Sirona Says

Don't shut up......just talk!!!!

I don't know about you but I am always telling my kids to actually pick up the phone and talk rather than texting or 'MSN-ing' or emailing!! There does seem to be a real aversion these days to using that 'old fashioned' communication method of speech.
It seems that the reverse is starting happen with the way the web is evolving at the fantastic rate it is. It seems that candidates and companies alike want to use the medium of speech as the differentiator for either themselves or their business. Two good examples of this are Chris Russell's product Jobs in Pods aimed at the corporates, and a product aimed at candidates and recruiters called TalkingCV.

Jobs in Pods is a great idea to allow prospective employees to listen to jobs rather than reading them and to hear what its like to work there.
TalkingCV allows candidates to produce a revolutionary 3 dimensional personal profile consisting of video, audio and text, talking CV with just the aid of a webcam - and for the recruiters they can pre-specify certain questions to be answered.

It does seem at last that with the advent of technology, the cost to both companies and individuals alike is more realistic for them to be different and use these and other ways to do so. I just wonder how long it will take the corporate world to grasp these new ways of presenting themselves to their audience, as well as accepting looking/listening at a CV, rather than the tired traditional methods.

Reduce your clothes......and your carbon footprint!

The Work Dress Code Evolution

According to a recent survey,  our work dress has evolved and will keep ‘relaxing’ - probably culminating in dressing for the beach, by the beach, in a virtual world!!
You can of course wear less clothes, reduce the reliance on the air conditioning and reduce your carbon footprint at the same time!! ( But of course you will then help wreck the ozone layer with copious amounts of extra deodorant!!)

Checking out the Talent!

It seems more and more companies are now using search engines such as Google and Yahoo, as well as the social networking sites such as MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook, Friends Reunited, YouTube and Blogs to carry out searches on prospective employees prior to interviews. Obviously a great idea!!

Two questions I have linked to this 'new' type of interview research:

1. Why don't candidates do the same? They obviously know who will be interviewing them (they should do anyway!), so as a part of the interview / company research shouldn't they just do the same and search across the same type of sites?
2. With all the worry within companies regarding losing talented employees to the marketplace, would it not be prudent of managers to conduct some searching of their own - keeping an eye on their key team members to make sure they are not discontented and looking for other opportunities.

Now all of you who have just drawn in a breath, and are about to quote the words 'big brother' to me, my answer is simple - tough!! as there is absolutely nothing you can do about it, so just adopt the process like everyone else.

Can you satisfy the talent?

Many companies today still believe that the power of the £ is all that it takes to get new talent on board - how wrong they are!

How many of these do you think talented candidates take into consideration when considering a new job?

The Talent isn't out there.......oh yes it is!!

A common cry from recruiters and companies alike in this period of a 'candidate driven' marketplace is that there is a shortage of talent.

A fair comment some would say, but I believe that there is an abundance of talent in the marketplace. You just need to know where it all is and then how to go about finding it!

With this type of market the candidates you want will be:

• Working for a competitor
• Well paid
• Not actively looking for work
• Happy in their job
• Regularly have other job options

So how do you get a chance of talking to them?

You need to be different! Yes you should be using the standard methods of attraction as a minimum such as:

• Good career website
• Employee referral scheme
• Staff Networking
• Relevant job advertising
• CV database searching
• Agencies where needed

But why not be different to other companies and be 'brave' - add something different to the mix as well such as:

• Using the new websites
  • You Tube
  • Myspace
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
• Actively encourage the use of LinkedIn and Jobster internally
• Change the way you advertise - be different and be bold
• Revamp your career pages
• Use SEO and SEM
• Talking jobs via podcasts
• Encourage your younger staff to assist you with the 'in' websites
• Use internal messaging/networking tools such as Ning
• Create an external blog - you can use this to drive traffic to your career site

And above all, when you do get to speak to these candidates make them feel special, important and wanted - after all they are, so make them feel that way in how you interact with them every time.

