Louise's UK Recruiter Blog

I've had a BeKnown Brainwave

After yesterday's post I have been thinking a bit more about BeKnown.  It’s not that I think it’s rubbish; I actually think it’s quite clever.  What I think  has been making me grumpy about it is that I think it’s a wasted opportunity.  It’s like having your hair done, buying new frock and looking really amazing just to spend the evening staying in with your parents.  It’s cool technology on a enormously utilised platform BUT it’s just for one job board. 
 
It would be brilliant if you could use BeKnown to locate jobs from ALL the job boards and ALL the corporate sites; I wish Indeed had invented it.   But they didn’t (don’t get me wrong – I like Monster BTW). 

I was having a mini rant to Stephen O’Donnell earlier when he came up with the real brainwave (as Indeed can’t invent something already invented)... why don’t Monster integrate with all the other job boards and corporates and use BeKnown as a gateway to the world of work.  See, genius!!

Have you heard of the Independent Recruiting Group?

Don’t say it...... “not another recruitment industry body!!”
 
Well, they say categorically no!  They aren't getting involved in the politics or trying to change the industry as a whole.. they just want to support independents and anyone looking to start up for the first time. 
 
I had a chat with founder Sean O’Donoghue and this is what he told me:
 
There are two parts to the Independent Recruiting Group (IRG).  The first part IRG-Socialise is their “association” for independent recruiters.  The second element is for independent recruiters wanting to set up for the first time and wishing to be part of a managed service type network.  They become an IRG Recruiter; offering them back office support (email, website, credit control, etc) for a small percentage of the fees they bill (this is lower than most of the managed service systems and is capped).
 
The bit which I was most interested in is the IRG network.  They were ready to launch in January this year, but with all the whoha around IOR they decided to be absolutely certain they had all their ducks in order before hitting the market.  The basics are:
 
Membership is for owner/managed businesses with up to 10-15 staff
It’s free to join
It’s a support network
IRG is operated as a not for profit business.  They are currently working towards being a Community Interest Company (this is a new type of registered business designed for social enterprises that want to use their profits and assets for the public good).
They have 65 agencies at present and are looking to have 500 by the end of the year
 
The whole thing feels a bit more community driven than the REC or IOR.  They are more about support and less about membership, enforced codes of conduct and regulations.  In many ways they are a lot like the TEAM network which I’ve always thought beaver a way for good.
 
However, very much like REC and IOR they are talking with confidence. They intend to go global and have a strong impact within their sector of the recruitment market.
 
If you are an independent feeling like a bit of support wouldn't go a miss – check them out (ps, they are also on the look out for Regional Directors....).  They are on Twitter too if you want connect there.
 
 

BeKnown isn't doing it for me!

I’ve seen a fair bit of Twitter chat about BeKnown and after an initial thought that I really couldn’t be bothered with ANOTHER social network I decided to ditch the attitude and take a look.

Beknown is a Facebook app from Monster which allows you to create a professional/business profile for you and allows you to connect with people you know.  It’s a bit like LinkedIn on Facebook.

You follow the process through (adding a summary, skills, experience, etc) in order to complete your profile.  Even though part of this can be imported from LinkedIn I had deja vu doing this. 

And as I was doing this I was wondering what the point of it was. 

- It allows jobseekers to find jobs without leaving Facebook..... but just jobs that are posted on Monster... right?
- It creates a CV that you can use to apply for jobs with
- You can get endorsed by your contacts when applying for jobs
- You can post jobs (for free) to your first and second degree contacts (I like this bit – assuming you have a decent number of contacts).
- You collect “badges” for certain achievements (maybe that’s what put me off – I’m not really a gold star type of girl!)

From what I hear from geeks (and I use that word as a compliment) the app is really cool and sophisticated.  I’ve also read reviews from people I respect (including the lovely Jim Stroud) saying that it’s a great app. 

However, to me it seems limited.  It sits within Facebook, it’s all about vacancies on Monster and I found the process annoyingly duplicative.

If your experience is different or you think I’m totally missing the point please share your thoughts and if you want to give it a go there is a step by step guide on About.

The Apprentice - Week Eight Roundup

This week's roundup is very kindly via BlueSky PR.

This week’s instalment of the Apprentice celebrated national stereotypes with the typical Brits abroad dodgy ‘Allo ‘Allo accents creating embarrassing viewing. Lord Sugar challenged the teams to introduce British products to the French market. So with baggage and egos checked in, the teams were off to Paris.

