Sirona Says

Are recruiters apathetic, confused or have they got their heads stuck in the sand when it comes to social recruiting?

Over the last few weeks I have presented at two different REC events - the Executive Recruiters Autumn Congress and yesterday at REC's first ever Annual Conference, as well as the cleverly titled Recruiting Unconference. The audiences have therefore been a good selection of the recruitment industry.

I have been very surprised at the very small numbers of them that say they are using the different types of social media to help them in their recruitment jobs.
Yes, the majority have a Facebook account, but that is solely for their friends and family networks. Many have LinkedIn accounts, but very few are using them properly to help them with their day job. I met with a recruitment industry salesperson yesterday at REC, who didn't even realise that they could source target companies (recruitment agencies) via LinkedIn. And when it came to Twitter, I might just as well have been talking about the anti-christ!

One of my slides when I have been presenting, includes the images below. For me recruiters fall into one of the three categories:

Total Apathy.

Confused about which way to go.

Simply sticking their head in the sand.

I actually think it is a bit of all three!!

I guess what I have learnt is that the majority of people in the recruitment industry just don't get social recruiting yet!!

I have already had feedback via Twitter (yesterday when I posed a similar question), that we should equate this whole social recruiting thing to job boards and the time it took for them to be accepted. Well that may be the case, but I think things are changing at a much faster rate! I was around in recruitment when job boards first arrived on the scene, to fanfares and ticker tape parades. It took years for recruiters and companies for the online penny to drop (and some still don't believe it works now!!), so we know it will take time.

But, and it a very big but, social recruiting is no respecter of time. The companies and recruiters that have 'got it' are already reaping the benefits. They are accessing and engaging with candidates like they have never done before, and are finding it to be truly revolutionary for recruitment.

And do you know what?

Candidate expectation of companies and recruiters using different social media channels to communicate and engage with them, rises every single day. It is they who will be the drivers. They will dictate how recruiters and companies will succeed or fail within social recruiting.
Why? Because social media has no respect of reputations. Big or small - it doesn't matter who you are; by not getting involved sends a bigger message out than getting involved and making some mistakes. Candidates will be attracted to companies and recruiters that they can engage, communicate and build a relationship with via social media, not the ones don't even try!

Now you may be thinking that it doesn't matter at the moment, because of the recession. Yes, there are loads of candidates out there at the moment, but that will start to change....and it will start to very soon. If as a recruiter you have been 'toughing' it out, waiting for the good times to roll again, think again.
The recruitment landscape has now changed for ever.

Social Recruiting IS HERE TO STAY. The quicker you get started the less ground you are going to have to make up with your competitors!

So if you need  help in 2010 with understanding the benefits of social recruiting just ask - I will be happy to oblige!

Do these two iPhone Apps represent the future of recruiting?

This week I have seen two apps for the iPhone for the job marketplace that are very clever. One is for the job seeker and one is for the employer, and in my opinion they are both worth exploring, but for different reasons.

The job seeker iPhone app is free and is called Real-Time Jobs, and it is by the same company  that produced the 'best by far' job search tool for Twitter Twitterjobsearch (I dare you to show me one better!)

TwitterJobSearch's QuickPitch tech platform allows job seekers to find and apply for these jobs with a single tap on their iPhone. Job seekers can attach a linkedIn profile, Visual CV, social media profile, and/or a video CV to job offers that have been posted to Twitter with a single click. 

So is this the way forward? Well it is if you have an iPhone!  But this fully grasps the concept of cloud recruiting and shows exactly the potential of what can be done going forward. If you have an iPhone, give it a try, it really is clever stuff!

The employer iPhone app is equally clever, and it is called The Interviewer and is priced at £8.99 . It is designed to make the process of interviewing job candidates easier and more effective. It splits the process up for the employer into three stages: 1) Before the Interview 2) During the Interview 3) After the Interview and even provides an interview tutorial. Here is the video demo:

For me there is one big reservation with this product. If you are a candidate sitting in an interview, how would you feel with the interviewer conducting the interview, by reading the questions from an iPhone?

