ScrivRec

Manage candidates' expectations

2012-02-24T15:09:00.000Z

Now, where is that person?

I am as vocal as any levellingcriticism on the recruitment industry. In large those in the profession do a very good job, but the antics ofthe few tarnish the majority. I am notgoing to deliver another horror story, I think I’ve done quite enough of thoserecently! Instead I am going to suggesthow the bulk of agencies can, via simple communication, vastly improve howagencies are perceived.

A good recruitment consultantwill manage the expectations of a candidate through a recruitment process. What we need to do is manage the expectationsof every job seeker that registers with us. The simple reason why people register with an agency is to find a role –nothing ground breaking there – but agents need to explain how theyoperate. The key phrase agents need tostate and job seekers understand is as follows:

Agencies find people for jobs, not jobs forpeople

An agency has a list oforganisations which they support. When arole is released they need to match the requirements of the role to a job seeker. A person could be an outstandingprofessional, but the simple fact is if they do not match the requirements theywill not be offered the role. It isimportant every person registered understands that there is absolutely noguarantee the agency will find them a position as they are purely reliant uponthe roles that are released. The problemis agencies tend to build hopes up and over-promise and this isn’t necessarilyintentional, but we need to ensure we provide a realistic and pragmatic view tomanage expectations.

This is a rather simplisticview. This does not take into accountwhen good agents are proactive and sell a candidate to a company – which isfinding jobs for people – however, the reality is we cannot spec every person. For example, I represent countless HRBusiness Partners. I cannot physicallysell every single one to a client. Thiswould quickly result in my client list diminishing overnight for spamming, butmore pertinently many peoples’ experience is similar. There would be little value in selling thesame experience over and over again if the company has not already shown aninterest.

Nevertheless, if this coreview is explained, I firmly believe that the amount of criticism levelled atthe recruitment industry will lessen notably as our candidates will not haveexaggerated expectations.

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Ed Scrivener is an experiencedHR recruiter, LinkedIn trainer and award winning blogger! He writes, tweets,praises and moans about his passions – HR, recruitment and social media.

Should you really have to check this?

2012-02-15T12:03:00.000Z

“I’m recruitingfor an HR Business Partner role with XYZ plc, does it sound of interest?”

A job seeker will receivecountless calls like this from agencies (althoughnot quite as many as I’d like in this economy!) to detail roles they havebeen commissioned to work on. They feelyou’re suitable for the role and want to put your details forward. Perfect! This is exactly what an agencyshould do and you are hopeful they will be able to present you in the bestpossible light to secure you that interview. That’s how the process works... or is it?

The favourite food of some agents...

In recent months I have becomeincreasingly frustrated by the antics of some of my fellow recruiters, the mostrecent being last week. I’ve beenrecruiting for a sizeable organisation in the Midlands. I have known their Head of Recruitment fornumerous years, who has implemented an excellent direct sourcing model. On the rare occasion they need to use anagency they use me on an exclusive basis – this isn’t a back slapping exercise,I’ll get to my point soon! Last week aninterim recruitment process was nearing completion. A candidate who was extremely keen to jointhis organisation was awaiting feedback. He called me in a fluster one morning as a well known national agencyhad called him about the role. He wasnaturally concerned that this must mean he was unsuccessful as the company hadgone out to more agencies. I explainedthat I would doubt this were the case, but I’d check with my contact – needlessto say it turned out this was completely untrue as the Head of Recruitment hadn’tcommissioned any further agencies and subsequently received a “spec” CV thefollowing day!

This has happened on numerous occasionsrecently. Whilst some have been like theexample above, the truly worrying cases have been those where a candidate hasn’tyet been submitted to the role. Theynaturally believe the other agency has been commissioned and so therefore declineother agencies, who have been assigned, the opportunity to represent them. The result is the candidate is not selectedas they have not come through the proper process. These details are of course never passed onto the candidate who just believes they weren’t successful!

Without fail these exampleshave all come from national agencies and disappointingly one was even from anex-colleague of mine who I’d expect better from. This hasn’t been a scientific research and I amsure smaller, boutique agencies are culpable of these tactics, but I feel thistrend will only continue due to the needless KPIs forced upon most consultantsto deliver results in these challenging times.

It is very important to addthis type of behaviour is in the minority and the bulk of approaches you willreceive are legitimate. However, thenext time you receive that call, based upon how well you know the agent, it maybe worthwhile to press the issue to ensure you are being represented by acommissioned agent.

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Ed scrivener is an experiencedHR recruiter, LinkedIn trainer and now award winning blogger! He writes,tweets, praises and moans about his passions – HR, recruitment and socialmedia.

Missing the Social Point

2012-01-31T12:27:00.000Z

Asmany of you will know I also moonlight as an Editor and regular contributor toanother blog, Discuss HR. This blog is affiliated to the HR LinkedIn groupI manage HumanResources UK and the intention of the blog is in the name, to generate adiscussion about any relevant HR topics. Enough plugging! Here’s my mostrecent post which I felt would be worthwhile to post here. In time I may be able to add a veryinteresting addendum...

Missingthe Social Point

Ifyou have glanced at the discussion pages of Human Resources UK or flickedthrough the newspapers recently you will have no doubt become aware of thestory of the HR Executive sacked by his employers, BG Group, for using his LinkedIn profileincorrectly.

Firstly,let’s clear up a few points. He wasn’tsacked from his position, he left due to collapse of working relations with hissuperiors that stemmed from his “inappropriate” use of LinkedIn. This has come to light as he has brought acase of constructive dismissal.

Iam not going to attempt to explain the nuances of employment law as quitefrankly I wouldn’t know where to start! What I will do is explain how BG Groupis shooting themselves in the foot, as they are missing the point and moreimportantly the value of LinkedIn and social media as a whole.

Inone of my earlier posts for Discuss HR I explained how I have managed toharness social media to be a hugely effective part of my business. The key to this is simply to engage with youraudience. There will be no interest inyour brand, be it personal or employer, if all you do is sell. People use social media to learn and engage –after all there is a reason it is called SOCIAL media!

Lookingat this case in more detail, John Flexman was Head of Graduate Recruitment atBG Group. His inappropriate use ofLinkedIn was as follows:

He had listed “careeropportunities” as an option in his “contact John for” section of his profile – thiswas seen as a conflict of interest.
He had listedinformation about how he has reduced staff attrition – which was viewed asdisclosing confidential information. BGGroup requires only dates and job titles are provided in LinkedIn profiles.

Thereare so many glaring errors in this approach! The first point to focus on is that John Flexman is a recruitmentprofessional. It is his remit to attracttalented graduates and the use of LinkedIn is essential to any resourcingstrategy. Current figures list LinkedInmembership at close to 140 million and it is recognised that 14 million arestudents or recent graduates, hence why it is essential to have a presencewithin the platform.

Secondly,no doubt a large number of you will have career opportunities listed withinyour profile despite the fact you are not looking for a new role. In fact many of you will be completelyunaware of this being listed! Thevagaries of the LinkedIn settings process makes it extremely easy for this tobe overlooked. More importantly though,is that nowhere does it state “career opportunities” is solely related tolooking for new employment. I ampresuming BG Group view the option of “Job Inquiries” as the only option MrFlexman should have listed. But if youwere a fresh faced graduate, it would not be beyond the realms of reality toconsider that job inquiries mean the person is only interested about jobs andnot people! Surely as a recruitmentprofessional he should have “career opportunities” listed as something ofinterest?

BGGroup’s concern was that he was actively touting himself on LinkedIn as lookingfor work. As someone who uses the mediumfor headhunting on a very regular basis, that option makes no difference. I can still contact anyone about aprospective role regardless of whether that is listed. Therefore, having this removed as part of asocial media policy is not only draconian it is also rather pointless!

Finally,and for me this is the key point, the fact BG Group require only job titles anddates to be listed in profiles, this will be doing real damage to theiremployer brand.

Imaginethe scenario: you see a role advertised with a company that you wish to applyfor. As you are a clued-up job seekeryou want to research them and see if you have any form of referral to utilise,so you get onto LinkedIn. When you do find a company employee you find noinformation about the business, so you move on to another one and another. There is no information listed at all aboutthese peoples’ remits or the business as a whole. It would be very easy to be left ratherdeflated about this as you could jump to the conclusion that either the companyadminister an extremely strict information policy, or that the business as awhole is somewhat behind the pace of time. Either way they are certainly not engaging with you and it doesn’t fillyou with confidence in the role or business.

An engagement expert!

Ifa business loses just one talented person due to this then they are damagingtheir brand. Rather fear social media,they should embrace it. If you look atemployees from the likes of ITV or CH2M Hill you will find detailed profilesand clear links to their respective job pages or website. In these instances they are engaging with anyprospective reader and job seeker.

Oneelement John Flexman was criticised for was including detailed information abouthow he reduced staff attrition. BG Groupclaim this was confidential whereas Mr Flexman maintains it was publicknowledge; either way let me put this question to you, if you were a graduatelooking for your first job would you be attracted to a business that publicallystates its employees stay with the business? At that stage of your career you want to learn and be nurtured andsurely this would inspire you with confidence to see such promising and openinformation?

Theworld is changing at a rate of knots but companies should not be risk averseand fear change, they need to embrace it if they want to be the employer ofchoice. Social media, whether it beLinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ or any of the other thousand platforms, is there tobuild relationships with customers, clients, employees and prospectiveemployees. The only way this can successfullybe achieved is for companies to engage with their audience.

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Ed Scrivener is an experienced HRrecruiter, LinkedIn trainer and now award winning blogger! He writes, tweets, praises and moans abouthis passions – HR, recruitment and social media.

Boring Job Tweets

2012-01-17T14:41:00.000Z

HR Business Partner, Slough,£55,000

Supply Chain Manager,Manchester, £45,000

Finance Officer, London,£35,000

IT Director, Bristol, £100,000

Recruitment Consultant, Boringus all rigid...

Not another job tweet!!

Would you read a blog if thiswas the only content? Of course not, it’sdeeply boring, it’s not engaging and it’s not why you read a blog. A link on the blog to a jobs page or the occasionaljob post is fine, but if this is all you got you simply wouldn’t read it. This is of course hardly incisiveinformation, but pure common sense. In fact,I can’t recall ever coming across any blog that simply posted jobs (I stand tobe corrected!). So if it’s obvious notto clog the blogosphere with jobs, why isn’t it obvious with Twitter?

