Recruiter - July 2016

Business intelligence for recruitment and resourcing professionals

July 2016

INCORPORATING Recruitment Matters

IN THE HOUSE www.recruiter.co.uk

Samantha Ramsay, head of resourcing and employer brand at retailer House of Fraser, on her ‘crazy, fandangled’ ideas

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BACKGROUND SCREENING Do you know who you’re hiring?

JAMES STEVENSON Taking the lead at Eden Brown Synergy SOURCING Technology gets the talent

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C R ONT ENT S 41

ING PORAT INCOR itment Recru ers Matt

COV ER IMAG E | PA L H ANSEN

A

NEWS

05 James Stevenson: back in the public sector saddle Eden Brown Synergy’s CEO on his plans to drive his new organisation forward 06 CEOs’ advice: go for it Leaders advise other entrepreneurs to be much braver in business 07 It’s good to talk at Deloitte The professional services firm is undergoing a change in culture

07 Star recruit: Barbara Windsor, actress, ex-pub landlady in EastEnders 08 This was the month that was...

10 Contracts & Deals

B

TRENDS

12 Insight Why friendly workplaces are the least innovative

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16 17 17

FEATURES

18 THE BIG STORY Samantha Ramsay, House of Fraser The head of resourcing at the fashion retailer shows her drive and inspiration

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24 Background screening

Do you really know who you are hiring?

32 Sourcing technology How technology helps get to the source of talent quicker than ever

E COMMUNITY 37 Social Network 38 Careers Agency/In-house 41 My brilliant recruitment career: Roxanne Mackay 42 Employability 44 Business Advice 48 Movers & Shakers 49 Recruiter Contacts 50 The Last Word: Matthew Churchward

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Tech & Tools Technology and analytics help build relationships

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D

50

INTERACTION Agency View: Neil Dickins Soapbox Soundbites

41 I M AG E S | A K I N FALO P E / ISTO C K / G ETTY

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by 14/06/2016 12:24

W E LCO M E

UPDATE

WE LCO M E

LEADER

F

urious rhetoric over UK immigration and the ferocity of a hate crime in Orlando are fuelling debate over allowing people different from us to live and work close to us – with “us” referring to the people of various countries around the world.

We live in dangerous times, and one of the greatest dangers on the horizon is losing the commitment to achieving diverse and inclusive (D&I) workforces. In our view, it is increasingly only organisations that are built solely to “One of the drive D&I forward greatest and individual dangers is spokespeople for losing the D&I aims that are commitment carrying the flag to achieving for this cause and D&I its separate strands. workforces” Until D&I goals are integrated by mainstream organisations into their own operations and practices, realisation of these aims will not become part of the fabric of how we work and live.

Worse, Brexit and the Orlando murders, by a man whose self-hatred may have led him to commit his heinous sins against mankind, may actually unravel progress that had been made. We have to ‘do better’.

On a slightly lighter topic, well done to Last Word columnist Matt Churchward for a warm, very human piece this month on the myth of the Millennial. Read about Matt’s grandad on p50.

James Stevenson: back in the saddle

BY DEEDEE DOKE

JAMES STEVENSON, who has previously held managing director roles at public sector recruiter Morgan Hunt and at retail, fashion & digital recruiter Freedom Recruitment, is the new chief executive at public sector recruiter Eden Brown Synergy (EBS).

In an exclusive interview with Recruiter, Stevenson said his new role marked “an opportunity to go back into a sector I love; I find it fascinating”. He said he was eager to “drive the business forward”.

Part of the nGAGE Specialist Recruitment Group, EBS was created by the merger last year of the group’s two public sector recruiters Eden Brown and Synergy. With “just under 100” employees, Stevenson said, EBS serves the social work, housing, revenues & benefits, and not-for-profit markets.

Stevenson launched his recruitment career at Eden Brown as a recruitment consultant (“I was number 12 in the door,” he said), where he remained for 11 years before moving on to subsequent roles at Reed, Morgan Hunt and Freedom. Conversations with nGAGE began in January, he said.

The dominance in the public sector of neutral vendors, through which recruiters supply candidates, was probably the most significant change occurring in the market recently, he opined. “The game has changed, with neutral vendors the primary clients we have now,” he said.

His 90-day plan calls for “a journey of discovery” for a “clear understanding of our road map, our success points and what we need to achieve over the next 18 months”, he said.

Stevenson added: “It’s good to be back. I’ve gotten in at the deep end, and the water’s lovely.” ●

EXCLUSIVE

DeeDee Doke, Editor IM AGE | AKIN FALOPE

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UPDATE

31,348 FOLLOWERS AS OF 16 JUNE 2016

CEOs’ advice – have a go and get things done

BY GRAHAM SIMONS

Be brave and dive in, say recruitment entrepreneurs

IS YOUR COMPANY HOT TO TROT? Are you one of recruitment’s most efficient and profitable businesses? If so, make sure that your firm is on our radar for Recruiter’s HOT 100 2016, in association with Agile Intelligence, marking the 10th anniversary of this hotly anticipated league table.

If you qualify (see minimum criteria below), send copies of audited results for your most recent financial year to: hot100@agile-intelligence.co.uk by 15 August for your company to be considered.

Minimum criteria: • Sales turnover: £5m • Gross profit (net fees): £1.5m • Average internal employees (sales staff plus all support staff): 20 Please note global search/headhunters are not included in the report.

IM AGE | GET T Y

NOT HAVING BEEN BRAVER about expansion and failing to spurn a ‘me too mentality’ rank among the regrets some of the industry’s top leaders have about starting out as a recruitment entrepreneur.

Opus Group’s Darren Ryemill, Caritas’ Debbie Smith, Goodman Masson’s Guy Hayward and Futureheads’ Be Kaler were among the recruitment leaders speaking at jobs and career marketplace Glassdoor’s second CEO & Founder Circle event under the theme of Driving Transparency.

Speaking candidly, Opus chief executive Ryemill said a major regret was not having “bigger balls” when launching his business. “We’ve been a fast-growth business, and it’s been great, but have a go at stuff a bit quicker and get stuff done rather than think too much about should we open in London? Should we open in

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Amsterdam? Or maybe New York? F**k that – just have a go at it. I probably would have taken decisions quicker.”

Ryemill’s regret was shared by Futureheads founder Kaler, who claimed her firm was not ambitious enough initially. “When I look at our first business plan we were thinking we might hire an admin person after year one and we might treat ourselves to a few weeks’ holiday and a pay rise,” Kaler said.

“Actually within a year we were seven people – we’ve grown 40% year-on-year.

I think our turnover is about £11m now, and we’re about 30 people.”

Goodman Masson CEO Hayward regrets not committing enough consultants to some territories: “We’ve often gone into markets with just one or two people and it’s been a real ballache trying to make money and profit quickly… We went to Germany and we hired two people, hoping bit by bit it would be ok, and I should have hired six

straight away – it’s been a real effort.”

Kaler said the last year has seen her firm be guilty of growing its footprint in headcount terms but paying a price for promoting top consultants into managers’ roles to train more junior consultants.

Meanwhile, Caritas CEO Smith said she wished she had eschewed a “me too” mentality when launching her business, when she tried to replicate her rival’s businesses but doing it “a little bit better”.

“I think now we have matured as a business and what we have tried to do is innovate,” Smith said. “I think what we’re doing is to be quite different. We’re connecting with local government. We release research. We’re trying to get to the market in a different way, rather than just filling vacancies like a lot of our competitors. I probably would have started that a lot earlier.”

The event was sponsored by Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer Maserati. ●

Find more daily news stories at recruiter.co.uk/news 16/06/2016 14:55

Deloitte’s approach to wellbeing aims to achieve a more balanced and productive culture

NEIL DICKINS

FO UNDER / DIREC TOR , IC RESOU RCES

“I wouldn’t describe it as ‘a war for talent’; it’s a vacuum for talent”

I M AG E | G ETTY

THOUGHTS FROM…

It’s good to talk at Deloitte DEEDEE DOKE

SHELLEY HOPPE

CHIE F E X E CUTIVE, CREATIVE CONTENT AGENCY SOUTHERLY

“Everyone needs IT skills – it means we’re fighting over the same skills”

STEVAN ROLL S

PA RTNER – GLOBAL TALENT, DELOITTE

“I do strongly believe if you can’t build meaning into your work, you can’t build self-esteem”

I M AG E | RE X

STA R RECRUIT

JAMES WEBBER, FOUNDER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR AT JAMES WEBBER RECRUITMENT, OFFERS INSIGHT INTO A POTENTIAL ROLE FOR DAME BARBARA WINDSOR, WHO RECENTLY LEFT HER ROLE AS PEGGY MITCHELL IN BBC SOAP OPERA EASTENDERS. Barbara’s most famous recent role as the matriarchal head of Eastenders’ Mitchell family also showed her capabilities as a landlady not to trifle with.

DELOITTE is undergoing a cultural change that favours wellbeing to “positively differentiate” the multinational professional services firm in a highly pressurised sector to best attract and retain staff – and enhance performance and productivity.

The emphasis on integrating wellbeing into the workplace is aligned to a strategy of being a sustainable, purpose-driven organisation, while ever-increasing regulation, greater client demands and the non-stop 24/7 world of connectedness ratchet up the pressure.

Speaking recently to senior HR professionals at Richmond Events’ HR Forum 2016, Stevan Rolls, partner – global talent at Deloitte, acknowledged: “Our industry is not well known for wellbeing. It’s about ‘Come in, work on a bunch of stuff and maybe we’ll make you rich’.”

Deloitte hires 55,000 people per year globally into its 200,000 workforce across 140 countries. The company has taken a “holistic” approach towards wellbeing – as opposed to a compensatory approach – that acknowledges “the intrinsic connection between work and life”. While not built around the concept of work/life balance, the Deloitte approach is committed to “vigilance to the signs of stress and presenteeism”.

Peer mental health champions within the workforce are part of the strategy to support employees who may be suffering from stress, depression, anxiety or personal problems. One of the most common issues raised with the champions was managing medications.

“They’ve [troubled employees] seen it as incredibly helpful to have someone to come and talk to,” Rolls said.

Leaders from managers up to partner-level Adept at pulling a pint her hand to being a club or throwing out rowdy rep on an 18-30 holiday, are receiving patrons with her infamous given her seafaring line “Get outta my pub!”, history. One of her wellbeing training.

Barbara would make a previous roles before Topics include great bar manager at any joining EastEnders drinking establishment was in the early 1980s understanding across the country but as scarecrow Worzel about the stresses probably most fittingly Gummidge’s friend Saucy in her native East End of Nancy, a ship’s figurehead. on managers as London.

And let’s not forget individuals and Having said that, among her array of Carry perhaps Arsenal fan on film parts was her turn nutrition, physical Barbara may like to on Carry on Camping, manage a pub near which adds further weight and psychological Arsenal’s home of the to the argument she health “pitched in Emirates in North London. could throw her bubbly Although perhaps personality into being a a way they like”, Barbara might like to turn club rep.

Rolls said. ● WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 7

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THIS WAS THE MONTH THAT WAS… Here is a round-up of some of the most popular news stories we have brought you on recruiter.co.uk since the June issue of Recruiter was published M A Y •‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒→ T H U, 1 9 M AY 2 0 1 6

FRI, 20 MAY 2016

SLOVAK BROTHERS CONVICTED OF TRAFFICKING WITHIN THE UK

17 POLICE FORCES MISS DBS TARGETS

Two brothers, found to have exploited fellow Slovak nationals living in the Medway towns in Kent, have been sentenced to six years each in prison.

Marian Dzuga, of Windsor Road in Gillingham, and Jozef Dzuga, of Salisbury Road in Chatham, were found guilty of trafficking within the UK with intent to exploit following a month-long trial at Maidstone Crown Court.

Officers from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate began an investigation after one of the victims went into a police station in September 2012 to report he had been the victim of human trafficking and labour exploitation. All victims, four of which gave evidence during the trial, revealed they had been brought into the country on the promise of work and accommodation.

The brothers were found to have bought the victims’ coach tickets and got them into the country, helping them to set up bank accounts but taking away their documents, which police later found in the addresses. The brothers were also found to have e kept most of the victims’ wages to fund their gambling habits.

Marian and Jozef Dzuga were both convicted of one count: trafficking within the UK with intent to exploit. Jozef Dzuga was as found not guilty of three other charges, while Marian Dzuga was as not guilty of two other charges and the jury was hung on one count of trafficking.

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The number of police forces failing to meet processing time targets for Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) criminal record checks has increased, according to the latest figures from the government.

DBS checks are required for a range of job roles including nurses, teachers, charity workers and taxi drivers.

The figures showed that in March, 17 police forces across the UK failed to meet a target of completing 85% of DBS checks within two weeks. In January, the number of forces that missed the target was 12, down significantly from 22 in December 2015.

Forces that failed to hit the DBS target in March were: Cleveland, Derbyshire, Dorset, Durham, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Kent, the Met, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Northumbria, Police Scotland, the Service Police, South Yorkshire, Surrey and the Thames Valley.

More: http://bit.ly/25UAHUp

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LIVERPOOL FC HOSTS FINAL RECRUITMENT EVENT FOR 1,000 ROLES Liverpool Football Club hosted a recruitment event to support its drive to fill 1,000 new roles across its matchday kitchen, retail, catering, safety, hospitality, tours and museum teams, ahead of the opening of a new 20,500-seater stand at its Anfield home this summer.

The club’s matchday operations team were able to chat to potential candidates about the wide range of opportunities at the club, including specialist hospitality and catering roles at Anfield.

In March, Liverpool launched a ‘ready to work’ programme in partnership with the local City Council to get local unemployed residents into work offering additional careers support including the opportunity to study for catering qualifications, as well as interview training to support its recruitment drive for the new stand.

More: http://bit.ly/21jFisC

17 POLICE FORCES FAILED TO CARRY OUT

85%

OF DBS CHECKS WITHIN 2 WEEKS →‒‒‒‒‒• IM AGES | REUT ERS / GET T Y / REX / LFC

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FRI, 3 JUN 2016

Capita promotes McQueen to executive director of HR and recruitment Business outsourcing provider Capita has appointed Nicola McQueen as executive director of its workplace services division, which includes all of Capita’s HR and recruitment businesses.

McQueen, who also joins Capita’s executive management board, has been managing director of Capita Resourcing since 2010.

DAYS

More: http://bit.ly/1XmRPNo

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MON, 13 JUN 2016

PWC IN AUSTRALIA OPTS FOR NEW DRESS CODE

MICROSOFT BUYS LINKEDIN, HERALDING MORE TECH FIRMS MOVING INTO JOB MARKETPLACE

PwC in Australia is to implement a new dress code with the aim of better differentiating the firm in the war for professional services talent.

