Sirona Says

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.

Resume Forensics - How to find free CV's on Google, Yahoo and Live

Jim Stroud of the recruiters lounge, the award winning blogger/recruiter/speaker has written a book that is going to be very popular amongst recruiters and even some corporate recruiters. It is called Resume Forensics - and it is a comprehensive guide on how to use Google, Yahoo and MSNLive to find CV's - free! Click here to download the ebook . In the meantime here is a video to give you a taster of what to expect in the ebook.

Generation Y'ers - not for us, say SME's!

Generation Y staff are surprisingly not in demand for SME companies, says the latest report from the entrepreneur think tank, the Tenon Forum. They claim that these generation Y'ers are often not just up to the job, but also show a lack of work readiness. They also go on to say that over 30% of the SME's surveyed cited poor literacy and numeracy amongst school leavers as a key issue facing their business.

So, while the generation Y'ers are an employers future lifeblood, it does appear that companies that need 'real' skills are shying away from them.....at the moment anyway. So are companies starting to realise that the generation X and the boomer's are actually still worth employing? It appears that they are actively seeking them out!! 

Entrepreneur and Tenon Forum think tank member, Khalid Aziz, Chairman of the Aziz Corporation, says: "We are becoming increasingly frustrated with a lack of work-readiness amongst graduates, many of whom do not possess basic skills, such as mental arithmetic. Those under the age of 40 have never experienced high unemployment and this is contributing to a tendency for younger employees to take work for granted or, worse, treat it as an extension of their social lives. This failure to take work seriously is not an issue amongst more mature employees."

Retailers have a problem with Generation Y'ers

When I first started in work in retail many years ago there was one thing that was ingrained into me........"The customer is always right". Of course we know that is not always the case, but as far as the interaction with the customer goes, it is a strategy to keep customers coming back. It teaches you to manage expectation and deal with people in a civil and considerate way etc This has provided a great base for my career, especially in recruitment (although it becomes a challenge, believing it with some clients!!)

Over the weekend visiting a number of retail shops, it dawned on me that retailers WILL have problems with their Generation Y workforce.Their seemingly lack of interest and motivation, and 'what's in it for me' attitude doesn't mix with retail customer service too well. They don't like to engage with customers, won't accept they have made a mistake and certainly won't adopt the customer is always right philosophy (sorry Tescos, WHSmiths, JJB and Next but they don't!).

So how do companies with such key customer facing roles change the attitudes of their staff? They can't, but they can look at other companies that I believe get it right - namely Marks & Spencers and Waitrose (John Lewis). They start getting it right at the recruitment phase - knowing what they want in terms of staff quality, and sticking to it - and continue the process with regular training, mentoring, appraising. And this is just for their shop assistant/sales assistant roles!! Have you ever been into either of these stores and had a bad experience with one of their staff? Highly unlikely I suggest.

So all you retailers, recruiting generation Y'ers won't be easy, but try and engage with them, after all if they won't engage with you then they certainly won't engage with your customers!!

LinkedIn - the next stage, network expansion

Following my article about LinkedIn for beginners, several people have asked what the next stage is with LinkedIn. Fortunately I don't have to write that one as there is a very good video below by Geoff Peterson - a global Top 150 linker - that explains very well how to further expand your network.

Find more videos like this on RecruitingBlogs.com

How to use SEM / SEO Tools to write job adverts

As a recruiter, one key part of your role is writing advert copy for your own online adverts. There will be many recruiters that simply place the 'actual' job title and 'actual' job spec onto their chosen job board or portal such as Broadbean or Conkers, and leave it at that. They then wonder why they get limited response. I have previously posted about writing creative adverts, but my point is this time to for recruiters to actually consider what the job seeker is searching for.
Search engine marketing (SEM)  and search engine optimisation (SEO) consultants use keyword searching tools such as SEO Book, Wordtracker or AdwordsTools to identify keywords people are using when they search online.  But how many of you are doing the same when you write a job advert? After all you are trying to get the same effect - people looking for jobs using keywords to search.

