Sirona Says

The one BIG mistake that every company is making with their candidate recruitment

 

There is so much written and spoken about social recruiting and social media for businesses, there is a danger of over complication of the essence of understanding what the whole experience should be.

There is a phrase I use a lot when talking to clients about recruitment, social recruiting or using social media in recruitment. It is a mistake every company makes and which (for me) is the no.1 thing they need (but often fail) to do:

Look back at yourself through the eyes of your candidates.

What does the candidate experience when they start interacting with your brand? It could be your career site, your website, your Twitter profile, your Facebook page, your LinkedIn profile or even just an email or phone call they receive from you.
Have you ever even considered what the experience is for a candidate for any of the above? When was the last time you even bothered to consider what the candidates see when interacting with your brand?

As we move more into the social recruiting sphere (and don't think you can avoid it for long), the transparent nature of social media becomes ever more obvious. With the ability for people to instantly share (on all of the social networks) information on companies - both good and bad - the need to consider what the candidates are experiencing is truly paramount.

If you are recruiting graduates or young people, then look at the content you are presenting from their perspective. If you are of a different generation, get one of your employees who fit that demographic to review it.
If you are recruiting more experienced people, and you don't fit that same skill profile, again get one of your employees with relevant experience to check the content, to see if what you have produced resonates with them. This sounds so simple doesn't it, but I know from experience that the majority of companies don't even consider what the candidates see!
There still seems to be an element of brand arrogance in the market when it comes to companies believing people want to work for 'their' brand, because they are who they are. >>Wake up and smell the coffee -  those days are quickly disappearing!!

Whether you are producing a new website, new career site, a new blog or even a new Facebook page, you absolutely (with no exceptions either) need to put the audience first. Think of who you are trying to reach out to. Then target the content accordingly to that audience.

You have such a small window to get the persons attention (maybe just 10 -15 seconds, according to some web experts), that you just have to get it right immediately.

So, remember, look back at yourself through the eyes of your candidates. Grab a coffee and go an do it today........ I think you will be a little shocked at what you see!

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The Candidate and Company Recruitment Disconnect

 

 


 Only one word to add to this image on behalf of candidates and recruiters everywhere - FRUSTRATION!

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The recruitment reality check: Your employees are leaving sometime soon!

Are you one of those companies who like sticking your fingers in your ears, while singing 'la la la' out loud. hoping that it won't happen to you? Come on, you know you are!
After all, all your staff are happy, you have a great employer brand and everything is 'nice and dandy' with your employees, right?

WRONG!

You need to order in some of the reality check cookies and start munching away quickly. Whatever you think you are as an employer and however loyal you think your employees are........... think again - we have entered a very interesting recruitment phase at the moment, that doesn't appear too often.

Some economists would probably call it, 'post recessionary recruitmentism' or some other 'over-clever' mumbo jumbo .................. for me it much simpler. I just call it recruitment reality.

We are coming out of recession (well most places are, anyway) , M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions) activity is buoyant again and there is (finally) talk of large hiring strategies again. Things are already changing fast with regards to candidate availability, as recruitment markets are quickly picking up again - most recruitment agencies have been seeing a surge in demand for candidates now for the last few months. For many it is the busiest they have been for the last 2-3 years.