Australia’s Financial Review reports PwC workers in Australia will no longer be sent home for not wearing stockings, or not polishing their shoes, with the professional services firm introducing a new dress code in a bid to “unlock the creativity and diversity” of its people.

“We’re in a war for talent,” incoming human capital leader at PwC Australia Sue Horlin told the magazine. “We want people to feel like we’re different and they’re going to do different things.”

More: http://bit.ly/1UQxMRf

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RECRUITERS SAY THEIR WORKERS ‘NOT MISTREATED’ IN SPORTS DIRECT ENQUIRY Senior executives at labour providers Transline and The Best Connection (TBC) have told MPs agency workers they supply to sportswear retailer Sports Direct have not been mistreated.

Transline chief executive Chris Kirkby and finance director Jennifer Hardy, and TBC CEO Andy Sweeney, appeared before Parliament’s Business, Innovation & Skills Committee meeting on working practices at Sports Direct.

The recruitment agencies were asked a series of questions about Sports Direct’s ‘six strikes’ policy. Transline’s Kirkby told the Committee the agency had started supplying workers to Sports Direct two years ago and had taken on the strikes policy that had been previously been in place. “That’s how we operate our business,” Kirkby said. “We don’t have our own standard strike policy.”

The trio of recruiters also confirmed to the committee that to the best of their knowledge none of the staff they supplied to Sports Direct had been mistreated by the sportswear firm.

More: http://bit.ly/1UN4J3Q

MICROSOFT IS TO BUY PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING SITE LINKEDIN FOR

Global tech giant Microsoft is to buy professional networking site LinkedIn for $26.2bn (£18.3bn) – $196 per share – in a deal due to be completed by the end of December.

According to a LinkedIn press release, LinkedIn will retain its distinct brand, culture and independence. Jeff Weiner will remain chief executive of LinkedIn, reporting to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.

Reacting to the news, Jacques de la Bouillerie, managing director of Coople, one of Europe’s largest on-demand job marketplaces, said the acquisition highlights a growing trend in tech companies moving into the job market, showing a market that is ripe for innovation and change.

“Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn gives it access to a network of over 433m professionals, with 20m users based in the UK alone. The timing is particularly interesting, coming just a year since LinkedIn acquired online learning company Lynda.

“With this purchase, Microsoft will want to become the face of the modern workplace, from offering office software tools, to training and now recruitment.”

More: http://bit.ly/1Q0bsJb

$26.2BN

•‒‒‒‒‒→

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£79m

NE WS

CONTRACTS

IS THE AMOUNT PAID

BY GLOBAL GIANT RANDSTAD FOR ITALIAN RECRUITMENT AGENCY OBIETTIVO LABORO

CONTRACTS & DEALS AMN Healthcare US healthcare recruiter AMN Healthcare has acquired information management services company Peak Health Solutions.

The acquisition was funded through AMN’s existing revolving credit facility.

Candidate Source Specialist online advertising agency Candidate Source has been named as a preferred affiliate supplier to the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo).

The firm will now provide its jobs board expertise to the organisation’s start-up and micro businesses as part of a tailored ‘New Enterprise’ offer.

Fircroft Global workforce solutions provider to technical engineering sectors Fircroft has acquired Australian firm One Key Resources, a specialist staffing provider to the mining, oil & gas and infrastructure industries. Grant Wechsel continues as managing director and shareholder of One Key following the acquisition, while fellow FCSA director and former UK trade association for Australian Rugby professional employment League captain services the Freelancer Darren Lockyer also and Contractor Services continues in his role.

Association (FCSA) has agreed a partnership with JustAccounts, a cloud accounting software specialist for contractor accountants. Now an official FCSA business partner, JustAccounts specialises in providing accountants with a cloudbased system, specifically designed to help them manage their clients’ accounts.

Empresaria International specialist staffing group Empresaria has acquired a further 10% of executive search firm Monroe Consulting Group. Empresaria paid £200k for its additional stake and now holds a 70% interest in Thailandbased Monroe.

GetMyFirstJob Apprenticeship matching service GetMyFirstJob has received £1m in new investment from Nesta Impact Investments and the City & Guilds Group.

The investment follows a period of growth of more than 500% for GetMyFirstJob since a previous funding round in January 2015.

Glassdoor Jobs and recruiting marketplace Glassdoor has secured $40m (£27.4m) in new investment. This latest investment round was led by T Rowe Price Associates and existing investors Battery Ventures, Google Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures and Tiger Global. Glassdoor has raised roughly $200m since it was founded in 2007 and will use the new financing to support its continued growth and investments in product, marketing and people around the globe.

DEAL OF THE MONTH

Randstad Recruitment giant Randstad has increased its presence in Italy with the acquisition of Italian agency Obiettivo Lavoro.

Randstad said in a statement the €102.5m (£79m) deal, which sees Randstad acquire the entire share capital of Obiettivo Lavoro, moves the group from the number four ranked agency in Italy to No. 2. The biggest

ManpowerGroup Global recruiter ManpowerGroup has acquired the Dutch business of global information technology consulting, services and outsourcing company Ciber. Manpower said the deal further strengthens its IT capabilities in the Netherlands, while also complementing the organic growth of Manpower’s Experis brand, its professional resourcing and project-based workforce solutions segment of the company.

recruiter in Italy is Gi Group.

Randstad chief executive Jacques van den Broek said the acquisition is part of the company’s strategy to aim for top three positions in each of the markets in which it operates.

JSA Services JSA Services, a provider of specialist accountancy, payroll and employment services to UK contractors and freelancers, has acquired Hertfordshire contractor accounting firm Nyman Linden.

Nyman Linden also specialises in the freelance and temporary worker sector. The firm’s two partners, Andrew Plaskow and Michael Linden, have also joined JSA as consultants.

Recruit Japan-based staffing conglomerate Recruit has declared its recommended public offer for all of Dutch recruiter USG People’s issued and outstanding ordinary shares unconditional. Late last year, Recruit Holdings announced it was to buy USG People for €1.42bn (£1.04bn). USG People shareholders, who accepted the offer, will receive an amount in cash of €17.50 per share.

Randstad expects to close the transaction in the next few months and will finance the deal using existing credit facilities.

SP O NSO RE D BY

N° 1 QUALITY 10 RECRUITER

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TRE NDS

INSIGHT

WHY FRIENDLY WORKPLACES ARE THE LEAST INNOVATIVE Innovation is crucial to an organisation’s success, and while friendly employee relationships seem to make an ideal working environment, this may not produce the desired creativity a business is looking for. Dr Tom Mom reports

W

hen recruiting, much focus is placed on an individual’s creative abilities and willingness to search for new opportunities, as well as their eagerness to learn from their colleagues.

We know that the structural aspects of a person’s work network, such as the size and density, can aid the innovation process by serving as a vehicle for idea generation and knowledge building. However, recent research indicates that what are seen as ‘soft aspects’ within such networks, like the quality of the relationships within them, may be even more important in this process.

The extent to which close relationships can aid individual innovation were examined through

a specially-designed survey of 150 members working within the R&D [research & development] departments of three Fortune Global 500 firms.

My co-authors Pepijn van Neerijnen, Patrick Reinmoeller, Ernst Verwaal and I surveyed employees who typically worked across several cross-functional teams simultaneously, yet boasted different professional backgrounds, such as sales, marketing and operations, for instance.

Work ties Our research revealed that friendships at work were a double-edged sword – providing both a positive effect on individual performance, yet also encouraging ‘group-thinking’ or an alignment of goals, which often hindered innovation.

On the one hand, establishing closeness and trust in work

The closer the relationships between an organisation’s members and the greater their mutual trust, the more these individuals are committed, open and responsive to each other 12 RECRUITER

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relationships can help a person learn and discover new things, and become more creative. The closer the relationships between an organisation’s members and the greater their mutual trust, the more these individuals are committed, open and responsive to each other.

Therefore, they not only share more information and knowledge with each other, but they also tend to provide more detailed feedback and listen more to each other’s ideas – even if these are complex. These qualities are especially valuable when it concerns the acquisition of complex, new or unproven knowledge.

Dangers of conformity Yet on the other hand, such close and trustful interactions can cause people to identify more closely with each other, increasing the cohesiveness between them and developing a mutual consensus about the goals they wish to achieve, rather than encouraging individual ideas. So while friendships promote agreement, the resulting mutual alignment of goals can foster a type of compliance.

Because of this, respondents showed less willingness to invest time and energy in searching for new opportunities and in developing knowledge that lay outside of the IM AGE | ISTOCK

15/06/2016 16:51

group’s common goal. Additionally, this conformity increased the level of difficulty for these individuals in making independent, personal assessments in new situations. Our research also exposed how, due to strong goal alignment, the team members’ perceptions and beliefs became more ingrained, restricting the breadth of their learning processes.

Lessons to be learned There is a clear lesson here for businesses that intend to increase their levels of innovation. Organisations need to do more than merely encourage the formation of closeness and trust among their employees. They need to be aware of both the positive and negative consequences that workplace friendships can have upon individual creativity and innovation. The challenge is then to create conditions in which the positive effects that come through group knowledge acquisition can outweigh the negative effects that arise from goal alignment.

For instance, organisational settings characterised by group

rewards, supportive leadership and not too much internal competition can help to develop the closeness and trust conducive to knowledge sharing. A climate which appreciates heterogeneity may help to dampen the negative effects of goal alignment.

Job rotations and creating truly cross-functional teams may also help staff to get the best of both worlds.

But a company vision and culture that allows for true diversity and encourages opinions and openness to new ideas is vital.

Finally, it is crucial to ensure there is enough diversity among people as well. Productive individuals and those with a propensity for curiosity and openness to new experiences may help to create more balanced teams, which can both share knowledge and innovate. However, managers must bear these traits in mind when putting teams together.

Top talent may be crucial to an organisation’s success, but it is the interplay between these individuals which can greatly help or hinder creativity – and it is the successful management of this truth which could keep a business a head and shoulders above its competition. ● Source: Mom, T.J.M., Neerijnen, P. Van, Reinmoeller, P, & Verwaal, E. (2015). ‘Relational capital and individual exploration: Unravelling the influence of goal alignment and knowledge acquisition’, Organization Studies, 36, 809-829.

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While friendships promote agreement, the resulting mutual alignment of goals can foster a type of compliance

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POWER POINTS Friendships at work are a double-edged sword: on the one hand, they may promote knowledge sharing and creativity, yet when unmanaged they may become too close, causing goal-alignment and ‘group thinking’ By fostering close relationships, employees can form ‘norms’ which can become difficult to break free from, ultimately hindering the organisation’s innovative potential It is important for businesses to promote exercises such as cross-sectional working, mixed training and even the rotation of teams to combat the effects of over-familiarity and goal-alignment At the very highest levels, diversity within a board room must be increased to counteract these same consequences, and to keep the company innovating Steering away from one standardised business identity is crucial in protecting it from a ‘herd mentality’

DR TOM MOM is director of the Erasmus executive programme in strategic management at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University

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Expert opinion S P ON S ORED CO L U M N I S V G R O U P

Putting candidates to the test ISV Software’s Amanda Davies brings us up to speed on the latest candidate testing news and why it’s right to be suspicious sometimes There are rumblings going round the recruitment industry: Who knew that candidates didn’t always tell the truth?!

Ok, so this is not news to you, but when you place a candidate, you expect them to deliver on what they claim to be capable of.

More and more recently, we are talking to recruiters who have their suspicions.

+ Amanda Davies, Managing Director, ISV Group

Marketing mix up Speaking with a perm recruiter recently, they confessed to getting their fingers burned when recruiting a Marketing Exec role. The candidate came across well in interview and had the right experience but once in the role it quickly transpired they had poor literacy, no experience with PowerPoint and weren’t so hot using Excel. These are fundamental skills required for a communications role that included content creation, presenting information and analysing data. The client was less than impressed and the candidate didn’t work out. If the recruiter had skills tested the individual, they would have been able to make a better formed decision and even presented their findings to the client.

Seasoned recruiters can sniff out a whopper pretty easily.

However, even the most innocent-seeming candidates can be prone to exaggerating if it gets them a step closer to the job they’ve been coveting.

H&S near miss

No matter how much we might moan about admin and audit trails, they come into their own in situations like this.

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So what’s new in skills testing? Today, it’s not so much about content; we’re receiving more requests for developing integration requests and partnerships with other suppliers. Recruiters are balancing being time-poor with overwhelming amounts of data, and competing with the more and more savvy in-house recruiter. You need a platform that integrates with your CRM system, one that allows you to search and shortlist based on skills, experience and availability.

Some partners will openly work on integration, seeing the benefit. Others take a rather elitist view that it should be paid for and attach a five-figure price tag. There is room for everyone, and recruitment tech will only be enhanced when experts work together.

At ISV, we integrate our skills testing with Logic Melon, RDB ProNet and our latest integration with Voyager’s Infinity is the best yet – it uses better search functionality than either of the standalone systems. Content naturally still plays a part, but for now there is a big emphasis on tech and timesaving. ●

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Amanda Davies, Managing Director at ISV Software has worked with the company for over 5 years. Having a strong background in both Marketing and Recruitment, she has worked with many recruiters and HR professionals in the industry. Together with the team, she’s dedicated to developing the best recruitment software solutions available. Amanda is passionate about personal development and is a Co-Active personal and business coach.

↗

A more serious incident came onto our radar recently. A temp recruiter regularly placed candidates with their client and one was involved in an accident on the client’s premises. Fortunately there were no serious injuries but it was severe enough for the HSE to investigate. A question was raised over the candidate and their ability to understand instructions, with suspicions that the individual’s literacy and comprehension were not up to standard. The recruiter became involved and, as a user of skills testing, they were able to share results of a literacy and aptitude test showing a more than adequate score. Plus, the recruiter could share comparable results for other temps that had been provided to the client which were the same or lower, and these individuals had not been involved in accidents or near misses.

Content is no longer king

ISV GROUP For more information about skills testing visit www.isvgroup.com Telephone: 023 8081 6600 Email: enquiries@isvgroup.com

JULY 2016

14/06/2016 12:13

T R E N DS

TECH & TOOLS

Predicting outcomes Technology and analytics help recruiters build relationship with candidates SUE WEEKES

DEFINED Predictive analytics: An advanced form of analytics where information is taken from a set of data and analysed to predict trends and/or patterns of behaviour. It is increasingly used in a number of areas within recruitment, including when a person might be ready to make their next move based on a number of factors such as age, length of time in a role, life events and market trends.

Technology can enhance many aspects of the recruitment process for the candidate. Despite agencies and employers claiming to make candidate experience a priority, there are still too many instances of poor communication and inconsistent practices. Many of these issues can be addressed by using technology to not just improve but enrich the experience for the candidate.

