Sirona Says

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?

Ten Ways to use Facebook to find a job

There are many tools out there in the social media space, and you could be confused by trying to cover all of them - especially if you have recently lost your job and need to find a new one. But for me it is about getting a balance with using a smaller number social media tools that stand the most chance of being effective AND suit you to engage with on a regular basis.
So for me they are LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogging and of course Facebook. This then gives you an even spread across the business focused LinkedIn, the immediacy and 'freshness of Twitter', the personal brand building of blogging and the social networking that is Facebook.

Up until recently Facebook has been the preserve of social networking only, with any overt activity on the job front being somewhat frowned upon. However, two things have changed that - the first being the recession and the need for many people to find new employment, and second, the sheer speed at which Facebook is growing globally - literally millions every week! So now individuals, companies and recruiters are becoming more focused on using Facebook, both from candidate searching and job finding perspective..

I have looked at how you can use Facebook in the most effective way to to help job seekers find a job, and recruiters find the job seeker - both of which are very important in the proactive part of the job marketplace.
So here are ten ways to use Facebook to find a job:

1. Don't forget the public nature of Facebook
While I am sure you do appreciate the public nature of information on the internet, don't forget that just because you are looking for a job. You must assume that everything you write is available for public consumption, and that means any future employers. Many companies now do some internet searching and check the validity of their future employees - yes I know they will all tell you they don't, but I can confidently tell you that's rubbish, they do!
So if you have a profile on LinkedIn and other sites, make sure they all tell the same story! Also make sure your details are all accurate. As I tell everyone, don't put anything on your online profile that you wouldn't want an employer to see.

2. Pimp your profile.
You need to ensure that you have a full profile, and that it reads akin to a CV or Resume.What you must remember is that when companies or recruiters are searching for candidates, they are 'conditioned' to view prospective candidates in a traditional way (right or wrong). So in the art of stating the obvious - give them what they expect.
It is important to highlight your assets and project an accurate representation of yourself. Make sure your education history is correct, with correct dates; your employment history need to be correct, again with correct dates - and just in case you think you can get away with changing the dates, don't even bother - it is very easy to check! ; list any volunteer work or work done through your degree (sandwich courses); check your group memberships  -you may want to remove some of the more 'seemed fun at the time' groups you joined - would you want an employer to see them?

Recruiters giving good customer service - a thing of the past or a need for the future?

 
Where is all the service going today? I have just gone to buy a newspaper today, and while it was being scanned the sales assistant started reading the damn paper - she even opened it up to get the relevant page to get the end of the story!! When I said something she just grunted and carried on with the shopping - no apologies what so ever!! (I did keep calm and I carefully removed the embedded axe from her head before paying and leaving the store :-)) It did make me think though, about the service level analogy within the recruitment sector.

How many times do we hear of companies complaining that recruitment consultants are crap at this and crap at that? Admittedly there are a few dodgy ones out there, but there are also a great number of good quality consultants as well.

The recruitment marketplace is proving a challenge to many recruiters out there. The belief of many 'experts' is that many recruitment agencies and consultancies will cease to exist in the form they are today. They may go under, merge or just give up and get a 'proper job!', but one thing is for certain - they are going to have to improve their levels of customer service.

The ones that plan to be around for the post recession boom, need to understand how to operate in in an increasingly buyer-dominated environment. There is very stiff competition between the recruiters for new business (yes there is still companies hiring out there!), and with the job boards weighing in to pitch at the companies directly as well, the recruiters are going to have to adopt different ways of working.

Here are my suggestions about what recruiters are going to have to do to to start maximising their customer service levels:

1. Think like the customer. Empathy and understanding of the customer’s business objectives will be at the heart of future recruiting assignments.

2. Relationship building. Creating a long term partnership across the customer organisation rather than the traditional adversarial sales based relationship.

3. Team work. Recruiters will need to collaborate openly with colleagues across their own organisation to ensure the best possible service to their customers.

4. Knowledge. Successful recruiters will have an in-depth knowledge of their customer’s business and overall market that allows them to find opportunities to deliver value.

5. Customer service. Providing consistently excellent customer service is critical to retaining business. Therefore recruiters will need to be closely involved with ensuring ongoing customer satisfaction.

If they don't change, then like some job seekers, the companies will just stop using recruitment agencies for anything other than absolute emergencies. (Mind you some could say many companies are doing that now!) 

Can you add to my ideas? More importantly, do you agree?

The 10 ways to manage your workforce in a recession, courtesy of a CIPD & ACAS JV

Thanks to a CIPD and ACAS joint venture on the subject of helping companies during the recession, they have produced their official guidelines to managing your workforce during a recession. It is an excellent checklist for helping your business through the recession and out the outher side in the best possible way for the stability of your company.

