Have you ever shared an office with a ‘Digital Overlord’? Or crunched numbers with an ‘Accounting Ninja’?

If not, there’s hope yet, because the recent movement towards more unorthodox job titles looks set to continue, according to specialist recruitment consultancy IntaPeople.

Having scoured thousands of online profiles, IntaPeople has revealed what it believes to be the ten most peculiar job titles being used by professionals on LinkedIn.

The top ten:

1.         Digital Overlord

2.         Creator of Happiness

3.         Retail Jedi

4.         Wizard of Light Bulb Moments

5.         Dream Alchemist

6.         Chief Chatter

7.         Change Magician

8.         Accounting Ninja

9.         Chief Biscuit Dunker

10.       Direct Mail Demi-God

Stephen Riley, director at IntaPeople, commented:

“We are seeing more and more of these kind of job titles cropping up on online profiles, CVs and business cards. Many feel that casting away conventional titles will help them broadcast their individuality and give them a real edge over their competitors.

“It is a trend that is almost certainly linked with the explosion of social media. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have shown that there is real value in bringing more personality to business, and creative job titles offer individuals another way of doing this.

“It can be a risky tactic, though. Companies are increasingly using sites like LinkedIn to research prospective employees and suppliers. If it seems like you are not taking your job seriously enough, you could well miss out on some great business opportunities. Calling yourself a ‘Wizard’ or a ‘Jedi’ could be just a step too far for some.”

OK just in case you recruiters out there thought nobody knew what we are up to, then the info graphic below will be a bit of an a rude awakening.

I am sure a few of us have done many of the points mentioned, but 88% of applications rejected if you include a photo, well it did make me smile!

Submitted below by Luke Butler
of Behiring.

Latest figures from the Federation of European Employers (FedEE) show that in the EU27 as a whole the labor market was expanding throughout 2010. However, the trend has been downward since Q2 2011 – mainly due to the rise of real earnings relative to production.

The German labor market began 2010 well above the EU27 benchmark and continued to rise throughout 2010-12, with all variables performing better than EU averages. By contrast, Spain’s labor market index began 2010 well below the EU-average level and has continued to deteriorate over the entire period.

During the last two years the Spanish economy has been characterised by alternating periods of quasi-zero growth and periods of substantial negative growth, such as in Q2 2010 and Q4 2011. This would appear to be primarily due to its poorly-performing industrial sector leading to a sustained decrease in labour demand. This trend was not driven, however, by a strong surge in real labor costs – as Spanish labor cost and consumer price movements have been generally in line with EU averages.

Speaking at a meeting to launch FedEE’s new index today Robin Chater, Secretary-General of the Federation of European Employers (FedEE), said “Looking at unemployment rates alone can often be highly misleading as there is often a lag between job affordability (real labour costs per unit of output) job creation and the filling of new vacancies. The index shows how these fundamentals come together into a true swing of supply and demand.“

He went on to say that “We plan to increase the range of countries covered by the index – but at the outset we thought it would be helpful to focus on two national marketplaces and reveal just how much the Spanish labor market is in an ongoing state of decline and facing a possible total collapse. Around half of all those aged under 25 are unemployed in Spain which could damage the economic health of the nation for a whole generation.”

Technical note

FedEE’s new labor market index measures the degree of health of an economy by analysing the relationship between labor demand and supply, adjusted by real labor costs per unit of output, conventionally used as an indicator of economic competitiveness.

To view the latest LMI graph please visit http://www.fedee.com

A table showing movements of the index for Germany, Spain and the EU may be viewed at http://www.fedee.com/human-resources/the-fedee-index/

Metadata about the construction of the index is also provided in notes at the end of the table.

What is FedEE?

The Federation of European Employers (FedEE) is the leading organization for multinational companies operating in Europe. It was founded in 1989 with assistance from the European Commission.  It is a corporate member organization with a head office in London, UK. The current Chair of FedEE is the HR Director of Ford Europe.

For further information and comment contact Alison Merrett on +44 207 520 9264 or Alison.merrett@fedee.com or Robin Chater directly on robin.chater@fedee.com

When Simply Business wanted to have a guest post, I said fine so long as it is informative and as they are specialists in our industry then it made sense, this is their post below:

Buying insurance for your recruitment agency

Finding the right package of insurance for recruitment agencies is important but potentially puzzling. There are various different factors that will affect the cost of your cover, and several different policy components that need to be considered.

Clients are becoming more demanding when they do business with recruitment agencies, often seeking proof of insurance before choosing one agency above others. Getting the right recruitment agency insurance is therefore not only essential for keeping you properly covered, but can also serve as a key highlight when promoting your business.

