Name and Shame
I have been holding back for a while before I wrote this post, as I wanted to give the company in question time to respond!
It seems not, so I will continue. I was partly inspired by a recent post from Gareth Osborne on “It’s time for a change at the top of recruitment”, because when looking back on my career I was happiest when I was just recruiting. OK it’s fantastic being promoted to Manager then Director, but the heartache of training new young things just to loose your clients was so frustrating, Gareth is so right in how it could be done better.
There is unfortunately an obsession in this industry to recruit young guns to train and promote, when in truth the best are not necessarily the young. How can someone in their twenties give good careers advice to any job hunter or client, as a professional you want to deal with professionals.
I couldn’t help laugh at a recent thread on UKRecruiter “don’t call me mate“, can people honestly believe this is acceptable when it comes to doing business, it almost sums up what some companies produce these days.
The second part in wanting to have a dig, is to name a so called professional company who recently advertised for a European Recruitment Consultant on Linkedin. As it was so relevant I couldn’t help get in touch, knowing how ideally suited I was even though I wasn’t serious in a move. I thought it would be at least worth getting Linkedin and seeing their reaction.
Guess what this company did not have the decency to reply as someone worth Linking in with!
Still I persued the contact just in case the email went missing, on the third attempt I managed to get a reply
Hi Stephen,
Your background is not relevant for any positions we have available.
Rgds
David
Now I maybe assuming here that Robson Taylor fits into this bring them in young and burn them out, I will let you guess, but it certainly strikes me as though they are a company full of their own self importance or was it me?
Fortunately I was not looking for a job, but I cannot help think how short sighted David could be or was David Greenwood just being ageist!
So to finish on one thought;
I had the pleasure of working with a very successful recruiter who billed more business than anyone else at this well known Recruitment Company, but what made her achievement so special was she worked part-time to bring up her children.
Recruitment Views Face Lift
Well I suppose I had to do it at some stage, but I have to admit playing around with any website can be a little dangerous and something I try to avoid. Unfortunately at the weekend Recruitment Views started to play up with its images, so as it was a bank holiday I thought I would chance some maintenance.
While I was at it, I thought I would give the site a complete overhaul.
Firstly I had to upgrade Wordpress, which was a small nightmare last time hence the long delay, but this time it was a breeze as I used the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin from Techie Buzz no problems whatsoever!
Secondly I thought I would change the theme, which is some ways I was sad about but it had to be done and
with great regret I had to take away those seductive eyes, which have stared at me for what must have been close to two years.
So out with the old and in with a new template from Brian Gardner, whom I have to say has some of the best designs for wordpress you can find and this one is free, you are just too generous Brian!
So I hope you all don’t find the the change too over the top, while I do some tweaking.
Grab those contacts from Linkedin
On Recruitment Views I found the following comment from Ravel Lee from eGrabber, in regards to their new capture tool for candidates on Linkedin. Basicly it collects the details and populates an excell spreadsheet which you can upload onto your database.
As we are all interested in Linkedin as recruitment consultants, I thought it would be better to have its own post rather than as a comment.
Update After writing this post Andy made a very relevant comment here, which should also being taken into account at a price of $649 it is a bit steep although it is part of another package, resume grabber. The bigger issue I suppose is that it is taking away the whole point of Linkedin and with that should linkedin let scrapping of details be allowed!
Hi
I thought you will be interested to
know that my company, eGrabber (www.egrabber.com), has just
released Social Network Grabber for Excel.This tool enables recruiters to capture and import all LinkedIn profiles
from LinkedIn search results into Excel with a single click!
There is no programming to do. This tool can be given to admins
and others to help create an initial database of prospects.The tool automatically opens each individual profile and imports
every attribute from the LinkedIn profile into a column in Excel.
All formatting is automatically and professionally handled.Recruiters can quickly shortlist candidates and forward the Excel
list to hiring managers. Links within Excel allow hiring managers
to directly access resume. This is a real time saver!For more information, please visit
http://www.egrabber.com/resumegrabberpro/rg_lidriver.htmlRavel Lee
408-705-1106
408-516-5671
Business Development Associate, eGrabber.com
Developers of resume sourcing tools for 12+ years
The Death of a Recruitment Blogger!
Well Andy after seeing your noticeable blogging output for some time and your recent article “Blogs are here to stay”, for one moment I thought this reporter below was at your office!!
I hope you enjoy the video below Andy and have a good weekend.
Getting past the Gate keeper
Now I am assuming anyone who reads my blog also reads Louise’s so this post I suppose is for everyone else 
Something I have talked about a lot is the generation of new business, probably because it was something I have gained a reputation for. You can read some of my tactics here. What I didn’t go into great detail was how to get past the Gate keeper, maybe because I have been doing this for so long I just never saw it as an issue, mind you there is still the odd contact I haven’t spoken to.
The reason why most people find this so difficult is because the client gets inundated with calls, which brings me to an excellent post from Louise, where we get a unique insite on how our clients see us, a must read.
So how do we get past the Gate Keeper, well Emma gives us a few clues and for me it was simple “be professional, make each call unique and never give up” this is the same technique I used to get on to PSL’s.
OK that may be over simplifying, but all I am saying is before each call remember that the client has been called 32 times today why should they speak to you!
Oh and one important fact always smile, they can tell and as Emma puts it “people buy from people”
The Best Client Recruitment Website for 2008, well sofar!
Recently I have been receiving more and more requests for links to recruitment companies from their SEO’s, as it helps improve their rankings. This is fine but the most recent I thought was the most cheeky. The company in question wanted me to include a link for Hewitt Associates, whoops there it is!!! The best part was in return I get a link for some boarding school in America, oh lucky me.
