In this month's newsletter...

Welcome to our October newsletter

Best wishes to all from the Recruitment Matters team!

This is our October newsletter featuring a mix of industry news, helpful information from recruitment industry experts, tips to help you improve and grow the profitability of your business and, of course, news from ourselves at Recruitment Matters about our training courses, products and services.

Well, our Barcelona event has come and gone and proved to be a highly enjoyable combination of stimulating training and enthusiastic socialising with many of us staying over the weekend to make the most of this fine city. We had four excellent sessions – two each from Matt and Warren - Maximise Your Desk’s Potential, Don’t Become A Frog!, Cost Effective Business & Brand Building and Winning High Value Business all of which were well received with great input from the participants. Now, where can we go next year…….??

In the last issue we featured an article from Donogh O’Brien of Munro Consulting extolling the virtues of working in Scotland – unfortunately the link didn’t work for everyone, so here it is again www.munroconsulting.com. You may also recall a brief comment on new job board Haggis Hunter International (.com) – since then we have received some more information from Managing Director, Shirley Anne Woods, which we’re pleased to publish in this issue.

Another new contributor this month is Paul Saunders who is Director, Recruitment Finance for Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance. Paul provides his perspective on the current credit crunch and its impact on recruitment businesses and their access to finance.

'If we ever needed a blatant plug for our ‘Interview Skills For Recruiters’ course then this article reported in ‘The People Bulletin’ does a great job - although, hopefully, most of the findings in the next two paragraphs related to employers rather than recruitment agencies!'

‘Bad interviewers are turning candidates away’

British businesses are making a bad first impression on job seekers, putting off potential employees with a lack of basic interviewing skills and losing out on talent, according to research from T-Mobile. The survey found that 56% of people who came away from a job interview with a bad impression of the company, often blaming the interviewer, citing rudeness, lateness, sexism and even drunkenness. 43% of those who had a bad interview went as far as to turn down their subsequent job offer.

Reasons cited for a bad interview experience ranged from the professional to the personal. 40% of people were asked questions that were completely unrelated to the job. Over a third (35%) said that the interviewer was unprepared and nearly one in five stated that they didn’t like the company culture and values. Worryingly, 18% of interviewers were late, 16% were sexist, 7% were racist, 7% had bad personal hygiene and nearly 2% were drunk.

Despite their bad experiences, respondents were clear about what they do expect when they attend an interview. 78% want to see a pleasant working environment, 50% want a clear plan of career progression outlined, over half (55%) want to be asked intelligent questions relating to the job and over a third (34%) want to fit with the company’s culture and values. Interviewees also looked for qualities in the company that they think will give them workplace happiness – for example, 43% want to work with like-minded people.

“Interviewees are always under pressure to create a good first impression, but it seems that businesses need to feel a bit of that pressure as well,” said Mark Martin, HR Director at T-Mobile UK. “They should be passionate and capable of recruiting the right people with the right values or risk losing out on the best talent. Candidates are beginning to place a company’s culture and values at the top of their agenda, so businesses need to think about how these are expressed in an interview situation – or their reputation and brand could be on the line.”

Judi James, an expert in body language, image, workplace culture and communication skills, said, “In an interview situation, judgements are being made on both sides – this is a prospective candidate’s first experience of a company’s culture and values. It is just as important for employers to impress, because people will turn down job offers if they feel the company doesn’t take them seriously or treat them respectfully.

“Interviews can be stressful and tricky at the best of times, but if you do find it going badly through no fault of your own then don’t panic. Keeping your cool and remaining dignified in an awkward situation will create a great impression and if the interviewer is that bad then you probably won’t want the job anyway.”

Moving on, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is something that we at Recruitment Matters take seriously. Please read our article below about our new tie-up with The CarbonNeutral Company http://www.carbonneutral.com/pinfo/plant-a-tree.asp to plant a tree for every open course we run. That’s upwards of 300 trees a year!

Also see our news section for information on our ‘early bird’ discount offer, and our Q1 2008 open course schedule including two new courses.

