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'News, Views & Tips From Recruitment Matters International'
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Recruitment Matters International Newsletter: August 2017




Contents

Welcome to our August newsletter

Where can videos be used in recruitment to drive results?
Proactive Calling – new open course
Recruitment Marketing Matters
Set the scene and get in the mood                                           
The law requires ‘Contractor Compliance’ to be visible                                                     
The Taylor Review: The potential impact for recruiters
What's new?
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Welcome to our August newsletter
Welcome from the Recruitment Matters International team!
 
As ever, there are some updates on what we’ve been up to and our plans for you over the coming months – for example, you’ll see we have a new one day open course by Andrew Carr, ‘Proactive Calling.’ We feature external contributions, too, and would welcome more from you for future newsletters.

We open with an article from Andy Kerney, CEO at JOBVIDDY on how videos can be used by recruiters to help drive their results. We’re certainly going to be using videos more to help market our training courses.

We have another in our series ‘Recruitment Marketing Matters,’ our monthly column from The Ideal Marketing Company. In this article, Ben Cherry shares some thoughts on creating a customer experience that candidates want..

This month our CEO Warren Kemp considers ‘setting the scene and getting in the mood.’ Is this relevant to recruitment? Of course..

Next up we have Mike Phillips, Marketing Director, ItsInternational with some provocative views on the recruitment industry’s legal obligations regarding contractor compliance.

We also have the latest article from our legal expert, Simon Bloch, Partner, Knights 1759 along with his colleague Laurence Laidler who look at The Taylor Review and its potential impact for recruiters.

We very much like this to be an interactive newsletter and 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 know, in return, we show our gratitude by featuring a link to your company as a contributor to this publication.

Recruitment Matters International has 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 ever evolving industry.

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


Where can videos be used in recruitment to drive results?



Contributor: Andy Kerney, CEO, JOBVIDDY

YouTube announced earlier this year that visitors to the platform are now consuming 1 Billion hours of video content per day!

Amazing statistics like this are not just isolated to YouTube; both Facebook and Instagram are also seeing impressive audience results through the use of video. With this level of growth and engagement it’s no coincidence that LinkedIn has decided to enter the scene and has recently started to roll out its own video service.

Away from the social media platforms other communications channels are also realising positive results. A/B testing has shown that emails containing video or that use video in the subject line see higher open and click-through rates compared to normal email.
 
So with the growth in video showing no signs of a slow-down, we’ve highlighted some of the many areas and ways video can be used to drive positive outcomes and results in recruitment:

Bring your jobs to life and attract high quality applications
Bring your jobs to life with video and improve application quality. Get Hiring Managers, Recruiters and Employees talking about the jobs, the opportunities and why a candidate should work there. Video job adverts can easily be added to emails, CRM/SMS campaigns and posted across social media.

Showcase your brand
Not every business is a big brand so it's highly probable candidates will not know who you are and importantly what you do. Typically up to 2 minutes long, these videos can give a fast, exciting unique look inside your business and are the perfect addition to your careers website.

Set your candidates up for success
Set your candidates up for success and prepare them effectively and consistently using video with helpful hints and tips style videos, e.g.
  1. CV tips and advice
  2. Interview preparation
  3. How to perform a video interview
  4. How to prepare for an assessment day
  5. How to resign
  6. How to manage a counter-offer

Maintain candidate engagement
Build candidate relationships by sending a simple “Thank you” video after receiving an application. Take it up a level by saying “Congratulations” when candidates secure an interview or, even better, when a candidate gets the job.

Engage candidates and communities
Continually nurture candidate and community relationships and pipeline talent by delivering added value. Create videos that deliver updates on the latest industry news, trends and jobs. Send via regular newsletters, blogs or post across social media.
 
Set yourself apart to win retained and exclusive business
Set yourself apart from the competition in your niche by using added-value and innovative video products. Show how you can use video to showcase your client’s brand to attract the best talent for them.

These are just a snapshot of some of the areas where video can be used effectively to deliver results. Each organisation is unique, so has the potential to use video in many other exciting and innovative ways.

It’s never been easier or more cost-effective to get started with video, so now is the perfect time to explore how to use it to your business’s advantage.

For further information, email Andy Kerney andy@ingenious.video or call 0208 068 8344. Click on the link https://vimeo.com/200826674  for a short, introductory video. Also see www.jobviddy.com .