So what is going to happen?Here are my five 

1. It's hemorrhage time (go on sing it to MC Hammers famous song - you know you want to!). Candidate attrition has been still running at just over 18% on average  during the recession. This would mean that you would lose one in five of your workforce this year. BUT, realistically this could double if not treble over the next 12 months, as candidates start sticking their heads above the parapet again.  - Yes! Many companies will have staff turnover rates of well over 50% in the next 12 months!!!  What are you going to do about it then?  Are you ready to replace half your workforce? Where are you going to find them from? When was the last time you looked at your career site? You need to have a recruitment strategy in place (NOW!) just to maintain your existing workforce levels.
2. Past employers will return like Great White sharks. Remember they couldn't get rid of their employees quick enough two years ago could they?  You snapped up some great catches then, didn't you? Well, now they are leaner and meaner and ready to come hunting for your staff. And don't think your employees won't consider going back, they will for the right package - the recession has taught them to forget about loyalty (unfortunately) and focus on themselves and their own needs (perceived or real). You won't know anything about it until they are gone!
3. 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 - a good recruiter is like a pitbull - once they have the teeth into your employees, they just simply won't let go, until they get what they want - your staff!
4. Thanks to social media it has made it even easier to find your employees!! To be fair, it has never been easier to find candidates, what with LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs and of course Google. Obviously 'finding' candidates isn't recruiting them, and that is a whole different ballgame! But, they are there waiting to be found, and there is nothing you as an employer you can do to stop that happening.
5. Finally, what about all the 'regular ordinary workers' - your company's lifeblood -  out there, that are unhappy in their work? There are many! During the recession, they just keep their heads down, grateful for continued employment. Now the grass is looking greener again. They have started to realise that there are more jobs out in the marketplace again. They are starting to actually look for jobs again! >>> Now this is a BIG problem. These are the workers who you BELIEVE to be your loyal subjects, and happy in their work. When was the last time you said (about them) "they won't leave, they are like part of the furniture here" to a colleague? Don't say I didn't warn you - they WILL be walking out the door sometime soon!!

Now you may feel I am being a little over dramatic here - I just wish I was. I am having these conversations with companies every day - they are seeing their staff leave EVERY day, and yes they can counter offer, but that is only temporary. I read a survey last month that said 84% of all employees expect (or want) to change jobs in the next 12 months - now that is scary stuff!
Employee engagement, employer brand and (dare I say it) salary package reviews are all areas of focus at the moment, but is it too late for your company?

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What many in the recruitment sector fail to realise - job seekers are their lifeblood!

People will pay for the value THEY perceive NOT what you tell them it is

Sounds like a bit of an obvious statement doesn't it? But just think about it for a moment. As a consumer (customer) do you buy the product you are interested in because you believe 100% in what the salesperson said to you? Are you mesmerized by the sales patter, and just have to have the product at any cost?
Unless you are either a shopaholic, an impulse buyer or you have an urgent need for it then the answer is probably no.

Why? One good reason is that the product isn't of enough value TO YOU, to make you part with your money. This is key - THE VALUE TO YOU, not the value that the sales person has assigned to it.

Right, I now want you to put yourself in the mind of a job seeker just for a moment.

You are looking for a new job and as part of the process, you will be applying for jobs - direct with companies, via job boards, social media channels and recruitment agencies.
All these channels are 'selling' their products - jobs - to you.

Question time: Which ones are of most value to you, in your goal of helping you find a job?

Answer: the ones that have invested in understanding what you actually want.

Let me explain....

Many companies with career sites have little consideration of the candidate experience.The reason is that they have opted for 'listening' to the software vendors (of the online recruitment systems /ATS aka applicant tracking systems) candidate workflow and 'many years of experience' when implementing a new system.
The majority of these processes are way too long, complicated, have no candidate empathy, high drop-off rates and are, quite frankly, a horrible experience, which reflects badly on the employer brand.
Is it any wonder then, that some new players such as HarbourATS have successfully entered the marketplace, with a real focus on the candidate experience, not the unnecessary software add-ons they can sell to the unsuspecting client.

Message to companies with career sites: Think what the candidates actually want NOT what you think they need. When was the last time you actually sought any opinion at all on your online recruitment process?

Job Boards, have been around for a while now, and they provide an essential service to candidates (and clients alike) looking for a job. They will continue to do so even with the advent of social media job channels, but they also need to be thinking of the candidates and not their bottom line.
For a job board it is a fine line - they stay in business because they sell their service to clients wanting to advertise jobs. But they need candidates to keep arriving at the site to apply to the jobs - without this traffic, clients would stop advertising, and they would cease to exist.
So, with this in mind, do many actually give a sh*t about candidates? Some, like Jobsite, have invested heavily in understanding what the candidates want and expect from them - resulting in real social media functionality be added to their site earlier this year. Many other job boards just worry about the numbers, they don't care about the candidate experience, they just want to be able to brag their latest traffic stats to the clients they are selling to!

