Recruiter April 2014 by Redactive Media Group

April 2014

www.recruiter.co.uk

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE FOR RECRUITMENT AND RESOURCING PROFESSIONALS

Shane Lynch Islington Councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s HR director explains how austerity measures have affected his work and how he is dealing with yet more cutbacks Last chance to book your table for the Recruiter Awards 2014!

in association with

THE CHALLENGE

SPECIAL REPORT In a global, online search market, understanding the jobseeker is more important than ever before

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Echo Managed Services helped RAF Careers take off in pursuit of new recruits

RECRUITING POLITICS Matthew Jeffery argues that politicians can learn a lot from recruiters when it comes to winning votes

Recruitment Matters 09/04/2014 14:22

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Contents

On the eve of the Recruiter Awards for Excellence gala, it’s our pleasure to tip our hat to two recruitment industry stars who have garnered the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise 2014 for their achievements in International Trade: IT & telecoms recruiter Penta Consulting and energy recruiter Spencer Ogden. Winner of Recruiter’s Best International Recruitment Agency honours in 2013, Penta has been recognised with this latest plaudit for outstanding growth in overseas sales earnings over the last three years. To the company’s credit, this year’s recognition is its second Queen’s Enterprise Award. Spencer Ogden’s citation highlights its centralised invoicing centre that has helped the company mitigate threats of fluctuations in foreign currency to its rapidly growing international business. Such recognition reflects most honourably on the far-sighted ambitions, achievements, entrepreneurial nature and professionalism of the UK recruitment industry. Congratulations to both organisations! Creativity and innovation are qualities not regularly associated with the public sector — if you’ll forgive me for saying so. However, a read of our profile on Islington Council HR director Shane Lynch from p30 and our recently published online article about the Yoo Recruit initiative at the Wolverhampton City Council (www.recruiter.co.uk/news/2014/04/ wolverhampton-city-council-launches-its-own-tempagency-yoo-recruit) suggests that the stereotype is in need of a rethink. Looking forward to seeing you at our Recruiter Awards y on 7 May!

NEWS Bloomberg tests students for ﬁnancial aptitude

City employers have access to a targeted database

Engagement key to attraction Local jobs for local people

Islington Council’s HR director highlights how difﬁcult the aim is

FEATURES 30 COVER STORY Shane Lynch, HR director, Islington Council 34 The job board evolution Despite all the technological changes in recruitment surrounding social media, the job board seems very much here to stay

Get over to Germany

A presence in the country is imperative, especially with Southern German clients 8 Tech & tools 12 Special reports

Understanding the jobseeker — Indeed 14 RPOs need to transform businesses, clients say 12

ANALYSIS 16 Sector Analysis Healthcare 19 Global Spotlight on Singapore — Mun Wai Wong 26 Insight Playing to strengths

REGULARS 15 On tumblr this month 20 Interaction

Soapbox: Dan King Ricky Martin Soundbites 28 The Challenge 20 20 25

RAF Careers and Echo Managed Services 38 Movers & Shakers Industry moves 42 Bloggers with Bite:

Matthew Jeffery

WHO’S HIRING? 39 Search 40 HiltonLord Associates, Link

DeeDee Doke, Editor

Scan here to get your own copy of Recruiter

Recruitment Solutions, Paciﬁc Associates Ltd (PAL) 41 Simple Recruitment Solutions

EDITORIAL Editor: DeeDee Doke T: +44 (0)20 7880 7601 deedee.doke@recruiter.co.uk Senior reporter: Colin Cottell T: +44 (0)20 7880 7603 colin.cottell@recruiter.co.uk Reporter: Matt Bodimeade T: +44 (0)20 7880 7606 matt.bodimeade@recruiter.co.uk Contributing writers: Sue Weekes, Mun Wai Wong Production editor: Vanessa Townsend T: +44 (0)20 7880 7602 vanessa.townsend@recruiter.co.uk Art editor: Adrian Taylor ADVERTISING Business development manager: Tom Culley T: +44 (0)20 7880 7607 tom.culley@recruiter.co.uk Display sales executive: Jasmine Pengelly T: +44 (0)20 7880 6205 jasmine.pengelly@recruiter.co.uk Recruitment advertising: Amalia Zafeiratou +44 (0)20 7880 7608 amalia@redactive.co.uk Fax +44 (0)20 7880 7553 PRODUCTION Deputy production manager: Kieran Tobin T: +44 (0)20 7880 6240 kieran.tobin@redactive.co.uk PUBLISHING Publishing director: Aaron Nicholls T: +44 (0)20 7880 8547 aaron. nicholls@redactive.co.uk RECRUITER AWARDS Events: Juliette Bond T: +44 (0)20 7324 2771 juliette.bond@redactive.co.uk CIRCULATION and SUBSCRIPTIONS To receive a regular copy of Recruiter, the leading magazine for recruitment and resourcing professionals, telephone +44 (0)20 8950 9117 or email recruiter@abacusemedia.com • Recruiter is also available to people who do not meet our terms of control: Annual subscription rate for 12 issues: £29.99 UK £35 Europe and Rest of the World • To purchase reprints or multiple copies of the magazine, contact Ryan Hadden T: +44 (0)20 7880 7618 ryan.hadden@redactive.co.uk

Total average net circulation between 1 July 2012 & 30 June 2013 – 19,289. Recruiter is also sent to all REC members

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CONTRIBUTIONS Contributions are invited, but when not accepted will be returned only if accompanied by a fully stamped and addressed envelope. Articles should be emailed. No responsibility can be taken for drawings, photographs or literary contributions during delivery, transmission or in the editor’s hands. © 2014 Redactive Media Group. All rights reserved. This publication (and any part thereof) may not be reproduced, transmitted or stored in print or electronic format (including but not limited to any online service, any database or any part of the internet) or in any other format in any media whatsoever, without the prior written permission of Redactive Media Group. Redactive Media Group accepts no liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein. The publishers cannot accept liability for any loss arising from the late appearance or non-publication of any advertisement for any reason whatsoever. ISSN 1475-7478

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BLOOMBERG DATABASE TESTS FOR APTITUDE FOR CITY EMPLOYERS International financial software, data and media company Bloomberg is making a determined foray into the world of recruitment by offering employers access to the results of an aptitude test taken by tens of thousands of university students around the world interested in a career in financial services. The aptitude test, called the Bloomberg Aptitude Test (BAT), was devised by Bloomberg through the Bloomberg Institute, which was established in 2010, and headed up by New York-based Rob Langrick. Langrick told Recruiter that students who take the BAT are tested for aptitudes that are typically valued by employers in financial services, such as mathematical ability, analytical reasoning, and the ability to interpret financial news and charts. Following the test, each student is given a Bloomberg Score, which places them in a certain percentile of all those who have taken the test. Employers are able to “slice and dice” the database, said Langrick, allowing them to select students and download

Getting students with the right aptitude for City jobs

student resumes based on criteria of their choosing, such as degree type, university and Bloomberg Score. Employers can also pre-qualify those students that they wish to take to the next stage of the recruitment process. The database is automatically provided to users of the Bloomberg terminal that is widely used as a trading platform in

News financial services. However, employers can also pay for a web-based tool that gives them access to the database. Students can take the test free of charge. Langrick said that 80,000 students took the test in 2013, with more than 100,000 expected to do so this year. He said that 771 employers have signed up for the web tool. Langrick said he believed that the Institute had created “a virtuous circle”. “The more students take the test, the more employers want to search the database, and the more employers search and download the database, the more students want to take the test,” he said. He added that while the test was not mandatory for students wanting to enter financial services, “we would like it to become a passport for students anywhere round the world to show employers and to get great jobs in great financial institutions”. COLIN COTTELL colin.cottell@recruiter.co.uk

ENGAGEMENT: WINNING RESOURCING TECHNIQUE OF THE FUTURE A US recruiting operations expert predicts that branding, advertising and the ability to engage with candidates will become “the true differentiator” in recruitment, and not direct sourcing, as technology and the amount of freely accessible information online about people level the recruiting playing field. While direct sourcing of the ‘right candidates for the right jobs’ has been widely touted as a leading source of hiring in the LinkedIn era of pinpointing candidates online, that simply isn’t the case, Jason Roberts, vice president of operations, Randstad Sourceright, has told Recruiter. “Technology is completely levelling the playing field for us,” Roberts said. “And as more and more people offer up their information for free on LinkedIn, Facebook

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and Twitter, then everyone can have access to the same thing.” And in the future, Roberts went on to say: “If everybody’s able to find the same candidates… then what we have to do is our Jason Roberts very best in attracting candidates to us and selling those candidates on the position itself. “The true differentiator is going to be capturing the attention, branding, advertising and specifically candidate engagement… The best at engaging their candidates is the winner of the future.” Roberts has previously worked in both agency and corporate recruiting. He was the sole inventor of consulting company Accenture’s Candidate Pipeline Analytics System. He spoke to Recruiter in a telephone interview about current and future sourcing in recruitment trends. “If you’re a pure researcher, you’re in trouble,” Roberts said. “If all you do is sit on the internet and find candidates, and you’re

the best on the planet at writing a Boolean search string, your value is still there; it’s just not going to be a differentiator for long. Everyone will be able to do that.” But, he added, “if you’re a sourcer who is good at picking up the phone, building relationships, building up your Rolodex over a period of time, finding the right job for the person and making that match, you’ll be even more valuable. That’s the engagement skill that’s necessary”. Roberts referred to the US-based CareerXRoads’ Sources of Hire 2013: Perception is Reality research, which revealed that direct sourcing accounted for less than 7% of hires in 2012 amongst the 37 responding companies. In contrast, the companies’ career sites were credited as the source of nearly 24% of external hires. The responding companies had filled 185,450 openings and represented 1,591 recruiters. The report described “direct sourcing” in terms of candidates that had been “sourced, identified and directly contacted that eventually became hires”. DEEDEE DOKE deedee.doke@recruiter.co.uk

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News Events NUS How to get hired Live by TARGETJobs and Bright Futures 22 April, Wembley Stadium, London targetjobsevents.co.uk/howto-get-hired-live

ERE Recruiting Conference & Expo 2014 22-24 April, San Diego Convention Centre, San Diego, CA ererecruitingconference. com/2014spring/

Association of Recruitment Consultancies Summer Social 7 May, Riverside Terrace at The House of Commons, London. arc-org.net/

Recruiter Awards for Excellence 2014 7 May, Grosvenor House Hotel, London recruiterawards.co.uk **Table bookings going fast**

Thoughts from recruiter.co.uk, Twitter and beyond…

“Being ‘good’ is easy. What is difficult is being ‘just’ ” STEPHEN MOIR, DIRECTOR OF PEOPLE, NHS ENGLAND, AT THE ‘CHANGING CONTOURS OF ORGANISATIONAL FAIRNESS’ EVENT IN LONDON

LOCAL JOBS FOR LOCAL PEOPLE IS HARD SAYS ISLINGTON’S LYNCH Efforts to employ more local people have become increasingly difficult in the digital age, according to Islington Council’s HR director. Shane Lynch told Recruiter that the council hit its 30% aspiration for employing residents living in the borough in 2013, partly as a result of its previous policy of offline targeted advertising in local schools, youth centres and libraries, which increased the chances of people living locally applying for jobs. “When we could put ads in libraries, it was much easier to restrict the audience; however, this has become more difficult in the digital age,” said Lynch. “When you put an advert online everyone from here to Australia can see it within seconds,” he explained. Lynch said that another factor making it more difficult to recruit local people was anti-

Shane Lynch at Islington Council

discrimination legislation. “We haven’t been able, on legal advice, to just restrict vacancies saying ‘only people from Islington can apply’ — there are clear risks around discrimination.” Other initiatives by the council to boost employment of local people included an apprenticeship scheme where it took on over

100 residents, and working with schools and colleges to promote the council as an employer. The council’s team BEST (Business and Employment Support Team) that works with businesses to help them recruit locally, emails its clients such as the long-term unemployed, and single parents, and helps with applications and interview coaching. The council’s policy of bringing its previously outsourced services in-house had also boosted the proportion of residents in its 5,200-strong workforce. Lynch said that one unexpected benefit of employing Islington residents is that they take an average of only one day off sick a year, compared to 5.9 days for staff across the council as a whole. One in three council staff now live within the borough, said Lynch. • For more, see Profile on p30. COLIN COTTELL colin.cottell@recruiter.co.uk

High Performance Workforce Summit 2014 28-29 May, Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atlanta, USA highperformancework forcesummit.com/2014/

Social Recruiting Strategies Conference 24-26 June, Doubletree By Hilton Hotel, London socialrecruitingstrategies. com/

Women 1st Conference 2014 3 July, Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square, London events/25-women-1stconference-2014

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GOOD RECRUITMENT CAMPAIGN LAUNCHES •

