Posts Tagged ‘ Brand ’

Recruitment Fraud – Action Needed?

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A week or so ago there was a topic that was posted on The FIRM’s discussion forum that was quite alarming. One of the members, an in-house UK based recruitment manager at a large company had flagged the issue of Recruitment Fraud.

I suspect that label could cover a multitude of sins, some very minor that we might experience every day and some major. This one falls into the latter category. It would appear that criminal gangs have been targeting the jobs market to collect personal information about people. In many of these cases it appears that the perpetrators of such fraud are creating spoof corporate websites and enticing people to apply for jobs through them. Of course the ‘candidates’ think they are applying for legitimate jobs at well known global companies In doing so, the targeted members of the public are asked to provide a range of personal information that would be relevant to a job application, but being given to a criminal company puts them at serious risk.

These fraudsters have also claimed to be able to arrange visas including travel and accommodation, couriers, legal advice or other services. The perpetrators can get quite clever providing alternate contact info for another spoof department or transferring calls. All with the objective of convincing the ‘applicant’ of their legitimacy and to con them into supplying personal information and money in the belief that a legitimate visa will be issued.

In addition the fraudsters have been known to send what appears to be real job offers to these ‘applicants’. In a recent situation one company actually had people turn up to start work. As you can imagine this caused a lot of frustration and disappointment to all involved.

It seems that it is all very convincing with many overseas workers looking to migrate being targeted at potentially great expense to them.

Many companies including RBS, British Airways and Shell ( only did a very brief search) are now putting notices on their corporate careers sites to inform people of how they advertise and the processes they follow during a formal recruitment lifecycle. There is of course no indication that they have been targeted or if they are just acting ahead of the game.

This is a serious issue and thought it wise to raise awareness of the issue to a wider audience and to suggest that everyone starts to think of a page or statement that we can put on their corporate careers web site. Not only are the individuals victims of this but so would your company be if this happened to you or them. It would damage your reputation and the level of trust people have in your corporate, customer/consumer and employer brands.

Many of you will be aware of this, but if not I hope it helps

2011
03/10
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Business
Employer Branding - Bad
Employer Branding - Good
Recruitment
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How much visibility do you want / need when Job Hunting? – Day 32 #myjobhunt

[tweetmeme source=”GaryFranklin”]

Since Day 1 I have been blogging frequently about my quest for a new job. When I started I did it purely to reflect on the day past. Within 2 days this had changed. The response I got from people gave me confidence and made me realize that this blog could be a fundamental tool in my job hunting activities. By the end of the first week I couldn’t believe the response and support I had received from so many people, some of whom I had already met, many I had not. It was however Week 2 that things really took off and by the end of Week 3 I had secured my first offer (Day 16). I think I have already written about how I got to Week 3 previously and will no doubt do so again in more detail, once #myjobhunt comes to a conclusion, if in fact it does before I lose interest in writing about it.

Since Week 3 and that offer I have come to realize something and it has been on my mind since. I have made my job hunting activities so open and visible to people, what will happen and what will people think of me if I don’t secure a job? Of course it is inevitable that people will start to wonder why people don’t want me. What will happen if I get a job and then it doesn’t work out? What if I can’t cope? What if …..? What if…..? So many what ifs? I have asked myself if writing this blog was the sensible thing to do in the first place and how can I stop without any negative impact.

Then I looked at the positives of the blog. The blog almost became my CV, the opportunities it created for me, not only actual jobs, but further discussions to take my career in a different direction have been constant throughout the last six and a bit weeks. Some are not for me, others have been too much for me i.e. I didn’t think I was ready or not likely to meet the expectations of role. Some have been great but the salary or rate and location hasn’t worked well. Others still haven’t mature yet and may or may not at all.

The blog has given me so many new perspectives on things; it has taught me some huge lessons about the market and the ability (or lack of) of the many practitioners in it; good and bad. It has made me think and be more reflective about what I want and what I can do. The good thing is that all of the lessons learned will be taken into my next job and built upon and shared with my colleagues, hopefully adding value at each step. This whole journey has taught me so much and no matter what, I expect I will still continue to blog in such a manner going forward.

This quest, this journey so far has been very emotional; worrying, stressful, annoying, humbling, inspiring, enjoyable, amusing. I have to this point, every step of the way enjoyed it immensely and I have made some terrific new friends.

Music of Day 32 – Daydream Believer by The Monkees – very loud and singing on the train!!! Oh yes I did! And others joined in!

How much visibility do you want / need when Job Hunting?

On Day 30 I got the call I was waiting for (and dreading!).

Today I accepted a job. I start 1st October 2010.

THANK YOU EVERYONE

2010
09/15
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CATEGORY
Job Hunting
Networking
Recruitment
Social Media
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What does the Recruitment Industry Compete on?

[tweetmeme source=”GaryFranklin”]

In a departure from #myjobhunt blog series

Recently I was asked “What do you think are the key factors that the recruitment industry competes on?”

My Answer:

You have to think about what you are competing for. Are agencies and search firms competing for the potential candidates or are they competing for the actual deal with the customer? They should have both in mind always.

Of course if competing for the candidates you have to be able to present yourself as credible and effective. An agency has to present itself as knowing the market as well as the ins and outs of the customer they are representing to the candidate, without the hard sell. They have to know all there is to know to ensure that the candidate has sufficient information to determine if the job and company is suitable. Also armed with the customer knowledge the agency recruiter will be able to determine accurately if a candidate can be turned into a credible applicant in front of the customer.

Competing at the customer level we look for agencies or suppliers that will be able to represent our brand, our company and the position we are recruiting for as if they work for us; much like a sales channel does for products. If a search firm or agency can show they have the ability to understand our business, our processes and our culture then they will be equipped to sell our proposition to each candidate and be of greater service and thus value to all parties.