The first part of the task was to choose products to take over to France. Susan, as team captain for Venture ran through the product room in a whirlwind. She had no clue what she was doing, evident by her beyond stupid questions, “Do the French care about their kids?” and “do they drive?”. Karen Brady couldn’t believe what she was hearing and neither could I!

As project manager for team Logic, Tom took a different approach, slowly analysing each product and their margins. As well as team Venture, Tom also had his eye on the star product, a booster seat that doubled as a backpack. However this idea was quickly poo poo’d by French speaking Melody who much preferred the idea of a teapot light! After being instructed to conduct some market research by Tom, irrelevant of her feelings of the products Melody claimed that the light was the better option regardless of the comments made by the French commuters.

As the second day began, both teams set off to sell their products to the French masses. Melody refused to share with the other children and threw her toys out of the pram in a tantrum when Tom tried to divide up the visits set up the previous day. Tom however couldn’t bear to deal with a sulking Melody and caved in, leaving himself and Natasha to go to the major pitch presentation and Melody and her lapdog for the day, Leon, going to all the meetings.

Team Venture, however worked as a team. At their presentation to the French retail giant, Helen nailed her pitch like a pro, whereas Susan simply demonstrated that she can fit in a child’s booster seat! After succeeding with the retailers, Susan and Helen utilised the time remaining by scouring the streets, stopping at a mobile phone shop on the off chance. This tactic paid off as they managed to sell 1500 mobile/ipod grips.

At the end of the final day in Paris, Melody happily proclaimed “I should move to Paris and do business here.” I’ll start the whip-round for the ferry ticket myself!

Back in Blighty and in the boardroom…

As the results came in Team Venture annihilated Team Logic as Helen’s amazing pitch scored a record-breaking 214,000 Euro order. Tom decided to bring back Melody to the boardroom for her bossy behaviour and Leon for his contribution to the task or lack thereof.

Melody pointed out that she made the sales on the day but failed to convince the judges that she didn’t take over, “I let Leon sell the teapots…” Karen Brady raises an eyebrow, “You let him?”

It wasn’t looking good for Leon either as the boardroom bitchiness continued. Karen wasn’t impressed with his efforts and asked him what else he had done except for drawing a sketch of a teapot light during the market research stage of the task – it turns out he did nothing else! However the judges seemed equally appalled by Tom’s behaviour on the task. They were gobsmacked to hear that Tom refused to select a candidate for the pitch and instead played Rock, Paper Scissors to decide. Slick… Ha! And these are supposed to be the ‘business elite’

Lord Sugar seemed impressed with Melody though, “She is a tiger! Take a leaf out of her book, she’s fighting to win. She is ruthless; she’ll eat them up and spit them out! She’ll step on anyone and that’s what I like about her really…” Personally I thought she should have gone. She lied through her teeth and she wasn’t a team player at all! All good qualities for a future business partner I think Lord Sugar! However it was useless Leon that was made to get the black cab home and was fired.

You should also check out Gavin Ingham's equally good summary.

 

Creating your own (vanity) URL shortener

This is a guest post written for us by James Mayes.

There's been a little more noise recently around the use of vanity URL shorteners.  I've had one for some time, mostly because there were some scare stories a while back about the security of the pages hiding behind these links. I figure if the link is tweeted by James Mayes, and contains the domain jmay.es - it's pretty clear I did it intentionally and am responsible for anything behind it.  Noticing a recent rise in interest, I offered to write up a very loose guide for Louise....

1. Start with http://domai.nr/  - enter the name of your business, your personal name, your blog, etc. It will then come up with suggestions of possible short domains you might like. It'll indicate beside each suggestion (with a green square) whether that domain might be available.  Domai.nr will help you purchase these domains if you wish - I guess affiliate marketing for domain registrars is their revenue model.

2. Buy your domain.  You can use the domai.nr recommendation above, or any number of other domain registration services. Three noticeable differences between domain registration services at this point: (a) it's a price-competitive market (b) the ease of use of the domain management tool and (c) the level of customer service available if you need help. Like anything, you get what you pay for.  I'm very happy with the provider I currently use, but I'm not about to pitch them on someone else's blog - so come ask me on Twitter if you're stumped for ideas.

3. Obtain a http://bitly.com/ account.  Bit.ly are one of the main url shortener services out there and are well-respected. They've had the capability to support personal short URL's for a while now, but only on private beta accounts (yes, I was lucky). Now though, it's open to all, as part of their regular free account. Create/sign in to an account, go to Settings, then down to Custom Short Domain. From here, bit.ly will talk you through the detail of verifying ownership of your main site (ownership validation).  Once done, you can use you the new shortener for both your own site, but also for any other links you wish to share.