A reminder that this is very much an interactive newsletter and we welcome your comments and feedback and will be happy to feature your contributions on important industry issues and your advice on how to improve the success and professionalism of our marketplace. As you will see below, in return, we will show our gratitude by featuring a link to your company, as a contributor to this publication.

We at Recruitment Matters have a simple underlying philosophy to everything that we do, and that is, by helping each other to improve, we all stand to benefit in this large, dynamic and fast-growing industry.

Please send your potential editorial contributions to ken@recruitmentmatters.com.

The Credit Crunch – What Impact on Recruitment Businesses and Access to Finance?

Contributor: Paul Saunders, Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance

The credit crunch, on top of the delayed impact of previous rate hikes, is likely to cause the economy to be slowing fairly sharply by the start of next year and increase speculation that interest rates will fall ahead of earlier predictions.

Recruitment businesses may be concerned about the impact of the credit crunch on their borrowing both now and in the short term. There is already some evidence of banks toughening the lending criteria on corporate loans further, raising collateral requirements and reducing maximum credit lines. However, because the majority of recruiters have relationships with asset backed secured lenders, I don’t expect to see any adverse effect on the sector in the provision of working capital finance.

At a time like this it may feel right to stick with an existing finance partner but if there are issues with an existing relationship it may still pay to look at switching. In volatile conditions it is essential that you are with a provider you can trust and can deliver what they say. If that is an easy question to answer in the affirmative then stick with them. It is fundamental that your financial partner understands the inflexible cash outflows that exist in every temporary staffing company. If they don’t, then you should look to move, as there are others that do!

The Chancellor’s pre budget report will also add some pressure to any owners planning a sale to complete ahead of the proposed changes to CGT on 5 April 2008. This will clearly stimulate activity in the transactions market and finance providers will be keen to participate.

At Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance we are in the process of reorganising our operation to provide specialist support to the recruitment sector. We can provide an end to end solution for all staffing companies including those acquiring. We recently implemented a new pay and bill platform and will be expanding our outsourcing choices to both existing and new clients. We are working on a number of initiatives that will be specific to our 1550 clients in the sector. We believe that specialism gets us closer to our clients and enables us to adapt quickly to their changing needs.

Paul Saunders, Director, Recruitment Finance, Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance
Mobile: 07710 978445 www.recruitmentfinance.co.uk

The value of water cooler networking

A study from Manchester Business School’s Institute of Innovation and Research and ICI has confirmed that getting people talking informally - water cooler networking - is one of the most effective ways of unlocking knowledge within an organisation.

The joint project compared the formal and informal social networks within large research and development organisations where the free exchange of ideas and know-how is crucial.

Dr Phil Gamlen, Senior Fellow at Manchester Business School, said, "Businesses should ask themselves whether they are maximising the power of informal networks as an integral part of their business development strategy. However, it’s not always as straightforward as it seems - especially if an organisation has recently undergone restructuring, which can sever key relationships."

The study has generated five action points which can easily be put into practice:

• Informal social networks matter - coffee room or water cooler gossip lubricates the real business of the firm. Informal contacts help spread key knowledge within an organisation. Yet informal contacts are often ignored when managing organisations
• Informal networks need managing. Individuals who are key technology 'nodes' and those who cross boundaries must be identified and nurtured. These key people can help or hinder know-how flow around a large organisation
• To be an effective knowledge node needs a particular set of personal characteristics but coaching and training can increase impact still further
• It is possible to map networks within firms to reveal gaps and blocks which may have to be supported by more formal structures, such as regular meetings
• Loss of personnel not only means a loss of formal know-how, but the organisation also disproportionately suffers from the collapse of informal networks which a manager has built up during their employment.

Put Haggis on your Job Board Menu

Contributor: Shirley Anne Woods, Haggis Hunter International (.com)

Haggis Hunter International (.com) is a welcome and refreshing new Scottish-based job board, aiming to secure your support and enthusiasm for its swift growth and leading market placement in offering a free site trial until the close of 2007.

