Recruitment Advice

I have been recruiting lately for a few positions over different sectors and i have found that every person that I have received the details for are over/under qualified. Where are all those people that i found easy to reach this time last year?

I have concerns over recruiting people who have been in senior roles as i feel that they are only looking at lower skilled jobs and salary levels temporarily until the market becomes less flooded and competitive. As you can imagine a lot of these candidates have been made redundant and just need a job and quickly. What is going to happen when the market is back to normal and the people that I have recruited are looking to recoup what they have lost. At the other end of the scale there are a lot of people who are looking for that next step in their career but are not quite there with regards to experience.

A good friend of mine suggested that business telemarketing lists can be very successful, it is a form of direct marketing and is very successful at reaching the right people.  It has a history of being successful as it will source the data that you want ensuring that you have a accurate coverage of your target market.

When i was planning the company recruitment this year the budget had been reduced with more staff members to recruit.

For all of the recruiting we have done so far this year we have tried to use as many free methods as possible, this includes the Job Centre, industry forums and we have also purchased bargain packages in bulk from Total Jobs and Monster. This has reduced the company recruitment cost down compared to the same time last year.

The other downside to using the free recruitment methods or job sites is that it is difficult to distinguish yourself from your competitors that are using the same methods to recruit. When we negotiated the packages we purchased we made it clear to the provider that we wanted to attract the right candidates and also create brand awareness. We wanted the company logo design on all of the advertisements, this is because the company logo design is easily recognisable as a industry leader and i want this to show in our advertisements.

So far the methods that we have used have been successful and it has made it better to have direct contact with the candidate from the beginiing of the process.

When you are looking for a new job there are a number of resources you can use to make sure you are looking at a range of employers:

• Recruitment consultants
• Job websites
• Job Centre
• Networking
• Job/Recruitment fairs

Job/recruitment fairs will offer opportunities to meet a variety of employers face-to-face and learn more about them. Meeting with your perspective employer will help you learn about the company history, culture and the employee benefits.

Employers use this sort of event to attract candidates, they want to look more appealing than there competitors, to do this they provide corporate entertainment, invite guest speakers, talk about the company benefits, learning opportunities and career potential.

They also give you the opportunity to:

• Improving your interview skills –Meeting perspective employers, asking interview questions and  getting feedback on your C.V.

• Expanding your network – Meeting job recruiters and even fellow candidates will help you to build a list of useful contacts for future reference.

• Gathering information about companies – Investigating the kind of  placements offered by a company tells you a lot about that organisation as a whole and the culture of the company.

• Learning industry information – Speaking to job recruitment professionals in your chosen sector is a great way to learn about the industry.

When preparing to attend a exhibition you must always take a up to date copy of your C.V, make a list of all the employers that will be attending the fair and make sure you visit all the ones you want to. Manage your day to maximize your chance of getting lots of knowledge and experience.

As an employer, recruiting whilst unemployment is so high means that i am getting a huge response from all of the job advertisements i have placed. I am seeing a increase of applicants by 150% for some of the roles, with so many applicants sending there C.V it is becoming difficult to manage the amount of paperwork i have received.

With such a high volume of applicants it is part of my role to assess the C.V’s and send them to the recruiting line manager’s for them to decide who they would like to interview. With applicants sending there C.V by post it is difficult as i only have 1 original copy of the C.V and a few recruiting managers.

I do not want to make several photocopies of the document because you then have to make sure that you keep a tight control of where the C.V’s are being stored by the individual managers as you need to remain with the data protection laws.

I think that i will have to start document scanning as i receive the C.V’s, this will help to keep better control over the application process and managers will not have to print out several copies. This will also help the recruitment system to become more digital and help towards not using excessive amounts paper.

Pontin’s is due to spend £50million refurbishing its six holiday camps in a move upmarket designed to attract more holidaymakers. There will be a major switch this year from overseas holidays to UK holidays, due to the economic crisis and the weakening pound.

Ocean Parks, which owns Pontin’s, says the plans will create more than 2,000 jobs. Initially the existing entertainment, catering and bar facilities will be refurbished. Pontins is promising a ‘re-styled entertainment programme’ and a ’substantially enhanced food and beverage offer aimed at satisfying all tastes and budgets’.

Among the star performers this summer will be the singer Duncan James, previously with the boy band Blue, and entertainer Joe Pasquale.

Butlins has also made a move up-market in recent years. It will be opening the 200 room £20million Ocean spa hotel in Bognor Regis in the summer. The rooms offer flat screen TVs, leather sofas and rainfall showers

Is the future looking brighter for our troubled UK economy?