So why do it? As I explained above, there's a trust/ownership element to it. More than that though, if you choose the domain right, and other people then share or retweet it further, it can help your brand to spread.  Finally, the bit.ly analytics are pretty good. I can see not only how many times MY link has been clicked, but also how many times bit.ly has directed other traffic to that destination. By using the Chrome plug-in from bit.ly, I'm also notified by a pop-up if a link I shared starts trending - and of course, I can set thresholds on that so I can adjust sensitivity accordingly.

So, costs? Domai.nr is free, as is bit.ly - the only cost I've experienced in the last 6 months is in registering the actual domain.  You should note here that some countries are getting very commercial around the values of short domain names.  Mine was an early one, and thus (I think!) cost me about $20 - but a friend of mine checked out a short URL for his company name, and was quoted well over $2,000!  Those values are largely driven by the country you're registering in - so if it seems expensive, get creative with your name/brand. If you need to know which country the domain belongs to, just Google the final couple of letters.

Finally - there are other ways. I know a couple of proud geeks who've enjoyed writing their own code for a personal domain shortener, rather than using bit.ly - feel free.  I use the method above because it requires nothing more than a cut n paste of HMTL code for the ownership validation described in step 3. The only limitation I've found is that I can't redirect the home page too. My short-links work fine, but if you try visit jmay.es as a home page, you'll get bit.ly - still I owe them a bit of publicity, it's not like they charge me ;-)

According to his Twitter profile James is a .... Dad. Gadget-fan. Adrenalin junkie. Outdoors beats indoors. Recruitment industry. Head of Client Solutions for BraveNewTalent. Curate @SocRecFeed & @HRBlogFeed

The Apprentice - Week Seven Roundup

This week's roundup is very kindly via Gavin Ingham. 

So, we’ve reached week 7 of The Sales Apprentice and tonight’s task was to create a Freemium (Free Premium Magazine) and then sell as much advertising space as possible. The team selling the most ad space would win the task. Tonight’s team leaders were selected by Lord Alan, Jim leading Venture and Natasha leading Logic, speaking to the teams this week from a balcony way above them and I couldn’t help but think that the ultimate winner of the show might be advised to get used to exactly this sort of “partnership”.

With only a few hours to complete this task the teams quickly got down to discussing the potential markets. Natasha and team decided to plump for a lad’s magazine with a business element to it. This was partly their idea and partly down to a focus group of rugby players saying that they wanted a more intelligent magazine without the nudity. The magazine quickly became called “Covered”.

Over on Jim’s team they decided to go for the over-60’s market and set off, stereotypes at the ready, to talk to a focus group. I guess when you’re 20 something 60 does seem incredibly old but the whole concept of active retirement seemed to have passed the whole of team Venture by. They just couldn’t seem to get their heads around the fact that people of 60 weren’t about to die and thought their concept that people of that age weren’t was a new idea!!

These two decisions about the magazines and the implementation of them would prove to be the critical piece in today’s show. No amount of selling or negotiating can sell the wrong idea. No amount of influence and persuasion can persuade professional buyers who know their markets to buy a dud. No amount of word foreplay or slippery, shouldered, sales talk (Jim!) can polish a turd.

Sales training tip: Know your client. Know your client. Know your client. I was amazed that all of the chat in selecting the magazines was about the concept. It should have been all about the readers and the advertisers…

Who would read this magazine? Why would they read it? What would they be interested in? What product placement would fit in this magazine? Who would want to advertise in it and why? How did this demographic fit in with the clients of the three buyers they were imminently to meet? If they did ask these questions, we never heard them.

Over on team Natasha things were not running smoothly. All of the team seemed to be behind the concept of business without the nudity however Natasha seemed obsessed with boobs, stating at one point that, “Porn sells.” True, but not your concept, Natasha. Photographing girls in their lingerie under Tom’s (?) suit jacket and glasses and touting a potential title, “How do you blow your load?” (translated as, “How do you spend your cash?”) the implementation was more Stringfellow than Jobs and the cover wouldn’t have looked out of place next to Nuts magazine…

And you know, it may well have been that the magazine needed the smut but the fault here was with the lack of clarity of purpose of the team…

Sales leadership tip: If you want to be a great leader and you want to inspire and lead your staff you need a clarity of vision. That doesn’t mean that you know what you’re doing! It means that you AND your team know what you’re doing and that you’re all pulling in the same direction.

