Do CVs contain the truth?

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Is tailoring a CV to fit a job or a company dishonest? Is it deception?

Do we as Recruiting Professionals or hiring managers not want to know that what we are reading is the absolute truth and not just a version of it?

As a job hunter I only have one stream of experience that might be relevent to the roles I am applying for so don’t see the benefit, but ……………………….

Discuss.

2011
08/07
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Job Hunting
Recruitment
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Different Approaches for a Different Year – #myjobhunt Week 1

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Well that was an interesting week.

Having decided to take the week off to recharge my batteries I found myself thinking that I should spend some of the time looking for the my next job. The weather however was conspiring against me. Who wants to be stuck on the phone or at a PC when the sun is shining? A rare occasion in this year’s British summer.

On Weds I woke early (by holiday standards) having been stupid enough to book a PT session for 0800. When I left the house at 0745 for the walk through the woods and across the fields (that sounds very Larkrise to Candleford doesn’t it?) to the gym it was already very hot. By the time I got there I was already warmed up and then after 15 mins on the bike, up and down virtual hills I was dripping! Not nice for the next 2 hours. Like any good Personal Trainer Chris was not going to let me falter, slow down or give up regardless I cried and screamed like a baby.

It was therefore about 1100 that I finally booted up the laptop, tuned into Planet Rock and went about finding another suitable position.

Those that read the blog posts I wrote during #myjobhunt 2010 will know that I don’t tend to use typical approaches of job boards and agencies when proactively looking, or at least I didn’t then. On Wednesday I started out thinking that this year was not likely to be any different. I would continue to engage with as many people as I could and generate interest and referrals from my Facebook Friends, Twitter Followers and LinkedIn Connections. Or at least try.

Whilst this approach was and is working very well, it became clear that this year is significantly different to last year. This time last year I was happy to take a job that would enhance my career, either doing a job that had exciting content and development opportunity or one that would give me the opportunity to progress in the future. I spoke to everyone, I met as many people as I could, and chased down every lead I could. In having this approach I was lucky enough to have quite a few positions to chase and consider. This year I still need to do the same.

Yet it dawned on me that having been fortunate enough to land a job managing and leading change in the function in a complex organisation as we go through a sizable corporate and HR Transformation, the kind of job that will now float my boat has changed. Jobs like these tend to be quite senior and as such there is a tendency to give the vacancies to Search firms. In doing so it sort of eliminates the chances of referrals. I have already experienced it once in this year’s quest for a new job. A friend got in contact to say that they were looking for a person to run the European Recruitment function. I sent my CV knowing they had already given the role to a very expensive Search firm, a firm I have experience with and know how and what they charge. It was little surprise to get feedback a week or so later that they were really interested in my experience however, were quite advanced with another candidate presented by the Search firm. Of course the potential employer had probably paid in the region of £60,000 to the search firm already and wanted to think they were going to justify that expense, so a referral no matter how relevant would be a bit embarrassing wouldn’t it?

Despite the fact that in-house recruiting professionals of all grades are extremely well networked and connected to each other in the UK and elsewhere, thanks to The FIRM and other networks, I find it disappointing that Search seems to be the first port of call when hiring at this level. I may be disappointed but not surprised. In fact one position I am very keen on at the moment is as a result of a Search firm contacting me. So I am not complaining just making an observation.

One other problem with finding out about jobs and then being referred to the Search company, supposedly managing them, is that when you track down the Search firm and the so called “consultant” no one is ever available and you have to leave a message. You can never reach them nor will they bother to call you back? A Search firm called JD Haspel didn’t seem to be interested in being disturbed and haven’t called me back despite messages I left at the beginning of the week. Anyone use them?

Rant over.

By Wednesday evening I started to think that maybe I needed to contact as many search firms as I could that specialised in HR positions – are there any? That is the trouble. Where would I start? I recognised I probably needed to get in contact with a few, maybe those that I knew already would be more respectful and speak with me. Makes sense doesn’t it? So while I am mulling these thoughts over and trying to get motivated to speak with people that for the last year I have been targeting in my efforts to reduce costs (typical isn’t it? But I won’t corrupt myself by doing it any other way), I start surfing, reading blogs, and posting comments. Always a good way to get noticed in the right forums.

