Recruiter November 2013

November 2013

www.recruiter.co.uk

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE FOR RECRUITMENT AND RESOURCING PROFESSIONALS

Vector Resourcing Desp pitte flying g und derr th he radar, the new w entrant tops the technolo ogy specialissts in Recruiter’s 2013 HOT 100 list

Ensuring contractors are paid on time, every time

WHERE IS THE INNOVATION? Research from Capita shows HRDs think RPOs are missing a few tricks

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INSIDER HIRING

THE CHALLENGE

Companies are diving more into their internal talent pools to find hires, according to a LinkedIn global survey

Sourcing the next social media generation — G4S used Jobandtalent to find quality candidates

Recruitment Matters 06/11/2013 14:53

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Contents

Officially, it may be autumn and cold, but here at Recruiter the temperature has skyrocketed as we launch the 2013 HOT 100.

Again, the legal [recruitment] eagles at Shilton Sharpe Quarry have aced the No 1 position but we’re delighted to welcome Vector Resourcing, the subject of this month’s cover feature, to a position of prominence after years under the radar.

26 34

Big ‘thank yous’ go to Flo Software Solutions for sponsoring this year’s HOT 100 report, RBS for supporting the report with our 14 November HOT 100 event, and to the diligent and analytical Agile Intelligence for delivering this revelatory Big Data.

NEWS

Thanks also to temporary editorial aide Beth Fifield and our work placement student Megan Carnie for their administrative support during one of our busiest months of the year.

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Elsewhere in the magazine, you’ll also find exclusive content galore: interviews with Phillip Ullmann, chief executive officer of Cordant Group and Tremayne Elson, the new group CEO at Antal International; insight from Capita Managed Services on what RPO clients really, really want; and LinkedIn’s latest global recruiting trends survey. And there’s still more…

In October and November, Recruiter enjoyed gaining insight at LinkedIn’s conference and the European Executive Search Congress, and spending time with such organisations as the Co-operative recruitment teams in Manchester, and in locations ranging from London’s Old Bailey to East Sussex, to name just a few. Thanks for keeping us in the loop!

D D D k Editor DeeDee Doke,

5

New era for Cordant

Antal’s Elson: quality recruiting SAFER initiatives to tackle employment fraud

26 COVER STORY Recruiter’s 2013 HOT 100 list of the most profitable recruitment firms brings new entries hurtling up the chart — and sees old stalwarts on the way out 34 Profile: Vector Resourcing The highest new entrant at No 2 in the HOT 100, the technology recruiter talks talent, outsourcing and why it’s not looking overseas

The recruitment industry body has ambitious plans

REGULARS

Exclusive interview with CEO Phillip Ullmann

Recruiter reports from LinkedIn’s Talent Connect Stonewall wants more staffing champions Employers far outnumber recruiters in its programme

7

FEATURES

8 Tech & tools 10 Special report: Capita Managed Services interviewed HR directors about RPO firms

ANALYSIS 14 Sector Analysis Risk 17 Global Spotlight on Israel 21 Insight LinkedIn’s Annual Global Recruiting Trends survey

13 On tumblr this month 19 Interaction

Soapbox: Miles Lloyd Ricky Martin Soundbites Feedback 24 The Challenge 19 19 20 20

G4S and Jobandtalent 38 Movers & Shakers Industry moves 42 Bloggers with Bite:

Paul Maxin

WHO’S HIRING?

Scan here to get your own copy of Recruiter

13

39 Ruth Moran 40 Hays, Qui Recruitment,

trg logistics

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: Sam Burne James T: +44 (0)20 7880 7606 sam.burnejames@recruiter.co.uk Contributing writer: Sue Weekes Temporary editorial assistant: Bethany Fifield Work experience student: Megan Carnie Production editor: Vanessa Townsend T: +44 (0)20 7880 7602 vanessa.townsend@recruiter.co.uk Art editor: Adrian Taylor ADVERTISING Advertising director: Andy Daniel T: +44 (0)20 7880 7607 andy.daniel@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: Anne Sadler T: +44 (0)20 7880 6213 anne.sadler@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@alliance-media.co.uk • 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 Andy Daniel T: +44 (0)20 7880 7607

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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07/11/2013 09:49

ULLMANN REVEALS NEW ERA AND DYNAMIC FOR CORDANT

News

In a rare, exclusive interview, Cordant Group chief executive officer Phillip Ullmann has discussed with Recruiter plans for taking the company’s recruitment division into a new era, alongside changes also underway at the group’s cleaning and security businesses.

