But, I don’t like the recruitment industry. It is such a closed industry that is devoid of any entrepreneurial spirit or innovation. There are a number of people that I have met in both a face to face and social media sense who I think really understand what needs to happen for the ‘recruitment industry’ to survive.

There are people out there pushing massive innovation in technology and having been lucky enough to watch the entire #recruitinginnovation conference recently, I have to say that it’s amazing what is happening in the World of recruitment, it’s just a shame it isn’t aimed at the Agency model.

@FishDogs for example, showed how you can use Geographical Apps such as FourSquare or Gowilla to build talent networks. It makes perfect sense; you know where your target audience work and you know they drink Starbucks…so go to Starbucks.

It’s amazingly simple, but uses the technology to help you harness the ability to communicate with your next placement. Or the amazing use of technology by the guys at Hodes who showcased the ability to use Alternative Views that shows a person stood outside an office how many vacancies are available in that office.

This type of technology is not only changing recruitment but it’s changing the world we live and operate in. Agency recruiters have to learn how to build the new relationship.

So, with anticipation I attended an event (well, half an event) organised by the knowledgeable @louisetriance of UKRecruiter. The event in question was designed exclusively for decision makers in the agency business and was there to showcase Technology in recruitment. I have to confess that I didn’t make it past the first half so my points might not be reflective of all exhibitors.

The showcase was lead by Gary Watson, current CEO of Investigo who gave an overview of the last three decades of recruitment (of which he spent 24 years at Michael Page). We travelled from the rolodex to the CRM, and discussed the importance of the telephone to the agency business model more than once. Gary is clearly a successful guy who is head of an incredibly successful recruitment based business, but it scares the life out of me that figure head speakers at an event aimed at showcasing technological advancement still believe that the phone is the most important asset a recruiter has. I agree, more than ever that your relationships are your most valuable asset, but recruiters are dealing with about the only product in the world that cannot be created or improved.

Recruiters can’t create candidate 2.0 in the same way that Apple make a new iPhone or a car manufacturer that constantly improves their cars design. We are dealing with the same information over and over again and candidates are controlling the flow of information like never before.

Candidates/Job Seekers do not like agencies, they never have, they never will. I mean they know the score right? You can’t make £5,000 – £35,000 out of someone and them not feel a slight resentment to you. I know that the fee is not reflective of that actual process; it pays for the time, the effort and the investment made to ‘win’ the client and for all of the placements that don’t happen for whatever reason. Does the candidate understand this? I don’t think so; one bit…all they see is a commission lead sales person with a desire to be your best friend for as long as it takes to pay for the next vacation. When the job’s done most recruiters simply move on to the next candidate and start the process all over again.

So the event yesterday? I am not going to run through the companies I saw yesterday, but one deserves mention because I think it shows a real lack of understanding of the very industry you’re trying to assist. Innovate CV is a great looking product, and I like the standardisation of the look as there are some truly horrendous CVs out there.

But I don’t think for one nano second my clients want to receive a URL that sends to a branded portal that holds the ‘new CV’. We live in a world of mobile communications; iPhones, BlackBerry, iPads, Laptops and recruiters need to make it as EASY as possible to review the information you send over. I fail to see how this solution will increase the chances of a client short listing my candidate over another and instead will make the clients life more difficult, and surely that is the whole point of investing in new methods, tools, technology or ideas? Surely true innovation would involve a solution that didn’t require a CV at all? I certainly don’t think including a photocopy of a candidate’s passport to confirm eligibility to work is a selling point at this stage of the process.

A recent tweet that caught my eye was the story that showed a new trend with Chinese Graduates who are sending 140 word Microresumes. They are hard hitting, they cram your story into an easy to review paragraph. As of last Friday there were than 17,000 Microresumes posted on Weibo.com website. This is innovation, it’s exciting, and it’s different.

I think the agency business needs to wake up; it’s selling itself short and taking on companies driven by RPO, Procurement and efficiencies.  Whilst as a recruiter I don’t like this, it is a fact of life.