To compete we all have to be in the position to represent ourselves to each other and meet the expectations of all involved. If as a customer I respect the agency or search firm – and more importantly the person I am dealing with – I will invest the time to educate them and equip them to better represent me. In doing so the agency or search firm will be armed to earn the trust of the candidate. The candidate will have confidence that they will be represented to the customer and the customer will have the confidence that their brand is in safe hands. The customer will appreciate that candidates from that particular source will be thoroughly vetted and closest to the mark.

So answer to the question; the industry competes on knowledge and credibility……………oh yeah, for the poorly managed in-house PSL structures its all about price and not quality of service and the poorly equipped agencies all compete on speed of service rather than quality.

I welcome thoughts and comments on this one please

2010
09/10
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Employer Branding - Bad
End-to-End Recruitment Lifecycle Management
Recruitment
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Job Hunting is About Making Right Choices for the Right Reasons – Day 27 #myjobhunt

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This is Wednesday and Day 27. I’ve been unemployed for 2 whole weeks now. Gone in a flash! Feels like the first push has come to a head now. For the last week this was always going to be a big day for #myjobhunt with two final, or at least that was how they had been billed, interviews.

So before I get into the events and thoughts of today, let’s have a quick look at yesterday. As you have read in this and other blogs a few friends had a camping expedition in Devon over the weekend. It was one of the most relaxing and fun filled weekends I have had in a long time, maybe because there was very little pressure and the only expectations that had to be realized, were we would laugh, have a lot to drink, get very wet surfing and not have nearly enough sleep. The big point of this for me was the laughter and the relaxation with friends that have cared and have supported me throughout #myjobhunt. Talk of work was avoided and only touched upon in general or lighthearted banter. With sixteen very noisy, confident and extrovert people in a reasonably close environment you would have thought that I wouldn’t have had time for serious reflection, yet this is exactly what I was able to do, albeit briefly.

On Monday of this week I had a long conversation with Mrs F about the progress of #myjobhunt. No concerns apart from making the right choice. It doesn’t necessarily come down to choice and in this particular case – I’ll get there in a moment – it wasn’t about choice.

Since Day 1 I have been pursuing a job with an American technology company and have had a number of interviews, all of which have been blogged about here. I had a supposed final interview last week which resulted in another final interview to be had this week, today in fact. At this point I didn’t have a choice. As I mentioned very early on in Day 1 or Day 2 a candidate needs to get an offer to make a choice. Well that is not entirely true. I had the choice to withdraw my application altogether, didn’t I?

And that is what I did; I withdrew my application after 6 interviews. Didn’t see that one coming did you?

Why? You may ask. There were number of reasons if I was being really picky and critical, however the key deciding factor was that I did not have a good feeling about it. I didn’t have a bad feeling either. This means I had no emotion attached to it and to pursue a job that, if I got it, would have meant a 130-mile round trip, which I was poorly motivated by would have been wrong; not only for me, but to them too. Also after 6 individual interviews for the same role I was pursing it, they were not pursing me. I don’t want that to sound arrogant but they hadn’t once called me after an interview to ask me for my feedback, nor had they given me any feedback or a compelling reason to want to work for them. It won’t therefore surprise you; it didn’t me, to know that all they said when I called to tell them was “thanks for letting us know”! (WTF???) I think that response justifies and verifies that I had made the right decision to pull out.

I know! I know! They may have had that response because I was not the person they wanted anyway. But please???!! They and we have to give a candidate a better experience than that. It wasn’t a bad one and it won’t change my views on their products, but it wasn’t good enough for my requirements as a candidate, or by my standards as a Recruitment Manager.

Dusted down and moving on.

I was also contacted directly by a couple of members of The FIRM who proposed ideas to me or wanted to explore my interest or availability. Another couple of online contacts had put resourcers at other companies in touch with me and these need to be followed up.

So whilst the pipeline is not as long as it was previously it is still there. But it needs me persecute it and not let the opportunities slip me by. It is important that I follow all of these up to be sure I am not overlooked, nor show anyone any disrespect. If I have done this to you already I apologise.

Onwards and Upwards – Day 27: I travelled into London with my usual tunes on my iPod – yup you guessed it Genesis, Suppers Ready – for an interview in the City. I love the City, as I do most of Central London, but the City is special and was looking forward to this one having had a great call with both the recruiter and the hiring manager last week.

(SIDE NOTE -Trouble was the Tube strike hangover today. Now do they think us stupid? “signal failures” crippling the network the day after a strike. Says much about the intelligence somewhere in that mix! The irony is that they are striking over the possibility of maybe 800 jobs being cut and yet their laziness and not going to work today was delaying me for an interview. Lazy work-shy b#@*&$+s)

Where was I? – oh yeah stuck at Baker Street. I got to the City in the end in plenty of time – my usual 30 minutes safety window intact. The interview seemed to go well, but I think they are always difficult to read. That is all I will say. I am very keen on this one and don’t want to tempt fate. True to their nature the recruiter called within 2 hours to ask me for my feedback; however that call turned into another interview of sorts. This recruiter is awesome and asked me questions about the questions I was asked in the interview proper. What a way to make sure I had been focused, paying attention to the key points and taking it all in. So now I have the wait to hear. This is the worst bit. I am tight with anticipation on this one.

