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.

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?”

Different in Europe

Having spent the last two weeks in Italy & France I notice the main difference is that the Recruitment business has a “High Street” profile. Vedior, Adecco, Manpower are in every small town and city visited with shop fronts. Why dont we do that in Nz and Australia as its great profile and exposure? I guess thats why they have grown with such enormous scale. Are we too conservative down under?

Always be recruiting…

The “5 secrets of talent” e-book below is a great little guide to key recruitment strategies but I thought I would add one; ALWAYS!

When the corporate message comes down that the headcount freeze is on its not time to stop recruiting. Keep selling your brand and value proposition in every way possible. Every networking opportunity is a recruitment opportunity. Great people are mostly busy doing what they do so a chance discussion is often the best sourcing opportunity of all. ALWAYS be recruiting…

5 Secrets of Talent

A friend of mine has put together a few little gems…check it out at … http://talentfanatic.typepad.com/weblog/5_secrets_of_talent/index.html

Search Engine Optimisation

For a niche specialist recruiting business how important is SEO. The general view is that a web presence without SEO is a waste therefore I’m keen on any expert opinion I can get. Therefore my first ever blog is an effort to reach out and better understand this world. Surely google adwords are beyond a small business budget?

So here we go.  One of our businesses is a new IT Recruitment Specialist and we have built our website on WordPress to enter this blogging, tagging, SEO world. www.920.co.nz is our opening effort but we are all learning so any feedback and opinion on doing our best in this world is welcome.

Our aim is to understand how to reach relevant on-line communities. My aim is understand this whole concept.