If anyone knows of anyspecific data relating to Recruitment Agencies’ use of Twitter I’d love to seeit. I would hazard a guess that lessthan 10% of agencies attempt to engage with their followers. The vast bulk simply just tweet new job,etc. Most don’t even add the # tag toattempt to make the job more findable. They expect the job seeker to find their job post amongst the other 200million tweets that day! If you readthrough the timeline there isn’t a single re-tweet or @. Worse still they don’t even acknowledge thefew people that attempt to engage with them – In fairness to Recruitment Agencies, an awful lot of companies do thistoo!

If you were a job seeker, beit active or passive, you are not going to be encouraged to follow an accountthat does nothing but sell, sell, sell. Even if you were to follow the account, as you are not engaged with themyou are not going to be looking out for their tweets. In what can be a quagmire of daily tweets, itis very easy to ignore or miss tweets from an account that means nothing toyou.

The followers were engaged... with their naps!

Bill Boorman wrote agreat blog post recently that details why agencies fail to utilise socialmedia properly. As a summary he suggeststhey expect quick wins and fail to engage and I feel he is spot on. The agents that are failing woefully withTwitter are wasting their precious time – and it is their precious time that ismaking them put so little effort in to this. The agency feels the returns are too little to invest properly andtherefore they get little from it by not investing properly (this sounds like one of those awfulmanagement mottos!). They fail to realise that you need to build followersby engaging with them. It is only onceyou have engaged with them that job tweets work. The follower may not be suitable/interestedin the job, but if they choose to RT it, the potential breadth of people thejob can reach can be enormous!

A further point is if apotential client is viewing the Twitter account, whilst they may be impressedby the number of roles, the tweets do not portray the agency as an expert and knowledgeablein the field. Similarly the tweets aren’texactly selling the client to the market place.

I seem to be harking on aboutengaging a lot recently (as you’ll see with my next post too), but it really isthe key to getting social media to work for you properly. As Bill states in his post, it needs to belong term but it doesn’t have to be hours on a daily basis either, just acommitment to engage. So next time, rather than tweet about the new job, tweet something completely random as you never know where it will lead!

Addendum

To act as proof of the pudding and that I am not making this engagement lark up, I want to share with you the results of my last job tweet. It is important to note I am not suggesting that recruiters don't post any job tweets, just not all the time. Yesterday I posted a job tweet, which within 30 minutes had been retweeted 4 times. I was interested to see how many people this reached and between the 4 RTs the tweet went to 2,500 people on top of my own followers. So the recruiters that think I was preaching rubbish, ask yourself this - when was the last time one of your job tweets was retweeted and did it reach 2,500 people? I am not being self-righteous as when I started using Twitter all I did was post these boring job tweets, but hopefully this example truly proves that engagement is the key to success.

Following on from Katrina's comment below, I hadn't factored her RT into my figures. So it was actually 5 RTs reaching over 3,500 people - even more proof!

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Ed Scrivener is an experiencedHR recruiter, a LinkedIn trainer and now an award winning blogger! He writes,tweets, praises and moans about his passions – HR, recruitment and socialmedia.

You're Dumped!

2012-01-10T15:48:00.002Z

Happy New Year!

My first resolution of the yearis to have got my New Year tidings over and done with by January. My second resolution is to attempt to be moreconcise, or rather witter less (how am I doing so far?)!

To the point at hand, namelyspare a thought for the one you reject...

It SO unfair!!!

Whilst it is not as common ina tough jobs market, you will have no doubt at some point in your career beenin a situation where you have a number of job offers or interviews. This can be a very nice boost to one’s egoand does give you a good sense of security in a very emotionally stressfulsituation. There are very few thingsfiner than when you say “Yes”, your career is moving in the right direction andlife is good. At this point I would justask you to spare a thought for those that you are going to let down.

Any angst-ridden teenager willbe able to tell you the woes of unrequited love. Probably most of them will have received thedreaded Dear John (although in this day and age that will probably be viaBlackberry Messenger!). We all know that’sa horrible thing to receive, yet job seekers seem intent on deliveringthem! Without scientific research Iwould suggest it is fair to say 7 out of 10 people who reject a role foranother role will do so via email. I cansee this medium may help some people express themselves more clearly, but ingeneral it is down to a fear of delivering bad news. Whilst it is bad news, you will find therecipient will really welcome the opportunity to talk to you to understand whatit was the other organisation was offering that they weren’t. On a selfish note for yourself, this mediumis the polar opposite to burning bridges and you never know when this act mayyield a fruitful reaction in the future.

The other element to this iswhen you are withdrawing from an interview, again this seems to require contactfrom the interviewer/agency in order for the withdrawal to be announced. This may be a gross generalisation but thefigures are probably higher than above to how often this happens. We receive those emails starting “I meant totell you...” On a purely selfish note formyself, I fully appreciate the bird in the hand mentality so understand whypeople make decisions, but the sooner I can find out the sooner I can find areplacement – which keeps me and the client happy (I did say it was selfish)!

So the next time you accept anoffer, rejoice, open a bottle of wine, but tomorrow remember to tell everyoneelse.

P.S. was this concise?...

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Ed Scrivener is an experiencedHR recruiter, LinkedIn trainer and now award winning blogger! He writes, tweets, praises and moans abouthis passions – HR, recruitment and social media.

Day 24 - Thank You!

2011-12-24T00:00:00.000Z

Day 24, the final day of theblog calendar and it has all been building up to... a rather damp squib of ananticlimax as today you’re getting me!

Thank You!

As it’s Christmas Eve I’m sureyou will all have better things to do than to read a blog, hence why I thoughtI’d take this honour rather than force it upon a kind volunteer. On that note, I would like to pass on my mostsincere thanks to everyone who has contributed to this blog series over thelast few weeks. There have been sometruly fantastic posts, all very interesting and all very diverse. I didn’t give anyone any direction withregards to topics, which makes it amazing that all the topics discussed are sodifferent. So without further ado, Iwould like to thank the following

KateGriffiths-Lambeth

Thank you so much as clearlynone of this would be possible without your help.

On the thanking note, I wouldalso like to thank everyone that reads my blog. I have received over 60,000 views this year and I am hugely humbled bythis – so thank you very much! Ithoroughly enjoy writing a blog, even it is far more of a commitment than I hadever expected. My blog recently won theUK Recruiter’s Personal Recruitment Blog of the Year – so thank you to any ofyou who nominated me and thank you to UK Recruiter and Jobsite for theaccolade, again I am humbled to have received such an honour.

The final thing that is leftfor me to say is Happy Christmas to one and all, have a great holiday!

I shall leave you with myfavourite clip of all...

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Ed Scrivener is an experiencedHR recruiter. He writes, tweets, praisesand moans about his passions – HR, recruitment and social media... he hasstopped being lazy too!

Day 23 - Scary Present Makes For A Bright Future

2011-12-23T00:00:00.000Z

Day 23 and the penultimateposting of the calendar – has Christmas really come around this quickly?! Today we have Lee Cooper, the recruitmentextraordinaire who is turning his hand to all things recruitment.

Scary Present Makes For A BrightFuture

As we approach the end of 2011,rather than reflect on what was and what might have been I prefer to play aguessing game. In this case, what willthe future employment landscape look like in 2012 and beyond?

Long gone is the world thatlooked like education, job, retire. Theworld of work has become a scary place. Yet it has never been so exciting, so full of opportunity.

I expect to be challenged. Unemployment across much of the world is apainful issue for too many. So why isopportunity so prevalent now when all around us is doom and gloom?

Consider this. More people in America became millionaires inthe great depression of the 1930's than at any other time in history. The toughest of circumstances createdopportunities that hadn't existed previously. The same is true today (much of which is driven by technology).

How will that impact the world ofwork?

1. Entrepreneurship. The world needs Entrepreneurs. They are thecreators of wealth and jobs. Toughtimes, tough circumstances challenge people to think differently, to innovate,to provide solutions. People areresourceful, creative and intelligent, especially under pressure. There has never been an easier time to startyour own business. Lean prevails. Technology is cheap. The reach of social sees the world as yourshop window. Expect to see more and more"having a go". Good forthem. Lets support them all we can andapplaud them for having the guts to try. The more that does, the greater the chances of success.

2. Companies that cut back at the first sign ofrecession and survived are not re - hiring at the rate that the were postrecession. Don't expect this to change. We are all doing more with less. This is only going in one direction. The hiring giants of yesteryear will notreturn any time soon.

3. Expect to see a fundamental shift in the waywe work. More and more of us are goingto become the "CEO of SelfCo". Expect to see more flexible working, contract working, temporaryworking, part time working, job sharing, home working, self-employment, projectwork, freelancing, consulting. Employerswill increasingly focus on developing an on demand, flexible, mobile workforceto hire in and out as and when required.

4. The lines between work andhome become ever blurred. Work will nolonger be something that we do between 9am and 5.30pm (can you remember a timethat it was!). We will do it as and whenwe need to and as and when it is required of us. Employers will shift focus from measuringinput (hours worked) to measuring output. Less focus on presenteeism can only be a good thing for productivity andwider economic prosperity.

5. An ongoing commitment to personal educationwill be ever more essential to career success. The pace of change is so fast that unless your skills move with thechanging needs of the employment landscape you will be left behind. Commit to expanding your mind, your skills,and your expertise. By 2015, 60% of alljobs created will require skills only 20% of the population possess (AmericanInstitute for Research on Labour and Employment). The same old same old won't wash. Stay current, stay fresh, stay educated, stayengaged.

6. The recruitment industry is ripe for innovation. Mobile is the major game changer. As the scramble for talent intensifies,employers who take their opportunities to where talent resides will win. Those that sit back and wait for talent toroll in will lose. Mobile is the key.

Despite constant change, oneconstant remains. The words of ZigZiglar continue to ring true. Yourattitude determines your altitude.

So look forward. Never settle. Keep striving. The future isbright. Don't wait for it to come to you. Go make it!

Here’s to a very merry Christmasand a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012 to all!

Lee’s Twitter and LinkedInProfile and link to his fab new blog.

This clip really needs to be agood one…

*****

Ed Scrivener is an experienced HRrecruiter. He writes, tweets, praisesand moans about his passions – HR, recruitment and social media… except for in December when he is being lazyand getting everyone else to do it!