Proactive Calling: NEW one day open training course



Increase your telephone calling success by becoming more structured and assertive

Who is this for?
This one day open training course is for business owners who want their managers, recruitment teams and individual recruiters to become more structured and assertive over the telephone with either their clients or candidates.

Aims & Objectives
By the end of the course you will be able to:
  • Understand the importance of proactivity within a fast-moving recruitment sales environment.
  • Discuss and implement proactive actions, which focus on building long-term consultative customer relationships.
  • Develop a ‘curious brain’ approach to gathering specific and business focused information, which facilitates, develops and progresses customer loyalty.
  • Develop a positive, confident, assertive and enthusiastic calling manner.
  • Deal confidently and proactively with customer objections.
  • Proactively respond to closing signals and ask for commitment.
  • Plan, structure, make and analyse results focused calls which meet agreed objectives.

For the full course overview please visit Proactive Calling.

Dates
November 21st – London
More dates tbc

Investment
£349+VAT

NOTE. All delegates get a FREE 30 days full access subscription for our online training platform ku.dos worth a minimum of £50



For a brief introduction to our highly experienced trainer, Andrew Carr, click on Meet The Team.




Recruitment Marketing Matters



Contributor: Ben Cherry, The Ideal Marketing Company

Monthly ideas on ways to market your recruitment business and achieve better results.  

Creating a customer experience that candidates want
 
The words ‘recruitment agency’ can sometimes send a shiver down the spine of employers and job seekers alike. The recruitment industry on the whole seems to have built up a bad reputation for itself and the perception of agencies can be considered negative.

Why is this, though? There are plenty of reputable, hardworking recruitment agencies around but without looking into each agency on its own merits, the industry has a reputation needing improvement. And it’s the same tale whether it’s a candidate looking for work or a company with a position to fill.

The reasoning is simple really. As usual, in recruitment the customer is king and not putting enough focus on the customer experience is damaging agency’s brands. Unfortunately, rogue agencies have tarnished the industry and their bad habits are causing candidates to have often unfair views on recruitment agencies.

It’s important to identify what the bad habits are and be honest if your agency is guilty of following some of the poor practices that are having a negative effect on an agencies perception. Some common traits that create a negative customer experience are:
  • Not being transparent. We all want to be the bearer of good news but negative news and feedback is important and needed for those that have spent time applying.
  • Overloading with job vacancies. It’s really not beneficial for candidates on your database to receive hundreds of job vacancies that aren’t relevant to them. Recruiters that rely on numbers to fill their vacancies often perform worse and only infuriate job seekers.
  • Not knowing about the industry. Particularly for those that claim they are specialists in recruitment for a specific industry, they need a knowledge of the jobs that they are recruiting for and the requirements.
  • Selling candidates a job that isn’t right for them. This could be making job seekers apply for a job that is a longer commute than desired or mis-selling a role just so that the sale can be made.
A recruitment agency is like any other business: the perception that customers have hinges on the customer experience. By fulfilling any of the traits listed above, it will do nothing to improve your customer experience and will leave you playing catch up. It has been found that 12 positive experiences are needed to repair the damage of one negative one.

The first step to improving the customer experience is to understand your customer’s needs. If an employer is using your recruitment services, and investing good money doing so, they want the best possible new employee at the end of the process. Those searching for a job ultimately want you to help them make the next step in their career. It’s simple and it’s your agency’s role to match one with the other.

Put yourself in your client’s shoes and make sure they are as happy as possible. A recruitment agency is nothing without candidates so agencies need to do ensure their experience is as strong as possible to ensure you attract the top tier of candidates that employers will be vying to attract.
Changing your customer experience is not an easy task. Although they are frequently confused, customer service is only part of the customer experience. To create a positive customer experience, the agency needs to create a company culture that keeps the customer as the primary focus. This attitude should run from the top right through to the bottom.
 
Ultimately, a recruitment agency needs to do the opposite of the things highlighted above: keep customers informed every step of the way; be selective about the jobs proposed to job seekers and have a knowledge of the industry you’re recruiting for. Seek feedback from candidates you’ve helped find a position for and from those that have stopped using your service to find out what areas of your experience you can improve on.

