Louise's UK Recruiter Blog

Pick of the Blogs - ScrivRec

Ed Scrivener won our “best personal recruitment blog of 2011 award”; if you aren't already familiar with his blog why not check it out.  The ScrivRec Blog is written entirely by Ed, who runs his own recruitment business.  He's been writing it since February 2010 and it's his "musings on recruitment, HR & social media.".  I asked him what was involved in writing the blog and the business benefits.  Here is what he told me

"It wasn’t apparent when I first started my blog the level of commitment required to run it properly! In order for a blog to be effective there needs to be fresh content at least every month, but ideally more often and at times finding inspiration can be a tough task.  It is key that the content isn’t too sales focussed.  People don’t want to read a flyer for my services as quite frankly that is just boring.  The key is the content highlights my knowledge and type of service but in a non-commercial manner and this should then draw in potential new clients.  In 2011 my blog received over 60,000 views which I feel is the best advert for writing one!  The only cost involved is my time and this is not comparable to the money required for the alternative of a marketing campaign to reach 60,000 people.  Finally, it is simply good fun writing a blog and engaging with people."

Some of my favourite posts from Ed's blog are:

LinkedIn Moaners
CV & LinkedIn Tips
Be social & engage

Ed has also done a "Blog Christmas Calendar" where he has taken guest posts on the blog.

I'll make an effort to feature more "pick of the blogs" in 2012!

Executive Research Association Webinar – “Back to Basics”

Heather Travis of The ERA has written a brief guest post about their recent annual webinar; held recently on the topic of “Back to Basics”.

The Agenda was: -

•    Overview of the misuse and over reliance on technology.
•    The difference between passive and proactive candidates.
•    The lost art of building relationships over the phone.
•    The top five reasons why the phone beats the internet every time.
•    How the world’s top recruiters are combining the usage of technology and traditional recruiting.

The webinar was split over a 2 day period, with c25 dialling in per day, the feedback we had was extremely positive and our survey has shown that 90% of attendees would be happy to attend ERA webinars in the future. Webinars are an easy solution for an Association who has members spread across Europe, there is no travel involved with attendees able to sit in the comfort of their office surroundings with minimal technical experience required.

A high proportion of attendees found it confirmed their existing views that there is no substitute for the telephone; it was thought provoking in the sense of a gentle reminder of how not to forget the basics in the research profession.

“Five Top Tips”
•    There is a growing level of call reluctance and the telephone is as relevant today as ever, there is no substitute for it.
•    Do not rely solely on LinkedIn, the passive talent/candidates will be missed.
•    Be aware of the “internet savvy candidates”.
•    By having a telephone conversation you can gain insight and emotional intelligence not just information.
•    The most common communication strategies (in no particular order) are; social networking sites, text messages, blogs, emails, twitter, micro sites, voicemail, job boards and career webinars.

For further information about becoming a member, future events or finding a suitable researcher for any search requirements visit www.theera.org or find The ERA on Twitter or phone 01442 828846

Pick of the Blogs - Dylan Blog

.... and here is the winner of 2011’s UK Recruiter’s Recruitment Blog of the Year Awards.   The Dylan Blog is written by the team at Dylan Recruitment.  The blog is described as "Our thoughts, advice and opinions on the wonderful world of recruitment".  Our judges for the awards described the blog as "“engaging, fun, warm and the perfect example of a business blog”.

When I spoke with Anthony Langly-Smith of Dylan he told me that they started the blog as they felt it was an integral part of their website, to showcase news from the company, interesting articles about the recruitment industry as well as showcase marketing campaigns they really liked. Ant says it is a simple way of providing interesting and varied content that candidates and clients can benefit from. The benefit from a business point of view has been that people who come on to the site have been able to see more of their personality as a business and as individual consultants which is very on brand to what Dylan is all about.
 
Some of my favourite posts are:
 
Digital in Print
Get Them Talking
THE MALEVOLENT MOUSTACHIERS

I'm going to be catching up with Ed Scrivener (writer of ScrivRec) who won our “best personal recruitment blog of 2011 award” soon and shall share my favourite blogs from his site.

Email Blunder .... could it have been you?

I’ve noticed that the response from people to this email, which I blogged about yesterday, has been split into two main areas. 

a) Should Gary Chaplin have been fired for sending the email(s)
b) Debate as to whether you would ever be in a similar situation. 

Obviously the stereotype of recruiters is that of the type of person who is always slating candidates, bitching about clients, abusing everyone in sight.  We see plenty of comments of that nature on the discussion board from disgruntled jobseekers and HR professionals.  I can assure you I don’t have rose tinted specs – but I really don’t think it’s fair to tar recruiters with that same brush. 