Day 22 - The one word I could do with hearing less in 2012

2011-12-22T00:00:00.000Z

Day 22 and we’re nearing theend of the series, but we still have time for some crackers. Today we have the ex-recruitmentconsultant Mervyn Dinnen who is now blazing a trail in the world of socialmedia.

The one word I could do withhearing less in 2012

There’s one word that seems tohave been everywhere this year.

Debated and rationalised atevery conference and unconference, every seminar and webinar, and pulled apartin what seems like 90% of the blogs I’ve read!

It seems we fight for it, webuild communities around it, we put it in our job titles and we talk about itwhenever two recruiters or HR professionals are in the same room.

We spend most of our workinglife looking for it, but rarely seem to find it, and if we do it’s either thewrong type or it belongs to someone else who would rather not let go of it.

What is it?

T*L*NT of course!

I have issues with the word.Actually I have issues with the very concept, sounding as it does elitist. Businessesaren’t built on outstanding performers alone, but a blend of graft,application, dedication, belief and passion. Your business problems will not besolved by acquiring a team of potential superstars.

Of course the problems all startwith the mythical W*R F*R T*L*NT. If ever there was a misunderstood conceptit’s this, yet it doesn’t stop the term being trotted out every time someone’srecruitment needs require a bit of creativity or hard work.

To put the doubters straight,the original term was used to express what a business needs to do to hang on tothe good people it has created….not a description of the act of finding newones.

But what is T*L*NT?

I’ve taken part in some fairlylively discussions this year trying to define this, and what has come throughfor me is that T*L*NT is about what youdo AFTER you hire someone. How you train, coach, develop, incentivise,assimilate and nurture…what systems and processes you have in place to letsomeone reach their full potential.

Parachuting the mythical ‘proven performer’ in to a team rarelyworks in my experience as no two teams, and no two businesses, are completelyalike.

So what about creating a T*L*NT community?

It’s a bunch of people whohave some interest in/attachment to/affinity with your brand and may like towork for you if you have the right role, prospects, and package. It’s a peoplecommunity. In fact it’s probably a community of current, lapsed and potentialcustomers who believe that you may be a good place to work.

Don’t sully the goodintentions of your fans and ambassadors by labelling them a T*L*NTcommunity…just treat them as people!

But what about finding the best?

I don’t think that the searchshould be about recruiting against a checklist of what a hiring manager perceivesthe best person will look like, but about finding the person with the attitude,capabilities and competencies that will best complement and enhance your team,department, offering or service.

And I don’t think recruiters shouldbe covering for a lack of training, development or up-skilling, by holding outfor the one candidate that ticks every box. There probably won’t be one!

So my wish for 2012 is stoptalking about T*L*NT and start talking about people. Historical achievementsare fine, but what about potential and opportunity.

The problem with T*L*NT isthat you spend the time filling in the stars and not enough time creating thenew ones!

Many thanks to Ed for giving me the opportunity to guest blog on thisexcellent site. Wishing all his readers a very Happy Christmas and lots of luckand happiness in 2012 J

Mervyn’s Twitter and LinkedInprofiles

Again totally irrelevant, buttotally brilliant!

*****

Ed Scrivener is an experiencedHR recruiter. He writes, tweets, praisesand moans about his passions – HR, recruitment and social media... except for in December when he is being lazyand getting everyone else to do it!

Day 21 - James' Top 10

2011-12-21T00:00:00.000Z

Day 21 and who is behind thisdoor? The social media recruitment whizzJames Mayes. What James doesn’t knowabout social media and recruitment isn’t worth knowing and today he kindlyshares his top 10 sites and apps that will help greatly those of us stilllearning the medium.

James’ Top 10

I’ve followed Ed on Twitter for some time – and herecently responded to an invite for a guest post with a cracker on LinkedInLIONS, which you’ll find here. He’s kindly offered me the opportunity toreciprocate.

If we’ve not met before, I sitmostly on the intersection of recruitment and technology. I’m a geek, I admit it. I jump in on new apps and tools whenever Isee them and I try to blog reviews of those I really like. As we wind in to the year-end though, itseems appropriate to look back over the year and see what actually had stayingpower. What delivered on-going value. What’sstill in use? So, in no particularly order, I offer you my geeklist for 2011.

Ifttt – Sets up social rules. Too many differentprofiles to manage? Ifttt can help. Blogged a review of this one here.
CoTweet – I use this as a desktop client for Twitter. Most of the functions are not dissimilar toother players in the market, but there’s one differentiator I love – theconversations. I bring up Ed’s profile, I can see our Twitter history. Thatconversation we had about keyword spam back in May. What other app for Twittergives you that?
Xydo – news curation and delivery service. Part automated,but influenced by the networks you build as an individual. Best personalisednews service I’ve found, blogged here!
Evernote – The ultimate note taker. I use it to hoard favourite tweets (deliveredhere automatically by Ifttt), to make meeting notes, to hold photos as part ofa mobile project stream. Brilliant.
Buffer – rather than flood your followers with all thearticles you read on the train each morning, space them through the day.Combine with Xydo for excellent results! Review here.
WordPress – my blog platform of choice. My needs are simple,so I stay with the hosted version – I’ve checked out others and not yet seen areason to consider moving.
DropBox – My files, anywhere. Backed up in the cloud,backed up to each machine I install it on, deletion controls (which I onlyfound after this episode!!). Ace service.
Zovo – bigger cloud backup. I use DropBox for workingfiles, Zovo for long-term cloud synchronised automatic backups.
Bit.ly – always was good, but the enhancements this yearallow for custom short-links. Instructions here.
Aerolatte – just because I’m working at home, doesn’t mean Iput up with crap coffee. This helps. A lot.

I hope you see something newto enjoy. Likewise, if you want to offer up suggestions of your own, please do!Personal recommendation is my favourite form of discovery. If you have questions for me, or just want tosee what I find next, Twitter’s best. You’ll find me here.

You can find James’ Twitter profile above and his LinkedIn profile here.

It’s the finalcountdown of irrelevant clips and here’s another cracker

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Day 20 - Are You Ready For Christmas – Have You Done Your December Life Stock Take?

2011-12-20T00:00:00.000Z

Day 20 and the end is in sight. Behind today’s door is the one and only WendyMason. Followers of my other blogDiscuss HR will recognise Wendy as she is such a good guest blogger I’d invitedher back twice, so I was delighted she was happy to appear here too.

Are You Ready For Christmas – Have You DoneYour December Life Stock Take?

Taking stock ofyour life to see if it is on track is a bit like going to see your dentist fora regular check up! We all know we should do IT but lots of us don’t! Wefind lots of excuses for not getting on with it. For some of us we put itoff until it’s forced on us, for example, at redundancy or some kind ofpersonal tragedy. But most of us would probably gain from a simple checkup periodically may be once a year! December is a superb time to takestock on where you are both on a professional and a personal level. Youcan then begin to think through your plan for next year and how you aregoing to make it brilliant!

So get your pad andpen – here are some thoughts to speed you on your way!

Most of us willprobably find it easiest to start with work! What is your work allabout? Why are you doing it now? Why did you choose it in the firstplace? Has it got meaning for you and is it fulfilling? Be specificand very honest! Think through how you would really like to spend thatone third of your life. How does that match up against what you aredoing? Identify the gap between the career anchors you aspire to and whatyou have – autonomy, expertise, security, creativity, the ability to useyour professional knowledge! But be realistic about financial reward andhow important that needs to be!

Identify whatis non-negotiable for you! The factors in your work and personallife that you’d never contemplate compromising; this might include the type ofwork you’d consider doing and within what industries.

Be realistic aswell about the present climate! Having a job is a great plus, so don’timmediately think you need to move. See what can be changed where you arenow! Are there other ways of doing your work? Are there newchallenges you can take on and new skills you can acquire? Does your bossknow what you would really like to do – are there opportunities that your bosscan give you access to? But don’t let your unwillingness to move from anexisting comfort zone hold you back.

On a personal note,the “non-negotiable” factors could include things like the relationship withyour partner, where you live, the house you live in, the friends and familyabout you, your willingness to travel, and the quality of life you enjoy. But again think about your relationships and how you manage them! Isthere work you need to do to improve them? How could you make your life outsidework richer for you and those about you?

Understand yourstrengths, your flaws and your fears. Be honest about who you are!What are you good at? Write it down and be proud! What do you thinkyou can’t do and why? Where is the evidence? Decide what you aregoing to work on and decide what you are going to give up trying todo! Are there things you think you should be good at rather thanthings you want to be good at or need to be good at? Do you really wantto waste your precious time on them?

Now make yourAction Plan for next year! How are things going to change? What are yougoing to do? Above all don’t let lack of self confidence hold youback! Dream your dream! Believe in you and what you canachieve. And next year come here again and do another stock take! Reach higher and higher until you reach the star right at the top of your ownpersonal Christmas Tree!

Wendy’s Twitter and LinkedInprofiles.

The final fewclips, so let’s make them good!

*****

Day 19 - RecruitGal's New Year's Resolutions

2011-12-19T00:00:00.000Z

Day 19 and who so we havepeeking around today’s door? None otherthan Katie McNab a.k.a. RecruitGal, the big cheese in talent acquisition atPepsiCo. Somehow Katie manages to findthe time to write a decent blog and her tweets have inspired a number of myblog posts too, so I am very grateful she is sharing her New Year resolutionswith us (and I may try and take advantage of one!!).

RecruitGal's New Year'sResolutions

It's Christmas time again, andalthough I'm not a Christian, I will admit to loving certain aspects of theholiday: The twinkly lights, the smell of Christmas trees, mistletoe, cracklingfires, diving headfirst into a family-sized tin of Quality Street, and theability to have a vodka and tonic at 11am without anyone raising theireyebrows.

But being Scottish means thatthe "real" holiday in my neck of the woods is New Year's Eve. We call it Hogmanay, and it's a much bigger deal than Christmas. Or asCraig Ferguson once said: "It is a time when people who can inspire awe inthe Irish for the amount of alcohol that they drink, decide to ramp it up anotch." So there are lots of raucous cèilidhs, amazing food, andsome pretty weird traditions (e.g. as a redhead, I'm not a welcome"first-footer"), but then dawn rolls around and we get thehangover-suppressing serenity of our New Year's Resolutions.