Music of Day 26 – Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd
Music of Day 27 – Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones

The one big downer of the last few days is the news that Connaught, the housing facilities maintenance company has gone into administration. There are a few of their recruiters in The FIRM that are likely to be affected or at least left worrying in uncertain times. I mention it because it means that potentially a large number of people – 4500 reported – could be in the same boat as me soon. It is not nice and I wish them all success in finding replacement opportunities soon, should they need to. One of their number, a recruiter and a member of The FIRM contacted my directly on Twitter yesterday, thanking me for this blog! He has taken something from it and reported to me today that he has already arranged two interviews on his Day 1– so I have competition in #myjobhunt eh? Seriously this is great news and of course I am glad I help in a small way – who would be?

What was also interesting is that he has been able to do this using his network of contacts and not relaying on the traditional and “so last year” approach of calling the agencies.

So if anyone reading this is looking for a technical recruiter in the Thames Valley, Surrey, Hants or London please give Jon Harrison aka @jonnieboyh a Tweet. Let’s see if we can take this social media networking thing to the next level shall we?

I want a job and that is till my #1 priority but if I can help others find jobs and if I can help companies find candidates by Paying it Forward, then I will.

And NO NO NO I am not starting my own agency again!

It’s called Social Recruiting

Just in case you are wondering what my background is my LinkedIn profile is a click away

or at

in the About Me page above. My contact details can be found in the Contact Me page and am open to any type of conversation that will help me or help you.

Thanks for reading

2010
09/08
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Putting My Back Into Job Hunting, Not a Good Idea – Day 25 #myjobhunt

[tweetmeme source=”GaryFranklin”]

My name is Gary Franklin and I am looking for a new job.

My last blog post was almost a week ago. That was Day 21 of #myjobhunt, this is Day 25. Having said that, the activity that took place on the last 3 days of last week probably amounts to enough to make it Day 21 and three quarters. But each day is separate.

So what happened on Days 22-24? Like I said last week, I was going to take it easier for a week. I needed a real break to be honest and whilst some might say that I have it easy being out of work and not getting up etc etc. blah blah…….you will know that if you have been in this position it can be very tiring, both mentally and physically. Yet a real break is not an option – I cannot afford to get used to not working, which is all so easy to do whilst the weather is warm. I can also tell you the way I have gone about it has been a lot more stressful than I had taken it to be. To the point that last week I could hardly move because of pain in my back and shoulders – all caused by a bad seating position, at the dining room table and not the desk in the attic, (and yes I’m at the table now) and of course the intensity and self-induced tension of the #myjobhunt process.

As mentioned in Day 21, the Wednesday of last week, which would have been Day 22 was dominated by a final interview (the 6th) with the Head of Global TA for a company I had been speaking with since Day 1. The interview lasted for 90 minutes and I seemed to get on well with them. At the end of the interview he suggested that he wanted me to have a conversation with their Head of EMEA – the business leader not the TA leader. It was the EMEA Head of TA that I was interviewing for. (Interview #7!!) He also suggested that he would like me to speak with the same chap that hadn’t bothered to make 4 previous attempts at an interview (#8 !!!). I expressed by reservations about that idea and suggested it wasn’t appropriate. He agreed.

I still have the final final interview on Wednesday of this week.

Last week I also commented on a terrific telephone interview I had with an in-house recruiter (she was terrific!) This resulted in me having a second telephone interview with the same company, this time with the Head of HR, EMEA. Now this interview was arranged on the Wednesday whilst I was driving back from the above interview and I hastily agreed to do it 08.30am on Friday 3rd Sept. Nothing wrong with that, except that I went to the Robert Plant concert in London on the Thursday night. Not only did I not get to bed until 2.30am Friday morning, but my ears were ringing and my voice didn’t work when I woke 3.5 hours later! I was a bit relieved to say the least that the interview times got mixed up and had to be rescheduled until later in the morning. All faculties working, I had a great chat with the Director, some of whose questions were very clever; one about LinkedIn connection ownership focused my wind like a razor. Thankfully I have read many comments on this issue and thus not only have my opinions, but also have those of others and options to present. I was invited to meet with her for Wednesday of this week at their offices in Central London. I was also asked to prepare a First 100-Day Plan for the interview. Best interview approach so far.

During each of the days I was sent Tweets, emails and LI InMails from so many generous people informing me of different vacant positions. I also found a couple of interest in some of the online groups and forums I frequent. I had a conversation about one that sounded pretty interesting – a 6 month interim position. However when the issue of rate was mentioned it was far below what the current climate/market is paying. We then had a very good conversation about this and what other roles are paying per day, I was able to provide details for them to do some checking if they required. Whether it makes any difference to them, budgets being budgets I don’t know. I’ve not heard back. I didn’t take the rate personally at all. It is what it is. I’ve spoken with so many candidates that take it as a personal insult when the rate or salary is not to their liking. Why do they do this? Do they think they are unique? Do they think they are a legend or the gift the company is waiting for? There is no need for it and it will most certainly not win you any favour with any agency or employer, regardless how unrealistic the salary or rate they can afford is.

On 3.5 hours sleep I packed the car and set off to spend the weekend in a field on the north Devon coast with a great bunch of people for the inaugural #SocRecCamp. Each of these people are prominent online in the recruiting business from one angle or another and have been supportive of me and #myjobhunt to the extreme. This is all I will say on this post but I will have a recollection of the 2010 #SocRecCamp in a later posting.

Music of the last few days –
Rock n Roll – Robert Plant & The Band of Joy (live Bluegrass version) – genius.
That’s Not My Name – The Ting Tings for campfire (gas lanterns) smiles

What have I learned these last few days? It is important that when companies go to market with a position they have scoped it out correctly. If a role is worth upwards of £350 per day, you will not do yourself and your reputation in the market any favours by only paying £250 per day. Yes, you are likely to get someone to fill the job; however one would question the levels of ability to reach the competency heights you need. Better to pay to get the job done properly and get the right experience from the market, than give the market a negative impression about your inability to pay or how much respect and value you give to certain functions. Remember Employer Brand is very hard to repair at the individual level. This is obviously not a job hunting lesson but it is certainly something I can remember from a job hunters perspective next time I am involved in a discussion with Comp &Ben or a hiring manager.

