Posts Tagged ‘employer’

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It’s good to talk

Sunday, May 5th, 2013

by Sophie Jones

The ongoing debate on how to speak to clients at Boyce is; which is better a call or an e-mail???

Although the digital world brings us all kind of benefits; it’s quick, convenient and if it is confidential, it means that you are able to discuss information which cannot be discussed in open plan office, the overwhelming majority of consultants at Boyce, believe it will never substitute for a live telephone conversation.  People appreciate the sound of someone’s voice, working in the recruitment industry this means everything, as you are able to ensure that what you want to say is delivered in the best possible way.

In any business relationship, a phone call can mean many things. It shows you are on the ball, enthusiastic and ready to assist. Tone and context can often be mistaken over e-mail, and a call is the simplest way to resolve issues and build relationships.  This is especially true covering areas of conflict.

Email and social networking have given us much wider and deeper global connections, but we believe it will never replace a voice at the end of the line. So the next time you have an issue over e-mail, let’s all put down those blackberry’s and I pads and pick up that phone and make the call.

 

Career progression with languages

Friday, April 19th, 2013

This week Samantha Judd, Director of the Multilingual & Corporate Services team talks about languages and job opportunities. 

 

Today more of the world’s population is bilingual or multilingual than monolingual, and research in 2012 has confirmed that if you do speak more than one language, you are likely to be smarter than your monolingual counterpart.   Research showed that bilingualism helps develop the attention span and task switching functionality and thus linguists are afforded flexibility of thought and the ability to cope with change; both huge advantages in the work landscape of 2013.  Cognitive benefits have been identified in young children as their ability to adapt to change affords them greater confidence and security,  and in older people evidence shows a less rapid decline in cognitive functions during ageing.

Multilingualism and multiculturalism naturally enhances individuals opportunities in the work place.  Not only are they likely to be smarter, more confident and resilient to change,  the globalised nature of work is clear for all to see.   The evidence presents itself to us daily through the brands and logos which appear in all corners of the world and confirm that we are all consumers regardless of geography, language and culture.

Multi-national organisations invest significant amounts into localising their products and marketing messages to engage local markets both linguistically and culturally.  Additionally, the rise of social media is significant to brand capital and communication of brand values; linguists are in demand to ensure the Anglophone focussed business communication does not misinterpret, insult or ridicule the product or service locally.   Localised digital content should not only be linguistically accurate but culturally “in & of the moment” and the value of this should not be underestimated.

Korn Ferry research from a poll conducted by 12,500 visitors to their website suggested that bilingualism is already a significant hiring factor in senior roles with this demand expected to continue to increase.

At boycerecruitment we believe that the difference to our candidate’s opportunities of multilingualism is shown in later career rather than in the early days. Multilingualism will advantage you against your co- workers as the cognitive, personality and social benefits allow you to progress; you become more promotable and hence increase your earning potential.

Do multilingual individuals earn more money ?   As far as I am aware no specific research has been conducted in the UK on this, however an article in NY Times in 2012 suggested that the advantages to human capital gained from multilingualism would enable greater opportunities for career advancement.  This coupled with the cognitive benefits would allow individuals a greater amount of time to continue to work at reach the top level and thus enable more income producing years.

I am not bilingual but I would like to be.  Working in multilingual recruitment for over 20 years has allowed me to clearly see and track the benefits that have been presented to my colleagues, candidates and clients.  My advice to anyone looking for work with languages is to focus on the actual content of the job role and ensure that it is something that would challenge you regardless of how much language use there is initially.  I do however stress to candidates that multilingualism should be cherished and that it will pay dividends in later career.  There is always a chance to  promote your linguistic ability by communicating socially with colleagues & friends, offering help on global projects wherever needed or liaising with overseas offices.   It is never too late to start, so if speaking another language has always been a dream go for it; the health, career and social benefits will be an investment that you will not regret.

How we need to make sure we don’t fail our own industry

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

How we need to make sure we don’t fail our own industry  

In London, the recruitment industry is usually the first industry to suffer at the hands of an uncertain economic forecast. Despite this there is still a relatively strong demand for qualified and skilled candidates within the broadcast, marketing and media job market as many companies are still keen to grow and seek to retain flexibility in their workforce.

The pressures of the economy coupled with change in the way people communicate should mean that expectations of the level of service our clients are getting from their recruitment suppliers are substantially higher. After all, it is expected that specialist recruiters provide expertise on  trends and work attitudes and continuously offer added value to a market place that is saturated with job boards.

Unfortunately we have come across an increasing number of candidates who have submitted their job application through recruiters without having met or been formally interviewed. This has had an enormous impact on the recruitment processes of a company and seriously undermines the quality and value of using a recruitment agency.  Surprisingly some candidates continue to allow themselves to be represented by these recruiters and, in some instances, we find that these applicants miss out on job roles as they have not been well represented for specific roles.

Recruitment consultants should concentrate on building their service and adding value to  the recruitment processes of clients. Unfortunately as they generally don’t get paid for their work unless they are successful at filling a job, some recruiters will try and cut corners in order to earn fees, but we all know that cutting corners isnt the best way to do business and build long standing relationships.

Unfortunately when the job market slows, som recruiters would rather sacrifice their standards in order to try and achieve a quick fix and lose sight of the importance of sticking to maintaining great customer service, even looking at ways to offer better servcie than before, so that they will continue to make a lasting impression on companies and job seekers . In return it is those companies and job seekers who shpould take some responsiblity and put pressure on these recruiters to raise their game and show them that they won’t take second best. Unless this happens then there is a real danger of devaluing an industry which is crucial to the success of our British economy.