“Candidate expectations are at an all-time high,” says Angela Yates, director of resourcing operations at TMP Worldwide. “In today’s competitive employment market, technology plays a pivotal role in delivering a highquality candidate experience.” Indeed, part of the art of recruiting has become knowing what technology to use – and when to use it.

F IVE KEY POINTS

➊ GET IN EARLY AND NURTURE

➋ INTERACT AND ENGAGE

➌ COMMUNICATE AND BUILD TRUST

➍ ENSURE CONSISTENCY AND SUPPORT

➎ WHEN NOT TO

Use predictive technology and analytics to help build a relationship with the candidate before they are thinking about their next move. Wendy McDougall, chief executive of Firefish Software, advises working out at which point in a candidate’s work life you make the most placements (which could be two years after graduation), and mapping this information to build a picture of trigger points for when candidates might be on the move.

“Then six months before this point is a good time to target them,” she says.

“Send a regular nurturing programme of content and look at the analytics.

Who’s opening it? Include video and use tools such as heatmaps to see how far they are going into the piece of video.”

Ensure the agency or careers website doesn’t fall short of candidate expectations. It must be mobile-optimised and engage the candidate with relevant content. Yates suggests embedding short video content, extending this across social media platforms.

“Use employee personas to describe topics such as training and development opportunities and what it feels like to be part of the organisation,” she says. If you have a broad range of vacancies of a similar type, she advises including a ‘match me tool’ or ‘realistic job preview’, and also encourages using gamification. “They are powerful mechanisms, which add to the candidate experience and perception of you as a recruitment brand,” she says.

Consider which medium is best for the different stages of the recruitment process. At the earlier stages, it is important to “seduce” the candidate in their own territory, says McDougall. “So if someone is on Twitter all the time, use that,” she says, adding that the technology can help ensure the contact is ongoing. “Communication can go dead at certain stages of the process and candidates can lose trust.

We understand that a recruiter can’t call every candidate every day but they can provide tools that help a candidate to watch their status and see where they are in the process.”

Once the candidate is in the online recruitment process, ensure consistency at each stage. The careers site should integrate seamlessly with the applicant tracking system and any third-party applications built into the process such as video interviewing or situational judgement testing. Ensure these components carry the organisation’s branding not that of the provider.

In addition, many candidates expect to be able to create a personal home page so they can complete their application in more than one sitting and track their application progress, explains Yates.

“If they need to upload documents or complete tests as part of the initial application form, then live web chat will facilitate a healthy reduction in unsubmitted applications.”

There is, of course, a point where technology drops out and human contact takes over, whether it be at an initial meeting or the interview stage. “You can’t rely on technology for offer management because you need to look people in the eye and make sure they won’t take a counter offer,” says McDougall, while Yates adds: “The power of human persuasion can heavily influence our choices.”

After the offer has been made technology can be brought back in whether the person accepts the job or not. If they accept, they move into the onboarding process but if not, you may want to keep them in a talent pool. “It goes back into the cycle of being alert to their trigger points,” says McDougall.

I L L UST RAT I O N | SH UTTER STO C K

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C

INTE R AC TIO N

AGENCY VIEW

Giving with one hand…

Government immigration policies stifle tech growth

BY NEIL DICKINS

he UK is currently one of the best places in the world to start or run a technology company. A combination of government policies and initiatives have contributed to the UK technology industry’s competitiveness.

Low corporation tax, a well-run R&D tax credit system, Patent Box and the work of UKTI are all examples of how government is helping to make the UK a great place to grow a globally competitive tech firm.

Unfortunately, we now face a situation of ‘what the right hand giveth, the left hand taketh away’. The government’s inability or unwillingness to distinguish between skilled and unskilled immigration is in danger of crippling UK start-ups and stunting the growth of UK technology as a whole. In fact, the UK skills shortage is now so severe that concerns about the inability to find the right people, expressed in high tech for the last number of years, are now being raised across numerous sectors including accountancy, marketing and creative industries etc.

The government’s visa policy is confusing, expensive, time consuming and opaque. The system has become more expensive and complex over the last five years in direct correlation to the skills shortage becoming more severe.

T

Under the German ‘Blue Card’ scheme an individual can themselves obtain a work permit if they are degree-qualified and in receipt of a job offer in excess of around €39k or £30.9k (look Theresa May, no costly licences necessary!).

This is the policy of a government that recognises that a skills shortage leads to lost tax revenue and reduced competitiveness. The Home Office seems to want to punish companies who want to try to grow in a skills-short environment. Should UK companies really be having to pay handsomely for the privilege of trying to compete globally and, in doing so, contribute to the health of UK plc?

And of course Brexit must be mentioned in this context. I am personally in the Remain camp, and believe that access to EU skills is key to the health of the UK technology sector. However, whether we stay in or leave the EU, the fundamental message is the same: the UK government needs to change its stance toward skilled immigration.

MPs and civil servants throughout the land should be patting themselves on the back for helping to create a thriving, dynamic and competitive technology community … but those efforts will have been in vain if the sapling-sized start-ups and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) can’t grow up into Apple (other fruits are available) trees. ●

+ NEIL DICKINS is founder/director at technology specialist recruiters Intellectual Capital Resources

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“Should UK companies really be having to pay handsomely for the privilege of trying to compete globally and, in doing so, contribute to the health of UK plc?”

IM AGE | ISTOCK

16/06/2016 12:08

T WEET I N T E R AC T I O N

SOUNDBITES S OA P BOX / W EB CHAT

THANKS, BUT NO THANKS

How should you measure quality of hire?

NATHAN OTT D IREC TOR OF P ROF ES S I ON A L S ERV I CES , EG . 1

It’s all about the numbers they say: the clients, the candidates, the offers, the followers, the tweets, the blogs, the likes and the shares… Numbers, numbers, numbers.

As long as you’re doing the numbers you’ll be a success – or so they say.

As a fresh entrant into the recruitment and consultancy market our strategy has to be about the numbers, right?

Yes, it’s a business to make a profit and yes, we aim to be profitable. We’re here to stay (that’s what they all say isn’t it?).

We have a business plan and a P&L [profit & loss statement] along with a long-term view, but it’s more than just these ‘business’ things for us. It’s about ‘fit’, ‘gut instinct’, ‘personality’ and frankly, an honest belief and respect for those who we do business with and for those we do business for.

Equally, we hope they have that belief in us.

Saying no to a candidate in a candidateshort market is arguably brave but a pill we can swallow. We turned down one particular candidate; there were too many mistruths to honestly represent them.

But saying no to a client and a profitable one at that – is that just sheer madness?

Picture the scenario: we ‘chose’ the client – it was one we wanted to work with. We were excited to get a foot through the door, into the glossy offices, with bright colours and numbers. So many vacancies to fill, and we had the candidates too...

We were off. It’s all about the numbers rolled around and around in our heads... but something wasn’t right, that old ‘gut instinct’. So we said no. No to the client and no to the numbers.

Our position is, we have a measured approach to those we want to work with.

We do our research, and don’t approach those that ‘aren’t for us’. We’re not arrogant – we simply need to have that gut instinct.

We want a relationship we can foster, where honesty and integrity matter.

No doubt we are missing a trick, missing out on some profitable work but sometimes we just have to say no, don’t we?

Have we just made a very big mistake?!

+

RHIANNON CAMBROOK-WOODS, managing director, Zest Recruitment & Consultancy

“Too many organisations continue to focus on qualifications, past experience and personality when it comes to recruiting and judging the quality of the individuals that they hire. Focusing solely on who ‘fits’ into your organisation and who appears to get on with your team is the wrong approach. The quality of hire should be judged by the real contribution they are making. To do this successfully employers need to be clear about what it is their new hire is there to achieve.

By understanding how they are going to contribute, whether this is by engaging their team, building on what has been done before or developing a new idea, organisations can give their new hire the freedom and time to achieve their potential.”

TIM POWELL G ROUP H EA D OF RES OURCI N G , P RI ORY G ROUP

“Many companies focus on time and cost per hire but quality is considered a more difficult element to measure. Priory Group has recently introduced a situational judgement test for support workers and healthcare assistants; one of the key metrics in assessing its impact will be a reduction in staff turnover rates. It is hoped that the quality of candidates will improve due to being better informed about the reality of the role – they will stay longer as a result, and exhibit the appropriate values and behaviours consistent with a high-performing support worker.”

ASHLEY HEVER TALENT ACQUISITION DIREC TOR , UK & IRELAND, ENTERPRISE RENT-A-CAR

“There are a number of ways to measure quality of hire. While the most basic of KPIs [key performance indicators] would include whether an employee is still with the company after a specific amount of time, the most complex would also measure an employee’s success within the business: did they hit their yearly performance goals or achieve a promotion within a particular timeframe? This data is fairly easy to gather and measure – with the right HR systems – so why not also gather further information on the employee’s engagement levels within the company, or what feedback their colleagues are able to provide on them?”

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16/06/2016 12:08

TH E B IG STO RY SAMANTHA R AMSAY

RAMSAY IN THE RETAIL HOUSE OF FRASER

PHOTOGRAPHY: PAL HANSEN

BY COLIN COTTELL

Describing yourself as someone prone to “come up with crazy new fandangled ideas”, and “a bit of a loon that comes up with some random stuff ”, is not the sort of thing you expect to hear from a senior resourcing executive.

But coming from Samantha Ramsay, head of resourcing and employer brand at fashion retailer House of Fraser, such self-effacement and honesty somehow comes across as wholly complimentary, even endearing. “People tend to warm to me,” says Ramsay later in the interview.

What you see is what you get with this former performing arts student, who is certainly not afraid in any sense to put herself out there in the shop window. When she says, “you don’t need to be a certain type of person to work at House of Fraser. We embrace everyone because of who they are, not because they are like someone else” and follows it up with “it’s not one-size-fits-all – excuse the pun”, she could easily be describing herself.

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TH E B IG STO RY SAMANTHA R AMSAY

P H I LO SO P H Y O F R E C R U I T M E N T

“It is not just processing applications – these are people’s lives”

Retail passion Ramsay not only stands out as a quirky, driven, innovative and can-do individual always ready to challenge the status quo, but it is apparent that it’s those same personal characteristics that are the driving force and inspiration for a programme of change and innovation that has transformed resourcing at House of Fraser – and is continuing to do so.

Ramsay joined House of Fraser from telecoms group Vodafone. “I love retail for a start, and the opportunity to work for a pure retailer rather than a technology retailer was definitely interesting,” she says. Ramsay’s initial 20 RECRUITER

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C O M PANY

House of Fraser ▶ Founded in Glasgow 1849 ▶ 61 stores in UK ▶ Sales £1.3bn ▶ 7,000 staff ▶ 2013 opens store in Abu Dhabi

brief was to bring the two existing parts of House of Fraser’s resourcing function – retail and head office (or SSC [store support centre]) – together but

after a root-and-branch review of the function, she says she soon discovered “there were loads of opportunities to do things differently, and lots of things that could be improved upon”.

But even a self-confessed “real transformation person” who “is not very good at managing the day-to-day”, could perhaps not have imagined the extent of that change. It includes a new career site and employer brand, and the embracing of new technology, including video interviewing and a new applicant tracking system (ATS).

Metrics such as cost per hire and time to hire, as well as hiring community and candidate satisfaction ratings,

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itris.co.uk/playgame can you be the top scorer?

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TH E B IG STO RY SAMANTHA R AMSAY

have all improved. And all this within the first two years of what was supposed to have been a three-year programme.

Continuing changes

The right Chemistry Ramsay worked with human capital consultancy Chemistry Group to create the new assessment centre. She says the first objective was to establish what behaviours make a great sales adviser. Working with the occupational psychologists at Chemistry, Ramsay says the results were surprising.

“Whereas we thought it was about being an extrovert and confidence, the most important behaviour is empathy [towards customers]. You don’t have to be loud and an extrovert; you just have to care.”

Ramsay’s insistence on challenging the ways that things are done means she is open to ideas from outside recruitment. One example is in her approach to how to manage the nearly 400,000 applications House of Fraser

It would be natural to expect the frenetic breakneck pace of change to slow down; a period of consolidation, perhaps? But not a bit of it, and Ramsay is now gearing up for the next stage.

One initiative launched in the last few weeks is live chat, which allows people to get an immediate response to questions through the careers website anytime between 8am and midnight seven days a week. “Why not? It’s what people want,” says Ramsay. Its introduction is symptomatic of her approach. “I always ask why – why we cannot do stuff. I didn’t see live chat on career sites, and I thought why wouldn’t you? So we are just going to do it and SECRE TS O F SU C C E SS see what happens.” Ramsay says typical questions are ‘I am going to an assessment centre what should I wear?’ and ‘I have applied what happens next?’.

Where questions can’t be answered, a member of her team has been tasked with responding first thing the following morning. And from June, out of hours the service will be provided by House of Fraser’s call centre.

There are also plans to create a company wiki (online encyclopaedia) that should answer 8/10 questions.

Recruitment of sales advisers has also been completely revamped, replacing inefficient, slow and time-consuming oneto-one interviews in stores with a new assessment centre containing questions and answers, and a video.

Launched just after Christmas, Ramsay says the emphasis is on fun and giving candidates a positive experience of House of Fraser. “Nobody likes interviews. Nobody likes being assessed – it’s really uncomfortable. It’s about putting people under pressure, but not under a hot lamp and going ‘answer these questions!’.”

“People have said I have a huge amount of energy and a huge amount of passion for what I do”

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expects to receive this year. And this with a team of only 17 – a figure that includes managers.

Ramsay says she approached the issue by asking, who are the best people at managing calls and emails in volume? “Call centres – that’s what they do every day.” So off she went to speak to House of Fraser’s call centre manager. “[I asked] ‘Tell us how you do what you do’ – and we just learned from them.”

Marketing is another area that resourcing can learn from, says Ramsay.

“Resourcing is moving much more into networking and marketing. It is about engaging people for longer periods even before they become applicants. That’s what marketing does with customers all the time, so why would we not do the same in resourcing? So that is how we go about things.”

In-House of Fraser recruiting Asked whether this amounts to revolution or evolution, Ramsay responds: “It is revolution for resourcing but it’s evolution for the way the world works. Does that make

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T H E BI G STORY S A M A N T H A R A M S AY

sense? Kind of in my own head – there is some logic,” she laughs.

Ramsay says other big changes are on the horizon. These include House of Fraser recruiting for concessions and brands within its stores. “We now have an operating model that is very successful, and a presence and a business that is sometimes a lot larger than some of our concessions, which makes it hard for them to get the attraction and the volume of people they need,” she says.

