Louise's UK Recruiter Blog

Discounted Subscription to The Searchologist

The Searchologist is a blog, set up by the lovely Jim Stroud, that gives tips, tricks and strategies about Online Lead Generation and Resume Sourcing. It is ideally suited for Recruiters seeking passive candidates and Sales professionals prospecting new business.

 

Jim will be constantly updating the blog with new content.  He is offering access at an introductory price of $49.95 (this is a limited offer and the price will increase in the near future) and then $49.95 each month thereafter (you can cancel your subscription at any time).

 

There is a ton of material already on the site covering (but not limited to!) the following topics:

 

How to find clients for your recruiting business
How to generate recruiting leads on Flickr
How to find software engineers by searching patents online
How to generate leads from Plurk
How to find passive technical candidates
How to get disinterested candidates to call you back
How to find leads from Online Bookstores

 

I really like Jim, he produces a load of content across all his blog sites.  He gives such a lot away for free (which I have to say can be very US focussed) that I feel confident you get value for money from the new Searchologist site.  You can find out more and sign up on his site.

 

I ought to also mention UK Recruiter Plus - which is our site full of guides for a recruiter looking to start or expand their recruitment business.  Superb value at only £74 for a whole year's access.

Social Media in Recruitment Conference - roundup

I was at the Social Media in Recruitment conference on Thursday.  It was the first social media conference specifically for the recruitment industry and was organised by Mike Taylor.  He had a great line up of speakers and topics: 

Mike Taylor - Web-Based-Recruitment - An overview of Social Media including Social Networking sites, Blogs and Podcasts.
Josh Smith - Head of Inside Sales Facebook UK - How social networking sites such as Facebook can be used to get messages to your target audience.
Mark Williams - Managing Director, ETN Training - How to use LinkedIn to promote your vacancies and source new candidates.
Bill Fischer - Co-Founder & Director, Work Digital Limited - How to use Twitter, TwitterJobSearch.com and the Job Search Engines for recruitment.
Bill Boorman - Managing Director, Bill Boorman Consultancy Limited - Will social media work for my company? The positives and pitfalls from using social media in recruitment.
Adrian Marlowe - Managing Director, Lawspeed - The legal issues re the use of Social Media web sites.
Luisa Mauro - YouTube - Using online video to promote your company and your job vacancies. 
Paul Harrison - Managing Partner, Carve Consulting - How to put together a social media strategy for your company.
Matt Alder - Director of Product Strategy, Penna Barkers - The future - taking Social Media to the next level.

As with lots of these events I attend I (rather immodestly perhaps!) wonder if I'm probably not target audience.  However, I took something of value away from each presentation.  I know that many of the attendees were real newbies to social media so got a lot of value from the day.  I plan to go into each presentation in a bit more detail further down the line (as well as mentioning our social media content on UK Recruiter Plus no doubt!) but for now here is my 2 minute overview of the day
 
I sadly missed Josh's presentation but managed to catch most of Mark talking about LinkedIn.  I'm sure the majority of the audience already had LinkedIn accounts but could probably do with some pointers on how to grow and work their networks. 
 
Bill's presentation on TwitterJobSearch was quite technical but gave a good insight into the workings behind the site.  Hopefully showing that even with a small network posting jobs onto Twitter is worthwhile (tips of how to use the service here: http://www.twitterjobsearch.com/static/add-jobs).  The next Bill (Boorman) was his usual enthusiastic self - throwing himself around the stage as he talked through his personal journey through social media.  Bill is a massive Twitter user and has seen his use of Twitter benefit his business, his brand and the launch of his recent Radio Show (LINK).
 
During lunch (which was a really nice buffet - my favourites were the egg sarnies and duck wraps) I managed to catch up with about 20 people I knew,  Getting positive feedback from all of them.
 
Then we were onto what could have been a rather dry subject of legal issues around social media.  However, Adrian is a great presenter and managed to keep the audience's attention.  Basically it's not illegal to check up on candidates (or employees) on social media sites but you must be careful not to discriminate on the basis of the information you find.  Also there are guidelines about dealing with the information you find. Luisa from YouTube was next talking about using online video to promote vacancies. 
 
After tea break (with lovely biscuits) Paul Harrison was up talking about putting together a social media strategy. I will write more on this later but Paul is another enthusiastic presenter (perhaps inspired in his stage walking by Bill Boorman) who shared some really useful information.
 
Finally we had a presentation from Matt Alder.  Matt is one of recruitment's favourites and did a good roundup of the future of social media in recruitment (rather nicely calling it social recruiting).  The key points were that everyone in the audience's organisations' will use social recruiting, that the organisations that will be the most successful will make their mistakes early and that now is the optimum time to start!
 