Whilst it’s too difficult to change the perception of the industry as a whole, offering a positive customer experience to every person that uses your services, forms the basis of creating a good perception of your own recruitment agency.

If you are a specialist recruitment agency, you want to build the best relationship with those working in the industry; both companies and candidates. Providing a faultless customer experience is key to achieving this.

Ben Cherry is a marketing executive at The Ideal Marketing Company, an award winning full service marketing, digital and PR agency that works with the recruitment sector as well as many others. For further information and advice visit www.idealmarketingcompany.com or call 01858 445 543.   




Set the scene and get in the mood



Contributor: Warren Kemp, CEO & Trainer, Recruitment Matters International

If you were to host a party, you would ideally take time to prepare a list of the right mix of people to invite, send out invitations in plenty of time, check that your guests will be attending, make sure you have the appropriate venue, and ensure you can create the right atmosphere for your guests with decor, lighting, music and food based on what you know your guests will appreciate.

In the couple of hours before, as well as getting yourself ready with the right clothes, you would most likely get yourself in the mood with some music, perhaps a drink or two and a bit of a “mini boogie”(rehearsal) to warm up. During the party you would do your very best to keep everyone happy throughout it, give them a fond farewell, follow up a few days later with a thank you and ask your guests if they enjoyed themselves.

If all goes to plan, you will have created a bit of a buzz for a week or two afterwards, made some new friends, really impressed one or two key people and perhaps even have received a couple of invitations in return.
 
Read this back and tell me if business development or a series of candidate screening calls is so different...

Warren Kemp is CEO and trainer with Recruitment Matters International. For more tips, advice and information on Recruitment Matters visit http://recruitmentmatters.com/  telephone 0800 0749 289 / +44 (0)1529 410586 or email info@recruitmentmatters.com.


The law requires ‘Contractor Compliance’ to be visible and vigorously applied in every recruitment business



Contributor: Mike Phillips, Marketing Director, ItsInternational

Written in good faith by Mike Phillips, this feature focuses on criminality and deceit in the world of recruitment.  It is purposely provocative to highlight a myriad of unsavoury issues which could critically damage your business. 

“From recent meetings and conference calls with international recruiters I admire here in the UK and across Europe, the prime consensus is that there are too many rogue management companies and umbrellas continually spinning fictional ‘contractor compliance’ and polluting their marketplace.  Fronted by whizzy websites and smooth-talking advisors, these commercial service providers are drawn like magnets to recruiters desiring ‘distance from compliance’, simplicity, low charges and unrealistically-high net retention for their placements.”  

Hopefully the following points will reinforce or renew your own pathway to safety and security when striving to profitably placing expatriate or local contractors overseas.
  1. When considering an international management or umbrella company, start by visiting their website to consider their claims. 
    1. One company which, in fairness, makes no claim on its website to being regulated openly declares: “When using our solutions we fully indemnify recruitment businesses and end users from any tax compliance liability.  Nobody else does this!”  Well, there are three obvious reasons why “nobody else does this”:
      1. It is not possible to indemnify against any criminal charges resulting from a tax compliance liability. 
      2. The commitment seemingly disregards unknown future changes in local legislation and practice; and discounts the challenges in adapting current solutions.
      3. Most countries (the UK being a notable exception) consider it illegal for any unregulated business or individual to give local, definitive, statutory advice.
    2. Another international umbrella’s website boldly states: “British contractors can now get limited company returns of 85% to 90% of their income – or even higher”; and “Money sent offshore is not taxable”.  While simple logic dictates such statements to be contrived and downright illegal, they have not stopped gullible recruiters including those umbrellas in their contract chains.  When will those recruiters ever learn: “If it sounds too good to be true, it isn’t true”.   

    3.  
  2. Split-income (by definition, part-declared) schemes still blossom.  They are often nourished by placements putting pressure on unwitting sales consultants.  Some recruiters either “turn a blind eye” or naively dismiss any need to understand how those solutions are supposed to meet required compliance standards.   

  3. Contractors logically presume a recruiter’s PSL is a selection of international management and umbrella companies properly validated by that recruiter.  That PSL supposedly presents a choice of equals in terms of compliance and service.  Having made the selection and started their assignment, the contractor may experience a wide gulf between service promise and delivery.  Contractors have become service-savvy and may choose to bite their recruiter who validated that service provider. I know there are always exceptions but in my view a PSL is a copout.  It normally encourages the low fee / unrealistically high retention culture.  Somehow, real compliance gets lost in the mist of apparent benefits.  