Ramsay says the plan is for House of Fraser to operate “like a recruitment agency” and to support its concessions through interviewing, and providing shortlists. The plan is to go out within the next two months “to see if anyone wants our help”, she says. However, she is adamant it will happen. “I have been fielding requests from concessions and brands asking us to help them recruit… so yes, it is definitely going to happen.”

Retail is fabulous While continually improving the performance of House of Fraser’s resourcing function is clearly important, Ramsay recognises that as a sector retail has a serious job on its hands to overcome negative perceptions surrounding it as a career choice. She is certainly up for the fight, exclaiming “retailing is fabulous”. “It isn’t the case that it is the job you get before you get the job you want,” she continues, citing the example of House

of Fraser’s chief executive and chief operating officer, both of whom came through retail graduate schemes.

However, recognising there is a problem, Ramsay says she wants to spend “a lot more time” changing this perception. Ramsay says honesty is the best approach. One idea is a video interview with, say a merchandiser, or a YouTube video where members of staff can talk about their role and help people decide “whether this is the right company for me”.

“It’s not about what we say; it’s about what candidates can discover,” she adds. “There should be no secrets about a job. The things that you don’t know about through the interviews process are the reasons why people leave a job.

It’s about warts and all,” she says.

And that honesty extends to her own job as well. “There is always not

WHO IS SHE?

Samantha Ramsay June 2014-present Head of resourcing & employer brand, House of Fraser June 2013-May 2014 Global retail resourcing manager, Vodafone 2011-13 Resourcing manager – retail, consumer & brand – UK, Vodafone 2010-11 Resourcing project manager, Compass Group UK & Ireland 2000-10 Various resourcing and recruitment managers’ roles at Barclays Bank, Practicus, Amazon and Daniel Williams Consultants

great stuff in people’s jobs. I hate admin, I can’t get away from that – it is something I have to deal with, but if my job was predominantly admin I wouldn’t be doing it because I am not very good at it,” she says.

Talking trust Ramsay accepts that driving through change on such a scale and at such a speed has not been easy, especially for her team. “Change for any business for any department for any person is one of the hardest things to do even when it is positive. It’s about getting people on board and getting them to trust you that you know what you are doing.

“Coming in as a new person I had to earn that trust,” she continues, “but by taking on a challenge and delivering, people could see ‘ok, she does know what she is talking about’. I can come up with some random stuff, but they trust it is something that we can try and attempt together.”

Ramsay accepts that staff have been through a period of drastic change in a short space of time. Does she ever think she herself has bitten off more than she can chew? “No, it’s not in my make-up,” she responds. “Whether it is in work or life, I always think there is a way to do everything. I just need to find it.”

Indeed, Ramsay says she feels “incredibly lucky and privileged” to have been given the freedom to drive through the level of change that she sees necessary. “I totally love the culture here. They have allowed me – even if they didn’t know they needed it – to come in and say ‘this is what I think, this is what I want to do’. If they didn’t know before, one thing’s for sure, they certainly do now!” ● WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 23

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ILLUST RAT ION | GET T Y

15/06/2016 16:53

BACKG RO U N D S C R E E N I N G

WHO ARE YOU HIRING? TWO YEARS AGO, new legislation made

Employers aren’t treating the screening process for international workers with the seriousness it deserves, warn lawyers and compliance companies.

Colin Cottell investigates

employers liable for a penalty of up to £20k if they failed to produce the required documentation to show that workers have the right to work in the UK. One might think that such a draconian penalty would have focused minds. But that is far from the case, according to Annabel Mace, who heads the business immigration team at law firm Squire Patton Boggs.

“I am dealing with lots of businesses where I have been asked to advise on penalties that have just been issued to them,” she says.

Stefan Sosnowski, director of immigration compliance and validation company uComply, reckons that around 1% of documents supplied to it for checking by clients are “questionable”. For employers used to a constant diet of stories of ▶ illegal immigrants exploiting the

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B AC KG RO UND SCREENING

GOOD PRACTICE UK’s immigration system, such a low figure might even appear reassuring.

But according to Sosnowski, the risks of getting it wrong just once are considerable. And they are not just financial. “There is also the reputational risk, which can be huge.

You are likely to be plastered all over the local paper. And if you are deemed to be at fault, what do your clients think? They are not likely to look kindly on it,” he explains.

In addition to these right-to-work checks, you might expect employers to carry out other background checks as standard practice when hiring workers from overseas. Employment record checks, educational background checks and following up with referees immediately come to mind.

But here also, there is evidence that employers are not tackling the issue with the seriousness it deserves.

According to international background checking company SterlingBackcheck, while 88% of companies employ workers with international experience, only 45% conduct international background checks.

In an increasingly globalised talent pool, such figures are surprising. But they are also worrying, opening up employers to the real risk of taking on people who are not who or what they say they are, including those hiding criminal records. There is also the considerable cost of having to hire a replacement. According to economics consultancy firm Oxford Economics, on average this works out at more than £30k.

“I am dealing with lots of businesses where I have been asked to advise on penalties that have just been issued to them”

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Be aware of the legal constraints in obtaining data about individuals in different countries Take account of cultural sensitivities towards background screening

Line managers can’t be expected to be experts on foreign documents, so provide them with a help desk and/or the technology to flag-up questionable documents Train your staff well

Make sure the screening process is transparent to the candidate Inform your internal hiring manager that international background screening may delay a candidate’s starting date

Based on trends for the flow of migrants into the UK, all the evidence indicates that unless employers take appropriate measures these risks are set to rise. According to the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, the percentage of foreign citizens in employment in the UK increased from 3.5% in 1993 to 10.5% in 2014.

What is more, as a SterlingBackcheck White Paper, entitled ‘Managing Risk in a Global Marketplace’, points out, these figures do not include “the considerably greater number of individuals, who may have lived, worked or studied abroad”, particularly in the EU, where there is free movement of workers.

Hedley Clark, managing director of background checking company Credence, accepts that screening individuals who were born, worked and lived overseas, particularly foreign nationals, adds a layer of complexity to the normal screening process. “You don’t necessarily know the company they worked for, or about their education, and whether the colleges are even genuine,” he says. One of the biggest issues is language, he adds, and having the language skills to have a conversation with referees in different countries.

Clark says a further difficulty is that while background screening is an accepted part of the hiring process in the UK and other countries such as the US, it is often unfamiliar to employers in other parts of the world.

Treat all candidates the same – otherwise you could face a discrimination claim Be aware of industry-specific screening requirements – for example, in the security industry or the financial sector

This can sometimes turn to suspicion, particularly when dealing with medium or small-sized companies overseas, says Clark. “Part of it is explaining what you are doing and why,” he advises.

Rachel Bedgood, chief executive and founder of background checking firm CBS (Complete Background Screening), says one of the biggest issues for employers is understanding what information they are legally allowed to obtain to validate a potential employee’s history. “Laws and legislation vary from country to country,” she says.

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BACKG RO U N D S C R E E N I N G

“The EU has been instrumental in raising the privacy bar for everybody”

A case in point is criminal record checks, says Oran Kiazim, vice president at SterlingBackcheck. While in the UK an employer can request a basic disclosure to check whether a candidate has a criminal record, in France the individual is the only person allowed to receive their criminal record.

“They may choose to provide that to the employer; they can’t be compelled to do so,” Kiazim explains.

Poland, where employment law provides a list of data that employers are allowed to ask about, and anything outside of that is illegal is even more restrictive, he says. In

Germany, concerns over data privacy are such that “if an employer asks for information they are not legally entitled to, the candidate is entitled to lie”, adds Kiazim.

Steve Girdler, MD EMEA, APAC at employment background checking company HireRight, says employers also need to take into account what is culturally acceptable. “The culture in Germany is still very much around a contract of trust in the recruitment process. Candidates still go to interviews clutching their portfolio of certificates. With technology and Photoshop we know how easy it is to falsify documents, but that doesn’t mean that background checking is culturally accepted in Germany. It isn’t.”

Even interpreting the information that you receive from a background check isn’t always simple, says Clark.

“It is widely understood in the German HR community (though not necessarily to employers outside Germany) that a reference that says ‘he did a satisfactory job’ means he was rubbish,” he says by way of example.

In contrast, says Kiazim, employers in the US are relatively unconstrained, either legally or culturally. “There isn’t the same idea that data protection and privacy are fundamental rights. It is more of a consumer protection matter and employers have a high degree of flexibility to process the personal information required.”

Kerstin Bagus, director of global initiatives at international screening company ClearStar, and a board member at NAPBS (National Association of Professional Background Screeners), a US-based trade body for screening companies, says background

screening is a well-established part of the hiring process in the US. In part, she says this is driven by automation that keeps costs low. According to Girdler, the widespread availability of databases in the US means that it is not uncommon for screening to take three days and often less.

However, Bagus says the idea that the US and Europe are worlds apart in terms of screening is an exaggeration.

“There is no doubt that the EU has been instrumental in raising the privacy bar for everybody. In the US we are now talking about data protection and limitations on data retention. It is not a one-way street,” she says.

Although the legal framework and attitude to screening in different countries around the world are clearly important for UK employers, the rules on right to work continue to cause concern, says Mace. There are two key aspects, she says. The first is ensuring that the checks are carried out before employment begins, either during the selection process, or literally on the first day. Mace emphasises the importance of carrying out checks in the way proscribed by the Home Office, and advises employers to use the checklist available on the Home Office website.

Sosnowski says employers need to recognise that despite the 35-page Home Office guidance, things are not always black or white. “It’s a matter of interpretation. The guidance will say you need to have this document and you need to have that document, but when you speak to a Home Office inspector in London they will say one thing, while an inspector in Leeds will say something different, and an inspector in Scotland will give you a different answer again,” he says.

Tim Richards, a specialist in UK corporate immigration law at law firm Clyde & Co, says the principle of treating people equally is an important one. In particular, he says they should avoid any sort of blanket policy that would indicate that candidates requiring a visa are treated less favourably. “They could open themselves up to a claim of indirect ▶ WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 27

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B AC KG RO UND SCREENING

discrimination on the grounds of race,” says Richards.

Mace says one particular area where employers “tend to get caught out” is where they fail to do follow-up checks when an employee’s visa expires.

Although an employee is protected legally if they make a new application to the Home Office before the old visa runs out, “what some employers are not aware of is that they have to do their own follow-up check with the Home Office to corroborate what the employee has said to them”. Mace

“They could open themselves up to a claim of indirect discrimination on the grounds of race”

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says employers are being fined for not doing this.

Having documentary evidence showing the right-to-work checks were carried out should protect employers from being fined, but according to Sosnowski, checking the documentation of potential employees also has an important deterrent effect on workers looking to exploit the system. “Workers talk among themselves, and they say ‘we have got dodgy documents and they accepted us’. And once other workers know that, they are going to knock on your door,” he says.

Bedgood agrees: “It is the organisations that tend not to explain at the outset that all staff will be subject to screening – it’s there that the bad apples will appear.” In contrast, “organisations that adopt and enforce a full screening process will rarely see individuals with adverse information that would make them unsuitable”.

Sosnowski says that small or medium-sized companies may find this particularly difficult. In contrast, he says: “Most HR directors of the larger companies take it very seriously and try to mitigate the risk by stipulating that everyone we employ must be checked in a certain way.” However, he warns even they have their work cut out. “We are seeing that fraudulent copies of documents are getting better.”

And no matter how good a company’s screening processes are, in some situations a standard ‘paper exercise’ simply isn’t enough, says Clark. For example, when checking whether a particular employer or educational institution overseas is genuine, an employer may need to find someone locally who can physically visit the address. “There have been occasions where we have sent someone to a quoted address and there is nothing there,” he says.

In India, Clark says there is no central criminal record database, so

I NDUSTRY V IE W Hedley Clark, MD, Credence: “You don’t necessarily know the company they worked for, or about their education and whether the colleges are even genuine”

Steve Girdler, MD EMEA, APAC, HireRight: “The culture in Germany is still very much around a contract of trust in the recruitment process

Oran Kiazim, vice president, SterlingBackcheck: “In Germany, if an employer asks for information they are not legally entitled to, the candidate can lie”

Rachel Bedgood, CEO, CBS: “It is the organisations that tend not to explain that all staff will be subject to screening – that’s where the bad apples will appear”

Stefan Sosnowski, director, uComply: “There is also the reputational risk, which can be huge. You are likely to be plastered all over the local paper”

the choice is either to do a local police search or actually physically search the courts themselves.

International mobility of talent and the movement of workers around the world bring many benefits to employers. Screening undoubtedly costs time and money, but the benefits of knowing who you are employing and the risks of getting it wrong should not be underestimated. ●

JULY 2016

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Issue 39 JULY 2016

RECRUITMENT MATTERS The View and The Intelligence

Member of the Month

Ciett World Employment Conference p2-3

f1 Recruitment

p4

Legal update and the IRP

Events and Training

Dress code and business partner

Qualifications and 2016 IRP Awards

p6-7

FLEXIBILITY KEY FOR AGENCY TEACHERS SAYS REC SURVEY Flexibility is the biggest reason teachers work with recruitment agencies, according to an REC survey.

A survey of 68 REC Education member agencies found 90% of teachers on their books choose to work with agencies because they enjoy flexibility.

The results also show three-quarters of agencies say supply teachers choose agency work because of family commitments, in line with a survey produced by the National Union of Teachers last year.

REC head of policy Kate Shoesmith says the results show recruitment agencies play a vital role within schools.

“The education sector is

@RECPress RM_JUL_16.indd 1

facing huge staffing challenges due to a shortage of teachers.

Supply teachers play a vital role in helping schools meet their obligations, and the recruiters that help schools find the staff they need are also providing a valuable service,” she says.

“We’ve worked hard to ensure that schools understand exactly what they should expect from a good quality, compliant agency – for instance, early in 2014 we published a free guide for all schools called ‘Putting Pupils First’. The REC and its members stand ready to work with schools, supply teachers, unions and other stakeholders to ensure that supply teachers’ rights are

p8

recommends that only accredited umbrella organisations are used – such as those who are members of the FCSA. If a supply teacher has any concerns about the use of umbrella companies by an REC member, they can report that agency to the REC and it will investigate.

More information about the survey can be found by visiting http://4ui.us/ RECEduSurvey

understood and that teachers are treated fairly.”

Three quarters of REC Education members said they pay supply teachers through an umbrella company. But in talking to members, Shoesmith says it is because supply teachers gain assignments through multiple agencies and they have a preferred umbrella which they request to use.

