, European Recruitment Manager, Cummins
Sedef Buyukataman, University Relations Manager, Cisco EU/EMEA
Ted Meulenkamp, Global Program Manager Attraction and Sourcing, Roche

If you want to find out more you'll need to visit the website or the Facebook page or the LinkedIn group or view the Twitter hashtag: #SRCONF
 
One final thing .... uk recruiter readers save 10% when you register with the code UKR10 on the registration page: http://srconf.eventbrite.com/ 

NORA & MARA Events

I've been busy this last week sorting out final details for our Recruitment Directors Networking event.

However, I wanted to mention two other events which are coming up. 

The first one is the National Online Recruitment Awards (which we are co-hosting) which takes place on the 4th November in central London.   I've done my judging bit for that and registration is open (you can book your tickets here: http://www.eventelephant.com/recnet4nov ) so I'm looking forward to a superb evening in a few weeks time.

The second event is the Marketing & Advertising Recruitment Awards 2010 (MARA), organised by Simon Lewis of Only Marketing Jobs.  The awards have only been esetablished this year but have had lots of interest and it's looking like it'll be a glittering event.  You can find out more and book tickets on their event site at http://mara2010-rss.eventbrite.com/

Hope to see you at one or both events!

 

Pick of the Blogs - Recruitment Dad

Just like last week's Pick of The Blogs (My Hell is Other People from The HRD) this one is anonymous.  Recruitment Dad’s blog is written by a very nice chap who has over 15 experience within the recruitment industry (he is agency/consultancy side rather than inhouse).  Reading his blog it won't surprise you to find that more recently he has specialised in training. 

The blog has is a mix of training type articles plus and advice and tips for recruiters.  Some of my favourites posts are

- Unique Selling Points in Recruitment

- How Recruiters Deal with Counter Offers

- Candidate Care, It Makes Money...

I find his blog posts very well written - nice training snippets in blog format!

I'll be picking another superb blog soon. 

blah blah the CV is dead

Honestly everywhere I look (or listen) someone is going on about how the CV is dead; how we need to look beyond mere profile + responsibilities & achievements = candidate. 

Yep, I get all that. You want to "experience" the candidate through the media of the internet (blogs, twitter feed, social media contribution, etc).  Yes the majority of CVs are boring, and yes I am aware that you can't expect a headhunt candidate to have an up to date CV.  Obviously I do also get that many (maybe even most) recruiters google candidates, check them out on LinkedIn, etc.

BUT (and I know I shouldn't start a sentence with but) I'd like to see your average recruitment professional screen 70 applicants for a Store Manger role or a Distribution Manger job without CVs. Recruiters would soon be complaining if for every candidate you interviewed you had to spend the first 20 minutes getting them to talk you through their career history because they had no CV.  And let's not ignore the fact that for most of you your client (or hiring manager) DOES like to see a CV at shortlist stage.  What are you going to present instead?  A print off from LinkedIn?  A few pages from their blog?  Their Twitter feed on your iPhone?!!

So, stop saying the flippin CV is dead!