On Natasha’s team, this most definitely was not the case with Natasha and her team having very different visions of what they were trying to achieve…

But the problems on Natasha’s team were far overshadowed by those on Jim’s team where they could not even get their title or concept right. This was in the main part because the team clearly thought that 60 was really old and that any 60 year old owning a mobile phone that did more than make a call was seriously hip, hop and happening. The titles they suggested for the magazine were not only unimaginative, they were also laughable. And that’s exactly what the focus group did!

Desperately seeking a new title Zoe suggested “Coffin Dodgers.” A silver-handled affair made of teak narrowly missed Nick’s head as he spat out another wasp he’d been chewing. “Everyone thinks you die at 60,” volunteered Zoe suggesting that the concept of people over 60 having a life was something new. Do these Apprentices not have grandparents? Who the heck thinks that anyone dies at 60?

Deciding to go down the route that once you have eliminated any sensible alternatives you need to pick the first daft thing that comes into your head, Venture decided to call their magazine “Hip Replacement.”

What?

Yep! You heard it right… “Hip Replacement.” Seriously! Task lost. End of.

From this point on, I could see little hope for Jim and team. This title made “Coffin Dodgers” look inspired. Jim, who I am rapidly deciding needs to get fired (more later…), set about roping the team into this decision, something he is very good at. On the face of it, he makes it look like he is getting their agreement and input, but in reality he is purely covering his ass! The only member of the team to not agree was Suzy but, even after being told to stand up for herself in the boardroom last week, she said that she would go along with it. She needs to be careful. Having the right idea and not sticking up for it could well prove to be far more fateful in Lord Alan’s eyes than cocking it up but having the cahones to stand up for your ideas…

Ideas completed, articles sourced and magazine printed, the teams put their heads together to craft their sales pitches. Jim beseeched his team to volunteer to make the pitch and threw his hands up when no-one volunteered. He really does have the slipperiest shoulders. If he was a pirate his parrot would need crampons and pick axes…

Sales Pitch 1:

Picture this… Leon standing next to a huge picture of a semi-naked girl with the title “Covered” and saying that their magazine was a lad’s magazine with business and without the pictures of naked girls! Hmmm…

Next up, Jim pitched “Hip Replacement”. The buyers looked bemused and asked about favourable rates. Jim said that it was full rates or no ratesl. The buyers looked even more bemused but not half as bemused as the rest of Jim’s team.

Sales training tip: Negotiation is an important part of selling. Most salespeople make poor negotiators. They give away too much, too easily and fail to create win win solutions. Many salespeople need to stand their ground more. But there are times when you need to negotiate, times when you need to strike a deal, times when the buyer needs to know that you have done something for them, times when the particular client, etiquette and/or custom dictate that you negotiate. This was one of them and Jim failing to do so was arrogant (stupid).

Sales Pitch 2:

With a budget of £1 billion client spend Natasha couldn’t stop herself interrupting Leon and the whole pitch lacked professionalism and coherence.

Sales training tip: Don’t undermine your team. When making sales presentations work together, work with each other, support each other. Behaving in front of your prospects in a way that suggests that you do not trust your colleagues to say the right thing (e.g. interrupting them mid flow) will do little for your client’s confidence in you.

Jim’s team did little to shine in their presentation either and it was on to…

Sales Pitch 3:

With team Jim failing to shine (again) it was all down to what team Natasha could do with “Covered” and Natasha having lost faith in Leon decided to step up herself to make the sales presentation… and this proved to be a double-edged sword…

On the one hand, her presentation was awful, yeah? I mean it was really not good, yeah? And not slick at all, yeah? And if she said yeah again yeah, I would have turned the TV off. And it was also crass, “Let’s face it. A lot of guys like to get a bit of dollar in their pocket, yeah, to impress the ladies.”

I have many great clients in recruitment and know many impressive individuals in recruitment and I was not impressed…

BUT…

Her pitch was closer to the ACTUAL magazine they had produced. Not the one they had said they were going to produce, nor the one that the rest of the team wanted to produce BUT THE ONE that she did actually produce. More of a magazine for LADS who want to THINK they like business rather than people who actually are in business. More X-Factor wannabe than proven business mogul.

In the Boardroom…

“Tell me who you think the potential advertisers are?” Asked Lord Alan. FINALLY! Someone asking the right question!