However, I can see how a recruiter could quite easily get cross with a lazy jobseeker emailing his CV, with no covering note, to 4,000 recruiters in one go (and with another recruiter using the opportunity to try and do a spot of headhunting).  In those circumstances can you see why he (or she) could have, in a heated moment, sent an email back saying they were both a pair of twonks?  Do you find yourself regularly annoyed by the attitude of jobseekers and do you ever want to tell them to brush up their act?

Or, regardless of your frustration levels, would you NEVER even think of responding to a candidate in a negative way.

What do you think?  Which camp do you fall into? 

The UK Recruiter - Recruitment Blog of the Year 2011

We have a winner.... or should I say winners!

But firstly, this year's awards are again a joint effort of organisation and judging. The judging panel consisted of me, Mervyn Dinnen, Andy Headworth and Peter Gold.   Jobsite have sponsored the awards and will be handing out the prizes.

i) the blogger has to be an active recruiter (ie, has worked on a recruitment campaign within the last 6 weeks).
ii) the blogger has to have posted something on their blog in the past month.
iii) The blog has been around for at least six months.
In-house as well as agency bloggers were welcome.

We had 32 nominations of which 18 met the criteria.

The criteria we used to judge included.....

- Quality of writing (is it interesting/engaging, no typos, do posts finish with a call to action, etc)
- Volume of posts
- Blog design (descriptive blog name, picture of blogger to engage readers, easy navigation, clear explanation of purpose, etc)
- Post content (do they include text, images and video)
- About the Blogger Page (links to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, contact, details, enough "about me" information)
- Sign-up options

So, onto the winners.... The winner of Recruitment Blog of 2011 is..... The Dylan Blog.

The Dylan Blog is described by Dylan Recruitment as “Our thoughts, advice and opinions on the wonderful world of recruitment.”. It was described by our judges as “engaging, fun, warm and the perfect example of a business blog”. The Jobsite winners trophy will shortly be on its way to the team at Dylan (joining the others they’ve recently won!). Massive congratulations to Dylan, it’s great to see a “company” blog contributed to by the whole team and really showcasing the business.   I hope be able to post a picture soon of the Dylan team with their lovely trophy; which I hope Mervyn will be popping into their offices!

There is also a “highly commended” site I want to mention and that’s the Project Resource Blog; which again is a really good company blog

We’ve also decided to award a “best personal recruitment blog of 2011 award” to recognise smaller, individual recruiters. This award goes to Ed Scrivener for ScrivRec. Ed’s blog is described by him as “My musings on recruitment, HR & social media”.  The judges described it as simple, engaging, enjoyable; with fantastic content.  Jobsite are going to be sending Ed a Flipcam with their congratulations.  Here's looking forward to seeing some video content on his already great blog.

Thank you to everyone who nominated, to my super judges and to jobsite for sponsoring the awards.  It’s great to see recruiters making the most of blogging.

Gary Chaplin's Email Blunder

I’m sure we’ve all accidentally hit “reply to all” rather than “reply” and had an awkward few minutes worrying about our blunder.  Or perhaps accidentally hit send before removing the bit where you call your client a plank in a late night email.  However, nothing can compare to Gary Chaplin who sent an abusive email to 4,000 recruiters, rather than the one (poor) jobseeker he meant to abuse!

You can read all about it in the Daily Mail

But as a top investigative reporter I’ve searched far and wide (actually I just asked a friend on Twitter) for the email correspondence for anyone who wants to see exactly what Gary said.

ORIGINAL EMAIL

Dear Sirs,

my name is Manos Katsampoukas and I am interested in finding a job in the banking/ marketing sector in the UK. Please find attached my CV. Further information available upon request. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards, Manos Katsampoukas

RESPONSE FROM DAN

Thanks, Emmanouil, for introducing us all.

I'd like to take this opportunity to mention that One Search are actively hiring experienced Recruitment Consultants who have a couple of years' experience but are now looking to switch to Financial Services front office. Alternatively you may already be a front office recruiter disenchanted with the bureaucracy and looking to run your own desk.If you have the drive and intellect to work in one of the recruitment market's toughest yet most rewarding sectors, please give me a call or drop me an email to arrange a chat.

I will of course make a donation to Emmanouil, in lieu of a Rec2Rec fee!

Regards Dan

EMAIL FROM RICH (who turns out to be Gary Chaplin)

Emmanouil - I think I speak for all 4000 people you have emailed when I say "Thanks for your CV" - it's nice to know you are taking this seriously and taking the time to make us all feel special and unique.

If you are not bright enough to learn how to 'bcc' and thus encourage cock-jockey retards to then spam everyone on the list (yes Dan from One Search I'm talking about you - you opportunistic thunderc*nt) then please f*ck off ....you are too stupid to get a job, even in Banking.