Cordant’s multi-brand recruitment division, set up in 2005, includes Abacus Recruitment, Premier People, Prime Time Recruitment, PMP Recruitment, Judy Fisher Associates and Grosvenor Phillip Ullmann Boston.

Ullmann’s mother, Marianne, chairs the family-owned Cordant Group. A major aspect of Cordant’s path forward is a new openness to hiring externally for leadership positions within the company, as exemplified by this summer’s hiring of former Adecco UK & Ireland director Steven Kirkpatrick to lead the recruitment division, Ullmann said.

Also crucial to the company’s revitalised direction will be better cross-selling of Cordant’s three separate business lines by encouraging cross-division communication through incentivisation, Ullmann said.

While Cordant’s fortunes have grown since Ullmann joined the company in 1996, he said: “We went through a growth phase of the business. But we are now at a stage where we want to be the best. The vision is clear: we want to be the best recruitment and the best facilities management company.”

Ullmann emphasised that growth will not occur through external financial injections.

However, acquisitions are planned. “We are not corporate, we are not ever going to be floating on the stock market or getting venture capital backing; we will remain as a family firm.

“At the moment, we are looking at three markets, which we currently do nothing in at all,” he said. “We want to be in all spaces at the end but we recognise it will take time.”

In recent years, Cordant has been most closely identified across the industry with controversial travel & subsistence payment initiatives that business secretary Vince

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•

LINKEDIN BOASTED that October’s Talent Connect London 2013 conference would be talent acquisition professionals’ only chance to network in an ice cave — aka the heavily madeover ‘inLounge’ at the Hilton London Metropole.

This was certainly a first for Recruiter. But the glitzy affair returned to many of the same fundamental in-house recruitment questions discussed at 2012’s event, including how to get the board on side, how to treat agencies, defining success and, inevitably, the role of LinkedIn in all this. (See p21 for LinkedIn’s Annual Global Recruiting Trends survey.)

The day-and-a-half of carefully stage-managed ‘infotainment’ — the US equivalent of this event takes place in Las Vegas — included a shoe shiner, an inspiration tree, a yeti, and a closing party at a mystery location, later revealed as tourist favourite Madame Tussauds.

Among an impressive cast of speakers and panellists were two of Recruiter’s 11 Most Influential In-house Recruiters, Paul Maxin, latterly of Unilever, and BSkyB’s Lee Yeap.

The pair had been introduced by LinkedIn chief talent scout for EMEA Colette Feeney, who said the company was “the ultimate direct sourcing organisation, as well we should be”. She said her team recruited solely through internal hires, employee referrals, and LinkedIn itself.

“It is possible,” she told the audience, although quickly added: “I’m not suggesting you should all go away and do that.”

SAM BURNE JAMES sam.burnejames@recruiter.co.uk

Cable put a stop to in 2010. Cordant’s subsequent court appeal of Cable’s decision was rejected.

Ullmann acknowledged that Cordant’s industry image has not been what the company would have liked. However, he said, the view of Cordant as a company that allegedly exploited low-wage workers was “not true”.

“We look after our workers better than any of these companies. The benefits are better, but we are clever, and others don’t like it.”

However, the company looks to improve its industry relationships. “That’s changing now,” he said. “We have a response. We have a professional ability to respond.”

DEEDEE DOKE deedee.doke@recruiter.co.uk

SSQ TOPS THE HOT 100 BUT MORE TO COME CHIEF executive officer of the firm topping the 2013 Recruiter HOT 100 league table of the •UK’sTHEmost profitable recruitment firms for the second year running said “the best is still to come”.

Nick Shilton of legal recruiter Shilton Sharpe Quarry (SSQ) told Recruiter it would “only start seeing the benefits in 2014” of launching four new offices and a temps business in 2012 and 2013.

“In the world of legal it takes considerable time for permanent placements to come through,” he commented. “We were striving to be at the top again but not taking anything for granted,” he added.

Profiled alongside Shilton in Recruiter 12 months ago, executive chairman Gareth Quarry said they had “only scratched the surface of where we want to be”.