The results were in…

Pitch 1: Logic £9k, Venture £12k.
Pitch 2: Logic £7.5k, Venture £16,850.
So, two wins but still anybody’s game… until…
Pitch 3: Logic £0, Venture £60k for the whole magazine.

Slam dunk and team Natasha headed off to poke each other with sticks (fencing) yeah and to celebrate their business prowess… yeah!

Back in the Boardroom…

Jim was quick to blame Zoe for one of the main mistakes, the name of the magazine. He admitted that they all agreed it but insisted that it was her idea. I wanted to reach down the TV and tell Teflon Jim that this was really rather similar to him being blamed for coming up with a name in a previous task and that he had said that it was only brainstorming and that it was down to the team leader who approved it. But I’ll have to settle for writing it here…

Jim might be good at building rapport, doing cheeky deals and using language to deflect potential objections but he needs to step up and take responsibility.

He elected to bring back Suzy and Glenn…. Suzy because she’s only 21 and Glenn because he’s an engineer. Jim criticized both Suzy and Glenn but had his sights fixed firmly on Suzy. Glenn wavered in his support of Jim until Jim caught him broadside in a slight of Suzy, “You’re just marginally worse than Glenn,” he said and then got it both barrels from Suzy and Glenn.

But Lord Alan had had enough, “Jim, you’ve got slippery shoulders but despite what I said about you the other week son I can’t sack you yet ‘cause there are other idiots to sack first. Suzy, you’re young and all that but I hate engineers ‘cause they ‘aint business peeps so Glenn son you is sacked.”

If you’re an engineer and you’ve done well in business send your complaints to Lord Sugar… and if you’re thinking about applying for The Apprentice, think again… Lord Alan has already made his mind up, “I’ve never yet met an engineer who can turn his head to business.”

Line of the week from Lord Alan to Glenn, “I was wondering if you’re one of those people who think that “Only Fools & Horses” was a business documentary?”

 You should also check out The Apprentice Episode 7 – It’s just not punny anymore from BlueSky PR.

Bullhorn 2011 UK Staffing and Recruiting Trends

In December 2010, after several years of conducting a worldwide survey of recruiting professionals, Bullhorn performed its first UK-specific survey seeking data and insights into recruitment agencies’ performance, goals and business practices, as well as individual remuneration. We helped them to collect some of this data so we get to share the results first!
 
Overall, UK recruitment professionals are optimistic that 2011 will see a continuation of the business growth they saw in 2010. Many UK respondents reported taking a "back-to-basics approach" to best take advantage of continuing market recovery. Here's the summary:

In 2010 the UK and other prominent world economies started showing new signs of life. This renewal extended into the staffing and recruiting industry, with 88 percent of UK respondents reporting that their agencies either met or exceeded their revenue goals, and 69 percent predicting further revenue growth in 2011. Similarly, nearly half say that their salary increased in 2010 over the prior year. Overall, the data shows that UK respondents were slightly less exuberant about their industry’s growth prospects than their worldwide counterparts – but the vast majority still predict accelerated growth in 2011.
 
Key Findings
• 88 percent of respondents report that their agencies either met or exceeded 2010 revenue goals.
• 69 percent believe their agency’s revenue will increase in 2011.
• The average placement ratio for respondent agencies was 33.2 percent.
• 88 percent report using social media for sales or recruiting efforts in 2010, and 79 percent report an increase in social media focus in 2011.
• Nearly half of respondents report that their total salary increased in 2010 over 2009.
• 75 percent believe their take home pay will increase in 2011.
• Three out of four respondents plan to add staff to their business in 2011.
 
The report is jam packed full of interesting information, from how consultants are measured to effective sourcing methods and the best methods for client acquisition.  It’s well worth getting hold of a copy.
 
 

My Dilemma – Women’s Only Networking

Last week I was invited to the launch of a women’s only networking event.  It’s established by a very successful and well known woman in conjunction with a very successful brand of women’s products. 

My dilemma? 

Well, for as long as I can remember I’ve felt that women’s only networking is just kind of wrong.  But, with the arrival of this invitation I wondered if I hadn’t really given it enough consideration and that maybe I shouldn’t damn it until I’ve tried it.  Or at least explored the pros and cons. 