We submit via online portals, people we don’t know or speak to make decisions on shortlists and communication is conducted via email and automation.  Dressing up a dog and teaching it to meow doesn’t make it a cat, and unless we start to see real leaders and pioneers deliver real solutions to the agency model then I simply don’t think the Permanent recruitment market will last through 2020 in a lot of cases.

Cost per hire is expensive, inefficient and  in a lot of cases if you were to ask nearly any HR contact if they could find a way of recruiting themselves without paying agency fees, I think you’d be horrified at how out of date your business is.

From what I’ve seen, there is no ‘new’ technology in the agency business and whilst the corporate world invests heavily in talent attraction, retention, and development the agency model is trying to find easier/simpler ways to conduct the same business.

If you want confirmation just read the recent blog article from @RecruitGal who tells you to your face that they’ve had enough and she’s not the only one.

It’s sad, but I don’t think Recruitment Agencies can say they haven’t had their fair share of warning shots.

On a personal note, I’d like to thank @LousieTriance and whilst the event wasn’t for me it was a great location and was very smoothly run.

Any views, opinions or critique would be welcome

I’ve decided to attempt to follow on from my blog last week that was concerning the complete unwillingness of recruitment lead firms to engage in social media. It somewhat divided opinion via the various resources (Blog, LinkedIn, Twitter) on whether I was right or wrong…oh, how I love to divide opinion!

There are of course the firm believers that are adamant that recurimetn as a service lead business will continue to survive in one form or another and there are recruitment 2.0 experts who feel that without social media the whole (recruitment) world will collapse and of course, those in the middle.

But, it did get me thinking. Maybe we need to all stop worrying about how we find the candidates/job seekers/future employees and instead focus on developing the most efficient, time effective, cost sensitive solution around, by creating a platform that allows in-house, online and agency to work in harmony.

If candidates come from referral (to an agency) does it matter to the employer? Does it matter that this person was targeted for the role over an active job seeker who registered on a CV database? Does it actually matter that by utilising Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn you find the right person for the role or should it solely be about the quality, suitability and individual fit of the person within the organisation.

So what comes first the method or the outcome?

His post, however, got me thinking… more along the lines of recruitment agency businesses and I thought I’d take some time out of my day to consider and review how agencies are coping and adapting to the rise and rise (and rise) of Social Media.

We read every day about massive successes from all out marketing campaigns run on Facebook (and Twitter). Companies that engage customers and potential customer to huge success.

One recent case study that won me over was run by Gillette, a friend of mine had ‘Liked’ them on Facebook and followed up with a Status to tell us that if you ‘Like’ them they will send you the latest version of the Mach 1.43.521 razor saving me a tidy £543! (OK, I jest but point made!) Shortly after an email arrived in my inbox to tell me that I was (shock, horror) a winner and that my latest Gillette Razor would be on my doorstep in less than 7 days!

That’s the power, they engage, they bring you in, they have something you may want and they open discussion, from asking Jonny Wilkinson any question you like to feature in their next TV Advert, it’s all there on a daily basis.

So, back to recruitment… and the agency side of the business. I think we’re all in agreement that the agency business model is dying, HR professionals (@recruitgal in particular) have told the business loud and clear that they’re not going to be pals for much longer as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter is coming along to kick the ass of an already struggling industry.

Big firms are investing, and investing heavily in Social Media to rid the requirement of the agency. They are producing Pages that allow people in their thousands to ‘Like’ and agencies sit on their backsides and incredibly watch it happen. They are able to talk to potential employees as they enjoy their breakfast or their quick glance whist the wife is watching Emmerdale. It’s there every day, in their pocket, in their five minute sneaky peek at work, or on the bus waiting to get to work. The opportunity is endless…But here are some findings that just blew my mind:

Michael Page International, arguably one of the highest regarded recruitment firms on the planet has 835 Likes. 835… Not even in their thousands, and that page is taken from Wikipedia via the Community Link. No office addresses, no email, no website, no information about anything….other than the firm was formed in 1976 and the last CEO left some time ago.