I then started trying to organise my LinkedIn Connections and exploring positions posted on The FIRMs job listing. I looked at one particular position posted in The FIRM that had also been posted to the wider LinkedIn platform, which then led me to a couple of positions that looked good. I sent an inMail to one of my connections for help on one, applied for another and saved a couple for later follow up. I also started noticing the differences in how companies and recruiters posted their jobs on LinkedIn. It was interesting that some jobs would have plenty of enticing detail whilst others would have lots about the company but little about the job itself. It is poor how some people think that they don’t have to sell and attract. Come on! You have to make a job look exciting otherwise why on earth would anyone apply, at this level? We want to know more, we want to hear it all, we like a challenge.

Also I noticed for the first time the links at the foot of the job ad. These are LinkedIn generate links called “People Who Viewed This Job Also Viewed”. Bingo! One job led to another and two more applications were made as a result. It was strange though and I am sure I was doing something wrong, some of the jobs I was finding by following these links didn’t come up in searches I ran on LinkedIn. I’ll figure that one out.

Wednesday had not finished there either. Whilst I was reading through LinkedIn I was also active on Twitter and monitoring a couple of lists. Two people who I have got to know over the last couple of years, one of whom I have never met, suggested two leads for me, both with full contact info and full introductions and both of which could very well lead somewhere. One a contract and the other a permanent job. Thank you to both, Ken and Mat for your generous assistance with both of these, pie and pint on me when we meet up.

Thursday was a day out. I was hoping for sunshine but the rain was torrential for the morning. I was out and about in Somerset, a part of the country that was a communications dead zone! It made me a bit nervous not only being without a cell phone signal but without email as well. I start to sweat and twitch when that happens for 10 mins on the train, but I was 6 hours off-grid this time.

Once I did get back to civilisation and my email downloaded I was pleased to see that one of the leads from the previous day had started to move quite nicely and needed some follow up when I got home. This was duly addressed.

Friday was dominated by two interviews in the City. These were effectively 3rd and 4th interviews in follow up to the 2nd interview I had on Day 1 (Monday). I was very excited and very nervous about these. I don’t tend to get nervous about much but as I have said previously the stakes are higher this year and the good opportunities are not likely to be as prolific as they were last year. Besides, everything I had found out and heard about this company has been positive and appealing. The job itself is a perfect opportunity for me to do again much of what I have done in the last year – but differently.

On the way into London I had so many good wishes sent my way by online and offline friends. I cannot begin to tell you just how much they all meant to me, made me smile and relaxed me. On my way home last night I received a few texts, DMs, WhatsApps and emails asking me how I had got on and how the interviews went. My initial reaction and thoughts were very positive. I enjoyed meeting both of the people today and felt that the interviews went well. But then I got to thinking. Replaying both of them in my mind through the evening the doubts started to creep in. Questions like “did I give a good performance?”, “was my answer the best I could have given?”, “should I have volunteered more?”, “did I talk too much?”, “did I listen enough?”, “why didn’t they ask me about some of the compliance issues?” and so on.

These sorts of thoughts are inevitable despite being unhealthy. I can only help I have done enough to maintain their interest and if haven’t I have to make sure I use the lessons learned to improve myself for next time.

Fingers crossed eh?

2011
08/06
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#myjobhunt
Job Hunting
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#myjobhunt Happy Anniversary – a year on, Day 1

[tweetmeme source=”GaryFranklin”]

Two weeks ago I wrote a post in which I mentioned that my current contract was soon to come to an end and it was unlikely to be extended and therefore would need to reactivate #myjobhunt for 2011. It was funny at the time of writing that post I was full of confidence and positivity, some of which was that there was the possibility that I would be staying on and part of it was because I had such fun last year and was looking forward to it this time around even though I had hoped not to have to. Does that make sense?

Two weeks ago I also had to start Jury Service. This was my second time as a jurist, the last time much more accommodating than this time! It couldn’t have come at a worse time, not only for my impending hunt, but also because of the workload and priorities I had in my current job.

The last time I sat on a Jury in 2005 it was in Coroners Court for a suicide. It affected me for quite some time, but it was over with in about a week.

This time it was Crown Court for a very serious crime. I was lucky to have been called for a case in the first couple of hours on the first day. Or at least that is how I felt for about an hour. Despite or maybe due to the repetitiveness of the statements and evidence from witnesses, I didn’t feel so lucky after the first day. The time spent in the jury box in the court itself was actually an interlude to the waiting around, and every evening I got home I was more tired and stressed than I would have been if I had been commuting to the office every day. I do not like not working when I should/could be and it probably didn’t help that I couldn’t talk about it when I did get home either. It was energy sapping, far more so than I could have expected (or needed either).