So to that end I sought out two individuals with apposing opinions on the subject and asked them to contribute their thoughts:

Pro Women’s Only Networking

This from BlueSky PR (who you may notice from the links get invovled in some women only networking groups)

• In traditional male dominated industries, women only networking groups can do wonders for women who may often struggle to make an impact in their profession . For example, womenintechnology.co.uk has been instrumental in supporting women within the IT sector take steps to break through the glass ceiling.
• It is no secret that networking groups,  can often be dominated by men. Many women entering  such networks may feel intimidated and as a result not get the most out of  the experience, or worse still not return. Women only networks have allowed females who may feel this way share values, and learn from like minded females in a non intimidating environment.
• Women only networks provide members with vital role models. Currently, there are far too few female role models within business, networking groups that are run by successful female business leaders can provide guidance and inspiration to others through real life examples.
•  There are also plenty of online women only networking groups which have provided a private environment for women to share issues relating to their careers openly without the fear of being seen incapable, or ill informed by their male colleagues. Take the Women in Recruiters LinkedIn Group run by Lothbury Recruitment. This has proven to be a successful platform for women in the recruitment industry to share knowledge and discuss gender related issues .
•  Women Networking groups are a great place to find a mentor. Women attending the same networking group do so because they share something – this might mean they work in the same sector, are from the same area, or share the same beliefs.
•  Women networking groups can be a platform for women to discuss and seek advice on issues that simply don’t apply to men. For example – returning to work following maternity leave.

Against Women’s Only Networking

This from Gail Sampson, MD of Knockbuckle Associates:

As a woman in business, I get quite tetchy when people suggest women only events – I don’t know why I am so averse to them, but they do not seem to resonate with me, or my business, for the following reasons:

• Discrimination: working in recruitment, this is something we have to be so aware of – sloppy advertising, a poorly executed assessment centre can lead to all sorts of trouble.  Attending these “women only” events strikes me as hypocritical.
• Market Share: looking at my LinkedIn Connections, which have all been made added for the good of my business network, over 70% of these are male.  This would suggest that in my day to day business, networking with men is a strong move.  Attending events where only a minority of my target audience will be makes no sense.
• Networking Styles: this may be down to the type of women only event I have attended, but there has always been a tendency of chasing the quick sale, rather than the long term business relationships.  As recruitment is a long term relationship, this feels unnatural to my networking style.
• Life Experience: in spite of attending an all girls school from age 9 until 16, I have always been taught that life was an even playing field.  GCSEs, A Levels, Degrees, Vocational and Professional qualifications have all been taken and assessed in a genderless way – why should women go against this in the business world?
• Personal Choice: I like male company and always have done (is this where I add that I am happily married?) – I have close female friends, but I enjoy mixed company the most socially.  Why change this in the workplace?
• Networking is the lifeblood of my business and I love it – I have found mixed networking to be the most rewarding – both in business terms and personal terms for the reasons stated above. 

Gail has said that she is open to being shown "the error of my ways", and I'm open to feedback/comments too.

In the meantime I’m going to think on what to do about that invite over the weekend!

The Apprentice Reviews

Unfortunately Chris Bates is no longer able to continue writing his Apprentice roundups for us. 
 
If you want to take over his spot, and can commit to continuing until the end of the series, please drop me a note.
 
However, if you are missing his commentary you can read superb reviews on the Lander Associates Blog as well as from Gavin Ingham. 

Feedback from our first Technology Showcase Event

At the end of May we ran our first technology showcase event.  The format was 2 speakers, 10 technology presentations and as much networking time as we could squeeze into an afternoon.  In order to showcase the number of products that we had each presentation had to be done in 5 minutes.  This meant that they were lovely and succinct. 

The feedback was very very positive with 96% of respondents saying they enjoyed the event (this actually made me a bit sad as we’ve had 100% positive feedback to our Directors Only events!).

 

Some of the comments we got were:

• A very well attended event.  Good idea about the speed introductions and would suggest a longer period of that next time.
• Overall, a good event and was very helpful to us. 
• A good event. has opened up some possibilities for the company to look into different technologies. 
• Very enjoyable thanks 
• Really interesting and great to hear about what is going on without being forced into an hour's sales pitch.

It seems likely that we’ll run a similar event later this year. 

However, if you want to come to one of our events before the summer hols you can either attend the evening networking on the 23rd June, or if you are a Director of a recruitment firm why not come along to our next Directors Only Networking on the 14th July. 

What should headhunters do when “caught”?

I have my own opinion this but thought I’d see what other people think.  This is the situation:

You are a headhunter (or recruitment resourcer/researcher).  You are name sourcing/contacting within a particular organisation.  The HRD of that organisation gets wind of your actions and and calls or emails you to ask you not to contact his staff again.

What do you think is correct protocol in this situation?