• See p26 for the full report on the 2013 HOT 100, sponsored by Flo Software Solutions and supported by RBS. RECRUITER

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News Events Psychometric Assessments in the Digital Age, organised by the IOR 19 November, Irwin Mitchell offices, London theior.org.uk/events

APSCo Charity Ball, in aid of ChildLine 22 November, InterContinental Hotel, London bit.ly/APSCoBall13

Protecting and improving the recruitment industry’s reputation — Recruiter roundtable, sponsored by FPS 28 November Contact DeeDee Doke on (+44) 020 7880 7606 for details

Recruitment Society South West region event 28 November, Toto’s Wine Bar, Bristol recsoc.org/events

Going Global 28-29 November, Olympia, London goinggloballive.co.uk

IRP Awards, organised by the REC 3 December, London Marriott Hotel rec-awards.com

Recruiter Awards for Excellence 2014 7 May 2014, Grosvenor House Hotel, London awards.recruiter.co.uk

FOR MORE NEWS AND COMMENTS, GO ONLINE

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

“Talent is like a block of ice in your driveway — the moment you put it there, it starts to dissipate” MIKE FORDE, DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL OPS AT CHELSEA FC, GETS POETIC

STONEWALL WANTS STAFFING FIRMS

TO CHARGE OR NOTTO CHARGE

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) campaigning organisation Stonewall wants to sign-up more staffing companies to its Diversity Champions programme.

added: “Our clients are asking us about the type of questions they should be asking recruitment companies, so it makes sense for the organisations that our clients are already working with to work with us.”

PageGroup signed up in September. “We recognised there was a gap in our offering from a diversity point of view,” Belinda Brooke, PageGroup’s legal and HR director, told Recruiter.

“There was a clear message from the responses [to the company’s Global Engagement and Inclusion Survey] that the LGBT community within PageGroup wanted a voice,” she said.

Technical recruiter TXM Recruit joined just over a year ago. Managing director Andrew Midgley told Recruiter the education and training that Stonewall provided reinforced the company’s commitment to treat all people without prejudice.

“And because we are seen as an inclusive recruiter it is winning us business,” he added.

executive search services can deflect attention away from the quality of that service, attendees at the recent European Executive Search Congress in London have heard.

A talent executive at a major financial institution, who requested anonymity, said his company didn’t charge the business because “it takes away from the value to the business of delivering that service”. He added that it was difficult for in-house executive search teams to charge the business because they are seen as part of HR, which doesn’t tend to charge.

An attendee from Coca Cola added that charging “brings the conversation with the business back to cost rather than quality”.

Malcolm Kemp, former director of talent acquisition at Betfair, said that his team had charged the business 15% of salary to source researchers. However, such a model only worked “if the senior executives have bought into the model,” he said.

COLIN COTTELL

COLIN COTTELL

The programme currently has more than 600 members, including household names Barclays, Microsoft and RollsRoyce, but so far only two staffing companies, international professional recruiter PageGroup and technical recruiter TXM Recruit, have joined.

Among the support members receive are one-to-one advice on issues related to sexual orientation in the workplace, seminars and access to networking opportunities. Annual membership is £2,500.

Simon Feeke, head of workplace at Stonewall, told Recruiter that early next year, the organisation will advise existing clients on how to use their influence to persuade staffing companies to join the programme.

Alex Gwynne, client account manager, Stonewall workplace,

THE BUSINESS for the •costCHARGING of providing it with in-house

QUALITY RECRUITING, THE ANTAL WAY ‘VOLUME QUALITY RECRUITMENT’ will be the focus of professional recruiter Antal International in its mid-market •managerial arena as the company moves forward under newly appointed group chief executive officer Tremayne

Elson. Clients’ greater expectations and changed market conditions are driving necessary adaptations to how Antal, best known for its entrepreneurial, risk-taking culture, aims to grow its marketshare.

Speaking exclusively to Recruiter, Elson said an increase in marketshare would be “based on quality customer service, and offering this specialised recruitment approach of … drilling down into specific areas of core competence”. He added: “I think now my catchwords will be ‘volume quality recruitment’.”

