Posts Tagged ‘recruitment’

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Control your staffing costs

Friday, June 7th, 2013

Today’s news has been celebrating signs of growth in the UK economy with a record increase in the number of houses sold in May 2013, the number of new cars sold in the UK in the same period and with evidence showing an increase in the number of permanent jobs on offer in the recruitment industry.

Despite all this, the pressure is still on for business to control their staffing and in particular, their recruitment costs; many firms have geared their HR and Operations practices to reviewing internal recruitment , in the mission to find additional ways to save money.

Here we offer you are some ideas which may benefit your business and help reduce the overall cost of recruitment

Firstly, ensure that the recruitment process for the business is clear. Do your Managers know how to go about starting the hiring process, who should be involved ? which external agencies, sources they can use? What tests or selection methods are used and they should involve in the process and how much budget they have?

Make sure you are clear about the role you are looking to fill. What do you want the role to contribute to the company, department and team, on a short, medium and long term basis. If you are unsure about where the role will head or the effect of this will be on the business in the long term, then ask yourself if this could be covered on a temporary basis.

Being clear about this could save you a lot of hassle in the long term. You may not be sure how the role may develop but  there are many talented freelancers/ temp workers who would be more than happy to commit to something indefinitely with the possibility that a permanent contract may come out of it. Equally there are many people who would commit to contract work without having a permanent job at the end of it.

Have you looked at whether the role can be filled internally, either by one person or split across a team of people? Considering internal applicants first has its benefits;  it is easier to get an appraisal of how that internal applicant performed in their job so you can see whether they are suitable for your requirements;  you can be sure that the internal applicant  knows the culture and business of the company which can be sometimes daunting to a new employee; and finally  employees like to see that the company they work for put their staff first and will always give them an opportunity to apply for a role before hiring externally. Not only is it great PR for the company, it can also increase your staff retention rate which should always be at the top of the agenda.

Ensure that the role has been authorised or “signed off”. Check this before actually starting the hiring process. There is nothing more costly, frustrating, and embarrassing for a company than asking your managers to spend hours on finding and sourcing the right person, to find that the actual job has not been authorised by the correct people and the initial offer of employment has to be withdrawn. This may sound obvious but we have heard of this happening to some of our candidates over the last 6 months.

Check whether the person you are looking to hire exists; is the job one which will be easy to source?  Do you offer a competitive salary and benefits package? Are you looking for the right person?  Not thinking about where this person is currently working or understanding what these people should be paid, could result in a long wait to recruit the right candidate.

Work with the best recruitment agencies; the adage that recruiting in- house will always save money is not always true. Although companies argue that their fees for using external agencies are high, working with the right suppliers ensures that you have access to the best people in the market. Good recruiters are experts who can advise you. They know their market , they have first- hand experience in dealing with the type of people you are looking to attract and can tell you what they want.  They have access to a broader range of people that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to meet, and they are also able to provide full objective details regarding a candidates motivation and experience which could save you a lot of unwanted interviewing time.  You may struggle to get an honest appraisal from a candidate if you are interviewing them directly and you may end up spending more hours interviewing people who aren’t suitable rather than the shortlisted 2 or 3 people.

Recruitment companies are also handy when there are a large number of similar jobs advertised by your competitors, when you are trying to rebuild a reputation in the industry or when you want to develop a new offering in your business but are looking to bring in the expertise in confidence.

Work hard on building your relationships with your suppliers;  ensure they are updated on changes in the business, briefed fully on your needs and make sure that you have a very positive business relationship. You want them to always out you at the fore front of their minds when they meet an exceptional candidate .Let them also tell you about brilliant people even when you aren’t hiring as you never know how quickly your circumstances may change. Your star employee may suddenly decide to go travelling or change careers. Having a backup is always useful.

Always check references.  Verify education , work  visas and qualifications as well as work experience. By doing all of these you may be able to identify a bad hire before it happens and save you and your team a lot of pain in the long run.