Types of recruitment agency insurance

As your recruitment agency offers a professional service to other businesses, professional indemnity insurance is an important cover; if your recommendations are seen to damage a client’s business, they may deem you responsible. Professional indemnity policies are there to cover legal costs incurred from mistakes made, and negligence such as the loss of data or documents. You should also think about the potential for infringement of intellectual property rights and defamation; recruitment agencies deal with abundant personal information and trade in a currency of personal and professional reputation. If this is unintentionally damaged or defamed, then this covers claims.

Employment agency insurance policies are also likely to include public liability insurance, which is a cornerstone cover for many businesses. If you or your recruitment agency accidentally injures someone, or if a third party’s belongings are damaged, then this is the insurance that steps in to cover your costs. As many recruitment agencies have job-seeking clients coming in and out of the premises, covering injuries or accidents on your premises could be key.

There are other policy parts that can be important for recruitment agencies too. Simply Business can tailor business premises cover if necessary, with options such as buildings cover, contents cover, and cover for fixtures and fittings. You also need to bear in mind that the law requires employers’ liability insurance if you have employees, so that you are able to compensate employees for injury or illness that they attribute to their work.

Ready to request a quote? Bear in mind…

You will be asked some specific questions when you request a quote from Simply Business for recruitment agency insurance, and your answers will affect the premium you pay. If you place manual workers in jobs, then you will pay more, as manual jobs carry greater risks of a claim that could impact the agency along the line. We will also want to know the kind of places you provide your services to. If the businesses you work with include high-risk locations such as power or nuclear stations, anything to do with aircrafts or aviation, watercrafts, railways, or medical facilities, then this will make a big difference. Dealing with businesses of this type means that many insurers may refuse to cover you all together, and other providers may offer an extortionate premium. It’s important to keep this in mind when taking on clients of this kind.
We will also need to know whether you accept liability for the candidates you place. Some candidates work as employees for the agency even when working in an external workplace, while other agencies collect a one-off fee and then relinquish responsibility for the candidates. These liability concerns will also push your premium up or down.

It was once an essential element of business dress as iconic as the starched white shirt it adorned, but the humble necktie is becoming an increasingly scarce sight in Britain’s offices.

Now a new poll has found that more than three quarters of office workers believe the tie’s days are definitely numbered.

The poll by DealJungle.com, a site dedicated to helping SMEs survive and grow, found that a massive 77% of all workers believe we are witnessing the death-throws of the necktie.

The demise of the once compulsory item for male executives is thought to be linked to the rise of popular culture and the spread of a “casual Friday” dress code into other weekdays.

The success of creative businesses and online trading along with the casual dress code operated in tech companies such as Facebook and Google have also chipped away at the idea of a more formal dress code.

For many young professionals the image of a shirt and tie has become synonymous with stuffy careers such as accountancy or the legal profession – and many believe even these last bastions of tradition will eventually adopt a more casual attire.

Now it seems most office workers believe the tie will feature very little in boardrooms of the 21^st century and could become as obsolete as the top hat within the next decade.

Of the workers surveyed almost three quarters (74%) thought the necktie would be consigned to the fashion museum within the next 50 years with just three per cent saying it was headed for extinction in 50 – 100 years’ time.

More than half (51%) thought the tie would disappear within the next 20 years and almost a quarter (22%) thought it would last less than the next ten years.

Almost one in ten of those surveyed felt we were already witnessing the tie’s final hurrah with eight per cent saying they believed they would be a thing of the past by the end of this year.

Despite being around since 1650 only 23% of those surveyed had faith in the tie’s longevity believing it would enjoy a comeback and become a must wear item once more.

A spokesman for DealJungle.com, which has 20,000 registered members, mostly in the SME sector, said: “Ties have been around seemingly forever but increasing numbers of office workers are telling them to get knotted.

“The success of businesses such as Facebook and Google where even the CEO turns-up wearing jeans and a hoodie also seems to have had a corrosive effect on the idea of dressing formally for work.

“Many of our members keep their overheads to a minimum by working from home so they feel no need to dress up to go to work.

“We know that when they meet with clients they still put on a business suit – but a tie is no longer seen as an essential part of the suited and booted look. Instead many businessmen and increasing numbers of executives opt for a suit and shirt with an open collar.

“The tie-less suit creates an impression of a more approachable deal maker, someone who is still business minded, yet creative and technology savvy too.”

When I was asked to do a book review for Reid Hoffman the co-founder & Chairman of Linkedin and Ben Casnocha I obviously jumped at the chance, and what recruiter wouldn’t do to be honest!!

Fortunately I was able to pick up a copy which I had sent to my mothers, as I happened to be exhibiting at the Recruitment Agency Expo last week at the Olympia, which I have to say was excellent. In addition I was lucky enough to listen to Daniel Dackombe of Linkedin who was one of the guest speakers presenting there too. So I will be looking forward to combining the knowledge gained from that and this book “The Start Up Of You”

So on the flight back I took time out to put all my other books aside to get into Reid’s and Ben’s offering, like any book if you start reading and then stop to find you are halfway through you know you are enjoying it, the only problem is I had no pencil to jot notes and a few dog ears would have to suffice.