The government has made an announcement for a £140 million plan to fund 35,000 new apprenticeships to ease unemployment and improve competitiveness in the credit crunch.

Meanwhile Mcdonalds have revealed that apprenticeships will be made available to all its employees. The fast food chain aims to provide apprenticeships for up to 10,000 a year from 2010.

News on new apprenticeship schemes will help children who are ready to leave school. The number of apprenticeships for school leavers this year has been down on previous years. Traditionally the schemes available have been in the manufacturing and construction sectors and as these have been badly affected during the credit crunch the numbers of apprenticeships originally thought to have been available has been low.

When putting my recruitment plan together for 2009 i was asked to reduce the costs by 50% but to increase the amount of staff required by 60% based on 2008.

With this difficult task in mind and researching various free methods of recruitment, it made me think how much organising it was going to take to keep on top of all the C.V’s and replying, interviewing and selecting these candidates.

We do not have any recruitment software packages to organise the amount of recruitment we plan on doing in 2009 or the budget to purchase one. Free methods of recruitment often mean a high response to any advertisement placed, which in turn you have to spend a lot of time searching through the all the C.V’s you receive.

The manageability of the whole process can be a pain, we have previously relied on recruitment consultants to do all the administration and store any C.V information.

We currently have no back up system in place for storing the C.V’s and it the event that our computer systems were to fail then we would have to start the process again, which can be costly and time consuming. Services such as online backup will aid against any data loss, this will help to comply with any data protection rules and can form part of the companies disaster recovery plan.

Employee referral programmes have been used for decades and are a great way of filling vacancies. Although the programme can be quite effective, it is often under appreciated and there are many pros and cons that come along with it.

It’s easy enough to ask employees if they know someone that might be interested in the position, but it’s really important that you have some kind of structure and communicate it well. One way of doing this is by informing employees that the programme has a benefit and a reward on a successful placement. A monetary bonus is normally offered when the new starter has been retained for a certain period of time. This award however, should be sufficient enough to motivate the employee but not too large that they they refer unsuitable candidates.

Here are some of the pros and cons of an employee referral programme:

Pros

• Referred candidates tend to be of a higher quality. The referring employee will normally screen the referral closely. After all, their reputation is somewhat on the line with every person they refer for the vacant position.
• The programme can be significantly cheaper than using recruitment agencies, newspapers etc.
• The programme is especially effective when you are recruiting for a specialised role. People tend to associate with other people in their profession.
• The monetary bonus can be seen as a morale booster for the referring employee.

Cons

• If you rely on the programme too much, this could lead to a “stick together” workforce and could create cliques within the organisation leading to friction with other employees.
• Competitors may retaliate against your company by thinking your are stealing their happy employees.
• The programme might lead to under representation of certain protected groups which could come along with charges of discrimination from rejected candidates.

As you can see, the benefits do outweigh the pitfalls of the employee referral programme and in my opinion, a well designed programme should be an essential part of any organisations recruitment strategy.

During the current economic climate most businesses are looking at ways to save money but are still wanting to fill roles in their business. The need for competent staff is more important than ever with customers evaluating what they need to save money on. If you can provide high customer service your clients will still want to use your business’ services.

Internal recruitment is an effective way of looking at your business and deciding on what jobs need to be done and who internally can fill them.

The advantages of recruiting internally are:

• When internal staff are promoted into a role through internal recruitment methods it acts as a incentive to other staff members, as they can see a path of progression in the organisation and it acts as a morale and production boost

• The cost of recruiting a new staff member can be expensive so recruiting internally is cost saving

• The cost of inducting a new staff member into the business can also be expensive, internal recruitment will save on training and development cost as the employee already knows the business and processes.

• Recruiting internal staff saves time on completing person specifications, vetting C.V’s and interviewing candidates

Psychometric Testing is a tool designed to measure individual difference in a number of areas such as personality,  intelligence and ability, test are used for a number of purposes in various circumstances including:

• Recruitment and selection
• Personal,  team and leadership development
• Career coaching and management

Testing is used by recruiting businesses to assess the personalities of potential employees. This helps employers to decide if the person and the job fit together. There is no right and wrong answer when taking the test it is a measure of how you approach situations and your personality .

The test are structured personality questionnaires which require you to respond to a series of questions , your response gives the employer indication of things such as your attitude towards work, towards others, attention to detail, motivation, working styles, determination and social skills.

Employers will look to for patterns of reply in your answers which are considered to suit the characteristics of the role.

Employers are using this method of recruitment as it is becoming more important for staff to fit into the company culture, to have personality fit and be able to portray company values. Raymond Whalley Managing Director Success Dynamics says “Organisations tend to recruit people for their technical skills but fire them for their personalities”.