As I mentioned earlier I do plan to do a more detailed summary of the event.  However, if you are on Twitter you can view conversations around the day by searching on the #SMIR hashtag.  There are also a few photos and more details on the event site at http://www.socialmediainrecruitment.com.
 
Just waiting for Mike to let us know when next year's conference is going to be (and, obviously, offer me a speaking slot this time!!

20% Discount on Social Media In Recruitment Conference

We are media partners for the Social Media in Recruitment Conference taking place in London next Thursday. I wrote a brief summary of it a couple of weeks ago on the blog.

 

It looks like it's going to be a really interesting conference with some superb speakers.  Mike Taylor, the organiser, has kindly offered a discount to UK Recruiter readers of 20%.  To get the discount all you need do is register on the site and use the code UKRECRUITER.

 

If you are planning to attend I look forward to seeing you there.

 

Bill Boorman's Internet Radio Talk Show

Bill Boorman has today launched his new internet radio talk show.  

It's a weekly show (12 noon for UK audiences and then again at 6pm for the US/International audience) where Bill will be chatting with experts about the recruitment market worldwide.  Today's (which you can hear via the website) focussed on how to make the most of the upturn. His guest was the lovely Alan Whitford and he took calls from a number of other recruitment suppliers (Kunal from PanEight Consulting, Shane from Intelligence Software and Mike from Web Based Training) plus a really switched on recruiter (Greg Savage from Australia). 

The basic crux of the conversations were around how important it is to build relationships in the current market (with candidates AND clients) and how to use technology appropriately.  Bill did a great job of keeping it moving along although I found it a little difficult to keep track of who was speaking (even with the mix of quite different accents).
 
I think that this is a nice move by Bill.  There is certainly an audience for all things technology and as Animal has shown in the US a recruiting radio show can be superbly received.
 
I understand the first show had 50 live listeners which I think is a good start.  I wonder how many were actual recruiters (lots of fellow Twitter "suppliers" seemed to be listening) and how he will increase that figure.  I personally think that it would be difficult for your average recruiter to stop work for an hour (even once a week) to listen to a radio show.  However, as I say it seems to work in the US. 
 
The International show at 6pm today has guests of Bill Vick and Doug Bugie.  Both nice high profile in the US (and Internationally).

Review of National Sales Competition

Last Wednesday, 3rd June, saw the launch of a new national sales competition for recruiters.  The competition was organised by Bill Boorman (trainer, founder member of the Good News Group (Recruiters) on LinkedIn and prolific Twitter user).

The day started at 9.45 with a fifteen minute conference call where the structure and rules of the day were explained.  At 10am it was time to sell with points being awarded for both activity and results on the following basis:

Call with no decision maker contact: 1
Call with Decision maker: 2
Drop in agreed: 3
Visit booked: 4
CV sent on request from spec call: 4
Vacancy or booking taken from existing client: 5
Vacancy or booking from new client: 6
Interview or booking from spec call: 7

There was a fantastic response during the day with well over 100 consultants taking part.  A total of 1618 calls were made resulting in 32 visits, 43 drop ins, 201 CVs sent, 180 bookings/vacancies from existing clients, 131 bookings/vacancies from new clients and 1134 bookings filled or interviews arranged as a result of spec calls which means that on average, 1 booking or vacancy was taken for every 5.5 calls.

The winning team was Supply Desk East Anglia who scored a massive 173 points. As well as the kudos of winning, they’ll also get a free day’s consultancy from Mr Good News himself - Bill Boorman.

The next competition will run on 7 July with a similar format - the number of teams will be restricted to 125 - the event will again be free to enter.  Details from Bill Boorman - bill@billboorman.co.uk

Social Media In Recruitment Conference

We are one of the media partners for Mike Taylor's upcoming Social Media In Recruitment Conference on the 16th July 2009.

The programme is:

Mike Taylor - Managing Director, Web Based Recruitment - An overview of Social Media including Social Networking sites, Blogs and Podcasts.
Josh Smith - Head of Inside Sales Facebook UK - How social networking sites such as Facebook can be used to get messages to your target audience
Mark Williams - Managing Director, ETN Training - How to use LinkedIn to promote your vacancies and source new candidates
Bill Fischer - Co-Founder & Director, Work Digital Limited - How to use Twitter, TwitterJobSearch.com and the Job Search Engines for recruitment.
Bill Boorman - Managing Director, Bill Boorman Consultancy Limited - Will social media work for my company? The positives and pitfalls from using social media in recruitment.
Adrian Marlowe - Managing Director, Lawspeed - The legal issues re the use of Social Media web sites.
Google/YouTube - Using online video to promote your company and your job vacancies
Paul Harrison - Managing Partner, Carve Consulting - How to put together a social media strategy for your company.
Matt Alder - Director of Product Strategy, Barkers - The future - taking Social Media to the next level

Full details of the conference, speakers and booking details can be found at www.SocialMediaInRecruitment.com.  "Early Bird Tickets" (available until 25th June 2009) are £375.00 + VAT.

