As one door closes… Another opens
It’s been an interesting week in my world. Just a couple of days ago we heard the result of a competitive trial against one of our major competitors. We face these frequently at hunt4staff.com and are reasonably relaxed when a client goes this route, knowing the work we have put in to make our service amongst the best in the industry.
When we heard our service was better than our competitor, we were pleased, although not that surprised. Nor were we surprised to hear our applicant tracking system was more sophisticated than our competitors product. So all in all something to be pleased with you’d think.
But no. We have handled a number of successful projects for this client and they have always been delighted with our service. Yet this week they chose to select our competitor based on their perceived brand. A brand which is largely built on the celebratory status of the dragon investor in that flat fee recruitment business.
Now I found this decision quite odd and rather disappointing. But you have to respect the decisions a client makes and move on. My challenge was how to sell the positive to my team who might be devastated to lose an account in such a way.
So this is how I explained it. If a business such as hunt4staff.com can achieve a service and product which is better than that delivered by a business with all the investment and resources a “dragon” can add then we have something to be rather pleased about. And if this one client rejected us on the basis of their brand alone, then there would be many more who would choose us simply based on the quality of service we have clearly established ourselves as excellent.
Now as a director you can seek to persuade your staff of the merits of such an argument, and they may even smile and try to agree with you. But you need a little more to make such a loss less painful.
Today, just two days later we did that. A major multinational organisation in exactly the same field has decided to place their recruitment business with us. An account which is probably ten times the size of the one we lost on Wednesday.
So as one door closes, another opens… It’s a funny old world.
Being an Exhibitionist
It’s many years since I have manned an exhibition stand at the CIPD annual exhibition. I am really looking forward to this year as I return to three exciting days of smiling at people as they walk past our stand. Perhaps I am in a minority, but love the whole exhibition thing!
The only problem I have is making sure I go to the right place… I still think of the CIPD as having their conference and exhibition in Harrogate. Must remember to set the Sat Nav for Manchester!
The work involved in pulling an exhibition like this together seems vast. But for us it is a really good opportunity to tell the world about our Hunt4Staff.com business. As well as catching up with a few contacts I have not seen for far too long. So if you are in Harrogate… Sorry – Manchester this year, then do pop along and visit us on stand C12.
But seriously, going back to being an exhibitionist. It always amazes me how many of the stands have people sitting on the stand, the other side of a table, waiting for someone to approach them. I am sure this is not the way to make you exhibition & marketing strategy work for you. But at its core, this is about getting the right people for the right job. You’d expect us to get that bit right wouldn’t you!
Hope to see you in Manchester,
All the best,
Jason
Does Money Matter?
A few days ago, I wrote my blog about online job boards and the issue of location. I thought I’d continue on this theme and look at the way in which employers use salary when advertising jobs.
Let me start with a question.
Q – Would you still do your job if your employer did not pay you?
A – errr.. not sure I have to wait for your answer on that one do I!
I think we can fairly say that most of us would not keep doing our normal job without pay. Except for a few exceptionally wealthy, or perhaps rather strange individuals! But seriously, how many of you would apply for a job that did not pay the salary you want, or perhaps need, to earn? I think we can safely conclude it will be very few. So what has all this got to do with Job Boards.
Let me tell you. When most job seekers look online for their next role, they have a number of criteria in mind. Now one of those is location, as I explained in my last blog – The Trouble with Job Boards…
Another, and arguably the big one… is Money. It’s all about the money.
Now lets just take a step back and think about how Job Boards and internet searching works. If you read your local paper, it is quite simple to simply flick through the pages, glancing over the adverts which are in your area. There are probably a couple of pages of them. It’s quite easy to mentally sift the interesting from the er…. rubbish. Even if you pick up a specialist trade publication, you only have to turn through a small number of pages to review the roles available to you.
The internet isn’t like that. In order to write this blog, I had a quick look at Jobsite a couple of minutes ago. Now I can’t tell you how many live jobs Jobsite have, because Jobsite only tell you they have in excess of 5000 live jobs. However, to give you an idea, I did a quick search to find 975 adverts were placed in the last 4 hours alone. That should give you a clue as to how many are on-line. Another search shows me that over 5000 adverts have been placed today alone. Now I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t simply glance over 5000 adverts to sift through to the few that interest me. That’s where the job searching technology gets rather clever.