Elson’s history with Antal dates back to 1994. He is credited with building Antal Russia, sold in 2008 to the FiveTen Group, into a regional powerhouse. He was appointed CEO in a restructuring of Antal’s leadership in September. Bringing on board new model recruiters who place high importance on client service and “the quality aspect of the recruitment process” is among the steps being taken in this latest evolutionary phase, Elson said.

In Antal’s drive toward greater specialisation within mid-market roles, professionals with significant experience in industry disciplines are being recruited to lead key practice areas, with a number already in place, leading, for instance, engineering and marketing matrixes in Germany.

Also sought are “good people who understand the recruitment process and client service element and can also manage people”, along with consultants with at least 18 months’ experience who will then be assigned to work with more seasoned staff, Elson said.

“The message I need to get out to the client is, Antal isn’t just a bunch of two or threeyear qualified people sitting around a bank of telephones just making telephone calls and sending CVs out.”

DEEDEE DOKE deedee.doke@recruiter.co.uk WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

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News

“My job is not retention — employability is my business” MAZARS CHIEF HR OFFICER, LAURENT CHOAIN

“If you ask a hiring manager they say ‘I don’t care if it’s direct or not — I want them on time’ ” BSKYB RESOURCING HEAD, LEE YEAP

“While there is business in the market, god are we working hard for it”

“You’re gay? I thought you were Italian”

REC CHIEF KEVIN GREEN ON SURVEY SHOWING INDUSTRY TURNOVER NEARING 2007 LEVELS

HSBC BANKER ANTONIO SIMOES RECALLS A COLLEAGUE’S REACTION TO HIM COMING OUT

SAFER’S PLANS TO TACKLE JOB FRAUD The chair of SAFER, the recruitment industry body tasked with combating employment fraud, has told Recruiter of the organisation’s ambitious plans to combat this growing threat.

EXECUTIVES IN AFRICA STAFF GO TO NIGERIA UK-BASED recruitment firm •Executives in Africa took eight staff

on the first of what may become regular trips to Nigeria last month.

“Each one of our consultants feels a lot more confident and a lot more inspired” following the week-long visit to the country where the firm makes around two-thirds of its placements, managing director Sarah Fitzgerald told Recruiter.

The trip exposed consultants to the realities of Nigerian life, such as Lagos’ notorious traffic, and talking to candidates about finding accommodation and issues including safety.

Nigeria may not be the safe, tranquil environment Westerners are used to — three of the party were asked for bribes during the trip — but Fitzgerald said: “You get used to it. You’re in the middle of a meeting and the lights go off — they [locals] just carry on.”

Nigeria has Africa’s largest population, twice the size of any other country in the continent, and its second-largest economy — projected to overtake South Africa possibly as soon as 2014.

While the West African state has a reputation as a dangerous location, with certain areas notorious for kidnappings, “every one of us can say … if you go with confidence and common sense, it is fine”, fellow MD Richard Putley said.

Executives in Africa put on an evening event during the week at which they hosted 120 local business leaders, including existing clients, with “exceptionally high turnout”, Fitzgerald reported.

SAM BURNE JAMES sam.burnejames@recruiter.co.uk

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Keith Rosser said that there had been “a sharp increase” in traffic and fraud reporting on SAFER’s website www.safer-jobs.com in the last three months.

Common employment frauds included people posing as recruitment consultants tricking jobseekers into calling premium rate numbers, advance fee fraud — for example, charging the candidate the cost of accessing their personal date from the police, as well as identity fraud.

As Recruiter went to press, an Old Bailey jury was considering its verdict in a case involving fictitious Harrods jobs posted on Gumtree, which resulted in candidates losing more than £1m.

Rosser, who is also head of screening and compliance services at Reed, outlined a number of initiatives that SAFER is taking to combat this growing problem. These included automatic passing on of details of fraud reported to SAFER to Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud and internet crime reporting centre. In return for this, Rosser said the industry could expect to see a reciprocal increase in intelligence on wider fraud trends coming back to it via SAFER. SAFER is also supporting a BBC Fake Britain programme on ‘fake jobs’. “This will help portray the industry in a positive light, by demonstrating to both clients and the industry that it is taking its own moral and ethical obligation seriously,” said Rosser.

SAFER has developed a new associate level membership. This allows members to share and receive fraud information via SAFER and law enforcement agencies.