If you are planning to attend let me know and I'll see you there.

Discount on The Professional Recruiter's Handbook

A little while ago I wrote about The Professional Recruiter's Handbook.  Someone asked if there was any chance of a discount for UK-recruiters.  After much hard negotiation (well, I really only had to ask to be honest) we are able to offer a discount of 25% off the retail price of Professional Recruiter's Handbook (retail price £19.99) and free postage & package to the UK Recruiter community.

All you need to do to receive the discount is contact the book distributors (LBS - Littlehampton Book Services) on 01903 828 503 or by email at mailorders@lbsltd.co.uk and quote reference 'KP09'.
 

 

The Professional Recruiter's Handbook

A couple of week's ago I attended the launch of Ann Swain and Jane Newell-Brown's recruitment handbook (The Professional Recruiter's Handbook: Delivering Excellence in Recruitment Practice). I had planned to blog about how fab the launch party was (which it was; lovely canapés!) and link to some photos and content from Broadbean, however, I can't seem to get access to the photos (and I'm sure there were some great ones of me!).  So instead I'll content myself with saying that Ann and Jane are truly experts in the field of recruitment and what I have read of the book so far (which is quite a lot considering I'm not even a recruiter anymore) it's a great book which any professional recruiter should invest in. One of the things I especially liked were the case studies (and not just because I provided one of them!) which break up the chapters very nicely.

 

UK Recruiter LinkedIn Guide

Exciting news!  We have produced a superb Guide to LinkedIn for Recruiters.

The guide takes you from creating and then optimising your profile through to sophisticated methods of utilising LinkedIn for sourcing candidates, raising individual/company profiles and on to the utilisation of all of LinkedIn facilities.

The best news..... it's only £4.99.  You can buy it from PayPal from our website

 

Lights, camera, action!

This was sent over to me by Employmentbuddy and whilst it's not recruitment specific it's certainly worth a read.

Recognition is a powerful motivator in the workplace that enables employees to feel that their contribution is appreciated and valued. It can increase job satisfaction levels, which in turn improve productivity and retention.  It can also reinforce desired behaviour. Although there is no substitute for an immediate thank you, many employers are putting employee recognition on a formal footing.

1. Don’t lose the plot!

The foundation of any great movie is a good script. To give your employee recognition scheme a chance of success you will need to get the story line right. The plot, in the form of stated objectives, should be clearly aligned to your organisational goals and values. It should be a story of effort and achievement that centres on those who have done something out of the ordinary or gone the extra mile, rather than just doing their job well. As the story unfolds, don’t forget to incorporate transparency and fairness into your design, but avoid a twist in the tale.  Simple schemes often work best. An effective recognition scheme will clearly communicate and encourage the attitudes and behaviours that the company is seeking to promote in a non-discriminatory and consistent manner.

2. A competent cast 

Naturally, the stars of the show will be your employees as the recipients of the awards. However, there are a number of support roles and extras that you will need to fill. You will need to appoint an owner of the scheme. Do not automatically assume that HR should be responsible. Employee recognition schemes are as much about internal communications as they are about reward and, depending on your organisation, there could be a better departmental fit elsewhere. Who will be eligible to nominate and of whom will the judging panel consist? Involving employees in these processes can help to give the scheme more credibility and will avoid criticisms, such as the “teacher’s pet” scenario.

3. Props and special effects

Production crews strive to ensure that the movie is portrayed as realistically as possible and to create a wow factor. In the same way, employers must ensure that the awards they make are genuine and leave a lasting impression. Although cash incentives can be used, non-financial rewards tend to be the more popular form of employee recognition. These can include memorable gifts, such as watches, pens or other prizes to privileges, such as extra holiday or a lunch or job swap with a director. To avoid undermining the scheme, do some research before hand to ensure that you select awards that your staff will appreciate. If possible, build in an element of individual choice. Investigate the tax and NI implications as the rules vary depending on the type of incentive. For non- cash incentives, employers can enter into a Taxed Award Scheme or a PAYE Settlement Agreement with the HMRC, so that employees receive the award tax free.