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY will be the first sectors targeted to sign on to the Good Recruitment Campaign, which was launched last week by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC). In conjunction with more than a dozen UK employers, the campaign aims to drive solid recruiting practices and improve the provision of recruitment services. The Good Recruitment Campaign is intended to be a longterm effort “to work towards over a number of years”, REC chief executive officer Kevin Green told an audience of about 60 people at the morning launch event in Central London. REC chief executive officer Kevin Green at the launch “We will do this sector by sector,” Green went on to say about driving the campaign forward. The campaign contains a nine-principle charter, among which are commitments to ask that external recruitment providers are signed up to “industry codes of practice”, offering flexible working arrangements and adaptive working practices “wherever possible”. Other principles are to undertake relevant training and qualifications, and apply “good recruitment practice” to temporary, contract, fixed-term, zero-hours and parttime workers. The REC said that employers who sign up to the charter will be given access to self-assessment tools “so they can evaluate their own processes and identify areas for development”. The employers identified as having signed up to the charter and serving on an advisory panel to the REC are: Santander, Dixons Retail, the Financial Conduct Authority, Arsenal Football Club, Penguin Random House Group, G4S, First Group, AECOM, Care UK, Buckinghamshire County Council, Inchcape, Royal Mail, Scottish Zoological Society and NHS Employers. Other employers that have signed up to the charter are RWEnpower and Kingston University. DEEDEE DOKE deedee.doke@recruiter.co.uk WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

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News

“The interview process is like a form of passport control” BILL BOORMAN, SOCIAL MEDIA SPECIALIST

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF BEING CHOSEN AS RECRUITER’S CHARITY OF THE YEAR? In addition to receiving the proceeds of special activities held at Recruiter’s Awards for Excellence gala, long-term beneﬁts can result. In 2012, the event brought together the chosen charity, Oxfordshire-based employment charity Aspire Oxford, with Capita, the provider of business process management and outsourcing solutions giant. Since then, the two companies have formed a mutually beneﬁcial partnership, which helps Aspire Oxford get its recruits back into the workplace. The contract, which Capita awarded from a number of competitive quotes, primarily focuses on refurbishment work at the Fire Service College in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire. This year alone, Aspire has carried out £25k worth of work there. “The contract with Capita has given us an opportunity to demonstrate what we’re capable of, and it looks great for the men and women we recruit on their CVs,” said Paul Roberts, the charity’s employment & business development manager. Fraser Spence, strategic project director (interim) at the Capitaowned Fire Service College, said: “We recognised the good work they were doing and decided to look for opportunities to engage with them.”

“We are a professional industry but the world doesn’t realise it. We are misunderstood” BARRY ROBACK, ANDERSON GROUP

“The council can’t afford for it to become a white elephant” SIMON ALDIS, PROJECT MANAGER, YOO RECRUIT (WOLVERHAMPTON CITY COUNCIL’S NEW TEMP AGENCY)

GERMAN BUSINESS? GET OVER THERE! Recruitment industry observers suggest that a local presence in Germany is becoming increasingly important to successfully compete for business there. Fear of losing business drove IT technology recruiter Darwin Recruitment to Bavarians prefer the face-to-face approach open an office in Munich recently, the company’s chief executive officer has told Recruiter. The launch of a presence on the ground resulted when “in quick succession a number of customers said ‘We are not prepared to do any more business with you unless you come here’,” said Daniel Mulholland. Darwin’s new office officially opened for business on 31 March. Mulholland said that the clients, all based in Southern Germany, took the view that only by opening an office in Germany would Darwin show them the commitment they expected. When discussing matters such as preferred supplier lists (PSLs) and frameworks, “clients’ senior people were only prepared to do business in German”, he added. And while it was possible to continue serving clients in Northern Germany from London, “there is a stronger sense that customers [in the South] want to do business face to face… Doing business in Bavaria is different to doing business in other regions – it’s a regional country”, he said. James Ballard, director at HR, IT and business change recruiter Annapurna Recruitment, told Recruiter that for now, the company was servicing its German clients from London. “It’s a massive cost in terms of setting up a branch over there, and you also have to divert your staff from an existing successful office,” he said. However, he said that it was likely that Annapurna would open a German office at some stage. Thomas Leister, a partner in law firm Osborne Clarke’s recruitment team in Munich, told Recruiter that having a physical presence in the country undoubtedly helped UK staffing companies. However, he said that it depended on the client. “Whereas international companies don’t care whether or not staffing companies have this physical presence in Germany, middle-sized German companies are more likely to want to do business with companies based in the country.” COLIN COTTELL colin.cottell@recruiter.co.uk

PENNA KEEN TO LOOK TO ACQUISITIONS

SERVICES ﬁrm Penna is on the lookout for further acquisitions, following its •£1.1mRECRUITMENT cash purchase of HR consulting ﬁrm Savile Group in December, according to Penna’s chief

executive ofﬁcer. Gary Browning told Recruiter: “There are lot of good businesses, particularly recruitment businesses out there, that have had a difﬁcult few years, whose reserves are depleted and resources limited. Penna is a good option for them to grow again.” The company’s current Gary Browing strength in the public sector meant the private sector “would be interesting”, he added. Comparing a growth strategy based on acquisition and one based solely on organic growth, Browning added: “It’s quicker and in some ways easier to do acquisitions.” He said that Penna’s acquisition strategy had a key role to play in a tightening market for talented consultants. “Senior people joining us say they like the ability to take on a much broader agenda than they could in their previous employment,” he said. Penna favours doing cash deals similar to the Savile Group arrangement, Browning said. However, beyond a certain size, he said it would look to use a ”classic mix of stock, debt and cash”. COLIN COTTELL

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Contract News Alliance Trust: Appointed Core-Asset Consulting as its recruitment partner… Aon: Acquired Lorica Employee Benefits, the UK-based consultancy group… Capita: Acquired IT network services provider Updata, and selected by John Lewis to provide its online contact centre… CareerBuilder: Purchased Broadbean, the multi-job posting service, from Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT)… Classpeople: Teamed up with Chosen Hill School to provide professional development opportunities… Dice Holdings: Acquired OilCareers, a recruitment site for oil & gas professionals in Europe from DMGT… Eden Resourcing: Joined forces with Tailored Resourcing Solutions to form Brevere Group… GCS

Recruitment Specialists: Sponsor of the North London Branch of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT… Holt Doctors: Bought Anaesthetists Agency, a specialist medical recruitment agency located in Southampton… JLT

Employee Benefits: Appointed The Curve Group as a resourcing partner… London

Global Laboratories: Partnered with Edtech leaders at Evisors.com to help grads break into the healthcare technology industry…

Randstad Sourceright: Entered a partnership with recruitment marketing technology provider, SmashFly Technologies… Recruitive: Integrated its cloud-based technology software with social platform Xing… TalentBond: Launched its product with financial services company Santander UK…

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News

Tech & tools

INVITATION-ONLY GLOBAL RECRUITMENT COMMUNITY LAUNCHES new global network that will help independent and SME recruitment agencies collaborate and share engagements and talent is being rolled out across Europe. It follows the successful soft launch of the network last November from Asia. The Recruiter Link (TRL) has been launched by Andy Williams and Ian Turnpenny, who are based in Singapore and have 20 years’ experience of the global recruitment market between them. Williams, who has previously worked at SThree, told Recruiter that the pair’s own experience has shown the benefits collaboration can bring to generate additional revenue opportunities. “The global talent market has evolved rapidly, creating more and more international opportunities for candidates who are willing to be mobile, including large numbers returning to Asia after study and working in Europe and the US,” he said. “We see this as a huge and untapped market.” Williams claimed that technology is rapidly changing recruitment and devaluing proprietary databases, “presenting clients and candidates with direct access to each other, putting pressure on recruitment agencies to show they can deliver real value”. Recruiters can join TRL through invitation only and the aim is to build a high-value, trusted network. Every collaboration that takes place attracts a rating so over time members can identify their most successful partners. Currently the network has 300 recruiters across 20 countries, with the members’ average experience level 10 years. Most are owners, founders and directors of their companies. Unlike some marketplace models, TRL does not take a percentage of successful

deals that it facilitates. “Most platforms operate as a transactional portal rather than a community and charge a subscription fee and an ongoing percentage of any success Andy Williams you have from using them,” explained Williams. “They also require you to record everything you do on their system and work to their strict terms and conditions. TRL operates as a community, purely on a subscription model. Successful collaboration is about trust, communication and relationships and, just like in recruitment, transactional portals do not build these.” TRL provides agencies with a number of different categories of collaboration including Job Sharing, where agencies partner on full recruitment engagements; Industry Experts Search, which launches soon and makes use of a global network of industry experts with contacts and inside knowledge and geographical base; and Returnee/Hot Candidate Posting, where profiles can be shared with recruiters who have established networks outside of their own geography and specialisation. There are a limited number of Pioneer memberships, which gives members full access to the community for free. Williams reports that some of its successful members are already doing business between Europe and Asia, as there is a strong demand in the latter for experienced international candidates and also a large pool of experienced talent looking to move or return to Europe. “Recruiters have seen the success of collaborative working … and are very keen to look at how they can get involved and increase their revenue,” he said. He added, though, that many have questions about working collaboratively as it is still not mainstream in recruitment: “With TRL’s community approach we feel that we can address this concern far better than a purely transactional platform as our primary focus is to encourage open and honest communication and relationships between members.”

Early seedss of success The junior hiring platform Seed.jobs is branching out into content management aimed at inbound recruitment strategies. Ben Slater, sales and marketing director, who originally began as a candidate on the platform, told Recruiter that it is using the platform to help clients build optimised recruitment nt landing pages and campaigns, enabling companies to project their employer brand. For some clients it has been working on white label versions of these pages, which are being used to replace static career pages and allow companies to test and optimise websites for specific roles. “The analytics on these pages enable firms to understand candidate behaviour,” explained Slater. “We are showing potential candidates what it’s really like to work at a company, with videos and quotes from people in each team describing what they find most rewarding about their role and what it’s like to work there.” Seed.jobs was launched last year by joint chief executives Abakar Saidov and Murad Saidov, and chief technology officer Michael Paterson, who worked for top-tier investment banks. The aim was to take a different approach to graduate and junior hiring. “We started Seed.jobs around the idea of helping companies attract young people, the so-called ‘lost generation’,” said Slater. “Most of the jobs people ultimately find are with the kind of companies that we hear of as brands but we wouldn’t necessarily make that next step and think of them as great places to work. Typically, fast-growing, disruptive businesses don’t have the resources to attract the kind of bright talent needed to grow. We’ve found that the most effective way for this kind of company to hire is to project their employer brand to the right candidates by applying principles from their inbound marketing strategy to the hiring process.” Seed.jobs clients include the music streaming service Spotify (pictured above). The platform allows candidates to build a profile based on core strengths and skills, and then helps to put individuals in touch with suitable potential employers. In a recent recruitment campaign, another client converted 3,000 visits into 800 applications and 50 hires within eight days. The move to content management will run alongside further development of the Seed.jobs platform. It is also working on a top 100 league table of coolest companies to work for. www.Seed.jobs

www.therecruiterlink.com SUE WEEKES

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EXPERT OPINION OPINIO

Web Based vs Server Based? By Paul Sangster Business Development Manager, Itris

hen it comes to changing your recruitment software one of the most important decisions a recruitment agency will make is whether they want their new system server based or web based. Generally there are three options:

1. Server based application installed locally on premise 2. Server based application hosted in the cloud 3. Web based application hosted in the cloud All three have their pros and cons but the most important thing is that the recruiter makes a decision that works best for their company and the way their business works. Over the last few years weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve seen a huge increase in demand for hosted and web based options, especially from smaller companies and start-ups. This is for a number of reasons, the first being cost: To have a new system installed on premise means you will need to purchase a server and/or have a dedicated PC (including Operating System license costs for both), if you do not already have one. Traditionally recruitment software is licence-based meaning that the majority of the cost is up front with small ongoing costs usually covering product support. This however does work out as the cheapest option over three years. Server based applications hosted in the cloud and web based applications tend to both be fixed monthly costs which works out great if you want minimal upfront costs and flat monthly overheads.

is that you can also host the rest of your business in the same environment. This may include a full suite of Microsoft Office products (including Outlook for email and calendar, and Microsoft Exchange as your companies email server) and even back office products such as Sage. This is often referred to as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), full remote desktop or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). This setup is becoming increasingly popular as it offers everything your business needs out of the box at one fixed monthly cost and can replace the majority of the hardware and cabling in your office. It can also be accessed from any device including PC, Mac, Tablet, IPad, Smartphone etc. Users tend to find that this sort of set up is a lot quicker as it has all of the tools they need in one place rather than the system being hosted and other products such as Microsoft Office being native on their machine or in a separate cloud environment. Another question to consider when reviewing systems is will you own and have easy access to your data? Companies generally find that web based products tend to hold certain ownership of their data and are known to even charge to extract the data into a basic format. If your system is server based; installed on premise or hosted in the cloud you will always own and have access to your data at all times. Itec Systems have been supplying the Recruitment Industry with Itris since 1998 with now over 8,500 users across 25 countries and we have big plans for the future. Itris is currently a server based application which means it can be installed on premise or in the cloud though a number of hosting providers we partner with giving our clients maximum flexibility.