So, with the very best job boards, they have rather clever search capabilities. In a few minutes, I can build a search string which will sift through every single job on Jobsite. This search will tell me the roles which meet my target requirements. Just a few moments later, I know Jobsite have 388 roles within a 30 mile radius of my home. And that is only looking at those adverts placed within the past 7 days. Just to clarify, that is just looking at those roles within my specialist skill sector, Human Resources.
Now here is my question. Do you think I will narrow down the 388 to the ones that match my salary requirements before glancing through them all? You bet I will!
So, if this is the case, why oh why would any employer advertise a role without stating a salary range. The only answer I can come up with is they don’t fully understand the new world of internet based recruitment.
There are a few key criteria which will have a direct effect on the number of applicants you will see. Salary and location are right there at the top. So please, if you are thinking about advertising your next vacancy on the internet, make your recruitment budget work for you and do include the salary.
All the best
Jason
The Trouble with Job Boards…
As we start to get busier in our flat fee recruitment business, we begin finding the challenges we will face on a regular basis. The most interesting this week was realising just how little the business world appears to know about on-line advertising. Before we can persuade them to go on-line, we need them to understand how to make it work for them.
This week, I cam across a number of scenarios where potential clients simply didn’t understand enough about the on-line job advertising market to make the jump to internet based recruitment. Some of them made misinformed judgements about how to advertise, other no doubt missed out all together on the massive savings to recruitment budgets that can be made through on-line based recruitment.
So let me try to take some of the mystery away.
It’s all about location.
One of our prospective clients in the north of England has been struggling with the decision as to whether to use a flat fee recruiter like WebRecruit or our very own Hunt4Staff.com. Each time they face the decision, they back away from the considerable saving they could make deciding to pay large recruitment fees or significant costs of advertising in the regional newspapers. This week I understood why.
Our client, had previously rejected using the major internet job boards for advertising as they did not want to attract applicants from all over the country. He simply wanted relevant local advertising coverage for his job. He concluded, albeit wrongly, that picking a national based job board was like using a national newspaper. Something most employers would rarely do.
Wrong.
When you place an advert in a newspaper, the reader simply turns through the pages, glancing at the adverts on display. They pause when they see one that catches their eye and hopefully read more thoroughly. If it seems right for them, they apply. This is the old model of advertising. Before moving to internet based advertising you need to learn the new rules of recruitment. The rules of on-line recruitment.
Your Postcode Matters
I did a quick search on TotalJobs this morning to find they have 86,389 live vacancies! How on earth would a job seeker glance over each and every one of those adverts? Answer – They don’t. If my client had simply become the 86,290th advert to glance through, he would get very very few applicants. But it doesn’t work like that.
A job seeker builds a search to show the jobs which might be of interest to them. This means they narrow the 86,389 to ones which might suit them. Now I live in a rather rural part of the East Sussex Countryside, but when I asked TotalJobs how many of their 86,389 jobs where within 10 miles of me, I could only view 223. Even I can manage that.
Before you advertise, you need to work out how to target your ideal employee from their likely search criteria. Their preferred location needs to be right at the top of this list. So please, for the sake of your recruitment budget, please don’t ever advertise a role on the internet without including a postcode location. You’d be surprised just how many employers do.
Now…. I wonder if my local paper has 223 jobs this week?
All the best,
Jason
PRESS RELEASE – 100 MILE WALK FOR MACMILLAN IS A TEAM EFFORT
On Friday 30th July, Jason Perry, Director at ASL Recruitment in Hastings, began a six day challenge to walk the South Downs Way in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
Jason is planning to walk the entire 100 miles from Winchester to Eastbourne over a six day period.
Jason started the walk in Winchester last Friday with a little help from his two daughters, Katie aged 6 and Lauren aged five, who joined him for the first five miles. Jason will complete the remaining 30 miles this Saturday and will be joined by colleagues John Marcroft, Iveta Vajzrova and Emma Smith on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th August to walk the end section of the route from Brighton to Eastbourne.
As a member of The Employment Agents Movement (TEAM), ASL Recruitment is one of over 300 recruitment agents who are taking part in the TEAM and Macmillan £100 challenge which is set to raise over £30,000 for Macmillan. ASL Recruitment have already smashed their £100 target and have currently raised £1138 through their two fundraising pages www.justgiving.com/asl and www.justgiving.com/jasonperry The team are hoping to raise a total of £2,500.