It’s still very early days for this new Scottish independent jobsite, however its success will almost certainly stem from its simple to use, easy on the eye look and feel, assisted by the sheer enthusiasm and passion of its team.

Novices in the marketplace, maybe, but don’t mistake this and hedge your bets. You will only be disappointed, as their desire remains strong to promote this jobsite as one of Scotland’s leading portal’s for sourcing staff globally over the world-wide web.

100% independent and free from ownership from media groups or newspapers, with absolutely no alliances or associations with existing job boards, they stand firm in their belief of success in an already competitive market place.

International, very much so, as they hope to promote the site globally to job seekers looking to travel and work throughout the UK, offering temporary city job opportunities to back-packers from as far away as Australia, and long term careers to those wishing to return to the beautiful land of the midge from the South or overseas.

On offer at launch and until the end of 2007, free and unlimited job posting for all, to direct employers and Recruitment Consultancies alike, followed swiftly later in the year by the wider availability of their CV Search facility.

From the outset are plenty of available logo advertising slots at highly competitive, one-off launch prices. Also up for grabs are featured job adverts, banner and sector sponsorship advertisements, so few will be disappointed.

So many job boards come and go in the blink of an eye, and few are barely memorable, but be prepared for Haggis Hunter International (.com) to last the pace and keep up with those presently in online dominance.

For free and unlimited advertising register early at www.haggishunterinternational.com.

Recruiters’ Guide to handling researchers

Contributor: David Steel, Exacta Research

Step Four – Talking to candidates
There is nothing better, when running a research team, than to hear the words: “I’ve got four potentials to speak to tonight…” as you’re doing an end of day update with a consultant. More often than not, a researcher will judge their entire day’s work on the outcome of three or four calls that evening with potential candidates who have heard something in the call they’ve received during the day that has intrigued them.

The next morning, said researcher will either bounce into the office with a number of profiles under their arm (and, therefore, candidates), or walk in, head bowed, with little or nothing to show from the previous day’s approaches.

Of course, you can’t assume anything when dealing with people – just because someone has committed to giving a researcher their mobile number and a time to contact them that evening, doesn’t mean one should expect that (a) that person will still be interested having been given the full information about the opportunity and (b) that even if they are interested, do they fit the job spec and role profile? Strong ID and a tight daytime approach brief can give you the best possible chance of only approaching targets who will be ‘right’, but no one can get it spot on, time after time.

When talking to potential candidates of an evening, I encourage researchers to thank the individual for their time that day and respect the fact that it isn’t always easy taking a cold call at work from someone offering them a potential new opportunity. We always like to make sure that we’ve caught the person at a good time, too – there is nothing worse than getting into the ‘brief groove’ only to be cut short with the line: “Oh, I’ve got to pop out in five minutes…is this going to take long?” Very frustrating, though not as frustrating as those who commit to a time, but then don’t answer!

Once a researcher is happy that they have that person’s undivided attention, the real work can begin. Outside of office hours, we’re able to really give the target individual the complete sell – more about the client, the role, the person spec, the history behind the recruit, the salary/package, progression opportunities and, most importantly, the major selling points and ‘hooks’ as to why this move could be ‘the one’ for them.

This is a crucial part of the process. Most times, a lot of the targets we end up speaking to are fairly happy where they are, work for good businesses, are looked after and well paid. If the sell is strong and pitched right, that person may suggest that they’re not looking to move but would be curious to know more and maybe meet someone to talk further. Get that sell wrong, or miss out on the major attractions, and you’re more likely to get “Well, that sounds OK, but I’m pretty happy where I am and not really looking, so I think I’ll pass on this one.”

A number of those in one evening and a researcher’s blood, sweat and tears for that day have largely been in vain.

David Steel is Research Director at Exacta Research, a recruitment research company who provide a candidate research service to help clients find the best possible candidates across all sectors and levels. For further information email hannah@exactaresearch.co.uk, visit www.exactaresearch.co.uk or call 08000 856 618.