Incredibly Michael Page UK has 25 followers. To put this into perspective The We Love Nick Griffin Page (of BNP fame) has 33. That is 8 more than the whole of Michael Page in the UK.

I thought I’d try again, at the other end of the spectrum and conducted a Facebook search for the ‘Leading’ High Street Agency – Office Angels. Owned by Adecco, the World’s largest Staffing Services firm with a turnover of Billions (I mean, surely they’d get it right?). Wrong.

It appears that bored consultants or CV preppers got so disenchanted with their day job they thought they’d set up a page for their branch. The search shows that there are pages for some branches (Bracknall, London, Preston) some are pages, some you have to ‘Friend’ as they have (against the rules outlined by Facebook) entered the branch as a person.

What appears to be their official Page has 550 Likes but has no jobs, no branch finder; it also has some photos of a fancy dress day and some photos of pink balloons. What makes you think that a job seeker wants to see your photos of you drinking in the office and dressed in ill fitting leggings with pink socks?

I think the industry has to wake up.

Social Media is here, and it’s getting bigger.

Job Boards appear to have totally forgotten that Facebook probably has every candidate they have on their database but chooses to not engage them AT ALL on Facebook. I can’t find the Monster page, Total Jobs appears to have a Wiki fuelled page with 12 Likes. 12?!?!?!!!?!?!?? You are a technology company that manages the data of thousands of CVs a day and you don’t think it’s worth while to invest in a page that talks to people in their social (media) time?

I sat back and heard the tales of the disbelief when the recession came along and crushed (in many cases) really good recruitment firms, because they didn’t see it coming, but lets be real guys.

Facebook has been here for a few years now, and his friends Mr.LinkedIn and Mrs. Twitter aren’t too newbie any more, but you sit back with your feet up thinking that it’s all going to come back to normal, but listen to people like @recruitgal and take note.

It ain’t going to get better. Only worse.

Reed’s own index of vacancies fell 2% in comparison to March which was itself down against the figures supplied for February.

I’ve long been a fan of the Government’s plan to reduce the wage bill on the Public sector, however, I do feel that they need to do a lot more to stimulate the Private sector.

Visiting the Reed.co.uk website to view its homepage will itself highlight the extent of our ‘Private Sector’. We are so dependent upon  such a small number of firms to engage our Public sector workers that I fail to see how the two will marry in the middle.

I know that jobsites are not the greatest way of judging employment trends, but I think that Reed in particular showcase the problem brilliantly.

Their sponsored home page clients include:

Lloyds TSB

Churchill Insurance

Santander

Tesco

Direct Line

Nationwide Building Society

Now, I don’t think you have to be an employment trend expert to realize the problem with our ‘Private Sector’ it’s basically all linked to big, big companies who wish to grow their businesses even further. We’re talking the Big Supermarkets, the Big Banks, the Big Utility firms (Water Companies, Electricity, Gas)

Where are the great firms that we were promised would be born out of the recession? Where are the next big names coming from? Where are the firms that in five years time will be employing and creating opportunity for 5,000+ people? If we are to remain completely dependent upon Tesco and the ilk picking up our public sector fall out then surely we have to review the system?

The ex-Public Sector workforce present big problems for potential employers, in many cases the public sector workforce don’t get the Private sector, they don’t understand how it works and when you consider many people are going to be in their 40s and onwards its going to be a difficult lesson to learn.  They need to showcase commercial acumen, and embrace the values and the brand of their potential new employer.

I hope that Reed’s findings are only relevant because of the obscure nature of Easter and the Royal Wedding and we return to some normality, but I really home that we begin to see Leading Employers of the future, soon. Very soon.