Message to job boards: consider the job seeker a little more with your processes, and focus on making it a simple, useful and enjoyable experience for them. While you need traffic (I do understand that), better to have a referral network of happy job seekers to compliment all your Google Adwords spending isnt' it?

Recruitment agencies are to be honest an enigma. For every good one that has a great candidate experience, and one that candidates come back to and happily refer their friends, there are three others that (unbelievably) don't give a crap about the candidates that make them their money!
The good ones take the time to build relationships, the bad ones have no time for any relationship - candidates are just like tins of beans on a shelf to them - use them when they want and discard them when they have finished with them.

Message to recruitment agencies: Just think for a second about the experience you give your candidates. is there any wonder why many of the candidates registered with you, have turned to social media websites to find a new job? Maybe it's because they don't value what you do?

Social Media channels are so new to the recruiting space, that they are really just finding their recruitment feet. One thing is already clear, though. Candidates are using them by the bucket load, and will continually choose to do so. And all the time other options are not giving them the value they want, they will stay in the social media land.

So, if you are a company that works in the world of recruitment - and there are literally thousands out there - take a minute to consider your currency  - the job seekers - and just ask yourself;  what is the value that job seekers ACTUALLY see in your product or service? If you don't know the answer, maybe now is the time to ask..... before it is too late!!

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Is this the ultimate talent acquisition strategy?

We all know the world of sports is a rule to itself when it comes to employment law and contracts. Today I want to ask your opinion on what I see as a very worrying trend at one Football Club, that is either unethical, unfair or just good business sense in the world of talent acquisition.

The Scenario: The football team in question is Manchester City, of The Premier League in the UK.They are owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and literally have unlimited wealth (£Trillions) at their disposal.
Over the course of of the last 12 months they have been buying many of the top talent (footballers) from clubs around the world paying huge sums of money in transfer fees and player wages to acquire them.
They have assembled a first team squad of over 50 top quality players that would get into most of their competitors teams.

The Rules: The Premier League, this year brought in squad size caps, limiting a squad of players at any Premier League club to only 25 players for the season (with changes only allowed to be made in January).

The Problem for the Employer: Talent management - keeping the talented players happy that don't get selected for the final 25 player squad. After all, all they want to do is play football, right?

The Solution (as Manchester City see it): They loan out all these talented individuals (that haven't made the 25 player cut) to other companies (Football Clubs) to ensure they stay plying their trade (football) and keeping fit - all the time paying their exorbitant wages as well at the same time!!
BUT, they control where the players go - and they certainly WON'T let them go to any of their competition in the Premier League (which is understandable).

THE BIG QUESTION

Is is right, morally or ethically, to 'buy up' all the talent available in a marketplace just to restrict your competitors getting access to it, just because you have the wealth to do it? OR, is it a good business decision that should be applauded accordingly?

What do you think? Are Manchester City demonstrating the ultimate in a talent acquisition strategy, designed to reach their goal of reaching the top ?

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Making social media work for your company

While doing some Sunday morning reading online, I came across the graphic below from the website Oneupweb, a digital marketing agency, that I thought was simple and brilliant at the same time.

It is self explanatory and it is a very good graphical representation of making social media work for your business, and the different types of social media that could interest different parts of the organisation.

So here it is, making social media work for your company:

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Should recruiters or hiring managers take 'job mashups' or 'portfolio careers' more seriously?

The recession is really impacting on many people's lives in a big way. And in the job market this is absolutely true. There are millions out of work, with some areas of the countries fairing better than others. While some people are lucky and find a new job - albeit it takes a little longer to get one - many are not so fortunate!

What has started to happen, both by choice and necessity is that people are stringing together a number of smaller jobs together, just to survive financially, because jobs paying the required salaries just aren't there at the moment.
These types of job mashups are known as portfolio careers - you no longer have one job, but multiple jobs and employers within one or more professions. Instead of working a traditional full-time job, you work multiple part-time jobs (including part-time employment, temporary jobs, freelancing, and self-employment) with different employers that when combined are the equivalent of a full-time position.

These people that hold down these portfolio careers and succeed need to be applauded for their attitude towards wanting to work. They are actually showing many traits that employers should be looking for going forward. However, my fear is that both recruiters and hiring managers will steer away from them when they come to apply for a individual higher salaried jobs.