Another lesson learned is that I cannot maintain the high levels of energy needed if I don’t help myself. Exercise and good posture whilst sitting are both essential. I do not recommend having lengthy conversations on the phone or going to interviews when uncomfortable or in pain. I was for the last two weeks, as a result I was very distracted, had lower energy and stamina levels and my enthusiasm and therefore my chances of success were reduced. All Fixed now though.

Just in case you are wondering what my background is more can be found via my LinkedIn profile

Please Tweet or pass onto others who may know others who can help me.

thanks for reading

2010
09/06
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Job Hunting, must be Deliberately Deliberating – Day 20 #myjobhunt

This is the end of Day 20 and Week 4 of #myjobhunt – I am now unemployed!

[tweetmeme source=”GaryFranklin”]

The good news is that I can start the job of my choice immediately. The bad news is I don’t have a choice right now and can start work immediately.

In the last 24 hours I have probably had more new job vacancies come my way than in any other 24 hour period since I started #myjobhunt; all of them contract, with the exception of one permanent job. Unfortunately none of them fit with what I am looking for at this time, or I have been warned away. Of course this may change as time goes on, but for now I am not panicking and am being deliberate about what I am looking for.

To recap:-

I am looking for a Talent Attraction or Acquisition management position that will allow me to create, implement and then deliver against strategies. Or as a Recruitment Process Project Manager.

Areas of specialization: – don’t ever expect me to use the word EXPERT or GURU. In my experience those that call themselves gurus and experts just aren’t.

– Reducing agency spend through direct sourcing channels – managing the change
– Strategic planning and delivery of time challenged projects
– Creating and building online candidate communities
– Social Media & Online Recruiting tools
– ATS/CRM/CSM evaluation, selection and deployment

Now that I have the promotion bit done. What was Day 20 all about then?

I cannot believe how quiet it has been this week. But then it is the last full week of August, it is a long holiday weekend in most of the UK and schools go back next week. So it is the busiest holiday week of the summer.

Deliberately taking it easy today. I spent a couple of hours in LinkedIn, replying to inmails and approving or declining applications to join The FIRM. I was meeting someone at 1pm for a coffee so decided to get organized and go and sit in my “office” for an hour.

I parked up and there were two voice mails for me. One was a third or fourth round of telephone tennis and the other was about a job I had been pursing. I’d already had a couple of qualifying calls with their TA team and was pretty interested to find out more. Alas it was not to be – the company had decided they needed to focus on Germany and therefore moved the position out of the UK. Shame, but understandable. Germany is most certainly one of those countries you have to be in to recruit for. The recruiter at this company is a member of The FIRM and he was very helpful pointing in the direction of a couple of opportunities he’d heard about and chatting about the blog. Great guy, and hope you have a fantastic time on holiday in Switzerland.

I then decided to call some of the people I owed calls to. In particular, Matt Alder of Metashift. I met with Matt on Day 5, I think it as. We’d discussed an idea that had really excited us then and because of Twitter DM’s we both knew we should follow up. However as soon as we started speaking it was clear that neither of us could remember what it was. We got there in the end and agreed some action points. It is all around candidate communities – something that sits perfectly with what I do and what I enjoy. There will be more on this, either as part of the #myjobhunt series or outside of it, as we progress.

So off to meet with Katie McNab @Recruitgal at PepsiCo for coffee. I’ve known Katie for nearly two years through The FIRM and having met her previously this will be the first time that we could just chat 1-1. I was surprised at how keen she was about my job hunting journey and how much of an avid reader of the #myjobhunt series she was. It was also interesting to hear her thoughts on some of the instances detailed in the blog, none of them far removed from my own, but then I’ve read many of her postings on The FIRM’s discussion board and shared a panel with her so had a good idea that we shared the same views on much. They have a Starbucks in their offices in Reading. I thought I’d been spoiled with a Costa at my last place. One interesting fact is that they work summer hours which allows them to go home at 1230 or thereabouts on Friday through the summer months. Now that is a company that looks after its people.

On my way home I called in at my “office” parking place and left messages for a couple of people I should have called back earlier in the week. It’s a holiday weekend Friday – no one around.

I have to be honest I was a bit nervous of the Day 19 posting. Though fully justified in everything I said I am still looking for a job and I cannot afford to antagonize my potential future employers. Yet the emails, tweets, DM’s and conversations I had with other recruiters, both in-house and agency all agreed with my comments and concerns boosting my confidence no end. What was very interesting as well is that some of the people it was pointed at had sent me LinkedIn inmail messages and emails overnight. Very interesting that is too.

In one of the conversations I had today I was reminded of something that I had overlooked. I am so involved with The FIRM that I sometimes forget it is not the only HR or recruiting community that I spend time in. Why hadn’t I posted my availability to those? I have now – some of them at least. Will do the rest over the weekend or next week.

Music of Day 20 was The Hebrides Overture, Fingal’s Cave and the Scottish Symphony by Felix Mendelssohn ……….this was the first piece of classical music I ever bought when I was about 17.

There is much to reflect on from this one week. The power of social media and social networks as a recruiting and job hunting tool. The power of openness and honesty and the willingness of people to help. I learned that the people I interact with daily are very much on the same wavelength and share the same opinions – it is as if we’ve been drawn together byh some strange force. Could it be integrity? I have also come to recognise that despite a self-perceived air of superiority by the in-house recruiting community, including myself until recently, over agency staff, there are some in-house recruiters that just don’t do themselves, their colleague or worse their candidates and employers any favours. And there are some people who work for agencies who are a credit and pleasure to deal with and know.