1. Think long term

• Think creatively about how to reduce employment costs, such as new ways of working and work reorganisation.
•  See CIPD Research Insight Smart Working: The impact of work organisation and job design
• Remember that making people redundant and recruiting again later when the market picks up is expensive. 
• Protect and make the most of the training budget – focus resources on key areas such as improving line management capability and customer service. 
• Bear in mind your long-term reputation and responsibility to act as a fair employer.

2.  Maintain employee engagement

• Redouble your efforts to boost or maintain employee engagement.
• See CIPD Research Insight Employee Engagement in Context
• Manage expectations and set a clear sense of direction.
• Keep employees in the picture even when there is little concrete news. 
• See Acas guide Employee Communications and Consultation 
• Use all available media to beat the rumour mill.
• Think about creative, non-financial ways of motivating employees such as recognition schemes, team-building days and employee awards.

3.  Strengthen line management capability

• Support your managers so they are better able to operate in periods of traumatic change.
• Brief line managers in full on developments so they can talk to their teams – face-to-face communications are best.
• Recognise the vital role that line managers play in every aspect of the employment relationship – make sure they are properly trained in day-to-day people management skills.
• See CIPD guide Line Management Behaviour and Stress at Work 
• Line managers also need support and leadership from senior management and from HR to equip them to manage difficult situations and avoid burning out.

4. Support employees’ health and well-being

• Recognise the psychological burden and impact that can arise in a recession – make sure workplace support and occupational health provision are in place to prevent high levels of work-related stress.
• See Acas guide Health, Work and Wellbeing 
• See CIPD Research Insight What’s Happening with Well-being at Work? 
• Where possible provide opportunities for flexible working to help employees balance their work and home lives.
• See Acas guide Flexible Working and Work–life Balance    
• Ensure you have mechanisms in place to deal with workplace stress and potential conflict at an early stage.
•  Acas guide Stress at Work 
•  See CIPD/Acas guide Mediation: An employers’ guide
• Recognise the potential negative impact of ‘survivor syndrome’ if your organisation has made redundancies – employees that remain in organisations where there have been job cuts often suffer from guilt while coping with increased workloads.

Are Job Seekers wasting their time with Recruitment Agencies?

Every day now there are seemingly endless amounts of people ending up in the queues at the Job Centres. Even today, the Government are trying to help the middle classes who have found themselves out of work in this recession, with special initiatives to help them find work.

So, as someone who has spent their career in the recruitment sector, I find myself asking questions of the industry and whether there should be some evolution in the way that job seekers are advised to find a job. 

I have recently questioned if it is right, to pay a career consultant to help find a job, which prompted some interesting discussion.

Today, I want to focus on recruitment agencies - are they a waste of time for job seekers?

Fixed Fee Recruitment RPO providers - shouldn't they actually be called recruiting FARM's?

 

As part of a large recruitment audit I am currently working on, I have had cause to look at the fixed fee recruitment providers, such as Webrecruit, Networx, Net-Recruit, Websearch and EasyWebRecruitment.

The first thing to try and do was to understand what they are actually called and what they do. They are not really full RPO (recruitment process outsourcing) companies, although they have the capacity to be. They are not true recruitment agencies, but again they do some of the process.
They all charge a fixed fee for a recruitment management service, whether that be job board advertising, CV database searches or response management.

So, I have created a description for them that I feel is both appropriate and effective as a description of what they do - recruiting FARM's.
F - Fixed fee
A - Advertising jobs
R - Resourcing vacancies
M - Management of the process

I actually think that it describes what they do very well.

What do you think? Does it suit their service? Can you come up with a better one?

Should Companies use more or less recruitment agencies in a recession?

As we all know, the world has fallen apart, no one is hiring and the recruitment market is in total freefall, never to be seen again!  Well that is what the media would have us believe anyway!!

But the truth is really not as bad as it sounds. Companies ARE STILL recruiting and skill shortages are still very much in existence in certain sectors - education, engineering and science to name three.

So, we are in agreement, recruitment is still going on. There is one change however, and that is recruitment budgets have been effected - either reduced or totally frozen. That means organisations have had to look at their recruitment a little closer than they probably have over recent times.

But does having a reduced recruitment budget mean you reduce or increase the number of recruitment suppliers?

There are arguments to both sides of this equation (but only if you have some budget left, I guess!)

Using more agencies

These are some of the reasons I have had from companies this year, that I have spoken to who have justified this approach to me:

• It is success only recruitment, so by increasing the number of agencies, there is a better chance of finding the right people I need at no extra cost.
• The agencies are 'desperate' for business and they have offered 'really low' rates.
• Given up on the preferred supply list because so many good CV's were coming in speculatively from other agencies.
• They perceive the job market is so tight in certain areas, they 'need' to talk to anyone that can supply a 'suitable' CV!!  I get angry when someone says this to me - they obviously have no idea of recruitment!!
• Why have a supplier list? They believe it is a buyers market and they are in control!
  

