Sirona Says

I was genuinely stunned when I received THIS email from a recruiter!

Every week, probably just like you, I receive emails and LinkedIn messages from recruiters asking me about; (1) jobs,  (2) referrals and occasionally (3) help in identifying companies for niche candidates. Depending on their approach, I help if I can. 

But when I got an email like the one I received a few weeks ago, I was genuinely stunned at the presumptive nature of it.!! A brazen recruiter, naive or just plain damn lazy -  you decide. And no, I don't know the recruiter...... 

Dear Andy

My client is a global leader in the provision of XXXXXXX solutions. I am currently searching for a "XXXXXXX Manager" whilst my client is flexible on package ideally they would like to pay circa £80k+ basic salary with a bonus of around 20%+ (neg).

According to our records you may be able to refer me to the right person, I would be very grateful if you could forward my mail to any of your contacts that may/could be interested, I'll forward a full job specification with my availablity for meetings to any interested applicants.

I'm also searching for new clients so please let me know of anyone that is struggling to find the right candidates in the XXXXXX Sector. I am a proven specialist and have been highly successful working at exec level for many years.

Yours sincerely 

Three things in one email......
"According to our records you may be able to refer me..." <<<< What sort of line is that?  Then the recruiter wants me to be their PA by helping to arrange their meetings for them! Dream on!

And just to finish it off they want some new clients referred to them as well! Don't we all!

Have you seen a worse example of a recruiter email than this?

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The top 20 recruitment myths and why they are all untrue!

 

This post was originally inspired by an an article I read within one of the LinkedIn groups I am a member of. Then the inspiration took a mad turn....... after I posted an innocent question on Twitter this morning, asking what recruitment myths are a load of rubbish!!

In the original article, Rebecca Sargeant, talks about the biggest summer rumour of all - No one recruits in the summer.  Obviously, we all know that while it slows down in the summer, recruitment doesn't stop just because of the holiday season - after all not everyone has the same two weeks off do they?

Thanks to all the people that responded on Twitter today, because it has just expanded some of the things I was going to say! So here is a comprehensive list of recruitment myths that are complete bunkum:

1. No-one recruits in the summer. Read the post by Rebecca, as she is right. But the verdict from me is that it is bunkum - recruitment slows down and decision makers are hard to track down, but it still goes on!
2. Cover letters make a big difference. No they don't!! The only people that will tell you different are the career coaches that write them for a living, and all the 'older' candidates who do them, because they always have. If the content is good enough for a 'super' cover letter then put it in the CV!
3. Attaching (or embedding) a photo of yourself on a CV will enhance your application. For the models maybe (and maybe the entertainment industry), but for the vast majority of roles it may even have an adverse effect. (Check out my previous blog post to see what I mean.) My advice, don't do it!
4. Recruiters will call you back about a job. (via @andybold) This is so wrong but it happens - they promise to call you back about a job, but they never do. Don't take it personally they don't call anyone back!! Just make sure you call them instead!
5. Recruitment is easy and anyone can do it. (via @simonlewisomj and @nataliejayw )NO IT ISN'T >> as much as people think recruiters have an easy job making loads of ££££, they are sadly mistaken. Good recruiters are much sought after, because of their vast range of skills. Bad recruiters lack many core skills including communication, listening and relationship building. They should re-train as estate agents or car salesman where they would be better suited!!
6. There is a war for talent. (via @mervyndinnen) Mervyn, obviously believes this is a myth - the only myth I would like to de-bunk is that the war for talent has never stopped - it has always been hard to find good people (SEE No.5)
7. Recruiters are heartless sales people. (via @nataliejayw) & @callumsaunders She is right they are not (well not all of them anyway!) There are many that will listen, help and advise job seekers without having to be asked. I for one have taken the time to help as many people as I could, with free and useful tips and advice about finding a new job. A good number of recruiters do actually care.
   