She says the REC

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Leading the Industry

THE VIEW

Global talent was on the menu in New Delhi, says Tom Hadley, REC director of policy and professional services

Let’s keep talking ourselves up, says Kevin Green, REC chief executive

As I travel around the UK talking to recruiters, I sense that how we think and talk about our profession is at last changing. We are starting to talk up our industry and the value we create for UK Plc, businesses and individuals instead of always highlighting our weaknesses in public.

This is great news. No longer will we see recruitment leaders talking about the industry being full of cowboys and rouges. The reason this is such good news is that the perception is not just confined to those poor recruiters – it influences how clients, candidates and government think about us all.

Recruitment’s reputation was at risk if we continued to talk down the great industry that provides us all with a good living.

We still have a few bad apples, but the REC is driving them out of membership and making it harder for them to survive.

The REC is educating employers with the support of other business bodies with our Good Recruitment Campaign.

We now have more than 110 large organisations signed up. These companies employ more than 1.1m people. But to get this to the next level, we need your help by promoting it to your clients. You just need to tell us how we can help you.

We want to attract 25,000

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TALKING PERCEPTIONS AT THE TAJ PALACE HOTEL new people into our industry in the next few years to help us cope with market growth of 22.1%. This means we also need your help in getting into schools, colleges and universities to provide practical advice to young people, but at the same time advertising how good a career in recruitment can be.

Here is a link to the youth employment charter – rec. uk.com/youthcharter. Just sign up and we will put you in touch with local education establishments. We also need more of you to take on an apprentice and train young people to REC standards.

To find out more about this exciting programme, go to this link – rec-irp.uk.com/ apprenticeships.

If we talk up our industry, educate clients more effectively and promote recruitment as a career of choice, then we will be creating a market that’s good for us all.

If there is anything the REC can do to help your business, just let me know at kevin. green@rec.uk.com and don’t forget to follow me on twitter @kevingreenrec If you want to keep abreast of all that’s new about employment and recruitment why not follow me on twitter at @kevingreenrec

Which emerging markets will go into overdrive over the coming years and how might seismic changes to the world of work impact recruitment professionals? These were just some of the hot topics at last month’s 2016 Ciett World Employment Conference as industry leaders from over 35 countries came together to discuss new dawns in New Delhi.

Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) data shows that the global staffing market grew 5% in 2015. But there are significant regulatory challenges in countries such as South Africa, Japan and Germany, and some markets (Canada, for example) have been hit by falling oil prices. At the same time, there are huge growth opportunities in emerging markets, with national federations starting to make a real difference in Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, India and Thailand.

So what does the new dawn look like? One priority is to continue challenging negative perceptions. Ciett data shows that the global industry provided 71.9m workers with access to the labour market. That’s worth shouting about! The industry also provides development opportunities, with 4.9m agency workers receiving training last year. Using data and positive stories will help to demonstrate the benefits of a dynamic recruitment market. It was encouraging to hear representatives from the Indian Ministry of Labour recognise that “to create more jobs, we need more flexible contracts”, and Ashok Reddy, co-founder of Teamlease, underlined the key point that in emerging markets like India, “the debate should not be about temporary versus permanent jobs, but about declared versus undeclared work”.

Growth and perception change will also depend on our ability to attract and develop great people. 1.6m people are currently working in the industry worldwide and national federations have a key role to play by ramping up qualifications and training. Indian Staffing Federation president Rituparna Chakraborty issued the following rallying call: “We want to take jobs to every nook and cranny of this country.”

This aspiration resonates across the whole of our industry. The message from New Delhi is that we want to take jobs to every nook and cranny of this planet.

You can follow Tom on Twitterr ment @hadleyscomment

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THE INTELLIGENCE DIANA BEECH, REC SENIOR RESEARCHER, ALLAYS FEARS AND EXPLAINS WHY IT’S TIME FOR RECRUITERS TO INVEST IN TRAINING As the exam season swiftly draws to a close, it won’t be long before that ‘back to school’ feeling hits again.

Without wanting to wish the summer away though, it’s wise you use the time between now and September to consider whether you have everything you need to be the best in the UK recruitment industry.

Recruitment is a performancerelated career. This means the more experience you have and the more qualified you are, the higher the rewards you can reap. REC research

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into the basic salaries of recruiters (ie. before tax and National Insurance, and excluding commission) reveals close links between industry pay levels and performance.

Last year, the average basic salary of a recruiter working in the industry for five years or less was £22.9k. Yet for a recruiter who has worked in the industry for 6-15 years, the average basic salary was £33.96k – that’s 48% higher!

What’s more, the average basic salary for those who have been in the industry for 16 years or more was £41.14k, representing a further 21% increase. The incentives to remain in recruitment are clear for all to see.

To make it in the industry, however, you can’t afford to become complacent. It is essential to stay ‘on top of your game’ and continually develop your sales and recruitment knowledge. The REC prides

48% LAST YEAR, THE AVERAGE BASIC SALARY OF A RECRUITER WORKING IN THE INDUSTRY FOR 5 YEARS OR LESS WAS £22.9K. YET, FOR A RECRUITER WHO HAS WORKED IN THE INDUSTRY FOR 6-15 YEARS THE AVERAGE BASIC SALARY WAS £33.96K – THAT’S 48% HIGHER!

itself on offering some of the most respected and widely recognised recruitmentspecific qualifications through the Institute of Recruitment Professionals (IRP). Attending our courses and gaining a professional qualification is a sure-fire way to help you progress and unlock the rewards of a fulfilling career in recruitment.

Striving for career progression is human nature.

A SURVEY OF UK JOBSEEKERS CONDUCTED

BY CAREERBUILDER IN 2015 REVEALED THAT

58%

OF RESPONDENTS WERE LOOKING FOR A NEW JOB TO GET A HIGHER BASE SALARY,

28%

WERE LOOKING FOR BETTER ADVANCEMENT OPPORTUNITIES

A survey of UK jobseekers conducted by Careerbuilder in 2015 revealed that 58% of respondents were looking for a new job to get a higher base salary, 28% were looking for better advancement opportunities, and 26% were seeking better skills growth potential. IRP training can help you get all of these things, by providing practical and authoritative learning that will add value, not just to the service you provide to your clients and candidates, but also to your own career trajectory and basic salary level.

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Member of the Month

F1 RECRUITMENT Amanda Fone is the founder and CEO of f1 Recruitment, which specialises in marketing, communications and sponsorship. She tells Recruitment Matters why diversity forms a cornerstone of her business

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Recruitment Matters: How did you get your start in recruitment?

clients and candidates. The day you stop doing that, you lose touch with the market.

Amanda Fone: I started running

RM: So you’re always leading

a temp desk at 18 for Angela Mortimer – I was the youngest person in the office by about 10 years. Working with temps taught me the importance of speed, accuracy and getting things over the line.

from the front?

RM: What spurred you to start your own business?

AF: When I was at Angela Mortimer, I set up a little business called Mediad and was given a chance to run a P&L at 21 and became a director by 25. That entrepreneurial spirit has always been there. I don’t think I make a good employee; I kick the tyres all the time. I come from a very entrepreneurial family – none of my siblings are employed, we all run our own businesses.

Setting up on my own wasn’t daunting because I’ve always been hands on and I’ve always been in front of

AF: Absolutely. I’ve always interviewed between six and seven people a week, so my networking is enormous now.

Being independent was the natural step. I’ve always known that I could go out there and place people – I’m very good at what I do and I love helping people and businesses grow.

That’s the essence of what we do at f1. We’re solution finders.

RM: How important is flexibility to f1’s success?

AF: I don’t believe people need to be in the office every day of the week to do a good job. Our top fee earner is based in Torquay and I only ever come into London three days a week. My consultants have been able to work from anywhere in the world for the past 12 years. We’re working with clients from New Zealand and that wouldn’t work if our consultant wasn’t able to work from home, given the 11 hour time difference. You have to be able to communicate outside of office hours.

RM: That sounds like a real commitment to service.

AF: I’ve always trained my staff from an early age that in life you need people who can help you. You need a lawyer friend, a finance friend, a good doctor and someone who can help you with your career, so when you go for that salary

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review or appraisal you’ve got someone who knows the market and can give you friendly advice. The result of that is very strong candidate and client retention.

RM: Can you tell me about f1’s diversity push?

AF: The challenge we have is that you find yourself fishing in the same pool of talent.

Rather than saying diversity isn’t our problem, we say “It bloody well is our problem”.

I’m about to set up an initiative called #BAME2020, where we want 20% of candidates coming from a Black, Asian, Minority or Ethnic background by 2020. We’re also doing a lot of work in helping women who’ve been out of work for five or more years break back into work – I recently spoke at the House of Commons Select Group about the pay gap for women over 40. I like getting dirty and under the skin of talent, because we know diverse teams are better teams.

RM: What expectations do you have for your consultants?

AF: You have to be industry experts. We can teach you to be great at recruitment, but you really need to get into the belly of the marketing and communications sector. HR reps and CEOs want you to have an opinion – and f1 has an opinion. People don’t come to us if they didn’t want to be challenged in a face-to-face interview. A client wouldn’t come to us if we didn’t challenge and advise them.

RM: How do you see yourself?

AF: Recruitment is such a cluttered marketplace, but we’re good at what we do and we understand the talent market. We think about things differently. To be honest, we have never been in such demand – not just from clients but from in-house recruiters too. They’re not as connected to the market as we are, so we form part of the in-house pipeline and strategy.

It’s about having a mature relationship with everyone and understanding that while the economy will change and be disturbed, relationships can stay constant.

RM: Where does the future lie for f1?

AF: We’re working hard to stay relevant to the under 30s age group. They consume information in different ways and they’re used to being approached. With that in mind, we’re setting up something called f1 Connect. It’s about connecting with that group in a smarter, more progressive and more bite-sized way. We plan to get a group of them in and ask what they want from their careers. They’re a group that’s always on the go, and what I’m desperate to avoid is boo-booing stickability.

RM: What do you mean by that?

AF: The truth is that businesses who employ full-time people still like to see sticky CVs. Loyalty to employers has not changed, it’s still expected and it’s very difficult to get someone onto a short list if they’ve jumped around. That’s something I’d like to impress upon that group.

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Legal update

DRESS CODES – DO I LOOK GOOD IN THIS?

By Lewina Farrell, solicitor and head of professional services at the REC ‘Heelgate’, the story about a worker who was sent home from assignment because she refused to wear high heels, was one of the more interesting employment law discussions in May. It started a very public discussion about what is and is not acceptable in a dress code.

Many businesses want to portray a particular corporate image, which can mean imposing restrictions or requirements on what workers wear. Specific requirements may also be imposed for health & safety reasons (and these will be given more weight than corporate image).

Dress codes will include both clothing and footwear, but can also extend to jewellery, hair length or style, beards, tattoos and body piercings.

A business has wide discretion about the dress code it imposes. But it should

ensure that its dress code does not directly or indirectly discriminate against any worker on the grounds of one of the nine protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010. Attention should be paid to sex, gender reassignment, religious, race and disability issues. EHRC has published a Statutory Code of Practice on Employment – which includes a section on dress codes – to assist employers.

Rules about appearance will not be discriminatory simply because they impose different restrictions or requirements on men and women, provided they are of a common standard of smartness or conventionality, with neither gender treated unfavourably.

What is conventional will vary across time as fashions change, but will also vary according to the sector worked in.

The key question is what are the business reasons for imposing the particular restriction or requirement?

Can the business’s aims be achieved irrespective of its dress code or by alternative means? Should the restriction or requirement apply to all workers or can it apply only to customer-facing roles?

Will the requirement create a health & safety issue?

Certainly wearing high heels can cause a number of health issues, and so a business requiring them could find the requirement exacerbates an existing health problem or leads to a new one over time.

Recruitment businesses should be aware of a client’s dress code – they will not want a temp’s assignment to be terminated because s/he doesn’t comply with it. Nor will they want a talented candidate to be rejected because s/he does not conform to the

client’s preferred image.

But recruitment businesses are in a unique position to help their clients find the best person for the job and to help diversify workforces. That could include challenging a client’s specific dress code. If a client cannot demonstrate that its dress code reflects legitimate business needs or health & safety requirement, then it could be found to discriminate if it refuses to engage someone with braids or who wishes to wear a piece of jewellery which demonstrates their religious faith.

Even if there is no discrimination claim, the business will wish to avoid its reputation being discussed on social media. An employment business will not wish to be dragged into either of these scenarios.

So, ask questions, push back if necessary but always put forward the best candidate.

BUSINESS PARTNER: DEBENHAMS OTTAWAY Summer temp workers: are your contracts in order?

It is that busy time of year again where there is often an influx of temporary workers over the summer months.

Now is the ideal time to check that your contracts are in order to avoid the temptation to rush them.

The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 (the Regulations) govern the conduct of employment agencies and businesses, and

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unless you have opted out of them, you will need to ensure that your contracts comply with them.

If you have not opted out of the Regulations (or you are not permitted to), you should think about whether you need to re-work your template contracts in accordance with Regulations 18 and 21 in particular, to ensure that they have not been overlooked.

Regulation 18 refers to the ‘information required to be obtained from a hirer’; you must have obtained the following information from

your client before selecting a suitable temporary worker • Identity and nature of their business • Fate and duration of the work • Position available, including type of work, location, hours, health and safety risks known and steps they have taken to prevent/ control such risks • Necessary experience, training, qualifications and authorisation required • Expenses payable • Minimum rate of remuneration offered,

intervals of payment and length of notice they will give to and receive from the temporary worker.

One approach to ensure you have all the required information from your client would be to flag it up at the front of your contracts Debenhams Ottaway is an REC legal business partner.

We advise recruitment agencies of all shapes and sizes across the UK. For more information or advice please contact: Michael Kerrigan, Lawyer Debenhams Ottaway

www.rec.uk.com

14/06/2016 14:44

Inspiration

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE INSTITUTE OF RECRUITMENT PROFESSIONALS

The View

Andy Brack is a ution director at Evolution Recruitment

Kate Allen is the managing director off Allen Associates

WHAT I KNOW

Q&A

A great year so far Evolution Recruitment Solutions was the first company in the world to be accredited Investors in People Platinum, which is a great achievement as you set the standard globally for IIP. We also won Best IT Recruitment Agency at this year’s Recruiter Awards. On top of that we had a record Q1, and even though Q2 has been flat for permanent placements, it’s still been a good 2016 for us.

The market is still buoyant, but thoughts of Europe are there I’ve worked in recruitment for more than 20 years and the last two years have been as good as I can remember. Permanent jobs may have flattened off but things are still exceptionally busy. We’re seeing a lot of candidate mobility from Southern and Eastern Europe into the UK and it will be interesting to see how the Brexit referendum effects this.

Two essential tools There are only two tools any individual needs to be successful: attitude and aptitude. If you have the right attitude and work hard, your skills will improve and so will your results. If you believe you can do it you will, if you don’t you won’t. It’s not rocket science.