I get enough retarded spam from idiots - I don't need the Dan 'F*cktard' McCunthy's of the world thinking they are being smart and original by spamming back to your 4000 best friends. (PS – is 'One Search' what you've successfully completed on this year?).

Yours hitting the delete button Have a nice day! Rich

There is more; it does go on.  However, I won't post it all here.  If do you want to see the rest of it, which resulted in Gary losing his job, just drop me a note.

Whilst I don’t condone abusive emails to candidates I can see Gary’s frustration at a candidate who has mass mailed his CV out. In the old days I’ve had candidates send their CV, by post, in response to up to a dozen completely different adverts. I no doubt wanted to tell them what a numpty they were being. Luckily I kept my thoughts to myself!  

What do you think about Gary losing his job over this and how do you think it'll affect his own jobseeking chances?

Profile on the ERA

I've known Heather Travis for years and regularly recommend her as a recruitment research guru. She has been joint Chair of the Executive Research Association (ERA) for the past 5 years and has been involved in research in its entirety for over 25 years.  I thought it might be useful to ask her to share some information about the ERA - as despite its profile within the niche of recruitment research I'm pretty sure it's not rearched the radar of everyone within the recruitment industry.... and it's worth knowing they exist!

The ERA was conceived in 1984, initially as an informal forum for researchers in the search industry to meet and share ideas. In 1986 the organisation was formalised into an Association managed by an industry committee, with subscription members. The ERA is now the leading Research Association in the UK and we maintain strong links with our peers in the US and on the Continent. Setting industry standards, we provide a strong networking facility to our members.

Over the years the shape of research has changed significantly and can now be split into 3 distinct areas:

•    Independent researchers who outsource their services to headhunting consultancies & direct to corporate clients.
•    In-house researchers sitting in headhunting consultancies.
•    In-house researchers sitting in corporate companies within their internal resourcing/talent teams.

We have members from each category represented in the ERA and the events we organise are relevant to all.

We hold 3 events throughout the year:

•    Conference which in 2012 will be as follows:
Wednesday 18th April 2012 our annual conference titled “Best Practice in Research” to be held at the Royal Society of Arts, London.

•    Summer networking event

•    Autumn Webinar

Our recent 2011 Webinar was a huge success titled “Back to Basics” conducted by Helene Buchanan-Dunne.

Members and non-members can advertise any Researcher vacancies at a very reasonable price on our website and LinkedIn Group.

For further information about becoming a member or finding a suitable researcher for any search requirements please visit the website, follow us on Twitter or check out our Facebook group (Executive Research Association)

Sales Salaries

I’ve just had some interesting salary data in from Salestarget (as you might guess from the name they are a job board focussing in the sales arena). The first chart they’ve sent me shows the top paying locations for Sales Managers based on information taken from Sales jobs postings in their database.  It’s really interesting data as it would suggest that if you are working in a sales role in Maidenhead it would be seriously worth your while to consider a move up North to Sheffield where the difference in salary is over £40,000.  Of course what could be (most probably is) reflected here is the difference between actual roles and job titles; with the more junior roles in the Maidenhead being given the lofty title of “manager”!  Nevertheless I think it makes an interesting chart.

Jim Stroud Show

Jim Stroud is a “Searchologist” (someone adept at online research) and a thoroughly nice chap.

He's recently started Season 2 of the Jim Stroud Show which is a video series focused on social recruiting. He produces a new video each week and they are certainly entertaining (and informative). Topics have included Twitter, Google Plus, Linkedin, Google, Facebook, Instagram and Mobile Recruiting. Some of his video's have had over 1000 views.

As well as being useful to keep you up to date on social recruiting issues they are a great example of what you can do with video.  Check them out!

Who Moved My HR Software? Review

When I started writing this review I thought I’d first reference my previous review of Peter Gold’s first book; Who Moved My Talent? However, despite happily taking a (signed) copy of his book and reading it.... it seems I never actually shared my review. So, why not check that book out too once you’ve read this and then downloaded his latest book!

Who Moved My HR Software? is somewhere between a book and a very long blog article around the subject of HR technology. His first book was almost coffee break material (well it only took me 15 minutes to read but I am FAST). This one is more a train journey read. As the marketing blurb reads “this book is not just about HR software. It's about how different aspects of 'business' software have changed and how you can navigate your way through the confusion of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) versus on-premise systems.”

Peter has written this book entirely as a story about a chap called Henry (and his “chums” Peter, Ingrid and Bruno) and his quest to investigate new technologies to save his company from falling behind and going under.

As I read it I could just imagine Peter presenting this, in his unique style, prowling the stage at a conference. In fact, in the audio version (I went for PDF) he well may be the narrator.

It’s a book for HR professionals who want to get a better grip on understanding the all these confusing technology options and making a decision on where to go next.

The added bonus is that it’s free and you can download the book from the Lumesse website in PDF, ebook or audio version.