Sirona Says

The 10 things Employers HAVE to understand about recruiting staff

As an employer, you don't want to be reading this list, but you HAVE TO READ IT!! It is what the recruitment market is like currently, and if you don't take these points on board then you will have bigger problems that you think, when it comes to recruiting your own staff!! Reality hurts sometimes, and for some companies, who stick their heads in the sand it will end up being very painful indeed!! So, here are my 10 things that employers have to understand about the recruitment market place:

• Candidates receive multiple offers. You must understand what your prospective candidates are really looking for and sell your company and your opportunity accordingly. Candidates will have more than your offer to choose from, make it count.
• Nearly all candidates will receive a counter-offer from their current employer. Be aware and offer a good package or you simply won't get that second chance!
• Past employers return like sharks. They wait for you new employee to have been there 1-2 months and return with another counter offer and a 'is it really what they told you?' approach.
• Recruitment agencies are also sniffing for blood. A fact of employment life is that your good staff WILL be getting calls from recruiters, looking to prise them from your company. Ignore this fact at your peril.

Retailers have a problem with Generation Y'ers

When I first started in work in retail many years ago there was one thing that was ingrained into me........"The customer is always right". Of course we know that is not always the case, but as far as the interaction with the customer goes, it is a strategy to keep customers coming back. It teaches you to manage expectation and deal with people in a civil and considerate way etc This has provided a great base for my career, especially in recruitment (although it becomes a challenge, believing it with some clients!!)

Over the weekend visiting a number of retail shops, it dawned on me that retailers WILL have problems with their Generation Y workforce.Their seemingly lack of interest and motivation, and 'what's in it for me' attitude doesn't mix with retail customer service too well. They don't like to engage with customers, won't accept they have made a mistake and certainly won't adopt the customer is always right philosophy (sorry Tescos, WHSmiths, JJB and Next but they don't!).

So how do companies with such key customer facing roles change the attitudes of their staff? They can't, but they can look at other companies that I believe get it right - namely Marks & Spencers and Waitrose (John Lewis). They start getting it right at the recruitment phase - knowing what they want in terms of staff quality, and sticking to it - and continue the process with regular training, mentoring, appraising. And this is just for their shop assistant/sales assistant roles!! Have you ever been into either of these stores and had a bad experience with one of their staff? Highly unlikely I suggest.

So all you retailers, recruiting generation Y'ers won't be easy, but try and engage with them, after all if they won't engage with you then they certainly won't engage with your customers!!

There's being clever, and there is being different...not sure where this fits?

I came across this site today, and I have to say it is certainly a little different. But did it get the message across - not immediately, and I had to try and figure out what they did! It is all well and good having fancy clever animated sites, but unless they convey the message clearly then they sort of miss the trick don't they?

Nice idea, but a little off track for me!

Recruitment and Retention has now just got harder!!

While I appreciate that the whole world is having recruitment challenges, I wanted to highlight two problems that I feel are going to impact massively on recruitment and retention. I have actually already experienced both of them with candidates in the last few weeks, and I am sure it will just get worse.

So what am I talking about? Petrol and Houses. The price of petrol is rising higher and higher every week, so obviously your staff (and you of course) will be paying more for their commute into work. With this price estimated to get to £1.50 per litre by the end of the summer, then their commuting costs (by car) have just risen by 50%. How many will be looking to get a job closer to home to cut down traveling? What are you doing about it? Are you encouraging more home working? Are you being flexible with allowing them to come into the office less? Are you actually sharing your concerns with your staff? If you don't they will look for an employer that is doing something about it.

House prices - more importantly the mortgage rate - are stopping people moving. Higher interest rates mean that mortgages have lept up substantially this year, costing people more money. There are two implications from this, 1) they may now not be earning enough money where they currently work, and may have to look at another job and leaving your company or 2) the option of relocating for a new job has suddenly been diminished for the moment, not because they don't want to move, but because they may not sell their house! So recruiting for specific skills in a market where they are absent now becomes a real problem. Whereas, before you could relocate someone with the right skills, now it will become more of a challenge to convince candidates to move. So if this is going to cause you problems, what are you doing about it? Have you even thought of the long term implications? Should you be reconsidering recruiting lower skilled and training them? Should you look at retraining of existing staff? What about ad hoc pay rises?

The one thing that both petrol prices and house prices will definitely test, and that will be how creative a company can be with their creative retention policies!!!!

How to use SEM / SEO Tools to write job adverts

As a recruiter, one key part of your role is writing advert copy for your own online adverts. There will be many recruiters that simply place the 'actual' job title and 'actual' job spec onto their chosen job board or portal such as Broadbean or Conkers, and leave it at that. They then wonder why they get limited response. I have previously posted about writing creative adverts, but my point is this time to for recruiters to actually consider what the job seeker is searching for.
Search engine marketing (SEM)  and search engine optimisation (SEO) consultants use keyword searching tools such as SEO Book, Wordtracker or AdwordsTools to identify keywords people are using when they search online.  But how many of you are doing the same when you write a job advert? After all you are trying to get the same effect - people looking for jobs using keywords to search.