Using less agencies

Here are some of the good responses from clients, on why they are going to use less agencies - these are exactly the things I like to hear - albeit less often at the moment:

• Reducing supplier lists, to only work with the few agencies that have consistently delivered results, because they understand the clients values and don't waste time with poor matching.
• They have negotiated lower rates, but they have also reigned in the supplier list. So the agencies get a better chance on the roles, but at a slightly lower margin.
• Value for money - actually working closer and giving the agencies more information to save any time wasting later in the process.
• Working with a small number of agencies that deliver value-add. They add value in giving advice, helping the interview process, advising on selection etc.
• Why would they want to waste time having to take all the calls, and fielding all the CV's that will undoubtedly arrive in the inbox? They are getting loads more calls already!
• The little budget that remains needs to be used correctly, avoiding any recruiting mistakes, so the trusted agencies who have delivered are the ones to work with.

These are obviously just some examples from my experience in 2009, during these tough times. I would really like to hear some of your feedback from your clients, as to how they justify using more or less recruitment agencies in this recession. Please let me know in the comments below.

Can you tell me why companies ARE NOT using web 2.0 to attract and recruit new staff?

 

Today I read an article that was shocking from a recruitment perspective. The content shouldn't surprise me, as I am getting used to seeing it first hand with companies that I consult with, but even so, it was a really big disappointment!

So what am I talking about? The sentence is a simple one.......

In a recent CIPD survey, "more than 80% of companies don't use web 2.0 methods of technology on the web, to attract or recruit new employees."

Why not?

Can you tell me why companies are not using web 2.0 methods to recruit staff?

I would love to hear what you think, so please comment away!

Does Your Business need a Recruitment Pinch Hitter now?

I am sure that many of you are not fans of Baseball, so first let me explain what a pinch hitter actually is:

They are simply defined as a substitute for another person, especially in an emergency or a moment of need.  This expression comes from baseball, where it is used for a player substituting for another at bat at a critical point or in a tight situation.

So to put into a business context, it would be someone with specialist skills being called upon to go into a company and solve specific needs of that company, for problems or issues they are experiencing.

Yes it's not brilliant out there, but it's NOT THAT BAD

We all know the state of the economy, it is something that everyday the media seem to taking great pleasure in telling us because they think people want to hear about it!
But what is more significant, is that all this bad news and the continual overkill of doom and gloom  (in my opinion, anyway) that comes out of the British Chamber of Commerce is ever-shrinking the confidence of recruitment and employment in UK businesses.

But let me be clear here, yes there is alot of bad news out there, but it is not effecting every company in the same way, as many are still recruiting staff at all levels. There are still big recruitment problems out there for some companies, as the quality and availability of candidates is becoming very limited.

A large retailer I spoke to last week, told me that their usage of recruitment agencies has actually increased since the credit crunch took hold!! Is that so surprising?
They now receive ten times more CV's, and the quality has dropped dramatically, so for this retailer to get to speak to the skilled individuals they need in their business, they are needing to use agencies to source them.

Good News! Don't believe the Media - Recruitment isn't dead !

Last year I asked for your assistance in a brief survey. It was obviously related to the credit crunch / recession / downturn (delete as appropriate!!) and how it was starting to effect companies recruitment strategies going forward.
I was getting certain feedback from my clients with regards to recruitment, and whether they were putting everything on hold or were actually still recruiting, and wanted to know if  everyone else was getting the same.
Yes, there is bad news everywhere with big job losses, that seem to be a common source of news for the doom and gloom merchants in the media!! Even the Government have become a cog in the doom machine with their shocking approach to the current job losses!!

Wasn't it great to see space aliens taking the news headlines just for one day yesterday - it did make a change!!

So the results of the survey - What did you  think are causing companies the most pain with regards to recruitment at the moment?

1. Recruiting with a reduced budget ----------------------- 56.76% - (42)
2. Demotivation in the workforce ---------------------------- 35.14% - (26)
3. There is no recruitment due to redundancies ------- 35.14% - (26)
4. Recruitment agencies are too expensive to use ----31.08% - (23)
5. Still can't find the skills needed----------------------------28.38% - (21)
6. Inundated with speculative job seekers-----------------27.01% - (20)
7. Not enough recruitment expertise------------------------16.22% - (12)
8. Higher instances of sick leave------------------------------9.50% -  (7)
9. Recruiting with no recruitment budget-------------------8.11% -  (6)
10. Staff are leaving for better salaries elsewhere----------8.11% -  (6)

Total responses - 74

I know it is only a very small survey, but the top answer does echo feedback I am getting from clients - many are still recruiting, but they are are having to be very careful with their recruiting budgets.

So the message from my "important" survey is clear - don't believe the hype and the bad news, companies are still recruiting out there. Yes they may have less money to spend on recruitment,  yes they will want value for their money and yes, they may well do some of the recruitment themselves.

BUT there is still a market out there - companies are still recruiting, so all you recruiters - corporate and agency -  don't give up just yet!!  And for all you companies out there, who have had their budgets cut, start to think about your recruitment a little better - there are ways that you can still recruit cost effectively!!