At work I have a lot on at the moment, most of which needs to be completed before the end of September if I am to leave at the end of Sept, which now seems almost certain. So not only was Jury Service an imposition to this, it meant that I wasn’t able to find the time to find the next “best job I’ve had”. I was fine during the first week thinking it won’t last long and we’ll be released but no, the judge asked us to come back for the second Monday. My frustrations and my irritation went up a level when after that case finished the judge asked us to check in to see if we were needed for the rest of the week. I was relatively lucky; I only had to hang around doing nothing for three days in the second week!!! Some of my fellow jurors from that first case got called on another long case – I am smiling inside.

It was exactly a year ago yesterday that #myjobhunt 2010 started. I’ll be honest with you I could probably republish the same first day post from last year. The initial anxieties, insecurities and doubts we’ve all had in the same circumstances were there, the same as they were last year. There are differences between last year and this. In 2010 I deliberately resigned from a job to find a new position that would allow me to grow and enhance my experience and give me the opportunity to develop and use my potential. This year I still have a big job to do.

Last year I was incredibly fortunate to land just that kind of position I craved and have had the opportunity to work with such a focused and energised group of people for the last year, in a great company as we have been going through some major changes. Now in 2011 as it seems time to move on, it would be perfect to be able to do the same again if at all possible. Hopefully correcting the mistakes made, improving the ideas put in place and enhancing whilst repeating some of the successes achieved. The stakes are somewhat higher as a result.

The morning of Day 1 was all about my job – having decided during my second week of Jury Service that I had outstanding holiday to take and needed a break I received permission to take a week of leave. I therefore had to not only follow up on a number of issues from the previous couple of weeks, but I needed to be sure that any outstanding issues were handed over. I also spent a bit of time making a few calls to update some people on my situation and of course the inevitable thinking and worrying!

1pm rolls around before I know it and off I go for a two and a half hour workout with a recently retained Personal Trainer. This worked a treat. Last year I walked the hills around the farm estate on which I live for exercise, this year I am stepping up the pain for gain. It worked! The juices were flowing (serotonin apparently) by the time I got home and I felt much more positive. It helped that my car passed its annual MOT without a glitch. I was ready apart from a small matter of dehydration, easily resolved for an afternoon and evening of positive action and thoughts.

There are a couple of opportunities I am discussing with people at the moment, one of which sounds after two interviews very exciting and could well be “that job”. I have been aware of both of these positions for a few weeks now, and frustrated that I have not been able to pursue either until yesterday due to my civic responsibilities. Other opportunities are out there and the grapevine has started to whisper but I now need to apply myself and find out more about each of them.

That will do for a Day 1 / Day 2 post, more hours will need to be spent tomorrow. Maybe I will have to walk to the top of the lane again to visit and reacquaint myself with the “office” that I became so familiar with last August.

Music of the Day – “Up Around the Bend” by Credence Clearwater Revival

2011
08/02
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Do You Really Need to Ask About Salary?

[tweetmeme source=”GaryFranklin”]

In the last two weeks one thing has stood out for me, leaving me feeling slightly uneasy because I am unsure whether I am right or not, strangely despite how I feel about it.

I’ve had a view on a particular matter as a recruiter and recruitment manager over the last few years and then much more so as a candidate last year during #myjobhunt and more recently.

What do you think when you are asked “What is your current salary or package?”

Do you answer? Why do you answer?

What purpose does it serve to ask the question? What purpose will it serve to answer the question? Surely this is an irrelevant question and on one’s business but mine?

In organisations where a rigid grade or compensation policy doesn’t exist, I can understand knowing what someone is currently earning helps construct an offer and package to fit the candidate and helps to avoid over paying someone. Yet is it still relevant? Shouldn’t you know how much you want to and can pay and still achieve worth to your business? Are you not asking for a multitude of problems and challenges by making yourselves open to negotiation.

In the larger more complex organisations the compensation packages are mapped directly to the Job Families and the Grades. New vacancies are generally submitted and approved based on the budget available, grade and salary banding (the guidance received from either the Recruiting or the Compensation & Benefits departments). Offers are made accordingly to qualified candidates.

Last year it seemed that only agencies or search firms had an interest in what I was earning in my previous job. None could provide me with a good enough reason for me to give them the info. I can only assume that they preferred to take short cuts to categorise me by a job title and salary to ensure an easy deal closure, rather than my personality, achievements, competencies and potential. Whereas the expert recruiters and interviewers at prospective employers didn’t need to ask. I was assessed and judged properly.

