E-Recruitment Buddy Born Podcast

My interview on the born podcast is now live!
Although I am no fan of my own voice I think I managed to get across my passion for the business and my knowledge and understanding of the marketplace.

Thanks to Julian Stopps for taking time out to interview me. I really enjoyed the process and its made me think I should start doing a monthly podcast of my own.

If you want to hear all about e-recruitment buddy then go and have a listen.



Born Podcast Audio Player

Quality Matters – It’s Not Just About The Fee

I've been thinking about this a lot lately - how to get across the difference between e-recruitment buddy and some of the similar businesses out there. So I have a few wise words for companies considering utilising the services of a ‘fixed fee recruiter’. I appreciate that often the motivation for turning to a fixed fee recruiter is the obvious fact that the fee is considerably lower than that of a traditional introduction fee. However, don’t just jump feet first without careful consideration. What other factors should you look at prior to signing an agreement:

- How much recruitment (traditional or otherwise) does your personal account manager have?
- In what sectors have they previously recruited within?
- Find out what they know about your industry and whether they do completely understand your needs.
- Do they offer bespoke advertising on niche boards specific to your vacancy or do they just advertise on as many sources they have contracts with and keep their fingers crossed?
- It is not about the number of sources they advertise on – it is about the quality of those sources and the relevance to your job – and of course the quality, not the volume, of candidates.
- Have they worked for a job-board in all aspects of the cycle – from the technical understanding of how the site works to sales through to marketing and candidate attraction?
- Why do some fixed fee recruiters offer a ‘pseudo’ money back guarantee if they truly believe in their service? We assume you don’t want your money back – you want to fill your role.

e-recruitment buddy offers the personal touch to each client, a bespoke tailored service to match your requirements. We don’t want to offer you a ‘deal’ or reduce our charges just to meet a sales target – we want to offer you the best service possible, at a fair rate and build a long term recruitment relationship.

We are not a pile it high sell it cheap recruiter, we don’t ‘process’ your vacancy but work on it with great attention to detail and passion gained from years of experience in the industry. My personal 12 years combined recruitment & job-board experience puts me in a very strong position to source suitable candidates. I’ve worked in high-street agencies, for big players & small niches, I’ve been a very successful recruiter and 5 years ago I set up from scratch a niche jobs board which became & still is a key job-board in the legal jobs sector. When I sold this in 2007 I had experienced the job-board industry from so many angles, which is a distinct benefit to the clients I now work with.

So why shop at Tesco’s when you can get the best at Harrods? I would welcome the opportunity to work on your vacancies and to prove what an excellent service we offer. For more details contact me directly on 01985 219590.

UK Job Prospects Are Deteriorating ‘At An Alarming Rate’

I enjoyed this Article by Claire West @ www.freshbusinessthinking.com and wanted to share it with you……

The latest quarterly CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development)/KPMG survey of employers’ recruitment and redundancy plans indicates that UK job prospects are deteriorating ‘at an alarming rate’ while the size of average pay rises is shrinking.

The winter Labour Market Outlook (LMO) survey of 892 UK employers, conducted by Ipsos Mori at the turn of the year, finds that more than one in three (36%) plan to cut jobs in the first quarter of 2009 – double the proportion expecting to make job cuts at the time of the previous LMO survey last autumn. The LMO records a negative balance of -9 percentage points between the proportion of employers planning to cut jobs (36%) and the proportion planning to hire additional staff (27%). This is the first such negative balance recorded in the five years since the LMO survey began in 2004.

The latest LMO survey also finds that employers intend to keep a much tighter rein on pay increases in the coming months. Those who plan pay reviews expect staff pay to increase on average by 2.6%, much lower than the 3.5% average increase expected last autumn. But as many as one in eight employers don’t intend to conduct a pay review at all in 2009.

John Philpott, Chief Economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) comments:“These latest LMO figures suggest that job prospects are deteriorating at an alarming rate. The labour market outlook is clearly even worse than expected at the turn of the year. Official statistics later this week will confirm that unemployment passed 2 million at the end of 2008. It now seems sadly inevitable that UK unemployment will top 3million before the jobs market finally starts to recover”.

