Recruitment 2.0

Friday 25th February Recruitment Roundup

This week’s news and blog highlights, condensed to a few links.  Read on for interesting stories regarding recruiting, technology and other random topics..

• Social media myths highlighted by famous film quotes!
• TARGETjobs awards - shortlist
• Know your RPO
• Olympics jobs website goes live
• Recruitment via social media
• NHS – must face up to new world
• ‘Mobile Mad Men’
• Can technology improve filling your vacancies?
• Lord Davies’ target – unrealistic?

That’s it for this week, here’s to a sunnier one next week..

-Emily

Can companies cope with employees working outside the office..?  

 

Lists: the key to organisation or a lock into obsession?

Time is so important to people-we could all use more time. More time to finish our work, more time to
be with our family, more time in the morning to sleep, more time in the evening to eat, drink, be merry and then fall asleep in front of the tv..

Time management is often said to be key to having an organised life and the most common theme that keeps cropping up in managing time effectively, is making lists. According to Mind Tools, feeling overwhelmed by work, missing deadlines and forgetting things are all common symptoms of ‘not keeping a proper “To-Do List”.’

I am the first to acknowledge the usefulness of lists-sometimes if I feel that I have too much to do and I can’t keep it all in my head, without it exploding and soiling my cup of tea anyway, so I will write a list to make sure that I don’t forget to do anything.  And generally, this works very well.

However, what about people who actually waste more time writing out too many lists than actually doing the tasks that they are trying to organise? Or even, to the very extreme, people who literally can’t stop writing lists? I have read articles written by people with OCD who write up to 100 lists a day and some who just write the same list over and over.

Some people suggest spending 10-15 minutes before you go to bed to write a list for your following day. But surely, when you are at home with your family, the last thing you want to be doing is constantly thinking about what needs to go on your list and all the work you have to do. Other people urge you to be realistic and admit that you won’t always cross everything off your list-you can’t always accomplish
everything you have planned to exactly as you have planned to do it as life is not always that predictable.

So I think, in moderation, that list making is good to get all your thoughts down or see clearly all the things that you have to get done. However, take care not to get carried away or lost in them.

Next week’s blog is how to prioritise your list!

-Emily

Thanks to all the websites that I have quoted/linked to.

Picture credits: London blog

 

 

A weekly recipe guide for hungry worker bees..

Monday

It's got to bee McDonalds. Long weekend, possibly hung over you need as much junk food as fast as possible. The general consensus is a large Big Mac meal with a coke or for you V's out there, a spicy veggie patty made from chick peas. Chow down!

Tuesday

Right, let's feel guilty about the food fest yesterday and attempt to regain some dignity-bee good with something healthy. How about a nice lean chicken salad or a mixed bean salad for the herbivores? You'll still feel hungry afterwards but at least your morals will bee full.

Wednesday

After drinking epic amounts of water to try to fill up the spaces not filled by your salad yesterday, let's have something that expands. Some nice mushroom & ham pasta or, minus the meat, have a rice salad with peppers and cucumber. And because it's mid-week, add a Diet Coke in there too.

Thursday

So close to Friday, you can almost smell it. This also reminds you that it's nearly the weekend which you've suddenly remembered is going to probably bee pretty unhealthy. So let's have a nice hot soup-it's a hug in food form after all. Go crazy and get a New ovent Garden soup, they rock. Have Pea & Ham for the meat and Hey Pesto! for the non-meat..

Friday

It's almost the weekend. You can't help but celebrate so this is a definite 'down the pub for lunch' day. Just make sure it's not a liquid lunch-it's not the weekend just yet!

NB: Obviously all of these lunch time suggestions are buffered through the day by steady tea/coffee drinking, whatever's your poison.. Personally, I'm an '8 cups a day'-er of tea but it's your choice.

I cannot say 100% that by sticking to this menu, you will bee-come happier, healthier and more productive worker bee..

..-but then, each to their own!

-Emily

Picture credits: Antennaballworld, AppleSolutions NZ

Thank you to the various website who made up the wonderful recipes I've linked to.

Friday 18th February Recruitment Roundup

This week’s news and blog highlights, condensed to a few links.  Read on for interesting stories regarding recruiting, technology and other random topics..