4. Set the scene

You will need to decide in advance how the awards will be handed out. The location can depend on your budget and the timing. You don’t necessarily need to organise a formal presentation ceremony like the Oscars but, the less frequent the awards, the stronger the argument for a big event of some sorts. Monthly awards can be difficult to sustain and therefore quarterly awards may be favoured. These also provide for the recognition to be a timelier event when compared with bi-annual or annual awards. The award should be handed out in public by a well-respected member of staff. Ensure that all nominees get a letter of appreciation even if they don’t go on to win.

5. Make sure the camera is running

One thing’s for certain if your managers and employees are not switched on they won’t capture anything. Employees are unlikely to sing their own praises so you will need to engage others to notice the opportunities to make a nomination. Issuing guidelines on what you expect in each category is a good place to start, and will provide a benchmark for consistency. Developing coaching skills will help managers and employees have more meaningful conversations, which can highlight demonstrations of living the organisations values.

6. Promote your production

Communication is key to success. Promote the scheme regularly on your intranet and newsletters to encourage nominations. Feature articles about the events, your nominees and award winners and what they did and how they felt. Monitor the success of your scheme, which you can measure by using a staff attitude survey and publish the results. Invite staff to email comments and suggestions on improving the scheme, and use updates to answer queries and announce any changes.

Employmentbuddy is part of Clarkslegal LLP. www.employmentbuddy.com

SelllingSuccess.tv

Colin Minto sent this over to me recently and I said I'd happily give it a mention.  One of the job boards that Brainhunter run is from the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management.  They also run SellingSuccess.tv which is a portal of sales training videos.
 
They are split up into categories such as networking, motivation and presentation skills.  Videos are provided by a large number of different "trainers".  You can view Colin's video here.
 
You do need to register to see the full videos but there is some good stuff on there.
 

 

The Juicy Bits of The Recruitment Process - sneak preview

Recruitment Juice's new training DVD is released on the 2nd February.  In the meantime you can see some clips from the series on You Tube.

 

They've kept the main characters from the first series and the "placement dance" (which is the clip above) from Wayne is one worth checking out.  I can't be the only one to have actually worked with recruiters who have a special dance or football player type routine they do when they get a placement.

 

I will keep you updated when the full product launches.

 

 

Want to be a Big Biller Resource

Gavin Chase is a "Big Biller, recruiter, mentor, trainer and motivator". He is General Manager of CNA International (an Executive Search and Interim Management consultancy) and Practice Head, Telecoms, Media & Technology of Wilde Pure Search Limited.

He has recently launched a new website for the recruitment industry "Want to be a Big Biller?" The site aims to give recruiters all the tools they need to improve performance as a recruitment consultant, manager or director. The site is a social network and is free to join. 

Industry experts such a Mike Walmsley and Shally Steckerl have offered content and the site also contains discussion forums,  interviews etc will help educate the recruitment profession to be more successful. Over time it is hoped that the network becomes self teaching.

If you've not had a look at the site - check it out.

Onrec Online Recruitment Conference & Exhibition

Sadly I can no longer make it along to the Onrec conference on 3rd June. However, Emma from Sky (who regularly contributes here) will be going along as my "roving reporter".  If you've not registered yet there is still time.  Here's a bit of information:

"Calling all recruiters, HR and those working within the UK Online Recruitment Industry. At the Onrec.com Conference (Westminster, London), delegates will hear presentations on the following topics: developing your recruitment site in order to increase recruitment traffic and build your own talent pool, how to effectively use social networking sites as a recruitment tool, how to minimise your organisation's recruiting costs and get maximum return from your staffing budgets, screening candidates effectively and efficiently, how to utilise new Virtual World sites (such as Second Life) as part of your recruitment strategy and how to engage the best candidates so they choose your organisation over your competitors.  Tickets are £395 and include access to the full conference programme, opportunities to network with the Speakers, plus exhibitors and other  delegates. Ticket also includes refreshments, hot sit down lunch and networking drinks reception after the event. This is the only UK event to offer you the opportunity to learn how you could be saving money and recruiting more efficiently by using the latest online recruitment technologies. Delegates also get a free copy of the Online Recruitment Yearbook 2008 (worth £30).  To book call Wendy Finch and quote ref AOB40 on 0870 766 8530 or email Wendy@onrec.com."

If you make it along keep an eye out for Emma and say Hi!

Recruitment Expert Audio Interview Series

Mike Taylor at Web Based Recruitment has launched his "Expert Audio Interview Series" and kicks off with an interview with Dan McGuire (of Broadbean Technology).

The series will feature interviews with leading figures in online recruitment.  When I saw him at the networking last week he mentioned the new series and (possibly in order to ensure PR) asked if he can interview me at some point.  In all the excitement of him clearly describing me as a "leading figure" I forgot to ask who else he will be interviewing.  However, I will keep you updated here.