This week has been a BAD week for the unemployed of the United Kingdom and the news seems to be about to get worse. Louise Peacock in this week’s Daily Telegraph that confirmed that young people were about to bare the brunt of changes

The total number of unemployed people in the UK has risen a further 27,000 to a record high of 2.53 million, which means that 20% of all unemployment is within the ‘youth’ sector. This issue has been made significantly worse by the fact that public sector employment levels are falling with an extra 45,000 falling off the figures of those employed within the public sector.

There is clearly a void between the vacancies available, those searching for employment and the expectations of all concerned.

Today, I am going to pose a question, should those of us in the recruitment industry take on a wider level of responsibility? We have the skills required to help, lead, guide, and motivate the young people who are clearly rattling around the job market with very little guidance?

We as recruiters are paid on results, we are paid to deliver the right CV for the right job, but do we have a wider social responsibility? Should we be helping the people who don’t match? Should we try and help those who send their CVs with obvious mistakes? Should we try and find the time to offer our inside knowledge?

And should we do this for nothing? No financial reward? Just helping our fellow man in a time when all around is being more difficult? Recruitment exists because we service the requirements of staffing for our clients, but what about the people that don’t find work, the people that are caught up in a cycle that doesn’t support their ambitions and desire to work for a living?

I’d love your thoughts on this both as a principle, its feasibility and its suitability for the current market and your view on whether this is true innoivation and the future of the recruitment industry as we know it?

Lets get some elements straight; Manchester United is a business, recent reports confirm that Manchester United’s turnover topped £285,000,000. The business has employees as any business does of which a small number are paid to play football. Lets not forget the Marketing, Sales, and Finance Directors that occupy the buildings or offices around Old Trafford that make it all happen. From the licence agreements, to sponsorship and even corporate deals it’s all there.

Anyone business owner or employee will know that your employees are your assets, they are the people that assist the business in making money, however, they also know that no employee should commit an act that would knowingly bring their employer into disrepute, or indeed to commit an act of gross misconduct.

Mr. Rooney’s actions over the past six months have indeed done that, form his prostitute liaisons through to publically slamming his employer, he has done more damage to his employer and indeed their sponsors than any good he has achieved whilst employed by Manchester United.

So, the question is ‘how did football become completely removed from the employer and employee relationship model?’

At the same time as perusing the news paper I also watched the qualifying session from South Korea. Wayne Rooney is indeed one of the UK’s top sports stars, but then so is Lewis Hamilton, and of course Jenson Button. In the latter two we have two professional, responsible young men who represent not only their team but every person that has assisted them to get to the dizzy heights of Formula One World Champion.Of course, there are cynics that dislike the modern advertising and corporate lead F1, but it is a sport in the same way that Manchester United is a business. Both Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are employees, they are paid not only to win F1 races, but to act as ambassadors for their companies values, beliefs and to promote the brands that associate themselves with the stars.

So, two very wealthy sports, three very wealthy young men, and a mere 209 miles between the base in Manchester to HQ in Woking but a world apart.

No employee would be forgiven for committing the same sins that Wayne has partaken in this week. Not only has be brought his employer, his sponsors but he has also brought his industry down. People who know nothing of football and are not interested in the Saturday routine have an opinion, they now believe that football has overstepped the mark.

Isn’t it funny how his actions in almost any other industry would lead to the delivery of your P45 and an escort from the premises, but in football it rewards you with an £8million a year pay rise.

I just hope that the owners of the football teams begin to see that they are businesses and therefore the players are the employees, they are not bigger than the employment law (contracts aside), they should be treated as employees and not investments because it sets an amazing precedent; a precedent that an employee is greater than their employer and that is something that just isn’t the case. It is the employer than negotiates the contract that pays your wages, puts in the infrastructure and support that you need to succeed.

I just hope Mr. Rooney remembers that.

I’m currently working on a number of retail related projects and came across their website and of course, more importantly their (careers website). First impressions are it’s a bit much, but that’s down to design and marketing experts.

The job search is a bit much as well. Having spoken to a lot of ATS experts recently this seems to go against the trend where ease of use and functionality should be the main driver.