Plan ahead and don’t leave recruitment until the last minute. After all, notice periods or surges in workloads can mean that if you have no cover, your client will suffer and you could ultimately lose their faith in you and your business.

Involve as many relevant people in the interview process. There might be nothing mroe costly than hiring someone who doesn’t fit into the team. People tend to embrace new recruits if they feel part of the recruitment process and don’t feel so threatened. However on the other side of the coin, involving too many people can mean that you lose valuable time in the hiring process and the relationship between the applicant and their potential new manager can suffer.

Rethink how you are selling the business and make sure you sell the business; if they are a high demand candidate and you know that good people are very hard to find then you need to make sure they can understand what the benefits and attractions are to join your company. Many Managers forget this part and feel that their company reputation speaks for itself, but as we all know this is never the case as there will always be someone out there who might be better at promoting their business. You can’t afford to make mistakes as this could delay the hiring process and be more costly to the business.

There is always a USP in a role (unique selling point), or a carrot to attract someone to join the company, it is just important to identify that so you can make sure you are always presenting your company in the best possible way. Equally, make sure that the opportunity you are selling matches the career aspirations that the applicant has.

By adopting the ideas listed above,  you should be confident that you will save your business time, manage expectations and reduce your overall recruitment costs.     

10 great reasons to work in Recruitment

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013

 

This week we asked the team to give us their top reasons to work in recruitment .  We managed to rustle up 10 top  reasons to work in our industry.

These are not listed in order of popularity although the top three answers were 1, 3 and 10.

Here goes…..

 

1. It’s great to be part of the process in helping candidates find their dream job and make that placement.

2. The commission! Being rewarded  for the work you do. It is hard work, the hours can be long and it can be frustrating at times.

Nothing beats the thrill of placing a candidate in a job they wanted, the client is happy they have secured their services and you have earned commission from it.

3. The opportunity to build strong working relationships with clients and candidates.

4. The variety of jobs and people you meet and the chance to mix with different nationalities and cultures.

5. The fact that everyday is different and you are always learning from your clients, candidates and the market as a whole.

6. The dynamic, fast pace atmosphere when things are busy and everyone is on the phone.

7. Working with dynamic likeminded people.

8. The chance to make a difference.

9. The opportunity to work with some really exciting brands, learn about their sector and help them become even better by finding them fantastic people for their roles.

10. The responsibility  the role offers with the chance to manage your own desk and clients and have a real sense of ownership of the work you do.  What you put in you get out.

 

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.

 

Preparing a Cover Letter

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

 

Preparing a cover letter for a job application requires a lot of thought and can more than often be the ticket to a successful job application.

By now you should  have your cv ready with a very clear and impactful profile. The next stage is to write a cover letter which allows you to show your DNA and match your skills and background to the requirements of the role you are applying to. It should be concise, clear and the words you to choose to describe yourself should be relevant.

We’ve been recruiting for  some amazing clients within the broadcast / tv industry, within media and marketing consultancies, market research, insight, analysis, for international organizations and professional services firms including investment banks.  One thing that our clients tell us is that the London job market is extremely competitive and a good cover letter brings your profile to life. This might be the last opportunity to secure that interview and make your application stand out from the crowd.

A cover letter should explain the reasons for applying to the job, and explain the current circumstances which have led you to apply for a new role. Relevant work experience, for example working with a specific industry sector, or working on a certain type of project, should be discussed, including any particular achievements and successes.

In addition, the cover letter should explain any anomalies, any major gaps or even a change in career direction, and in the latter circumstance there should be evidence to explain the reasons for this change and the attraction to the new career.

This is also an opportunity to show what you know about the client, the industry, the job and to highlight why you feel you match the client perfectly, what you could bring to the table and why you would be a successful hire for their business.  

Your recruitment consultant should be able to help you with this, and explain to you what is most important and relevant to your job search. Sometimes this isn’t always clear and from experience, if we are not sure about a candidates commitment at boyce, we will ask them to make a note of why they are specifically interested in that sector and how they match the requirements. This is also a good prep for interview as it is always best to consider all of the above when applying for a new job.

Good luck !   

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