  4. Amazingly and despite current bribery and anti-corruption legislation, there are still recruiters with an insatiable appetite for referral payments – especially among those who still believe “all management companies and umbrellas are the same”.  The frequency and value of these payments merit, for some recruiters, the creation of a stand-alone ‘profit centre’ for the business.   Twinning ‘kick-backs’ with compliance is potentially an extreme risk – rarely for the service provider, always for the recruiter.  How does a recruiter justify such commission receipts to a statutory authority during an investigation involving the placement and the commission-paying provider?  Furthermore, such payments are made from supposedly competitive fees.  This surely impacts on the quality and range of service delivered, potentially lowering the required level of ‘placement compliance’.

  5. Recruiters need to understand Chain Law.  It allows tax offices to seek compensation (a kinder word than ‘retribution’) for contractor non-compliance from any party in the contract chain.  The weakest link is always the client in the host country.  No proper international service provider ever delivers or facilitates “solutions” without firstly considering placement compliance risks to the client.  Recruiters should always check that risk.  If things go wrong, at worst the recruiter faces a massive statutory penalty – at best an irreversible loss of reputation.  Either way it’s bye-bye client.

  6. The International Tax Compliance (Client Notification) Regulations 2016 helps the authorities discover undeclared contract income.  The Criminal Finances Act 2017 exposes directors and shareholders of recruitment businesses to accusations of facilitating tax evasion by placements.  The net is closing in on unprepared recruiters.

  7. In my view, trade bodies have a fresh, critical responsibility to their members.  Some of these organisations’ desire to constantly preach sales-led, global domination must work in parallel with an undiluted duty to powerfully publicise, openly educate and inspire their members to adopt real and practical compliance standards.  They must encourage a better balance between sales and compliance – especially as agency directors and shareholders will shortly be directly exposed to compliance issues inadvertently or otherwise triggered by their sales consultants or their placements and their service providers.  What a mess for the unprepared.  Home country and foreign tax offices are licking their lips.  They are going to have a field day!
If you want to consider how our passion for compliance can support your business, please connect with me, Mike Phillips either on +44 (0)20 7477 2660 or at mikep@itsinternational.ltd.uk.


The Taylor Review: The potential impact for recruiters



Contributors: Simon Bloch, Partner and Laurence Laidler, Paralegal, Knights 1759

Just nine months after the Prime Minister commissioned Matthew Taylor to consider how employment practices and legislation need to change in order to keep pace with modern business models, the much anticipated Taylor Review on modern employment practices was published.

The review, which was published on 11 July 2017, recognised the positive impact and importance of a flexible workforce as well as the vital role that agency workers play in the UK’s economy, which has been central to the success of the jobs market in recent years.

One month on from its publication, and now that the initial hysteria around it has subsided, it is appropriate to consider what we believe are some of the review’s fundamental proposals that may impact the recruitment sector by changing the ways businesses recruit and engage with staff in the years to come.
  1. A key proposal is to make a clear distinction made between dependent contractors and those who are legitimately self-employed. The term “worker” should be replaced by the term “dependent contractor” to identify those who have worker status but do not have employee rights. However, this still has the potential to cause issues as “worker” is a term which runs throughout employment law.

  2. There are also calls to remove the requirement for workers to have a contract to personally perform work and instead place a greater emphasis on the principle of ‘control’ which could result in more people being classed as dependent contractors. This potentially offers greater protection to individuals who are not entitled to worker status simply because there is a substitution clause in their contract. The distinction between employees and workers is also recommended to be maintained, as should the requirement for there to be personal service in a contract of employment.

  3. To improve the information provided to workers, the right to have a written statement of terms should be extended to all workers who should be issued with written terms at the start of their position. This should include a description of an individual’s statutory rights. Employers that fail to provide a written statement should be made to compensate individuals.

  4. The right to make flexible working requests should be extended to cover temporary as well as permanent changes to employment contracts.

  5. Provide agency workers who have been with the same hirer for 12 or more months the right to be able to request a direct contract with that employer and an obligation on the hirer to consider the request in a reasonable manner. Larger employers should also be required to publicly detail their overall workforce structure, including how many agency workers they use. 