I know it's the cool, cynical thingto roll your eyes at Resolutions, and think that people who make them aredeluded - but I think that's a shame. Anybody who wants to make positivechanges in their life should be encouraged to do so. And an arbitrarynumber change on a calendar is a good reason enough for most of us. I'mcertainly going to be making a few changes - in both my private life and in myprofessional life. So in that spirit, here are some of my work-basedresolutions:

Be nicer to agencies. I've spent too much energy in 2011 getting grumpy about certain recruitmentagencies not… er, being able to correctly identify their elbows from theirother body parts. More than one hapless young graduate Rec-Con has beenon the receiving end of a trademark McNab diatribe for being shamefullyuninformed. So, I'm going to try harder to follow the "If you can'tsay anything nice, don't say anything at all" rule when it comes to crappyagencies. And to give credit where credit is due, I'll also do my best tobig up the ones that do actually know what they're doing. Yes, you readthat correctly. I'm going to say nice things about agencies.

Get over my aversion toFacebook. When it comes to social recruiting, and all-round usefulness,my heart belongs to LinkedIn and Twitter. Unlike the rest of the world,I've never liked Facebook, and I've been quietly hoping it will just go the wayof Friendster and MySpace, but that's not looking likely, so I'm going to getover myself and start using it for my own nefarious purposes… I also needto start poking around and experimenting more with Google+, Xing andViadeo. … and if I'm feeling super enthused, maybe even vKontakte. But,if I'm going to be on them, I should be on them. Otherwise, what'sthe point?

Broaden my recruiting horizons. Next year, my Western Europe focus will expand tothe rest of Europe, which includes - in PepsiCo's quirky interpretation ofworld geography - 60 different countries, including ones in Asia and Africa. I want to pressure test some of the "standard recruitingpractices" that I've been coming across. I've had more than a fewcomments like "ooh, you can't say that in a job advert in Italy", or"this approach won't work in Sweden". Are they really culturalor legal requirements? Or is it just the way things have always beendone? At the moment, I'm relying on my colleagues to advise me on howthings work locally - and while I value their local knowledge, I also wantto find out how I can shake things up. Without causing a diplomatic incident.

Share everything. Our labyrinthian network of shared drives and personalfolders is not conducive to sharing knowledge and establishing common practices- especially not on an international scale. So I’m going to champion ourswanky new tool called PepsiCollaboration (see what we did there?), and makeall the materials, tools, templates, training, policies, processes, projectplans - every arrow in our recruiting quiver – fully accessible to PepsiCorecruiters globally. No more hoarding stuff.

Get better at saying thankyou. I get a ridiculous amount of valuable information, advice andsupport from the people around me - and that includes people that sit next tome every day, as well as people I've never met but who take the time to sharetheir ideas and experiences online. In all the busyness, sometimes sayingthanks becomes a bit of a cursory thing. I know how much I love it whenI get a genuinely sincere, personal thank you. It really makes myday. I need to do that for others.

Whether you make someresolutions or not, have a safe and happy Hogmanay, and a fun 2012. Or, more appropriately for a Scottish festive season, Slàinte Mhath!

Katie’s Twitter and LinkedIn profiles.

Is it the posts or the clips youcome here for?

*****

Ed Scrivener is an experienced HRrecruiter. He writes, tweets, praisesand moans about his passions – HR, recruitment and social media... except forin December when he is being lazy and getting everyone else to do it!

Day 18 - Merry Cheesemas!

2011-12-18T00:00:00.000Z

We’re entering the final weekof posts, but what a week I have planned for you! Kicking it off with day 18 is JillHart-Sanderson. Jill’s only fault is hersupport of Leicester Tigers, but other than she’s an extremely knowledgeable HRprofessional and has a great blogging style.

Major supermarketchain stops selling cheese until after Christmas!

Imagine stepping into yourregular supermarket and finding that all of the shelves have been cleared ofcheese to make way for more ‘seasonal items’. No more cauliflower cheese,lasagne, cheese on toast for breakfast... There would be public outrage andquite rightly so. Questions would be asked as to just who decided theircustomers should not eat cheese for the entire month of December.

This is (almost) what happenedto me last week. My local Sainsbury’s superstore normally sells over 500cheeses. Just one type from this 500 is lactose free – the only cheese my fouryear old daughter can eat without being very ill. Over the last few weeks theyhave not stocked lactose free cheese, so I asked a member of staff when theywould be receiving their next delivery. I was told that although they’vereceived lots of complaints they wouldn’t be ordering any more until afterChristmas. I explained that I didn’t think it was fair to expect customers towait until after the festivities to have something as basic as cheese (especiallyas this particular customer has a small child who doesn’t grasp the concept of ‘seasonalranges’ and has already kicked off at not having one of her favourite foods). Aftera few phone calls and a chat with the store manager to explain ‘lactose free’is sometimes a medical necessity not a life style choice, I was promised thecheese by the end of last week.

The whole experience hashighlighted two things for me – firstly that people in all organisations mustconsider the end results and consequences of their decisions. When puttingtogether policies and procedures for example the impact on the individual enduser must be taken into account.

The second is the importanceof communication – once I’d spoken to the store manger he realised theimportance of this one particular item and the craziness of stopping thesupply. Perhaps whoever made the decision should have asked some of the shopfloor team their thoughts before stopping the supply, or perhaps the wholeorganisation needs to understand more about their products and their customers’need?

What are your thoughts? Haveyou ever made a decision for your company that has had an unexpected result?What did you learn from it?

I’m still waiting for thecheese, perhaps I should ask Father Christmas....

Merry Cheesemas!

Jill’s LinkedInprofile.

There really couldonly be one clip for a post like this!

*****

Day 17 - Twas The Week Before Christmas

2011-12-17T00:00:00.000Z

There was a recruiter called Ed, whose blog washardly read; fortunately for him, he found volunteer bloggers at a whim; so hisfollowers were very well fed!

Day 17 gives us infinitely better rhyme and versefrom the multi-talented Lee Burman, who fortunately is no longer a competitorof mine, which is why I now speak to him!

Twas the week before Christmas...

Twas the week before Christmas, in an officenear Mansion House,

A hub of activity and nowhere near as quiet asa mouse.

His phone started ringing but he really couldn’tcare,

As he needed new people to appear just rightthere.

The problem to solve was where to find 15heads,

Who could start right away, hit the groundrunning, experienced legs.

His workforce plan told him that he’d need tofill this gap,

But he did it 11 months ago, and it’s sincebeen filed under CRAP.

He picked up the phone and was greeted with a“Hi!”,

“My name’s Steve. We met ages ago. At the 2005 conference… in July?”

He racked his brain trying to think all thattime, far far back,

The penny dropped….sh*t, that recruiter, TopMan suit, cheap wisecracks.

“I’m busy!” he replied, it was all he couldmuster,

“Besides I’ve no business for you” came outnext in a fluster.

“That’s OK” replied Steve, “But let us befriends”,

“So when you do next recruit, I’ll be yourgodsend”.

With Steve off the line he had time torethink,

How can I palm this off to HR without creatinga stink?

He picked up the phone and dialled withaplomb,

“Hello……HR? Yes it’s me. Your workforce plan is wrong.

He explained his whole problem and how it washolding things up,

And that 15 heads needed to be found. Without fail. Or there’ll be a shake-up!

“I’ll give you a week to find them withinterviews on Christmas Eve”,

“What do you mean that’s unreasonable! I’mcreating jobs, they should be pleased!”

He slammed down the phone and uttered quietlyto himself,

“Damage our employer brand, who are theykidding? I’ll do it myself”.

He picked up the phone and dialled quickly –“Hi Steve!”

“What a great conference, such a laugh, nowlet us talk fees”.

With recruitment off his hands he could relax,take a back seat,

Comfortable that Steve will come up with thegoods by next week.

And he might blow his budget but good recruitmentcomes at a cost,

After all, if HR had helped him, he wouldn’thave had to show them who’s boss.

+ + + + + + + + + + +

The HR team roll their eyes, this happens eachyear,

“These managers know what the rules are. Was our advice really that unclear?”

We’ve given them training and talked workforceplans,

We’ve created a Facebook page and have hit 35fans.

We tweet all our jobs strictly in line withour rules,

And we think that LinkedIn might help tocreate talent pools.

But we’re now up against it, so where is thatlist,

Of our best preferred suppliers who we know getour gist.

+ + + + + + + + + + +

Steve slams down the phone, 15 jobs, businesswon!

His manager beams in delight, jobs-in targethit, very well done.

Now quick as you can, send those CVs, don’t bepicky,

And then get back on the phones, that salescall target is tricky.

+ + + + + + + + + + +

Recruitment is tough, never mind what yourrole,

And with the landscape always changing it’s noeasy stroll.

So to all those whose role involves recruitingnew peeps,

Happy Christmas and good luck to you, let’shope your next hires are for keeps.

Lee's Twitter and LinkedIn profiles.

As we’ve had a rhyming day, there really wasonly one person I could include...

*****

Ed Scrivener is an experienced HR recruiter. He writes, tweets, praises and moans abouthis passions – HR, recruitment and social media... except for in December when he is being lazy and getting everyone elseto do it!

Day 16 - Employer Brand – Line Managers Hold the Key

2011-12-16T00:00:00.000Z

Day 16 and who is hiding behindthis door? None other than talentmanagement and personal brand specialist Paul Goring. Today Paul makes a really compelling caseto the key behind successful employer brands.

Employer Brand – Line ManagersHold the Key....

Ok so you have a strongstrategy for the branding of your Employer Value Proposition, you understandabout having a viable and fit for purpose recruitment process, you haveintroduced the latest good recruitment practice techniques with the businessbut things still don't seem to be working. Why?

Of course every businessshould have a thoughtful and focused recruitment strategy and well done by theway for getting all of the above implemented! There must have been some battlesalong the way and some serious cultural changes that you had to champion. Butwe need to ask, why the problem and why is the business still stuck?

What I am suggesting is thatLine Managers - that much maligned and often under pressure group - might justhold the key to each and every strategic evolution. If they don't buy into anychanges, I am talking here about buying in with deed and action rather thanjust a cursory acceptance then you are going nowhere fast.

You can conceive of the bestrecruitment advertising campaign, have the best web-site to back it up and havethe process in place to wow any prospective candidate but it all goes nowhereif the line managers aren't onboard.