This year is no different. In the last two weeks I have refused to give an answer to that question to three different companies. They come up with all sorts of reasons why they needed to know, one even stating that their client, an HRD in an FTSE 100 organisation, had asked for availability and salary information to be put on a cover sheet. Expectations maybe, but I cannot imagine anyone asking for current info. Why would anyone need to know this?

All the time I was looking to move on from my last job and when I finally took the plunge, I was constantly asking myself, agencies and search companies –

“Why should the limitations and salary restrictions of my current/previous employer have any bearing or influence on what a future employer might consider I am worth to them?”

Please think about it – I’d be interested to hear the thoughts of others on this.

2011
07/27
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The FIRM – a 2011 update

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In December 2007 I created a Group on LinkedIn called The FIRM – The Forum for In-house Recruitment Managers, to allow a few in-house recruiters and recruitment managers who had already been ‘speaking’ with each other via email and Yahoo! IM for a week or two to collaborate with each other. Little did I know then how big and successful The FIRM would become and never imagined it would become so useful to many, myself included. Now three and half years later there are 3800 members in 49 countries. We have established ourselves as an online community that meets offline, whose members enjoy sharing experiences, asking for and offering help and learning plenty along the way.

Our Vision – today

Run by in-house recruiters for in-house recruiters The FIRM was founded as a LinkedIn Group in December 2007, it is a supportive and collaborative community of corporate recruitment professionals that provides both an online and offline hub for members to network, request help, share knowledge and give advice on all aspects of recruitment and talent management.

We aim to promote the values and professionalism of our members, as well as ensuring ethical integrity and best practice – raising the standard of service we provide to our internal customers and receive from external suppliers.

I can’t speak for every one of course but I have heard some great comments from other members who also get regular benefit from engaging and meeting with each other, each professionals doing very similar jobs. Personally I have learned plenty, thanks to the input and/or introductions made. It is always the first place I turn when I need help with an issue related to the recruitment life cycle, processes and policies. It is also the first port of call, as it is for many, when I need to hire someone.

Offline we having been holding events on a fairly regular basis. They started out in January 2009 as a simple breakfast and the morning networking meeting. That was all it was, a chance to chat with fellow in house recruiters, with a little presentation from our first sponsor, LinkedIn. There were 45 people at this first event, many of whom still attend regularly, some of who have become friends now. It was at this first event I realised it was too big for just me and where I met Emma Mirrington for the first time. The rest, as they say is history.

Based on the success of that event we ran more. At each event we’ve asked the attendees what they wanted to discuss or hear about at the next or future events, we’ve progressed in this manner ever since albeit with slight bigger conference style events. We have been very lucky and very grateful to have had the support of so many of the members of The FIRM who come along, many are repeat visitors.

Currently all of the events have been restricted to the UK, this is purely a logistical issue, however we have aspirations to repeat some of these events in other countries in the future. We have courted with ideas and invites already to do something in Australia, China, Singapore and UAE however the time to find sponsors as well as the critical mass of members to make it a success somewhat influences us. Any ideas or suggestions would be welcome here please.

We have also benefited from the great support and help of our fabulous sponsors over the last 2 years, without whom we just would not have been able to hold any of the events at all. So a hearty thanks to LinkedIn, Matt Alder (Barkers when they existed), SHL, 33, Google, TotalJobs.com, TheNetwork.com, Avature as well as to CareerPlayer for the filming and editing of the videos in this blog. Further thanks go to Frances Lewis of Osborne Clark, Peter Gold of Hire Strategies and Mark Williams of ETN Training for generous time helping us with the webinars we have been able to put on for the members. And of course the generous contribution of all of the speakers we have been lucky enough to have spend time informing us, educating us and helping us.

In the last year both Emma and I have changed jobs, which has meant huge changes and adjustments for each of us. And because the day jobs must always take priority we haven’t had the time to deliver against some of the plans we’ve had, nor has it afforded us the time to organise some of the events we had wished so. We have ideas to address this now.

Also in the last 18 months Emma has moved house, gotten married, had a baby and still found the time to get stuff done. The FIRM just wouldn’t be The FIRM and the success it is without her. Put it this way; I talk a lot, Emma actually does a lot.

Thank you Emma. x

Going forward? Simple. We would like The FIRM to be what the members want it to be.

2011
07/17
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This one is all about me – #myjobhunt 2011

[tweetmeme source=”GaryFranklin”]

It seems frightening to think that it has been nearly a year.

A little over a year ago, in fact at the end of next week it will be a year, that I made the decision to change jobs.

Time flies when having fun.