    Similarly, those on zero-hours contracts should be entitled to the right to request guaranteed hours after 12 months with a particular employer.

  6. Make Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) a basic employment right that extends to all workers regardless of income from day one. SSP should be accrued on length of service. Holiday pay should also be reformed to allow individuals the choice to be paid “rolled up” holiday pay.

  7. Introduce a right to return to work following a long term sickness absence to the same or a similar job.

  8. Remove the Swedish Derogation legislation which enables agency workers to opt out of equal pay if they sign what is called a ‘pay between assignments’ contract.

  9. Amend legislation to provide that workers allocated through an android app will not have to be paid National Minimum Wage (NWM) for each hour that they are logged on when there is no work available. This would involve altering the piece rates legislation to ensure those working in the gig economy are still able to enjoy maximum flexibility whilst also being able to earn the NMW.

  10. Increase NMW for workers whose hours are not guaranteed. This would ensure that flexibility is genuinely a mutually beneficial arrangement and does not benefit the employer at the unreasonable expense of the worker.

  11. To avoid further increasing the non-wage costs of employing a person, the Apprenticeship Levy should be used to benefit those working through agencies. This would go some way towards removing a cost borne by the sector due to nature of firm’s artificially high payrolls.

Implementing the recommendations

Rather than sweeping away the UK’s existing regulations, the recommendations seek to build on them by encouraging responsible corporate governance, good management and strong employment relations within an organisation. This is suggested to be supported by updating legislation to reflect the key factors which determine whether someone is a worker or employee, with criteria to be set down in primary legislation and detail covered in secondary legislation and updated accompanying guidance to respond to changing conditions. This will make it easier for both employers and employees to determine employment status.

Prior to the publication of the review the government committed to letting the recommendations inform its industrial strategy, however, speaking at the launch of the review the Prime Minister stopped short of promising to implement it fully. Whilst Mrs May’s speech provided an indication of changes that may be coming if the government takes on some, if not all, of Mr Taylor’s recommendations, it is not yet clear which of the recommendations the government will choose to adopt.

This article is for general guidance only and should not be used for any other purpose.

This article was prepared by Simon Bloch, who is a Partner at Knights 1759 and specialises in advising recruitment agencies, and Laurence Laidler. To contact Simon, please email simon.bloch@knights1759.co.uk or call 0161 667 9205 to discuss any matter in this article or any recruitment issue at further length.

 
What’s new?

As you will probably have already read, we’ve got a great NEW one day open course Proactive Calling in addition to the two day in-house course Proactive Calling – Energiser we’re already offering from Andrew Carr. These are two great alternatives if you need to re-invigorate you telephone calling activities

We continue to lead the way with our ever-popular one day open course on Executing A Successful Head-Hunting Assignment . Also, the flipside of the coin, Selling Executive Search and Winning Retained & Exclusive Assignments (next date is London on October 11th). These two courses and our Candidate Sourcing course are currently enjoying a high level of bookings.

A reminder that we run a very popular one day management course which has experienced extremely strong demand recently for both open course and in-house training: Stewart Stone’s The Billing Manager – managing people & motivating teams (next date is September 5th). We always enjoy welcoming the continued steady stream of consultants who are moving up to management positions.

Our ‘Recruitment Fundamentals’ one day open courses are just £349+VAT for   Candidate Control, Screening & Interviewing (London on August 16th),  Business Development & Key Account Management, Running A Successful Temp Desk, as well as for Candidate Sourcing.  All of these open courses will be running throughout 2017, including our Two Day Introduction To Recruitment at the outstanding rate of just £549+VAT! Our next induction course is in London on September 26/27th.

In order to optimise your learning experience, our courses are purposely run with small delegate numbers and are generally capped at 12. Book now to avoid disappointment! See here for our latest training dates.

Remember, if you can’t come to us, we can come to you to deliver an in-house version of any of our courses to meet your specific objectives or, indeed, write a training programme specifically for you and your team. Contact ken@recruitmentmatters.com for more information.
                
For more information on these courses and our other services and products, visit www.recruitmentmatters.com, email info@recruitmentmatters.com or call Julie or Ken on 0800 0749289 or, if you’re overseas, 0044 1529 410586.





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