Candidates who boast of being “creative” on their CVs and in job interviews could find their skills being put to the test for the first time thanks to a new tool aimed at measuring creativity.

The psychometric assessment has been developed by Australian psychologist Dr Amantha Imber alongside global giant Kimberley Clark.

The company behind major brands like Kleneex and Huggies approached Amantha after the head of innovation found that recruiting creativity people was difficult without giving them some kind of test to check their claims

She believed it was too easy for people to lie about their ability.

Amantha and her team spent three years designing the tool, known as the Inventium Creative Aptitude Test (ICAT).

The test is based on the latest psychological and neuro-science research and identifies 14 key traits to creative behaviours which form the basis of the psychometric assessment.

Those taking the test are quizzed on topics including applying experiences to work place problems, desire to master new skills, dealing with open ended problems, trusting their intuition, self confidence in their ideas and assertiveness.

ICAT also predicts behaviours the person is likely to exhibit in the workplace like commitment to change, challenging the norms of the company, adaptability, ability to work with other people and communication.

Recent studies have shown that creativity is becoming one of the top traits big employers look for.

IBM’s global survey of 1,500 CEOs found creativity was rated as the most important trait leaders needed to possess and a 2010 study by Ernst & Young found that ‘the ability to manage, organise, cultivate and nurture creative thinking is directly linked to growth and achievement’.

Amantha, the founder of Inventium, believes checking someone’s creative ability is difficult – anyone can come up with examples of creative thinking even if they aren’t their own – and is confident this tool will give employers a very accurate picture of an employee’s ability.

“Before developing ICAT, we looked at what companies are currently doing to check a candidates creativity and found the measures completely pointless. The creative industries, for example, ask to see a portfolio of work. How do they know the portfolio contains just the work of the person they’re planning to recruit?

“This tool will help companies find employees who will think differently to solve problems, who can generate ideas and help the business grow. Creativity isn’t just about coming up with great ideas and executing them, it’s also about finding a new way to solve a financial or staffing problems, making processes more efficient and engaging employees.

“The ideas bit is important – this is what enables companies to innovate. The day to day problems that come with running a business must never be overlooked. If you’re unable to solve these, then how will you move forward?”

The test is an online assessment, taking just 25 minutes and from that Amantha and her team is able to assess how creative a person is and will build a programme of how those skills can be developed.

She concluded: “I’m confident this assessment will give employers an overall picture of a person’s creative ability as well as giving guidance on how those traits can be developed in the future.

“As companies continue to rebuild after the recession, ensuring staff are well developed and new recruits well suited is going to become even more important. Having the right team who are able to think creatively both in terms of problem solving and developing innovative ideas is going to help drive businesses forward.”

I have to admit this figure didn’t surprise me at all and probably neither you I would assume, as I certainly started my own business while working for a recruiter. It might not be that ethical but it does happen and is probably happening right now.

The reason I thought I would include this press release is that Terry Edwards has included a down loadable guide on “Why Most Independent Recruitment Businesses Fail” and as it was free I felt it was worth pushing!

Press release follows below:

A new survey of recruitment business owners has found that a staggering 94 per cent of them were inspired to start their own business while working for someone else.

Recruitment coaching company drewcoaching.co.uk also discovered that these independent business owners are now scared that their staff will do to them what they did to their former bosses – by setting up in competition.

The survey revealed that while most recruitment business owners excel in recruitment, they often lack the business knowledge required to grow their brand.

In response to these findings, Terry Edwards, recruitment coaching expert and founder of drewcoaching has a written free guide aimed at independent recruitment business owners.

He said:

“I want to get the message across to these business owners that there is a way to keep their staff to stop them for becoming competitors.”

“There are some really simple steps that they can take to ensure happy, productive staff who are loyal to the business.”

“The overall message of the guide is that you can have a fully functioning business that is growing and improving all the time.”

Recruitment business owners can obtain a free copy of the guide at drewcoaching.co.uk

He added:

“Just because someone hasn’t been taught how to run a successful business doesn’t mean that all is lost – all these business owners need is a little guidance.”

“My guide should be the first step towards gaining the business knowledge that these recruitment specialists need in order to really thrive.”