The second reason is accessibility and flexibility; Web based applications allow consultants to access their system via a web browser which means they can do this from anywhere â&#x20AC;&#x201C; ideal if you are always out and about. Having a server based application hosted in the cloud also allows you to access your system anywhere via a thin client (such as Remote Desktop). The biggest benefit of having a server based application hosted

For further information please call 01892 825 820, visit www.itris.co.uk or email pauls@itecsystems.com WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

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RECRUITER RECRUITER FEBRUARY APRIL 2014 2014

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Game changer The new Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. ractical, real-world electric motoring in a full SUV, with huge reductions in company car costs and no range anxiety: Mitsubishi’s remarkable new Outlander PHEV has just become the default company car option, irrespective of class. Ignoring the Outlander PHEV’s company car credentials would be a serious mistake. This one really is a game changer. You owe it to yourself to read at least some of what follows. Here’s a few Outlander PHEV facts: Price: from £28,249 (post-grant) Benefit in Kind tax rate: 5% Vehicle Excise Duty: £0 London Congestion Charging: £0 CO2 emissions: 44g/km Pure EV range: 32 miles Pure EV + Petrol range: 514 miles These are the sort of numbers a futurologist might tentatively predict for a tiny city car ten years from now. All the more extraordinary, then, that the Outlander PHEV not only achieves these numbers now, in 2014, but that it does so as a lavishly-equipped SUV with no restrictions on interior or boot space. If you’re a company car user, the benefits of running this new breed of electric hybrid are nothing short of startling. Here’s a taster. The BIK and fuel card tax ratings for similarlysized diesel SUVs are typically 30% or more. For an Outlander PHEV, they are 5%. For company owners and fleet

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managers choosing Outlander PHEVs, there’s a 100% Capital Allowance first year write down on the purchase, and lower National Insurance Contributions for PHEV users. For any driver, Outlander PHEV running costs can be not just low, but radically low. Fuel consumption is incredible. The official EU figure is 148mpg, but if your daily journey is less than 32 miles it could be considerably more than that. Longer journeys, such as a motorway trip can reduce this, but still return impressive figures. Unlike the average electric vehicle, there’s no danger of ‘running out of juice’ as long as you’ve got some petrol in the tank. Here, at last, is a hybrid car that really does offers ultra-cheap motoring without compromise to comfort, practicality or performance, and without the dreaded spectre of range anxiety. How does it do it? The PHEV’s secret isn’t under the bonnet. It’s under the floor. This car was designed from the outset to run on electric power (which also explains the uninterrupted cabin and boot space compared to just about every other EV on the market). There is a conventional engine up front, a refined, quiet and lightweight 2.0-litre petrol unit, but after that, everything changes. This engine’s primary role isn’t to drive the car but a generator. This charges an array of underfloor batteries powering two direct-drive electric motors: one on the front wheels, the other on the back. As long as there’s sufficient charge in the batteries, the electric motors will work on their own for speeds up to 75mph. If the engine does need to kick in at any point to top up

the batteries, it will, but you’re unlikely to notice it happening. The transition between electric and petrol is uncannily seamless and all but undetectable. No allowances whatsoever need to be made to your driving style. The car will always choose the most efficient mode for you. Generally, that will be EV mode at lower speeds, and electric motors supported by the engine at higher speeds. You can dial up a higher rate of battery regeneration by flipping one of the steering wheel paddles to recoup more power during deceleration, which brings the bonus of reducing brake wear. In every other respect, driving a PHEV is exactly like driving a normal SUV, albeit a very comfortable, safe (5-star Euro NCAP rated) and powerful one. From 0-60mph it’s quicker than the already impressively rapid 2.2 diesel auto Outlander, with the instant shove of electric power just a toe-twitch away. You can let the car look after its own charging through normal driving, charge it by plugging it into a high-speed charger (installed for free* at your house by British Gas), or, if you know you’re going somewhere where the ability to run on EV power would be useful, you can charge the batteries to 80% capacity in just 30 minutes simply by letting the engine idle. You can even remotely control the charging process (and pre-heat or pre-cool the vehicle) through a free-to-download iOS or Android app. From a full charge, which takes only 3-4 hours from zero (using cheap Economy 7 electricity if you do it overnight), the Outlander PHEV will run for up to 32 miles on electric power alone. So, if your total daily commute is less than, say, 30 miles (which most commutes are), or if it’s less than that distance one way and you have

09/04/2014 14:05

Advertisement feature access to a recharging point near your work – there are thousands in the UK now – you could in theory find yourself never actually using the PHEV’s petrol engine. Should you end up in that category of ‘electric-only’ user, there’d be no need to worry about the engine falling into disrepair through sheer lack of use. It stays in good health by starting itself up every now and then. What we already know about EV power is that it’s quiet. The Outlander is so quiet that an Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System chimes in at speeds below 22mph to warn pedestrians of its presence. The PHEV handles surprisingly well too, thanks in no small part to the lowering of the Outlander’s centre of gravity by the batteries’ underfloor location. Perhaps the best thing about this extraordinary machine is just how ordinary it is in everyday use. Being a Mitsubishi, it’s a proper offroader running a Super- All Wheel Control (S-AWC) permanent 4WD system with a lock mode for the really gooey stuff. Towing capacity is an impressive 1500kg. Its 463-litre cargo volume is almost identical to the diesel Outlander’s. Every Mitsubishi dealer will be able to service the PHEV. You won’t have to search out specialists, as is the norm for many other EVs. There really is no downside to Outlander PHEV ownership. Or is there?

Mitsubishi Outlander

Honda CR-V

BMW X3

Audi Q3

Mercedes E-Class

GX4h Auto

EX Auto

Xdrive SE Auto

S-Line Plus Auto

SE Estate Auto

Cost of the car - P11d value

£37,899

£33,995

£34,500

£34,595

£36,005

Government grant reduction

£5,000

£0

£32,899

£33,995

£34,500

£34,595

£36,005

Cost comparison

Adjusted final price CO2 emissions g/km

180

138

156

140

Benefit in kind rate

32%

23%

27%

24%

Vehicle benefit charge without fuel provided

£758

£4,351

£3,174

£3,736

£3,456

Tax saving per year without fuel (40% taxpayer)

-£3,593

-£2,416

-£2,978

-£2,698

£1,192

£7,129

£5,170

£6,080

£5,539

-£5,937

-£3,978

-£4,888

-£4,347

Vehicle benefit charge with fuel provided Tax saving per year with fuel (40% taxpayer)

No, there isn’t. The price is often the part where things go a bit Pete Tong. As we all know, electric vehicles and hybrids are expensive, even after you take into account the £5,000 Plug-In Car Grant thrown in by the Government. But this is another area in which the Outlander PHEV is genuinely exciting. Because it was designed from day one for this EV application, it passes on no additional development costs to the end user (you). That means Mitsubishi is able to give it a price tag with no hybrid premium. The GX3 version of the diesel Outlander 2.2 DI-D Auto is £28,249. After the Government grant, the cost of the equivalent GX3h version of the PHEV – which comes with an automatic gearbox, remote-controlled keyless entry, leatherwrapped steering wheel and gear knob, cruise control, dual-zone climate control, automatic headlights and wipers, electric windows, 18-inch alloy wheels, roof rails, rear privacy glass, USB port, iPod compatibility and Bluetooth connection – is £28,249. The same price. Which is very possibly the most exciting news in motoring so far this year, if not this decade. Higher specified GX4h and GX4hs versions are also available. If you want an Outlander PHEV, you’ll need to move quickly. It’s already a huge success in mainland Europe – and it’s really not that hard to see why. * Subject to survey

Outlander PHEV range fuel consumption in mpg (ltrs/100km): Full Battery Charge: infinite, Depleted Battery Charge: 48mpg (5.9), Weighted Average: 148mpg (1.9), CO2 Emissions: 44 g/km.

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Pop in and see your local dealer for more information or visit

www.mitsubishi-cars.co.uk

09/04/2014 14:05

News

SPECIAL REPORTS REPORT

Web comments Face up to elitism in graduate recruitment, debate hears (14 March) This is such a relevant topic. I’ve spent years working with senior stakeholders that only look at university as a benchmark of ability. We must have better assessment and data when representing graduates as a good fit for the firm or to show ability beyond academics to enable a conversation about what ‘good’ looks like, regardless of the institution a grad attended. Until we do that we’ll never be able to create any sort of social diversity in the entry-level pools of talent.

Kate Temple-Brown. London boroughs should join together to cut use of PSC workers (Recruiter, March 2014) Having London councils join ranks will not solve the problem as IT contractors will simply ‘follow the money’ (as this article puts it) to the private sector. I agree that this smacks of tarring all contractors with the same brush. Also to note that the intermediaries legislation is not aimed at individuals working through their own limited company and who draw down dividends, but rather self-employed individuals who supply through an intermediary company.

Robin Fisher Zero-hours contracts controversy will run and run (24 March) I support the use of zero-hour contracts, for flexibility of hours, wanted by both the employer and the individual, who may also work for other companies. However, I agree exclusivity clauses should ensure the individual is not unfairly tied.

R Scorer

RECRUITER

APRIL 2014

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UNDERSTANDING THE JOBSEEKER: WHYTHE ‘LITTLE THINGS’ MEAN A LOT IN A GLOBAL ONLINE JOB SEARCH MARKET, IT’S MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER TO PAY ATTENTION TO JOBSEEKERS’ CULTURAL AND LANGUAGE DIFFERENCES, SAYS DAVID RUDICK, VICE PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL MARKETS AT INDEED Thanks to the internet, the parameters for recruitment strategies and consumer expectations have changed with regard to the job search experience. A deep understanding of the jobseeker requires continual assessment and understanding of the cultural landscape. For example, 10 years ago smartphones were not a factor in the job search journey. A decade later, they play an integral role in internet use and the search process – almost one half of jobseeker traffic to Indeed now comes from mobile phones. Understanding jobseekers means working continuously to stay ahead of their demands. Before making any amendments to the service, we must first ask: “What’s best for the jobseeker?” Today’s demanding consumer will not settle for anything less. The local job posting landscape To get under the skin of the jobseeker, you must first understand the market in which they are located. This insight is the absolute bedrock of delivering quality search results. This doesn’t result from a few hours’ research from a head office based in one location, but should depend on deep analysis from genuine experts in each region. Dedicated teams of local specialists in each target market are the key to ensuring that all available job sources are pulled in, to provide a comprehensive search result for that area. These regional experts lie at the heart of ensuring the smooth running of the job search. Of course, the scale of this challenge varies from country to country. For example, jobs in Brazil and India are concentrated

David Rudick, VP, international markets, Indeed

in big cities, while jobs in Germany are much more evenly distributed throughout the country. Cultural differences and technological maturity The patchwork of different application methods at play in each country must also be considered. While public sector bodies in India still expect jobseekers to bring a printed copy of their CV into the office, many emerging economies see most jobs search (and subsequent applications) conducted via mobile devices. High digital penetration in countries such as the UK and Australia creates an environment where jobseekers are generally open to posting their CVs online. Meanwhile, jobseekers in countries such as Japan or Germany, where privacy concerns are a high priority for consumers, tend to need additional reassurance before they feel comfortable and

can be persuaded to upload CVs online. Intelligent search across geographical borders Finally — and perhaps more importantly — the most effective search engines add a layer of human insight behind the technology. Local experts play an important role here, bringing an understanding of culture as well as their knowledge of local terminology. It is easy to get these things wrong, which will lead to poor search results for jobseekers in different markets. This can be something as simple as thinking ahead when it comes to common typos, such as not leaving a space between two words. In the UK, for example, search results should not be impaired if jobseekers forget the space and search for ‘RoyalMail’. An understanding of geographical differences in search terms is also highly important. In the UK, a

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

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09/04/2014 14:06

News

SPECIAL REPORTS

posting for a search of either ‘secretario’ or ‘secretaria’ in countries that have masculine/ feminine alternatives for job titles is essential. This intelligent search may seem obvious, but its delivery requires an intense and disciplined method that takes patience and years of experience. Of course, user interface is important, and can be tweaked as necessary to align with the messaging and ‘calls to action’

that resonate best in each country. However, this is worth nothing without a constant focus on the jobseekers’ behaviour and requirements. In the global online job search market, building a trusted relationship with the jobseeker should be the single most important goal. The competition is fierce but with a sharp focus on the jobseeker the ‘little things’ really do mean a lot.

of the state-funded workforce believe public sector reforms won’t be carried out effectively due to a skills shortage, according to a report by totaljobs.com

TOP

jobseeker who types in ‘FIFO’ is likely referring to the term in an accounting context, and should be delivered results accordingly. However, someone using the same acronym in Australia will be referring to Fly-In, Fly-Out jobs in the mining industry. This knowledge of the language must extend even deeper to understand grammatical differences. Delivering comprehensive results for secretarial job

Employers in sectors pressurised by factors such as low pay, high attrition, skills shortages and too few quality candidates say they could use an injection of innovation into their recruitment practices. But while promising to transform businesses, providers of recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) services are failing to come up with proposals that could do just that, the employers claim. And employers across a variety of business and industry sectors contend further that RPOs must stop resorting to ‘standard, off-the-shelf’ solutions for complex recruiting challenges. BUPA and Rolls-Royce were among the UK businesses making their views known to RPO provider Capita following the release of Capitacommissioned research into innovation. The survey results revealed widespread employer dissatisfaction with RPO services across providers, underscoring that RPO clients want “more value and innovation” amid calls for better service delivery and a better quality of RPO staff to provide the service. Cath Possamai, former acting managing director of Capita Managed Services who now heads strategy for the Army Recruiting Group at the RPO, acknowledged to Recruiter that innovation tops the wish list for RPO clients and potential clients. “The $100m question is, what is innovation?” she asked. However, she added it was clear from the research that innovation is “less about sexy technology and more about getting really brilliant service provision”. Mark Linden, head of resourcing at healthcare organisation BUPA, told Recruiter: “At BUPA, we have quite a challenging recruitment landscape — everything from care workers to senior directors within our business. I don’t believe there is any company out there at the moment which could put a presentation or proposal in front of me that would make me think I could outsource all of my recruitment to them.” He continued: “The sort of innovation I’m looking for is them coming to the table and saying, ‘Right, you have a very large attrition rate for care workers. This is what we propose to reduce your attrition rate, and to bring better quality staff into the organisation, without our necessarily having to raise pay rates.’