8. Recruitment is just a sales business. (via @mervyndinnen) It is a sales business, of course, but it is so much more than that, and just because you can sell a product, doesn't mean you will succeed in dealing with the most unique product of all - one that answers back!!
9. Recruiters work on commission and therefore are only concerned about money. (via @callumsaunders) This is a biggy! Many recruiters are motivated by many other things, not just the money they can earn. Yes of course it comes into it, but many are driven by achievement and satisfaction as well.
10. Social media will change recruitment for ever. (via @alcartwright & @garyfranklin ) They both believe that it is over hyped and that recruitment via social media channels won't fundamentally change recruitment. (I actually disagree, I think it has done already - but that is another day's post).
11. LinkedIn is the holy grail for resourcing. (via @jamesswift) Absolutely. There is so much more to resourcing than relying on one channel - however good it is. Just don't forget your own databases and the work you have done to build your own candidate communities - they are vital to the lifeblood of it.
12. Recruitment is a complex process that needs managing by experts. (via @grahamsalisbury ) Recruitment is a straightforward process as Graham says, but while experts aren't needed, competent recruitment professionals are. Certainly over-complication is not needed.
13. Online recruitment will take over the role of recruitment agencies. (via @keithpotts ) Complete load of trash - they work hand in hand together, end of story!!
14. There is never enough talent. (via @garyfranklin) Rubbish - there is always enough talent - you just need to know where to look!!
15. Recruitment consultants generally add enough value to justify the fee. (via @grahamruddick) The recession has proved that many companies have seen through some of the crap service some of the agencies have been giving their clients. No longer will agencies get away with just post adds on jobboards, giving then the best four candidates and charging a full fee.<
16. A sourcer is a junior recruiter. (via @thesourceress) This is such a simple response - they are not!! They are a separate and sought after stand alone skill.
17. Placing a job spec for a recruitment advert will do.  (via @andsomepeople )No it won't - it is just damn lazy and short sighted! You need to write different types of advert copy for different mediums.
18. Recruiters are brand and HR experts as well. (via @mattalder) Why would they be? Just because you work in recruitment, it doesn't make you automatically qualified to be a brand, marketing or HR expert.
19. One man band recruitment companies are cowboys. (via @cloudninerec) This is complete rubbish - many of the best consultants out there work for themselves and provide a superb service to their clients. It is the service not the size that counts.
20. Recruiters are as bad as estate agents. I absolutely hate this general sweeping statement that I hear from people. In every industry there are good and bad examples of poor performers. Judge recruiters by your own experiences, don't be a lemming and jump on this bandwagon. There are plenty of good recruiters and estate agents out there, you just need to find the right one for you!

Thanks to everyone that joined in the debate on Twitter, and sorry if you didn't make the list above, but I had to draw a line somewhere.

Well there you go - some for to agree with and some, no doubt , you will disagree with! Please do, as this is what it is all about. The debate starts here (well actually in the comments below!)

And of course if I have missed any out, then please tell me below!!

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Rant time: Some HR home truths!

[If you are an HR person or Recruiter of a paranoid disposition, then don't read further!]

I have just read an 'interesting' post from the the man of mystery - the anonymous @TheHRD, on the excellent blog My Hell is Other People. On his blog today the subject is candidate testing, personality profiling, assessments etc. The flavour of the post is very simply, forget all that mumbo jumbo and just trust your instincts when it comes to recruiting new employees.
He concludes the post with..... "....the answer is to stop thinking and start to rely on your intuition, “Feel, don’t think. Use your instincts.”  That, my friends is the path to being a true HR Jedi."

While I have already commented on the actual blog, I just wanted to further my answer here!

Now, I am not an advocate of all the different types of tests in the marketplace as I think they are over used and relied on too much as a decision maker. There are two exceptions a) assessment style tests for bulk recruitment, and b) and for senior level roles where they can help as a useful selection tool (and only a tool, not a decision making device) to aid the recruitment process.
What I have a problem with, is this whole "use your instincts - become a Jedi HR warrior" jibe  as it is (in my opinion) mis-guided coming from an experienced HR Director - I am assuming that this mysterious person is experienced?

Any senior level HR person will, over their careers, have worked with/employed/fired (take your pick) many HR staff over that time that have recruitment responsibilities. Exactly how many of them either knew (or even cared) anything about recruitment, understood what it is all about and could actually do it properly, is unfortunately a minority figure.
Are you still using just the one hand to count the number you know?

I can honestly say that in 20+ years in the recruitment sector, I can't get to double figures! I am sorry if that upsets some of the HR people that read this blog, but that has been my experience. Many just hate the whole concept of recruitment and what it stands for. They either palm it off to more junior colleagues, do a half-hearted job themselves or just abdicate responsibility completely by outsourcing it completely to an RPO organisation.
So is it any wonder that these people turn to all the variety of tests available to help them make a decision? They do it because they are not skilled enough to be able to recruit the right employees effectively, themselves!