Just think about how fragileyour Employer Brand might be and how the wrong words, actions or examples beingset by line managers - who are let us not forget essentially the face of thebusiness to your staff - can be destructive. Your hard work can fall apart veryquickly; we all know about the 'doing what it says on the tin' philosophy andthe need for that key word - authenticity - but if the guys your business ispaying to be the face and voice of the business are not flying the banners highand proud and are not being the brand champions that you need them to be, thenthe whole thing looks very hollow and empty.

Let's face it, if you arereading this you are probably an HR or recruitment professional or maybe withluck a line manager with some foresight but if the vast majority of linemanagers within your organisation don't 'get' what you are trying tocommunicate to the candidates, interviewees and new recruits then they canleave you with a very poor ROI and dents all over your Employer Brand and EVP.I guess I need you to ask yourselves - do we always explain things and launchthings well to our managers? And also you should question - does our businessassume managers buy-in and also their ability to be employer brand champions?

If the answer to either orboth of those questions is yes - then you might have a problem. Be the managerfor a moment - if your employers and the Marketing / HR functions of thebusiness assume that you know how to do something what do you do? Stick yourhand up and say 'I know I am a manager in the business and so I am a keystakeholder but I have no idea what you mean or what you expect from me' - wellperhaps not, they are more likely to - with the best will (most of the time) -interpret, paraphrase, assume and worst of all, keep doing what they havealways done because in their mind that's what got them to where they are now.

If they keep doing things theyhave always done then gradually and almost imperceptibly they can withoutmalice or forethought erode all the good work from the inside out and so notonly impact new recruits but also the existing staff; who may have heard thenew messages in staff meetings, through the intranet or a grand companyannouncement and then see in practice that things haven't changed. How damagingis that....

Just spare a thought for theline managers in your business and make sure that they are first of all toldand then that they are totally onboard with your recruitment approach frombrand to process and from advert to job offer - sounds obvious but I can assureyou forget them at your peril.

Paul’s Twitter and LinkedIn profiles.

Again totally random, just brilliantly funny !

*****

Ed Scrivener is an experienced HR recruiter. He writes, tweets, praises and moans abouthis passions – HR, recruitment and social media… except for in December when he is being lazy and getting everyone elseto do it!

Day 15 - So You Think You Can Hire

2011-12-15T00:00:00.000Z

Day 15 and I really need to start my Christmas shopping! More importantly today’s contributor is AlCartwright who is a bit of an expert when it comes to all things directrecruitment – so another person I shouldn’t be too pally with!!

So You Think You Can Hire

The debate on direct hiring strategies versus recruitment agency hassimmered on for years. Today as businesses continue to take a long hard look attheir bottom line there’s been a definite trend towards cutting out the middleman and hiring direct.

On paper moving away from the agency model has much to recommend it.Aside from the obvious cost reductions we're also in age of the employer brandwhere everything from CSR policies to the interior design of the office mustreflect the vision and values of an organisation. Handing over the delivery ofrecruitment to an external agency with its own motivations could be potentiallydamaging. With the right skills, strategy and implementation an in-house teamis well placed to create a positive candidate experience.

A step on from providing a good candidate experience is the theory ofcandidate as consumer. The practise of affording a prospective employee thesame consideration you would a client or customer is beginning to be consideredbest practice. And it's not a goal limited to sectors such as retail or serviceproviders where candidates could actually form part of a customer base.Arguably in a world where reputation is all it's something that everyorganisation should factor into their recruitment strategies.

A prospective employee handled shabbily by a recruitment consultant canhave a disproportionately negative impact on a brand reputation thanks tomediums such as Facebook and Twitter. Conversely, a positive candidateexperience, whether the candidate is successful or not, can help enhance theorganisation's brand.

Of course, taking the hire function in house doesn't guarantee a greatcandidate experience. There are skills and tactics that in-house professionalsneed to ensure are up to par if they are to perform as well as they could.Managing the offer process, for example, is one area where responsibility hastraditionally been handed to the agency.

It's a sensitive stage of the process, one that can make or break thedeal, as well as affect what opinion a candidate takes away with them.

Delivered effectively direct hire strategies can also see HR teamsachieving greater strategic influence with recruitment becoming about more thanfilling current positions. Recent research from Hyland and Software showed that91 % of HR professionals felt that the biggest challenge to HR in mostorganisations will be to bridge the gap from transactional function to astrategic partner. A strategic HR team should be identifying skill gaps andpredicting where business growth lies. Being able to identify not only theright employees for today but also those that with the abilities and vision tomove the business forward is a huge opportunity for HR teams to assert theirposition around the boardroom table.

The Hyland and Software survey also showed that 46% felt that"failure to attract, develop, retain and reward suitable talent at alllevels' was a barrier to boardroom influence." It seems then that forin-house teams actually identifying the 'suitable talent' to enable this typeof strategic hiring is the biggest hurdle to overcome.

HR managers accustomed to sifting through previously vetted CVs completecan often struggle to target and attract the right candidates. The use of printadvertisements and job boards can themselves be expensive and inefficienttactics. Where agencies have had the edge is their early adoption of the onlinetools and strategies available. Switching on to the benefits offered byresources like Linkedin and applicant tracking systems and understanding how touse them effectively are simple ways of improving candidate identification.

So, with in-house teams at least having the potential to out-performagencies, does this, as predicted by many commentators within the recruitmentspace, spell the end for recruitment agencies? For volume hire and middlemanagement roles, perhaps so. But, for higher level roles where very specificskills and experience are required and industry sensitivities dictate a moretactical approach there will always be a place for a third party. Agencies,executive search companies and head hunters have the networks, tools andnegotiation skills that it's just not practical for companies to have on thepayroll.

Where there is value for anorganisation is having a skilled, experienced and well supported in-houserecruitment team on board. Done well direct hire can be about much more thanimproving your bottom line and can make real strategic difference to anorganisation, now and in the years to come.

Al’s Twitter and LinkedInprofile and GR Online’s website

Another totallyrandom classic!

*****

Day 14 - Managing Staff Through The Tough Times

2011-12-14T00:00:00.000Z

Day 14 and isn’tthis month just flying by?! Today we have another fantastic HR blogger andpublished writer, Susan Popoola.

Managing Staff Through The Tough Times

While there arebusinesses that may be thriving, the recent recession and its aftermath meanthat it’s been a tough few years for a lot of businesses. If we are to be honest things are likely toremain tough for the next few years as we contend with Government cuts,problems with Europe and what have you. The natural instinct under thesecircumstances is therefore to knuckle down and focus – expecting those thatwork for us to do the same thing - grateful that unlike so many others theyhave work.

The tendency is toput structures and processes in place to ensure that we things work botheffectively and efficiently – this is something I highly recommend. I alsoadvice on the need to become more stringent about absences and what staff dowithin work time – this is something else that most businesses will probably bedoing now. Additionally most businesses will also be becoming more focused ontargets and expect staff to have the same focus. All of this isperfectly understandable and logical – after all unless a business is run onvolunteers and unpaid interns, the people working with you are being paid toget a job done in what is now a very competitive market.

I do believe, thatit is, however, important to remember that just as businesses are going througha tough time, so are a lot of people that work with us. What with the increased costs of living andthe possible unemployment of a partner; close family members and/or friends, thiscan all very easily serve to put pressure on those fortunate enough to have ajob. This type of pressure on staff may also be enhanced if you havealready had to implement reduced hours or a pay freeze for a few years.

So yes, do expectthe best from your people, but also please be a bit sensitivetoo. Where possible take the time to understand their circumstances.Allow for a little flexibility within your structures and processes if it willhelp them without being detrimental to the business.

Fundamentallycommunicate with them on the position of the business, the plans that you havefor the business i.e. the strategy and the logic behind it. Be open totheir input and ideas – they may actually be the source of input that makes allthe difference to your business.

In balancing therequirements of your business with the needs of your staff, I believe you willattain their crucial support and their vey best throughthe on going tough times that we are all faced with.

Susan’s Twitter and LinkedInprofiles.

Another absolute gem againbearing little or no relevance to HR or this post, but simply for fun!

*****

Ed Scrivener is anexperienced HR recruiter. He writes,tweets, praises and moans about his passions – HR, recruitment and social media…except for in December when he is being lazy and getting everyone else to doit!

Day 13 - Fluffing Anyone?

2011-12-13T00:00:00.000Z

Day 13 and who do wehave? The outrageous and magnificentJess Wood. Jess is a highly experiencedrecruiter and today she looks at employer branding, candidate experience andexotic X-rated films – those that know Jess, would know only she could makethese comparisons!

Fluffing anyone?

When I was a little girl did Idream of becoming an adult movie ‘fluffer’???!! The answer to that is clearly‘no’!! It may also seem like a slightly strange opening sentence for arecruitment blog. However, the life of a recruiter these days can sometimesfeel just like that; keeping candidates warm for days, sometimes weeks, on end isno easy feat.

Despite our best efforts tomanage the process to suit both parties, the following issues (which can all beoff putting to good candidates) arise fairly frequently:

delays initially reviewing CVs
delays confirming actualinterview dates and times
employers chopping and changinginterview dates – sometimes at the very last minute
shifting goal-posts, in termsof actual requirements, throughout the interview process
delays in providing feedbackon interviews conducted
delays in issuing formalwritten offers

A good recruiter will havespent considerable time, acting as an ambassador of the employer it represents,promoting the opportunity to relevant candidates. After CV submission (bearingin mind the candidate will know what business their CV has been forwarded to),the candidate will want to be kept informed of what’s going on with theirapplication – and, if relevant, this will continue throughout the interviewprocess. All the good ‘promotion’ inthe world can easily be lost if the above points start to happen!

So, why is this important?Well, it’s all to do with your employer brand...

‘Employer brand’ is defined by Wikipedia as:

“firstused in the early 1990s to denote an organisation’s reputation as an employer.Since then, it has become widely adopted by the global management community.Minchington (2005) defines your employer brand as “the image of yourorganisation as a ‘great place to work’ in the mind of current employees andkey stakeholders in the external market (active and passive candidates,clients, customers and other key stakeholders). The art and science of employerbranding is therefore concerned with the attraction, engagement and retentionof initiatives targeted at enhancing your company's employer brand."

The term employer brand is bandiedaround a lot nowadays, but do we really live and breathe it? In difficult economic times, attracting top talentis key to the continued success of any organisation. There may be over 2.5million unemployed* currentlybut top talent needs ‘courting’, needs to feel ‘special’ and ‘wanted’, andneeds to benefit from a strong ‘candidate experience’.

