Sirona Says

This is a great way to add a recruitment video to your career sites

I have to say thanks to Jim Stroud for putting me on to this. What I am talking about is the website Animoto. It uses photographs, combines it with a soundtrack - it can be music or stuff that you have recorded, and then mixes the two together with its clever technology. This means that no two videos are the same. As they say on Blue Peter, here is one I made earlier as a demo.

This is truly excellent product, and it gets even better, because if you choose the 30 second video clips (which uses a minimum of 10 images) it is totally free! You only pay for the full length video's that are produced. It is simple and fun to use, so there is no excuse (not even for you Peter!) about not having a go. And as with other social media sites, it is hooked up with YouTube so you can just simply export the video with ease.

Go on have a go, and get those videos online!!

Is there really a talent shortage or are companies just jumping on the bandwagon?

There is a recognised talent shortage in the UK currently..........isn't there?  Well that's what we are being told every day, so it must be true!!.

But is it a real talent shortage or is it a case of companies not being able to find the talent out there in the market? (Yes I know there are some genuine talent shortages such as engineering, construction and accountancy before you accuse me of being blase!)
There are those that jump on certain bandwagons without experiencing things for themselves, and I believe the 'shortage of talent' is no exception. Companies must not assume that the talent shortage applies to their industry until they have discovered it for themselves. If they don't do this, then they will be potentially missing valuable talent, that they would have otherwise missed.

There are three things that point to this happening right now:

• We know already know that companies don't use new technologies such as web 2.0 to source employees - technologies that we know prospective job seekers are actually using themselves, and want to use while looking for a job. STRIKE ONE.
• The CIPD says that only half of companies in their recent annual recruitment and retention survey have a formal resourcing strategy, meaning that resourcing is at best unplanned and random for a large number of companies (7P's).  STRIKE TWO.
• There is still a lack of respect (and some would say apathy) for recruitment in business. It is not given the standing and position it deserves in a company, usually just tucked away as part of HR.( In the US Resourcing/Recruiting is a stand alone business function that is part of business strategy and planning). So it has little chance of getting the resource , time and commitment it needs from the business to really perform effectively.  STRIKE THREE

So are companies doing all they can to recruit staff? Of course they aren't, but THEY BELIEVE THEY ARE, which is the problem!

The rise in recruitment agency spend highlights that the default method of recruiting staff  still appears to be  recruitment agencies. All the time companies fail to address their recruitment needs directly, then their level of spend with recruitment agencies will remain on the high side.
I am certainly not against using recruitment agencies, but companies should pick the 'low hanging fruit themselves'. Only then will they understand the talent marketplace, and what the issues around talent really are - and of course they will save themselves a fortune at the same time!!

Sticking your head in the sand is not the answer!!

Having attended the CIPD show on recruitment and retention this week, it has left me feeling a little disillusioned. Don't get me wrong, the show was very good and it was very well attended by many companies, but there seems to be a state of apathy around recruitment - more specifically, how to recruit new employees using modern technologies.
You are probably reading this and thinking I have gone mad, after all isn't every company saying they are trying hard to recruit talent? Well they may well be trying to recruit staff, but they are using the same recruitment tools and methods they have always. They seem to be allergic to trying anything "new" - and by "new" I simply mean online (reactive and proactive), networking, social networks, blogs etc
They have their heads firmly stuck in the sand, and are not even coming up for air to check on what is happening around them!

Top 20 Employee Referral Rewards Schemes

I was recently working with a client on their recruitment process, and one of the areas that they were keen to explore was around employee referral rewards / incentives. They knew what they were currently offering was minimal, and wanted to be able to offer a range of incentives to reward their staff for referring new employees to the company.
So using my network on LinkedIn and other contacts, I reached out to all the HR and recruiter contacts (corporate and agency) to see what other companies were doing around employee referrals and what they were giving as incentives. The question that I posed was, "Does anyone know of any employee referral rewards / schemes, that are a little different?" Thanks to the fantastic response I received, I was able to make some excellent suggestions to my client.

Nearly every email I received asked me to inform them of what all the other answers were, so knowing retaining talent is a favourite subject at the moment, I have compiled a list of the Top 20 employee referral rewards offered by companies below (It had to be 20 because there were many good ideas!):

1. Time off. This was the surprising winner, with companies giving time off for successful referrals, ranging from an afternoon, to a day, to a week (very generous!).

2. Cold hard cash! As always money talks, and this ranged from £200 up to £3000 per referral.

3. Travel Allowance. With petrol prices and travel in general getting more expensive, no surprise this came in at no.3. Answers included petrol paid for and train fares covered.