Corprate vs External - is it going grey?

 

With many companies looking to take their recruitment in house, and they are looking for the most obvious place for the skills to do this - the recruitment companies themselves.

So with so many recruiters being tempted into working directly for companies to establish fully fledged recruitment functions, will there be a real transference of skills in house?

Historically, I think the consensus would agree that external recruiters have been traditionally sharper and more commercially minded, primarily because they have different drivers and motivators - high salaries being one of them!! But as these recruiters go in house, and start to transfer their sourcing expertise and knowledge over to corporate recruiting, will the recruiting lines start to blur?

The recruitment industry is just too massive to go away (and facts suggest that it is actually growing), but if more companies take the stance of setting up their own recruitment teams, I feel that this 'grey area' might actually start to get larger quicker!

Big kahunas needed!!

Go one just book it a seperate room on holiday - you know you want to!! After all it will be like another member of your family for your holiday.......won't it??

We are now into the holiday season, and who has got the large size kahunas to leave it on their desk at home while they go away - only 18% of us!!!!!!!!! According to a recent survey by Moneypenny a whopping 82% of us now check our emails on holiday, with 49% checking them every day and even 10% every hour (and yes I am guilty of that as well!!).

And then the well named VP EMEA for RIM - Charmaine Eggberry - has the nerve to say "With such clear benefits, mobile professionals can feel confident in choosing BlackBerry for its work/life balance benefits, in order to get the most out of each day.” 

So does that mean if you take your Blackberry / email device on holiday it will give you more time to relax because it is so efficient???

I for one will be trying to leave mine turned off this year ................honest!!

.JOBS - why not?

Why are companies who are serious about using their career sites to really drive their recruitment, not embracing the .jobs domain?

There are several companies that already are using it, and to me it is an absolute no-brainer. With all the talk around ( and alot of it is hot air!!!) of companies wanting to use their career sites / job pages as their primary source of recruiting, why not add something different with a dedicated domain??

I guess it would mean companies actually being serious about using their websites to recruit...........and we know the answer there don't we!!

Watch out a new kid on the block!!

All you line managers and HR people that get involved in candidate testing and evaluation, take note as there is a new kid on the block - Plumbline - www.plumblinetest.co.uk. It is simple to both use and administer and what you get is a concise and accurate report - so none of these 10 page psychobabble evaluations to wade through just to establish you are an axe murderer (which of course you  knew all the time!!).

It is probably safe to say that choosing the right people for the right jobs is important to organisational effectiveness.  However, in many organisations, rather than being systematic and based upon sound evidence, the identification of the best recruits is a relatively unstructured and intuitive process.   

Experiences suggest that there is a clear need for an easy-to-use system, accessible and relevant to all organisations regardless of size.  Many organisations want to reap the benefits of quality psychometric methodology without investing too heavily time-wise or financially.  Plumbline's vision is to help organisations fit people to jobs for which they are suited in the sorts of organisations they want to work for.   In this way individuals have greater satisfaction and engagement at work.  The benefit to organisations is that a more engaged workforce leads to greater productivity - and after all, isn't that what every organisation wants  these days??

Don't say 'Hi' - customers don't like it!!

If you want to get your next business conversation off to a good start, dont start with 'Hi'. A recent survey by Standard Life Healthcare has shown that customers want a more formal approach in business. 69% preferred 'Good Morning', 22% preferred 'Hello'  and less than 10% preferred the less formal 'Hi' !!

Other interesting preferences were:

43% of 25-43 year olds were happy to called by their first name, but 36% of those aged over 35 wanted formality of a title and surname.

68% of people can tell if the person they are talking to is smilling!!  -You see 'smiling and dialing does work then!!

So according to Standard Life, when you are going to speak to a prospect at a new company don't start the conversation with 'Hi Paul', but with the boring 'Good Morning Mr Jones' !!  I do agree formailty has its place but haven't things moved on in the 21st century enough to be more relaxed in our anticipated greetings??