Archive for March, 2009

Happy Birthday!

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

This week we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Boyce Recruitment.

For those of you that did not know Boyce Bilingual was set up in 1984 by Tony Boyce, a recruitment entrepreneur and business man who had set up and run a successful legal recruitment agency.

Operating from offices based in St Pauls, Boyce Bilingual provided linguists with secretarial skills primarily to international banks, law firms and media companies. Located in prestigious offices, with the latest single non electronic typewriter, audio machines and paper records of candidate and company details, Boyce Bilingual seemed well equipped at that time, to launch its services.

In 1994, celebrating its 10th anniversary, Boyce Bilingual was re-branded and re-launched to Boyce Recruitment. Our name was changed to reflect what we did best- Recruitment. To this day, we still work with many of the same international organisations however languages are considered a skill, like any other and are not always a prerequisite.

The use of languages in the workplace has changed dramatically since 1984. Many businesses operate globally and are able to do so confidently with the evolution of new technologies. Language graduates are now being offered a broader range of jobs with languages in every sector of business.

Technology has also evolved from working with a single typewriter in the 1980s to the use of mobile and web technologies. Job applications are now made online more than offline and nowadays it is rare not to be an owner of a mobile phone.

Legislation has also evolved with new acts including the EU working time directive, age discrimination laws, an extension of maternity rights and paternity rights and an increase in holiday entitlement as well as introduction of holiday pay for temp workers.

London has always been an international hub for business and this has been enhanced by the increase in number of EU member countries and opportunities for foreign nationals to work in the UK. In addition, the number of jobs with languages that were rarely heard of including Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Bulgarian are now commonplace.

The range of business that we work with has broadened and includes companies within the media and marketing sector, charities, NGOs, financial institutions, professional services firms and the roles we work on are much more diverse that yesteryear, including an expanding number of online job opportunities.

Tomorrow we will be toasting a new chapter in recruitment and look forward to what the future holds. With the approach of the 2012 Olympics and ever advancing technologies who knows what the picture of recruitment will be in 25 years time.

We would like to extend thanks to the many loyal candidates and customers who have worked with us over the last 25 years.

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Manipulating Market Research

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

Last week The Debating Society hosted an event on Market Research is becoming more of a Manipulator than a Messenger at the House of Commons.

An interesting discussion, with both sides represented by leading speakers. Addressing issues for the Motion were Ben Godacre, author of Bad Science and David walker, MD of Audit Commission ; and Ben Page, MD of Ipsos Mori public affairs and Andrew Hawkins, Chairman of polsters Comres, speaking against.

Ben Godacre argued very strongly that research material was manipulated to enhance stories for the press and, that the way information was sourced did not reflect the truth, but were used for political gain. Examples he gave included the reference to a recent article which quoted a survey of young teenagers and their knowledge of the Holocaust. The “story” in question inferred that a poor proportion of the British young population had any idea whatsoever as to what happened in the Holocaust.

Ben’s argument was that many of the children in question were below the age when the holocaust was taught in schools as part of the national curriculum. Suggesting that their lack of knowledge about the holocaust was down to ignorance and poor teaching standards in schools was therefore a distorted statement and a complete manipulation of the press. He felt that this outlined how market research could be and is used to manipulate the view of the general public for the benefit of a good media story.

Ben Page, of Ipsos Mori, argued against the motion saying that the examples quoted were unfair as they were indeed an abuse of the press and not an indication of the true value of market research. Most market research material is not promoted to the public but used for internal businesses and organisations. Bad polling happens and so does bad journalism.

In fact once the debate opened to the crowd it was apparent that the majority of the house felt that the debate really was about the incompetence of bad journalists.

In summing up Page stated : Accuracy is increasing. Our sophistication in understanding the research process has never been more detailed. Research is better than ever and there is more scrutiny than ever. The idea that we are turning into spin doctors just has to be rejected.

The motion was defeated.

Perhaps we should all think twice if we aren’t already, when reading media stories which quote results of leading polls and really think about where the data has come from and who the data is targeting. After all, the market research industry accounts for a huge proportion of employment opportunities within the marketing mix and would not attract so many academic and educated individuals if the integrity of its policies were truly in doubt.

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