That’s it. Thanks for reading. Have a good weekend. Day 21 will be Tuesday.

2010
08/27
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London’s Calling – but using Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook

[tweetmeme source=”GaryFranklin”]

So this was the first day that I wasn’t going to turn on a PC all day and thus would have to rely for the most part on email and the phone, although with my iPhone I wasn’t going to be too far out of the loop. At the moment that is a good thing I can tell you.

So, where to start?

Over the last couple of days I have met a number of people as you will have read, one of whom reminded me how visible you can make yourself. With pictures on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogs, each different, it is hardly surprising when meeting people for the first time, people who up to that very moment were just a blur in the crowd, wave and smile and stand up to greet you. I know it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise but, whilst I am ok with it, I’m still not used to it. And its not as if I don’t do the same to them, is it? It always makes me smile and for the most part it’s a conversation ice breaker.

So Day 5. Hello.

The entire day was spent either travelling to and from or in London itself. With four pre-planned meetings, luckily all within a few hundred metres of each other I didn’t need to use the Tube much.

So the usual thing; music in the car, music on the train and Tube were needed. The choice for car and Tube are variables, but for the train there is only one choice! See previous blog.
The first few hours of the day was spent with some of those involved in the organisation and sponsorship of The FIRM’s Direct Sourcing event in October. Meeting with Steve Lewis at Totaljobs.com /The Network, our main sponsors and then across the street to meet with the managers of the venue we are using. All very impressive stuff and very pleased to be working with all of them.

The next meeting was one that I had hoped could turn into an opportunity for work of some kind. It did. But it turned into one of those situations that I did not feel comfortable about. I don’t want to take anything at all away from the person I met or his business, but I have to look at me, what I want and how I am perceived. There is a lot of talk in some circles about personal brand. I have come to realize over the last 6 months that everyone has a personal brand! Everyone creates it themselves; some promote it, others don’t. But the important thing is that to those that care about such things, there is a need to protect it. I am keen to protect mine. Certain things about me are import to me; fun, friends, hard work, openness (hence this blog), but top of the list is integrity. This means honesty to myself as well as to others.

Despite my upbeat approach, I did have that “oh shit!” moment last weekend thinking, “must get a job fast, any job and must get it fast”. But as the week has progressed, actually not that long into it, I started looking at each job/option and then asked myself,

“Am I interested in it?”
“Do I honestly have the skills to do it?”
“Will I do a good job such that the company will recognise I have too?”

And the most important question I suppose

“I am I being honest with myself?”

Of course I can’t decide on anything until I have explored it fully but some things don’t sit right. I don’t think I am being too selective; I am being honest in my aspirations and about my abilities. Importantly I am not wasting time and energy pursuin jobs I know I shouldn’t have applied for. It also wastes other people’s time and as I’ve mentioned before, it is the people you meet that you can build relationships with and wasting people’s time won’t help, will it?

My last meeting of the day was with Matt Alder, in a pub of course! I’ve known Matt for just over a year and always enjoy his company and his insights. Matt has been involved in the recruiting business for quite some time, specifically in the marketing and branding side and always has great thoughts and ideas. We spent an hour and a half over a pint comparing notes and sharing ideas, during which time we both came up with ideas that if they can be worked through could add value for the other.

Throughout the day I’ve spoken to a number of people by phone. Each conversation, whilst, work related and job hunt related, where very enjoyable and had a few laughs in them. Very important.

So homebound at last. Last task of the day was to pop into PC World in Reading and pick up my new laptop. I get to the shop and it’s not ready. Having spent nearly 90 minutes with them over 24 hours earlier, suffering their confusion, poor systems and a sales assistant that responded to everything said to or asked of him with “fair enough”, I was more that a little irritated to find that they couldn’t be bothered to get it ready in time. They keep me waiting 20 minutes with an “I-don’t-really-give-a-shit-but-sorry” apology. DSGi and PC World you really do need to get your customer services act together. If any of the recruiters who work there read this please pass on my comments. Needless to say I am unlikely to shop there again for anything heavier than a pencil. Oh they don’t sell those? Lucky then aren’t I?

Do I have a new laptop? Yes, an Acer 4820T 🙂 will take it for attest drive over the weekend.

Music of the Day – Street Fighting Man, The Rolling Stones

Oh yes, I nearly forgot. I confirmed two interviews for next week; one was as a result of an in house recruiter in the USA who had read this blog then found my LinkedIn Profile then contacting me – see it works! I have a meeting confirmed with a Search firm that was referred to my by someone I met at #ConnectingHR, which I got to know through Twitter. I have also had my application confirmed for a contract position by an agency chap I met earlier this year through Twitter.

If you doubt the power of Social Media in the networking and recruiting process, I hope you are learning from this. Oh and by the way if you want to employ me to show you how you can adapt it as a recruiting tool, do let me know 🙂

2010
08/07
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
End-to-End Recruitment Lifecycle Management
Job Hunting
Networking
Recruitment
Social Media
The FIRM
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With the help of Social Media I met some fab people!

[tweetmeme source=”GaryFranklin”]

Warning – This is going to be a long one!

This has been a rather busy week and one that I wish I could re-experience over and over again – it was that much fun. The highlight “day of the week” was definitely Thursday 10th June 2010 which started at 05:00 and didn’t conclude really until I got home again at 23:00. But boy what a buzz the day was; from start to finish I didn’t stop speaking with or listening to people for all but approx 45 minutes and what great people they are too.