Now, before @TheHRD counters with the state of the recruitment industry, I would like to say that my industry is equally not that great - there are way too many over-rated, under-delivering and quite frankly crap 'consultants' out there in the industry, that leave everyone (both the HR and Recruitment industry) embarrassed by what is delivered as 'a recruitment service'.

The recession has helped here by flushing a good number of the crap out of the industry and into other sectors - and I hope they never return!!

No, the recruitment industry is not perfect, but neither is the HR industry either!

So Mr HRD, stop bleating on about your industry being HR Jedi's when it comes to recruitment, when in reality most wouldn't even make it out of the Starfleet Training Academy! If you want them to graduate, then give them the skills - not inneffective tools -  to do the job right in the first place!

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The crap customer service of the month awards go to.......

Over the past few weeks I have seen evidence firsthand of abysmal customer service by some very big brands indeed. What the hell is wrong with these (and other) companies that continue to give customers a bum deal? Can't they recruit the right quality staff? Is there training that bad? or do they simply not give a crap about their customer's experience of their brand?

Wikipedia defines customer service as the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. So in the spirit of an awards ceremony here are my Crap Customer Service Awards of the Month:

1st Place (By a long way!)

Virgin Media. They wouldn't know what customer services was if it bit them on the ass! They continually amaze me with their inability to use their CRM system successfully. They ignore any previous conversations you have had with them (including when they have agreed to do things for you), and are happy to be complete 'jobs worths' on the phone. Come on Richard (Branson) invest some money in your customer services please!! They will no doubt pick this up on Twitter, but I am sure their Twitter PR machine and their Customer Services team don't talk to each other, so it won't achieve anything.

2nd Place

Dixons / Curry's / PC World. (All part of the same group) They astound me every time I even enter one of their shops. They seem to have to take the approach of never having any of the stock they have on display, and then when you question this, they adopt the attitude of, " we can't stock everything you know!"
Unfortunately I have had the dis-pleasure of actually taking this up with a Store Manager in several of these stores....a mistake! Quite frankly, they didn't give a damn and told me to "buy something else then". Note to Group - invest training time in your Managers.....you need to!!

3rd Place

Costa Coffee. Shame to levy this at Costa, because I love their coffee. But twice this week in different coffee shops I have been on the receiving end of a "yeah, what do you want" attitude from the people serving my coffee. There was no attempt to give me any service - just my coffee. True, all I wanted was a coffee, but what is wrong with politeness and customer experience? Mine was rubbish - Cafe Nero or Starbucks for me next time!

Sorry to rant away, but as someone who strives to provide customers with a great experience, I get really hacked off with companies that don't do the same thing. I am not asking for a red carpet treatment when I am buying a product or have a service contract with a provider, I am simply asking for them to do what their job titles suggest they are - Customer Services Representatives. That's all.

Who would you nominate if you were compiling a top three?

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!!

Doctors are just like Hiring Managers!

I had the pleasure the other day of sitting in front of a consultant doctor in a hospital (not for me I might add), and observed his actions (or rather lack of actions!)
I have to say that as bright and clever as they are, I have come to the conclusion that doctors are just no different to your average hiring manager I have come across in my career.

Why? Two words - professional dis-respect

What is one of THE most annoying and disappointing things a hiring manager does at an interview (apart from not turning his Blackberry off)? They show the candidate absolutely no respect by not even bothering to read the candidates CV before an interview. They then proceed to read it through at the start of the interview, at the same time as asking the very lame, 'so tell me about yourself' question. It is so shallow and totally transparent, and yet they think it is perfectly acceptable. WRONG!!! It shows total professional dis-respect!!

Now let's go back to the doctor.
At the first meeting a few months ago, he took copious amounts of (albeit illegible) notes regarding the medical problem. For over twenty minutes he quizzed, questioned and proposed ideas. In short, he was efficient and instilled faith that he would do his best to help.
Roll on to the meeting this week with the same doctor. Can you guess where I am going with this? He proceeded to ask all the same questions again. It was so obvious that he hadn't even read his own notes, that it was just laughable! Within seconds, any credibility he had was destroyed. He just showed professional dis-respect, to his patient.

What really hacks me off with both examples is that it isn't a one off. How many times have either of these happened to you? I will bet, more than a couple!
All they would have to do is to take a few minutes before an interview or a consultation just to read through the notes or CV....that's all! Just think what the difference that would make!

So come on all you doctors and hiring managers, start treating people with respect, and we might all start showing some in return!!