Jason Perry said, “A few years ago I took part in a sponsored abseil at Guys Hospital so when we were asked to take on the TEAM £100 challenge for Macmillan I thought a 100 mile walk would be the perfect next challenge as it is so far beyond anything I have done before. The most walking I do is to take the dog for a couple of miles at the weekend! So this is big for me. My knees are starting to recover from the past few days however I am looking forward to the last leg of the challenge this weekend.
Almost all of us have had our lives touched by cancer in some way, whether a close family member, a friend, or perhaps a colleague. The work Macmillan does is vital to helping those affected in such a positive way during very challenging times. Please do help us and support Macmillan by giving to this worthy charity.”
Helen Rogers, Macmillan fundraising manager said, “I was amazed when Jason told me he and his colleagues at ASL were planning on walking the South Downs Way. They have raised a fantastic amount already for Macmillan which will help us to make a real difference to the lives of people affected by cancer, for example £380 could pay for a stair lift for someone with cancer to help them stay at home during treatment, £191 could fund a Macmillan nurse for one day and just £10 could pay for a Macmillan benefits advisor to meet with someone with cancer, helping them to access the benefits they are entitled to and taking away the stress which can be caused by money worries.
We wish all the ASL team the best of luck with the walk and would like to say a huge thank you to them and everyone who has generously supported their challenge”.
Inspired by ASL Recruitment? Please support ASL’s fundraising by visiting www.justgiving.com/asl. For more information about Macmillan and how you can help or for cancer support please visit www.macmillan.org.uk or call 0808 808 00 00
ENDS
For more information please contact
Helen Rogers, Macmillan fundraising manager
01252 714818 or hrogers@macmillan.org.uk
Day two
Another day has passed… And I am wondering why I decided to do this walk. Then I remember the money we have raised for Macmillan and it all seems worth it again. I think! Seriously, over £1000 so far. But you can give more at www.justgiving.com/jasonperry
So day two started well. I had to cover more ground than originally planned due to the delays in Exton yesterday. So I started just east on Old Winchester Hill. Quickly I found my pace and was delighted the aches and pains from yesterday disappeared and had no impact on me.
Initially, I had to dodge a lot of bicycles as some 300+ were doing a Winchester to Eastbourne ride in just one day for the British Heart Foundation… There were a few scary moments.
I made good time and found some walking companions in Andy, Roy and Arthur who started around the same point as me. By mid morning I was being rained upon, so was very pleased to escape the rain for a pub in Buriton for lunch. I did not remain pleased for long… If it were not for the downpour I’d have left the pub for a decent one!
As I said yesterday, I intended to post my progress vie everytrail where I was tracking my progress on the iPhone app. Sadly, once again it failed by lunchtime. The idea is great if you are going for an hours walk, but the iPhone battery simply can’t deliver on an app like this due to the battery life being so poor.
As the afternoon started the rain stopped and I started to see some of the stunning countryside the south downs way is so famous for. Beacon Hill was a tad challenging as it was more like rock climbing than a stroll up a hillside! The descent was quite unnerving too!
As the day started to draw to a close, I was delighted mrs p was meeting me near the finish. By know my aches and pains were creeping in. I think I have covered just over 20 miles today. My knees feel terrible and I am hoping a goods night sleep and rest will enable me to battle on tomorrow. The good news is no more blisters today!
As the day drew to a close I was amused as I looked at the map and saw the final route to my overnight stay. As I descended the south downs way path through Cocking Down, I then passed through Warren Bottom before arriving at my overnight destination – cocking.
Until tomorrow…
All the best
Day one… Blister one
So day one is over… And my legs are still intact!
Mrs P drove me to Winchester, and my daughters came with us. Leaving at 6:30am, we had several hours of “are we nearly there yet?” followed by a little chef breakfast near bognor.
Eventually, at about 10am I set of from Winchester cathedral with my 6 year old walking companion. Katie was determined she wanted to do the 100 mile walk with daddy. She managed the first 3 miles I think before meeting Mrs P further along the route. At Which point Katie decided to lie down on the path and have a sleep!
Seriously, it was lovely to have Katie with me for the first couple of miles, but slow. I was relieved to be able to push ahead and start making some good time.
After the first 8 miles, Mrs P had located a good pub for lunch on the south downs way route. I don’t think I have ever been moor pleased to see a pub! After a short lunch, and many many (non alcoholic) drinks, I set of again making good time.
I had been tracking my journey by satellite using everytrail on my iPhone, to be uploaded to the Internet later. By the time I reached the next village of Exton, I was very pleased to have satnav. For some strange reason, the south downs way route has changed around Exton. My guide book helpfully explained the new route is not yet finalised and best advice is to follow the signposts.