 

What’s coming next? Protecting your Privacy

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

 

 

There are many similarities between the market research industry and the recruitment industry. People’s desire for “privacy” i.e. to control what information is shared and with whom is extremely challenging.  In market research this is all about preferences, data, private information and in recruitment this is related to personal and professional work history, pay and related  private information.  

The Data Protection Act is all about protecting privacy and data. In addition, specific regulatory bodies are there to help ensure that information is managed appropriately. The Market Research Society (MRS) represents the market research industry and  the REC, (Recruitment & Employment Confederation) represents the recruitment industry. These bodies are helpful however much of our private online data is still managed  loosely on the basis of trust.

This is clearly not enough to prevent abuse and in response to this dilemma, the Market Research Industry  has just seen the launch of a new body called “Fair Trade” (www.fairdata.org) to support participants in market research  and help consumers recognise quickly who they can trust to hold their information.  

Unfortunately the recruitment industry is a bit behind and needs to follow rapidly.

Whilst the REC is viewed as an ambassador for the industry and thus always strives to set the standard, membership is voluntary and the recruitment industry still has issues with regards to management of personal information and restriction. I am not talking just about recruitment businesses, but the recruitment industry as a whole. Social media has played an important part in this.

Despite the clear code of conduct issued by the REC, many job seekers who work with recruiters, still experience mismanagement of their personal data, with some recruiters ( either in house or recruitment businesses) sending out their private details to the world at large, just after a phone call and basic email.  Occasionally their cv is sent out to companies via a third party, in order to boost new business without the individual being informed of where their profile is actually going. Surely this is breach of trust in every sense of the word.  There must be a way of managing this properly.  

Files are not always kept up to date, with online job site users gaining access to a broad number of personal profiles and cvs. Personal information could, quite possibly, be downloaded and stored for any length of time.  

At the moment there are still gaps in the way the recruitment industry addresses some of the concerns of job seekers, employers and agency recruiters. Currently the REC only works on behalf of recruitment agencies or businesses and  does little to advise and assist workers to manage their intellectual property and personal information across various social media platforms. It is essential that people are taught very quickly, how to ensure that the same principals of trust and data management which are used in the recruitment agency environment, are employed across the industry as a whole and particularly the online arena .

Twitter and various social network sites continuously challenge the way we are able to manage our  own data. For example LinkedIn, which is currently free at the most basic level, encourages people to put down their entire work history, their contact details and even more personal information such as date of birth, and details about academic qualifications.  Whilst many of us may not be concerned about this we cannot always be sure that our personal profiles are kept away from less trustworthy individuals. Online banking, for example, asks people for their date of birth or where they studied as part of the online security process, this information can sometimes be accessed via linked in or facebook.

Facebook is continuously updating its user profiles and privacy access and now specific targeted advertising appears from the sites you have most recently visited and are displayed across the right hand side or top of your home page.  

Everyone talks about LinkedIn. Currently LinkedIn achieves revenue from paid advertising, however you can see that there will be some major developments over the course of the next 24 months which will completely transform the way LinkedIn is accessed and how information is stored.

Twitter is a great tool for many companies who want to raise their public profile however there is a limit to how to prevent the reverse occurring.  Confidentiality and intellectual property is being continuously compromised.

Where will this all go?

Who knows.  I myself am a fan of many of the opportunities that LinkedIn and Twitter create, especially  as a tool to reach markets that have been, near impossible to access.  The world is moving faster than ever and in order to protect our personal data, independent bodies need to step up to the mark quickly and focus on what  is important and critical over the course of the next 24 months and how to protect the individual job seeker even further than just within recruitment agencies. The alternative is quite frightening and we could see a surge in cases of abuse and misuse which in turn could create an even bigger risk to our recruitment industry.  

Jobs review: 2012 was good year for middle skilled market researcher job seekers

Friday, December 7th, 2012

It’s a pretty good time to look for work in market research if you have just passed your “2 years work experience” threshold and are ready to move to the next level. Over 68% of jobs taken this year at Boyce were at “mid” level: namely positions for:  Senior Research Executives, Research Managers, Client Managers, Project and Senior Project Managers and  Account Managers.

This is surprising as the number of purely commercial roles we have taken (Business Development, Commercial directors who’s focus is purely to drive revenues) have dropped in comparison to 2011 which is probably an after reaction to the huge drive for Business development specialists in 2011.

12% of the roles we took in 2012 were specifically requesting language skills. The way that the internet has influenced research over the past 5 years is phenomenal. Many major Online Research specialists rely on overseas revenue to succeed and yet they still chose to centralise their operations in London.  

2012 has been a great time for candidates who are overseas and wanted to build on their online experiences and apply for work in the UK.  London is seen as the centre for cutting edge research and methodologies and many of the major players in the online and digital arena are based in London.

Certainly the opportunities for growth as a research specialist in other European countries have been limited. This is partly due to economic factors (we have seen a rise in the number of Greek, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese applicants, for example) but also due to the limited number of market research agencies and therefore job opportunities in the respective countries.

The demand for senior divisional directors or global directors has been consistent with 2011, with a steady but smaller number of jobs taken. This is just as expected as there are, quite frankly, fewer opportunities all round at that level.  

Overall salaries have not changed however the healthcare and digital sectors have both offered the highest remuneration often a good 15% more than other sectors. The demand for talent in these areas has continued to thrive and we have seen an increase in the number of candidates outside of this sector who have chosen to move into healthcare and digital related research.

 

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