Andrew Smith, Chief Economist at KPMG comments: "The speed of deterioration in the labour market is breath-taking. Higher unemployment will weaken demand which in turn will lead to higher unemployment. With interest rate policy running out of room this latest survey underlines the urgent need for alternative monetary policy measures - so called quantative easing - to ameliorate the risk of a downward spiral becoming entrenched and turning what already looks like a grim recession into something even worse."

It’s Snow Joke for 1000s of Businesses

It was an ill wind that drove the snow storms across the UK adding more woe to an already suffering economy. Despite being predicted snow when it hit London & the South East on Sunday evening and Monday 2nd February no one could have predicted the chaos that followed. From all London buses being completely stopped to most tube & train lines either delayed or cancelled.

Whilst it is fun for many, having a day at home or venturing out to sledge or build a snowman – many SMES will suffer a back-lash from the fact that their workforce are absent. It is estimated that about 20% of the UK work force didn’t make it to work on Monday 2nd February. The cost to businesses across the UK due to lack of production has been estimated by the Federation of Small Business to be somewhere in the region of £1.2 bn, that figure will rise when you add in the passing trade that would also have been lost. The closure of the tubes and buses in London would cost the economy £48 million in itself. Coming on top of the recession the snow is bad news for UK business.

Monster Mistake

Major online recruitment player Monster has suffered its second major data hack in the last 18 months. On January 23rd Monster admitted that its database had been compromised and that certain details and phone numbers had been taken.

The data stolen from Monster included telephone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth and gender details. This kind of data is a goldmine for phising attacks and leaves the user open to the sly installation of malware and trojans.

Luckily it doesn’t seem that a bulk download of CVs occurred or the users would be open to identity theft as most CVs contain addresses, national insurance numbers and current employers details.

If Monster is to become the trusted brand that their advertising is aiming for, then they need tighten up the security so that job seekers feel safe uploading their personal details. Come on Monster sort it out – in a such a competitive market where candidates are in abundance, anything that will deter them from using their site will have a knock on effect on their advertising revenues.

Is your job recession proof?

Are you looking over your shoulder wondering if your job will be next for the chop? It seems since we have officially been in recession and everyone from partners at law firms to sales staff at Woolworths have been losing their jobs we have been suffering from job insecurity.

Yahoo have brought a ray of sunshine to some lucky souls with their list of the top ten most recession proof jobs.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out the top two safest jobs are those of teaching and working in the NHS but can you guess the rest of the list? If you were on Family Fortunes with Vernon could you name the other eight? Are you praying your job is on the list? Should you be as worried as Gordon Brown or Tony Adams or is your future as sure footed as The Queen? See the full list.

3 Weeks Since Launch: My Thoughts – High Five!

4th – 23rd January 2009 has been a busy start to the year for me. Work-wise I’ve successfully completed 2 recruitment advertising campaigns, visited several potential clients, quoted for numerous projects and written & distributed a press release regarding our PPC division. What else? I’ve written & secured an article regarding pay per click job advertising in the legal market to be published in at least 2 trade press.

Last night I was asked to do an interview for the BORN podcast which I’m really chuffed about. One of my competitors in the fixed fee recruitment market released PR that almost mirrored what I had written several weeks before – initially, when reading it with disbelief, I was annoyed @ the blatant copying and couldn’t believe the ‘cheek’, but then I simply found it amusing and in some way I guess a compliment. The fixed fee division of our business is just one offering to clients and all our combined elements presents employers with a ‘one stop shop’ to suit all their needs – so stick that in your pipe & smoke it Mr C!. We also achieved a number ONE organic ranking in MSN search for the term ‘online recruitment advertising’ – quite an achievement in such a short space of time. Our website has had 400 visits over the last few weeks which I am also pretty impressed with.

The icing on the cake has got to be today - 2 clients I’d pitched for business have said YES! One opting for our combined vacancy management & resourcing service, which in this case includes additional advertising on high calibre sites like theguardianjobs to pitch at the right level of candidate, and the other a fixed fee standard campaign – both clients will save a decent amount of £££ from their usual routes. Great!

From a personal point of view – I’ve visited the gym 6 times (3x less than I should have!!), lost 4lbs, turned 37, cuddled & comforted my Son for a day when he was unwell & caught up with many of my girlfriends at a party. I’ve been asked to be a god mum to my friend’s little girl, Amelia, had physio on my knees and paid a rather large Tax bill. I think that’s it …. Nearly forgot, I bought an i-phone & am loving it … Phew!