I tried to follow the signposts! They are worse than useless around Exton. And it was not just me. The amount of lost walkers I met around Exton was shocking! After losing about an hour and a half, I gave up on the route and resorted to my satnav, and navigated my own way around Exton by road to pick up the route the other side of the village.
Having picked back up the route, and wasted a lot of time, I was now walking fast to make up lost time. The result of walking fast… Blister number 1 
Also, the wasted time caused my iPhone battery to run down very fast with the excessive reliance on it’s satnav application. Sadly, this meant as I finished the days walking it lost my tracking on everytrail! Very irritating.
So day one was about 17 miles, and one blister.
Just about to have breakfast then set off for day two in the rain! iPhone battery permitting, I will post this to the Internet later.
I hope you are having a more relaxing day then me!
All the best
Jason
www.justgiving.com/jasonperry
The Plan
I now know the date, time and location. So anyone thinking of joining me for my 100 mile sponsored walk to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Care has no excuse not to commit.
The Start
Friday 30th July
I start in Winchester, at the Cathedral. Walking east, I will walk towards Exton, leaving the South Downs Way for my first overnight stay at a B&B in East Meon near Petersfield. I then will obviously need to find a local Pub to rejuvenate myself for the next days walking.
Saturday 31 July
From East Meon, I will pick up the South Downs Way, passing through the Queen Elizabeth Country Park and spending the second night just off the path in the village of Cocking, just south of Midhurst.
Sunday 1st August
On Sunday, I will continue easterly and blisters permitting hope to reach Storrington in time for an evening meal and I am sure a well needed sleep.
Monday 2nd August
The last day of my initial stage of the walk, I will aim to reach Pyecombe, just north of Brighton. Here I live in hope that some kind and generous person will take pity on me and offer me a car journey home to Burwash!
Four days of rest…
For the next four days, I will aim to relax in the office before starting again for a final two days to complete the 100 mile route
Saturday 7th August
Day 5 of my route will start with lots of support. Pretty much the entire of the ASL Recruitment team will be joining me. We will start just north of Bright, in the village of Pyecombe and head towards Newhaven where we will stop for the night in the village of Rodmell, situated just between Lewes and Newhaven. Fortunately we have a very nice B&B booked opposite what I am told is a rather delightful village pub! I feel this route is taking the concept of Pub walks to a new level!
Sunday 8th August
The final stage… we will start Sunday morning (assuming the evening at the Abergaveny Arms was not to demanding!) early and continue for one of the most dramatic stages of the walk towards the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head, arriving in Eastbourne late on Sunday afternoon.
If you have not already shown your support by sponsoring me – Please visit www.justgiving.com/jasonperry or www.justgiving.com/asl and do so now! Alternatively, please do join me for all or some of the walk. Let me know which part by posting a comment on this blog or e-mailing me. I am looking forward to a few of you joining me on this walk.
All the best,
Jason
Job Vacancy: England Football Coach
As I sit here writing this post, I ought to start of with an admission. I am probably the only man in the UK who has no interest in football – honest its true!! Even Mrs P has complained that I don’t watch the England game with her when we play a national game! She tells me I should be more patriotic.
But seriously, as I hear the headlines about how well (or badly!!) we are doing, and what Wayne Rooney has to say about the fans, there are a few points we can think about regarding our national football coach. It seems to me whenever we play, (and lose) an international football tournament, we usually sack the England manager very shortly afterward. Now I don’t know whether Fabio Capello is any good or not – I assume he must be in order to be selected for the role in the first place. But here is the question – Why would anyone want to do that job?
Surely it has to be about attractive a job as being Labour Party Leader to replace Gordon Brown…. in the months running up to the 2010 general election? There are very good reasons why no one wanted to take over from him.
Now I am not saying those who support our national team should not expect the very best from our coach and players. But surely if we are to be the very best in this sport we need the very best candidates for important roles like our national manager. In order to do that we need to have the very best range of applicants who actually want the job. I am sure I recall prior to Capello being appointed the news headlines were full of famous football managers ruling themselves.
So what do I know about this? Well about football – absolutely nothing. About Recruitment I hope a thing or two!
