More Sugar - The Apprentice 2009

The Apprentice kicks off again this week and at e-recruitment buddy we can’t wait. We have been fans since the first series and love to watch the aspiring baby Alan Sugars fluff simple tasks, stitch each other up and fight for who is the most nakedly ambitious wannabe.

If the previous series has taught us anything it is that Sir Alan doesn’t like posh academics, lawyers and strong minded women. Saira Khan should have won the first series, Ruth Badger was head & shoulders above everyone else in series 2 and last year Claire Young somehow lost out to Lee “now that’s what I am talking about” McQueen who even lied on his CV and somehow still won!

Looking at this years candidates I have a feeling that Ben Clarke and Kate Walsh are possessed by the kind of hubris that could see them leave the show early. If I was a betting person then I would place a few quid on either Lorraine Tighe or Rocky Andrews as they have the sort of background that seems to appeal to Sir Alan. Roll on murder in the boardroom and back-stabbing in the house!

This is classic Apprentice, terrible decisions & Rory Lang “I am your boss!”

1000 Knock-Backs – This Guy Should Have a Medal!

Morning all! I just couldn’t help say a few words about this story from the Metro at the weekend. This job-hunter finally found a job after 5 months of looking and over 1000 rejections!! I think that would have put me in a mental asylum, despite having incredibly thick-skin I would have been so down-trodden and given up. Who knows?

42 year old Jeff Scott “went for posts ranging from meat packer to barman in the past five months in a bid to find work in Britain after being abroad for ten years. But he suffered rejection after rejection as companies laid staff off during the recession before landing a job as business development manager at a marketing company.”

It does sound like he pretty much applied for everything going but good on him and well done Jeff on your new BDM Job – far better than being a meat packer!!

Social Networking and the Recruitment Process

Can social networking and recruitment really be happy and contented partners? Is there a real synergy between them? The UK is currently lagging behind Europe when using social networking as a tool for the recruitment process.

“The 'Aquent Orange Book 2008-2009' survey found that between 2% and 7% of UK candidates and employers use social networking websites for recruitment purposes.However, 39% of German candidates, 34% of French candidates, 30% of Polish candidates and 23% of candidates from the Netherlands rated social networking sites as a preferred method of job seeking….”

There appears to be some resistance from direct employers and recruitment agencies with the use of social networks to assist in the recruitment process. The appeal of social networking sites to employers is a simple numbers game - the sheer scale of membership of sites like Facebook is viewed as goldmine of potential candidates waiting to be tapped into by recruitment agencies and direct employers. The issue is how to use social networking effectively.

At e-recruitment buddy the focus is always on the job specification and then finding social networks or forums that match the required skills of the role. There is no one size fits all rule for social networking, you want to place the job in front of the right candidates and let them make the decisions about applying. If you attempt to sell into social networks in a traditional sense you risk alienating the very audience you are attempting to attract. You need to create the right network of contacts and be aware of which sites suit which type of role.

E-recruitment buddy can unable you to enter into the social networking/recruitment space without fear of embarrassing slip ups or potential damage to your brand image. We manage the process for you and deliver passive candidates that are not registered with job boards or actively looking for work. The role of social networking sites in the recruitment process is only going to increase. Stay ahead of the curve by using e-recruitment buddy for your online recruitment.

Auditing Your Online Presence - Could Your Facebook account cost you a job?

In these harsh economic times with more and more applications for each and every role it is vitally important that you think about your online digital footprint.

Before you even start an online job search you should “google” yourself in both web results and image searches to see if anything unflattering is returned. If you find anything you wouldn’t want an employer to see then make sure it is taken down. The ability to track a digital footprint does depend on a number of things, if you have a fairly common name and live in a big city then it maybe be harder to find you. However a prospective employer armed with your CV, which normally has current and former places of work and educational details, can make a fairly good stab at finding you.

Many firms and recruitment agencies now employ people to trawl through cyberspace looking for information on potential new employees. Those stag or hen weekend photos on facebook? Are they really something you want your new boss to see? The rather cutting blog post about your old firm won’t do you any favours. You should think about possibly closing down or at least suspending your social networking accounts while you are job hunting or at least making them clean and family friendly – or use a different name! Make sure you tie down your privacy settings so that only friends and family can view your personal content. One of the issues with something like facebook is that you cannot control what your “friends” put on their pages. A prospective employer may have a quick scan through them to get a feel for your social life. Nothing to hide then fine but can any of us really claim that?

This You Tube video nicely sums up my thoughts on the issue.

Michelle Jones - online recruitment ©

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."