Game Changing!

“09 is Game Changing?”

In my 21 years in the IT recruitment industry I think we may be just be coming out of the most ‘game changing’ period I have seen. Sure 1990 was tough post the ’87 crash and Y2K created huge opportunity, then a following lull, but this may be different!

1. The flexible workforce is now a reality!
2. Price transparency and value is for real!
3. Social networks is the great technology enabler!
4. “people are our most important asset”… this Mantra will now be tested like never before!

Flexible workforce: Yep. Short-term, fixed term, part-time, job share, hourly rate, fixed rate, daily rate, work from home, virtual workforce, webcasting, crowd-sourcing or cloud. Whatever it takes and whatever is affordable is driving very creative workforce solutions. This is now a reality and is a change that must be embraced by employers, recruiters, candidates, HR professionals and consultants. Whilst the rhetoric has been around a while we are now genuinely seeing these solutions being deployed with greater acceptance.

Price & Value: Perhaps it the stark financial reality everyone has needed to face that has finally cut through cultures of excess and lack of accountability. This has demanded an honesty amongst executives and suppliers that has driven price down where value didn’t equate. From this moment I reckon that value will be much more closely aligned to price especially in the services and consultancy supply community. People will still pay well for value but won’t accept excess.

Web 3.0: Social Networks are growing at such a rate that embracing it is the only option. Relationships, trust and knowledge will always underpin ultimate success but online branding and community development will drive our sourcing strategies, brand recognition, reputation and ultimately our effectiveness. Think price and value as above! Relevance to our audience and tools to reach them is extraordinarily challenging yet exciting for our industry. We’re all ears at this stage as we navigate forward trying out new tools and techniques!

“Yeah Right”: As green shoots appear company cultures will be tested like never before and lip service to employee engagement practices will come at a hefty price. Opportunities offshore will begin to open up again and a candidate short market will re-appear sooner than some think. Corporate behaviour over the last 12-18 months may just determine their success over the next 24 months. Some of the brutal treatment dished out by some large multi-nationals could come home to roost as people once again have choice.

Overall we see much more positivity than we did even 3 months ago. Unemployment forecasts and being reduced and most companies are cautiously optimistic about the year ahead. Have a happy and safe Xmas break.

Mark Chote
Managing Director
920 career agents

DIY Recruiting

Had yet another interesting discussion with a client reluctantly advising us that they were going to do their own recruitment last week.
Whilst this DIY ethos is prevalent at the moment it’s almost always reluctantly implemented by the person who is tasked with the assignment.
For this reason I know that the policy is flawed.
Whilst anyone can buy the short term cost saving argument, companies must understand that finding the right person is neither a task that can be undertaken reluctantly nor is it simply a case of advertise and they will come.
Great recruiting requires effective and continual use of multiple sourcing channels.

• Job Boards
• Referrals
• Head hunting
• Social Media
• Talent pool management
• Deep web searching

Equally the best candidates are mostly fully engaged therefore the knowledge of their whereabouts and requirements is a large part of what recruiters are paid for. This requires a significant investment in time and expertise.
It surprises me that many clients ignore this reverting to “cost down” as their primary objective over quality. Both objectives can co-exist when properly planned.
For some organisations “people are our most important asset” has become a Tui billboard…
Thoughts?

Green Shoots

It appears that all the lead economic indicators have bottomed out and that forecasts are a little better than earlier predicted. Certainly we have seen a small improvement in the new job vacancy market. It’s also true that labour markets always lag economic markets so it may be a while yet before we can say things are trending upwards.

So what advice can we share with you?

1. BE PREPARED! All listed vacancies are receiving very large response volumes whether they are via an agency or directly from the employer. This does not always correspond to a high volume of quality applicants. Make sure you tailor your application with very clear details matching your skills to those identified in the advert. Resist sending your standard CV off to every advert where you met some criteria. Follow up as employers inundated with responses will try and make the first cut on what they see on paper so make your presence felt!
2. BE FLEXIBLE! Think outside the square and think about how your skills and experience will add value to both the job and employer. Think also in terms of full and future value of any role and company you look at rather than just salary expectation. Contracting, fixed term contracting and contracting as a trial are methods of hire being utilised in this current market.
3. BE PROACTIVE! Think about all the sources you have to identify new work opportunities. Social networking sites like Linkedin, Events, Job Boards, Referrals from friends and Web Searching as examples. In terms of an Agency we suggest you chose someone who you think gets you and will work for you!

Stay Positive and Stay In-touch with the market and you’ll be well positioned as hopefully these green shoots develop into a much more buoyant job market over the next 6 – 12 months.

Competing on price?

Tight market and a scarcity of new business opportunity has driven some industry players to compete on price as their lead strategy. I’ve always thought that competing on price alone was a dangerous game but maybe I’m wrong. I accept some movement is at times required but recently I’ve been made aware of competitors doing business at 30% of our normal industry terms.

My issues have always been:

1. Can I retain my best people if I can’t pay them well because my fees are so light?

2. Am I respecting the professional competence of my people?

3. Can I go back to my clients and double or triple my fees once the market improves?

4. Will someone always be prepared to go cheaper and if so what is the bottom?

5. Can I actually do the right thing by my client if it’s not sustainable in terms of profitability?

6. If my only value is price then where does it stop and how sustainable is my business?

Perhaps I’m ignoring an extrodinarily challenging market but I would much rather push up the value chain with increased service whilst accepting less volume than playing in a pricing war.