Expertise is vital It’s important you specialise and have an opinion about the sector you work in. Fundamentally, clients and candidates work with recruiters for expert advice. Being an expert differentiates great recruiters from good recruiters. Changing jobs is one of the most important things a person does and when you place a candidate in the right job it makes their career and can transform their life. I think the service we provide makes a big difference.

What areas of recruitment do you work in?

We specialise in permanent, contract, temporary and interim roles at all levels in marketing, PA, administration, human resources and finance within Oxfordshire. Allen Associates launched an Executive Division in April 2016 dedicated to board level and senior management roles.

How has 2016 been for you so far?

We have had a phenomenal start to the year. Permanent sales are particularly strong and are exceeding the ambitious targets we set at the beginning of the year. We have also seen a sharp rise in temp to perm placements in the last two quarters.

What are you noticing about the market?

Oxfordshire has a very buoyant employment market with two universities, strong bio, pharma and technology clusters and huge government investment into infrastructure projects. We also have a thriving community of SMEs, many of which are university spin-outs. Although there is some nervousness around the EU referendum, this is not reflected in our figures, which show exceptionally strong perm sales at a time when these have flattened in other parts of the UK (according to the latest REC Report on Jobs). Our temp figures remain steady.

What is the most important tool in a recruiter’s toolkit?

The best CRM system you can afford.

What is one thing all recruiters should know?

I’m increasingly interested in the use of technology and social media to improve candidate engagement. We have made a massive investment in both these areas over the past 18 months. I feel that this sets us apart from many of our competitors and enables us to engage with our clients and candidates in a way which wasn’t possible previously.

To keep up to date with everything the Institute of Recruitment Professionals is doing, please visit www.rec-irp.uk.com

www.rec.uk.com

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Events and training

QUALIFICATIONS

TOP STUDENT TALKS CERTIFICATE IN RECRUITMENT PRACTICE Jordan O’Neill is a permanent consultant at Rullion Engineering and was the top student in a recent Level 3 Certificate in Recruitment Practice examination. He tells Recruitment Matters about the course Recruitment Matters: How did you get into recruitment?

RM: Are you using the skills you picked up from the course in your day-to-day work?

Jordan O’Neill: I had been looking to start a career and a friend recommended I use the soft skills I have in engineering to look into a career in recruitment. I started the move into permanent recruitment at Rullion in 2014.

RM: Why did you enrol for the Certificate of Recruitment Practice?

JON: Yeah, I am, particularly when assessing candidates. There are things the certificate has helped sharpen up, like sales techniques and face-toface meetings. It’s also been really useful for advising clients about legal and management issues. Having that kind of knowledge definitely brings something extra to the table.

JON: The certificate is something Rullion is really big on. July marks my third year in recruitment and the certificate was the next logical step. When you take the certificate you uncover more of the technical aspect of the job, from different modes for assessing candidate to legal and compliance issues. The certificate gives you the option to look at the market as a wider whole.

ENTRIES OPEN FOR THE 2016 IRP AWARDS

RM: Would you recommend the course?

JON: I certainly would. It gives recruiters insight into areas they wouldn’t think about and gives you that grounding you need to take your career forward.

The REC’s Institute of Recruitment Professionals Awards (IRP Awards) see the recruitment industry come together for one prestigious night to celebrate professional excellence, best practice and the inspirational work carried out by the brightest and best stars.

An IRP Award is the highest accolade an individual or company can receive in the recruitment industry, and is unique in raising awareness of the positive role models whose exceptional work, and candidate and client care, sets the bar for all recruitment professionals and businesses to aspire to.

The IRP Awards are the only recruitment sector awards hosted and awarded by the REC to recognise the very best individuals and companies within our industry. Recognising achievement across all levels and different disciplines, the awards are a true reflection of the UK’s recruitment talent.

Download your free entry pack now at www.irpawards.co.uk

RECRUITMENT MATTERS

Membership Department: Membership: 020 7009 2100, Customer Services: 020 7009 2100 Publishers: Redactive Publishing Ltd, 17 Britton Street, London EC1M 5TP. Tel: 020 7880 6200. www.redactive.co.uk Editorial: Editor Michael Oliver michael.oliver@redactive.co.uk. Production Editor: Vanessa Townsend Production: Production Executive: Rachel Young rachel.young@redactive.co.uk Tel: 020 7880 6209 Printing: Printed by Precision Colour Printing

The official magazine of The Recruitment & Employment Confederation Dorset House, 1st Floor, 27-45 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NT Tel: 020 7009 2100 www.rec.uk.com

© 2016 Recruitment Matters. Although every effort is made to ensure accuracy, neither REC, Redactive Publishing Ltd nor the authors can accept liability for errors or omissions. Views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the REC or Redactive Publishing Ltd. No responsibility can be accepted for unsolicited manuscripts or transparencies. No reproduction in whole or part without written permission.

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Changes in legislation can be brutal.

Have you cracked the legislative nut?

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SO URCING TE C HNOLOGY

TECHNOLOGY GETS

32 RECRUITER

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JULY 2016

15/06/2016 16:55

Y

S OURC I N G T E C H N O LO GY

TO THE SOURCE OF THE TALENT Whether you are a Sourcing Ninja or an absolute beginner, technology offers recruiters tools to help unearth even the most hidden talent, says Sue Weekes WITH LINKEDIN and the professional and social networks having made almost everyone findable, you might ask why recruiters need to invest in specialist sourcing skills and tools?

Holly Fawcett, curriculum development manager of Social Talent, which runs a range of courses for recruiters, doesn’t believe all talent is easy to find. Moreover, she reckons some of those with in-demand skills actively try to stay out of view by removing certain keywords from their profiles.

“I’ve even heard of people misspelling the word engineer as they don’t want to be contacted,” she says. “Recruiters have I M AG E | G E T T Y

p40_43_Sourcing.indd 41

to learn to fish where the fish are, and realise some talent will be hiding from plain sight.”

The high level of interest in Social Talent’s sourcing education programmes show that many recruiters want to upskill in sourcing. “Some of these are organisations that didn’t go with the curve first time round and now want to skip the experimentation stage to take advantage of the learning so they can move to a sourcing model,” she says.

“We are also seeing companies change their strategy completely and are separating out sourcing as a function. In RPOs [recruitment process outsourcing

firms] and larger agencies, we don’t see a 360-recruiting model any more. Some recruiters just source and never contact a candidate.”

She also reports that Social Talent’s sourcing tool SourceHub, which allows recruiters to create Boolean search strings that can be run across professional and social networks, has 50,000 people using it on a daily basis.

According to the 2016 Global Recruiting Survey by RPO firm Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS) and Social Talent, social media once again topped the poll as the primary source for finding candidates. It led paid job boards by 37% to 26% of respondents.

The survey also highlighted the likes of Pinterest and YouTube as among the emerging new channels for sourcing, while Fawcett points to tools such as WhatsApp and Snapchat as likely to be used by recruiters in the future to communicate with potential candidates.

While recruiters must be ever alert to new tools and platforms emerging, there is a case for honing skills in those WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 33

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DATA SO URCING SO URC TEING C HNOLOGY

you already use. The survey found 72% of search results aren’t relevant and that 72% of candidates contacted following searches never respond, suggesting that many recruiters still aren’t using the tools available as effectively as they should be and are wasting precious time.

Steve Preston, managing director of Bristol-based Heat Recruitment, says he has seen a marked improvement in the effectiveness of LinkedIn since working more closely with the company on using its paid-for Recruiter product. He says the company has increased its LinkedIn licences from 17 to 35 and one of the biggest benefits is bringing together its 50,000 connections in one place.

“We can see what actions are taking place and it eradicates duplication of activity,” he says, adding that the

“IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR CHEFS, GO TO INSTAGRAM BECAUSE THEY ALL PHOTOGRAPH THEIR FOOD” tool is helping the agency create pools of skillsets for different regions.

“Traditionally, it takes a lot of work to do this but LinkedIn allows us to map an area really quickly. For instance, for some reason we have a lot of accounting firm clients in Norfolk and we are constantly looking for particular skillsets. Pooling really helps with this.”

LinkedIn relaunched the Recruiter tool in April this year. Updates included making it possible for recruiters to see, in real-time, the size of the talent pool available based on skills, experience or other factors important to them.

LinkedIn also acquired the recruiting tool developer Connectifier earlier this year (featured as one of Recruiter’s Game Changers in February 2016 issue).

Connectifier indexes information from social and professional networks across the web and brings them together in one place (it has collated more than 400m candidate profiles) and will display and rank candidates that it 34 RECRUITER

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believes best fit a role. LinkedIn and Connectifier have said that they will operate separately with their own customers but will be collaborating because of the cross-over on their products. Already they have introduced the Connectifier-LinkedIn API, which claims to deliver more accurate profile matches and more complete profile data.

Connectifier is one of a number of platforms aggregating data from publicly available information in social profiles and, in theory, takes a lot of time and effort out of sourcing. Others include Entelo, OpenWeb, Monster’s Talent Bin, TrendyCoders and 3Sourcing.

One of Connectifier’s claims is that it can provide email and phone numbers with many of its profiles, which clearly delights a recruiter. Direct contact information is still the big challenge.

Dice Europe has developed OpenWeb, which aggregates available data across 180 sites, and Dice Europe’s sales director Adam Clarke says recruiters welcome the multiple contact options included in profiles. “It makes the initial contact simple and efficient,” he says.

Other options for seeking out contact information exist beyond these platforms. And there are ways of seeking out contact information if you know where to look. Andrew Robson-Graham did his first internet resourcing course back in 1999. When Social Talent approached him about doing its Sourcing Ninja course, he said it was partly “hubris” that made him give it a go.

“I’d worked in recruitment for more than 20 years and thought I knew everything about sourcing,” says the talent acquisition and training manager at technology recruitment agency Redline Group. “One of the things it showed me was the routes to get a direct email address and phone number. Eight times out of 10 now I manage to find this information and go direct rather than sending a connection request.”

72% OF CANDIDATES CONTACTED FOLLOWING SEARCHES NEVER RESPOND

“I’D WORKED IN RECRUITMENT FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS AND THOUGHT I KNEW EVERYTHING ABOUT SOURCING” Robson-Graham, now a certified Boolean Black Belt Sourcing Ninja, explains that several people at Redline are going through the Social Talent programme. Another valuable skill he learnt was how to create custom search engines using Google. “I was pretty competent at Boolean searching, but I learned how to build custom search engines that can be run and re-run on networks and forums. It saves a lot of time.” He is fortunate that the technical recruitment market has plenty of online hangouts to fish for talent, such as GitHub and StackOverflow. With lateral thinking, though, he says recruiters should be able to hunt out relevant talent from across most sectors. “For instance, if you are looking for chefs, go to Instagram because they all photograph their food.”

Expert sourcer Katharine Robinson, aka The Sourceress, says nothing “drastically new” has excited her on the sourcing technology front over the past year but explains she is using more tools to automate and speed up her sourcing than ever before. “I think some others have been doing this for longer, but I’ve always preferred to go the more hands-on route in the past,” she says. “It seems in the last 12 months though that the tools are getting more reliable.”

Among the most useful, she says, are: ● Prophet, which helps uncover contact details from social profiles ● EmailHunter, which, as its name suggests, hunts out email addresses ● Rapportive, which shows information about your contacts inside your inbox.

“They are suddenly some of the most important in my tool kit,” she says.

“Anything that can take you beyond what’s on LinkedIn is going to be a winner at the moment, I think,” she says. “So all those aggregators like OpenWeb and TalentBin are still worth getting excited about, especially if we start pushing to use them outside the tech bubble they started in.” ●

JULY 2016

15/06/2016 16:56

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14/06/2016 12:29

CO M M U N I T Y

SOCIAL NETWORK WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO? GET IN TOUCH!

E

From running a marathon to helping pick for Branson, here’s what some of you have been up to…

FIRST4STAFF HITS £100K MARK FOR BREAST CANCER NOW VIA Staff at industrial, logistics and care recruiter First4Staff have raised more than £100k for charity Breast Cancer Now – and there’s no stopping them! The firm’s logistics partner JJX Logistics has now launched a truck to celebrate First4Staff’s charity work. First4Staff’s MD Jason Guy tragically lost his wife of just four months to breast cancer. His wife Lucy is pictured on the truck to raise awareness of the charity and how people can donate at legacy4Lucy.co.uk. And if you see the truck on the road, email a photo of it to jason@first4staff.net and he will donate £10 to charity for every picture sent in!

HEADNORTH’S DIONNE RUNS THE EXTRA (26.2) MILES FOR SHA VIA Congratulations to Dionne Winter, director of construction, energy and engineering resourcing specialist HeadNorth Consulting, for completing the gruelling 26.2 miles in this year’s London marathon. Dionne and her friend Julie-Ann Marshall raised £6,432.06 on behalf of Scottish Huntington’s Association, as part of HeadNorth’s 2016 charity fundraising. Let’s hope you’ve been putting your feet up ever since, Dionne!

£6,432.06 RAISED

BRANSON PICKS RECRUITER ANGELA MIDDLETON TO JUDGE HIS #VOOM AWARDS VIA

TW I TT E R

MiddletonMurray founder Angela Middleton has been chosen as one of 12 professionals to be a judge for the #VOOM, Virgin Media Business Awards 2016. Angela will help select the final six small and medium-sized businesses to pitch to Sir Richard Branson for financial investment, as SMEs from around the UK fight for a £1m prize fund.

R Recruiter Magazine @RecruiterMag Jun 7 M Missed out on Recruiter Awards 2016?

C Check out the video highlights - and don’t m miss out next year!

HAPPY 40TH ROTHERWOOD RECRUITMENT! VIA Rotherwood Recruitment, with offices in Keighley, West Yorkshire and Burnley, Lancashire, celebrated 40 years in recruitment last month.

Set up in 1976 by Denis Pagdin, Rotherwood hosted a 40th anniversary gala dinner at the Rendezvous in Skipton, where £647.10 was raised in aid of Sue Ryder, Manorlands hospice.

ND AROU

£647

AISED WAS R OF IN AIDYDER, SUE R RLANDS MANOICE HOSP

R Recruiter Magazine @RecruiterMag Jun 8 D Don’t miss out on showing the world the great face of #recruitment! http://www. investingintalent.co.uk/ @RecruiterAwards #talent

@RecruiterMag instagram.com/recruitermagazine/ recruitermagazine.tumblr.com/

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 37

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E CAREERS CO M M UNITY

Warning: The search market is changing The rise of the hybrid search service

BY TARA LESCOTT

↗ TARA LESCOTT is managing director of rec-to-rec agency Recruiter Republic

WE ALL KNOW the usual players in the world of C-level search. They are tried, tested and rich. Some firms even believe that certain talent gaps are automatically handled by certain firms.