Maybe the gen Y'ers will find this totally acceptable, but for the older generations, I would imagine they would struggle to accept this, and maybe even find it rude from the interviewers part.
That aside, this app is another great way that technology is fast creeping into the job marketplace, and I for one think it is very exciting for the future.

Are there any other iPhone apps for job seekers out there, that are worth knowing about?

My guest post for one of America's top HR bloggers

A few weeks ago, I was asked by one of the brilliant HR bloggers in the US - Michael VanDervort, if I would like to write a guest post on his excellent blog The Human Race Horses. He has a growing section on his blog entitled Over There, in which he has guest bloggers from the HR/Recruitment industry around the world provide insights into different parts of the industry in our relevent countries.

I wrote an article entitled:

Is the Recession just going to be another Groundhog Day for Recruitment and HR

Click on the link to read it - it is my opinion into where recruitment will be post recession.....back where it started - so it is definately worth checking out!

Are these recruitment video's very clever or are they just missing the point?

I always like keep a look out for clever, interesting or funny recruitment video's. Sometimes I come across some real gems (this was one of my favourites), but mostly they are a little strange or they simply just miss the point, by trying to be too clever.

Here are two that I have seen this week that, I have to say I am a bit baffled by. The first is a job interview with MBA students applying for positions at a consulting firm. Very clever (admittedly funny) or plain random? You decide...

This next one is by the Swedish Army, and while I can see what they are trying to do, I dare you to complete the tasks they set!

To view the video of the Swedish Army recruitment video click here.

So what do you think? Do they have to be clever or is a simple message better?

You could go to an extreme - like this outrageous and funny video from a recruitment process outsourcing company. But would you like your brand to be associated with this type of video?

This is pure genius! The Sourcing Grandmaster 2009, shows just how she solved the Sourcecon challenge.

As a recruiter, one of my many tasks was sourcing people through the many means available to you. I have to say that I thought I was pretty good at it, managing to find candidates that other recruiters didn't even get a sniff of. However I now know that my level of sourcing pales into insignificance, when compared to the abilities of some of the true sourcing geniuses.

Today I read a post on Jim Stroud's excellent blog that just made me sit back and read in pure admiration. Jim is a founder of something called The Sourcing Conference, which is devoted to candidate sourcing and using the best techniques and using all the tools available, to locate and recruit the best candidates.
Every so often they have a competition to find the best sourcer, that would rival the skills of James Bond and Sherlock Homes together. It is to find the Grandmaster of Sourcing.
The Challenge for 2009 was not just complex, but also somewhat cryptic - but the nub of the challenge was to find the three names of the 'August Roosters'. The winner was - Irina Shamaeva (@braingain)

Now for all of you who like to see how Irena solved the challenge, read on................this is just brilliance (make sure you read the challenge first though!) So in Irena's words here goes:

When I first read the announcement on The Source Newsletter, I noticed the mysterious “colapts auratus,” pasted it into Google and it turned out to be misspelled “colaptes auratus” which is “Northern Flicker.” It prompted me to go to Flickr to look. A search for “tweety bird” landed on Mary’s profile, which had 7 images, many tags and a profile. Most of the pictures on the profile were taken around Phoenix AZ. There was also a map that pointed to somewhere on the 42nd street which Google maps showed as a place with warehouses and ruins of houses. That was probably where they were growing up.

Mary’s profile mentioned “a rocking good time with Ed Twinge”. Searching for “Ed Twinge” on Google leads to http://edtwinge.com related to shows in Edinburgh; it allows to tweet about actors using the tag #edtwinge.

Searching for this tag on twitter leads to the profile of http://twitter.com/mscott42 with just one message, that was clearly related to our story. The profile had a name of  “Lady Denman Drive.”  If you search for “Lady Denman Drive” on Google you will discover first that it is in Canberra Australia, and then that it’s the “Canberra Zoo and Aquarium” address. mscott42’s twitter profile pointed to Diigo. I spent quite some time on Diigo till I guessed to look for links to the Edinburgh performance and discovered Mary’s husband Monty Scott’s profile. I also went through the “ate my babies” page and saw that the image on his profiles was of a dingo, the wild dog. I think I was the first one to find Monty on Diigo.