RECRUITER

APRIL 2014

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“I wish I had the answer to how we would do that because I think it would really revolutionise how care workers and nurses are recruited into organisations.” Jane Crane, head of resourcing at Rolls-Royce, concurred with Linden’s sentiment, saying: “When you’re looking at any outsourcing, you want [your organisation to progress] a step up from where you are, a game changer.” Always, she said, her experience has been “a slight disappointment”. However, since requiring the involvement of RollsRoyce’s resourcing team in selecting key members of an RPO’s on-site or embedded team, “that has made a huge difference in the calibre of people on the account”, Crane said. As an example, she said, RPO staff working for Rolls-Royce needed to have an understanding of engineering so that “the hiring manager does not have to explain yet again what engineering means”. Similarly, an engineering company will have a different culture to, say, a banking or finance organisation, and those working on such accounts must understand those differences, which is not always the case, Crane pointed out. For Rolls-Royce, innovation might involve finding new pathways into the passive candidate marketplace, beyond simply using offshore sourcing capabilities, Crane said. But she, like BUPA’s Linden, acknowledged that she does not herself know what that innovative solution might be. Possamai believes that the road to real and sustainable innovation will depend on how the groundwork is laid at the beginning through open, honest ‘pre-engagement’ talks between client and the RPO. Also essential to getting it all right will be “correct pricing models”, Possamai said, so that the RPO has not undercut its financial viability yet the client feels the deal is fair. Further, Possamai suggests “getting the basics right” and investing in resourcing leadership. But she warns that innovation won’t come cheap. “If the RPO keeps coming in cheaper, cheaper and cheaper, the client won’t get the service they want.” DEEDEE DOKE deedee.doke@recruiter.co.uk

● For more on the Capita research, see ‘Innovate or lose out’, Recruiter, November 2013

1. Athona Recruitment, Consultant, healthcare

2. Sharna Associates, Recruitment consultant

3. O’Connell

Resourcing, Hedge fund recruitment consultant

4. Fresh Partnership,

Senior recruitment consultant

5. Nissan, Technical

recruitment controller

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APRIL 2014

10/04/2014 10:06

Interaction

SOAP

BOX

Internal emails: curse in disguise?

Dan King feels as though he’s been drowning under a flood of firefighting internal emails, preventing him from getting anything meaningful done. Would banning them help? There was only one way to find out. We should ban internal emails completely, suggested our managing director Ashley Rice in a meeting I had with the JSW Resourcing management team. Initially, I couldn’t believe what he was suggesting. My knee-jerk response was that it was unworkable, we’d lose money and that it was a generally mad idea in such an information-driven industry as ours. Trying to keep an open mind, I did a bit of research to see how many internal emails I actually received. The results were surprising; I received over 750 emails over the course of January and February from my boss and was receiving just under 100 a day from the rest of the firm. A study I once read said it can take office workers who get interrupted up to 25 minutes to return to the same levels of concentration as they had before — and the main interruption is emails. The idea of a ban seemed much more compelling. Perhaps it could place us at the cutting edge of the business world. I decided we’d give it a go. We sold the idea of an internal email ban to all of our consultants — whose initial response was very similar to my own — then went live on the Monday. Over the course of the following week, I obtained consultants’ views on the experience as well as those of the management team. Consultant feedback was that they had found the trial quite difficult and it had led to more work for them in getting information to colleagues and sharing emails with and from clients. However, the management team found the removal of internal

RICKY MARTIN

For those of you still keen to go out on your own, one area is absolutely essential to consider — how to develop key client relationships. When I started Hyper Recruitment Solutions, the brutal reality was we had no trading history, no testimonials to back up the business and no case studies to reference. My marketplace — the science and technology sector — is incredibly competitive and already had a number of well-established, key players in this market. The first thing you need to consider is what makes your service unique and different? Why should your clients work with you as opposed to a business that is already well established? To put things in perspective, when thinking about suppliers to your business, would you rather work with somebody who knows how to deliver or somebody who has never done so before? So consider your unique selling proposition (USP) and get it right first time. The fact it is ‘you’ running the business does not make it a USP, so make sure you have a real one to start with. It needs to add value and be remembered if you want to develop key client relationships. Once you have this, you need to make sure that your message comes across in every communication with every person you speak to. You need to live and breathe your USP and ensure every employee of your

RECRUITER

DAN KING is principal, operations for JCW Resourcing

How start-up consultancies can develop client relationships

Since writing this column, I have been approached by a number of driven recruiters about setting up a recruitment company. Hearing such ambition has been inspiring and it is great to see so many people who have listened to the messages in my columns about the harsh reality in doing so. Yes, it is tougher then you would imagine.

emails to be revolutionary. Time freed up by not receiving around 100 internal emails a day meant that there was a great deal more time to dedicate to greater value-adding activities. Some major benefits were that more face-to-face discussion took place among managers, meaning that very often issues and queries were settled more quickly and effectively. Also, people had no choice but to discuss contentious issues that they may ordinarily have dealt with by email, which helped to improve team working. Managers had more time free to run ad-hoc training sessions and workshops to upskill consultants, which directly led to a greater degree of competence. Less distraction from email also meant that any activity was more intense and more focused. Productivity was higher. Oddly, morale went up too, as managers had a clearer sense of achievement in being able to look back at their day and see what they’d achieved. After the trial, we turned internal emails back on and found some benefits remained; emails between managers are now lower in volume than before. Perhaps most noticeable, though, is that there is now a greater degree of bravery in not feeling obliged to constantly check emails or to reply to them immediately. The previous week’s trial highlighted that not having internal emails — and consequently not being able to reply to them — had not precipitated the end of the world. If something is genuinely important or urgent, it can be dealt with in person. Perhaps removing internal emails completely is not a practical move. However, we found there to be huge scope to reduce the volume drastically.

APRIL 2014

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business does so as well. So invest the time to hire the right consultants every time. If your USP is diluted, your business levels will become so too. I am a firm believer in ‘people buy from people’ — so hire the right talent. Be flexible and agile. Gone are the days of arrogance in recruitment. The ‘my way or the highway’ approach just will not work. Your USP may help to open doors, but your approach and ability to evolve are what really develop the client relationship. So make sure you are happy to develop your processes around your clients’ needs. And don’t just react to a need. Tell your clients up front that you are not offering a ‘one-size-fits-all’ service. Show them how you can move things around to add most value. The final ingredient has been credibility. While we provide support to science jobs in our marketplace, we also have genuine knowledge and experience of the sector, which has been the key to our relationship development. We are scientists and when we speak to our customers, we talk to them at their level. Not every recruiter or consultancy has to do the work your clients do. However, first-hand insight will strengthen your ability to pick up and keep clients. Find a way to become an expert in your field — don’t become another salesperson using buzzwords seen on a CV. So: make sure you get your USP right first time, and that you and your people live and breathe this every day. Do whatever it takes to become a real consultant of your market. Good luck and share your successes via the hashtag #recruitmentexcellence RICKY MARTIN is managing director and founder of Hyper Recruitment

Solutions. Find out more at www.hyperec.com or @Hyperec_HRS on Twitter

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

09/04/2014 14:23

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05/03/2014 08:25

Recruitment Matters Issue 24 April 2014

Trade Association of the Year

Your vote, your voice: what the REC Council can do for you What does the REC Council do for you, its members? It’s a good question to ask as you read this magazine and as nominations for this year’s council elections begin, on 16th April. It’s also a question with a good answer. “Being part of the REC Council means representing the industry in standards, professionalism and world class services,” says Neil Smith, REC Council chairman. “The range of recruiters we have on our council ensures that we are able to look at our industry from a variety of perspectives and I would encourage all members to seriously think about putting themselves or their colleagues forward.” There are four corporate director and two individual director positions open for nomination, and to be considered you must have your nomination in by 6 May. The online voting will then run between 26 May and 16 June. The results will be announced at the

What’s inside The Intelligence 2 -3 and REC Talk Pay rates for the year ahead, brand-building and the Good Recruitment Campaign

Big 4-5The Talking Point To be self-employed or not to be self-employed – that is the question we will be answering Members of the current REC Council I originally stood for the REC Council in 2013 after being recommended to do so by the head of the IRP, Richard Charnock. He suggested I get my voice on the council and help to drive certain initiatives or ideas through. The council is very open and gives you that opportunity, as well as being a great place to network with other senior recruitment folk in the UK Michael Bennett, who joined the council last year REC AGM on 18 June. “Our council does a terriﬁc job leading the REC’s work to drive up professional standards in recruitment,” says the REC’s chief executive Kevin Green. “Our directors are a dynamic group of people who are really committed to our

organisation and to our industry. I would encourage people who haven’t stood before to put themselves forward this year. It’s a really rewarding and interesting job and we’re looking forward to welcoming some new faces onto our governing body.” https://www.rec.uk.com/2014agm

I would encourage any recruiter to play a part in the shape and focus of our industry if they are really passionate about it. By being on the REC Council it puts you in a position where you are able to drive forward your ideas for best practice and emphasise areas of focus which are important to you

6Business Matters

The legal lowdown and Business development: Branching out and franchising with Select

Institute of Recruitment Professionals We speak to Amoria Bond’s Daniel Daw and Network Recruitment Partnership’s Ken Wood

Best Events and Training 8 The City Conference Tours – they’re coming to you next!

Greg Latham, FIRP

www.rec.uk.com RM p1-APR-A.indd 23

09/04/2014 14:25

Leading the Industry

the intelligence Fig 1: Median recruiter turnover growth

Push versus pull

Nina Mguni, senior researcher at the REC, looks at pay rates for the year ahead

Pay pressures (KPMG/REC Report on Jobs)

Rate of growth

60 55 50 45

■ Permanent ■ Temporary

40 35 Jan 08

Jan 09

Jan 10

2 Recruitment Matters April 2014

RM p2-APR-A.indd Sec1:24

Jan 11

Jan 12

Jan 13

Jan 14

8 6 %

In March 2014 the REC/KPMG Report on Jobs indicates that starting salaries and temp hourly pay rates continue to show month on month growth. There was an increase in the proportion of recruiters reporting that perm starting salaries are higher than the previous month. In August 2013, 16.2% of recruiters reported that perm starting salaries were higher than the previous month. This contrasts with 25.5% in February 2014. This trend is also evident for temp/contract pay rates, but is slightly more muted with 15.4% of respondents stating that they paid higher pay rates in February compared to the previous month, against 12.1% in August 2013. In REC’s recent JobsOutlook (March 2014), four in ﬁve employers stated that they planned to increase their perm workforce and just under half (48%) stated that their use of temp agency workers will increase in the medium term. And alongside this, Report on Jobs shows that staff availability for temp and perm staff has sharply declined (see the sharp acceleration of starting salaries in the last two quarters of last year, below). The question is whether this demand for workers will be reﬂected in higher negotiated pay rates – the pull factor.

4 2 0 -2 -4 Feb Apr Jun Aug Oct Dec Feb Apr Jun Aug Oct Dec 12 13

Fig 2: RIB recruiter revenue growth and ONS vacancy growth 120 ■ RIB median revenue ■ ONS vacancies

Unemployment is falling, there are more vacancies but what about pay? According to the HM Treasury report, a series of independent forecasts suggest earnings growth could range from 4% to 1.5% for 2014, while the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts wage growth at 2.6% for 2014, and earnings to grow by 3.4% in 2015. The Office for National Statistics registers muted growth with a 1.1% average weekly earnings in the three months to December 2013. A blog by the Income Data Services (February 2014) suggests that including wage growth for those in discontinuous employment weakens overall earnings growth, suggesting that new starters have accepted lower pay or fewer hours. The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) for April 2013 shows that wage growth for those in continuous employment in the private sector grew between 3.5% and 4% during 2010-13, and between 3% and 3.8% for public sector employees. When analysis includes those who have been in discontinuous employment, wage growth falls to 2.3% in 2013 for private sector employees and 1.6% for public sector employees. So behind the headline figure of muted wage growth there are two trends to watch: pay progression and wage settlements.