If you like podcasts you should also check out Born ("The UK's only weekly podcast dedicated to online recruitment news") and XtremeRecruiting.tv ("Video interviews about the collision of recruitment and technology").

15-minute guide to online recruiting

Susanna Cesar Morton of Advorto sent me a note last week about their "15-minute guide to online recruiting".  It's targetted at corporate recruiters but should also provide useful information to agency/consultancy recruiters.  The subjects covered include your career site, job boards, your intranet, candidate e-newsletters, online referral systems, social networks, blogs and SEO.

It's nicely put together and really only does take 15 minutes to read.

You can download a copy from their website

Mike Walmsley Training group on LinkedIn

Mike Walmsley has sent me an invite to join his Mike Walmsley Training group on LinkedIn. 

He's created it to feed valuable information to members and, amongst other things, he is planning to interview key figures from the recruitment industry and to make the podcasts available to members.   Also, it's worth signing up as members can currently request a free 7 day trial of Mike's online recruitment videos.

Recruiter Life Magazine

Stephen O'Donnell of AllJobsuk.com (who I'm attempting to train as my blog content researcher!) pointed me in the direction of Recruiter Life.  It's a sort of recruitment specific YouTube with lots of video interviews and training sessions.  There are also radio shows.  The graphics are all very slick but I found it a bit hard to work out where to start with the site.  However, there is some really good content there, mostly from the US, but with some big names in recruitment.  As Stephen's (to the point) email said.... it's very interesting!

Lessons for (sales) Recruiters from The Apprentice

Gavin Ingham is off the blocks in superb fashion with his blog/email reviews of The Apprentice.  Last year he did a summary of each episode in his weekly blog.  This year he is going to put the lessons from The Apprentice into his newsletter and post the full report onto his blog.

As with last year I had every intention of watching the series - but already I have missed out by "double booking" the first episode.  Luckily Gavin's summary from last Wednesday night is so detailed that even Sir Alan wouldn't know I watched Freaky Eaters instead (poor Joanne is addicted to potatoes!).

Back to Gavin's review of The Apprentice.  Gavin tells us how the episode pans out (very detailed and amusing reading) and then they key sales training messages that it contains.  It is well worth signing up to Gavin's newsletter and reading his blog.  Even, if unlike me, you manage to actually watch the series.

Profiling for Recruitment - Charlie Atkinson's presentation from The Year Ahead Conference

I've been doing a mini series of posts about the key elements from each speaker's presentation at the recent Enhance Media the Year Ahead Conference.  Charlie Atkinson, MD of Human Factors International spoke about “Profiling for Recruitment”.  Human Factors is a global business psychology consultancy who work with blue chip organisations to identify and develop their management and executive talent around the world.

Charlie’s presentation focussed on his suggestions for the role of assessment (eg, psychometrics, aptitude testing and role plays) in the modern recruitment process. 

Firstly he shared the benefits of using assessments. They are:

- Standardised – allowing direct comparisons between applicants

- Consistent – unlike people an assessment tool will never get tired, upset or emotional

- Objective – do not judge on race, gender or orientation

- Predictive - focus on talent and potential not experience

- Efficient - reduces administrative burden

He then talked about the “onion” model of the individual. If we perceive an individual as made of many layers, like an onion, then:

-          The outside layer that you see is “behaviour”.  This is easy for anyone to measure simply by watching someone. However it is also easy for the candidate to change. So measuring our behaviours in an interview may not be very predictive of how we will behave on the job.

-          Beneath this is the “knowledge and skills” layer.  These take a little more effort to measure, eg by questioning/testing (ie, can you create this spreadsheet in Excel?).  These take longer for the candidate to change but can be developed through training.

-          The next layer is “values and attitudes”.  Candidates may not easily share (or even know) their own values and attitudes.  In order to correctly assess they will need to be psychometrically measured.  They are open to change but not on a day to day basis; it takes months and years for our values and attitudes to change.

-          At the centre of the onion is “personality and ability”.  In order to determine this you will need to use specialist tools (eg, psychometric and aptitude testing).  Ability doesn’t change much after school days.  Personality continues to develop into our 20’s but after this it takes a major trauma to have any significant impact on our personalities. Because these don’t really change they can be used to predict how much we are likely to enjoy and perform in a job role.

Charlie talked about some of the problems present within a standard recruitment process.  These included the problems of candidates lying on CVs and interviewers only being able to measure behaviours, knowledge and skills rather than personality and ability.  He also talked about the problem of candidates being offered the job when they don’t really know enough about the company and the requirements of the role.  Finally he touched on how with the standard recruitment process the induction can be hit and miss if you don’t totally understand the needs/ability of the candidate.