Talent Puzzle Seminar Roundup

I’d be invited along to the recent Talent Puzzle Seminar on the subject of “Assessing quality of hire across recruitment channels to deliver 'best value' recruitment”.  However, unfortunately I couldn’t make it. 

Luckily Virginia Raemy of Talent Puzzle has written up a summary of the event and as it contains some top tips and stats I thought it’d be useful to share it here:

More than 140 in-house recruiters from companies including Deloitte, MITIE, Legal & General, and Harrods attended our seminar last week at the Institute of Physics in London.  The event gave delegates the opportunity to hear three industry speakers and discuss how to effectively assess the quality of hire within their organisation. The day kicked off with a spot of networking over breakfast, and it soon became apparent that the event was full of attendees eager to learn from one another and really make a difference in their own company. Up next, were the speakers, my highlights of each are below:

First up was Roger Philby of Chemistry who talked about building a value of hire model.  Roger is truly passionate about his work, and began by telling the audience that they had the coolest job in the word! It is resourcing teams that have the ability to make a real impact on a business through the people they hire. The problem they face however is the deeply embedded belief in so many organisations that hiring should be done at the lowest possible cost.

This approach to hiring, Roger explained, led to the next statistic we were shown.  An alarming 3 out of 4 hires are wrong. Businesses should be focussing their efforts on creating a values based hiring model.  They need to define What Good Looks Like (WGLL) for their company and the predictors for success, which in the case of Chemistry is as follows:
• Intellect
• Values
• Motivations
• Behaviours
• Experience

By measuring potential candidates against these five factors (in the order above, which represent from the top the hardest to change, to the easiest at the bottom), a business is far more likely to choose the people with the correct attributes needed to fit the culture of a business.  This, Roger explained resulted in a far better quality of hire. Full details of Roger’s presentation can be found here.

Following on from this presentation, delegates broke into groups to discuss the recruitment methodologies currently adopted in their company. It became clear that far too many were hiring on cost, not quality. And for those that were hiring on quality and assessing an individual’s values, the retention rates within their business were far higher.

Next up was Matt Alder of MetaShift who talked about the value of social media in recruitment.  We held a similar seminar in February this year, and what was great to see this time was almost 70% of the room were now using some form of social media in their recruitment strategy. A great deal more than when asked by Matt earlier in the year. Matt sought to answer the question of whether organisations should expect a better quality of hire with social media. And the answer was yes. By engaging candidates, sharing information with them, and using existing employees to do so, they are far more informed about the culture and values of a business. An example we were shown was that of Unilever and their Facebook page.

Matt continued his presentation covering talent communities, how they can assist with quality and time to hire. The example he used here was of well known law firm Pinsent Masons. Through using a talent community the company has had 50% fewer applicants, of those interviewed for Pinsent & Mason, 71% interviewed were offered a position, and of those 100% accepted. A sure sign that by engaging with candidates and showing them what you have on offer prior to the application stage, the chances of a successful hire are far greater.

Matt finished his presentation with some sterling advice: ensure there is consistency in your brand across all channels, put the human touch back into recruitment (people like to talk to people, not a brand), and finally those that were in the room who were not utilising social media needed to act now! This doesn’t mean using every channel, experiment and see what works for your business.
Last up was Lucy Bunyan of Legal & General. Lucy’s own experience of redefining and evaluating the recruitment strategy at L&G was the focus of this presentation.  What was particularly inspiring about the presentation was the ability of L&G to highlight their successes AND failures encountered along the way. The real focus of the presentation was showing delegates that by taking the time and effort (and at times this may mean working well into the night) to plan a recruitment strategy – businesses will be in control of all aspects. 

Another key point was measurement and communication across the whole business. By continually measuring performance of internal and external resources, L& G has been far more able to see where they are making errors. Something that, through listening to the audience, was prevalent in many businesses. Lucy’s presentation was followed by a lengthy Q&A session; attendees were keen to hear from a real life case study.

If you want to know more about the event or future ones there is information on their site here.   

The Apprentice - Week Four Roundup

As we reach a third of the way through the series, it’s quite unusual that everything is quite as open and to play for as it is this year. Normally at this point you could more or less put your hat on 3-4 who have a realistic chance, and a good four that have no hope. This year however other than ‘Jedi’ Jim, no one has really shot to the forefront and stood out thus far. There are of course a few we know can’t win.  Edna, the business psychologist for example, stands little hope, unless Lord Sugar fancies opening Amsbondage and wants her to be CEO (Chief ‘Execution’ Officer), strutting around in elbow high gloves and ruling with a leather fist. Vincent equally is not looking like having much of a say in the outcome either, unless he has a plan to release a new form of Ronsil Woodstain, slapping on some more Piz Buin and stating ‘it does exactly what it says on my skin’. Consequently, it’s all to play for, making it rather exciting.

