Agencyosaurus - the original article!

There have been a number of murmurings among some agency recruiters as a result of Guardian Jobs launching Guardian Jobs Resourcing, which effectively sifts through and shortlists CVs for clients.

"How dare they, that's our job," say some of the agencies.

Well, maybe it was, but not right now. Like the dinosaurs, agencies have to move, adapt, or die.

Were they short of suitable blogs?

Summit fever - we're nearly there

From almost nowhere the summit is upon us.  The Infusionsoft Team came back from a long weekend of partying and made great strides to get us moving again.  In hindsight, the break was good and allowed me to sit out the storm and focus on what really needed to be done.

I hear many criticisms about software companies/products/projects and whilst this climb has not been perfect it has been pretty good so far.  And the "challenges" have been more mine than system.  As ever, you think you have everything planned but things do not always turn out as hoped.  Our back-up plans came into play and worked perfectly which have bought us some extra time.  Without these we would be back to base camp, injured, and struggling to get back to where we needed to be without further damage. 

Plan for things going wrong, put in a good back-up plan and be ready to implement it at short notice!

Where'd all the sherpa's go?

I stormed off ahead on the basis of being told "It will be like drinking from a fire hose" and along comes Independence Day.  Having got to a crux move and turned around to check for the right gear I find they all be partying.  To be fair, they have worked damn hard to get this far BUT my pace is dictated by them and due to my impending divorce from Salesforce the pace is not quite as quick as I need.  They also have a lot of people on the mountain to look after so delays and accidents are inevitable.

In an ideal world I would have had a longer time period to work within; I have been in this position before with a client and it was not a great time then either!  As usual, a new system is never easy to adapt to and close hand holding is critical for a smooth journey.  A few bumps and diversions at the moment not helped by everything else that is going on.  Still moving forwards and may be able to get to next camp by the weekend; albeit will need to go back to basecamp to make a few quick repairs next week to be able to make a final assault on the summit.

U gotta luv ur ATS

Because it is a "she" and we all know what happens if we don't love her!  Here are a few traits that I base my view on.

1. They ALL look great at the beauty parade.
2. The better they look the less sense they make when they speak. 
3. You have to change how you work to suit them. 
4. They appear low cost when you first start out but just become more costlier the longer you have them. 
5. To get out of your "agreement" costs a small fortune; even if you are right. 
6. It's never a fault with them; it's always user error. 
7. The brain (code) logic never quite makes sense.  
8. Under the bonnet, the logic is scrambled. 
9. The mulit-tasking module just makes you do lots of things badly BUT all at the same time. 
10. Shouting at them does not help. 

Luckily I love technology; life would be so mudane without it!

DISCLAIMER: I am married, have two young daughters and two cats. I am currently suffering from "just let the cat out just before she goes to the vet" fear. It is all my fault; I didn't read her mind! (An e-mail would have helped)

10 ways to spot a recruitment Dinosaur

I wrote an article for Personnel Today last week about Agencyosaurus.  Following on, how do you spot Agencyosaurus?

1. They were recruiting BEFORE mobile phones.
2. They have used a Rolodex.
3. Their hair is not the same colour now as when they started recruiting (if they have any).
4. They talk about how many recessions they have seen.
5. They class themselves as "seasoned professionals".
6. They tell you the stories of 30% placement fees/temp margins.
7. Their desk has a Top 10 tray.
8. When asked to "Reduce the fee" they go weak at the knees and mumble on about value.
9. They go on about how "recruiters today don't......"
10. They still wear a suit and tie to the office.

Have any more?  Think you fit the mould? And don't worry; I fall into most of the above so enjoy this post rather than get all defensive

Beyond basecamp.....

Getting to Infusionsoft (IF) base camp was a pretty easy walk but now we are into unsafe territory.  Data has been transferred BUT we still have leads coming into Salesforce due to web forms still being active on our website.

I'm running Sainsburys (badly)

I'm not sure what Justin King is hoping to achieve by this latest Apprentice style TV programme; maybe at the end he will tell all TV stars they are actually fired.  He states that colleagues will have the best ideas for how to improve their business which I would agree with but, based on what they have shown maybe this is not the case.  Or was it deliberate? Hide the best ideas, show the sad ideas, let your competitors think you are weak?  Bit of Sun Tzu; appear weak when strong?!

Even the Google ad goes to an error page - how ironic is that. (click the image to experience it)

So, would the TV programme make you want to work there or would it now put you off?  Last night was however very funny as Joseph was thrown in at the deep end as was pretty much ripped apart by some very competent and committed staff.  In the end he survived and is probably back in Derby reliving the adventure.

Personnel Today made me do it!

An article I enjoyed writing for Personnel Today; enjoy!  More friends, more non-friends no doubt.

Moving systems | Moving house

Clearly I don't have enough to do and won't be happy until I lose my head!  I am only 2 weeks away from swapping CRM systems, running the Discovery System Breakfast Seminar (its full!) and moving house from the Midlands to Tavistock, Devon.  On top of that, it looks like I have a major project to implement with a big company based about 3 miles from where I currently live!

Yet the plan is to work less, earn more, exploit technology to allow me to sleep.

Stop changing the menu...

I'm a big fan of the celebrity chefs and indeed like to think I am a pretty good cook.  I always watch Nightmare Kitchens and marvel at the simplicity that Gordon Ramsay instills upon the restaurant owners and am constantly amazed at their stupidity.  I have been going to an Indian restaurant in Leicester (Vishal) for over 20 years and the menu has hardly changed.  I go there for the best chicken tikka and nan breads ever seen on this planet.  I would stop going (it is now 40 miles away from me) if they changed.  They can put up the price, move location, get bigger etc but just don't change the recipe/menu.

