Sirona Says

Is this the ultimate reason for someone not turning up for work?

Yesterday, I was given a unique and funny reason as to why someone had to postpone a meeting with me (today) - more of that in a moment.  It reminded me of what for me is still my best excuse EVER (in 20+ years in recruitment) for someone not  going to work. The question is can you better it?

The first - yesterday - is funny, and I have to say I am still laughing......

"Sorry, I am going to have to postpone our meeting because I have double booked you with my belly dancing class!"

.......I told you it was unique!!

The second: please note this was very real, and happened to two contractors going to work for me at a local waste water plant a few years ago.
Let me just set the scene....

The water treatment works (the intended destination) was the other side of a village that you have to travel through to get to the site. The two contractors (dressed in their usual white overalls) were due on site at 10.00am and were driving a red Astra van.

Now the fun begins (and anyone involved in placing temporary workers will appreciate this) when I get a call from site at 10.15am - "where are your two contractors, they haven't turned up yet?"

So, I get on the phone (knowing it is a hard site entrance to find) expecting to have to give them directions.........voice mail! >> This is a recruiters nightmare - a client needing and expecting workers, and the said workers un-contactable!!

I heard nothing for two hours, and being a skeptical (and realistic) recruiter, assumed they just didn't want the job and didn't turn up. We were desperately trying to back-fill the two jobs!

I then got a phone call from the local police station.......
"We couldn't make it to work today as we have been arrested for armed robbery!!"

[It must be noted that my candidate control was so good, they actually used their one call - not to phone a solicitor - to call me to tell me they weren't going to turn up!]

This is actually happened....
At 9.30 that day, the local bank (in the village they had to drive through) was held up at gun point. The robbers were wearing white overalls and driving a red Astra van as their getaway vehicle!!
So as my two guys drove through the village at 9.45am past the same bank, the police obviously thought it was Christmas (!!), and arrested them, believing them to be the armed robbers!

Even though they were completely innocent (I had to provide a statement for the police) it wasn't until early evening until they were set free!!

The footnote to the story.......

When I called the (now pissed off) client to tell them, he accused me of fabricating the story !! (He did apologise when he saw the local paper though!)

So the motto of this story is, that sometimes, the tall tails we have all heard during our recruitment lives, are actually true!!

Now, can you beat that reason for candidates not turning up, for you?

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Have TotalJobs lost the plot with this unethical advertising campaign aimed at Jobseekers?

Totaljobs have either lost the plot completely, thrown their morals out of the window, or they have become so desperate that they will promote anything for an advertising commission cheque?

Today I received this email (above) from a very confused (and angry) job seeker. They had received this email from TotalJobs, advertising a 'free' seminar on learning how to trade on the stock market. It promotes the 'fact' that you can a recession proof income while at the same time securing your financial future.

What the hell are TotalJobs doing, sending out this to job seekers? Does this not go beyond the service of a job board? Trying to encourage out of work job seekers to gamble on the stock market to make a living?

There is definitely an ethical and moral question mark here, for me!!

I am not for one minute, suggesting that the company involved, The Wealth Training Company, is not 100% above board and reputable, because they probably are. (Note: they only set up the company earlier this year, so a good long track record is very unlikely!)

But do they really need to sell their database email services to such a company?

Job seekers who have lost their jobs, need to be offered advice and support about how to find a new job, not be enticed into something that could have massive negative repercussions, if things don't work out in the share market, especially as they will have had to invest their own money just to get started.

For me this is an example of a job board stepping over the line. Promotional prostitution seems to have ruled their heads on this one, I think!!

Am I being unfair, or do you agree?

Monster just made me bang my head against a brick wall....hard!!

Monster gets a load of bad press now and again. Sometimes justified, but other times bloggers and industry types just love to jump on Monster's back  and pummel then until they are black and blue!!

I won't be jumping on their back, but I do have to question their approach to sales....in a recession!

Now correct me if I am wrong all you sales people that read my blog, but in a recession, you have to work hard to get those leads, right? They don't come around every day at the moment, so when they do, you jump all over them........I have got this bit right again, haven't I?

Let me tell you a little story about the ineptitude of one of the biggest job boards in the UK - Monster.

My client is looking to recruit 100's of staff for three sites in three different countries in Europe before Christmas, and will undoubtedly be looking to further expand early next year in further more countries. So we are looking at booking multiple job postings and database searching as the initial inquiry I wanted to speak to Monster about. Multiple vacancies in multiple countries over a decent duration.

On Friday, my particular contacts were on holiday so I thought I would get a different phone number from their website. I did and I called it..........and wished I hadn't!!