Since anybody can see what you do on twitter and on Diigo I presented myself as an incognito profile and (just for fun) put the glowing egg pic on it from the Edinburgh site. This resulted in lots of DMs on twitter from buddy #scchallenge hunters – which lead me to tweeting a few vague sentences. (Sorry.) A gathering at Plurk called by my friend Jer E My was fun but it didn’t seem to be anything but a chat. After getting in touch with Monty on Diigo it all came to a halt for me. Dozens of people were catching up on Flickr, Twitter and Diigo profiles, and I couldn’t see where to go next.

When the charming Loretta had tweeted about Blondie, Dark Girl and Big Fella, I made a bit of progress, or so I thought. I Googled for “Blondie DarkGirl BigFella” and found pictures of them; they were bears at the Zoo! I landed on a few pages with their photos including tripadvisor.com. I joined tripadvisor and some other photo sharing sites. This didn’t help at all. I then found a Zooquarium PDF file with all the names. It seemed it was a useful file. It had Mike among other animals there and I thought that was “the” Mike. Mike was a “little penguin.” Those are tiny penguins and they are blue. I was thinking that Mike was perhaps a “blue bird” and was looking for Mike Bluebird for a while.

Another day passed. Shannon Myers and I exchanged a few emails and I got some “moral support” from Shannon (thanks!:)). I had to work and to spend time with my son Peter (who is not in favor of me sitting at the computer) and that was good because it’s hard to be stuck for hours. Loretta mentioned “delicious” so many times in various forms that I felt something must be there but couldn’t find anything. Last night Loretta mentioned N.M. on Diigo that a few people had found and I rushed back to Diigo. Somehow I missed the familiar link to the Zoo’s list of animals that I had visited several times.

It was in N.M.’s profile. The profile had some info  but I first went to http://pipl.com/username to see where else naveedmuhammad is a member. After that, it was easy. naveedmuhammad was on twitter at http://twitter.com/NaveedMuhammad; he tweeted to http://twitter.com/mjackson4242 and that was Mike! Mike had a link to a Facebook page, used #yatchshow tag on twitter for the sailing stuff, and had a BubbleTweet (I’d never seen that before). Lots of info.

Then I went back to Pipl to look for other places where mjackson4242 was. Pipl showed that Mike was on the Pandora and related to the “The Roosters Radio.”. Mike was also on Delicious with a link to Kopan Monastery, Kathmandu Nepal, and a phone number to call. I called and it turns out that was the way to reach the real SC Dude!

So, do you still think candidate sourcing is easy?

Ten ways for a job seeker to REALLY upset an interviewer!

It is pretty safe to say that you will have attended at least a few interviews in your life so far. They are not always the best experience, but they are there to serve a purpose - to try and help get you a job.

In this current climate there are fewer interviews going around, so it stands to reason that you would want to try and do your best at an interview, wouldn't you? Well, judging by some of the candidates that I have personally interviewed over the years, as well as the many clients interview de-briefs I have listened to, 'doing your best' is a VERY loose term!

If you have sat on the other side of the interview fence, then what I am going to say will make perfect sense to you. You may even be able to condone my 'thinking' on this.....then again maybe not!
As a recruiter I, (like many interviewers) have developed a way of dealing with candidates that seem to go out of their way to really ****me off during an interview. I put my right hand under my desk, bring out a large axe, and then embed it in the centre of the forehead of the said candidate!
While I obviously don't really do it (honestly I don't), the thought of the process is strangely therapeutic! So what will a job seeker have to have done to 'warrant the axe'?
Here are my ten ways that a job seeker can really upset an interviewer and warrant having their head cleaved with a metaphorical Woodman's axe:

1. Don't turn up late to an interview and offer no apology whatsoever. This is just blatant rudeness and will not be tolerated at all. If they can't even acknowledge being late what hope have they for working for you?
2. Don't turn up smelling like they have just smoked 20 cigarettes in the last five minutes. Sometimes it is even worse - you meet them from reception and they still seems to have a smoke cloud around them! Makes me question nerves and addictions immediately and gets me reaching for an early axing!
3. Don't be overly arrogant or blatantly rude, especially to receptionists, secretaries or PA's. Interviewers don't hire cocksure bullies whose ego is bigger than Mount Everest! (Exception to the rule are Investment Banking City Traders; their default requirement is an ego the size of Africa!)
4. Don't display a complete lack of motivation or laziness. If you can just about to be bothered to get you ass out of bed to get to the interview, then quite frankly don't bother! Even worse, if during the interview you utter those immortal words....'I dunno', 'yeah, whatever'or 'the Job Centre told me I had to apply', then expect the interviewer to buzz through to their secretary to send them down to the local DIY shop for a real axe!
5. Don't continually complain or moan about previous employers or employees. While there may be a fragment of truth in your previous issues or grievances, don't air them at your interview. It makes you come across as an angry, embittered person, who is not able to look forward and take the positives out of a previous situation. If the interviewer just happens to know the people you have been slagging off then you will have finished the interview before you have got started!
6. Don't lie. Get caught lying and the axe will be out quicker than you can say 'Gordon Brown's a Loooser'. If you have been stretching the truth on your CV then make sure you know it inside out and are prepared to be challenged on it. Quiver, shake or say 'umm' too many times and you will have given yourself away and got caught committing a cardinal sin.
7. Don't show a lack of respect for either the interviewer or the company you are sitting in front of. Do no go to an interview without doing the basic research. You WILL DEFINITELY be asked the question, 'So what do you know about our company?' Failure to be able to answer that question  - after all even if you just read their website you could answer it - is tantamount to high treason, of which there is no excuse.
8. Don't forget to put deodorant on. Turning up to an interview with a strange smelling aroma about your person, is an embarrassing situation for both you and the interviewer. Under stress and duress, the human body will sweat - that's only natural. Make sure you are prepared, make sure deodorant is used and avoid the potential nightmare.
9. Don't drink and interview - they just don't mix! Dutch courage should be left in Holland, and shouldn't be taken prior to any important meeting, especially an interview. I am not sure if there is anything more annoying to an interviewer, to know that the person has had to go to a pub or bar to get the 'strength' to attend the interview. No excuse at all.
10. Don't take the interviewer for granted. When you get up to leave, shake the person's hand and thank them for the time. Even ask them if they have been successful at the interview. But don't leave the room without doing both of these things, remember, that is the last thing the interviewer will be thinking about you.

I am already thing of having to do a second list -  a sort of Part 2, but I will save that for another day :-)

Just for reference though:

No, I am not undergoing anger management classes
No, I don't really have an axe under my desk - just a metaphorical one!
No, I am not a vindictive, mad axe murderer
No job seekers were harmed in the research for this article

.....and Yes, I do have a vivid imagination!

Obviously there is a little fun involved here, but the mistakes are only too real. if you are a job seeker, please see through the humour and take not, after all, jobs are hard enough to get at the moment, without alienating the interviewer immediately!

The Recruitment Phoenix is starting to rise, but how do you make it fly?

Today's post is a first for my blog - it is written by a guest writer. Over the next few weeks and months I have a number of fantastic guest writers lined up to share with you some great content from the world of recruitment. They are all experts in their particular subject matter, and none of them are particularly shy about that fact, either!
So expect to raise a few eyebrows, draw deep breathes and get your keyboard ready to comment on them!!

The subject of the recession is very close to a recruiters heart - but more importantly their wallet!! Recruiters are rewarded on successfully placing candidates, but if the jobs are not there, then, well the rest is obvious. So where do recruiters go from here?

Let me introduce Bill Boorman....

Some of you in the recruitment industry will already know Bill as a successful recruitment trainer (he is the MD of Bill Boorman Consultancy, supporting recruiters and recruitment companies across Europe) , but lately he is becoming better known for his use of social media, particlarly Twitter (you can follow him @billboorman) as communication tools in the recruitment sphere. He also hosts a Blogtalk radio show and is very active as the owner of his LinkedIn Group - The Good News Group (Recruiters). Last week he presented an interesting topic - Phoenix Recruiting - to the recruitment conference in Dallas, TalentNetLive.

I asked him to share what I felt were some very salient points from his presentation, and they do make for good reading. As I said earlier, you may choose to agree or disagree with Bill's point of view. But one thing is for sure, the Recruitment Phoenix is rising, and recruiters are going to have to change.