-5

-10 Jan 10

Jan 11

Jan 12

Jan 13

Jan 14

Revenues are booming Recruiters have suffered difficult times during the last few years as the tough economic environment has caused employers to be cautious about taking on new people until their confidence in the recovery was entrenched. But the latest information from Recruitment Industry Benchmarking (RIB) shows that the median recruiter revenue growth in January 2014 was over 11%, the highest seen in nearly three years (Figure 1). This rebound in recruiter revenues is supported by the strong growth reported by the Office for National Statistics for the number of vacancies in the economy. As can be seen in Figure 2 there has been steady and consistent increase in vacancy growth for two years – a statistic that gives us grounds for confidence that the sharp uptick in recruiter revenue growth in January will continue. Pleasingly this strong rebound in recruiter turnover growth is to be seen in each of the three areas of recruiters’ revenues – permanent, temporary and contract billings – the prospects for UK recruiters look better than they have for some time. • Chris Ansell is chief financial officer at Recruitment Industry Benchmarking (RIB) www.ribindex.com

www.rec.uk.com 09/04/2014 14:26

Leading the Industry

The View Come taste the brand Tom Hadley, REC director of Policy & Professional Services, considers how recruiters build their own identity ‘Building the brand’ has been a hot topic for a while in recruitment. The key is how. Speaking at the recent LinkedIn conference, Darren Ryemill, managing director of Opus Recruitment, underlined the clever use of social media as a means of ‘punching above your weight’ and as a ‘tool for good recruiters to engage with candidates’. Darren went on to argue that “you can’t fake your brand as clients will see through it and staff will not believe in the business”. This is a great point. It is not just about ‘talking a good game’, it is about having genuine insight and actually doing ‘stuff’. It is about substance. A great example of ‘doing’ is the REC Youth Employment Charter that encourages recruiters to build links with local schools and colleges. Over the past year more than 20,000 young people have received support and guidance from REC members, which is a good news story for participating agencies and for the industry as a whole. Also speaking at the recent LinkedIn event, media solutions consultant Alex Charraudeau made the point that “building your brand is about showcasing your business’s personality and being clear on your values”. What better demonstration is there than reaching out to young people and helping to address the challenge of youth unemployment? The recent REC Engineering meeting provided a further example with recruiters keen to sign up to other initiatives such as ‘STEM Ambassadors’, which is supported by over 3,000 employers. The fact that there has been a 36% increase in young people taking up GCSE science shows that these schemes are starting to make a difference. They are also providing participating employers and recruiters with something to take real pride in and shout about. Another topical ‘hook’ for our sector is compliance. Members are increasingly using our tests, codes and REC Audited products to showcase their credentials and to drive a USP around standards, ethics and compliance. Why not? I spoke recently at a breakfast seminar of one of our members on compliance and regulatory issues, which provided a great way to build relationships with current and potential clients. That’s content, that’s brandbuilding in action. • You can follow Tom on Twitter www.twitter.com/@hadleyscomment

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We were delighted to launch a major new campaign earlier this month. The Good Recruitment Campaign has been a long time in gestation. The REC has been developing this initiative for over a year with the help of 20 high profile employers and an array of other business bodies. Its objective is simple: to promote good recruitment to organisations in the UK. At its core is an aspirational charter that defines what good recruitment looks like. We hope that many employers will sign up to the charter over the next few months and demonstrate that they aspire to good practice. Those that have already committed include Santander, Nandos, First group, FCA, G4S, Random House/Penguin, Arsenal and Dixons Retail. We are also delighted that the campaign has been endorsed by esteemed business bodies such as the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Chartered Business Institute (CBI), Institute of Leadership Management (ILM) and Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), as well as the Forum for In-house Recruitment Managers (FIRM). For our members this puts our work on standards at the centre of your clients’ agenda. Please visit the REC website at www.rec.uk.com/ goodrecruitment to find out more on the charter itself, the guidance we have provided to employers, and a comprehensive presentation so you can prepare yourself to promote good recruitment to your clients. You can also hear more about the GRC by attending our free city conferences in a city near you over the coming months (see page 8). I am really keen to engage with members directly and I am happy to come along to talk to your staff or clients. Contact me at Kevin.green@rec.uk.com • You can follow Kevin on Twitter www.twitter.com/@ kevingreenrec

Recruitment Matters April 2014 3

09/04/2014 14:27

The Big Talking Point

Self-employed or not self-employed – the new rules Rex Features

As HMRC introduces controversial new rules to tackle “false self-employment’, RM editor Francesca Steele considers the impact for recruiters

axation can be a thorny issue in most industries – not just because it can change the game ﬁnancially speaking for companies and individuals alike, but because it can be a tricky thing for ordinary employees to get their heads around, even though it is often relevant to everyone from the reception desk to the CEO. Which is why this month Recruitment Matters is tackling the complex but critical changes to self-employment regulations this April, so that all our readers fully understand these important changes – and how and why they came about. What is the aim of the legislation? Following the consultation period ending in February, new regulations are being implemented this month by HMRC on ‘Onshore Employment Intermediaries: False Self-Employment’. At a very basic level, these new regulations aim to clamp down on false self-employment, arguing that many workers are falsely classed as self-employed, with resultant losses of tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs) to the Exchequer. When employers class their workers as self-employed they avoid having to administer PAYE, and paying 13.8% National Insurance Contributions.

4 Recruitment Matters April 2014

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What are the main concerns about the legislation? Lewina Farrell, solicitor and head of Professional Services at the REC, tells us the industry’s concerns. • Liability: Agencies will, in the main, be liable for a lot more tax and NICs, and there’s no guarantee clients will up the amount they are prepared to pay to account for this. There’s also the chance that clients will pressure agencies to continue supplying workers on a self-employed basis – someone will always be prepared to take that risk, and compliant agencies could lose out as a result. Difficulty of evidencing a lack of ‘control’ It’s already tough to prove a negative and clients are going to be very reticent to give firm assurances they won’t exercise control if it makes them potentially liable for a tax bill. HMRC haven’t given anything like the clarity the industry needs on putting in place the right processes to gather this evidence. Sector risks There will, without doubt, be a big impact in the construction sector. Most unskilled labourers currently working self-employed will have to move to PAYE, meaning cost increases of up to 25%. There will be real confusion for the skilled trades, the vast majority of whom are genuinely self-employed but who might struggle to prove a lack of control when sourcing work through an agency. New ‘solutions’ As ever, intermediary companies have been quick to market quick fix workarounds to the new legislation. This is always problematic for compliant agencies who have to navigate the minefield of what is and isn’t compliant. We need robust enforcement from HMRC to stop these new models springing up and to help level the playing field once and for all.

What is ‘false self-employment’? Martin Hesketh, CEO of contractor accountant specialist Brookson, says there are four main model ways of working and being paid for temporary workers: 1) You are on the agency payroll paid on a PAYE basis

2) You are employed by an umbrella organisation 3) You have set up your own personal service company 4) Self-employed model, where you are expected to pay your own taxes. False self-employment via onshore

www.rec.uk.com 09/04/2014 14:28

The supply chain changes: here’s what you need to know

Getty

David Kirk, director of David Kirk & Co, the chartered accountants and chartered tax advisers, talks us through the do’s and don’ts...

employment intermediaries was initially a construction sector issue but it has spread to other sectors, with the consultation highlighting catering, driving Ben Farber and the security industry as potential problem areas. Once these changes are enacted agencies will have to move any workers they supply directly that are subject to the supervision, direction or control of clients onto PAYE, and report payments made to individuals paid via intermediaries to HMRC. This way, the taxman should end up receiving the correct amount due. How will the legislation enforce change? The recruiter will now be responsible for determining whether the worker should be employed or self-employed for tax purposes. Recruiters will have to be able to prove that any worker classed as self-employed is in fact not under control, direction or supervision. If workers supply their services via a personal service company, they will generally be out of scope of these changes, but still might be caught by the Managed Service Company legislation or IR35. You can see our box (right) for further

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details on the supply chain issue, but in essence what the new regulations mean is that recruiters – rather than end-users – will be liable for ensuring the tax gets paid, unless they can prove that they were intentionally defrauded by an intermediary or client. Are people happy about it? The reaction from workers themselves has been mixed. Many of those who currently work self-employed get a higher rate of take home pay as a result, and these individuals will be facing tax increases and pay cuts as agencies and employers adjust to the changes. There is a risk that some workers may find themselves drifting to rogue agencies offering higher rates of pay by trying to circumvent the new regulations. The process has not so far been popular with recruiters. “This is one of the biggest changes facing the sector that we’ve seen since AWR,” says Ben Farber, senior policy adviser at the REC. “Eliminating false selfemployment is a commendable goal and one that compliant recruitment businesses are keen to help achieve, but false selfemployment is a whole supply chain issue and any legislation to address the problem must reflect that fact.” He added: “While we’ve had a win on this fraudulent document protection, there is still a lack of real end-user liability – this leaves significant scope for avoidance and sets this piece of legislation up to fail.”

HMRC essentially wants the labour supply chain to be self-policing, so the new regulations will make recruiters responsible for checking that umbrella organisations and other companies they use to source labour are paying the requisite taxes. If HMRC discovers that the taxes have not been paid, it will be able to hold the recruitment agency liable. The only instances in which this will not be the case are where it can be proven that false documents were provided further down the supply chain. The recruiter would have to make a case showing that it was provided with fraudulent documents – for example, documents that suggest the umbrella organisation had taxed the workers itself at source even though it had not. Realistically, HMRC will not want to take on complicated borderline cases where there is lots of paperwork, so the clearer the evidence you have, the easier it will be to state your claim. However, it’s simply best for recruiters to ensure from the outset that they fully understand how and when candidates are being taxed in the supply chain, since from now on they are ultimately responsible.

Find out more at www.gov.uk/government/ consultations/ onshore-employmentintermediaries-falseself-employment and also at www.rec.uk.com/ taxandregulation

Recruitment Matters April 2014 5

09/04/2014 14:28

Legal Update

Rehabilitation of offenders and taxation Lewina Farrell, solicitor and head of Professional Services, discusses two different but important legislative changes which recently came into effect 1. Changes to rehabilitation periods: On 10 March 2014 changes were made to the rehabilitation periods set out in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. This allows ex-offenders to withhold information on ‘spent’ convictions when looking for work. Some occupations, however, are ‘excepted’ in that all convictions have to be declared. The list of excepted occupations has grown over the years and the government was concerned that this was making it more difficult for ex-offenders to find work. To tackle this the rehabilitation periods have been amended – they now comprise the period of the sentence plus a specified additional period. See the table below for some examples: The Ministry of Justice has produced guidance on the changes which is available here: www.gov.uk/ government/publications/new-

guidance-on-the-rehabilitationof-offenders-act-1974 For further detail on criminal records checks, see the REC legal guide at: www.rec. uk.com/legal-resources/legal-guide/ criminalrecords 2. Changes to personal taxation: Changes to the Income Tax (Pensions and Earnings) Act 2003 came into effect on 6 April 2014. These deal with the taxation of temps working through both onshore and offshore intermediaries, similar changes were also made to National Insurance legislation. So here are the key points: From 6 April 2014 • onshore intermediaries: where the temp worker is subject to (or to the right of) supervision, direction or control by any person, they must be subject to PAYE and NICs. Employer’s NICs will also be due.