So let’s start at the beginning. I had a journey of approx 30-45 mins by car to the train station and then a 1 hour train and Tube journey to get to the first location in London SE1. This is important because getting the choice of music right is essential for setting up the day right. So for those who know me you won’t be surprised to learn that in the car was Boston’s self titled album, with “More Than a Feeling” at a distorting volume, as the livener! So onto the train and I always pick the same few tracks on the iPod for this journey because 4 tracks can get me to where I need to be and in a very relaxed frame of mind. So it has to be 24.33 minutes of Supper’s Ready by Genesis – but the live version from Seconds Out, followed in sequence on the album by Cinema Show and then Dance on a Volcano and Los Endos. And then I arrive at where I need to be! The Start rather then The End actually! Smiling and relaxed but also pumped ready for action.

So why did I get to London SE1for 07:30. I was attending one of the regular Breakfast with The FIRM meetings. Rather than detail The FIRM and its background in this posting I will respectfully point you to Hello world! History of The FIRM – a previous posting. Whilst this older posting paints a picture it does need updating briefly.

True to the founding principles, The Forum for Inhouse Recruitment Managers is exclusive to in-house corporate recruiters or those working in such a capacity on site but for an RPO provider. We are strict – no one else gets in!

Today we have approx 2400 members in 44 countries representing over 1000 companies in approx 100 different market sectors. I won’t labour the background since much can be found elsewhere, either in the About Me page of this Blog or at The FIRM’s Group page on LinkedIn.

Back to the events of Thursday then. In the past we have had sponsors such as LinkedIn, Google, Barkers, 33, SHL, whereas this Breakfast with The FIRM event held at 15 Hatfields, and exclusive to Members of The FIRM was run entirely sponsor-less and allowed us to hear at length from fellow members; sharing experience and concepts. So we had over 50 in-house recruiters plus guests from The Buzz, Recruiter Magazine and UKRecruiter spend 4 hours in each others company. We even ensured that we had free wireless for all and created a hashtag #thefirmbreakfast should people want to use Twitter during the sessions. And of course Keith Robinson duly obliged to keep a worldwide audience updated. The thread is still available on Twitter.com – just search on #thefirmbreakfast for all associated tweets.

The first session of the day was a talk from Paul Maxin, Global Resourcing Director at Unilever on how Unilever has managed its growth through effective use of a global RPO agreement with Accenture.

A very informative and eye-opening presentation – the numbers were huge and impressive. Some, such as the fact that they have made and had accepted 11,309 job offers in one year to March 2010 and achieved customer and candidate satisfaction rating at 80% – globally are staggering, hiring more people in one year than many members have in their global workforce. With RPO Unilever retain control over their Employer Brand, Talent Attraction and Acquisition Strategy and Talent Planning but outsource the operational side of sourcing and managing the talent pool including provision of ATS and CRM tools to Accenture

It was interesting on the day that some people questioned whether the Employer Brand can be effectively promoted and protected when using an RPO provider. I too am not a great fan of RPO, but you have to admit that Unilever gives detractors an idea of how the right choice of RPO partner and the right level and quality of process management will and can deliver effectively and play a crucial part in enhancing the corporate brand. Let’s face it, Unilever are in a more sensitive position than most with the vast majority of their customers being consumers and we all know how fickle we are!

Another very interesting stat that came out of the presentation was that Brazilians wash their hair more often than other nationalities!!! Random I know!

The presentation although only 45 minutes long was packed full of information for the audience, to absorb and consider. It was very clear that whilst the scale of Unilever’s recruiting is challenging, the basics are the same for most other companies; efficiencies, quality, delivery and customer satisfaction amongst others. Thanks Paul.

After a break our second presenter of the day Matt Jeffery Global Director of Talent Brand at Electronic Arts was introduced. He started of by comparing The FIRM to a nefarious organisation and comparing yours truly to Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone character in the Godfather. I found Matt’s comments flattering and honorable; I honestly have no knowledge of his whereabouts today officer!

Matt presented with passion about how EA go about their Attraction and Acquisition processes, a major priority is the emphasis of the EA Employer Brand (EB). He suggested that an EB is not owned by HR, but must be owned by all parts of the business and the workforce must be ambassadors for it. The EB is what others say about you! He explained how EA reinvented their Job Descriptions, ensuring the formats were standardised; clean, easy to read and actually gave the candidates the right information. Matt reminded everyone it is how the candidates read a job description that is important. A Job Description has to be simple and sell whilst conveying the right message at the same time; above all be exciting!

EA use their recruiters to backup the EB and are considered “Marketeers” for the brand, the company and the opportunity. I know this subject has been written about previously in various other blogs. (I have yet to hear a compelling reason why the corporate recruitment function needs to belong to HR. It could be a very interesting debate to have).

Matt went on to give examples of how EA have taken advantage of various Social Media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, YouTube etc.) to promote the EB and EA brand, build communities and engage with the potential talent pool, stating that EA ensure it is all about a bilateral relationship rather than just pushing information, by way of one-dimensional job postings to an unknown audience. Each of these channels have seen incredible subscription and follower levels.

An excellent and engaging presentation full of thought-provoking ideas. Thanks Matt.

The final hour of the Breakfast was taken up with a table session where attendees were asked to discuss with each other what major issues they faced or they needed to address going forward. The idea behind this was two-fold; it gave the attendees a chance to openly share ideas with each other as well as give us feedback on what they would like to discuss or hear about at future events.

Members during Table Exercise
Hot Topics that came out of this:

Candidate care;
Recruiter workload;
Pipelining;
Diversity;
Social media;
Employer Branding;
Referrals;
Reducing agency spend

Some interesting Breakfasts and Webinars ahead, but it goes to show that with 45 or so companies represented on Thursday we all have similar issues to one extent or another. I would suspect that if we extrapolate across the global membership we’d be see very similar issues elsewhere.