The guide, Why Most Independent Recruitment Businesses Fail and What To Do About It, offers expert business advice specifically for recruitment businesses and covers everything from goal setting right through to systems and processes.

drewcoaching is the UK’s leading business coach for recruiters and was founded by recruitment expert Terry Edwards to help committed business owners achieve the business of their dreams.

Based in Northampton, it specialises in marketing and advertising, systems and business development and reducing time at work while increasing profits and sales.

One of the great things about air travel for me is that it is the only time I get to read a book, rather than an RSS feed. Although if I was to be honest, I do it to keep my mind occupied and stops me from thinking about crashing . So on my return trip at the weekend I picked up a book called the “The Rules of Work” written by Richard Templar, I was so impressed that I felt I must give it a mention here.

Looking back to when I started my career in recruitment, all I remember is if I worked hard and did a good job, I would get promoted or receive a pay rise. In part that worked, but like all new recruits I was wet behind the ears and I didn’t understand the so called office politics, which everyone seemed to mention but didn’t avoid!!

One couldn’t help notice that some people were promoted not necessarily because they were any better or having been in the job any longer, but it was just left for you to work out what you needed to do to get on. Which is where this book comes in, because it is aimed at those of you who have just started a new job or stuck in a rut and want to rise the corporate ladder, I just wish I had been given this 30 years ago!

There are in total 108 rules, all of which make so much sense and takes the guess work out of success. Many of them are obvious, but more importantly each one is explained why they should be adopted and the consequences of not doing so.

So as to set the scene the first 2 paragraphs are below:

Most of us (I’m guessing here) want to do our jobs well. Most of us (still guessing) want more important jobs, bigger salaries, greater security, higher status and a bright future. So we try to do our  jobs so well that we will be rewarded, respected and promoted.

And that is where we go wrong (I’m not guessing any more)……….

Today we have a guest post by Nikki, who has set up a company called My CV and ME. Basically they help candidates land their perfect job, by helping with the writing of your CV, interview coaching, assessment centre coaching and career coaching. So when she asked if she could write a guest post, I thought why not so long as it is beneficial to my readers of course.

So if you have just found yourself unemployed then these 10 top tips will certainly get you on the right track.

10 Ways to Jump Start Your Job Search

With more competition than ever for jobs, here’s some advice on what is currently working for job seekers. My CV and Me spoke to 100 ex-job seekers to discover how they found a job.

Here are the results:

Personal Contact/Networking 40%

Half of all jobs are not advertised anywhere. Companies advertise internally on notice boards, the intranet or they take on people who have already contacted them. Ask friends and family to let you know about jobs that are advertised where they work. Many companies have an Employee Referral Programme where your friends or family can earn some money for referring you.

Job Boards/Social Networking Sites 29%

With so many different online job boards, it is important to make sure you choose the most relevant to your industry. You should keep checking regularly to see if there are any suitable jobs and apply as soon as you can. Online applications are only accepted for a very short time. By registering your details on a job board you could be informed about any new jobs straight away.

Job seekers also know that tapping into social and professional networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn connect you to contacts that might be the key to your next job. Facebook lists job opportunities and you can join groups to find people with common interests and to network with them.  You can also use Twitter to search for someone who works at a company you are interested in or to search for recruiters.

Recruitment Agencies 12%

You should sign up with several agencies, preferably those which specialise in your industry. If they specialise in your industry they should be able to give you some valuable inside information on the state of the job market. They will be able to tell you what sort of jobs they would consider you for and the likely salary range. You should also ask them to give you feedback on your CV.

Adverts in Newspapers 5%

National papers normally focus on different professional areas each day of the week. For example The Guardian on a Monday is a good place for secretarial, media and creative vacancies. Check out the Evening Standard for business and secretarial positions, Metro and Loot for lower level jobs. Advertised jobs in the national papers, often attract 100s of applicants so do not spend all of your time applying to just these jobs.