Sentences length

Previous rehabilitation (applied from date of conviction)

New rehabilitation period – when over 18 at the date of the conviction

New rehabilitation period when under 18 at the date of the conviction

0 – 6 months

7 years

2 years

18 months

6 – 30 months

10 years

4 years

2 years

30 months – 4 years

Never spent

7 years

3½ years

Over 4 years

Never spent

• offshore intermediaries: where the temp works in the UK, the business with the contract with the client (rather than the offshore intermediary) will be responsible for PAYE and NICs, and will be required to pay employers’ NICs. • PSCs (personal service companies) are excluded from the liability provisions. Employment businesses (EBs) will have to check that it is a true PSC. • Clients and ‘relevant persons’ will be liable where they have supplied fraudulent documents to the EB or vendor regarding (a) control (clients) or (b) the manner in which the temp is paid (relevant persons). From 6 April 2015 – EBs and vendors will have to report on payments made to intermediaries within the supply chain. HMRC is currently working on the reporting requirements but we expect them to include (a) the name of the intermediary, (b) the names of any temps supplied through them and (c) gross sums paid. Different models – REC is aware of different ‘solutions’ being promoted in response to the changes. We will look at these as they come to our attention. For more details see Edition 61 of the REC Legal Bulletin and the detailed guidance available at www.rec.uk.com/ legal-resources

Business development: Branching Out Setting up a new business – or growing your current business – can be a daunting task. For REC members who would like a little help, the leading recruitment franchise business Select Appointments is now an REC business partner and can provide detailed mapping and demographic information for each territory, helpting them to target employers and job candidates more accurately. David Buist, director of Franchise Development at Select, says: “If you think about all the hats a new business owner has to wear, it can be rather overwhelming. Often you have to

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be managing director, an accountant, a financier and marketer all at the same time.” Select was established in 1980 and has been involved in franchising since 1992. Currently there are 27 Select franchise offices operating throughout the UK. The company aims to expand the network to 100 franchise locations during the next five years. “The recruitment industry is so buoyant again now,” says Buist. “What we do is give people the opportunity to get into the recruitment industry at the ground floor and feel positive about growing the business, not afraid.”

www.rec.uk.com 09/04/2014 14:28

Inspiration

Behind the scenes at the Institute of Recruitment Professionals

Community come-back Things I Know Daniel Daw, director and cofounder at Amoria Bond, winner of Best Contribution to the Community and Best People Development at the IRP awards Congratulations. How did it feel to win and why do you think you did? It was amazing. Both the awards are about how you treat people and about what you give back, I think, which is incredibly rewarding because we try very hard in that regard, both internally, which I think relates to the People Development award, and externally, which of course is more to do with the community. How so, specifically? Community-wise, the Amoria Bond Charitable Trust is funded by employees and directors. We select partners to fund houses in shanty towns in Peru and then we allow emloyees to go out there and help without having to take that time as holiday. We’ve built 60 houses so far and 100% of the funds we raise go directly to the people on the ground. It’s been going for about three years now. And how about your internal development? We get individuals to write business plans and we do vision sessions where we ask our staff to identify how they’d like to progress and what behaviours and skills they need to get there. We have a lot of training, about 16 sessions for each person per month, and we also have a very cohesive strategic vision and work hard to make sure that’s understood throughout the company. What is that vision? We have a five-year plan to grow from 100 people across four offices globally to 300 across eight. That creates opportunities for staff. For example, might they like to go abroad? Do they want to be a manager? And so on. If you don’t give people motivation and proper guidance they can get flatlined and disillusioned. We work hard to have high retention rates. What was the biggest thing you’ve learnt from setting up your own company? I really think it’s about how you treat your people. We three directors were a management team previously and we’re really focused on incentives. And finally, tell us something about yourself that your clients might not know! I used to be a professional DJ. In fact, so did one of the other directors. I still do the odd party now and again.

Ken Wood, managing director of Network Recruitment Partnership Always treat the client today in a manner that he’ll want to do business with you tomorrow I’ve been in recruitment since 1988 and this is still the most important thing I’ve learnt. Be honest, be upfront and do your job properly. If you can’t supply the right candidate, just tell your client you’re struggling. We want to be seen as recruitment consultants, so consult. Offering advice is just as important as supplying the right workers. Take risks – as long as you learn from them it’s fine When the recession started to hit the automotive industry there was a drastic shortage of candidates in food manufacturing. We went in and said we’ve got the guys with right technical skills – they just haven’t done put them to this exact use. Why don’t you try using them. We adapted to new circumstances and unlike very specialist agencies we built up new networks. People are coming back to Britain A few years ago a lot of companies shifted business over to Eastern Europe but recently it has been refreshing to see a lot of them come back to the UK. I think they have found it easier to manage people back home, to source the right skills and so on. For instance, the new Jaguar Land Rover plant in Wolverhampton, which will aim to produce one engine every 36 seconds from 2015. They are global but decided to build in Britain. The government’s apprenticeship focus is paramount So many technical industries have skills shortages so it’s great to see the powers that be trying to do something about it, since that helps business and jobseekers. The Birmingham Local Enterprise Partnership is going out and talking to colleges and universities, asking them to encourage courses that the companies in the area need. I think that’s going to be a huge advantage.

To keep up to date with everything the Institute of Recruitment Professionals is doing, please visit www.rec-irp.uk.com

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Recruitment Matters April 2014 7

09/04/2014 14:29

Events and training

City Conference Tours:

bringing the Good Recruitment Campaign to Life!

Wendy Cartright

Kevin Green

The first REC city conference tour took place at the REC offices in London at the end of March. Delegates from the REC’s Office Professionals and Life Sciences sector groups both held individual meetings before coming together for a series of informative presentations on the industry. Wendy Cartwright, former HR director at the Olympic Delivery Authority, talked about the issues that clients face when hiring and how the Good Recruitment Campaign can have a positive impact. www.rec.uk.com/goodrecruitment After lunch, REC chief executive Kevin Green gave a rundown on what’s hot, what’s not and what’s growing in the recruitment industry. This was followed by a legal update from Lewina Farrell, head of REC legal services, who explained how some of the latest changes in the tax regime were having an impact on recruiters around the UK. After a day of discussions and debate the delegates got down to the all-important business of networking at the drinks reception. The city tour is hitting the road and will be coming to a destination near you soon so don’t miss out and make sure your book your place today.

When and Where Cardiff

9 April

Half day, pm

Welsh Policy Forum and Education Sector

Birmingham 13 May

Full day

Education and Healthcare Sectors

Edinburgh

10 June

Half day, pm

Scottish Policy Forum, Accounting & Financial Services Sectors

Aberdeen

11 June

Half day, am

Scottish Policy Forum, Engineering (Oil & Gas) Sector

Manchester

9 July

Full day

Technology and Construction Sectors

Bristol

10 September

Half day, pm

General Sector update

Newcastle

7 October

Half day, pm

General Sector update

Birmingham 21 October

Half day, pm

Drivers & Industrial Sectors

Leeds

5 November

Half day, pm

Healthcare, Retail & Hospitality Sectors

London

25 November

Full day

Diversity Forum, Engineering & ‘Exec pay’ Sectors (AER, A&FS, Legal & HR and R2R)

Recruitment Matters The official magazine of The Recruitment & Employment Confederation Dorset House, 1st Floor, 27-45 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NT Tel: 020 7009 2100 www.rec.uk.com

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Membership Department: Membership: 020 7009 2100, Customer Services: 020 7009 2100 Publishers: Redactive Publishing Ltd, 17 Britton Street, London EC1M 5TP. Tel: 020 7880 6200. www.redactive.co.uk Publisher: Aaron Nicholls aaron.nicholls@redactive.co.uk Tel: 020 7880 8547 Consulting Editor: Ed Sexton ed.sexton@rec.uk.com Editorial: Editor: Francesca Steele francesca.steele@redactive.co.uk. Production Editor: Vanessa Townsend Production: Deputy Production Manager: Kieran Tobin. kieran.tobin@redactive.co.uk Tel: 020 7880 6240 Printing: Printed by Woodford Litho © 2014 Recruitment Matters. Although every effort is made to ensure accuracy, neither REC, Redactive Publishing Ltd nor the authors can accept liability for errors or omissions. Views expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of the REC or Redactive Publishing Ltd. No responsibility can be accepted for unsolicited manuscripts or transparencies. No reproduction in whole or part without written permission.

www.rec.uk.com 09/04/2014 14:29

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09/04/2014 14:13

Interaction

SOUND

BITES

“Is there too much elitism in graduate recruitment and should you look beyond the qualification or where the degree was awarded?” Jemma Gajic Client relationship director, Streamline Connections

Streamline is run by three directors, two of whom were awarded 2:2s in their degrees and the other didn’t even start university. We ourselves are an example of the fact that it is attitude and work ethic that makes a good employee, not your level of education. Some of the most successful people I know didn’t receive a university education. Unfortunately, recruitment processes are so flooded by the wider reach of internet advertising that clients need to be able to sort through a huge number of candidates. This has lent itself to evaluating both grades and the level of university to differentiate between applications. While it is impressive to be a high-achieving academic, I feel clients are missing out on some exceptional talent with this limiting approach.

David Johnston Chief executive officer, Social Mobility Foundation

With universities having such a patchy record on access to those from less privileged backgrounds, considering applications from only certain universities means you fail to get the best people. Nearly

LETTER TO THE

Marcus Lee Head of resourcing & talent, Santander

At Santander around 40% of our hires come from the under-24 age group, so young people are an important part of our recruitment strategy and in some areas this will include graduates. However, academic success paints only part of the overall picture, which is why we look at much more than degrees and universities when considering applicants. We believe that it is crucial to recruit young talent from the widest possible pool to ensure that no outstanding candidates are overlooked. This is why our approach centres on bringing in young people from a broad range of backgrounds, providing opportunities through apprenticeships, internships, our school leaver programme, as well as graduate roles.

Can executive search firms help propel women into the boardroom?

Last month Kevin Green, chief executive officer of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC), declared that executive search firms should publish the percentage of positions filled by women, as well as female placements by salary band, on their websites and in their annual reports. Green highlighted the low ratio of women to men in boardrooms and said executive search firms could help businesses take a broader view of candidates for top jobs and challenge old assumptions and unconscious biases that lead to businesses missing out on female talent. The suggestions come as the FTSE100 nears the target, set by Lord Davies in his Women on Boards review of 2011, of achieving 25% of women in boardroom positions by 2015, which currently stands at 20.4%. To respond, we have seen a significant increase in the number of women taking on senior level interim assignments over the past year; 35% of our assignments are now undertaken by women, compared with just 18% in 2012, and we aim to increase this number to 50% by the end of 2015. In our trustee recruitment business, Trustees Unlimited, progress is even stronger, with 40% of assignments now being filled by women. Interestingly, women only constitute around 15-20% of our database, so it highlights that women are proportionately winning more jobs but this figures needs to change if we are to see real change in the gender splits in the boardrooms of UK plcs. Interim management is one area where the number of senior roles going to women is growing fast. The latest Ipsos MORI data from the Interim Management Association (IMA) highlighted that 36% of

EDITOR

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

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half of those who get ABB+ go to universities outside the Russell Group for reasons that are nothing to do with their ability. Using innovative ways to reach graduates from a range of universities efficiently and remembering that people hired from the stereotypical top institutions can turn out to be bad hires (the non-traditional candidates shouldn’t constantly be seen as ‘a risk’) will help firms add to their bottom line.

respondents to their survey are female — the highest recorded figure since 2010. Interim management and self-employment as a whole is becoming a popular choice for women thanks to the flexibility it can offer. Research from the Professional Contractors Group (PCG) showed the numbers of women going into self-employment is outstripping those choosing traditional employment. The PCG report showed there has been a large rise in female freelancers, including the number of freelance mothers increasing by 24% from 2011 to 2013. ONS Labour Market statistics also show the number of women choosing self-employment rose almost five times as fast as women taking permanent jobs in the last year and 14 times faster in the last quarter. We’re also seeing growing numbers of women interested in portfolio careers — taking on senior level interim roles, trusteeships or non-exec director (NED) positions, and we hope this trend will continue. Such options provide women with challenging, board level careers and flexibility. We think executive search firms do have an important role in progressing women onto UK boards — however, women also need to start putting themselves forward for these types of roles. While the self-employment market is seeing a boost in females, executive search firms are not seeing this translate into growing numbers on our databases. As an industry we need to do more to attract women to senior roles, interim or permanent, to provide the talent pipeline into the boardroom. Without this I fear we are a long way off equality in the boardroom. Melissa Baxter, associate director, head of executive, search & selection at Russam GMS