We also wrapped up the whole session by showing the attendees some screen shots of what the new and impending community web site for The FIRM will look like. Watch this space (and others) over the next couple of months for more info. So thanks to everyone for coming and for your continued support of each other – this goes for every member of The FIRM whether you could attend or not and particular thanks and praise to Matt and Paul for their words of encouragement and for taking the time to deliver two outstanding presentations

The next Breakfast by popular demand will be a full day with members and industry thought leaders discussing tactics and ideas along with “how do’s” and “how to’s” around the creation and management of Direct Sourcing Models. Subject to getting sponsors on board and finalised we will be formerly announcing this in the next few weeks – thanks to Vanessa Townsend of Recruiter Magazine for the write up!

So on to lunch!

The rest of the day was spent in company of more friends made via a various social media platforms and what a good advert it was too for the power of connections via people you already know, especially Marianne

Louise Triance, a big supporter of The FIRM and very near neighbour of mine in rural England writes a great newsletter and blog, UKRecruiter, had arranged a social networking gathering for the early evening kicking off at 6.30pm in Holborn, London. With the help of some very generous sponsors this get together, which also had a #recnet Twitter hashtag associated with it was both very enjoyable and very successful. After some introductory comments from Lou, Stephen O’Donnell talked for 5 minutes about the NORA’s and announced that they are now able to accept nominations for this years awards and was followed by Fiona Lander of Lander Associates who talked for a few minutes about motivation.

Whilst I thought I was going to one of the few corporate recruiters amongst a majority of agencies I was very pleasantly surprised by their absence or their good sense at avoiding me!

There were at least 60 people in the small room so as you can imagine the noise level was quite high and as with most of these events people initially gravitate towards people they know. To overcome this Louise came up with the fantastic idea of Speed Networking. Facilitated on the night by Oliver Barrett, we were all asked to find someone we had not met before and then talk to each other for 3 minutes, after which time Oli blew a whistle and we moved on. Great idea and a real ice breaker. Needless to say the usual suspects where there; Matt Alder, Mervyn Dinnen, Gareth Jones, Emma Mirrington, Andy Headworth, Alan Whitford, Simon Lewis, Keith Robinson, Jeremy Snell and was I pleased to meet up with people I didn’t expect to be there, namely Carline Winder of 33, always a pleasure seeing her. On top of that there were two people with whom I had being tweeting for some time, @TheSourceress,(Katherine Robinson), and Wendy Jacob a real pleasure to finally meet two really terrific people. I even got to meet the real @RecruitingDad but my lips are sealed! Then there were all the newbies; @HeatherTravisUK, @sambluesky (Sam Woodwood) and Wendy Cowell of JobServe, thank you all for your conversations and your polite attentiveness – I know I can prattle on!!

A great evening, well organised and well supported, congratulations Louise and thank you!

One of the advance plans for the day was for four of us plus two initiates to slip off for a curry at the wonderful Masala Zone in Covent Garden, however 9pm came and went and tiredness was the decider, so excuses were made and departed to catch the train. As it was I was with Louise and we got to Paddington in time for the slightly delayed train to Reading and the final leg of our journey by car. Despite the fact we were shaking with tiredness we didn’t stop talking all the way home – fantastic day! Finally I got home just before 11pm very tired but buzzing from an awesome day.

Good to meet those I did for the first time, good to see you again for people already well met, I look forward to seeing you all again. Thanks for reading.

2010
06/13
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Employer Branding - Good
End-to-End Recruitment Lifecycle Management
Networking
Recruitment
Social Media
The FIRM
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End-to-End Recruitment Lifecycle Management – Brand Protection

[tweetmeme source=”GaryFranklin”]
In the last posting End-to-End Recruitment Lifecycle Management – Brand Promotion I acknowledged that it was the responsibility of the corporate marketing and PR depts. to promote the corporate brand and also suggested that as Recruiters we have an equal responsibility for doing so. To take it a step further we can promote the brand with as much gusto and enthusiasm but if we forget some of the basics and lose focus we will fail to protect the brand. Some may even goes as far as severely damaging the corporate image and in some cases damning themselves and their company to infamy or worse. Good examples of this could include Gerald Ratner, who in 1991 openly said that the products his jewellery store chain sold were crap! and thus coined the phrase “doing a Ratner” and more recently, a story more closely related to recruiting first reported in the Daily Mail of Mr Karl Winn, boss of a web design company who I referred to previously Recruiters Brand Protection – shameful.

What have these two gentlemen in common? For starters they were probably both successful in promoting the products and services of their respective companies, and for generating different degrees of success. Secondly they both lost the focus of who they are and how they are responsible for continued protection of the corporate image and brand. They both forgot that what they say and do can and will have ramifications. Whilst Ratner’s mistake was meant in jest it still had a disastrous affect on him personally and on the company he founded and grew. As for Winn – well the less said about him the better, eh?

As professional Recruiters we too have a responsibility for ensuring that the employer image we and our colleagues have striven to create is protected. There are many reasons for this, reasons we don’t all think of all of the time, however we need to be mindful that what we say or do – or what we don’t say or don’t do – how we say things and do things can cost your employer money. One thing to be aware of, you cannot create a brand; your customers, your market does that for you, but you can protect it.

I’d like to use the FMCG or Consumer market to provide one example of what I mean. Picture the company has spent millions of dollars developing, launching, marketing and supporting a product that when used is a global market leader, whether it be a washing power, a computer product, a confectionary item or a soft drink. Then think of all of the people, candidates, you speak with on a daily basis and how anyone of them could be a consumer of your company’s product and what decisions they may make based on their interaction with you and your team members.