Over to you Bill...........

A tweet goes a long way. I have recently been presenting a keynote entitled Phoenix recruiting, the road to recovery, most recently in Dallas, Texas. From London to Lagos, the challenge is the same, as the market recovers the challenge is timing and tactics. Doing the right things at the right times to make the most of the better days.
In terms of timing, recruiters are in a unique position to predict where the market is going next because we are closest to employer confidence and deal with a wide range of companies across most sectors. Based on this, you can split the recession in to 4 key stages:

Stage 1: Temp business increases while perm business stalls. Lots of jobs withdrawn at the final stages as companies get concerned about future business. Happened in the UK from July – October last year. Temp recruiters were asking “What recession” and applying the ostrich strategy.

Stage 2: Temp business drops dramatically with little or no perm activity or opportunity. Recruiters go in to panic mode with no pipeline. What jobs are around have little or no commitment. Discover social media to look busy! From November 08 – March 09 plenty of recruiters exit, become career coaches or become experts in outplacement. The dark days.

Stage 3: Temp numbers slowly increase. (I measure number of companies using) rather than total numbers. Perm placements start to happen with some pipeline appearing. Recruiters dare to think ahead. Better conversions of jobs to placements. Week on week this has slowly happened from March 2009. The key here is not to compare with last year (all time high) but last quarter. Employer confidence is returning with skeleton workforce stretched by new business. Employers dip their toe in through temp & interim to cope then plunge in to full time hires.

Stage 4: Temp numbers reach a high with plenty of perm jobs converting. Business back to respectable level. Happy days again :-) My forecast for this is May 11th 2011!
Time to get the new car brochures out and remember what it was like to eat out and go on holiday

Where are we now and what does it mean?

It seems that recruiters are not too popular with job seekers in Australia!

 

Last week one of my posts, provoked some interesting comments! One of those that made comment, was Diane Lee from Australia, who kindly referred me to a video she had produced for her website - Even It Up - an aptly named website,  which is aimed at making sure job seekers get respect from recruiters (both corporate and agencies).

Not one to stand in the way of a little controversy - surely not, I hear you say - I wanted to share this with you, to guage your response. If you are a recruiter, this video might make you swallow hard out of embarrassment, or you might just say, fair comment. One thing for sure, is that it will give you a reminder that the voice of the job seeker is strong, and you shouldn't take them for granted. And if you think you can pull the wool over their eyes, then you are sadly very wrong.

There are a few home truths here, aren't there? Are you guilty of any of these?

For me No.8 is too true and a sad indictment of our industry.

Have a look at the Even It Up website - it is a great effort at trying to effect change and build a groundswell of opinion from job seekers.
It is a website that has been set up to help job seekers, by providing them with information on job seeker experiences in the marketplace. It aims to highlight recruitment, selection and interview practices of recruiting organisations, from the best to the worst.
Their vision is a simple one - to ensure that job seekers are treated with respect, and they are treated fairly.

Unfortunately they seem to be getting way too much ammunition from the recruitment agencies!!

Big thanks Diane, for making me aware of your website, and I wish you good luck with your efforts, I think you will need it!

That's a bit harsh on recruitment consultants..........or is it?

Perception is a powerful word (you only have to look at the picture above to see that!) and for recruitment consultants it can be a bit of a problem!

Generically there are two types of readers of my blog - recruiters and non-recruiters (basically everyone that isn't in recruitment!) So it is going to be interesting to see your feedback to this post. You see this is one of those posts that you are going to find yourself agreeing with (to some extent), or disagreeing with (and probably start a stout verbal defence to anyone that will listen!)

Let me explain....

I have just finished a very good and insightful book called Cityboy by Geraint Anderson. In it he charts his rise through the ranks of the city trading rooms and his experiences in doing so. During this process he has cause to have involvement with recruitment consultants (or headhunters as he refers to them in the book). Below is his perception of them (in his words not mine, I might add here all you Manchester United fans!!)