With the available pool of talent being more representative of a flood currently, recruiter and hiring managers, will be looking to find the most obvious matches, and the easiest routes to a placement/hire. This is bad news for candidates with a CV showing their portfolio career!! Job seekers with multiple shorter duration jobs on their CV's will be swept to one side by the deluge of people with "stable" job histories with fewer, longer duration jobs on their CV.

So by working hard, wanting to make sure they are working, and paying their bills the best they can, me fear is that these portfolio career workers could actually be setting themselves up for a longer term job problem!

Are the (unfortunately) harsh realities of clients and recruiters alike - specific requirements and available talent - going to seriously hamper these portfolio career job seekers?

I for one, applaud the attitude of these workers, I just wish more people had the same attitude towards work!!

What do you think?

OK, so what DO you have to wear to the interview to get a job then?

Is it a sign of the times that 76% of British bosses will make a decision on your suitability for their job,  based on what you are wearing when you sit in front of them at the interview?

Is this really a surprise? I don't think, so as employers have been doing it for years. In candidate driven markets they have had to 'scale down' their expectations and would overlook dress codes (especially when recruiting gen Y'ers). But now the landscape as changed (albeit temporarily), and the hiring companies feel that they have the control back in the interview, which of course they do!

According to this recent Ladders survey of 500 senior bosses from UK companies, over a third of interviewers have cited bad interview appearance as a primary reason for candidate rejection!! Blimey!!

So what should you avoid wearing at an interview?

Ok Men here you go with your no-no's!

1. No tie (52% say fire)
2. No jacket (50% say fire)
3. Chinos (50% say fire)
4. Polo shirts (66% say fire)
5. Jeans (82% say fire)
6. T shirts (88% say fire)
7. Leather jackets (70% say fire)
    

Here you go ladies, don't feel left out...

1. Short skirt (60% say fire)
2. Low necklines (95% say fire)
3. Sports shoes (91% say fire)
4. Dangling jewellery (99% say fire)
5. Bare legs (94% say fire)
6. Big shoulder pads - ala 80's style - (97% of bosses say big shoulder pads are wrong for interview)

I haven't finished yet, as there are more no-no's.....

1. 59% of interviewers, stains and dirty marks will see you out of the interview room immediately
2. 36% of interviewers see co-ordination of colours and styles as an important indication of the candidate’s personality
3. 75% of interviewers will look at whether your clothes are “appropriate for the circumstances”
4. 33% of interviewers said they would consider whether the candidate’s style suited their organisation
5. 95% of interviewers said orange was an inappropriate colour to wear to an interview, with red (84%) and pink (83%) coming in closely behind orange

What have the interviewers got against the 80's? People did get jobs then even with the fashion mistakes you know!!

So after all that, what should you be wearing to your interview?

1. Tailored navy single breasted suit (51% hire)
2. White or blue long sleeved shirt (48% hire)
3. Black leather shoes (56% hire)
4. Black socks (77% hire) (too right here, seen white socks making a comeback again !!)
5. Low key tie (35% hire)
6. Cufflinks (37% hire)
7. and no handkerchief (35% hire) (Come on, who wears a handkerchief in the top pocket any more?)
8. A mid-length black skirt or dress (64% hire) (women, obviously....)
9. Long sleeved and collared shirt or blouse (42% hire)
10. Tights (94% hire)
11. High heels (69% hire)
12. Pearls (56% hire)

Well it seems that we have returned to traditional boring conservative Britain again!! 

The sooner the employment market gets back to normal, and the gen Y'ers can (and maybe the gen Z'ers) can start to break the mold the better! Seriously, do we all have to dress like shop dummies to get a new job?
Well obviously at the moment, while the companies have control, then I am afraid if you want your next job, you better get shopping!!

Do you know what happens to your CV when it arrives on an Employer's or a Recruitment Agency's desk?

As a job seeker looking for a new job, do you know what the primary purpose of your CV/Resume is?

Is it:
a)  Ammunition for the office 'bin basketball' competition?
b)  Paper airplane material?
c)  A guarantee of getting a job?
d)  Something to make the reader of your CV laugh out loud?
e)  A route to a work permit?