But I’m here to tell you that slowly but surely a new hybrid search model is starting to surface. And it has been interesting to watch as this new form of search model starts to really gather pace to the point where it is now starting to bite into the traditional search firm’s marketshare.

It began during the recent recession when permanent contingency recruiters had to find ways to nail down vacancies, and offered value-add services to retain client loyalty (or the smart ones did, anyway). What began as a simple retained model on senior management roles has now transformed into a hybrid search service for the digital age that is putting a largely unchanged search model under pressure to modernise.

Let’s face it, most professional markets

1

are now candidate-led anyway, so if a perm recruiter is worth their salt they already know how to research, longlist, headhunt, qualify and shortlist. These newer models are not as expensive, they deliver more quickly, and they blend digital tools with traditional search and headhunting techniques.

More and more firms are building executive search practices to sit above their traditional contingency and freelance businesses – and it’s working. They are winning more and more assignments. It’s a smart strategy and highly profitable, and many firms are now retraining their perm consultants to do just this.

How far will this practice go? If you are a recruiter that would like to move into a search role, see below for the skills or training you should seek out.

After this the process is pretty much the same as current day contingency: you present shortlist to client, you arrange interviews and you make placements.

So what next? Will the heavyweight search firms die out or evolve? Will the new breed make it to C-Level?

EXCELLENT CLIENTFACING SKILLS

2

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION SKILLS

3

If you are already good in front of your clients and can win vacancies on an exclusive basis you will be able to develop this into a retained pitch.

Clients will expect you to pitch properly – this means verbal agreements won’t be enough. You need good base templates demonstrating your process for candidate identification, selection, approach and interview process management, and you need to be able to amend them for each individual client and vacancy. Familiarise yourself with presentation software such as PowerPoint and Prezzi.

Contingency recruiters are used to choosing which roles they focus on and only making the final part of the process visible.

If you are working on a retained basis you need to get used to having visible research templates and spreadsheets to show you have identified the right people, and have contacted and gained a response from all of them. Thorough note taking and organisation is key.

38 RECRUITER

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THOROUGH RESEARCH

JULY 2016

16/06/2016 10:49

CO M M U N I T Y

CAREERS

Focus shifts to executive hiring Early days but it’s happening

E

Find your next move in recruitment on jobs.recruiter. co.uk

BY ANDREW MOUNTNEY

↗ ANDREW MOUNTNEY is founding partner at in-house recruitment specialist Aspen In-House

THIS YEAR WE’VE seen a notable focus on in-house executive search. It is an area I’ve felt has been consistently under developed in-house for many years but three things are changing that this year: ● For well-developed in-house recruitment functions, it’s the last area to bring in-house and with the rest done, now is the time ● With hiring freezes or reduced volumes for experienced hire recruiters and budget to deal with, total spend on search fees now stands out in the recruitment budget ● In more advanced functions, the data and analytics that drive use of the in-house team are being applied to say to the business: ‘If we own this and deliver our brand message at this level too we’ll get better hires’

SALARIES OF

£35k-50k ARE FAIRLY STANDARD

What does this mean for job opportunities? Are we seeing executive search partners from the big firms moving in-house on six-figure salaries? Well, no.

Like any part of an inhouse function, early stage development often means more junior hires (salaries of £35k-£50k are fairly standard) and looking for different skills to what the external market traditionally applies.

Let’s look at what companies are looking for: ● All-round capability. Where search firms break up responsibilities, employers want everything in one person. Expect to see job specs asking for research skills, delivery, closing and client management ● A greater administrative burden. In-house teams may not have the support function that the search firm has; you are going to be booking interviews and travel while keeping a system (if there is one) up to date ● A greater focus on delivery.

The value in the quality of research and having the perfect shortlist tends to be slightly lower than in a search firm. The key for in-house is to present an appropriate shortlist, less often the perfect one. This is driven by volume; an inhouse search professional may run eight to 15 searches at a time, not two to six. You need to present and move on at speed

8-15

AN IN-HOUSE SEARCH PROFESSIONAL MAY RUN EIGHT TO 15 SEARCHES AT A TIME

● Modern skills. Particularly as we see technology firms leading the way in demand in this area, there’s an expectation that executive recruiters have a modern sourcing toolbox. If you do not know your way around Google extensions, Boolean and sourcing on social sites, you will be at a disadvantage ● This is not a strategic advisory role; it’s a delivery role.

Organisations want people who will be the engine room for executive recruitment, not cerebral advisers. If you are interviewing for these types of roles you will be expected to know your metrics, talk process and delivery – not just rely on your influence and the great network you have It’s early stages but we are seeing a shift similar to what we saw in experienced hire recruiting five years ago.

Expect to see more executive recruitment delivered inhouse, but do not expect the delivery to replicate executive search firms. A nimbler solution is desired. ● WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 39

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16/06/2016 10:49

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14/06/2016 12:30

CO M M U N I T Y

CAREERS

E

‘A horse trainer or a famous equestrian rider – I had horses for many years’ MY BRILLIANT RECRUITMENT CAREER What was your earliest dream job? A horse trainer or a famous equestrian rider – I had horses for many years.

consultant with Hays Construction & Property in Scotland. Ironically, the guy who appointed me 14 years ago is now my managing director at Eden Brown.

What do you love most about your current role?

Bossing my MD about!

I suppose it’s finding people their dream job that impacts upon their personal life. I also love leading and developing teams round about me to reach their full potential.

What would you consider to be the most brilliant moment of your career?

When I first moved to London [from Scotland] and I managed Hays Marketing in Covent Garden. The buzz of moving to London, and the new environment and atmosphere was probably the peak of my career.

What is your ‘can’t do without’ office tool besides your phone? It’s definitely my traditional notepad.

Do you prefer a staycation or I M AG E S | A K I N FA LO P E / ISTO C K

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↗

What was your first job in recruitment and how did you come into it? It was as a trainee

ROXANNE MACKAY, team manager/ commercial construction specialist, Eden Brown Built Environment

Roxanne Mackay holiday abroad? Holiday abroad, most definitely.

Outside the office, where would you like to interview a candidate or be interviewed?

That’s probably most obvious being Scottish – in the pub or in a restaurant.

What’s your top job to fill at the moment? A job to work with me, which is a freelance construction consultant.

Laugh or cry, what did your most memorable candidate make you want to do and why? One of them made me want to laugh and cry. I worked with this guy for weeks and secured him some interviews. On the interview day, he decided to cancel

at the last minute but cheekily called up to ask me out on a date that night, which I politely declined.

What’s the best or worst interview question you’ve ever heard? I was facilitating a graduate training programme a few months back. I was taking part in a role play, and this girl asked me: ‘If I were a biscuit, what would I be?’. Which I thought was quite strange… but I said a party ring.

Make us an offer we can’t refuse If you come and work for me, you would have the opportunity to work with a leader who is immersed in the construction market, well networked, who could introduce you to a portfolio of interesting, unique clients, working for one of the fastest-growing recruitment companies, who will give you a good platform to develop and grow. ● WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK 41

15/06/2016 16:56

E EMPLOYABILITY CO M M UNITY

MEHRA’S ENLIGHTENED APPROACH TO RECRUITING

BY COLIN COTTELL

T

he founder of a supply teacher recruitment agency says his sense of disillusionment about the difficulties experienced by “outsiders” in getting into the industry led him to take a more inclusive approach when recruiting staff for his own company.

Speaking of his previous experiences working for first an education and then a social care recruiter, Jayson Mehra, founder of Harrow-based Enlighten Supply Pool, told Recruiter: “Basically if you knew someone [in the company] it was easier to get into the industry. For people from outside the industry it was really hard to get into and to penetrate.”

Since founding his company in 2010, Mehra has made it his business to take on people from nonrecruitment and challenging backgrounds, as well as those simply down on their luck. Mehra says he is keen to hire people “who want to be in the industry and who want another chance in life”.

Among those taken on was someone who couldn’t get a job at McDonald’s. “I basically said to him ‘I am going to recruit you and put you through an apprenticeship, and see how you go’. That person is now a fully-fledged consultant earning £5k-6k a month,” says Mehra.

Another staff member had previously been kicked out of school. The company’s head of compliance is an ex-offender, who spent time in various detention centres, and in his earlier life had been in care.

A recent new member of staff came to the

Enlighten's founder Jayson Mehra (bottom) and members of the Enlighten Supply Pool team (below)

company via The Prince’s Trust, where she had completed a number of courses preparing her for the world of work. This followed a presentation that Mehra gave to the Trust as part of its ‘Get Hired!’ scheme, an interview day where the company met 40 young adults who had received help and support from the Trust through its various employment schemes.

Mehra says the majority of the company’s 12 staff have been taken on through apprenticeships companies, who provide the training. “It just shows that if you give them the opportunity there is a niche for these kids, and for everyone in life,” he says.

“I want to show them that although someone

might have gone through a rough time in their life, when they commit to something they can do it.”

Mehra says he personally mentors all new staff. This starts off by taking them for a coffee, helping them to feel comfortable, “which allows them to open up”, he says. He then works with them to set realistic goals, which is says is key to retaining them and keeping them motivated.

“I want to manage them and personally give them advice and be the brotherly or fatherly figure they need,” Mehra says. ● 42 RECRUITER

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George Price: From traineeship to full-time BNP Paribas employee

BNP PARIBAS FINDS THAT PRICE IS JUST RIGHT

BY DEEDEE DOKE

A

n annual diversity week programme last year prompted the 100 employees at BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions UK in Bristol to put their commitment to a diverse workforce into practical action.

By hiring teenager George Price, who has an eye for detail, a stringently methodical approach to tasks requiring logic and organisation, and excellent maths skills, the organisation, part of global bank and financial services provider BNP Paribas, has both brought on board a fine employee and diversified its Bristol workforce.

Price, a facilities assistant at the global bank’s leasing solutions operation, has autism spectrum disorder (ASD). He finds verbal communication difficult, and prefers to communicate with notes and by email. Busy, noisy environments are challenging for him. He also finds shaking hands and eye contact difficult.

Sudden changes in routine are hard for him to manage.

Until Paribas offered him a traineeship, he had only been able to secure unpaid volunteer work in a charity shop. “In the past I feel that I have been judged as less intelligent just because I am less verbal,” Price told Recruiter.

But thanks to the banking company and charity Pluss, which specialises in helping people with disabilities find work and achieve a career, Price has completed his traineeship and been hired permanently as a facilities assistant with the financial services company.

“We were doing an awful lot of listening and not enough doing,” explained Russ Pettifer, head of technology for the leasing solutions arm, about the company’s diversity weeks. “We wanted to do something practical.”

Pluss was invited in to discuss with the company the options and challenges in hiring a person who needed extra support in achieving a sustainable work situation. “I said, ‘this is a huge step for us, this is quite a challenge for us’!” Pettifer said.

On the other hand, however, the environment seemed optimal to take the step, Pettifer recognised: “We have 100

people in Bristol, we all work on one floor, there’s no huge hierarchy. We felt we had the right culture to embrace this.”

Between 30 and 40 Paribas employees received two sessions of autism awareness training and a traineeship was created, matching Price’s skills to the needs of the business. A ‘buddy’ was appointed from among Price’s colleagues to introduce new tasks to him and help with any work problems.

“Having George work with us has made us realise that many of our processes could be much simpler, which has encouraged us to make changes that will make us more efficient as a business,” explained Alex Wakely, Pettifer’s PA. She gave an example of one change implemented initially for Price that has now been put into practice for all. “We started a weekly email for George detailing activity for the week ahead to help him prepare. We now use this for all staff, which has helped to increase communication across the team,” Wakely said.

Pluss paid Price’s wages during his traineeship. Now he’s a full-time Paribas employee. While his employer can’t predict his future career path, there’s a recognition that hiring Price was not an act of charity but a move for the good of the business.

And his 100% scores the first time of taking e-learning modules on financial sanctions, embargoes and the fight against bribery have shown Price himself that he has a future.

Says Price: “The success … has given me confidence that this career might be for me, and I am good at it.” ●

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16/06/2016 10:49

E BUSINESS ADVICE CO M M UNITY

THE LIFE CYCLE OF A SUCCESSFUL RECRUITMENT CONSULTANCY Successful recruitment company owners tend to be driven and competitive. How fast the business grows will vary depending on factors including: ● the performance of the sector generally and the economy more widely ● the skills and experience of the managing director and senior management team ● the financial backing supporting the company – access to finance and other support (for example, shared back office functions) can accelerate growth.

A recruitment firm will typically go through three phases irrespective of how fast it grows: the start-up phase (see below); the momentum and maturity phases (the subjects of my next articles).

In this and my following articles I will examine the challenges and opportunities associated with each stage.

THE START-UP PHASE (TYPICALLY YEARS ONE AND TWO) Business owners have boundless energy when they start their businesses – often they will have been planning their launch for months or even years and are itching to make their mark.

The principal challenges businesses in this phase face are: GROWTH – for a small company, every new hire is a HUGE expense both financially and in terms of the time invested in finding and training them. New hires will create cashflow issues that need to be anticipated and managed.

INEXPERIENCE – if you haven’t previously set up and successfully grown a business, then these early years are a huge learning curve.

Advice to maximise growth

44 RECRUITER

The SME Coach

credible with clients and candidates, and you will invest resources more efficiently ensuring faster growth. ● Hire smart – you should look to achieve a balanced team, mixing experience and low-cost labour. Experienced recruiters will cost more (you can offer EMI [Enterprise Management Incentives] shares to keep their costs down) but should start contributing to the bottom line faster and will hold more credibility with clients and candidates. Junior personnel will have a far lower base cost and can be efficient for timeintensive, low-experience tasks, freeing you (and the rest of the team) to grow revenues. ● Buy experience – having someone experienced involved with your business will save you time and money. They will help you both avoid mistakes and grow faster.

In my next two articles I will take a look at the momentum and maturity phases of the recruitment consultancy lifecycle. ●

↗

● Pre-launch planning – the more you plan your business before it launches the better, as once the business is live, time will be scarce.

Develop as clear a picture of your niche as you can; set financial targets; plan hiring dates taking cashflow into account; build your website. ● Plan, measure and plan more – after launch, make time to measure your progress against your plans and to adjust those plans accordingly.