Little did I suspect how that decision would impact me and how the activities of last summer and the people I would meet would change my life. I’m not talking about a change so inspiring that an afternoon TV drama could be made of it. But it did change me, for the better I hope.

What was I doing?

I was looking for my next job. I won’t review that experience in this post because I wrote about it extensively last summer in the series “#myjobhunt”, covering Days 1 to 32 of my experiences.

It became the best bracketed six weeks of my adult life; a period that still makes me smile.

As a result of #myjobhunt I started my current role at the very end of Sept, nine and half months ago. It started as a six month contract. Since then I have learned so much, grown plenty and achieved a huge amount both personally and in my job. The job itself was incredibly exciting and daunting before I started, quite a stretch from my previous role. This perception was nothing compared to how I felt after the first month. The pace and scale of what I had to do and what we were trying to achieve was and still is incredible. This job is huge!

I would love to go into the details of what has been achieved by me personally, by the Recruiting teams and by the European HR Service Delivery structure, of which the Resourcing and Recruiting structure is a part, but discretion and company confidentiality needs to be respected. Many of the challenges are the same that plenty have been through before and will go through time and again in the future. Organisations change and develop, going through OD programs with multifaceted change and transformation programmes in order to evolve and grow.

It is what happens. I am excited to be an integral part of these changes.

There are of course frustrations that come with a complex multi-cultural corporation that has grown over 3 centuries. There are the matrix of reporting lines, local priorities, legacy attitudes and the inevitable resistance to change, all of which need to be managed to be sure the overall business goals are achieved in the timescales required. Not only that, there are the inevitable moving goal posts. But one thing has been constant; the desire by the Service Delivery management team to get the job done and work through a problem, not circumvent it regardless of the challenge and degree of difficulty, and still achieve results that will make a substantial difference.

From my desk I can see where the improvements have been made. I count reducing the average Time to Hire by nearly 30%, the average Cost per Hire being reduced by 50%, the dependency of agencies being reduced from approx. 80% to less than 20% across the region in 9 months as significant achievements, but there is always much more that can be done. That is the best and most exciting part of my job. Set aside the five hours a day I have to commute with a 5am start and the not-so-wonderful smells on the tube, I actually feel like I work in HR now and belong in it as part of the changes we are making in the business and I tell you what, I love it! Maybe it is the company, maybe it’s my boss, or it could be her team of direct reports or it could be my team of direct reports or it could just be the job is the right one for me. All of the above I suspect.

I have been asked a number of times over the last few months what my perfect job would be if I were to spec it out myself. I have always answered that it would be the one have right now.

Which is sad, because being on a contract means that it inevitably it is going to come to an end and that end is likely to be fast approaching.

So time to dust the CV off, update it with all that has been done this last year (sorry Merv – still need a CV) and embark on another #myjobhunt. Of course anything can happen and I could still be here this time next year. I hope I am, truly I do. It would be great to take the changes and the results of this last year and use them as a platform next year and the year after. Can’t always have what we want though, eh? But I have to be practical and think and act wisely. So #myjobhunt starts again.

Needless to say that #myjobhunt won’t be the same daily serialisation it was last year. I won’t have the time for that – I will still have a job to do. Yet I will do my best to share my thoughts and observations in much the same way I did last year and I really hope I will meet as many wonderful supportive people and have as many laughs. I also hope I learn as many new things about myself as I did in the six weeks last summer and the subsequent 9 months.

And of course I welcome any input, introductions and opportunities.

Song of the Day – Back from Cali by Slash (feat. Myles Kennedy)

2011
07/14
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The FIRM gets Technical – guest blog by Peter Hetherington

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In a change from my norm I am very fortunate to have Peter Hetherington (@phetherington1 on Twitter) create the first ever guest post on this blog.

Peter thank you so much and by way of introduction, Peter is Head of EMEA Recruitment at Corporate Executive Board, and is also a long-standing member of The FIRM, a volunteer police officer, a semi-obsessed swing dancer, and a committed boat-dweller, who firmly believes that when London finally floods, he’ll be the last one laughing.”

Thursday 23rd June saw The Forum for In-house Recruitment Managers (The FIRM) host the latest member conference in London, this time on the topic of Technical Recruiting. This is an umbrella subject, covering all manner of staple sourcing issues, right from the venerable subject of Social Media, to the young and thrusting newcomer Mobile Recruiting, flirting with the Hollywood glamour of Video, and getting uncontrollably techy on the topic of Search Engine Optimisation.