Well, if you hadn't already guessed, it is none of the above!

The primary purpose of a CV is to get you an interview with an employer. That's it!
The CV won't get you the job - YOU do that. It just gives you the opportunity to get a job.

As a job seeker, do not send another CV until that has sunk in, because it has massive implications on your job search. Your task in the CV is to just achieve this, so if some of the information on your 8 page CV could be classified as ' would this get them excited enough to invite me for an interview', then get rid of it now!

Here are some other important things to consider before you send your nice new shiny CV off to an employer or recruitment agency:

1. When an employer or recruitment agency is going through CV applications for a role, the average time spent on looking at a CV is no more than 10 seconds (and for many recruitment agencies it is, unbelievably, less). Tip one:First impressions count.
2. At the initial selection stage, your CV will only ever end up in two piles - 'reject' or 'read more'. You will only ever be filtered out at this stage, nothing else.  Tip two: Don't waste your time applying for jobs that just aren't suitable for what your CV says you do - otherwise your rejected applications will grow and grow!
3. Many companies(surprisingly) don't have skilled (and in some cases dedicated) staff carrying out the recruitment process. Tip three: Do all you can to help by making it very clear at the beginning of your CV what you do and what you want to do, in a well written profile.
4. The majority of recruitment staff (and this goes for both companies and recruitment agencies alike ) are not technically minded. So don't try and bamboozle them with technical data and gobbledy-crap - it won't work. Tip four: Explain in legible easy to read and accepted business speak, not techo-geek anachronisms.
5. Many recruitment consultants within recruitment agencies have become CV blind. They see literally 100's and 100's of CV's a day (both incoming and via their CV databases). For this reason they (understandably sometimes) miss good CV's due to the volume they receive. Tip five: If you have sent a CV for a job (making sure you can actually do the job in the first place), don't make the cardinal sin job seekers make by not following up the CV with a phone call.

In this current recessionary climate, there is no doubt that trying to find a job has become a numbers game - don't be under any illusions about that. You will suffer rejection again and again - the thing to remember is not to take it personally. The interviewer doesn't know you, hasn't yet spoken to you, doesn't even know anything about you. All they see is one or two paragraphs of your CV (more if you are lucky), and then they make a decision......the 'reject' or 'read more' pile. As I said it isn't personal!

If you would like any more of my 'words of wisdom', then you can get a free 12 pages pdf of valuable job seekers tips here.

So here are some of my tips for job seekers regarding sending CV applications, but what would you add? What other nuggets of advice would you suggest based on your experiences?

How do you successfully extract people from 'happy jobs' to fill your role?

This week I have had three particular conversations with people I know well that have all ended with me (for once) being lost for an immediate answer to their problem!  The cause for my dilemma has been the current employment landscape!!

All three conversations have been along the same lines, so let me para-phrase the scenario:

Large blue chip company looking to recruit senior sales and marketing roles. They are well established, have a solid financial track record, have a good reputation and are paying good salaries. They do have high standards (as you would expect) but not unrealistic, and there is proven career progression.
These companies have been trying to recruit these roles for several months, and have even got to offer stages (all of them), but were all counter offered, and subsequently lost their candidates.

The question I was asked was this, "What do we have to do to find great people that actually want our jobs, and extract them from their current employers?"

Now as you might expect, I have covered many things with them in trying to help them understand why they are having problems such as; salary, package, location, spec, profile, company profile, brand, career, training, development, employment brand, understanding candidate motivation, approach of the recruitment agencies, which agencies they use, products they are selling, travel, market perception etc etc

I would just like to say that they are all being realistic and prepared to be flexible where they can, but there does come a point where you draw the line!
The impression that these people have been left with, is that yes there are many candidates 'looking for a job', but when it comes to the crunch they won't make the ultimate commitment and leave, citing the economy and 'maybe in six months time' as reasons.

WHY?

This is where you come in!
A question for all you recruiters or candidates out there - how do companies like the ones above entice people away from a good job? What can they do to make them take the final step and actually leave their current company?
I would really like to hear your ideas?