And then there is the open invitation to connect via the World’s favourite Social Network – to take the 3 Employer Brand to the masses on Facebook. This is a great thing to do, BUT you have to do it right. And 3, I am afraid you got it WRONG.

You can not do this half hearted, open up the doors you have to expect that people will come flooding in, and flood in they did.

Here are some comments; you will see a complete disarray of lack of knowledge of who does the recruitment, who is responsible, store managers? The website? Auto responses? ‘Check the website’, unanswered (seemingly suitable candidates)

This does nothing other than damage your appeal to peoples desire to work for your firm, and you should act, and act fast or speak to anyone of the experts that I follow on Twitter who will have this sorted and fast!

3 you tried a great thing, but social recruiting when done badly can have long-term damage and side effects to your brand as an employer in the market and I’d recommend that you give your Facebook page the respect it deserves as you clearly have a lot of ‘unhappy’ customers.

Anyone have any thoughts on 3’s attempts at Social Recruiting?

I want to write a blog entry today about high street employers and how and why they are so important. We are facing an unprecedented problem with the country’s working population and with retail spending remaining almost consistent (give or take one or two percent) the retail firms on the high street are doing very well. They are expanding (and creating jobs), they are investing in improved stores and they are becoming real possibilities for graduates and the unemployed to build a career.

Over recent days, weeks, and months I have been working with one of the leading luxury brands within the fashion industry and have been guiding them on ‘retail’ recruitment, i.e. people who work in the stores. From my reckoning of reviewing the figures they have close to 40% staff turnover and I am advised that this is pretty much the norm.

So the question is are the Retailers doing the right thing? Are they recruiting the right people? Are they managing expectations correctly? Are they unable or unwilling to help the individual grow in the career and job? Or is it a case of the retailers are viewed as a safe way to get a ‘job’ and in fact the people are missing the very opportunity available if they invest in their careers with the high street employers?

Lots are written and bounded around about major retailers; from the now infamous McJob (oh, how McD’s laugh loudest now) to the recent revelation that JD Weatherspoons are recruiting a few thousand 16/17 year olds who will have their own pubs within five years but do these retailers really communicate their ability to offer a career?

Personally I think they are missing a trick, these retailers are so important to both our employment and economic stability and they need to surely recruit the best people. Stop recruiting people who can ‘do the job’ and start investing from a very early stage. In this weeks’ press Sir Phillip Green has been causing some interesting debates regarding cost cuttings and in response to Margaret Green (Labour MP) Sir Phillip stated that Arcadia pays a staggering £12,000,000 a day in taxation. It is clear that there is still a vast amount of money and opportunity within these High Street Firms.

So, how do they find the talent? Job Sites, Career Sites, Job Fairs, Stickers in windows? They need to realise that the recruitment of staff is vital to its future – great products with substandard service still means a poor retail experience and if you are relying on someone walking past your store to see the window ad for a person to join the team that you can not surely claim that you are investing the right levels of commitment to recruiting the ‘best’ person.

So, shame on you Tie Rack for this appalling method of recruiting a new member for your team in your Bristol store that I saw earlier this week. This is just awful and I hope that you are not lucky enough to find someone who happened to be walking past and who was so desperate to ‘get a job’ that they walked in off that advert.

I hope that as the retailers begin to understand their role in the recovery of our job and financial economy that they begin to invest in their recruitment as much as selling their products.

A simple walk through the streets of Leicester City Centre confirmed that for me on Sunday. Everywhere (and I mean everywhere) you look there are ‘To Let’ Signs with little bits of hurriedly faxed A4 sheets in the window that reads something like this:

“Mr A. Jones and Mr A. Smith have been appointed joint administrators”

We all know that small business is the backbone of our wonderful society, but it appears at least that it is not these firms that will ultimately bring us back from the potential abyss. On the following day, at a motorway service station whilst heading back south I couldn’t help but read the following:

“BP steps up response amid 135% profit surge” Lets not kid ourselves, any business would love to have a 135% profit surge given the recent times, but a 135% surge in profits to $5.6 Billion from $2.9 Billion is enough to make even Warren Buffet sink into his chair over his cornflakes this morning.