Every Cloud

John was a recruitment consultant. He went to his local butcher’s shop and asked for a really nice piece of steak as it was a special night (his wedding anniversary) and he wanted to cook a great meal. The butcher said he was waiting for a delivery so he asked if he could come back in a couple of hours. John decided to go to the supermarket instead and when he walked in he fell over a hand basket and hurt his ankle. While he was being looked after and tended to by the customer care assistant in the manager’s office, he overheard a conversation - the manager was receiving a call from a potential new starter who was phoning to say he had taken another job and wouldn’t be starting after all at the end of the month.

I’m sure you can write the end of the story - it was a butcher’s assistant vacancy! John went back to the butcher to get his steak (as he had left Tesco without making it round the store) to find the butcher was frustrated with his situation because his employer was continually getting deliveries too late to keep custom – so, he wanted a new job and John placed him at the supermarket? Well, actually, no – he went home empty handed to find that his wife had left him.

The good news was that he hadn’t spent a fortune on the anniversary meal! There’s a silver lining in every cloud – sometimes it’s harder than others to find, but look hard enough and you will – and think hard enough and you will learn from it. Think of this story the next time a candidate turns down a job or a cold call gets a poor response.
Warren Kemp is principal and lead trainer with Recruitment Matters. For more tips, advice and information on Recruitment Matters visit www.recruitmentmatters.com/free.php, telephone 0800 0749 289 or email warren@recruitmentmatters.com.

Life is curly

Contributor: Neil Kirby

I recently read “Fierce Conversations” by Susan Scott, who uses the expression “Life is curly, don’t try to straighten it out.”

This struck me, because life is full of ups and downs. The ups tend to be easy. The downs, though, may be uncomfortable and we might be tempted to avoid them (how often do we stop our children or our staff from using their initiative?). Sometimes we put our heads in the sand and pretend its not happening.

Instead I wonder whether we’re better simply to acknowledge how we feel, to acknowledge our discomfort.

We can begin to understand exactly what we are uncomfortable about and how it’s shaping our thinking and our actions. We can decide whether we want to proceed and what action we need to take.

We can begin to look back on uncomfortable times, and ask “What did I learn from it that will help me now or in the future?” That way we can gain something from every experience.

If you have any questions or comments on this article or issues you face, please contact me (in confidence) on 01707 395850 or email me at neil@neilkirby.co.uk. There’s no obligation.
Neil Kirby is a life coach and a leading practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).

How to write your own PR material

Contributor: Rory Blyth, BlueSky PR

Gaining and guiding press attention is important to any business. If possible, bring in the professionals and the results can be as, if not more, effective (and cheaper) than standard paid for advertising. But if you feel like trying your own press campaign, here are a few tips to writing good, punchy copy that will get noticed.

Firstly, the natural instinct when embarking on a press campaign is to trumpet successes and new developments – your office move or record profits are major parts of your recent work and you’d like to communicate that. But unfortunately, journalists like to report news that affects their readership – a simple story with new information. So before you write, think to yourself – would I read this and is it easy to understand?

If your release is newsworthy, sum up your key message in a first, short sentence. Then present the journalist with some hard evidence to back up your story – perhaps some statistics – and finally present a quotable sound bite that offers your interpretation of them. This way, readers will associate you with useful opinion, as opposed to disposable self promotion.

In general, whatever you write, there are some rules to good journalistic techniques. These are - always write in the active, not the passive; use simple grammar wherever possible and in this way, present a new idea in each sentence. Verbosity does not equal good writing. But finally and most importantly, get at least one person to check what you have written – poor grammar may pass, but bad spelling will ruin the impact of even the best copy.

Rory Blyth is a consultant with BlueSky PR, the specialist PR and marketing firm for the recruitment sector, he can be contacted on Tel: 0845 130 8291, Email: rory@bluesky-pr.net

Features and benefits

Always talk in terms of features and benefits to candidates and clients alike. The latest Virgin pendalino train can travel up to 125 mph (feature). Because of that speed my journey from Coventry to London is now 20 minutes shorter than it used to be thus allowing me to travel later and be home earlier (benefit).