The task this week is to establish cosmetic businesses in a shopping centre, and both Felicity and Zoe are forced into being project managers, which is never a good sign. Zoe is rubbing her hands together with glee at this point as she has Susie, the UK’s leading expert in the cosmetic industry (according to Susie). Now there is something I never really get in the show, and that is why do candidates actively promote themselves as experts in something? If I were an expert in cosmetics for example, surely playing it down would mean you look amazing when you do well. Instead however, Susie leaves herself open to nothing but criticism, as through consistently hammering home her expertise, she becomes expected to do well, and anything less will be deemed a failure.

The teams have the task of picking beauty treatments and already you get the sense that this will form the most crucial part of the task, with the treatments commanding high profit margins against some rather naff products they’ll be flogging on the day. Equally important are the locations, and upon pointing out to Felicity that Westfield has more treatment rooms, she quickly shoots him down, as she obviously knows this already and is going to pick…..oh no wait she picked the other one. Both teams also realise that the spray tan is the treatment to win, yet whilst Susan, to her credit, engages with the supplier with a sickly yet endearing  jubilance, Felicity opts for a charm offensive which has about as much passion as a I imagine I might feel if someone asked me to take a cheese grater to my scrotum. Unsurprisingly she misses out, and in the process, probably goes along way to losing the task.

On the day of sales themselves there were four things that to me stood out and ultimately eclipsed everything else. Firstly, Susie having a bit of a mare and ordering enough skincare products to spruce up the whole of Essex for a year, and then being gob-smacked that they couldn’t sell them all in an afternoon. Secondly, Leon’s bizarrely creepy yet oddly successful little finger sales trick.  I shudder to think where he learnt that.  Thirdly, Jim’s terrifying expression as he braces himself to give a couple of fellas a rub down.  And finally, and most costly of all, the calamitous error in focussing on the easier sell in Felicity’s camp, i.e. the cheaper throwaway products, rather than the treatments. I do feel that Ellie’s sub-team could have been quicker to react, as it is the easiest thing to do, to hide away and moan rather than quickly addressing a problem. Also Tom’s attempts at selling hair products once he did eventually move were a hilarious, resembling a drunken granddad at a wedding. Yet ultimately the main fault was with Felicity, who really should have had a tighter grip on what was going on, and had a strategy straight away that focussed solely on selling treatments, using the hair extension things as a way of making a few extra quid from those who booked a massage.

Back in the boardroom, the results revealed that neither team shone through, but whilst Zoe’s did at least make some profit, Felicity came home with a loss, which, in my experience, will always lead to a firing for a PM.  I think that whilst Susie did make some mistakes in the winning team, and probably should’ve owned up to it more, she also was ganged up on a little bit by others in the winning team who were looking to ensure that they if they were in the losing team they wouldn’t get fired. But as they won it did in the end only serve to probably create some interesting clashes of personality for latter weeks. Back in the boardroom, it really wasn’t going to make much difference who she brought in as I think her number was up. Jim showed signs too of possibly getting a touch complacent when defending his performance. Frankly if bringing in £14 of sales is his idea of bringing in the cavalry, then let’s hope he steers clear of any notions of a future involving military service. Tom and Vincent must also be feeling a little edgy now having not won a task yet. I do sympathise a bit with Tom, as I don’t think he’s been much to blame on most occasions, and also found myself losing many a task when often things were beyond my control. With Vincent on the other hand, well the fact he was actually one of the better performers in this team probably goes to show you just how badly they did.

 Felicity however opted to bring in no-nonsense northerner Ellie, and seasoned recruiter Natasha, into the boardroom, and was probably unfortunate that both are strong personalities who perform rather well in defending themselves. Both in my view probably need to step-it up a bit on task as they do have a tendency to only show up when analysing what’s happened, yet, there was no doubt in my mind that the right person went. The fact that neither girl even said goodbye is a good indicator of how popular she was, and really she never got to grips with managing a team, instead opting to patronise certain team-mates, particularly the nutty professor Tom. Another task and I’m still none the clearer as to who might win. And I imagine deep down that Lord Sugar was secretly quite pleased that neither team performed well in setting up their own cosmetic business.  After all, I can’t see him relishing the thought of rolling those sleeves up and applying a sea shell massage should the business start failing.