It all comes down to candidate experience. Each candidate who applies and is considered needs to be made to feel unique by the in-house recruiters and by any agency staff engaged in the process. This all comes down to the levels, timeliness and quality of communications between all parties, how much information is given, how much assistance is given and how much time is spent with them. One objective I speak about a lot is the fact that we need to ensure that every candidate who comes through our process leaves at the end of their journey with a positive feeling about my company, regardless of the result and their success in securing employment with you. We aim to ensure that they will speak highly of us and reapply for another role at another time because they had a good feeling by us.

A word to the wise here – Don’t forget it is our job to process applications and fill Reqs, but please don’t forget that a job application and the prospect of the job with your company could have a significant impact on the life of a candidate, for all kinds of reasons, especially in today’s economic climate. Put yourself in their shoes.

Take the candidate experience into the reference to the FMCG or Consumer Market above and think how a candidate who has been poorly managed and becomes dissatisfied and frustrated by how the application process has gone. It is human nature to associate one experience with another and to generalise. Thus it is not too much of a leap to think that if a candidate has had a poor experience when applying for a job with you he or she may very well have or create a similar opinion about your products. Not only that they are likely to tell their friends and word will get around. It won’t go far in a market context but give enough candidates poor experiences and a reputation can very easily be created. Not only are you likely to alienate some people and put them off applying for jobs with your company but they may chose not to use your products. Don’t forget people are fickle and perception is everything.

As recruiters we can’t do much about the quality or flavour of a soft drink or the performance of a software product, but we can influence the perception of a large portion of the market with our professionalism and by the attention we give to them during a job application process. Our goal is to give someone such a strong and favourable experience that if we are able to offer them a job they will be hungry to accept. If on the other hand we cannot offer them a job we would like to have done such a good job with as much sensitivity as possible, that they will feel confident that they can apply again in the future or at least refer a friend to us.

Simple tips:

• Be honest – do not over sell but feel free to impress
• When telephoning, discuss what they want to do, what they want to achieve, make it about them
• Confirm everything in writing, preferable by email rather than IM or Twitter DM etc
• Provide thorough detailed job descriptions
• Set accurate expectations and with regard to the process and the timelines
• Be clear with interview arrangements and confirm in writing, with a map and directions
• Don’t hide behind the anonymity of your ATS front-end
• Be available to answer any questions they may have in follow up
• Provide details of interviews structure, who interviewers are and their functions
• Follow up for feedback – but make it about them, their opinions, concerns and questions
• Give them feedback
• Be polite at all times
• SMILE! It does come across over the phone I promise you

• PUT THE CANDIDATE FIRST!

Sorry it is a bit 101 but I know from many candidates, as well as from reading concerns and complaints many have with their application process and experience, that many of us don’t adhere to basic principals all of the time. There is so much more that you can do and possibly should do. There is much that you will think cant be done for one reason or another, but don’t forget that even as professional recruiters we have all been candidates at some point and chances are we will be so again. How you like would to be treated and what would impress you?

2010
03/21
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Employer Branding - Good
End-to-End Recruitment Lifecycle Management
Recruitment
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End-to-End Recruitment Lifecycle Management – Brand promotion

When it comes to the priorities that an In-house Recruiter (IR) must always keep at the forefront of conscious thought the promotion of their corporate brand and then protecting it must be at the top.

I have spoken to many many recruiters over the last 18 months and am surprised I meet some that seem to just go through the motions without consideration of what it all means to the candidate and to the company for whom you work.

Let’s take a look at promoting the brand.

We all know that Marketing and PR depts. are responsible for promoting the corporate messages to the target communities in the market, but how many of those same departments take ownership and responsibility for marketing the corporate message vision and culture to future potential employees? I would argue very few, sadly.

This task seems to fall to the teams of Talent Attraction professionals and unless you work in a large enough forward thinking organisation this will typically fall the IR’s, thankfully. Every time an IR places an advert on a job board or briefs an agency or approaches a candidate they are 100% responsible for promoting the corporate brand and values.

When placing an advert on a job board, branding is vital and so is how you write and present the advert. Studies by most of the leading job boards state that branded adverts tend to yield better results. Yes I know they would say that because they are trying to up-sell, but it makes so much sense. Think about it. Define an image, structure your ads with clear messages and create a consistent brand and it will get recognised time and again; maybe even searched for!

When briefing an agency an IR needs and must invest the time to give a thorough briefing. Anything less than 10 minutes just isn’t sufficient. Once the decision has been made to use an agency or a search firm you are effectively setting up a sales channel and delegating the responsibility of representing your company on your behalf to someone else. You need to be sure that they are equipped to represent you and your company to the best of your ability. Yes your ability. They are acting on your behalf. Give them the time and information they need to sell your company and your job to a potential candidate. I would advocate testing them on their understanding and knowledge too; see how well they are representing you. They will get better results if they have the right tools and the right pitch. It’ll also make you look good to your internal clients and not only that the candidate will think better of the agency and the whole recruitment process as a result. It’ll make the “close” easier.

When speaking to the candidate, make sure you give them so much information about the company, and while you are at it make it sound exciting. It is important from a candidate’s perspective to hear from a IR and hear all about the great things that the company does, has done and where it sits in the world and what it can offer them and what it could mean to them to be part of it. This isn’t about selling them a product; it is about selling them a career – a lifestyle, if you like! You need to give them the attention and priority throughout your discussions with them so that they consider you first when they are ready to move, whenver that may be.

We need to also discuss brand protection. Next time

2010
03/15
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Recruitment
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