Whilst there were other elements like a talk from Avature’s CEO on how his CRM product can help you get ‘in the Zone’, and a rousing sermon from Recruitment 3.0 evangelist Matthew Jeffery on the future of recruitment, the areas that I will focus on are those of Mobile recruitment, use of Video and Search Engine Optimisation, as these all have some key takeaways that every member of The FIRM can benefit from immediately!

Mobile Recruitment

(Credit to key note speakers Dave Martin, MD of All The Top Bananas and Katie McNab, Head of Recruitment, UK & Ireland for PepsiCo)

As unlikely as it may seem to some, research shows that by 2013, more people will access the internet via a mobile device or smart phone than will access it by a traditional PC/worktop. Combine that stat with the fact that whilst it takes on average 72 hours to read an email after delivery, the average time for a SMS or push notification on a mobile is 30minutes, and suddenly email and PCs start to feel a little prehistoric…!

Leading thinkers on all things Recruitment believe that corporate career sites will more and more become a collection of content stored in multiple places and designed for multiple formats. Early adopters have already accelerated their ‘cloud’ recruitment presence, and during the conference, members of The FIRM were encouraged to consider doing the same.

Outside of recruitment, the world is already much changed. For example, today there are well over 175m users of Facebook, and over 50% of these users are more active on their mobiles than on a PC. The candidate landscape is equally beginning to change, with job boards now allowing mobile searching and applications from the device. If you truly want to engage with candidates, it makes good sense to allow candidates to apply for jobs in the manner and medium of their choice. 20 years ago we were receiving fax CVs and posted copies. The maturity of the mobile market has accelerated far quicker than the growth of the internet, and companies need to be ready for that change.

PepsiCo is an early adopter of Mobile Recruitment, and we heard from Katie McNab (a fellow member of The FIRM and @Recruitgal blogger extraordinaire) about her experience in developing PepsiCo’s mobile web pages and app, which was unveiled to us as a teaser prior to UK launch. It is a thing of beauty, and once the “oohs” and “aahs” subsided, we were treated to an objective view of the pitfalls and considerations each of us would need to be aware of if we were to follow her example. Katie, like many of us, is a natural cynic – so her own verdict was inevitably ‘we’ll wait and see’, but comforting to hear that 2 hires in the US have already been attributed to the mobile site, and 10 more candidates in process from it!

Key Takeaways

1. At the bare minimum you may need a mobile-enabled careers site. At the moment, any prospective candidate who navigates to your site through a mobile (conceivably from LinkedIn, Facebook, or your 3rd party job board postings) may not have an optimal experience.
2. Ideally you should have the ability to present jobs and allow applications through a mobile site.
3. An App would go a step further in allowing you the ability to engage candidates who opt in to push-notifications – providing them with job alerts and important company news

Use of Video in Recruitment

(Credit to CareerPlayer Director, Rob Wescott)

Scientific study has shown that the video impacts the mind of a viewer in a way unlike other forms of information does. Put simply, just like Heineken (but without the disciplinary consequences if used in the work place), video reaches the parts of a brain other recruitment media can’t reach. These parts are most associated with emotional impact and long term memory. Video is therefore a powerful element to a recruitment branding exercise.

A study of graduates have shown that, in order of preference, the elements they would most like to see on a graduate recruitment site are:
a. A Day in the Life video
b. A video showing current graduate trainees
c. A virtual office tour (video or flash)

Video can also be used to great effect in Onboarding, and messages from the CEO or senior leadership played over video, or other emotive information can help to build a stronger psychological contract with new employees and improve retention and discretionary effort.

Key Takeaways

1. It would be worth the investment to produce a ‘day in the life’ video and maybe some virtual office clips and stream through YouTube onto your careers site (and future mobile sites, Facebook page, etc.!)
2. It could be time to revisit how you use videos in Onboarding/Induction days.

Recruitment Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

(Credit to key note speaker Peter Gold, Director of Hire Strategies and all-round ATS, SEO and SEM guru)

Job boards rule. So do aggregators. You will never beat them at advertising things like ‘sales jobs’ or ‘java jobs’. What is important is what content or websites you have linking in to your jobs and career pages, how your job adverts are written, and how you measure, test and weed out your web content. Members of The FIRM should consider the following:

1. The longer and more specific a job title, the better it will rank.
2. Optimise your site for occurrences of ‘jobs at xyz’, ‘work at xyz’ and ‘careers at xyz’ – whilst you may have a good ranking in one or more, you may be at risk of having your ranking supplanted by a job board or even a site like Glassdoor.com!
3. Resistance is futile – you will be aggregated! No, it is not the Borg* – we’re talking about those troublesome sites that steal your job descriptions and aggregate them out to the world at large without so much as a please or thank you. Given the inexorability of falling victim to these sites, members of The FIRM are encouraged to work with Indeed.com, Workhound and SimplyHired to make sure the Right content is aggregated, not what they ‘spider’ from us without direction.
4. Create ‘Authority’ pages for recurring jobs. These are persistent pages that you then start to build content around, and link to. The best ranking web pages are those that have the most amount of relevant links going to them, and build up their relevance over time. (E.g. links from LinkedIn, Facebook, blogs, aggregators, job boards, other relevant websites).
5. Measure and test – use Google analytics to monitor traffic in to the careers site and Taleo job postings. It is very important to weed out pages that nobody visits, as these dilute the search ranking.
6. Make sure pages have proper meta title tags and H1 headings, as well as repetition of job titles in content
7. Have most relevant content highest on page – i.e. finish with ‘About xyz company’, rather than have it at start of job descriptions.

*obligatory geek reference. Every technical recruitment blog needs one..

The FIRM’s Technical Recruitment conference was much Tweeted about using hashtag #FIRMrectek – go see what people said on the day!

Peter

___________________

thank you Peter. Peter’s LinkedIn profile

2011
06/27
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Networking
Recruitment
The FIRM
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Generation Y Explained

[tweetmeme source=”GaryFranklin”]
This came to me today from a colleague. I can’t take the orginal credit for it but thought it would be useful for many of us who are confused at where the different tags begin and end.

– People born before 1946 were called The Silent generation,

– People born between 1946 and 1964 are called The Baby Boomers,

– People born between 1965 and 1979 are called Generation X,

– And people born between 1980 and 2010 are called Generation Y,

Why do we call the last group Generation Y?

Y should I get a job?
Y should I leave home and find my own place?
Y should I get a car when I can borrow yours?
Y should I clean my room?
Y should I wash and iron my own clothes?
Y should I buy any food?

But a cartoonist explained it very eloquently below…

2011
06/16
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Humour - for fun
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Are you Embarrassed to Work for Kodak? I’d be Ashamed

[tweetmeme source=”GaryFranklin”]

On 6th March 2011 I wrote a blog explaining how deceptive calling the Kodak ESP9250 a printer is and how dissatisfactory Kodak’s impression of Customer Services had been to that point. I am sorry to say not much has improved and it’s not likely to either until they admit they have a major problem and speak to customers about what matters. I won’t go through the Oct 2010 – March 2011 events or thoughts, I’ll let you read it for yourselves

So where did I leave off, oh yes a rant at Kodak on the blog and via email at the beginning of March.

On Monday 14th March I finally got a phone call from someone at Kodak in the UK offering to help. Unfortunately this was a bad day at work for me; I was winding things up at work so that I could take two-three weeks out of the office for surgery and recovery. I suggested that I would have to call them back a few weeks. But of course that was a touch too difficult for them to understand, they called me back twice. The first time was an hour or so after I had woken from the anaesthetic and then the second time a day or two later, when I still didn’t know my up from down.

I finally called them back at the beginning of April to move things along and yes you guessed it, they hadn’t actually given much thought to resolving the issue despite the detail provided to them, along with the content of the blog which I know they were fully aware of.

After a number of conversations and then several emails with Customer Support staff in the USA on 3rd May I was promised a new replacement printer; a brand new model. It was promised fast in a number of emails, all apologetic about the delay and yet it still didn’t arrive until 25th or 26th of May; 3 full months after I posted the blog and 9 months after I made the initial mistake to buy a Kodak device (I have trouble calling it a printer).

So we have (or did have at the start of last week) the new ESP2170 printer installed and running as advertised or so it seemed.

During the conversations with the Customer Support personnel in the USA I was given a choice of accepting a newer model i.e. the ESP2170, an older model or yet another ESP9250. I think I snorted at that last option.

I asked one qualifying question to the lady I was speaking to; did the cartridges that we had purchased for the ESP9250 fit the new ESP2170. The question was answered in the affirmative. And as a show of good faith a few additional cartridges would be delivered. So I elected to go for the newer model on the basis that we would only have to wait a week. This was important because Mrs F was studying and revising for exams. Her revising techniques called for a lot of printing and without a printer she was in trouble and very very stressed. So you can imagine the relief we both had when the new printer finally turned up and she was able to print, albeit without the extra cartridges promised.

Mrs F then proceeded with her printing and use a full Black cartridge in a day and then tried to replace it with one of the older ones we’d purchased for the ESP9250. So having waited for so long we had a brand new functioning printer…………….for a day.