Events/Career Fairs 4%

Career fairs usually have a range of employers and concentrate on a specific sector.  It is worth speaking to companies directly before you attend to try and book in an interview. Find out the recruiter’s name so you know who is responsible for hiring new staff and can look out for them.
Trade Journals 3%

Professional and trade journals advertise jobs and also bring you up to date with current issues – always a good talking point at interviews. Subscription is often free if you are already in the industry. There will also be news on which companies are expanding and you could approach these companies directly.

Blogs 3%

Recently larger blogs have started to integrate job banks into their own websites. You can use these blobs to track employees that work at a company you’re interested in.

Online CV database 2%

By registering on a CV database you could be head hunted by employers straight away. Make sure that you keep your CV and contact information up to date, as you never know when an employer may decide to contact you. However ex-job seekers reported that they received quite a lot of calls about irrelevant jobs too.

Jobcentres 1%

Jobcentres are in every town and focus mainly on jobs for non-professionals. They have databases of local vacancies and their advisers can help you with finding work.

Speculative Applications 1%

If you are interested in a specific company, you can send a speculative application although this has a very low success rate. The employer may keep your CV on file until a relevant job comes up.

Conclusion

You’ll increase your chances of finding your dream job if you make it as easy as possible for employers to find you. Therefore, it makes sense to use multiple strategies. When you have found an job you would like to apply for, your CV and cover letter will be crucial for getting interviews. My CV and Me offer high quality CVs, cover letters and interview coaching.

A guest post by Nikki, founder of CV writing company My CV and Me.

Today Louise has officially launched her UK Recruitment Plus website, which I am sure will be a valuable aid to any recruiter. It isn’t a free resource, hence the work that has gone into the building of the site with input from various experts from within our industry.

In some ways it is a compilation of some of  the superb advice that UK Recruiter has produced and the valuable contacts she has worked with over the years. This all has been brought together into one place, to make it more accessible or should I say more user friendly.

The site is very well designed and is simple to navigate, covering virtually everything you should need when it comes to starting your own recruitment company or if you want to improve your skills with articles such as “the little book of recruitment law” and free job boards and trial” two very useful articles for any recruiter, plus many more of course.

The cost of joining is an annual membership of £99, with a cash back offer of £25 for the first 100 sign ups, an excellent deal for any recruiter.

And as Louise has become a good friend I wish her and her team the very best of luck

Regards

Stephen

OK this may be a rhetorical question, especially when you consider that I sell recruitment software, but I certainly felt it was worth considering given the market conditions in recruitment at the moment, with the question for many recruiters is “should I invest in recruitment software”.

Obviously I believe the answer is yes, with more and more candidates becoming available I believe it is now imperative to have a means to manage the volume much more quickly and efficiently. So when you are given your next vacancy, you can see the wood from the trees and get to the best candidate quicker than your competitors. This in truth is what it is all about, but there is a cost associated with this. So surly the time saved would make it a must have tool, in the recruitment consultants armoury?

Well that is my opinion of course, but I was pleased to find someone who disagreed, thanks to the UKRecruiter forum by Ian of  Forest Recruitment, who I felt came up with a very valid argument, in fact Ian uses it as his USP, this is what he said:

15 years in IT recruitment and never used it (other than demo’s). I do use a CRM system but if you know your vertical and your candidates why do you need software to do the matching ?? But I am lucky I have the kind of memory that I can actually remember details of my first ever placed candidate (Jan 94) such as her final year uni project title and the counter offer she turned down to take my role.

If database search software (which is really all recruitment software is) was that good Google would give you you the perfect answer every time. I think the software makes consultants lazy, they put in tight specs and expect a placement to pop up on the screen. I am sure Mitch will agree, recruitment software panders to consultants and clients who want to find clones of the last incumbent in a role, it does nothing to encourage consultants to actually explore who might best grow into a role or bring extra skills to a client.

Although I agree in Ian´s sentiments in that “it Panders to Consultants and clients” in that it makes one lazy and there is an obvious case of “fitting a square peg in a square hole”. Where I  disagree is that I too am  able to remember my candidates from years ago, but the name will often elude me. So I have to remember something specific about the candidate, such as who he worked for or may be his pet hobby was bee-keeping, now try finding that in an alphabetical database of thousands.