The latest Manpower Annual Talent Shortage Survey - the UK's 10 toughest jobs to recruit

According to the latest Manpower Annual Talent Shortage Survey, these are the ten hardest jobs to find candidates for, in the UK.

1. Skilled Manual Trades
2. Administrative Assistants & PAs
3. Engineers
4. Sales Representatives
5. Management/Executives
6. Laborers
7. Accounting & Finance Staff
8. Chefs/Cooks
9. Machinists/Machine Operators
10. Supervisors

Mind you, if you are in these sectors you probably already know that!!

Talent Managers: What is more important - recruitment or retention?

Talent management as we know is the number one problem for HR globally. So why is it that it is still such an undefined phrase? In talking to many companies, it is very evident that there is a vast difference in what Talent Leaders (HR Managers, HR Directors and alike) see as talent management and the subsequant actions they take in dealing with it.

I am not going to go on an in depth analysis of the theories of talent management, the rights and wrongs, best practice or the systems used etc. What I want to do is to ask all you Talent Managers out there a question that I am finding more difficult to get an answer from companies on. So here goes (and I do expect some honest answers, please!)

On a scale of 1 - 10, with Recruitment Stategy at No 1 and Retention Strategy at the No 10, where is your company positioned along the scale, in terms of balance? Are you at a low number meaning you are more focused on recruitment, a high number meaning you are focused more on retention, or do you think you have it about right somewhere in the middle?

Who is Talent Management more important for? - Generation X or Generation Y?

Reading an article by Kristin Gessaro today made me wonder if companies are actually giving enough credence to the employees they currently have - Generation X and Baby Boomers (the two age groups that span the ages of 28 - 61), rather than focusing on what they haven't got yet - the new Generation Y employees they will soon be recruiting? Yes it is a fact that there is a shrinking pool of skilled workers, but I wonder if companies are just getting caught up in the hype of always looking at the youth and not looking at managing their own talent more effectively?

I appreciate that blogs (like mine) bang on about all the different generations of workers, and how company's need to listen to the future needs of the new generations - Y and Z , but what about the needs of their current employees. I think companies forget, these are the people with actual skills and valid experience, and who can add value to a company very quickly.  A new generation Y'er, will need lots of learning, training and development to get close to some of the skill levels of the older generations. Kristin rightfully raise the point that companies, put new young employees on rotation programmes, to give them different experiences of different facets of business, yet do not do the same for older workers.

Surely talent management should be applied to the whole workforce and not just to the new entrants to the business. I know some companies do apply this theory, but many I speak to seem to forget that they have such a wealth of experience and talent already in their business! Do they know what talent management really is?

Are Generation Y'ers more powerful than we realise?

These Generation Y'ers  - also known as the Thumb Generation and the Net Generation - have more power than people realise......and they know it. Part of the differences between X & Y generations is down to the inbuilt attitude they have to life, and the type of care free approach they have. They are not interested in buying houses ( they can't afford to anyway), they want to experience life and enjoy themselves - and trying to recruit them will be a challenge!

But there is a very forward thinking individual that has seen the vision to harness the power of the Generation Y'ers - it is the US Democratic Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama. In a great article by Bea Fields she has shown how Barack Obama has blatantly targeted this generation to win votes in his battle with Hilary Clinton for the Democratic Nomination, and it seems that the creativity and foresight he ( or his team!) has shown it to be a successful strategy so far in the race for the White House.

Can you imagine the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, using YouTube to deliberately deliver his message to the people? or keeping a website continually updated every hour with the latest news? or attending an Usher concert instead of political event? Well of course the answer to all three is 'absolutely not', as you probably guessed!!  But if one of the (potentially) most important leaders of the world has seen the power of the Y Generation, why is it that so many companies are just not paying attention? Why are they dragging their heals when it comes to things like corporate social networks and blogs? They will be the first to complain when they are losing the talent to their competitors!!