What can you say to that, well I replied and said pay me a small fee and I will give you a link, at the end of the day Hewitt can afford it and I am still waiting!
So after this disappointing request I thought I would take a look anyway. On doing so I was so impressed I decided to write a small article, lucky them I say.
So dropping the sarcasm Hewitt Associates have put together, or should I say their design company Glass have created one of the best recruitment websites I have seen from an employer for some time. I believe they are worthy of a nomination on NORAS, their site is aiming to pull in graduates for a career in pensions and Investments management, oh and for you recruiters out their I believe they are looking for about 30 to 40 consultants.
The videos explaining the roles of the consultant is superbly executed and add to the visitors experience, for me the only thing that lets it down is its integration to their CRM software, on which I will have more to say in the next week or so.
So to check it out go to www.hewittgraduate.co.uk and maybe someone from Hewitt will thank me.
The Counter Offer
I am not going to go into too much detail when it comes to the counter offer, but what I will say is the more you know about the candidate and the opportunity the better chance you have in turning it around. These days many consultants do not take as much detail as they should about the role or why the candidate wanted to leave in the first place, because this is the ammunition you will need.
What I will tell you about is an experience back in 1987 as a recruiter, which has helped me turn round a number of counter offers in the past. What reminded me of this was a recent post from Andy “Do the 350 top companies really give a c**p about their employees?”
So whenever I have a counter offer I will remind them why they wanted to leave in the first place, that their company should have offered you this before you had resigned and that there is a likelihood they will be looking for your replacement, and by then you will have missed that Golden Opportunity.
Now if that didn’t work and loyalty comes into the equation, I would bring up my experience of the Coke Cola and Schweppes merger in 1987. I have no idea how many redundancies there where, but I do remember I was suddenly interviewing rep after rep from these two companies, all over the age of 40 many with over 20 years of service and no chance of finding another job. At this point I realised that loyalty counts for nothing and you can be disposed of at a moments notice, in this case instantly.
So yes Andy companies dont give a C**P about their employees, and it will go on happening with no consideration of the implications except for the share price!!
Scotish Recruitment Agencies Working Together
On Friday I had a press release from “The Recruitment Agency Network”, with their launch of RAN Jobs a new Job Board specifically for its members. Although this is a very tough market I wish them the best of luck, as their aim isn’t so much as competing with the likes of Monster but to help improve the experience of the candidate.
What I like about this initiative is that they want as a group to shout about what is good about recruitment, where candidates can apply to vacancies knowing that the agencies work to a higher standard of practice.
To start with RAN is open, initially, to Scottish-based recruitment agencies but is receiving enquiries from further afield and will be rolling out across the UK as soon as time and resources allow. To be considered you need to contact Ian Tickell on 07816 277604 or Roddy Hammond on 0141 226 2224, or by email to ian.tickell (at) ranjobs.com to be invited to one of their two road shows in May
Monday 12th May 16:00 Clydesdale Bank Plaza, 50 Lothian Road, Edinburgh
Thursday 15th May 16:00 at Clydesdale Bank Exchange, 20 Waterloo Street, Glasgow
To finish I thought I would include this Quote from Gordon Adam of Head Resourcing, one of RAN’s Founders
“It takes a considerable leap of faith to work with companies that you’ve been in fierce competition with for years.” says Gordon Adam of Head Resourcing. “However, in the best interest of our candidates, our clients, and the recruitment profession we believe that this is the right direction. We’ll still compete as individual businesses, but we’ll be able to better champion the industry by supporting RAN’s aims and objectives.”
Work Life Balance
One blog I do enjoy is Fortify your Oasis, partly because it is so well written by Ronan and it has an excellent mix of posts. What caught my eye in particular was a recent post on “Work Life Balance”. It made a good read and certainly questioned my own work life balance.
As someone who works from home and in one of the best cities in Europe (Granada Spain), I should have the best work life balance of any recruiter. Although on greater reflection working from home does have its drawbacks, you are never away from the office and when I am, the phone redirects so there is no escape!
It is just as hard to get away from the computer and when I do it’s usually for chores like collecting my Daughter from school or being asked to put out the washing, its almost as though they don’t think I do any work at all, but in truth I probably work more hours than if I was in the office, at least at 5.30 you can go home. Mind you as an ex recruiter you would still be making those calls from home, certainly in the days without mobile phones, if anyone can remember that.
I have been working from home on and off over the last 7 years and if I was to say what one thing has made it all worth while, it would be watching my daughters grow up, something many parents miss out on these days.
So I am sure no one out there has any sympathy for me, but at least I don’t get as stressed out as this reporter did for the BBC, I hope his work life balance has improved.
Follow this link for the video courtesy of the BBC, mind you I have seen the odd boss over react a little like John Sweeney in the past!!
Is this the new face of the recruitment blogoshpere!
As Recruitment Views finally moves into it’s Third year, I have seen a few recruitment blogs come and go, which isn’t surprising as writing continuously for 2 years hasn’t been the easiest thing to maintain at times.
In that time the “UK recruitment blogoshere” has grown from just a handful to an excellent range of bloggers, but it has been a while since a new kid on the block has come in to stir things up since Peter Gold and about time if you asked me.
So who is this new kid on the block, well apparently some tribal leader calling himself the Blunter Headhunter. I am not sure who he is except that he says he is a headhunter from London, wanting to vent some spleen and he certainly is.
So if you expect him to pussy foot around recruitment issues, then I would avoid it at all costs with comments like, and I am picking the least offensive here “The city is well and truly rogered” will not win many friends but then again I do not think that is what he is looking to do. So Blunder Headhunter welcome on board and I look forward to reading many more posts, as I am sure the rest of us will do too.
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