I have to admit that when I started out in recruitment we didn’t have recruitment software, in fact we didn’t even use a computer. What I do remember is spending hours going through cv after cv to find the ideal candidate for my client, because there was no way on earth they would look at an alternative.

The fact is now it can be found in seconds, which means you can save a couple of hours a day shuffling through mountains of paper. If you also consider that by saving 2 hours each day, you or your consultant would then save at least 40 hours per month and if they were on £5 an hour, you would save £150 each month, when take off Arithon´s monthly cost of £50. Or is the true cost one extra placement a month I suppose that is for you to decide!

Of course not everyone will agree with me, so I am more than happy for anyone to comment whether they are for it or against it.

When I first started writing this blog I had a plan to be on the first page of Google for the term Recruitment Tips, as time went on I stopped checking, partly because my focus had changed and I had turned into a blogger, scary as it may sound.

What has pleased me is that all the work I put into making Recruitment Views successful for this term, has paid off, and now I am at number one position on Google.co.uk and google.com for recruitment tips and would you believe recruitment blog.

Although I may be at number one that could and will probably change, as other sites will continue to try to compete using various SEO tricks, but none the less it certainly made me feel chuffed with myself.

What has surprised me is how few recruitment companies have taken on blogging to generate quality candidates for free, even though I have mentioned it a few times in the past.

To give you an example of how it can work, a couple of years back I was involved in finding welders. Although this was an industry that didn’t appeal to me I was able to generate candidates via Google Adwords, which I wrote about here. What I have not mentioned until now is that I set up another blog at the same time as this site purely for finding welders.

Although I hardly write on International Welder, it generates welding candidates every single day for Indeed.

So if it is something you want to try then I will give you a few of my tips.

1. Get a domain that represents the keyword that a candidate would hunt for, such as welding jobs NB anything with jobs in the domain will probably have gone, so look at alternatives i.e. international-welder.
2. Get a co.uk domain if you are recruiting in the UK and use a UK hosting company, I used Fasthosts.
3. Optimise your site for google, ie include a site map
4. Get quality links to your site, maybe from Recruitment Views, just ask.
5. Update your site on a regular basis
6. Use wordpress as it does most of what you need with some excellent plugins making the process painless.
7. Get free advice using Aaron Wall’s SEO Book
8. Get someone to do it for you and contact Adam Taylor from Brand Attention, whom I can recommend as he has worked with a few recruitment companies to date.

And if you still don’t believe me Andy Headworth is so convinced at Sirona they offer a jobinablog as a package!

I hope this helps but if you want to know more feel free to contact me direct.

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”

Today I was contacted by HR World to see if I wanted to give my readers a heads up on a cheat sheet, they had compiled for interviewers and interviewees.

After popping over I found it was not so much a cheat sheet but a link to other resources, so at first I thought it was a bit of a cheat itself!

After following the links I did feel that the resource was superb and well researched, both for candidate and consultant. It was not just a list of typical questions but industry specific, with many tips on styles of interviews such as group interviews and Panels etc. 

Although American biased most of the tips would sit comfortably in the UK, I particularly liked the illegal interview questions from USAToday.

Many of us Recruitment Bloggers and myself included, have talked a lot about the benefits of having a blog as part of the marketing mix, to gain quality candidates and generally improve ones perception within the market place.

What has disappointed me is that so few have taken up this option, how many times do we need to advise recruitment consultancies this is the way forward. In the case of the UK maybe we are just too scared to let anyone know what we are up to; as commented by Mary in a recent post "Are we better recruiters than the Americans".

What has made me revisit this subject is I came across a very interesting blog from Australia called Freelanceswitch, as the name implies it is a blog for freelancers.

While I was reading through their posts, I couldn’t help feel that if they wanted to enter the recruitment industry, they would succeed, because if I was looking for a job I know I would feel comfortable using them. Why? well its obvious really their, their blog transmits an image of an experienced team who understand their market, so who better to ask for help when looking for that next career move!

As it turns out it is something they are considering, as they will be adding a jobs board to their site, but seriously if they decided to go into recruitment I would certainly be worried.

Although it is early days for them I will tip this company to do well, and I will be watching them closely here at recruitment views and maybe the odd consultancy could learn something from them.

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