But what if these firms (and, of course our friends the banks) are the very ones to drag us out? Surely profit means investment and investment means jobs and jobs means recovery? So are the folks at Goldman’s, BP et al just acting as a tax collector? Are they going to use their income to revitalise the market?

Small companies only exist because big companies are there? I know this first hand…without the market leaders to push innovation I wouldn’t have the chances I have today.

So we have to hope that the money made doesn’t simply get ploughed into the Chairman’s coffers and they begin to reinvest back into the very people that were offloaded in the first place. People in work are the key to all our problems – salaries equal tax and tax equals income. More people paying tax is better than a less people paying more.

Every quarter when the VAT bill is due you some how feel aggrieved, but there’s a man on your shoulder that whispers in your ear that says ‘Well, at least you’re making money, because if you weren’t you’d be given a rebate and VAT rebate = loss!)

So, to the recruitment debate once more. On the premise that firms are recruiting (which is confirmed by the last unemployment figures) it presents another question… where are they going to get the staff from?

For years it was a two horse race:

Advertise directly, and get inundated with responses from people all over the world or pay a recruitment agency to act as the gatekeeper. But surely, now of all times when cash is tight we should be discussing new, innovative methods and to this end, I’d love to invite you to join the debate by answering a small number of simple questions to help us gain the pulse of the market right now.

Here’s the link you need:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CFVBMGM

Thanks in advance, and here’s to 124 a litre!

Not being one to let something go, I’ve felt compelled to have another go at it, and to question the point of it?

Having spoken at length yesterday with @alexhens (A great person to follow for those who don’t on Twitter).

What it appears to be is that these firms aren’t actually recruitment firms at all, or is that what we’ve now become? Has recruitment gone full circle back to the old days and taken all of our ‘consultative’ skills with it? 2010 Recruitment is a very different place, but the question that needs to be asked is did we just convince ourselves what clients wanted? Did they want rebates, SLA, PSLs, Account managers, prepped CVs, interview feedback?

What if they just wanted CVs all along? Did we trick ourselves into thinking that what we were doing was the right thing? Were we dictating to our clients about what service they needed?

Since the arrival of the ‘web recruitment firms’ there seems to be a mass exodus of organisations that now consider ‘recruitment’ as ‘processing CVs’, but surely that isn’t recruitment? We’re not just a bunch of overpaid CV readers, are we? Recruitment is about people, their aspirations, their fears, their hopes, their ambitions, it’s not about 75 lines of text on a screen. What about the fact that they’ve been made redundant, and don’t know what to do? What about the fact that they’ve been at their current employer for 14 years and know that the only thing to do is to leave? Will they ‘fit’; will they get on with their line manager?

Recruitment isn’t about paper its about people.

But are the new breed building a sustainable business, is it a business that has a long term future or does James Caan already have an exit? Speaking to Alex yesterday, he raised a great point…there was a well known recruiter who was furious when Freecruitment decided to charge for their service, and he wasn’t alone in his frustration. He said that his business model would not support paying for adverts on Reed and that Reed were wrong to charge for his ability to find suitable candidates for his jobs (for which he made many thousands of pounds).

So, what if the heads of the big job boards that are currently selling their soul sit around the big table and decide that they no longer want their brands sold-out? Take for example www.theladders.co.uk, who state on their website that they will take one senior job off you for £349, but instead I can just wander over to www.easywebrecruitment.com and can put the same job on a whole host of websites all over the globe for about £500 (I couldn’t find the exact price). So as a proactive HR person which would you do? £150 to go on at least 5 of 6 premium websites? It has to be the latter.

I see how they are shaping the market; I just wonder for how much longer they’ll be around and if it’s just another recruitment fad? So, what are traditional recruitment firms going to do now? Become proactive? Change their stance? Or hold tight?

2010 and beyond could be very interesting for recruitment in the UK!