RECRUITER

APRIL 2014

10/04/2014 10:07

Insight

Playing to strengths: time for a sea change? THE PERFORMANCE UPSIDE OF PLAYING TO STRENGTHS IS HUGE, SO WHY HAVEN’T MORE ORGANISATIONS WOKEN UP TO THIS? Using our natural strengths for much of our working day means we’ll be more productive, more successful and much happier. All good news for organisations. Rooted in positive psychology, a strength is the innate way we each think, feel and respond to stimuli around us. And we’re all different. What excites one person won’t necessarily excite the next. Take top performing sales people. Given equal product knowledge and skills, such as negotiating and overcoming objections, why are some superstars and others mediocre? Having studied many sales professionals, one strength that accounts for this performance difference is competitiveness. The best love to compete, to become top of the sales league; they constantly measure achievement against their own targets. But if you’re not naturally competitive, you may well shrink at the thought of having to go head-to-head with others. The bad news is that strengths are more or less hard-wired as a result of how synaptic connections in our brains communicate with one another, through nurture or neglect as a child. This means we can’t develop these innate talents later on in life.Even worse, many organisations act as though we can, taking a ‘remedial’ approach to people management, trying to ‘train in’ certain strengths where patently they don’t exist. As American science fiction writer Robert Heinlein once said: ‘Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time, and it annoys the pig.’ My recommendation? Ditch the fixation with weaknesses and instead build on strengths to improve individual and organisation performance. Some leading organisations have seen real business benefits from strengths-based selection, like the Automobile Association, while others are further down the road in building a strengths-based organisation. But what does it mean in practice? Recruitment: For each key role, identify the strengths of your top quartile performers that differentiate them from your competent ones. Do this by interviewing them, observing them at work, talking to people who work with them. Then be rigorous in selecting for these. It‘s no surprise that great NHS ward sisters have a very different set of selection strengths, including ‘doing the right thing’ and ‘picking up on others’ needs’. Development: Counter-intuitively, we have the greatest potential for performance growth in our

areas of natural strength. ‘Training in’ strengths where they don’t exist is a waste of time and money, as we’ve seen. However, knowledge and skills — the building blocks for doing a job competently — are eminently trainable. Instead, a powerful way to unleash your employees’ performance is to provide a means to pinpoint their innate strengths. Use one of the good strengths assessment tools that are out there in the market. Then focus on individualised development actions to polish those strengths and configure individuals’ roles so they have the opportunity to use them consistently at work. With managers, help them use their natural strengths to be authentic leaders with their team, rather than ‘shoe horn’ them into some conventional management model. Engagement: Managers have the biggest impact on employee engagement. For sure, other factors can support engagement — company reputation, culture and so on — but to a lesser extent. Not everyone is a natural manager, but a strengths-based approach provides managers with ‘discovery’ tools to help them to really get to know individuals in their team — their strengths, motivators and aspirations — and take simple actions to manage each person according to their different drivers to maximise engagement, productivity and retention. For example, reassigning activities that use the unique and different strengths of team members, even if it’s not part of their normal job description. The impact on business outcomes of highly engaged vs disengaged teams is huge. One organisation I worked with found that profit margin and revenue growth was 16% higher in the most engaged teams and staff turnover 46% lower. So why haven’t more organisations gone down the strengths path? Before the economic crisis, the best human resources professionals were focused on building differentiating capabilities to deliver performance and competitive advantage. Along came the downturn and a change of focus — cost-cutting, risk avoidance, sticking to the old ways of doing things. No one would thank you for introducing innovative HR practices. But many employees have been left feeling battered and bruised and ambivalent about their employers. It’s high time we refocus on engaging, energising and motivating them. Maybe that’s why we are now seeing a renewed surge of interest in strengths-based people management. Let’s hope so.

Power Points Build on strengths: people perform much better, are more engaged and ‘go the extra mile’ when they have the opportunity to use their strengths for most of their time at work. Abandon a remedial approach: a strategy focused on trying to develop an innate strength in someone that doesn’t have it does not work. It may get them to mediocre performance, but no further. It’s also highly demoralising for the employee and undermines confidence. The right fit: study what strengths make for top performance in your key roles. Recruit rigorously to ensure a great match between critical strengths for the job and those the candidate possesses. Time to re-energise: Employees are paid volunteers. Treat them as such. Help them play to their strengths to be the best they can. Give them great managers who treat them as individuals.

DEBBIE WHITAKER is an HR and change management specialist and director of Debbie Whitaker Consulting. She is a former head of HR at global recruitment ﬁrm SThree

Share your insight and blue-sky thinking. Contact the editor: deedee.doke@recruiter.co.uk

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The Challenge

Echo helps RAF recruits fly high Nathan Barton Account manager

WITH PUBLIC SECTOR CUTBACKS A TOP PRIORITY, ECHO MANAGED SERVICES HELPED RAF CAREERS FIND THE RIGHT RECRUITS — JUST IN TIME

THE CHALLENGE Under the government’s austerity measures, the Royal Air Force has undergone frontline cutbacks, similar to those experienced by the British Army and Royal Navy. Expenditure on non-frontline resources has also come under scrutiny, especially in terms of recruitment. RAF Careers is often the first contact jobseekers and members of the public have with the RAF, either at air shows around the country, fairs such as the youth science show The Big Bang in Birmingham, or graduate job events at universities. Within RAF Careers there are a number of outreach teams made up of RAF recruiters, all service personnel, who attend public events. Squadron Leader Ted Sellers, a personnel ofﬁcer in RAF Careers, has been in his role for seven months and was previously on service in Afghanistan. “Recruiters are all services personnel who can explain the different opportunities to people in terms of careers,”

“They’re an integral part of assisting the RAF in defending the UK. Their advice to potential recruits is second to none” SQ LR SELLERS

he told Recruiter, regarding the outreach team or “field force”. Visitors to events who were interested in a career with the RAF fill out a ‘Find Out More’ form and are contacted at a later date. However, despite there being more than 50 different types of professions in the RAF available, they are not all open at the same time. So although such events are taking place throughout the year, as well as direct response TV (DRTV) ads broadcast from time to time, the danger was that those who had expressed an interest in a career with the RAF would get fed up of waiting to hear. “It was clear that, if there were no vacancies for roles in a particular field, there was a need to follow up with those who were still interested in a RAF career generally — so they wouldn’t fall by the wayside; the ‘keep warm’ communications that Echo sends out underpins our customer relationship management strategy,” Sellers added.

THE SOLUTION “For the past 10-15 years, the MoD has beneﬁtted from increased partnership with industry and civilian organisations — looking for

value for money and efﬁciencies for the tax payer,” Sellers explained. Echo Managed Services, a specialist outsourced provider of multi-channel customer contact services, had been working alongside RAF Careers since 1999. Nathan Barton, account director for the RAF at Echo, told Recruiter: “The original brief was to handle literature requests only off the back of their advertising (including DRTV).” Back in 1999, this generally meant over the telephone. In 2010, the RAF moved to ‘just-in-time’ recruitment, where even if a certain role wasn’t being recruited for, Echo would retain the contact’s details and inform them when new vacancies arrived. “The recruiting control team would communicate with Echo to say if a trade role became open, or if we were fully manned and couldn’t take any more applications. Echo keeps these people ‘warm’ so that we can go back to them in the future,” Sellers explained. Over the years, and especially with ‘just-in-time’ recruitment, Barton said “so the scope of our involvement, the complexity of the information we give and channels we support have evolved hugely since then”.

Sq Ldr Ted Sellers Personnel officer

He added: “Over the course of time we offered jobseekers different channels to get in touch, such as emails, outbound calls [proactively contacting candidates] and Facebook.” Echo moderates the RAF Facebook page, taking responsibility for dealing with enquiries from that form of social media, as well as Twitter and jobseekers’ queries on the RAF Careers page. Sellers was keen to emphasise the value for money of such an arrangement: “We need to evaluate our expenditure, especially in terms of recruitment. Echo’s work with us is a good vehicle to evaluate our success and gives the taxpayer value for money.” In fact as a result of the pro-active outbound service, since July last year there has been eight times more candidate conversions, plus a 30% conversion rate, resulting in a 400% uplift in candidate registrations. And most of this Sellers puts down to daily communication with Echo, and its advisers knowing the RAF inside out: “The company is a stakeholder in delivering the RAF’s mission in support of the UK defence vision and each member of the Echo team has a sense that they — individually — are a key stakeholder.” He said their involvement was similar to the apocryphal story of the man in overalls at the space centre at Cape Canaveral in the mid 1960s. At an unannounced visit by President John F Kennedy, Kennedy was said to have asked the man: “What do you do here?” and his reply was: “Mr President, I’m helping to put a man on the moon.”

Would you like to be involved in The Challenge? Contact Vanessa Townsend at vanessa.townsend@recruiter.co.uk

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Profile

Shane Lynch COLIN COTTELL SPOKE WITH THE HR DIRECTOR OF ISLINGTON COUNCIL

With its long corridors and gloomy interior, there is a distinctly old-fashioned feel to Islington Town Hall in north London. The overall impression is of a bygone municipal age. However, any notion that the council is stuck in a backwater and has not moved with the times is soon dispelled by Shane Lynch, the council’s energetic and personable HR director. “It’s not a safe 9-5 job doing the same thing and forever going to meetings — it’s a very fluid environment, with massive levels of change,” says Lynch, as he reels off the types of attributes required of today’s Islington Council workers, which include “creative thinking, innovation and flexibility, being able to work in that kind of environment”. These qualities are certainly needed by Lynch and his resourcing colleagues, as they face up to a climate of continuing financial austerity that brought recruitment at the council to a virtual halt, and now forces Lynch to think the previously unthinkable about how to better organise recruitment to save money. “My entire time here has been framed by budget cuts, with almost 500 job posts cut due to redundancy across the council, which puts a strain pretty much across all the teams in HR,” he says, as we talk in an appropriately austere grey-walled office, devoid of all creature comforts, with a table and chairs, and a black VDU screen. In Lynch’s first year, spending on recruitment advertising went from £600k to zero overnight, while recruitment activity “pretty much disappeared” from 400 hires to under 200, and the resourcing team’s headcount fell from 14 to eight. “We couldn’t see the future,” says Lynch, without a hint of rancour, his strong West of Ireland accent still noticeable despite more than a decade in the UK. Although recruitment has picked up again in 2014, this is no panacea for Lynch and his team. As he explains, the council’s strategic decision to deliver all its services in-house, which has already led to the number of permanent employees rising by 1,500 during 2012 and 2013 to 5,200, has brought its own challenges for his already-stretched department. “The difficulty is delivering a full range of services during this period of austerity. We are delivering with

less and less,” he says. There is now one HR person to every 110 staff compared to one to every 65 staff previously, which is “quite a change for people”, he says. At the same time, Lynch says the change from no recruitment activity to speak of other than via the council’s website between 2010 and the beginning of this year left his team facing “a whole new world”, one characterised by social media and Google, that his staff had not experienced before. Similarly, Lynch says that Islington’s employer brand “had ceased to be important”. However, thanks to a new resourcing manager, employees’ ability to pick up new sourcing techniques has been made relatively painless “because people use so much technology in their personal lives”, An increase in the size of the team has helped the resourcing function to become better to equipped to face the future. It will certainly need to be. For, if you think that the current environment at Islington is a difficult one, then the next four years, during which Islington expects to see its budget cut by a further £95m, is enough to give any recruiter nightmares. “Read the Daily Mail, and you think everyone is sitting on their backsides doing nothing. Actually, the fat is gone and we are eating into the muscle and, to continue the analogy, amputating things,” says Lynch, firmly putting to bed any remaining misconceptions of municipal munificence. “People don’t like change by nature, and nobody likes change for change’s sake,” continues Lynch. However, with signs that austerity is if anything tightening its grip, Lynch has determinably thrown himself into helping the council to live within its means. One option — sharing services — has already been implemented. Islington shares an internal audit function, as well as a 50-strong public health team. But Lynch sees no reason why it should stop there. While joining two transactional HR teams, for example, isn’t a great money saver because “the same volume of work is still there, there is no reason one cannot recruit for Haringey, Islington and Camden”, he says. “There are similar processes, similar checks and probably identical attraction strategies. It just needs the will, and all the processes and systems need to be aligned.”

SHANE LYNCH’S PHILOSOPHY OF RECRUITMENT “Trying to make the manager’s life as easy as possible — that is where we add value”

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PHOTOGRAPHY: PETER SEARLE

Profile

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Recruitment agencies are another area that Lynch has identified for cost savings. This year, Islington expects to spend £22m on agencies, but he has ambitious ideas to cut that to around £15m by setting up an in-house agency at the council. With Islington paying an average margin of 38% to agencies via its contract with neutral vendor partner Comensura, Lynch says the council “has reached the stage where we cannot squeeze value from agencies any more”. “The only way we can get it cheaper is setting up an agency so we can directly engage and payroll those staff,” he says. Lynch reckons that every £7m not spent on agencies saves the council £1m. Lynch is at pains to point out, however, that no in-house agency could replace commercial agencies completely. “It would be an incremental process, and we will always need agency staff,” he says. While the council’s own agency would begin by supplying hourly paid manual workers, he says he cannot envisage a day when the council supplies it own legal, finance and social workers. “There is a degree of difficulty trying to recruit these people, so we would focus on high-volume, lowcost areas,” he explains. Lynch says that, depending on the level of simplicity of the model, a council-owned and managed agency could be up and running within six months of a decision being taken. For Lynch, the creation of an in-house agency would represent a return to his earlier recruitment consultant roots. After leaving Ireland for the UK in the late 1990s, Lynch initially worked for Hays. Frustrated with the corporate aspects of a big FTSE 100 company, he felt the urge to work for a start-up, joining Morgan Law, and becoming its third member of staff. “There were almost no rules, it was very unstructured, much more entrepreneurial and a lot more free flowing… I enjoyed my time there,” he says. However, after five years the absence of a distinct career path within agency recruitment, a desire to continue his studies and a sense that the clients he wined and dined “appeared to have a better life” than he did led Lynch to take up an opportunity at Hertfordshire County Council, where he managed its outsourced recruitment contract with Manpower. Further local authority positions followed in the HR sphere, culminating in his current job. Lynch says that one obvious difference between the private sector and local government is that the latter is political, with each town hall administration having its own priorities. However, he says that in Islington at least he has a relatively free hand, unencumbered by layers of council bureaucracy or micromanaging councillors. “There is good access to the chief executive, corporate directors and council members, and for anything in the HR sphere decision making is quick… within reason, something I decide can pretty much be implemented immediately, almost,” he says. While the environment at Islington is conducive to decision making, there is no escaping the all-pervasive influence of budget pressures, however. “There is no way we can match or hope to match salaries,” says Lynch, in reference to the council’s inability to match the financial rewards offered by City employers down the road. Happily, says Lynch, the council still has its attractions. “Some graduates are minded to work in the public sector because they want to give something back to or support the local community,” he says,

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SHANE LYNCH’S CV August 2009-present Head of HR, Islington Council

August 2007-August 2009 Head of HR shared services, Camden Council

February 2005-August 2007 Manager, workforce and information, Hertfordshire County Council

October 2002February 2005 Business manager, Morgan Law

October 1999-October 2002 Business manager, Hays Accounting Personnel

EDUCATION 2007 MA, HR management, University of Hertfordshire

SHANE LYNCH’S SECRET OF SUCCESS “Take opportunities when they arise. Nobody is going take them for you — you need to drive yourself”

1999 Master’s degree in economics, University College Cork

1997 Accounting and ﬁnance degree, University of Limerick

while flexible working and a good benefits package appeal to many. The proverbial gamekeeper turned poacher, Lynch is not shy in pointing out that councils have certain advantages over agency recruiters who, he contends, are driven to put forward the perfect candidate because this is what they think the client wants. As a result, Lynch suggests, “they tend to be narrower in their search”, submitting only people with experience in insurance for insurance jobs, for example. And he questions the thinking that lead some not to put forward candidates, because they might not fit the culture. “The notion that candidates can’t pick it up in weeks and months is strange,” he adds. In contrast, he says councils are in a position to have a broader mindset, and are therefore more open to people with different career paths from different sectors. “It is not that difficult if you are in HR or finance to go from one industry to another,” he says. It’s a message that Lynch, who has successfully made the leap from the “relentless” world of agency recruitment, which to the ongoing austerity of local government, is better qualified than most to convey.