I believe this book answers more than one question and will appeal to a lot of people for one reason or another.

Firstly it gives you a real insight into Reid’s background and the reasoning behind the development of Linkedin, which in turn really helps you understand how to get the best out of it. Although there are references to linkedin it is used quite subtly, but then again why not!

Secondly if you have read “How to Win Friends and Influence people” you will instantly see that this is the 21st century version of this book without the rather seemingly insincere title, certainly to us Brits and to Reid anyway. In addition it really gets to grip with those of us who do not want to start our own company, but more importantly deals with the huge shift in recent times in regards to work and career. We are in effect no longer company men, but individuals and if you are in any doubt I suggest you watch Company Men. In other words it is ourselves who need to develop our careers, rather than expect it to be given to us with years of service. I am sure this will be of no shock to most, but the book will certainly help give you steps to develop or change your career.

Thirdly you will get a fascinating insight to the workings of Silicon Valley and the characters there in and how they interact with each other, you certainly get the feeling they all know each other.

In the end my book is now full of dog ears and with copious notes, but to write all of the tips I have managed to assimilate would just lead to another book! Saying that from my point of view and which is almost a contradiction to Linkedin or could it be because I am a recruiter, I found that there is an emphasis from Reid not to have too many connections. I was also fascinated by the fact that your 3rd degree connections could be more useful and give a diverse range of contacts, which utimately could lead to better and varied opportunities. Finally it will give you advice on how to network with your contacts in today’s environment with plenty of examples of how it works, without linkedIn

Mark Stephens Guest Post

With all the changes taking place across the digital recruitment landscape, employment agencies have been squeezed on all fronts for a few years now.

There are not many recruitment owners that have not felt the full impact of some of the fundamental changes that have been taking place

Lower salary jobs and generic roles are being pulled back in house at an alarming rate, as access to the online tools that were once exclusive to the agencies are now available for all to use and as companies look to reduce their recruitment expenditure.

Add in the rapid growth of fixed fee solutions and then, (take a deep breath) there is LinkedIn!

LinkedIn was once the best friend of the savvy executive search recruiter, but is now the gateway to ‘free to access candidates’ to their precious clients. Let’s face it, LinkedIn has helped to change the dynamics of the recruitment sector for good.

Job board advertising certainly doesn’t appear to have advanced much in the last few years, as talented candidates have become apathetic, realising that resourcers will come and find them.

That doesn’t mean that candidates are no longer registering their details onto job boards, it’s just that the good ones don’t bother adopting a pro active approach any more.

It does mean that the majority of a recruiters time is spent sifting through CV’s and then calling through prospect lists, networking and digging out leads.

Is it any wonder that the last generation of recruiters look at the visible activity levels of today’s recruiters and shake their heads with bewilderment, that they manage to turn a profit at all.

So is the tide about to turn, with the imminent launch of Its a Job Calling?

Anyone who is anyone in recruitment has probably already heard the jungle drums beating away for a few months on this project, as Chris Smith (previously of eCRM People) and his carefully assembled team, that includes 2M Tech, Hamilton Bradshaw and a number of credible NED’s, have joined forces with a telco carrier to launch a virtual telephone resourcer service that works in conjunction with a ‘free to access’ database, containing well over 1 million active candidates.

A number of job boards have already spotted the potential for this service and the team are in discussions to merge with one of the major players, that would see the size of the candidate pool dramatically increase to nearer 5 million sometime next year. The crux of the service, is that you can drop your search results into a prospect list, record your personal message and then let the system call everyone for you, for the cost of the telephone call. All the candidate needs to do after listening to the message is to press zero on their handset and they get a free call directly back to the recruiter. Obviously there will be an art to creating a compelling message that maximises candidate response, but doesn’t that exist already?

All the candidate needs to do after listening to the message is to press zero on their handset and they get a free call directly back to the recruiter.

Obviously there will be an art to creating a compelling message that maximises candidate response, but doesn’t that exist already?

Nobody is claiming that this will work for every vacancy, but I’m betting that over 50% of recruitment campaigns being worked each day, would have dramatically improved their results by utilising this service. And as a recruitment owner myself, I bet that the majority of other Recruitment owners across the country, would have liked to have seen more telephone activity from their recruiters today!

Is it a game changer? Well, if you consider the possibility of a completely free to access database and a telephony service or ‘virtual recruiter’, that costs the same as the telephone call that you would have made anyway, then it makes this service a virtual no brainer for every recruitment company in the country to adopt in some capacity. Find me just 1 recruitment owner that says he would not like to see efficiencies improved, in particular when it comes to telephone activity.

