Twitter really is a wonderful idea, and whilst I am slightly sceptical on its ability to add any ‘real’ value to my professional life I have enough scepticism to at least carry on using it!

I received a ‘Tweet’ today via Peter Gold of Hire Strategies announcing that Tesco have recently launched their new Career Website, that embraces a lot of lessons, and it certainly works!

The new website at www.tesco-careers.com is certainly a lot more user friendly and offers real, relevant information to a potential employee who may be considering joining.

If we’re honest, that is actually what sites such as this should be about, of course, flashy, whizzy websites are ‘cool’, but in truth there are a number of Leading Employers who I do feel could learn a lot from Tesco’s internal and direct recruitment strategy and their overall communication of their Employer Brand.

Clean, crisp, clear and informative – it goes a long way from the old site, and I certainly feel will help them in the quest to remain the UK’s number one retailer, and all of this on a day when Tesco announce £3 Billion profit, at last some cheer for the economy and with a bit of luck the job market, as I hope that this profit will offer a continue requirement of NEW jobs into companies such as Tesco!

And as an employer of more than 440,000 people in 4000 stores across the World, I can only see the new website making the hiring of 11,000 new staff a whole lot easier!

Today is a tricky blog entry that follows on from my blog on Friday. I find myself sitting on the negative side of the fence. You see, it all started on Sunday afternoon. I’ll paint the picture for you; in fact, I might even put a picture on. Take a lovely spring day, a beautiful pub in the middle of Dartmoor National Park; four regulars are sat at the bar. One Thatcher (a dying trade if ever there was one), one retired civil servant, a builder, and a marketing executive. 

The conversation began with the claim that the recession wasn’t as bad as the one seen in the early 90s. Like many of you, I cannot have an opinion of that, as a person in my thirties I wasn’t working at that time, and whilst I seem to remember that wasn’t a great time for my parents I can’t confirm if it was easier or harder than the current situation.  And quite frankly I don’t see it as a ‘My cars faster than your car situation’. What I do know is that more people in more industries are suffering than I’ve ever witnessed before.

My point was that this is in my opinion, far worse than we’re prepared to admit. The Daily Mail (not my favourite read) ran an article back in October entitled “A very middle class recession”, and whilst the Government and relevant QUANGOS can hide behind the figures not being as bad as expected (1.97 Million unemployed at last count) it cannot hide behind the people getting made redundant.

Of course, I have immense sympathy for anyone that has experienced or the fear of experiencing redundancy, however, our job economy is shrinking from the top down, and whilst there has been some very positive news from the likes of Subway, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Dominos Pizza, and Asda. Unfortunately all of these expansion plans really focus on opportunities for people within the same sector.

What we haven’t seen anywhere is what is going to happen to ‘Middle England” and their 40% tax payments, except for steps announced at the weekend by Tony McNulty (the Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform) who has come up with (in my opinion) a totally lunatic idea of working with Private recruitment firms to help the newly redundant. I have to ask a number of killer questions here: 

·      Recruitment is a sales based, profit focused industry, what possible incentive is there for a recruitment firm to council people that do not have the initiative to apply directly to an agency?

·      Why would firms who are not recruiting pay an invoice for a person who could, very easily apply directly to said firm?

·      How are recruitment firms selected, what guidance is being provided to the Job Centre network and how can they ensure that the candidates are being offered the BEST advice and not just the advice that the recruiter (sales person) wants to give?

I know that many people will see this step as a positive, proactive move, but I cannot see this working. Recruitment agencies are ungoverned, unregulated entities where most of the best people set up their own, small boutique firms that would almost certainly fall under the radar of an organisation the size of the job centre.

So, what does this mean? I think that there are a number of easier and far more suitable steps that can be taken in the quest to ease the burden placed on the job centre and for me it is a very simple solution – empower the people who have been made redundant, educate them on the steps they need to take to make themselves as employable as possible and instil their own confidence back into them. I simply do not see how a recruitment firm can do this at a time when applications being received by agencies are the highest they have been for the past ten years and consultants within agencies cannot move from the number of applications they receive.

By empowering the individuals, they would be taking back control, learning their own experiences, teaching themselves how to make themselves more employable and if embraced fully, it could change the way the workforce searches for jobs.

You would require recruitment agencies less and less and as firms search for the most efficient and cost effective ways of recruiting, these individuals would find themselves in prime position. All this at a time when the most important part of the recovery of the job market is to increase numbers of jobs available in all sectors, and not hamper large employers ability to recruit staff by attaching invoices to each hire!

I can see the papers next week – we’ll be sending the homeless to Foxtons!

Over and out for me today.

Although average salary levels have dropped, it is certainly positive news that the jobs are still there for the taking. Competition will be high and it this current climate it pays to be well prepared and well informed. The AGR today advised graduates to focus on research and reiterated the point that knowing the employer and understanding the sector is highly important.

So for all those of you who can see the first step on their career ladder on Scottish soil – Good Luck and persevere. It will definitely be worth the effort!