We all know the old adage that peoplewho’ve had a bad experience are more likely to share it with anyone who’lllisten than those who’ve had a good experience. With the onslaught of social media anyone who wants to vent theirdiscontent can now do so freely on the open forums that are available – andreach a much wider audience extremely quickly. This can have a negative effect on a business.

I’m sure most businesses want toposition themselves as an ‘employer of choice’. However, in order to gain thatreputation they need to apply many of the same methods they use to attract andretain clients when looking to attract candidates. Remember, as much as the candidate is lookingto impress you, you also need to impress the candidate. Certain industries tendto be quite incestuous... who knows, one of your potential candidates couldactually be a client, or be connected to your existing clients or potential newclients.

What’s the solution?

Well, we have to appreciate thathiring managers have ‘day jobs’ too and whilst recruitment of new talent isimportant it may not be right at the top of the priority list; other importantday-today issues can get in the way and take precedence. These days particularly, due to cutbacks etc,some hiring managers may find themselves spinning many more plates than theyused to. Maybe some hiring managers havefound themselves in a position whereby recruitment has become yet anotherresponsibility but they haven’t benefitted from appropriate in-house training?

In my opinion, communication andplanning are both key. Work with your recruitereffectively (they’re on your side!); don’t be afraid to share any timeconstraints, be honest in terms of how much time you have available, let themknow how quickly you can feedback on CVs submitted, and tell them the besttimes during the day for you to receive calls if they need to speak with you (ifyou prefer email as an initial point of contact then say so). Try to set aside interviewdates a bit in advance, that way you all have something to work towards thatwill help avoid the interview process dragging on and on.

Most importantly, try to commit totimescales for things that you do initially agree to. If, for any reason, youcan’t communicate this via phone or email to your recruiter; believe me norecruiter relishes chasing (or stalking!) clients for updates and trying to continuekeeping the candidates ‘warm’ with little or no information for them! Perhaps trya little empathy; put yourself in the candidates’ shoes. What would you expectif you were looking for a new role? How would you like to be treated?

By doing these things you helpthe recruiter (remember - your ambassador) manage candidate expectations moreeffectively and maintain your ‘employer brand’. The results of this being you createa stronger candidate experience and become an employer of choice. Mostimportantly, you limit the risk of potentially losing good people along theway, and avoid what should be a good experience turning into a bad one!

Jess’ Twitterand LinkedInprofiles.

More comedy gold...

*****

Ed Scrivener is an experienced HR recruiter. He writes, tweets, praises and moans abouthis passions – HR, recruitment and social media... except for in December when he is being lazy and getting everyone elseto do it!

*****

I would just like to take this opportunity to thankLouise Triance of UK Recruiter, her judging team and Jobsite, as I found outyesterday afternoon my blog has won the BestPersonal Recruitment Blog of 2011. Importantly I would like to thank those of you that nominated me in thefirst place – but have you just opened Pandora’s box? As this may result in even more vitriol andwittering from me next year!!

Day 12 - Leaving On a Jet Plane

2011-12-12T00:00:00.000Z

Day 12 and who can it be? Another great HR Director, this time inthe guise of Sheena McLullich who discusses business travel.

Leaving On a Jet Plane

If you’re about to jet off for the Christmas holidays and arecontemplating check-in queues, delays, cancellations, security checks, crowdedairports and so on, spare a thought for those of us for whom travel is anon-going occupational challenge.

I’ve often had to travel as part of my job responsibilities andany perception that this is a glamorous way of life is soon dispelled. Although I’ve been to lots of fascinatingdestinations, if your purpose for being there is for work, sightseeing is arare luxury and you tend to see no more than the interior of the local office,your hotel room and the airport. HoweverI generally enjoy being a business traveller, although I’ve had my fair shareof problems to contend with.

Back in the ‘old days’ (pre 9/11 and before airport securitybecame of paramount importance), it used to be possible to saunter up to thedeparture gate two minutes before the flight was due to leave – and still beallowed to board. I know – because I wasa master at this act of nonchalance and it was a stunt that I performed on aregular basis. I worked in London duringthe week, flying south on a Sunday evening and returning to my home in Aberdeenon the last flight from Heathrow every Friday night. I did this journey so regularly that I got toknow the ground staff and I was expert in fast-tracking security and gettingthough the airport in record time. Itonly went wrong once when I was late leaving the office, the train was held ina tunnel for ages and I finally made it to the gate with less than 30 secondsto go. I would probably have got awaywith it, but for the fact that there was a woman in front of me (who hadpresumably been on the same train) remonstrating with the ground crew whoretaliated by refusing to let her through – and then promptly did the same tome! My hotel room for that night cost menearly £300 – it was a mistake that I never made again!

Worse was to come when a cost-cutting initiative resulted in myweekly commute being re-assigned to a low-cost airline. One foggy Friday night, after numerous delaysto our flight taking off from a different ‘London’ airport, the pilot announced that he was unable toland in Aberdeen and that the flight would be diverted to Edinburgh – some 100miles south of my intended destination. On landing, we were told that the replacement bus had yet to leaveAberdeen (a two-hour drive away) which meant that I was at least four hoursfrom home. There were no hire carsavailable and I finally reached home at 4:00 am on Saturday morning. I was incensed to discover later that thescheduled flight from Heathrow to Aberdeen had landed as normal at 9:00 pm theprevious evening. Shortly after thatepisode, I relocated to London …

I’ve endured all the hassles associated with lost and damagedluggage. On a flight to Aberdeen to sita final University exam, one of my two suitcases didn’t get to join me on theplane. Needless to say, that was the one which contained all my revisionnotes. Luckily the airline found itlanguishing at Heathrow and sent it on a later flight and then, by taxi to myhotel. Impeccable service, although Ihave since determined that anything essential (including a change of clothes)always travels with me as hand luggage.

By far my biggest disaster came on a trans-Atlantic flight to theUSA. It was a routine journey to visitour New York office and one which I undertook several times a year, usuallywithout incident. On this occasionhowever, I collapsed, almost without warning, with crippling abdominalpains. Luckily, my memory of subsequentevents is somewhat hazy, although I do recall being treated by a doctor who(even more luckily) was on the same flight and of being stretchered off theaircraft into the arms of medics from the New York Fire Department. I woke up the next morning in a hospital inQueens, attached to a drip and without any clear idea of what had happened – oreven how I’d got through Immigration! It was all explained to me later by a lovely American nurse who alsopresented me with an invoice amounting to several thousand US dollars for thetreatment I’d received.

So what’s the moral of these stories for HR practitioners? Well, apart from the obvious factors ofensuring that the company has appropriate travel and medical insurance policesin force for its business travellers (all my previous employers have beenexcellent in that respect – it’s just as well!) HR should also recognise that business travel sometimes requires aresilience and sense of humour that is not so necessary in other facets ofcorporate life.

A friend of mine recently left a role which involved frequent,global travel to all corners of the world. He had worked for the company concerned for many years and hadaccumulated many thousands of air-miles. His leaving present? A pair ofairline tickets for a round-the-world trip. You have to laugh ….!

Sheena’s LinkedInprofile

No introduction needed...

*****

Ed Scrivener is an experienced HR recruiter. He writes, tweets, praises and moans abouthis passions – HR, recruitment and social media... except for in December when he is being lazy and getting everyone elseto do it!

Day 11 - Social Networking in Business

2011-12-11T00:00:00.000Z

Day 11 and unbelievably it’s only 2 weeks until Christmas!! Today, I ampleased to welcome my old colleague Mark Ions who discusses the apparent desireof employees to curb social media use witin the workplace.

Social Networking in Business

A couple of weeks ago I read an article that claimed that more thantwo-thirds of UK workers believe access to social networking sites should bebanned in the workplace (Employees call for social networking to be banned in the workplace). I was surprised that such a large amount of those surveyed felt that socialnetworking should be entirely eliminated from their working lives.

It is estimated that Facebook has 110 million unique UK visits a month,while Twitter has 12 million unique UK visits a month – needless to say thegrowth of these sites has been monumental in the past few years.

There is no doubt that organisations across the country will be losingvital man-hours every day to employees checking their friends’ latest photoalbums or tweeting about what they’re going to be having for lunch. However, a blanket ban of social networking in the workplace would bedetrimental to any organisation. Personal use should be kept in check,but any company looking to ignore social networking will miss out on a range ofbenefits.

It is becoming more and more common for HR teams to devise a socialnetworking policy, and one which gives the right amount of freedom to therelevant people can pay off for the whole business. Businesses need tolook at how social media can improve their businesses, rather than focussing onthe damage it can cause.

The most obvious area where social networking pays dividends is inmarketing a business. Businesses of any size can open a Facebook orTwitter account, build up a following of potential customers, and relay theirmessage in a succinct and direct manner. Not only that, but the power ofanalytics means that trends amongst followers can be regularly analysed andacted upon in real time.

For the most part, social networking is free, and gives an organisationthe opportunity to converse with their customers directly. This can beextremely positive – for example a consumer-facing organisation can addresscomplaints directly and personally, showing high levels of customer servicequickly and easily. However, as with anything there can be negatives –for example an employee using a twitter account linked with the business totweet about their drunken antics the night before.

The recent case of Joey Barton using Twitter to vent hisspleen about his previous employer highlights (I prefer the case of Gloucester's Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu! - Ed) the problems that can arise between employer andemployee. This is a topic we will look to address in a future blog, butwe would be interested to hear your thoughts on how it could have been handledbetter.

With social networking being such a new (and ever-developing) tool, itwill continue to prove a challenge to those looking to regulate its use in abusiness. However if it is done correctly, the pros will almost certainlyoutweigh the cons.

Mark’s Twitter and LinkedInprofiles and Exclusive HR's website.

You’ve understood howthis works by now...

*****

Ed Scrivener is an experienced HRrecruiter. He writes, tweets, praisesand moans about his passions – HR, recruitment and social media... except for in December when he is being lazyand getting everyone else to do it! (although today I have written for AlisonChisnell’s blog, so not completely lazy!)

Day 10 - Making The Successful Senior Hire

2011-12-10T00:00:00.000Z

Day 10 and we have... the fabulousHR blogger and leadership coach Dorothy Nesbit. Today she looks at themechanics of making a truly great senior hire.