Some of his thoughts around how assessments can help in the process were:

-          Recruiters should ensure they give candidates a realistic overview of the company and job role to allow the candidate to self-select their appropriateness.   To do this you should review the job description and ask for feedback from the incumbent(s) and peers. 

-          Recruiters should screen candidates against a competency profile (based on the job spec) to increase the accuracy of the decision making process. Once you have screened candidates to interview you can use the assessment you have made of them, against the competencies, to lead the interview. 

-          Ideally you should establish requirements by analysing existing high performers.

-          Ensure you determine your expectations (eg, a 45% score for verbal skills is – or isn’t - acceptable).

Finally, he talked about what he thinks the future of assessment is.  He sees the usage of paper based delivery (ie candidates filling out a test on paper) continuing to decrease (although apparently more testing is still conducted via paper than online).  He also sees a decline in lengthy user training (a move away from the 10 days required by some providers to attain psychometric assessor status).  He suggests that self-selection through realistic profiling (ie, day in the life examples and realistic job descriptions) and the use of “experiential simulations” (ie, give the candidate an example situation and ask them how they would react) will increase. 

Free Webinars from MikeWalmsley.com

Before Christmas we announced that we have bought 40 places on Mike Walmsley Webinar's to give away to ukrecruiter readers.

I'd "attended" one of his webinars a few weeks back and really liked the concept and thought the content was great. The webinars are 90 minute live sessions where you experience exactly the same content as Mike would deliver at his "premium cost" events but without even leaving your office.

We’ve still got about a dozen places left to offer.  The cost of these sessions is normally £90 per delegate. However, if you'd like one of our free places on a webinar send me an email to newsletter@ukrecruiter.co.uk with your full details (name, company, contact numbers and work email address) letting me know which webinar you'd like to participate in (the only criteria is that we can only offer one place per organisation). The next few scheduled webinars are:

- 28th January - How to recruit the very best recruiters
- 4th February - How to win business without cold calling
- 11th February - The secrets of client rate negotiation
- 18th February - How to overcome even the toughest of recruitment objections
- 25th February - Over 20 ways to find the best candidates for free

More details on the content are at http://www.mikewalmsley.com/webinar.htm. The offer is available until all 40 places have been filled.

HR Directors Summit, Amsterdam

The team at BME Global have generously offered the UK Recruiter community a very special deal on their summit taking place this March. 

The summit is entitled "Leading the HR transformation".

"Don’t miss the opportunity to hear the latest HR developments across industries while examine best practices and common mistakes made every day by leaders and employees.  The HR Directors Summit 2008 is the place where HR specialists, executives, industry leaders and decision-makers come together to share knowledge and debate about the latest issues, trends & technologies in Human Resources.During the three day event, you will have the chance to learn from industry gurus and participate in pre arranged one-to-one business meetings and gatherings with fellow delegates, speakers and leading solution providers."

The conference workshops take place on 12th March and the 13th and 14th will be the main event.

The special offer is a discount of 30% on the conference price.  All you need do is book before the end of February quoting this code JAND-001. The instructions are to quote the code in the comments gap on the booking section of the website.

The line-up of speakers looks great and includes Dave Ulrich (who was voted the No.1 most influential person in HR) along with individuals from companies such as Nike, BT, Citigroup, Hudson and Microsoft.  All at a 30% discount!

Helping Candidates Change Careers

Last week a friend of a friend asked if I could suggest a resource for "career planning".  She wanted to change careers but didn't know what she'd be good at.  I pointed her in the direction of one or two resources and then, by coincidence, I got an email telling me about the LiveCareer website. "LiveCareer identifies your career interests and then tells you what jobs are out there for you."

Apparently they are able to provide this free service due to "the willingness of their users to learn about career opportunities, educational options, and other offers".  If you aren't "willing" to receive advertising emails/post from their partners then I suggest you untick the box when registering.

The questionnaire consists of 100 questions and took about 15 minutes to complete.  Each question lists "3 work-related activities" (although some are rather obscure - such as "Taming wild animals for a circus"). For each group you select which activity you like most, as well as which activity you like least. As an example:

a.  Altering garments in a clothing store.   
b.  Supervising difficult staff   
c.  Filing company accounts. 