Arrgghh! Why are candidates still being muppets at interviews?

This a mini-rant is born out of frustration and disbelief! Yesterday I spent the day with a client during one of their interview events. What I witnessed at the actual interview stages, was both unforgivable and unbelievable - from the candidates being interviewed -  in this current climate of large amounts of unemployment.
As a 'recruitment dinosaur' (someone who has been in the industry for 20+ years!) I have briefed more candidates than I care to remember on interview techniques and expectation - you could say, I tend to overbrief candidates - although you can never give a candidate too much information! So when I sat there yesterday listening to the responses to some standard 'every interview has them' questions, I was completely stunned with the answers given....or rather lack of answers!! And bear in mind here, that 99% of the candidates interviewed all had 2:1 degrees and above, and all really wanted it as their dream job!

There were three questions that nearly every interview asks, and yesterday was no different:

1. What are your strengths and/or weaknesses?
2. What motivates you? (or What gets you out of bed in the morning?)
3. Why do you want this job?

The answers varied from bad to awful to zero (Yes! One graduate couldn't even unbelievably answer the second question!!)

So my message is a simple one - if you are attending interviews for a new job, make sure you PREPARE FOR THE INTERVIEW otherwise you are completely wasting both yours and the company's time by even attending in the first place. You might as well just go and sit on a park bench and talk to the ducks, for all the good it is going to do!

Don't be a muppet - you know these questions (and other obvious ones) will be asked of you, so make sure that have thought about it, and what you are going to say in reply. These are basic, bog-standard interview questions, they are not exactly a curve ball question - but many many people sitting in an interview screw them up time and time again!  If you are really stuck (or being really thick) then Google it - many others have written the perfect answers for these questions.

Answer them well, and it will impress the interviewer;  answer them badly and you can go back to talking to the ducks - again, again and again!!

Nameless CV's: Have the CIPD and REC lost the plot?

Are we going to be seeing political correctness going to start taking over the recruitment industry?  Well watch this space because an article I read today, might just be the start!
The article was about a new radical proposal by "Lynne Featherstone MP - the Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for equality" - (surely if she should be the spokesperson for equality...it is equality after all!!).
The proposal is to ban names from job applications to prevent discrimination - and worryingly it has been backed by both the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) and REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation).
This "equality MP person" proposed an amendment (view full proposal here) to the Equality Bill at its second reading last week, which said job candidates should avoid putting their names on written applications to prevent employers gleaning any information about sex, race or age prior to interview.

What are we coming to that we have to all become faceless autobots in the workplace? If you take this approach of taking the name off, then don't stop there. Your address, school and even the subjects you choose at exams could then be classed as clues to give a candidates culture away. And don't also forget the company that they first started work for either - typically, most first jobs are close to home - that will need to be removed. We already have the situation where older job seekers are cutting off half of their CV's for fear of age discrimination, so will that then happen for every job seeker?
A CV is supposed to be a good representation of a candidate applying for a specific job, but soon there will be so much information missing or deliberately omitted, that they will become useless as a selection tool!!

This does not get to the bottom of any of the discrimination that occurs in the workplace. All the time there are people involved in the recruitment place then discrimination will always occur - and before you draw breath to launch a tirade at me for that, let me explain what I mean.
There are the obvious forms of discrimination that are all governed by laws - age, sex, race etc etc but what I am referring to is personal choice discrimination that happens every single day by recruiters everywhere. Discrimination is probably too harsh a word -  experience and choice based on previous successes and failures are a better explanation.
Recruiters (corporate recruiters or agency recruiters alike) are always looking to find the best candidate they can for any role, and they use their knowledge and experience to make informed decisions about the suitability of candidates for a role. They make choices. They are making the selection decisions. People like Lynne Featherstone MP, would probably say that they then discriminating against the candidates that fail to get an interview!! 
The fact of the matter is that employing companies want the best candidate for their job, irrespective of what they look like, where they come from or how old they are.

Do we really have to go down the route of 'cleansing' every job application? Have things got that bad?

Isn't it really a case of  these 'people with good ideas'  - MP's -  getting out from behind their big fat desks and actually stepping into the real world? When was the last time Lynne Featherstone MP was actually involved in recruitment? When did she last get involved in short listing, selecting and interviewing candidates? .......I don't know for sure, but I can have a very good guess!!!
If they did that for once in a while, then the world of political correctness wouldn't be quite so bad!!