Making the successful seniorhire

Recently I had a feedbacksession with someone (let’s call him John) I assessed for a senior role in aclient organisation. I had highlightedto my client organisation that John showed long-term development needs in areaskey to success so he didn’t get the job. What I didn’t know ahead of our feedback meeting was that, prior to ourinterview, my clients had pretty much told him the job was in the bag. It didn’t make for an easy start to ourdiscussion.

The wrong kind of senior hire...

The impact of making – orfailing to make – a successful senior hire can readily be counted in pounds,shillings and pence. The man or womanwho is well-suited to their new job brings a fresh eye, seeking to understandwhere their part of an organisation needs to go and how to get there givenwhere they’re starting from. The earlyresults include double-figure percentage improvements in key areas - suchthings as employee engagement, sales, profits or customer satisfaction.

Contrast this with the costsof getting it wrong. These can includethe slow demise of key areas of the business as chaos sets in and staff slowlybed into a new and ineffective approach – or leave. They can include the gradual seepage of poorresults from the area under a leader’s control to connected areas, as salesstart to reduce in response to poor delivery times, for example. They can include major opportunities that aresimply overlooked by the man or woman in charge. They include the costs of managing anindividual and even of managing him or her out of the business and recruitingagain.

In short, when you make asenior hire, you need to get it right. My aim in this posting is to give you some clear and simple tips fordoing just that.

Clarify your aims

The more you know what youwant from your new hire, the more likely you are to get it. Before you dust off the job description ofyour departing leader, take a long, hard look at your organisation today. What are the challenges currently faced byyour organisation, for example? And towhat extent is your organisation designed to meet today’s challenges? (Is it time to re-shape the job, to re-gradeit, or even to get rid of it altogether?) What other factors do you need to take into account? (These might include the need to create a diverseteam at senior level or your organisation’s real appetite for change – it’ssurprisingly common to see organisations invest an agenda for change in justone job and to wonder why a talented new hire flounders in the face of so muchresistance). Only when you’ve exploredthese – and other – questions is it time to move to the next step.

The next step includes shapinga clear job description, person description and critical success factors forthe new hire. If you’ve thoughtcarefully about the job, writing the job description should be easy andeffective, identifying the over-arching purpose of the job and five to eightkey areas of accountability. Just onepage should do it – clarity reduces as length increases. Understanding the competencies needed for thejob requires a sound grasp of what it takes to succeed. Defining critical success factors serves tohighlight the particular aspirations of the hiring manager.

Take care not to over-eggwhat’s needed. I remember being taskedwith assessing candidates for one organisation’s first HR Director role. Their aspirations for someone at the leadingedge of HR thinking seemed way beyond what was needed in an organisation thatneeded initially to get the basics right. It also seemed unlikely that they would attract the person they described. They didn’t, with the effect that their newincumbent started his new job with an uneasy sense that he wasn’t what theywanted, even though he was perfectly well-suited to the job that needed to bedone.

Get the right (wo)man on board

There’s an area of competencethat just isn’t mine when it comes to getting the right (wo)man on board. This is the area of generating a number oflikely candidates for the job. Often, myclients use head-hunters for this purpose and, at times, I’m horrified by poorquality of the results – it surprises me that so few head-hunters have skillsin assessing the capability of the candidates they put forward. The bottom line is this: whatever your process for generatingcandidates, you need to know you have a sound approach in place to test theirsuitability for the job.

One way of thinking about thisis to ask yourself what steps you have in place and what purpose they serve asyou seek to assess the suitability of each candidate. An interview with the hiring manager isessential, for example, to test the chemistry between candidates and theirpotential future boss, though it’s unlikely to be sufficient to test thecompetency of your candidates. Equally,as well as having a way to assess the capability of key candidates for the rolefor which they have applied, you need to think about how to assess their fit toyour organisation. As you map out yourrecruitment process, you need to identify what outcomes you need from eachstage in the process and how you will design the process to deliver. Key outcomes include assessing capability forthe job, assessing fit to your organisation, securing a good match to keycolleagues (including complementary skills and good “chemistry”) and identifyingstrengths and areas in which development is needed.

One challenge that I oftenencounter at this stage is this: assessing capability for the role requires specialist skills which fewHR departments possess. At the sametime, hiring in external help is expensive so that organisations choose to useit quite late in the process. This canlead to the kind of miscommunication I described right at the beginning of myposting.

Creating the conditions for success

If you think that making thesuccessful hire finishes when your preferred candidate accepts the job, you aremissing any number of opportunities to support a successful on-boarding.

A robust assessment process,for example, will generate insights into the strengths and areas fordevelopment of your chosen candidate and these can be used to increase thechances of success. When it comes tostrengths, for example, you may want to allocate key tasks in order to leveragethe strengths of your new incumbent from an early stage and position him or heras a successful new hire. Equally, youneed to think ahead of time about how to plug gaps in your new hire’scapability. This might be a matter ofcoaching or some other form of development – in any case, coaching at a time ofon-boarding can pay high dividends. Equally, a realistic appraisal of your new hire may guide you to reshapethe role to allocate responsibilities elsewhere to which s/he’s just notwell-suited.

You may want to ask what othersupport your candidate needs in the early stages. This can range from a clear job descriptionto moral support: you need to judgeahead of time how likely it is that your chosen candidate will feel nervous andneed reassurance on the job. Equally, youcan give the most confident new hire support by managing the messages thataccompany their arrival in a new organisation – letting people know, forexample, precisely what their role is as well as what makes them equipped tocarry out their role.

And what of the unsuccessfulcandidate? Sponsoring feedback is justone way in which you can let them know how much you appreciate their (albeitunsuccessful) application and wish them well for the future. For John, this is what turned disappointmentaround and opened up opportunities for new levels of success in future – buildinggoodwill and helping him to let go of the idea he had done a “bad job” atinterview and to identify key areas he needs to work on if he is to secure –and succeed in – the job of his dreams.

I wonder, what have been yoursuccesses – and mistakes – in making the successful senior hire?

Dorothy’s Twitter and LinkedInprofiles

Here is a anotherreally great clip...

*****

Ed Scrivener is an experienced HR recruiter. He writes, tweets, praises and moans abouthis passions – HR, recruitment and social media... except for in December when he is being lazy and is getting everyoneelse to do it!

Day 9 -Tales of the Unexpected

2011-12-09T00:00:00.000Z

So who is peaking out behind door 9? I am absolutely delighted to say it is KateGriffiths-Lambeth, a highly experienced and knowledgeable HR Director. Kate describes a very interesting andchallenging experience she had recently.

Tales of the Unexpected

On December 9^th 1930 a beguilingdancer, called Billie Stockton, fashioned herself a dress from an entire headof lettuce and played the part of Eve in a show named the Garden of Eden. Her lettuce came from El Centro California and the town’s Chamber of Commerce donatedher backdrop, as well as being the place of origin for her costume. It’san unusual example of collaboration, but it conjures some wonderful images andmakes me wonder how and who raised the concept for the performance. (Italso reminds me slightly of a dare I successfully completed at university, whenI had to wear only six garments for a week (I could wash them!). Theywere contributed by my fellow competitors and included a belt and a piece ofribbon as two of the total half dozen articles which, somewhat to my concern,were deemed “clothes”. I should have taken a leaf (excuse the pun) fromMs Stockton’s creative approach)

It is good at times to undertake theunexpected. It broadens your knowledge and often enables you tounderstand both your own and others’ capabilities and to produce unanticipatedresults and successes. Late last month I deliberately took part in a dayof unplanned experiences. It was arranged by Trainers Kitbag – an innovative companyestablished by a collection of leading L&D professionals who were concernedthat most team-orientated exercises enable individuals to play certainwell-assumed roles, rather than developing greater personal awareness andlearning how to interact more effectively with others. Trainers Kitbaghave created a range of game-based activities and events that enableindividuals to learn and grow outside of the usual training experiences.

I did not know my fellow team mates until wemet at the start of the day. We were aware that we were in competitionwith another group and that they, like us, had no prior knowledge of what wewere going to do. I am not going to explain our day in detail – to do somight diminish the experience and learning for you, should you participate in asimilar event. However, I would like to state that it was thoughtprovoking, energetic, well-planned (by the organisers, not necessarily by ourteam) and highly enjoyable - I now know some things about myself and Londonthat have surprised me.

I’d like to briefly consider some of myfindings that came out of the event:

It was a delight working with people whom Idid not know well (I had exchanged tweets with a couple and met one in personfrom the other team, but the others were completely new acquaintances) – noneof us had prior conceptions as to how the rest were likely to behave and, as aresult, we were simply ourselves instead of role-playing what we thought othersexpected of us.
We were all keen to win and hence found thatwe were happy to co-operate, as we had a shared goal.
It did not take us long to appreciate theskills and strengths of our colleagues – the exercises that we were doing meantthat we had excellent opportunities to observe each other and learn.
I gained a better understanding of the impactI have, particular strengths that I can bring to the table and some of the waysin which I can help people, as well as things that I do that I should tone downor stop.
It was fascinating to see how a group behaveswhen under pressure (opportunistic and task-orientated actions came to thefore, when we might have benefitted from taking a bit longer to plan) – if wewere to have our time again, I am sure that both teams would have behaved inslightly different fashions as, with hindsight, we could see ways in which weperhaps let ourselves down.

It is with this enhanced self awareness thatI have commenced a new job as the Global Head of HR for a complex internationalgroup. I have made a mental note to myself to listen closely beforeleaping into action, to observe those around me and to encourage them to playto their strengths, to plan but remain sufficiently flexible so that I andothers don’t miss opportunities. Most of all, I have a honed appreciationof the value of collaboration, the importance of enjoying what you do and beingappreciated by those around you and the achievements that can result fromembracing the unexpected and encouraging others to do the same. May yourDecembers and New Years be filled with pleasant surprises and significantsuccesses, and if you intend to perform dressed only in vegetables please letme know, as I am open to new experiences and would be happy to come and watch.

Kate’s TwitterandLinkedIn profiles

Does there needto be a reason to include this? Just a funny clip for the festive season!

*****

Ed Scrivener is an experienced HRRecruiter. He writes, tweets, praisesand moans about his passions – HR, recruitment and social media... except for min December when he is beinglazy and getting everyone else to do it!

Day 8 - Here's A Question For You...

2011-12-08T00:00:00.000Z

Day 8 and who can it be?...Louise Triance, MD of UK Recruiter. I amnot trying to influence a certain competition, but I am gutted I didn’t invitethe rest of the judging panel! TodayLouise asks a very interesting question.

