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?

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

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.

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.....

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.

Job boards Vs Recruiters - the gloves are off - round one to the Guardian

 

Looks like another job board (Guardian Jobs) has slapped agencies in the face or in the views of commentators on Recruitment Views it was an illegal punch below the belt!

Bit instead of moaning about underhand tactics from a job boards the agencies should be getting in the first punch instead of waiting.  Oh, I forgot, they take the kidney punch approach instead!

How will the Kindle DX change job advertising?

I remember when Peoplebank positioned their ability to display online job adverts that looked like a print advert as a real USP (which it was at the time).  Was if of any value?  Some liked it but as online has moved on fewer (but not all) people expect an online job advert to look/behave like a print advert.

But if the Kindle DX is going to change this then maybe the advertising agencies need to beef up their creative skills once again.