Yeah you can guess, we’d been lied to and they weren’t compatible at all. I don’t suppose for a minute that this was malicious just, very pathetic and doesnt even come close to the defination of the word ‘service’.

I then sent an email to the one person throughout of all this who has been very responsive and to a large extent reactive, asking him to call me. His name is Ricky Frazier and is a very good Customer Service rep that has to be embarrassed to be working for Kodak. He seems to be doing all he can with inadequate support from the infrastructure he works within.

He promised to send me 3 colour print cartridges as well as 3 colour cartridges along with details of how I could trade the old non-compatible cartridges with new ones that will work and details of which UK retailers stocked them.

I got a confirmation email from him and was also rewarded with further emails from the despatch teams confirm that 3 of each cartridge had been ordered and then expedited. You can image what I was feeling when I opened the package to find only one of each inside.

Not only does their definition of expediting mean sticking the parcel in the post, but it would seem that they cannot count. Just plain stupid.

There have been so many inconsistencies, so many failures and so many untruths told. Many had seen my rants on Twitter including @Kodak. Whoever was monitoring the @kodak mentions contacted me asking if they could help. On the assumption they would be able to concentrate for sentences longer than 140 characters I asked them to read the blog. They didn’t read it or didn’t respond. You can only laugh can’t you?

Whilst I was waiting for the printer to arrive I read this blog post on MonsterThinking.com “How Kodak Learned to Listen to the Social Media Conversation” apparently and of course I commented. Another joke in their repertoire is this article in Amateur Photographer last year.

They really should go on tour.

Anyway today I wrote an email to my mate Ricky and this time copied on the Exec VP responsible for InkJet Printers, Susan Tousi. This time I have asked for a full refund or a replacement with an HP or Lexmark printer. I do not see why after all of this crap I can’t get my money back a formal apology and some kind of compensation. What do you guys think?

So when the tv ad says that they will save my money from draining away, they should try harder to stop their customers from draining away.

I have no confidence in Kodak and do not want to use their products. I do not have any interest or wish to contribute to Kodak’s balance sheet.

I will leave it to you to decide if you wish to.

2011
06/06
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Business
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You Are Never Too Busy – Get Over Yourself

[tweetmeme source=”GaryFranklin”]
There have been a few blog posts over the last year where people have brought up the subject of being busy.

A couple of posts stood out for me or at least comments in those posts did. One was by The HRD on his blog www.myhellisotherpeople.com before he retired (unfortunately he was so prolific I can’t find it) and more recently by Mervyn Dinnen on his blog post The Busy Brigade

It got me thinking of the use of the word and how irritating it is or some people are who use it or abuse it.

Isn’t the use of the word “BUSY” overused and all too often misused?

It seems to me to be so commonly used now that people rarely give a thought to it. Don’t we often ask friends and colleagues how they are only to have “busy” given as a stock response? Usually with an exasperated tone or sigh, as if they want me to feel sorry for them. Yet we didn’t ask them what their workload was like, did we? As if we’re interested!

It seems to have taken on subliminal meanings all of its own now, with people using it to convey that they are over worked, working harder than me or that they are so busy they must be or sadly want to appear important. When I hear it, I hear a moan and an insult now. Many people I speak with seem to think that being busy is a bad thing.

Being busy is a good thing, a very good thing, besides I am paid to be busy. If you run your own business it is what will make it a success.

I’m expected to be busy. It is the minimum expectation and accepted level of being, if employed and have a job to do. I am not paid to sit on my arse and do nothing am I? And I wouldn’t want to be either. I have in the past worked with people who made an art of looking busy by moving stacks of paper from one side of the desk to another.

Let’s face it “busy” is a relative term and a state of mind. It is relative to an ability to manage time and priorities, which if done properly gives a level of satisfaction about the work being done, work completed and the work still to be done.

I’ve always got work/tasks to do and stuff to get done, does that make me busy? Well of course it does, but that’s normal and expected and so natural that it is not worth commenting on. It’s like asking me how I am and I reply “standing” or “sitting”. So time to get over yourselves.

So next time someone asks you how you are remember they are not asking about your workload, they are asking about your wellbeing, so your answer should be “fine thanks” or “good thanks” if you prefer, just not “busy” because I promise you –

You are never too busy

and

You are never as busy as the person you are about to speak with.

 

Having come from a sales background these are two phrases I have used to keep perspective and respect the people I am dealing with. Please try it. It does change the attitude to “busy”.

2011
06/04
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
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