• Interesting CVs-do they make a difference?
• The Institute of Recruiters (and the big debate that followed..)
• Inside Job – the review
• The Ultimate Interview Research Checklist
• Our forests are saved!
• Importance of networking
• UK’s first corporate manslaughter case
• Who has been hit hardest by unemployment?

Next blog will be done from our shiny new office in Chancery Lane!

-Emily

I’ll leave you with a video of Downing Street’s new Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office!

 

 

Will there EVER be a paperless office?

Picture the scene.

Your office has gone totally green. By this I mean you are effectively sitting in a small forest, the fronds from an overhanging tree are traipsing delicately across your keyboard, a doe-eyed rabbit is nibbling some grass peacefully by your desk and the sound of a small waterfall in the corner of the office (which powers your computer) can be heard in the background.

Is this the future that we are aiming towards? Of course not, this is just me being silly.

But the point I am trying to make is just how 'green' can we go? Will there ever be a point where we no longer have printers or notepads and will the term 'paperwork' become obsolete? With the rise of incredible technology such an iPad's and Blackberry Playbook's, is it so impossible to imagine that we will swap notepads for Apple 'notebooks'? Instead of idly doodling notes from a meeting with your pen and paper, you will instead use your stylus on an iPad. Instead of printing off a booklet to read as you rush to a meeting, you will download it onto your Blackberry Playbook and read it from there.

A prime example of this technology surge was the Amazon Kindle. As a commuter on a train, I have noticed the majority of people who used to have books only a year ago, now have a Kindle. There are still a few die hard traditionalists of course, me being one of them, who like the smell and feel of a book (even if it is a hardback version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that weighs a ton and makes fitting anything else in your bag impossible) but most people now sit there turning the pages of their Kindle, their faces looking amused at my actual physical page turning.

10 years ago, the idea of a handheld computer that you simply use to read books from would have been laughable. Is it so difficult to imagine that 10 years from now, our offices may well be paper free?

-Emily

Picture credit: Socfx

Friday 11th February Recruitment Roundup

This week’s news and blog highlights, condensed to a few links. Read on for interesting stories regarding recruiting, technology and other random topics..

• What to avoid doing in interviews
• The most important skill for success?
• ‘Don’t let the banks hold us to ransom..’
• Tips for successful deal making
• Recruitment Leaders: 10 rules of communication
• The year ahead in online recruitment
• Talent management and technology
• ‘Dare to be different with job postings’
• Is this goodbye to work suits?

See you on Monday!

-Emily

This has been described as ‘the toughest interview ever’ – see what you think!

 

 

Top Ten Job Boards

This list, of our Top Ten Job Boards, is just for general job boards (not specialised ones) and is based on feedback we have heard, people we have worked with, awards we have noticed and pretty websites we've been entranced by.

It's not quite like the list of Top Ten little-known facts about your feet, which is strangely fascinating, but for people in the recruitment business, job boards are fairly influential.

So, (alphabetically), here we go:

Career Builder - http://www.careerbuilder.co.uk/UK/Default.aspx

CV Library - http://www.cv-library.co.uk/

Fish4jobs - http://www.fish4.co.uk/

Guardian jobs - http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/

Indeed - http://www.indeed.co.uk/

Jobsite - http://www.jobsite.co.uk/

LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/

Monster - http://www.monster.co.uk/

Reed - http://www.reed.co.uk/

Totaljobs - http://www.totaljobs.com/

And so ends this current Top Ten stop on our Top Ten journey.. I know, sad times, but don't worry-we'll be back! If you feel you or someone you know have been missed off this list, or if you have any general thought, queries, feedback, hopes, dreams etc. please feel free to get in touch with me!

Keep your eyes open for the next Top Ten List,

-Emily

Picture credits: My Wedding Dreams

 

Friday 4th February Recruitment Roundup

This week's news and blog highlights, condensed to a few links. Read on for interesting stories regarding recruiting, technology and other random topics..

• 5 signs to watch out for in your new recruiter
• Contracting in Germany
• Development of HR teams fall down agenda’s in 2011
• Graduate unemployment at 15 year high
• The year ahead in online recruitment
• 5 emotions invented by the internet
• ‘Not everyone is a strategist’..
• Is it time for HR to outsource Employee Relations?