Here’s a question for you

You have placed a candidate, Bob, with a client, SinksRUs. You’ve been paidyour fee, you are out of the rebate period and client and candidate arehappy.... Then Bob phones you. He says he is thinking of moving on and wantsyour advice, as a recruiter, on negotiating terms with his potential newemployer. Obviously you tell him you can’t help him with that as your loyaltylies with the client. Bob says he understands but asks that you protect hisposition by not saying a word to his current employers. However, two days laterthe MD of SinksRUs calls you to say he’s a bit worried about Bob. He has afeeling he’s looking at moving on and is worried, with the position Bob holdsat the company, how that might leave SinksRUs open to financial loss. Theclient just wants your advice on how to handle the situation.

So, what do you do? Where does your loyalty lie?

You know the format by now,these clips all have exceptionally tenuous links, but they’re all great!

*****

Day 7 - Leadership at the crossroads to the new business world

2011-12-07T00:00:00.000Z

Day 7 and you’re probably getting use to this by now, so who is ittoday... I am delighted to welcome the published author and talent managementexpert Janice Caplan.

Leadership at the crossroads to the new business world

The economic downturn brought into focus just how much thebusiness world is changing. But we are still doing things the old way, withsome unintended consequences that obstruct change:-

To start with, through the so-called talent wars, we have anover-emphasis on too few staff, at the expense of others. Yet, in the newworld, the speed of change in technology, markets and global competition ismaking roles increasingly inter-connected, so that everyone is pivotal tosuccess.
We have a core legacy of inappropriate ‘command and control’policies. These limit the free flow of information; they slow change whileauthorisation is sought; and they create departmental and functional silos, blockingcollaboration.

In the new world of breathtakingly rapid change, the organisationmust have the flexibility to learn, adapt, innovate and create before others.Success demands collaborative working within organisations and with externalpartners, all working to achieve common goals.

Significant change, shaped by leaders’ strategic vision, mayemerge from a team or an individual anywhere. The inspiration or insight for anew product or market or way of doing things may come from anyone.

The use of new media is changing people’s attitudes: they are moreused to sharing information, and more open about themselves, and their work.Leaders must similarly share more information, as well as giving their peopleleeway to use social media so they get the inspiration from it that leads toinnovation.

Organization structures are also becoming more complicated andmanagement through close personal supervision and controlling the detail ofwhat and how people do things is mostly impossible.

In this new world, the business’s leaders' prime responsibility isto create conditions for collaboration, innovation, and change. This meansleaders must create the appropriate culture, act as role models fororganisational values, and communicate their vision. This new leadership modelreplaces ‘command and control’ or paternalism with “shared vision, sharedvalues and shared understanding”©.

In this new context, people must be trusted to do the work, andrepresent the business without control or supervision. None of which means thatpeople are unsupervised or unsupported but it calls for a lighter touch, withinclear boundaries. People are then empowered to act and take responsibility anddecisions within them, and are clear about the standards of performancerequired.

Control is exercised through a mixture of discussion and metrics.Discussion sets boundaries, offers support and deals with issues, rather thanbeing a mere set of instructions. Metrics focus on outcomes and outputs ratherthan on the process.

The new leadership model doesn’t diminish leaders’responsibilities. Rather it emphasises that setting the tone and strategicdirection requires behavioural capabilities different from those demanded ofthe ‘command and control’ model.

Leaders, through values and vision set the overall strategicdirection of the business. In the new world this means coordinating input fromcolleagues within and from outside; it means creating change by judging betweendisparate views, and making connections between superficially unrelated issues.It means envisioning change and opportunity before translating this into thecapabilities the organization must start to develop now.

People at the top often believe that directing means they nolonger manage, or they go the other way and micro-manage. In the first case,directors abdicate strategy implementation, rather than delegate as theymisguidely think they are doing. This insufficient involvement risks thestrategy going in a different direction from that intended. It creates a disconnectionand there ceases to be a ‘shared understanding’ filtering through theorganization. In the new world, continued involvement is the way to keepcontrol, replacing bureaucracy and systems. This extends too to directors'performance management responsibilities, where regular ‘meaningfulconversations’ with their direct reports about performance and careers, set thestandard for people management throughout the business.

In the second case, where directors fail to rise to theirstrategic role and they instead micro-manage the operational, this not onlyprevents others growing, developing and innovating, but often leads to stress,burnout and derailment.

Global working is another factor driving the shift from “commandand control,” and its ‘do it my way’ message, to the “shared vision, sharedvalues, shared understanding” model, which allows people in different countriesand parts of the business to do it their way, but within certain commonguidelines.

The new world requires an inclusive approach to talent management,recognising everyone is important to the organisation and making talentimportant to everyone. This includes developing those likely to be occupyingfuture boardroom seats. But what is different in the new world is that thebusiness’s leaders must also actively promote a talent mindset throughout thebusiness. “This means that line managerswill recognise their responsibility to manage talent effectively just as theyare expected to manage other resources. Directors will review talent ascritically as they review the organization's finances. Individuals willactively seek to develop or update their own talents and will be provided withthe kind of developmental work experiences that build the organization’s keycapabilities. This starts at the top with a people vision that is activelyfollowed through and role-modelled.”

Using coaching styles is the main delivery mechanism for the“shared vision, shared values and shared understanding”© model, which alsorequires leaders to increase their visibility throughout the organisation.

To make this new leadership model, with its emphasis on behaviourand trust, stick, it is imperative to align all people strategies to it,especially talent and reward so that people are recruited, developed,recognised, promoted, and paid according to the same principles.

Janice’s Twitterand LinkedInprofiles and details on herbook!

You’re probably use to this by now too, but here’s another funnyclip...

*****

Ed Scrivener is an experienced HR recruiter. He writes, tweets, praises and moans abouthis passions – HR, recruitment and social media... except for in December when he is being lazy and getting everyone elseto do it!

Day 6 - Using your strengths to stand out

2011-12-06T00:00:00.000Z

Day 6 andwho is behind the door? None other thanmy fellow Gloucester supporter John Hepworth (yes, there are 2 of us!). I’ve known John for many a year and he hasentered the blogosphere, but I have yet to persuade him onto Twitter, so nolinks today!

Using yourstrengths to stand out

“PositivePsychology” is seen as the new way forward for many…the concept that Positive Psychology is thescientific study of optimal human functioning. It aims to discover and promotethe factors that allow individuals and communities to thrive. The positivepsychology movement represents a new commitment on the part of researchpsychologists to focus attention upon the sources of psychological health,thereby going beyond prior emphases upon disease and disorder (Sheldon et al,2007, University of Pennsylvania).”

So, looking at the ‘good stuff’.This has always been a bit of s stretch for me, in that my selectioninterviewing training, for instance, taught me to seek examples from candidatesthat met the criteria for the job. In my mind, then, I was seeking to find outthings that candidates could do, rather than what they could not. But let’s runwith this, because to me, the way that Positive Psychology is moving nowsuggests that there is more to it than just – let’s face it – happy, clappyAmericanisms.

OK, so what do I mean? Myintroduction to the topic has been focused on career development for clients.Where clients have little or no work experience to draw upon, I was findingmyself restricted in how I could help. Without any doubt, following adiscussion with Bill Davies at JCA (Occupational Psychologists), a ‘strengths’approach – delivered from a Positive Psychology perspective – paid dividends. Iused “StrengthsFinder” ® and Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and this provideda rich seam of information for development and learning.

I was presented with an in-depthprofile of what the client saw as their strengths, allied to a comprehensiveMBTI report that complimented and helped start a discussion. It was amazing tome at least to see traits and preferences that had been seen as a ‘problem’ insome clients, suddenly turned into ‘strengths’. This allowed me to work withthe clients on how they then implemented their new-found strengths intopractical, career-based action.

I was then struck by a sentenceon the back of a book…”…we become experts in our weaknesses and spend our livestrying to repair these flaws, whilst our strengths lie dormant and neglected.”This is taken from ‘Now, discover your strengths’ by Buckingham and Clifton(2005) and my goodness, did this resonate with me!

Thinking back on my employedcareer, how often did I actually focus on the strengths of employees andmanagers alike? Rarely, mainly in formal succession planning sessions rooted inpersonal bias and cultural norms, rather than what was actually required ‘tomove the business forward’. Mainly, my job was identifying and correctingweaknesses – even if I did call them development needs. We Brits do like tocriticise – but give someone sustained and authentic feedback?! And when itcame to selection interviewing, well, what I actually did was seek instanceswhere candidates met our competencies, rather than demonstrated their strengthsand how they may be applicable.

Interesting and I am sure thatmany of you will have a different view. But what has changed for me is that farfrom being ‘happy, clappy Americanisms’, the role of Positive Psychology andits applications can be at least as powerful as a competency-based approach(and hey, most good competency systems now describe behaviours that are ‘good’and ‘bad’).

Where does this leave me, then,in my view on Positive Psychology? One example helps here. Writing in‘Assessment & Development Matters’ (BPS, Vol 3, No1, Spring 2011), Trenieret al share their experiences of using a ‘strengths’ approach withundergraduates. The Association of Graduate Recruiters (2010) noted that some70 graduates were applying for each available job, so by implication, graduatesneeded that ‘something else’ to stand out from the mass of applicants. Trenieret al devised a programme to help undergraduates identify their strengths, tohelp them identify realistic career choices and to present themselves stronglyto recruiters.

The outcomes for the studentsinvolved were telling. For instance, the simple fact that recognised that theycould not all be all-rounders – we all have different strengths – and yet strengthsare not static: they can be ‘realised’ through targeted development andexperiences.

I feel now that it goes withoutsaying that applications such as Emotional Intelligence lead the way for careerdevelopment and psychological well-being – and tools in EI focus on strengths.Picking up on last week’s blog, what we need to see more of now is the businesssuccess associated with adopting Positive Psychology and EI approaches: theHoly Grail of linking people well-being with outstanding business performance.Sufficient to prove once and for all that we ‘people professionals’ were rightall along!

John's LinkedIn profile and blog

Theblog that keeps on giving. Great posts and funny (or slightly silly) clips...

*****

Ed Scrivener is an experienced HRrecruiter. He writes, tweets, praisesand moans about his passions – HR, recruitment and social media... except for in December when he is being lazyand getting everyone else to do it.