It will be interesting to observe where these price players go from here?

Get Ready!

Now is a great time to focus on becoming “World Class” at recruitment & retention. Competitive Advantage will stem from highly motivated and capable employees as we make our way out of recession. (Not that I claim to know when that will be…)

Retain…

Having a high level of engagement within the workforce will be critical as once the employment markets free up companies will lose more people than they desire. This is because many have simply put their head down to stay employed but they will jump ship once opportunities begin to present themselves. Therefore engage with them now if you want to retain them in better times.

Recruit…

The same applies to spending energy now on recruitment processes, tools and training. Even if your not hiring get prepared because things could change quite quickly. So in my view now is a great time to:

• Keep building your talentpool
• Stay in contact with future talent
• Invest in your employment brand
• Investigate all candidate sourcing channels

Who knows whats around the corner?

Which way ahead?

It’s tough out there so what way should we look? I suggest we look backwards and fast.

1. Looking to far ahead could suggest we believe economic commentators and base our business decisions on what they may be saying. I don’t think they actually know! They may fool us into forgetting about our bottom line and the performance of our people.

2. Keeping our head down will certainly lead to doom as at the very least we need to be out and about having discussions. Raising our external focus will help us to make our own judgement calls.

3. So I suggest look backwards and fast!

What I mean is that to get through this next period we must revert to the basics. Re-commit to being very good at what we do. This means investment in training, coaching the right people but not being afraid of removing either negative influences or people simply in the wrong job.

As my industry is recruitment I get no satisfaction from the stories of redundancies and close downs. I do however understand it and believe we should have seen it coming. The last 6 years or so have seen people succeed in recruitment without well rounded consulting skills and these times are difficult for those not well versed in the basics. Our people need to able able to build relationships, gain trust, manage expectations, unearth opportunities, deliver, manage their time and keep a balance in their lives. NOT an easy thing! However it is this range of skills that were required 20 years ago when our industry went through another challenge period. We will get through but we must be GREAT at what we do other our relevance to clients and candidates will be marginalised.

Social networking & recruiting

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4690349a28.html

Thought provoking article (link above) I thought on social networking sites being used to screen candidates. I’m a bit slow and had always seen them as a great source of candidates but had missed the screening application. Not sure I’d dismiss a candidate based on the content of their facebook site but maybe it does give a little insight into what they are all about?
22% from the careerbuilder survey reckon they have!

But how does this work if it is mostly permission based?

Habits of GREAT Recruiters…

We’ve been working up a self assessment view on the habits of Great Recruiters…

 

1)      Goal Driven:

a)      I set daily, weekly, monthly goals that focus me on results

b)      I have an income expectation and understand how much I need to do to exceed it

c)       I understand what the business expects of me

 

2)      Time & Activity management:

a)      I understand the activities it takes to be a successful recruiter and I manage my time accordingly

b)      I use Daily to do lists and they always include:

i)        Candidate sourcing/referrals

ii)       New Client calls

iii)     Candidate & Client debriefing

iv)     Client visits

v)      Referencing

vi)     General catch up calls

 

3)      Work with Team:

a)      I work with and contribute to the team to leverage all our knowledge towards improved results

b)      I use and maintain the database

 

4)      Control & Influence:

a)      I stay in constant contact with candidates, questioning & influencing their thinking.

b)      I constantly question and lead clients towards required decisions and/or for information

c)       I aim to CONTROL all stages of the process with both candidates & clients

 

5)      Communication:

a)      I exceed communication expectations always delivering either good or bad news to keep candidates & clients informed

b)      I ensure all enquiries are responded to in a timely manner

 

6)      Professional Competence:

a)      I understand and can manage all the steps in recruiting and in candidate & client control

b)      I am always listening and sharing scenarios to improve my knowledge

c)       I behave like a ‘career recruiter’ demonstrating the resilience and persistence required to be better than the average

 

7)      Market Knowledge:

a)      I continually question both candidates & clients and scan all sources to ensure up to date market knowledge

b)      I ask both candidates & clients about my competition and how I’m going

 

      Competitiveness:

a)      I understand the competitive nature of this industry and thrive in doing it better than others

b)      I appreciate the urgency required to beat our competitors and I therefore continually prioritise and do things immediately

Top Tips…(from a recruiters perspective)

From a recruiters perspective what are the top tips we would offer our clients to make recruiting a better experience? We had the following thoughts…

1. “Time kills all deals” Great candidates won’t wait.

2. Provide a quality brief. The more comprehensive the brief the better the result.

3. Choose one recruiter…and make a mutual committment to the process.

4. Open all candidate sourcing channels, press, web, referrrals etc

5. Understand the full Value Proposition you have to offer the ideal candidate as they will have choices and need to be sold on the job, challenges, rewards, recognition, package, future!  Think…”Whats in it for me?”

Australia Beckons?

Last weekend I spent a day at our stall at the NZ Jobs Expo and was amazed by how many people approached us asking if we could help them get a job in Australia. Last year we lost @30,000 to Australia and the trend seems set to continue upwards. Australian wages are up to 30% better and the taxes are now lower so you can’t blame people. The challenge for us is what is NZ going to do hold onto its talented young people or at least attract them home once they have done their OE?