"Headhunters make traffic wardens, estate agents and even Manchester United supporters seem relatively acceptable human beings. They are essentially parasites living in the bloated stomach of capitalism.
I know that they are just doing a job, but it is the way they are doing it that offends my sensibilities. Just like football agents who have a self interest in promoting as many transfers as possible, headhunters will tell you whatever lies are required to encourage you to switch jobs.
You may think that estate agents getting 2% of the value of your house just for finding a buyer is a complete p*ss-take, but headhunters often receive between 30 and 40% of a new recruit's first year's compensation. When you're dealing with city types who are sometimes earning seven figure salaries that can be discussed in huge amounts of money for essentially doing bugger all.

I've also noticed that these spongers often ring up to get your details just so they can pretend to be involved in a specific job placement even if they have diddly squat to do with it. If you then do switch jobs independently , a headhunter who was got your details can sometimes try and get some blood money by claiming involvement."

So as I said at the beginning of the post, his perception has had a strong bearing on his experience - because although he does go on to use a headhunter to find a job, he treats them with contempt and disrespect - which is obviously not the way that a candidate / consultant relationship should be!

Now I am sure you will have heard some of these 'phrases' describing recruitment consultants before - a liking to estate agents and second hand car sales people are usually the most obvious, but has Geraint got it right?

Is he being a bit harsh? Is this people's perception of recruitment consultants?

Has the 'mighty' Seth Godin got it wrong, or are we not brave enough to admit he is right?

I read a post by Seth Godin over the weekend, that (like all of Seth's stuff) made me sit back for a moment and think. Seth was discussing the most productive way to interview candidates, and while it somewhat goes against the grain of structured interview methods like competency interviewing, there is probably some validity in what he says.
We all know that many interviewers make a decision on a candidate within a few minutes of them walking through the door - what they look like; their handshake and what they are wearing. Some managers I know even make the decision based on how candidates walk to the interview room!!

There is something about Seth's views that are very pragmatic and realistic, and although it may ultimately be successful, my worry is that you could be potentially opening yourself up for employment tribunals. In five minutes - the 'sniffer test'as Seth calls it - you would not be gathering enough evidence to make a valued decision.
So if I have got Seth right, you just keep interviewing people for five minutes a time until you find the candidates that 'fit' your chemistry and character. Then when you have found them, you 'try them out'.

Seth is right though, in that this is exactly how many line managers do interviews, isn't it?

So here is the text that I have been referring to - see if you agree!


The wrong way first: interview someone for an hour. If you like them, have them interview three or four other people in your organization for an hour each.

You've invested five hours of your team's time, but really you only were looking for approval, because you'd already decided you liked the person enough to work with them for years.

All the evidence we've seen shows that this is a lousy predictor of future performance. And, let's tell the truth... if the first three people love the guy, are you really going to let the fourth, junior person veto him? Or is it just an annoying courtesy?

There are two approaches you can use as an alternative.

First, you can work with someone for months before you offer them a job. Your pool is smaller (freelancers, joint venture partners, interns) but the exposure to how they work is spectacularly different. You don't get the thrill of finding a pearl in the oyster, the "wow, I found the most incredible hire!" bragging rights. Instead, you get exactly what you expect. Organizing for this sort of hiring isn't particularly difficult, particularly in a down economy. Not surprisingly, I've had 100% success doing this.

Second, and with some controversy, you can admit that an hour interview is actually a five minute sniff test followed by 55 minutes of wasted time, multiplied by four colleagues. Tell the truth and switch to five minute interviews.

If you do five minute initial interviews, you can interview 12 times as many people for each job opening. This initial filtering takes precisely as much time as your wasted one-hour approach, but dramatically increases the chance you'll find someone you actually have good pheromone and body language connection with. After the screening, I can only encourage you to do the projects, reference checks and other serious diligence you're probably too exhausted to do after spending all those hours with one person...

This process takes a lot of work, but it definitely works. If you can interview 60 people in a day or two and then have the three best fits do projects, presentations and freelance work for you, you're way ahead of a company that interviewed only three people and fell in love with one.

What do you think?

This may well work in a recessionary economy, but can you imagine this working when it is a candidate driven market?

Maybe we have all got it wrong and maybe we need to accept that, interviewing is very much just about those first few minutes of contact with the candidate sitting in front of you!