Time spent reviewing plans will help you grow faster. ● Diversify – many young businesses focus on the permanent market as the large placement fees provide financial security. Add interim and contract work to your business as soon as possible, as repeat business provides a steady baseline of income. ● Get a business partner – if you don’t have a business partner at launch, then get someone you can trust on board. They can share the highs and lows, bring ideas that will improve the business and provide cover for illness, holidays, meetings etc. Most successful recruitment consultancy owners I meet are in partnerships and their businesses tend to grow faster. ● Stick to your core expertise – it is much easier to be successful if you fully understand the market that you are operating in. You will be more

Alex Arnot

ALEX ARNOT is a nonexecutive adviser to more than 20 recruitment companies

JULY 2016

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EXECUTIVE BRIEFING

Inspiring an innovation culture Innovation: (n) a new method, idea or product. The process of translating an idea or invention into a good or service that creates value.

A successful Innovation Culture leads to more motivated employees and increased customer satisfaction – along with higher profits. Join Innovation Insider Nick Lansley, a founding father of Tesco.com, and senior Recruitment Leaders at our Executive Briefing on 5 October to explore the ins and outs of Innovation. You will learn: • How to start your own company Innovation Team • How to get traction on Innovation projects Also hear from Inspirational Recruitment Leaders about the Innovation Cultures within their own businesses and how they drive engagement and growth.

GET INSPIRED BEFORE ATTENDING THE INVESTING IN TALENT AWARDS

BOOK NOW AT: BIT.LY/RECRUITER_EXECBRIEFING Date: Wednesday 5 October 2016 Time: 08.30 – 12.00 Delegate fee: £37.50 plus VAT Venue: CCT Venues, Aldersgate House, 135-137 Aldersgate Street, London, EC1A 4JA Contact us: rhianna.fitzgerald@redactive.co.uk | 020 7324 2771

bit.ly/recruiter_execbriefing

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Q&A S P ON S ORED Q& A J O H N S A L I S B U R Y

Top Gun For Hire A leading Recruitment industry achiever is considering his next move.

John Salisbury has spearheaded sales and operations in the UK for Blue Arrow and Manpower and achieved spectacular profit growth as de Poel’s MD. Having made his fortune already, but too young to retire, John is ready to embark on another exciting challenge as CEO or Managing Director of a Recruitment company.

Q: John, what’s your view of the talent within the

Q: Sounds full-on. Any time to relax?

Recruitment industry?

JS: I create an environment where people have JS: To be blunt, it’s a unique industry where everybody in it is hugely overpaid. I have never come across such an abundance of mediocrity.

The flipside is, if you are an achiever, talented and can deliver, it’s easy to stand out from the crowd, and in doing so, it can prove extremely lucrative.

fun. I spend time catching staff doing things right, not the other way around. Praise and recognition are people’s biggest drivers, so it’s really important you highlight the positives and celebrate the successes.

Q: What should people expect in terms of an Q: That’s fairly scathing. Are you referring to

environment wherever you pop up next?

Recruitment Consultants and Managers here?

JS: It’ll be an environment where they’ll look JS: All levels. Too many Board Directors, most notably CEOs and MDs, spend far too much time sitting behind a desk in a big office.

forward to Mondays as well as Fridays! People love working for me, and they stay because they can see and taste the success. Staff don’t leave when the team keeps winning!

If you are an owner/CEO looking for a CEO/MD and are looking to change things at the top, contact John Salisbury directly at johngsalisbury@hotmail. co.uk

Q: So you’re a hands-on Leader?

Q: What type of company would you be JS: I believe that you can beat 95% of your competition by just getting your head down and grafting. Prior to my 20 years in recruitment, I spent 10 years selling life assurance for commission-only where I rubbed shoulders with very talented salespeople. Apart from learning how to close a deal -- you didn’t eat if you couldn’t -- the golden rule of success was activity.

The more activity you do, the more contracts you win! One previous employer called me a magician, but any successful person will tell you that it is hard work that gets results.

Also, if you’re pitching to win a contract, an MD or CEO should lead the pitch. Sometimes I have won a contract because I led and my rival competitor didn’t -- or in most cases, didn’t even attend his own company pitch!

interested in joining?

JS: One needing a major shake-up or a turnaround with potential. And people work for people so chemistry is important.

Q: Will it cost a fortune to secure your services?

JS: Firstly, I have never been a ‘cost’ to any organisation! Why would you hire a cost?

Secondly, the deal for me would be heavily bonus driven, based on profit growth -- a win-win scenario.

Activity is contagious. The speed of the gang is the speed of the boss!

↗

46 RECRUITER

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WANT TO APPEAR IN RECRUITER’S SPONSORED Q&A SLOT ?

Contact Tom Culley at tom.culley@recruiter.co.uk

JULY 2016

14/06/2016 12:32

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Harpreet Gill - Divisional Manager I contacted Cheryl to discuss poten al employers in the Cambridge area who would be looking for an experienced consultant and from the moment we first spoke to the moment I accepted an offer of employment Cheryl proved herself to be the most professional Rec2Rec consultant I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with.

Cheryl listened intently to what I wanted from my next career move and posi on me in the market with the best employers to match my career goals.

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London | 0203 096 6338 15/06/2016 16:16

E CAREERS CO M M UNITY

CA P ITA : Nicola McQueen has been appointed as executive director of the business outsourcing provider’s workplace services division, which includes all of Capita’s HR and recruitment businesses.

CA RTU S : The global relocation services provider has appointed Ryan Hull as strategic business solutions director.

C O N N EX ED UCATI ON : Chairman Bill Walker is leaving after a decade with the education recruiter as part of a wider management restructure. The restructure also sees current managing director Mark Beedles move to chairman, director Scott Day take over as MD, and commercial manager Mark Ashmore move to the new role of head of safeguarding and development.

C U R Z ON TRIN I TAS: The energy and infrastructure executive search firm has appointed Robbie Paterson as a partner.

D -W IS E: Garry Latham is the life sciences and healthcare organisation’s new resourcing business partner.

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JULY 2016

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E AME S CON S ULT ING GROUP: Roland Perry has been appointed as chief financial officer at the international recruitment and search consultancy.

F UTURE STE P : The division of global search firm Korn Ferry has appointed Kay Cooper as vice president, key accounts.

GATE N BYSAN DERSON: Jody Goldsworthy has been recruited as senior partner at the executive search firm within its assessment and leadership development practice.

HARVE Y N ASH SINGAPORE:

Thai food restaurant chain Giggling Squid has appointed Faith Locker-Marsh as its new head of people.

Having previously worked at American dining restaurant The Big Easy as people and talent manager, and coffeehouse chain AMT Coffee as recruitment manager, LockerMarsh will now be leading recruitment and training programmes at all current 15 Giggling Squid sites, including the most recent opening in Bury St Edmunds and its soon-to-launch Berkhamsted restaurant.

A company statement says Giggling Squid is on course to hit its target of 50 restaurants in the UK within four years.

Locker-Marsh’s appointment will help in the expansion plans, according to the restaurant chain.

healthcare and life sciences practice. Patrick Gray joins as partner and industrial, aviation, aerospace & defence – Americas practice leader.

Audrey Moreau is the global executive search and leadership services firm’s new associate director within its industry practice for SouthEast Asia.

HIGGIDY PIES: Claire

HE I DRI CK & ST RUGGLES:

Antony Jenkins is the new independent, employer-led organisation’s shadow chair.

Alan Milinazzo joins the global executive search firm as a partner within its

Dudman has been hired as head of people at the piemaker.

INST IT UT E FOR APPRENT ICESHIPS:

JANE LEWIS: Jon Beadman joins the Chester-based healthcare recruitment business as operations manager.

MICHAEL PAGE INT ERNAT IONAL : The global recruiter has appointed

Email people moves for use online and in print, including a short 16/06/2016 10:50

independent non-executive director Patrick de Smedt as senior independent director.

TE AMJ OBS: Sarah Way is group financial controller at the recruitment specialist.

THE CL E AR COMPANY: The diversity consultancy has appointed Nick Hallwood as chief operating officer.

THE P E OPLE NET WORK: The MOR G A N S HOTE L GROUP: Sean Thomas has been appointed by the hotelier as director of HR.

MOR G A N H UN T: Andrew Spencer has stepped down as finance director at the multisector recruiter.

IT recruiter has promoted long-standing employees Chris Kent, Mark Thomas and Vikesh Chandarana to joint MDs.

VI VI D RE SOURCING: Charlie Walker has stepped down as MD at the international recruiter.

P ED ER S EN & PARTN E RS : The international executive search firm has appointed Jan Großmann as client partner and head of its consumer products and retail team in Germany.

P HIL D O N : Mary Ferguson joins as associate director at the reinsurance staffing specialist.

R ED L AW: US-trained lawyer Deborah Dempster is a new associate director within the legal staffing specialist’s new New York operation.

RED WIG WAM: Darren Tranter joins the online temporary recruitment company as its first MD.

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISING +44 (0)20 7880 7607 Tom Culley

deedee.doke@recruiter.co.uk

tom.culley@recruiter.co.uk

Reporters Colin Cottell, Graham Simons colin.cottell@recruiter.co.uk graham.simons@recruiter.co.uk

Contributing writers Sue Weekes Production editor Vanessa Townsend

PRODUCTION +44 (0)20 7880 6209 Production executive Rachel Young rachel.young@redactive.co.uk

PUBLISHING +44 (0)20 7880 8547 Publishing director Aaron Nicholls aaron.nicholls@redactive.co.uk

ADVERTISING +44 (0)20 7880 7607 Sales manager Tom Culley

WCN: The global e-recruitment specialist has appointed Peter Shaw as finance director.

tom.culley@recruiter.co.uk

Senior sales executive Josh Hannagan josh.hannagan@recruiter.co.uk

Sales executive Joe Elliott-Walker

RECRUITER AWARDS/ INVESTING IN TALENT AWARDS +44 (0)20 7880 6236 Events Rebecca West rebecca.west@redactive.co.uk

joe.elliott-walker@redactive.co.uk

YOU R NE X T M OV E A selection of vacancies from recruiter.co.uk

The technical and engineering recruitment company has promoted Gigi Chung to director.

Enlighten Supply Pool Experienced consultant Education £18k-£25k + bens Harrow, Greater London DPD In-house recruitment manager £highly competitive + car South-East England

CIRCULATION and SUBSCRIPTIONS To receive a regular copy of Recruiter, the leading magazine for recruitment and resourcing professionals, telephone +44 (0)20 8950 9117 or email redactive@abacusemedia.com • Recruiter is also available to people who do not meet our terms of control: Annual subscription rate for 12 issues: £35 UK; £45 Europe and £50 Rest of the World • To purchase reprints or multiple copies of the magazine, contact Abacus e-Media T: +44 (0)20 8950 9117 or email redactive@abacusemedia.com CONTRIBUTIONS Contributions are invited, but when not accepted will be returned only if accompanied by a fully stamped and addressed envelope. Articles should be emailed. No responsibility can be taken for drawings, photographs or literary contributions during delivery, transmission or in the editor’s hands. © 2016 Redactive Media Group. All rights reserved. This publication (and any part thereof) may not be reproduced, transmitted or stored in print or electronic format (including but not limited to any online service, any database or any part of the internet) or in any other format in any media whatsoever, without the prior written permission of Redactive Media Group.

Redactive Media Group accepts no liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein. The publishers cannot accept liability for any loss arising from the late appearance or non-publication of any advertisement for any reason whatsoever. ISSN 1475-7478

Total average net circulation between 1 July 2014 & 30 June 2015 – 18,667. is also sent to all REC members

For more jobs, people moves and career advice go to ● recruiter.co.uk/jobs ● inhouserecruiterjobs.co.uk ● internationalrecruiterjobs.com

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EDITORIAL +44 (0)20 7880 7606 Editor DeeDee Doke

Senior designer Craig Bowyer Picture editor Akin Falope

R O S IN TERN ATI ON AL :

STO P G A P : Paul Carr is the marketing recruiter’s new MD.

CONTACTS

vanessa.townsend@recruiter.co.uk

Hudson Recruitment partner In-house, HR £undisclosed Leeds

R U S S A M G MS: Cathy Kay joins as associate director, executive search at the provider of interim managers and executive search services.

Redactive Publishing Ltd 17 Britton Street, London EC1M 5TP 020 7880 6200

Scan here to get your own copy of

16/06/2016 10:50

E THE LAST WORD CO M M UNITY

Matt Churchward Millennials? No different to my grandparents Millennials. What are they? Who are they? How should I speak to them? Do they bite? And should we change our hiring criteria to accommodate a myth?

would have also motivated my grandad – Norman Churchward, ex-farmer, aged 98 in July.

The term ‘Millennial’ is bandied around in business leader peer groups with the same smugness usually reserved for portmanteaus such as Brexit or Brangelina, but with absolutely no concept of what a Millennial is. It got me thinking: do Millennials actually exist?

If this group is indeed a real phenomenon, do employers need to change their expectations of graduates? Should we be more accepting of perceived weaknesses and more accommodating to new strengths?

No. I believe the term Millennial is a lazy and overused expression that attempts to generalise and reduce a generation to fit into a well-worn narrative.

Yes, employee motivations outwardly appear to have changed, but has the actual person fundamentally changed? In my opinion, a Millennial is no different to the generation of our grandparents – it is the opportunities that are different.

To illustrate this, here are three of the most common motivators associated with Millennials. You decide whether, given the opportunity, each item

output-driven not timedriven, allowing for a more favourable work-life balance Would my grandad have wanted to have more free time to play golf, go ballroom dancing and spend time with his children? Yes, of course he would have.

Well, maybe not the playing with kids part.

50 RECRUITER

working ➊ Flexible schedules that are

be inspired, to be ➋ To working for a cause

and to grow their skill set, professionally and interpersonally Given the choice, would my grandad have chosen to learn from the best farmer in Devon, who raised award-winning cattle and grew incredible crops, or would he have wanted to learn from someone dispassionate about animals and the countryside? No brainer.

have a voice and to ➌ To contribute to their

company – flat structures are preferred over hierarchy Despite passing the phrase ‘children should be seen and not heard’ down the family tree, do you think that as a young farmer, my grandad would have appreciated being able to contribute or put forward his own point of view without fear of getting a hiding? Of course. He was certainly a product of the environment he grew up in, but he would have desired the freedom to speak up, thanks to his fundamentally human nature.

In conclusion, we cannot stereotype generations of workforces based on their motivations and desires.

Human beings have been around for 200,000 years, and basic human wants, needs and desires won’t have shifted much in that time.

This leads me back to my original question: should we change our hiring criteria to accommodate a myth?

The answer is no. When I look around our sales floor, common traits still link the successful performers across the age groups: strong work ethic, teamwork, passion, energy, creativity, honesty, tenacity. These are all still essential, whether you work from the beach or ploughed fields in the 1930s. ●

+ Matt Churchward is director at the Green Recruitment Company

JULY 2016

IMAG E | A K I N FA LO P E

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