Your organisation has been around since 1998 - what’s the benefit to a client? You have worked in the industry you now recruit for - what’s the benefit to the candidate? Take twenty minutes now to note down some features about your company and work hard on stating benefits next to them. That’s just for starters. Ideally you should have 3 F&B’s on your company for both clients and candidates (different ones, or at least the benefits will be) and 3 F&B’s about recruitment for each too. Work hard on getting them spot on and type them out to have to hand when calling clients or candidates. You will feel more confident and come across more professionally when you can hit back at the “Humph! You recruiters are all the same!” or “Why should we use you?” statements you inevitably encounter. If it takes you half a day to fully develop, but you will use them day in day out for the rest of your career, it’s time well spent.

Let me put it another way - if you were asked by a client to present a written tender for a contract to recruit for them and it could be worth £50,000 a year to you, how long would you take over it, how many drafts would you write, how many other colleagues would you run it past before sending it to the client with your fingers crossed? Yet, how many times do we open our mouths to clients and candidates with what is effectively our first draft? Have Features & Benefits to hand every time you pick up the phone.

Matt Wilson is a consultant with Recruitment Matters with a current focus on our Two Day Induction, Telephone Skills and Interview Skills courses. For more information on Recruitment Matters, our training courses, services and products visit www.recruitmentmatters.com, telephone 0800 0749289 or email info@recruitmentmatters.com.

Recruitment Matters and Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept whereby organisations consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, employees, shareholders, communities and the environment in all aspects of their operations. This obligation is seen to extend beyond the statutory obligation to comply with legislation and sees organisations voluntarily taking further steps to improve the quality of life for employees and their families as well as for the local community and society at large.

At Recruitment Matters we are taking CSR seriously. We racked our brains as to how we could play our part in taking our responsibilities sincerely and make a positive difference to the environment too. As much as we all try here to run a paperless office and don’t print brochures or send many letters, we recognised that we use a huge amount of paper giving delegates on training courses handouts and manuals – 60 pages plus cardboard covers on our ‘Successful Head-Hunting’ course as an example. Therefore, we are now working with The CarbonNeutral Company http://www.carbonneutral.com/pinfo/plant-a-tree.asp to plant a tree for every course we run. That’s upwards of 300 trees a year!

Why not write and let us know what you and your company are doing to play your part in CSR and we will feature you in our monthly newsletter (it’s via email of course!). Please email info@recruitmentmatters.com.

Recruitment Matters news

Well October has been a cracker of a month for us, as forecast in our last newsletter, and our encouragement to talk to us about delivering customised in-house versions of our training courses or something completely bespoked seems to have worked, as we have a packed month ahead to look forward to in November with only a couple of dates still available. However, perhaps now would be a good time to consider how to get your team off to a great start in the New Year with some inspired training? Please call Ken or email ken@recruitmentmatters.com to explore this option further.

A reminder that we have a great new course, ‘Building & Running An Effective Search Desk,’ from Warren, starting on November 20/21st in London and rolling out in 2008 – for more information on this, please click here.

Also on Nov 9th, we launch a new half day course, ‘Managing Teams and Mentoring People’ again, rolling out next year – for more information on this great addition to our repertoire, please click here.

We’ve launched a new initiative to encourage you to plan ahead and book your open courses early and are now offering an ‘Early Bird’ discount if you book six weeks ahead – don’t forget to ask us for details prior to making your booking, as offers may vary.

Finally, see below for our new dates for Q1 2008, featuring some new venues and introducing another top new course from Matt, ‘Head-Hunting For Researchers.’

If you require more information or have any further ideas for new courses, locations, or topics that you feel that we should be covering, or, as previously mentioned, if you would like to explore what we could do for you on an in-house basis, we would be delighted to hear from you.

For more information on Recruitment Matters, our training courses, services and products visit www.recruitmentmatters.com, telephone 0800 0749289 (0044 1438 755559 if you’re overseas) or email ken@recruitmentmatters.com.