Don't tolerate poor retail staff - replace them while you can!

This is a message for all the retailers out there in the high street that persist in allowing shocking levels of customer service and staff attitude towards customers.

Memo

To: Retailers in the High Street
From: Disillusioned Customer

The recession has firmly taken hold of retail high streets everywhere. Many retailers have unfortunately gone out of business, releasing many good staff into the marketplace.
When was the last time you (as a retailer) actually looked at the quality of your staff?
When did you last reprimand one of your till operators for being rude to customers, disrespectful to their needs or even worse adopting a real "don't give a sh*t" attitude?
Let me guess....probably never!

Many retail staff really can't be bothered and are just going through the motions at work to receive their wages at the end of the week. They don't care about the service they give and (seemingly) even less about the customers they serve. This is costing retailers like you, business, and driving people further online - me included!! 

Why don't actually take an interest in improving the quality and calibre of your staff? You have the opportunity to recruit some good people in the market at the moment - good skilled retail staff, that actually want to work and serve your customers to the best of their ability.

It isn't even hard to recruit these people - a simple poster in the window is probably all you need as a retailer at the moment - word will quickly get around.

I know, getting rid of existing staff isn't pleasant and takes time, but just think of the upside. You will actually have staff that want to work in your shop, and engage with your customers in the right way, to encourage them to return and spend money in your store next time.

So my message is a simple one.

If you have staff that can't be bothered, and are consistently underperforming, then make sure you can't be bothered with them. Go out and recruit better, more enthusiastic new staff that actually want to work............because you can. Make the most of the availability of the talent out there at the moment, and improve your service to your customers at the same time!!

Don't sack 6000 HR staff, Mr Brown - send them where they are needed most

Today I have penned an open letter to the leader of our country, with a solution to one of his upcoming problems - 6000 potential HR job losses from within the Government.

Gordon Brown
Prime Minister
The Prime Ministers Office
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA

Dear Mr Brown,

For some time now, you are your Government seem to be having a problem countering the exponentially rising tide of unemployment in the UK. Unfortunately due to the 'creative way' the economy has been managed over the last few years, this problem doesn't seem to be slowing down any time soon.

As a man who has declared himself as the next Messiah and 'Saver of The Modern World', you seem to have spared little thought to the millions of people that are now unemployed and looking for work in an economy where so few jobs exist. Both yourself are Mr Darling seem very capable of creating theories and strategies to get hundreds of thousands of unemployed people - particularly the younger members of the working population - back to work. But you seem to have forgotten that you need to actually do something with all this hot air, and not just inflate another hot air balloon with it! The unemployed people want to know 'how' and 'when', and not more self publicising scriptures of fantasy.

As someone who does care passionately about the lack of advice and guidance the unemployed people are given, I believe that there is a solution that you could implement that would help make a real difference.

Last year you appointed former Logica chairman Martin Read is to head the Government's effort to streamline its information technology. This Operational Efficiency Programme is targeted to improve efficiency in back-office operations across all the Government departments and Quangos. in it he proposed introducing central-wide shared services to try and replicate the typical cost savings you would expect in the private sector of between 30-70%. The implication of this would mean the displacement of nearly 6000 HR jobs across the UK.

The great news, Mr Brown, is that you don't have to spend hundreds of £1000's in redundancy payments because you could use their skills in the Government body where they are most needed - the Job Centre Network!
Currently you have a complete lack of skills and competency within the Job Centre Network, with completely unqualified individuals dispensing advice and support to the unemployed. Why not transfer all the 'surplus' HR resources out into the Job Centre Network, to help train and develop the skill level of your employees at the sharp end of the unemployment crisis?
The cost cutting will be country wide, and the need for support is also country wide, as is the need to not spend any more public money on inflated redundancy payments. It makes absolute sense to allow these HR professionals to help the Government where they need it most, in developing it's own talent for the future, and investing in its own staff training programme.

Now I know, this course of action may prove a little uncomfortable for you, as you will actually have to make some difficult decisions. So what you can do is the decision to another scapegoat -  Mr Darling or Mr Balls spring to mind, call it a 'new initiative' and there you have a potentially £multi-million saving to announce.

Then once again you can put on your sandals and white robes and 'believe' that you have again helped and saved millions of people!

Yours begrudgingly

A representative of the people

PS. The Bristol Balloon Festival is on the 9th August, and the organisers want to know if you will be free this year as they have a gas shortage?