Once you've answered all the questions you can view your report online (I could see no option to have it emailed to you).  There's a fair bit of (in my opinion) un-necessary information.  However, the core of the report is interesting.  You can see you "Basic Interest Scores" which measure your level of interest as a percentile in 15 different areas (I got 6% for my interest in Science). You them get percentile scores for your interest in being assertive, persuasive, and systematic (organised). Dare I admit to a score of 98% for assertive?  There is then a narrative to explain the implications of your highest and lowest scores across these two areas (telling me: "You wouldn’t be satisfied in careers where you must work with scientific equipment and mathematical logic and reasoning to solve practical or abstract scientific problems")  The final section of the report looks at personality based on Holland’s Theory; which says there are seven different approaches to work.  These are Realistic (Doers), Investigative (Thinkers), Artistic (Creators), Social (Helpers), Enterprising (Persuaders), Conventional (Organizers) and Attentive – (Servers).  The report shows you where you fit into this and gives a description of what each one means.

Whilst the questionnaire may seem to ask some very peculiar questions the report seemed to stack up against my opinion of myself.  I'd have liked to see a list of practically every job that exists and be told which I was most suited too (I did a questionnaire like this in my early 20's and came out strongly matched to a career as a Prison Warden). 

Overall I'd say that it's worth suggesting candidates with a career crisis (who don't want to pay for a career counsellor/coach) take a look.

Online Recruitment 2008 - The Year Ahead Conference

The guys at Enhance Media have recently announced the programme for their annual 'Online Recruitment - the year ahead' conference, which next year takes place on February 1st. They have a great line up of speakers who are addressing the key issues facing online recruitment professionals over the next 12 months. I recently met Westley Gillard at one of our networking events (he's going to be talking about mobile recruitment), I also know Paul Harrison who is a fellow blogger (he'll be talking about Employer Brands and Social Media) and of course I know Tim - but the rest are all new to me (which makes a nice change on the conference circuit!).  Last year's event sold out so if you want to go along you can book online. The venue is the Royal Geographical Society in South Kensington (which looks very swish). 

By no coincidence at all our first networking event of 2008  (sign up now!) is the evening before - so hope to see you at both!

Global ERE Recruitment Expo 2007

Scott Baxt, Director of Marketing at ERE asked if I'd mention their Global ERE Expo 2007 recruitment conference.  After the success of last year's event I am more than happy to give it a plug for him.  It takes place on the 14-16 November in Amsterdam.

The conference Chair, again this year, is Alan Whitford who is real recruitment technology guru (and nice guy) and the speaker line up looks great (I noticed a couple of people who are well known in the UK - Matthew Jeffery and Keith Robinson).

There are loads of other great speakers and you can read all about them on the site.  The conference programme looks great so it's a real shame that yet again I can't make along.  However, I will be clearing my calendar for all of November 2008 to ensure I can attend!

Online Recruitment Strategy Tips

Alastair at Enhance Media is nearly half way through a really good series of blog posts entitled "top 10 tips for HR professionals". The tips are about developing an effective online recruitment strategy.

Tip One (Make your corporate career site the hub of all recruitment activity) may be very corporate HR professional focussed, however, the rest are just as valuable to recruitment professionals.  They are "Choose the right job board", "Write copy for the web" and "Do more than just job listings".

I'll be tuning in every day to the end of the series and suggest you do too.

Recruitment Juice DVDs

Because Roy Ripper is such a lovely person (and because I'm "press") I got a demo set of Recruitment Juice DVDs last week.  Before I comment on the actual DVDs I ought to mention the packaging. I personally love getting stuff in the post (except for bills obviously) but this was especially nice.  A chunky box in Recruitment Juicy colours which contained "perceptions of the recruitment industry" (which is a booklet with the results of the survey they completed before starting the DVDs), a workbook for notes as you go along and  a case with the six DVDs.

Now I wasn't planning to watch ALL the DVDs as I don't actually work as a recruiter anymore. I thought I'd just pop the first one on and get a feel for the product.  However I suddenly realised I'd got through the first three DVDs without even realising it.  Such is their watchability.  The quality of the production is really high and the format pulls you in.  It's a combination of clips of real recruiters talking about what's made them successfull and an "The Office" type story.  Then at the end of each DVD Roy does a roundup of what's been covered.  The main characters, Wayne and Charlotte, are very believable.  Wayne is the sterotypical recruiter and Charlotte is the newbie, scared of hitting the phones. 

Roy is still in the process of collecting feedback from clients who've bought the DVDs - they've only been out for about a month.  However, one client told him that they are playing the DVDs before new business sessions to motivate and uplift the team.  I have to admit that despite my levels of sales activity being around the zero mark I personally felt inspired from the sections I watched - and I hadn't even got onto module 4 "elminate objections and close intelligently". 

If you want to see what Recruitment Juice can do for you you'll be pleased to hear that Roy is offering the UK Recruiter community a £50 discount if you enter the code ‘UKRECRUITER’ when ordering the DVDs.