The Its a Job Calling team are taking applications to BETA the system when it goes live in January. You can go to their site and enter an email address to register your interest to participate.

Watch this space. I predict Its a Job Calling will become as familiar a name in the recruitment space as any job board is today.

Mark Stephens

The F10 Group

Company introduces unique on-demand talent development platform with a free to use version.

Today sees the official launch of Juice, a game changing cloud-based Talent Development Platform (TDP) aimed at recruiters worldwide. The Juice TDP offers on-demand video learning featuring how to guides, comedic drama and practical exercises to make learning easy and fun as well as utilising online quizzes to test individual knowledge retention.

The TDP, which can be rolled out on the same day as purchase, is easy for users to understand and they can be trained on how to use it in five minutes.

Steve Carter, CEO of Morgan McKinley, the first company to implement the Juice TDP said: “Juice has transformed how we nurture our talent. It’s relevant, innovative and fun. Traditional training doesn’t always inspire or excite so combining it with a product like Juice gave it an identity within the business where people see it as an investment and not a chore.”

“We wanted to create a learning environment where employees at all levels could log on and get instant access to relevant content that not only supported them in their day-to-day role but also offered them continuous development. After all, good people with the right skills are at the heart of our commercial success. The result is that people want to learn. We were able to tailor a lot of the content to be specific to our business. This is really important in helping staff to understand our corporate vision and drive the adoption of best practices across the organisation,” Carter said.

By delivering bite sized learning that can be accessed anytime by employees, Juice creates a continuous and consistent learning environment that leads to stronger and faster results than traditional ad hoc training methods.  Clients can work with Juice to create bespoke content for them featuring their own employees just as Morgan McKinley has done.

The startup has attracted investment from entrepreneur Dan McGuire, formerly of Broadbean, who joins the board as Chairman and Graham Palfery-Smith who joins as Non-Executive Director. The company will be headed up in the UK and Europe by industry stalwart Roy Ripper and in Asia Pacific by Matt Trott.

Roy Ripper, MD, Juice said: “Progressive organisations realise that if they don’t develop their talent they risk losing their best staff and their competitive edge. The most successful people never stop learning and developing. Our view is that giving recruiters access to entertaining and engaging content when they want it will encourage people to improve and refine their skills. We all pick up bad habits and the best way to counteract that and operate at the top of our game is to continuously and consistently improve ourselves.”

Anyone can use the Lite version for free for an unlimited amount of time. It gives access to the first two chapters of episodes and is available at www.juicetdp.com.

reed.co.uk launches Exchange marketplace to connect employers and agencies

Leading UK job site, reed.co.uk, has launched a new online marketplace to connect employers with specialist recruitment agencies to fill their vacancies. The new service is called Exchange.

Exchange: watch the demo from reed.co.uk on Vimeo.

reed.co.uk Exchange allows employers to post vacancies anonymously into the marketplace where they can be accessed only by approved, specialist recruitment agencies. Recruitment consultants can pitch and negotiate online to work on individual jobs and, once engaged, start putting candidates forward. Once an offer is accepted and a new employee starts work, the employer pays the agreed fee.

Martin Warnes, Managing Director of reed.co.uk, comments:

“Employers place real value on the service they receive from specialist recruitment agencies and Exchange is a way for reed.co.uk to foster this.

“We’re already the UK’s biggest job site, we know recruitment inside out and we have extensive reach into both employer and agency markets. This makes Exchange an obvious complement to reed.co.uk’s current job board offering.”

Posting vacancies on Exchange is free of charge, so employers only pay when they successfully make a hire. Employers can work with as many of the agencies that pitch to them as they like.

Exchange will cater for all industry sectors, with a minimum salary of £25,000 for roles being posted.

Warnes comments:

“Exchange will really come into its own for niche, harder-to-fill roles, where we can add real efficiencies to the process of engaging with the best specialist agencies in the market.

“There will be an accent on quality and control to ensure employers receive the best and most relevant agency pitches and quickly gain access to the most appropriate talent pools, whilst consultants can focus only on the vacancies for which they have specialist market knowledge.”

Consultants will be able to build their reputation in Exchange, with employers invited to leave ratings for all of the individuals they work with. In addition, agencies can tailor each pitch, including providing anonymised candidate details when they first look to engage with a new client.

For the roll out phase, agencies joining Exchange will be limited to those who are both members of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) and existing customers of reed.co.uk. However, any agency can apply to join Exchange, which will be rolled out on a wider basis during the coming months.

Warnes explains:

“Listening to the needs of our users is what has led us to develop this service and, once it’s launched, that won’t change. We’ll continue to gather as much feedback as we can so we can develop and evolve the service to ensure we’re giving employers and agencies an effective, efficient and high quality experience.”

Learn more at reed.co.uk/exchange.