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10/04/2014 15:31

Job boards

The hiring evolution

ALAMY

RECRUITMENT HAS CERTAINLY COME A LONG WAY IN A RELATIVELY SHORT SPACE OF TIME. AND JOB BOARDS HAVE EVOLVED AT AN EVEN QUICKER PACE. BUT AS SUE WEEKES DISCOVERS, REPORTS ON THEIR DEMISE HAVE BEEN EXAGGERATED

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EXPERT OPINION

What estate agents can learn from recruiters

elling your house is an expensive and painful process. Some of the costs, such as conveyancing and surveys, are justifiable from a price versus value perspective, but estate agents’ fees are harder to swallow.

As the demand from home buyers increasingly moves online to the likes of Zoopla and RightMove, the high street presence of agents is reduced to a marketing exercise to attract sellers. Indeed, if property websites allow sellers to privately list and market their house online, competition would open up beyond rival traditional agents and their disproportionate fees would inevitably tumble. In recruitment, demand from job seekers also resides online, but unlike property sites, companies can list their vacancies direct with the job boards. However with literally hundreds of job boards, for the uninitiated, choosing the right one is a daunting prospect. To compound the problem, multiple job boards are required to cast the net wide enough to arrive at a suitable number of relevant candidates to interview. Getting this wrong can be both time consuming and expensive.

recommends the most suitable job boards for the vacancy. In other words, we take away the guesswork from recruiting online. Couple this with our buying power and we can offer our clients five job boards for the price of two bought direct. Filtering out the time wasters and honing in on those with the highest chance of success is a valuable service provided by good agents in both property and recruitment. Krooter does not ignore the importance of this and through a combination of technology and the good old fashioned human touch, provides a shortlist of candidates which best meet the company’s requirements. We believe the hirer is in the best position to explain the role and their business to the candidate and ultimately identify qualities in those people they wish to work with. If only someone could come up with the same end-toend self-service options with house selling… now there’s an idea!

Krooter, the self-service recruitment platform that I run, incorporates possibly the largest selection of job boards in the UK, and through our proprietary algorithms,

For further information, please call 0808 168 5340, visit Krooter.co.uk or e-mail info@krooter.co.uk

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Self-serve recruitment. RECRUITER RECRUITER FEBRUARY APRIL 2014 2014

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Job boards

Recruiters are never far from another diatribe predicting the demise of the job board, especially since the rise of social recruiting. Paradoxically, equally strong opinions also hold about how they are here to stay. The truth is that the vast majority of jobseeking begins on a job board and it’s likely to stay that way for some years to come. Generalist boards do face a particular challenge though if they are to remain first choice for job hunters, and owners know they need to find new ways to add value for both the candidate and the recruiter. “We can’t arrogantly assume job boards will remain in this position,” says Sophie Relf, marketing director of the generalist board Jobsite. “If you look at the life decisions people make such as buying a house, work is up there with all of them but we need to start behaving as an important part of people’s lives.” The evolution of the job board over the past 10 years has been largely due to technology but as John Salt, website director at Totaljobs, points out it is “never just about technology”. “Otherwise everyone would have a market-leading job board,” he says, reminding recruiters that many job board owners probably have to spend as much on sales and marketing as they do on technological development to keep their position. “You can automate more but you will always need a large outfit capable of serving the sales channel. It isn’t a selfservice market and I doubt it ever will be.” Threats to generalist job boards arise from a number of challengers, not least the niche sites, which provide in-depth specialist advice and often work hard at creating a real sense of belonging for visitors. Bubble-Jobs.co.uk, which focuses on the web, digital, e-commerce and related recruitment market, has built a community around its brand, which means that it consistently has something to offer the passive candidate as well as the jobseeker. “We have 175,000 visitors per month, 40,000 of which are unique, which means we have a high returning rate,” claims Amy Edwards, search engine optimisation manager at the site. “We try to offer something relevant to jobseekers, recruiters and employees at all stages.” As well as the niche sites, generalist boards are also up against the power and spread of the big aggregators sites such as Indeed and Simply Hired and, of course, the professional networking capabilities of LinkedIn. “As we predicted three to four years ago, the job market is moving towards its extremities,” says Giles Guest, director and owner of Enhance Media, which publishes the National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS). At one end, he says specialist job boards can provide targeted candidate reach for a premium, and Guest wonders whether they are moving closer to recruitment consultancy sourcing. At the other end,

he says the generalist job board market is consolidating into a small number of players, adding: “As the aggregator income model requires them to advertise direct client vacancies, the difference between a job board and aggregator will become blurred or indistinguishable.” Guest believes that the biggest opportunity for many job boards to increase revenue is by diversifying their services. “Job boards already have a large number of clients and yet in a campaign in which a client might be investing £20k, many job boards are satisfied to take a £300 job posting as their share.” Over the next five years, there is likely to be an introduction of new services as well as a reinvention and refinement of existing ones. Clearly little will change when it comes to the job board’s overarching mission of matching candidates to jobs but “relevancy” and “effectiveness” are two words that consistently crop up when talking to job board owners who know the level of service they offer to an increasingly savvy candidate and recruiter will be a differentiator. Mark Rhodes, marketing director of Reed.co.uk, says delivering an effective service “cuts across everything” it does and will be the most important factor in defining how the job site evolves over the next five years. “Whether it’s our commitment to growing our audience in response to the needs of our clients and the market or developing class-leading products, on desktop or mobile,” he says. “Our size and expertise enable us to offer a service that works.” And, while as Salt points out, it will never just about technology, ensuring job boards stay at the forefront of technical innovation will undoubtedly play a huge part in ensuring their position. Most of the leading generalist sites have some form of semantic or intelligent-matching software built into them to match people with jobs and this will be increasingly expected by the candidate. Monster has invested millions of pounds into its 6Sense semantic search technology. “A large number of roles is nowhere near sufficient in offering a valued service,” says Andy Sumner, managing director at Monster UK and Ireland. “It is also essential that there is cutting-edge technology in place to connect people with the right, most relevant opportunities.” Jobsite introduced its Jobtology semantic search and matching technology last year, while Totaljobs implemented the StepMatch algorithm at the beginning of the year, which continually learns to improve job matching. The need to cater for an increasingly mobile jobseeker will also drive technological development over the next few years. Patrick Harrison, regional market manager for the UK at Indeed.com, one of the world’s leading job aggregator sites, believes those job boards that can adapt to the “explosion in demand”

Andy Sumner

John Salt

“AS A JOB BOARD WE NEED TO DO MORE TO COMMUNICATE THE COMMERCIAL DRIVERS OF RECRUITMENT FOR OUR ADVERTISERS” SOPHIE RELF, JOBSITE

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for mobile functionality will be the winners. He lists mobile as one of Indeed’s priorities and says a certain number of jobs can already be applied for directly via a mobile device and this will increase. “It is always about how we keep the job search process focused and transparent for the user but also about enabling them to do it on all devices in a seamless manner,” he says. Indirectly, the shift to mobile is likely to bring about other changes that will impact jobseeking online. Already the emphasis is shifting away from uploading a traditional CV to either linking a potential employer with an online profile or else integrating with cloudstorage devices like SkyDrive and Dropbox. The move to mobile is likely to accelerate this. Salt also highlights websites that aggregate people and professional data and in doing so make profiles more “living and selfupdating”. “Job boards could do more to make use of their CV databases,” he says. “We should be looking at assets like these and seeing how we can bring them alive for recruiters and the jobseeker. These are all things that could happen over the next five years. People still want CVs but that general first spark of interest comes from a job profile and that’s where LinkedIn has been a game-changer.” Generalist sites also know they can learn from the niche sites in terms of delivering a more relevant experience for the jobseeker. The strength of a generalist board is in offering a wide choice but Relf says recent research carried out by Jobsite showed that

candidates and recruiters do not want a ‘one-size-fits-all’ experience. “They don’t want you to talk to them with templated advice and want something specific,” she says. What was also clear from Jobsite’s research was that recruitment consultants still control the recruitment process in the UK. A large number of respondents said that if they saw a job on a job board, they would be likely to contact the recruitment consultant and ask them if they could submit their CV. “In that way the job board has become almost a shopping guide or reference point,” says Relf. “So at Jobsite we’re striving to connect the candidate more closely with those making the hiring decision and not giving bland advice which you can get anywhere. It’s about making things real for people.” Clearly high-quality content will continue to be important for job boards and providing information on workplace and industry issues as well as standard career advice will also help to mark them out. Corporates and large employers in particular will expect more meaningful and heavyweight content than previously provided by recruitment sites, believes Relf. “They want to know what we are saying on topics like flexible working. They also have big things cooking in their industry and want everyone they partner with to in some way communicate that to candidates and employers,” she says. “So as a job board we need to do more to communicate the commercial drivers of recruitment for our advertisers.”

Giles Guest

EXPERT OPINION

Where does the job board see itself in five years’ yea arss’ time? We look at the evolution of the job board arrd given the rise of niche sites and the big aggregators. The very first job board was launched over 20 years ago and in that time the global recruitment market has experienced the rollercoaster of what has been the evolution of the job board. From early newspaper classified-style websites, the first generic job boards grew in popularity through the 90s with the internet providing a potentially unlimited candidate source and cheaper advertising costs. Large generic job boards such as Monster and Total Jobs made a large impact during the 90s and early 00s, taking market share from traditional print advertising. It was around this time that a new type of job board appeared; the niche job board. Niche job boards provided the opportunity to specialise by location, industry or job type, catering specifically to their target market more effectively than generic boards, albeit on a smaller scale. It was around the mid 00s that the online job market was presented with a range of new candidate attraction and job searching tools. Aggregators such as Indeed provided an option to reach multiple sites through just one job search and LinkedIn evolved into a huge open CV database where employers and candidates could network online. Today, the current job board climate includes a plethora of social media sites, aggregators and talent communities, which are being used effectively to attract candidates. Mobile recruiting is now extremely important and job boards are trying to keep up the pace of technological developments and innovation. Generic job boards appear to be declining in popularity while niche job boards and social networks continue to make positive gains. What does the future hold for job boards? Where will they be 5 or 10 years’ time?

Post-recession, niche job boards have never been stronger. Recruiters are happier to pay a premium to post their vacancies on a specialist job board with industry affiliations for a smaller response but receive a higher quality of candidate. “With everybody competing for the same candidates, to be successful in the coming years, job boards need to focus on creating dedicated, professional communities and career hubs filled with useful content. Niche job boards effectively tick all of the boxes in today’s recruitment market and I can’t see why they won’t continue to gain in popularity and strength in years to come.” CareersinAudit.com was launched in 2005 as one of the first hyper-niche job boards. With a narrow industry focus and strict dedication to the candidate, CareersinAudit.com fast became the job board of choice for the Audit, Risk and Compliance industries not only in the UK but across Europe, US, Middle East and Asia Pacific. Current holders of the Recruiter’s Best Job Board award, CareersinAudit.com stands up against the larger generic sites with a specialist, tailored offering that cannot be matched elsewhere. For further details contact Simon Wright, Director, CareersinAudit.com 020 7553 6350 or email simon.wright@careersinaudit.com

Simon Wright, director of CareersinAudit.com comments: “2013 saw the best year on record for many niche job boards across the world.

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APRIL 2014

09/04/2014 14:25

Movers & Shakers