So why do some restaurants keep on changing what they do?  Madness.

More die on the way down...

Hire Strategies left base camp in May 2003; just over 6 years ago.  Since that time you would think a lot has changed but in reality very little has!  Some people consider my business successful, others may not.  It has given me a good income but it has also been life consuming.  It has been a fantastic journey but again it has only just begun.  I may have reached some dizzy heights but "most people die on the way down (from Everest)."

Of course I'm not in any more danger than anyone else (on a mountain) but I do need to head back to base camp and regroup.  The weather (economy) is somewhat different from when we first headed out and our equipment needs to be better.  So, as I head back I am going to share the journey interspersed with my normal posts; I hope you can stay with me!

Twitter should address cyber squatting

I've only checked asdajobs and tescojobs on Twitter but both have been hijacked by Check4jobs; I'm sure they are squatting on many more names so both Twitter and the brand owners should take action to block them.  They should also block them from scraping jobs from their sites as well. 

It is this kind of underhand tactic that gets the recruitment industry a bad name and forces changes that will result in big brands charging the job boards to display their jobs/brand.  It is also up to the original advertiser where relevant to stop this kind of activity.  I'm all for jobs being aggregated where permission is granted but taking a brand name on a site such as Twitter is totally out of order.  So Check4jobs; we will be on your case!

Hire Strategies Discovery System Breakfast Seminar - July 7th London

We are running a free employer only breakfast seminar on July 7th at One Aldwych in London for employers who are either:

• Still recruiting and want to do it more cost effectively.
• Planning ahead and are looking at their future direct resourcing strategy.

Very few people need convincing on the merits of direct resourcing but actually putting the right things in place at the right time and for the right cost is not as easy as people would hope.  Having done this now on a number of occasions we have now systemised our process which allows us to quickly identify where an individual employer will get the quickest return but also have a 3 year plan to work towards.

If this sounds of interest more details are on our website at www.hirestrategies.co.uk/discover.

Well done Woolworthsreunited

Another ex-Woolies man has moved into the world of recruitment. Ex-Systems Manager Paul Seaton has set up a website called Woolworthsreunited to help ex-employees find work and stay in touch.

A great idea and some nice features within the site.  Well done Paul.  Mypeoplebiz may be offering you some consultancy work very soon!

Twitter growth slows - or does it? Some interesting and real stats shared.

I came across this kind of by accident really.  I was looking at a link from one of my Twitter posts and the stats made interesting reading; to me at least anyway!

• 51% of clicks were from the US.
• 17% of clicks were from the UK.
• 93% of people used a client/app to view/click on the link.
• 4% clicked on the link from Twitter!!

In absolute terms, the above example had 414 clicks purely via my Twitter feed (this is relevant).  So I checked a few more just out of interest and even one that has had 73,000 clicks (nothing to do with me, I'm just a contributor!) and get very similar stats regardless of the traffic source i.e. just me or many.

What does this say (to me)?  Maybe as more people get into Twitter they see the value of apps and migrate away from the Twitter interface.  The US is still the biggest adopter of Twitter.  The UK is moving fast.

Maybe the future of Twitter isn't Twitter but the concept of a big box of data in the middle and apps getting value from it.  And now my head hurts.....

Social Recruiting: over before it ever got started!

It makes me smile how we are starting to hear comments about social recruiting being a SCAM or over already.  Yes, it has yet to prove itself but as I remind people; job boards have taken over the recruitment advertising market - things change.

The big employers are going to be cautious for very good reasons but social networks are not being ignored.  For a Global organisation, having a global resourcing strategy without social media is hard enough, throw in the likes of Facebook and it gets that little bit harder so they are bound to be cautious.  The bigger issue though is how robust is their current process/infrastructure?  No point driving loads more traffic to a career site that can't handle it or, setting up Twitter profiles that never converse.

2009 is the year of research in readiness for 2010.  So don't panic if you think you are behind; there's still time!

The Social Employer Brand

Large employers will no doubt be finding budget for their employer brand and the snake oil salesmen agencies will be rubbing their hands in glee.  But what about the social employer brand.  Although many employers are still scared of social networks, and admit to not really knowing where to start, like it or not they need to make the most of social networks.

The likes of Facebook and Twitter may not have really proved themselves yet as hardcore recruiting channels but they do have a place in the recruitment process.  Smart employers will find a way of getting the most out of these channels without using all of their time or money.  Recruitment agencies will need to get smarter to survive; ad agencies will need to re-think how they can provide value when so many social networking services are free!

Employers have the desire; they just don't know where to start.

mypeoplebiz goes live kind of nearly almost soon

There have been a few raised eyebrows on this one and a particularly scathing post by @andyheadworth which I resisted until now; but now that the site is live here goes.

And I thought I was controversial - Peter Weddle goes that bit further

Seems Peter Weddle has upset a few people with his blog post The Great SCAM in Recruiting stating that "social recruiting" is a SCAM and will not be of any value until 2014.  He even includes Linkedin as a site that won't be any value until 2014!

Not surprisingly there have been a few comments and response posts such as Peter Weddle Owes A Lot Of People Apologies with plenty of comments.

There are many aspects of recruiting that won't change as quickly such as the human interaction bit but, no matter which bits we think are the future history shows that as a human race we constantly change, adapt and die.

Maybe the old man needs the attention. Maybe he's had a senile moment.  Or maybe he is just an age old recruiter who is scared of change and cannot understand when it's time to see the future.  Who knows, he may even be right!!