We need to remember there are two parts – first Recruitment, then Selection. You can not select the right candidate from the shortlist available, if you do not first Recruit a pool of interested applicants from which to shortlist. I guess in Recruitment this is where the internet is changing everything. With the advance of job board and e-mail job alerts, the internet can make your vacancy available to the largest available pool of applicants available. Where we can’t have this wide pool of possible applicants, there is still an important reason to make the role as attractive as possible, and sell the benefits to possible applicants. And we need to make the role attractive whether we win or lose. After all, we only get the very best out of people when we provide the right environment for them to work in.
In my view, this will mean significant growth in online flat fee recruitment companies, like my own Hunt4Staff or James Caan’s Webrecruit. Will this be at the expense of traditional recruiters? I think not. I am very certain from my own experience there is always a place for a Recruitment Agency when a role is more challenging to fill. But when candidates are out there and using the web to circulate their CV’s, paying a flat fee of £595 to Hunt4Staff really ought to be more appealing than a few thousand pounds to a recruitment agency for an easy to fill role.
Does this mean I can recruit the next England Coach? I think not – that is one role which does still require a more in-depth approach. And as I write this a few hours before we play Germany, I am hoping we can still do well enough that he won’t need to be replaced quite yet!
All the best,
Jason
Sales Representative – A Job Title To Be Proud Of
There was a time when “Sales Representative” was one of the most respected job titles available, perhaps only beaten by “Sales Manager”. But something has happened. Something has changed. Why is it that we all, and I sadly include myself in this, try to hide the job role and call it a Business Development Executive, Client Relationship Manger or Account Manager. Even an old fashions desk based tele-sales role could now be re branded as an “internal client development executive.”
Well, I think I am turning into a grumpy old man and have not even reached 40! Turn the clock back I say… bring back the days when a sales man (or woman!) could be proud of their profession. After all, it is the Sales Rep who keeps the rest of us in work. No new business and we would all soon be out of work. So what has gone wrong?
Speaking as someone who was busy selling Kitchens and Double Glazing to supplement my income in my college days, I have no problem with commission based sales roles when they are done well. But we have all seen the very bad sales staff who plague us with poor telephone skills, pestering us to change our telecoms provider, or have a free trial of a water cooler. I think in essence we, the employers, have let our standards slip and put poorly trained people into roles they were not suited for then treated them badly – all in pursuit of extra sales. Too many sales employers have thought the job was unskilled and did not require training. Many have even “employed” computers or “robo-dailers” to make the inital sales calls for them. How many of us enjoy taking an automated phone call saying “press one if you would like a free quote” – I for one despair at this approach to sales and look forward to the death of this horrid development.
The result. No one wants to put themselves into this position. It’s a risk and a risk to far for many would be sales trainees, with poor conditions, poor training, poor reward and high stress. Why would you?
I say this whilst seeking two tele-sales staff. I look at the sales roles I have done over the years and think about the role. Not a challenging one, but with a basic salary and an OTE of high £20k’s to mid £30k’s – a well rewarded one for the right candidate. A role I would have been delighted to do in my early career!
Yes, it is cold calling, but what is wrong with that. Surely sitting at a desk talking to people for £30k a year ought to be appealing when you compare it to other local salary levels? Based in Hastings, with such high unemployment locally, you would think there would be a choice of applicants. But no. Having run two weeks worth of advertising for experienced applicants of this type of role – we have seen just a small handful of experienced applicants. And of those, none have yet responded to our request for interview.
So for my part, I now need to invent a new title for my sales role which in non offensive to those who are simply too nervous to apply for a “sales” role. I need to gently persuade them this is a telephone market research role with high bonus payments. Alas, we see how the once respected title of Sales Rep has disappeared.
I am now recruiting for a telephone market research and data cleansing administrator!
A sad day for the best profession in the world.
All the best,
Jason
About Jason Perry
I started my career within HR & Training, and became a qualified member of the CIPD and am now a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel & Development. In 1994 I started Assessment Systems – a business providing specialist consultancy in the area of Assessment Testing and Psychometrics. In 1999 we launched our second company, ASL Recruitment. We took the experience of providing assessment expertise and started trying to transform the high street recruitment market. In addition, we handled a number of senior and specialist roles. In 2009, we launched our new venture, Hunt4Staff.com delivering an online flat fee recruitment service for just £595. An active member of TEAM, The Employment Agents Movement, I sit on the National Executive of this organisation and am a Regional Director in the South East of England. I enjoy living in rural East Sussex with my wife and two daughters and take a far too enthusiastic, and perhaps even an interfering interest in politics.
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