Have an enjoyable weekend, gang..

-Emily

This video was recommended to me by a friend of mine in a recruitment agency-what do you think?

 

Moving offices -- a joyful journey or a stressful sojourn..?

There I was, happily working away on schemes to make an Applicant Tracking System sound like ‘chocolate buttons’, when I suddenly realised that we are moving offices rather soon and perhaps there might be things I need to do to prepare for that.  I have to admit that most of my feelings about our company moving offices are tingly, warm and sort of Mr Kipling-like. We are moving to a lovely office on Chancery Lane and are in very close proximity to a few of our clients and very excitingly, a Subway. Our office will be more pretty, more spacious and have lovely rooms for meetings with our clients etc.

BUT.

What did not cross my fuzzy feeling was the amount of effort it actually takes to move some people and their things 3 tube stops to the North and then East a bit-it sounds so simple when you say it like this-pick up a box, fill it with your things, jump down into the underground and off you go!

Apparently, this is not the case.

I have read a few blogs about companies moving offices and was delighted to find one from the Solid State Group giving me some pointers in areas where they wish their move had gone smoother. This blog was very helpful although obviously, each company’s move is individual and unique in some areas.

My list of ‘take everything’ suddenly looks very complicated-obviously I take computer, my in-tray full of things and my slinky. But what about the walls around my desk? What about my desk?! My chair? It just so happens that we are moving to a fully furnished office which means me saying goodbye to my desk for now (I believe it’s going into hibernation for a nice rest until we move again-my chair however is happily coming with me, which is good because we have become quite attached..) but many companies have to organise taking literally EVERYTHING with them-the cupboards, filing cabinets and kitchen sink included. This of course means hiring out a removal company to help move everything which is incurring extra costs.

Of course, I actually have nothing to do with the moving offices malarkey as it is left  up to our office manager whizz to sort this all out but my personal packing alone is stress enough for me!

So I suppose the question is, is moving offices worth the excess costs, the stress and the new commute routes that some staff may have to use? I think everybody’s answer would be yes. After all, you decided to move in the first place for a reason! Trust me when I say, cling to that reason..

-Emily

Picture credit: Superstock

Step 12 -- Look after your ATS

Congratulations! You’ve convinced the powers that be that your recruitment team needs an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). That’s an achievement to celebrate in its own right. Now comes the tricky bit –making sure that your project is a success. This can be easier said than done. To give your project the best start in life, you need to carefully plan how you will roll out your new ATS companywide. This article is the result of years of experience of helping to make ATS projects work for our clients. Please use it as a guide to help you think about your entire implementation process from beginning to end. And if you have any questions – please don’t hesitate to give us a call.

Our previous posts included understanding your processes, creating baseline measurements, considering a phased approach, picking the right ATS, getting hiring managers on board, keeping it simple, setting realistic expectations, getting your recruiters to use your ATS, monitoring change management, garbage in, garbage out and know what reports you need.

Step 12.  Look after your ATS!

You wouldn’t just buy a car and not have it serviced. The same is true of your ATS. Be kind to it and give it regular check-ups (and the occasional hug). Continue to invest and your systems will continue to deliver improvements.

Don’t forget to give the project an identity and meaning and note the message may well be different for different stakeholder. Management may want to know how it’s going to cut costs or reduce dependency on agencies. Perhaps, hiring managers will want to know how it will save them time, give them more transparency or ownership of the process. Then you’ve got your Recruitment and/or HR teams, Web/IT team, Marketing, internal job applicants, etc. what about external stakeholders? Do you have an agency PSL? If you do, make sure you prepare them for the change. If not, now may be a good time to introduce one. What about using this as an opportunity to shake up your external employer brand. Now you’ve really opened Pandora’s box… Have a robust change control procedure, be clear in your scope and stick to it. You can always do more in a future phase (see point 3).

This post is an excerpt from the white paper "Twelve steps to a successful ATS implementation". If you would like to read more, you can download it now.

-Emily

Picture credit: Interior Crocodile Alligator