The latest Manpower Annual Talent Shortage Survey - the UK's 10 toughest jobs to recruit

According to the latest Manpower Annual Talent Shortage Survey, these are the ten hardest jobs to find candidates for, in the UK.

1. Skilled Manual Trades
2. Administrative Assistants & PAs
3. Engineers
4. Sales Representatives
5. Management/Executives
6. Laborers
7. Accounting & Finance Staff
8. Chefs/Cooks
9. Machinists/Machine Operators
10. Supervisors

Mind you, if you are in these sectors you probably already know that!!

Are Generation Y'ers more powerful than we realise?

These Generation Y'ers  - also known as the Thumb Generation and the Net Generation - have more power than people realise......and they know it. Part of the differences between X & Y generations is down to the inbuilt attitude they have to life, and the type of care free approach they have. They are not interested in buying houses ( they can't afford to anyway), they want to experience life and enjoy themselves - and trying to recruit them will be a challenge!

But there is a very forward thinking individual that has seen the vision to harness the power of the Generation Y'ers - it is the US Democratic Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama. In a great article by Bea Fields she has shown how Barack Obama has blatantly targeted this generation to win votes in his battle with Hilary Clinton for the Democratic Nomination, and it seems that the creativity and foresight he ( or his team!) has shown it to be a successful strategy so far in the race for the White House.

Can you imagine the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, using YouTube to deliberately deliver his message to the people? or keeping a website continually updated every hour with the latest news? or attending an Usher concert instead of political event? Well of course the answer to all three is 'absolutely not', as you probably guessed!!  But if one of the (potentially) most important leaders of the world has seen the power of the Y Generation, why is it that so many companies are just not paying attention? Why are they dragging their heals when it comes to things like corporate social networks and blogs? They will be the first to complain when they are losing the talent to their competitors!!

Could this approach to passive candidates work?

Headhunting / executive search / passive candidate attraction have all been around for ages, and there doesn't seem to be much innovation in the sector. So while reading an article by Kevin Nale, one of his points intrigued me. He advocates creating a short professional introduction video, personalised to the target candidate you are trying to 'hook'. In other words, a simple personal request for a coffee or lunch meeting to discuss the opportunity face to face.

I think the idea is good, and certainly inventive as some of these candidates are elusive to say the least! As Kevin says, 'if your pipeline is diminishing, just remember it is not you, it's how you are presenting the great opportunity'. My only problem with this is the logistics of this idea, the numbers needed, and how you deliver this video file so that the target candidate watches it.

One thing for sure though, is that they will really appreciate the time you have taken to record a video specially for them, won't they?

Do you know anyone who has tried this method?

People Talent Magnets

  A question I have for companies so worried about talent management, is whether they do really think ahead and consider the impact of recruiting the right leaders for their company?

Many good candidates are attracted by the calibre of the leaders (Managers and alike) in a business - they see them as a quality benchmark, charismatic people, people they would would enjoy working for and people they would follow. In simple terms these leaders are people talent magnets. They have skills, aptitude, charisma, gravitas and above all, great leadership skills. Managers like these are great at attracting like minded individuals to companies, and are usually the reason why really successful teams are built. So bearing this in mind, do companies actively try to recruit these types of people? Do they target future leaders when recruiting? Can they even identify future leaders and the benefits they could bring to the business?

I am not sure that many companies are even looking that far ahead when recruiting, but they should. People talent magnets will help solve some of the future recruiting problems - recruit them and talent will follow them into your company.

MI6: Please apply for this job to be a Spy - just don't tell anyone!

MI6, the UK's secret intelligence service is embarking on a less than secret recruitment campaign. They are obviously having recruitment problems like every other company at the moment, as they today placed an advert in the Sunday Times for staff! I am guessing 'war for talent' is a more apt phrase for MI6 than it is for most other recruiting companies!!

Obviously I am not ridiculing the job MI6 do, as it is essential for national (and international) security, but we are not just talking about normal jobs we are also talking about spies - aka Operational Officers. So maybe they have guessed, that there are many wannabe UK spies out there!! So what skills do you need to apply then?

• Excellent at relationship building. The ability to read, understand and influence others.
• Political curiosity. A proven interest in world affairs.
• Sound judgment. Highly intelligent with excellent decision making ability.
• Resilience. Need to be determined, adaptable and resourceful.
• Integrity. Must be totally trustworthy and exercise total discretion.
• Commitment. Must be committed to helping protect the UK.

Right, if you think you can hack it as a spy (sorry, Operational Officer), start with this test to see how you score.

Done well? great off you go and apply then, but remember that 'MI6 stress that those who apply should not tell anyone about their application'!!