RECRUITMENT MATTERS: October 2007 – March 2008 Open Training Schedule

SUCCESSFUL HEAD-HUNTING
Trainer: WARREN KEMP
Oct 30th – London
Nov 13th – Milton Keynes
Nov 16th – Edinburgh
Nov 27th – Manchester
Nov 29th – London
Dec 11th – Birmingham
Dec 13th – London
Jan 16th – London
Jan 17th – Birmingham
Jan 29th – Bristol
Feb 15th – London
Feb 20th – Manchester
Feb 26th – Sheffield
Mar 5th – London
Mar 11th – Belfast
Mar 19th – Birmingham

Investment £325+VAT
‘Bring A Friend’ £225+VAT
Link

HEAD-HUNTING FOR RESEARCHERS
Trainer: MATT WILSON
Jan 15th – London
Jan 29th – Birmingham
Feb 7th – Leeds
Feb 20th – London
Mar 12th – Birmingham
Mar 20th – London
Mar 25th – Liverpool

Investment £295+VAT
‘Bring A Friend’ £225+VAT
Link

TWO DAY INTRODUCTION TO RECRUITMENT
‘Induction for new recruits’
Trainer: MATT WILSON
Oct 23/24th – London
Nov 13/14th – Birmingham
Nov 20/21st – London
Jan 22/23rd – London
Feb 5/6th – Manchester
Feb 12/13th – Birmingham
Mar 4/5th – London

Investment £495+VAT
Link

INTERVIEW SKILLS FOR RECRUITERS
Trainer: MATT WILSON
Oct 30th – London
Oct 31st – Birmingham
Nov 6th – Manchester
Dec 4th – London
Dec 11th – Bristol
Feb 19th – London
Mar 11th – Manchester
Mar 19th - Birmingham

Investment £245+VAT
‘Bring A Friend’ £195+VAT
Link

WINNING NEW BUSINESS
‘Telephone Skills For Recruiters’
Trainer: MATT WILSON
Oct 16th – Bristol
Oct 17th – London
Nov 7th – Birmingham
Nov 27th – London
Dec 5th – Manchester
Jan 9th – Birmingham
Jan 17th – London
Mar 18th – London

Investment £245+VAT
‘Bring A Friend’ £195+VAT
Link

WINNING RETAINED ASSIGNMENTS (half day)
Trainer: WARREN KEMP (2007)/MATT WILSON (2008)
Running Time: 9.30am – 1.00pm
Nov 14th – Manchester
Nov 23rd – Birmingham
Dec 5th – Bristol
Dec 6th – London
Dec 12th – Birmingham
Jan 16th – Manchester
Jan 30th – Birmingham
Feb 26th – London
Mar 26th – Birmingham

Investment £149+VAT
‘Bring A Friend’ £129+VAT
Link

Don’t Become A Frog! 250 Tips For Busy Recruiters (half day)
Trainer: WARREN KEMP
Running Time: 2.00pm – 5.00pm
Dec 6th – London

Investment £149+VAT
‘Bring A Friend’ £129+VAT
Includes a free copy of new publication ‘Don’t Become A Frog! 250 Tips For Busy Recruiters.’
Link

BUILDING & RUNNING AN EFFECTIVE SEARCH DESK (two days)
Trainer: WARREN KEMP
Nov 20/21st – London
Jan 23/24th – London
Feb 12/13th – Birmingham

Investment £595+VAT
Link

MANAGING TEAMS AND MENTORING PEOPLE (half day)
Trainer: WARREN KEMP
Running Time: 9.30am – 1.00pm
Nov 9th – London
Mar 25th – London
Mar 26th - Birmingham

Investment £149+VAT
‘Bring A Friend’ £129+VAT
Link

For more information on all these courses, visit www.recruitmentmatters.com.

Contact us

Recruitment Matters
2 Oakfield Road
Coventry CV6 1ED
UK
Tel: 0800 0749289
Fax: 01483 761709
Email: info@recruitmentmatters.com

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