4. Special Event. An example being a fully paid trip to Monaco Grand Prix

5. Holiday. A week away at a choice of destination, fully paid.

6. Restaurant. A long lunch at a good restaurant to include the person referred to the company

Troublesome Talent - the Mavericks in your business

Every business has them, and you probably won't have to think too hard to write two or three names down from your company. The people I am referring to are Mavericks - also known as Troublesome Talent. They are both good and bad for a business, but do need special management to harness their skills. The lady that defined the phrase Troublesome Talent, Judith Germain of Dynamic Transitions, defines Mavericks as simply," Being Willfully Independent".
The upside of these Mavericks is that they are very talented, creative individuals that are extremely passionate about their work and are very comfortable challenging the established status quo. They have no fear confronting authority - but often do so with constructive ideas and arguments. Although some times they can be too confrontational and aggressive in the style. Larger organisations, with more rigid management structures may find it hard to deal with such Mavericks, because of their inflexible corporate nature. SME's and mid -sized companies, however, seem to be the ideal arena for Mavericks to flourish.

So with Talent Management such a key issue, should the big corporates try and get hold of, and harness these Mavericks? The answer is yes, but only if they are prepared.

Don't forget the Forums for recruiting

At last, some companies are starting to use new ways of recruiting staff. RIM - makers of the most awesome Blackberry (alright I am a little biased here!) have done what I have been saying to companies for a while - go and find your forums!!
Search for forums (not necessarily blogs) that are specific to your industry (and even the niche that you are in). Then use them, making regular comments on them - hopefully helpful industry advice! This way you are not only building great company credibility, but also developing your employment brand further. You can also add any specific jobs to the forum - just don't abuse this and post loads of jobs (after all that's what you have a career site for!).
This is exactly what Rim have done for one of their roles in Australasia. They need a Blackberry evangelist - where better, than to find one on a Blackberry forum, where all the BB nuts hang out!

Go on give it a go!!

Join the Police and become a Bounty Hunter!

Most companies these days have employee referral schemes, but it isn't very often that they become part of a 'recruiting war' between divisions of the same organisation!  The organisation I am referring to the police force in the UK, and particulalry my local division - Sussex Police.
The problem is a simple one - the London Metropolitan Police, in relatively close proximaty to Sussex, has been  'acquiring' experienced individuals from the Sussex force (78 last year), by encouraging internal transfers, primarily down to an increased salary they can offer in the capital. So from the Met's point of view, it is a very good and cheap candidate acquisition strategy.
But from Sussex's point of view, the loss of these experienced officers is huge. Think of the costs of recruitment to replace them, the training and the effects on morale.

So with that in mind, you would think that the Sussex police would be looking at their own retention strategy, to try and stem the tide of transfers. No, instead they focus on a more basic way - bounty hunting! They pay a £500 bounty on colleagues who can 'encourage' London officers to join the Sussex force!! And who pays for this bounty - the taxpayers!!!  Now, it seems that other police forces around the country are going for the same model and are adopting the same approach. So rather than catch thieves, they can catch their colleagues and get a bonus for doing so!!

Is this indicative of the state of our police force, or is it one of the following reasons:

1. Poor recruitment strategies - not recruiting the right officers in the first place
2. Worryingly poor retention strategies - and what about good counter offers?
3. Is there any Talent Management?
4. Complete lack of communication between divisions of the same organisation
5. Bad management
6. Government policies - pay awards and salary levels encouraging discrepancies
7. Lack of government action, when this has been prevalent for over a year
8. Poor divisional moral - encouraging a 'grass is greener' thinking by the officers
9. Abdication of responsibility from the overall head of the police force
10. Divisional HR sticking their fingers in their ears while singing la la la out loud - ie not listening!!

I would be interested to know how the individual divisions are 'promoting' this internal referral system - what do you reckon? Maybe.....'Bounty Hunters wanted' or ""Phone a friend" or "Don't nick a thief, steal a copper'!!!!
I am sure you will also have some ideas!!

Ernst & Young's strange recruiting video

There is obviously something in the Swedish water that makes them find strange things amusing. I found this recruiting video for Ernst & Young - it is a little off the wall, but it is short!!  A strange candidate attraction strategy.

My only question is for whoever designed this, is, who is the target audience??

A career site designed to appeal to Generation Y'ers

While writing a review of the TARGEtjobs 2008 National Graduate Recruitment Awards, I had the pleasure of looking at the graduate career sites for all the winners. Most of them were excellent, and no doubt have the desired effect of attracting the generation Y graduates into their programmes. There is one site that, for me, was that 'little bit different'. The Audit Commission isn't a massive graduate recruiter, so you could argue that there job of attracting these Gen Y'ers is actually harder. Have a look at this innovative and appealing career site. I think it works well.

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.