Onrec conference review

Last week I wrote a little summary of the merchandising goods (freebies) on offer at the onrec event.  At the time I said I'd write more about the actual conference.  The write up turned (with help from my roving reporters!) into a review which was published in the newsletter today and can be read via our archives.  The photo to the left shows me listening intently to one of the presentations.  There are more photos from the event on the onrec website.

onrec conference - the morning after

I was at the onrec conference in London yesterday.  I managed to catch quite a few of the presentations (I plan to write about them in a later post) and chat with a lot of the exhibitors.

As usual it was great to see some old friends (including Dan, Ricky and Tarah from Broadbean, Lee from CV-Library, David Morgan from Jobmate and Matthew Dewstowe from Innovantage) as well as meet up with people I've only ever talked to on the phone or by email (including Lisette Howard from HireScores and Rebecca Cole from CanaryWharfJobs).  I also made some great new contacts (who I won't attempt to name drop in case I miss someone off!).

As part of my ongoing research into recruitment industry branding (for branding read "freebies") I picked up a few examples.  I think that Careerbuilder and Hotonline had the best offerings.  Careerbuilder were giving away jellybelly beans in a lovely silver case AND cute orange stick on clocks (although neither of these were linked in any obvious way to their brand).  However, Hotonline had a great freebie and a good tie in.  They had  linking magnetic toys which fitted in with their literature which carried the strap line "get connected".  My only complaint is that, according to my son, I didn't bring enough little magnetic bits home!

Also on offer were the lovely sport beans from Broadbean (in a horrifying blue colour), memory sticks from Daxtra and LocalRecruit, post it notes, pens and mousemats from Monster (although no cuddly monster toys this time unfortunately), breath mints and pens from eFinancialCareers and post it notes, pens and a handy phone holder from Remedy HCMS. 

I had a slightly amusing moment on the jobcentreplus stand.  I asked who their marketing contact is and was told she couldn't give me a name and to send an email via the "contact us" button the site (honestly, I wasn't trying to sell them advertising).  Then, she couldn't actually show me where to click the button as her mouse wasn't working!  When someone is exhibiting at a conference you expect them to show an interest in engaging with you and normally they are keen as mustard to hand over business cards!   

All in all I had a good day.  I will formulate my thoughts on the conference and post relevant and interesting summaries here as soon as possible.

Avoiding Liability for MSC Contractor Tax

Recently we published an article in the newsletter which talked about how the March budget affected contractors and freelancers.  On Friday I caught up with Adrian Marlowe, MD of Lawspeed Limited.  He was telling me about a seminar they are running for recruiters at the end of July 25th "Avoiding Liability for MSC Contractor Tax"

Now, I have to be honest, with my background in Search and Selection I've never got to grip with contractor recruitment, limited companies, managed service companies (MSCs), etc (or even income tax if I'm honest) so I needed some serious hand holding through this from Adrian.

I thought that what he shared was really interesting, so I wanted to pass it on.

At some point in time the treasury realised that a large number of workers (contractors) were operating through limited companies when the treasury believes they are not in business on their own account.  They are thus taking advantage of tax breaks that limited companies can achieve. The treasury saw that a huge number of these limited companies were managed by central providers that were encouraging workers to operate that way.  The tax that they were particularly concerned about not being paid is the IR35.  So they created draft MSC legislation which was announced in December 06 to stop this. 

However, it soon became obvious that the scheme providers were taking steps to circumvent the legislation and so the treasury has had to re-drafted the legislation to tighten it up.  This new legislation is in force today (and has been since 6th April 2007), although it could be subject to amendment between now and when Royal Ascent is given which will probably be some time in June or early July.

The new tighter legislation is to ensure that none of the limited company tax breaks are available to workers working through MSCs.  The treasury believes that recruitment companies must take some responsibility to ensure this happens.  This means that if they continue to recommend use of companies to benefit the worker they will be liable for the tax that is not paid by the contractor.  Apparently an "innocent" agency that doesn't know or promote the MSC will not be liable (although it will be for the agency to prove its innocence if this is picked up on).

So, all in all (for me at least) it's rather complicated. 

To help ease the confusion and clarify the situation Lawspeed are holding an afternoon seminar (followed by drinks and networking) for contract recruiters, accountants, scheme providers and anyone with an interest in this area on the 25th July.  They have up to 150 places on the seminar (although I think about a 3rd are already filled) and the cost is £185 + VAT.  Adrian is the main speaker and there will also be Peter Clayton (of the Association of Processional Recruiters) and Robin Wythes from the Treasury.  There will also be a number of relevant exhibitors.

If you want more information you should visit Lawspeed's website and sign up there.   As far as I know Lawspeed are the only company offering a seminar of this nature around this complicated subject. If you need to keep up to speed then I'd suggest it's going to be £200 well spent.