The person I spoke to did actually work for Monster, but could not help me at all. I said that I wanted to speak to one of their sales team urgently, about this requirement. To my amazement the answer I got was:

"you can't speak to the sales team, they don't talk to people - you have to email them and they will speak to you when they are ready"

I could not believe what I was hearing, so I asked the person again, clarifying that surely the sales team took sales calls, especially for potentially sizeable client inquiries. I just got the same answer again. I have to say, I was so amazed I just put the phone down in disgust!!

Do Monster actually want any business? Obviously not!

Sorry Monster, sales people are there to sell!! If they can't speak to people then how do they manage to do that?

The same can't be said for TotalJobs, who responded superbly efficiently and delivered the goods (ie comprehensive quote) for my client, and followed this up 24 hours later to make sure it was all ok!!

Wow! My blog was voted as one of the Top 25 Talent Management Blogs!

It is fantastic when you receive some adulation for what you enjoy doing, and this is the case for me and my blog. Yesterday I found out that I had made it into the Fistful of Talent's The Talent Management Blog Power Rankings 2.0.

 It represents the best of the talent/recruiting/HR/human capital blogs - they looked at 115 Talent, HR and Recruiting-related blogs and have compiled a list of the very best, and it isvoted for by an esteemed collection of expert bloggers in this space -  Jessica Lee, Maren Hogan, Kelly Dingee, Jennifer McClure, Jason Pankow, Josh Letourneau, Paul Hebert and Kris Dunn

So I was very pleased indeed to find myself in joint 12th place, out of the Top 25. It really is great to be considered so highly in such a great group of industry bloggers.

Congratulations to Cheezhead for being voted No 1, as it is such a great daily source of content in our sector, especially now that Vanessa Dennis has joined the team and weaned Joel off his Monster bashing  (okay, nearly!!)

Who says there is no money in HR??

 

This advert on the front page of this weeks Sunday Times Appointments answers the question many ask about HR.......How much money can I make working in HR? (Sorry for the quality it is scanned)

Well at current exchange rates, I work the c$750,000 package out to be worth £478,950 !!  Ok, so you have to move to the Middle East........

Google's Barbie Doll recruitment approach.

I read an article today by Matt Asay, which makes me wonder if Google are turning to blatant sexual stereotyping to aid their recruiting? Surely not I hear you cry, Google exploiting certain market sectors to get what they want?
Matt mentions that one of his friends was in San Jose for a corporate event. While waiting at the Marriott, he ran into a "swarm of beautiful young girls" that were "uniform in their good looks" and "Vogue like" beauties, coming out of the nearby Fairmont Hotel.

Bet you can't guess who they worked for? Google of course! And even better when asked what they did at Google the response was, "We're recruiters! Do you know Python?"  So no shallowness there then!! I wonder what the response would have been if he replied yes? Would they have sat him down and given him one of the impossible (and I mean impossible) Google tests (for engineers of course!)?

Using the "attractive young female" recruitment ploy in a male orientated market is nothing new, but with their position and status in the industry, do they really need to lower their standards and 'low-ball' their competition by using real life Barbie dolls to help them recruit staff? Maybe they should try the using the Stepford Wives next?

Can you help me with this definition please!

I believe that this word is the most abused word in the world of recruitment - it is the word, urgent.

The strict definition of this adjective is 'Requiring immediate attention'. Isn't it very strange that this appears lost on both clients and candidates alike!!! (Can you tell this really annoys me?)

So, I would really like to hear from you with any 'recruitment orientated' versions of the word urgent please!

Use this career site with warning - you could end up buying a wedding dress at the same time!!

There is much debate and complaint regarding companies using (or not using) their own websites to recruit staff. Of course there are some very good sites out there, that really do give a great candidate experience such as Mothercare and The Body Shop. But there are times when even experienced recruiters (such as my good self) are dumbstruck with some of the corporate sites out there, and the complete lack of care they show when putting together their career pages.
One such site is for the department store group - Debenhams. Just take a visit to their homepage, and go to the Jobs link at the bottom of the page and click on it.

No it doesn't take you to the Debenhams jobs as you might expect but to a page with a wedding URL!! Even more bizarly, there is a career section there!! And then when you want to return to the career home page (in pink at the top of the page), it takes you then to the weddings home page itself!!  Maybe they think that all new recruits should first buy their wedding attire before they apply for a job at Debenhams!!

Is it any wonder that retailers struggle to attract and recruit high calibre recruits when they are making the most stupid mistakes like this - what impression does that leave with a jobseeker?? It actually gets funnier (in a sad way!), because there is actually a http://www.debenhams-jobs.com/ domain at the same time!!