Hire Strategies Blog

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.....