COLIN COTTELL colin.cottell@recruiter.co.uk

NEW CHAIR FOR THEJOBPOST A FORMER chairman of white-collar •recruiter Morgan McKinley has joined social

recruiting platform TheJobPost as chair, also taking a minority stake in the business.

Ken Brotherston told Recruiter that he was introduced to TheJobPost’s co-founder and chief executive officer John Paul Caffery by former chairman Gary Watson, a mutual contact, earlier this year.

Watson, the CEO at recruiter Investigo, has become deputy chairman and remains a shareholder at TheJobPost.

“I thought initially the idea was very interesting, and the more I got to know Ken Brotherston the business, the more I saw that it’s one of the most interesting ideas in recruitment,” said Brotherston, who has also held positions at executive search firms GRS Group, Kinsey Allen International, Korn/Ferry and most recently chair at Directorbank Group.

“The business has clearly moved beyond the proof of concept stage — we’ve worked with a number of recruiters and corporates, and now I think is the intensive growth phase, and part of that will include looking for new investors,” Brotherston added.

SAM BURNE JAMES

Contract News AMS: US equity firm New Mountain Capital has acquired the RPO firm… Asclepius: The medical recruiter has been acquired by private equity firm Blackstone. Founders Louie Evans and Zack Feather have sold their stakes and become employees… Brightwork: The Scottish recruiter has acquired event management and catering recruiter Quality Link Recruitment… Capita: Candidate resourcing specialist Write Research has been acquired by the outsourcing firm… G-Cloud: The fourth supplier framework to the government cloud computing system includes recruiters Hays, IT Works, LA International, Modis and People Source in a total of 981 suppliers… Hudson: Payments provider PayPoint has selected Hudson’s RPO solution… Manpower: The staffing giant has partnered with US employer-led armed forces veterans initiative Get Skills to Work… Morson: Assets and businesses of seven companies from engineering firm Vital Services Group have been bought by the technical recruiter from administrators Deloitte… NES Global Talent: The technical recruiter has signed a five-year framework deal with Norway’s Statoil, and also completed a new $245m refinancing deal…

Omega Resource Group: The recruiter is toasting a five-year recruitment services deal with wine distributors Laithwaite’s… Resource Solutions: Robert Walters’ RPO arm will recruit for a new 200-role KPMG office in Leeds… Swift: The oil & gas recruiter has been acquired by New York investors Wellspring Capital Management

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News

Tech & tools

RESUMESORT SEMANTIC LAUNCHES IN UK THANKS TO ORO A

new semantic search technology has been introduced into the UK, which claims to be able to read and sort CVs at least 250 times faster and with far greater accuracy than the equivalent manual process. ResumeSort was developed by former NASA scientist Esfandiar Bandari and is owned by San Francisco-based technology company Textnomics. Earlier this year, UKbased recruitment and HR consulting firm ORO People Solutions entered into a licensing agreement with the company to bring the technology to the UK. Jim Whelan, managing director of ORO, who has previously held executive roles at recruitment firms such as Robert Walters, Randstad, Vedior and Hays, told Recruiter that the technology aims to address one of the most labour-intensive parts of the recruitment process for in-house recruiters.

“At one end you have the accumulation of database information and at the other end you have the assessment and selection decision that has to be made,” he said.

“Somewhere in the middle you have got to deal with a large number of CVs. You have to commit a lot of human resources to address this, so the aim is to provide automation to get to the best candidates quickly and recruit them in a competitive way.”

Unlike keyword search, semantic technology is able to search on the meaning of words. ResumeSort’s developers have created a huge library of phrases and terminology found in CVs, job posting and similar information which enables it to intelligently read and rank CVs (users can add new phrases and terminology to this database). ORO has been trialling the technology with a number of clients, including Productiv, a company which focuses on bringing ORO’s Sara Mullen and Jim Whelan

low carbon technologies to market. During the trial, ORO sourced more than 700 CVs, and evaluated and ranked them against Productiv’s job requisitions to deliver a pool of engineering talent within four weeks.

ORO operations director Sara Mullen, who has 15 years’ HR experience in both the private and public sector, explains that ranking the CVs took “minutes”. Mullen explained that as part of the trial, ORO carried out the same exercise manually, reading and ranking 760 CVs. “The technology was scarily accurate. Verification of the pilot showed 96% accuracy,” she said.

Whelan added the best estimate of manual accuracy they found in research was 12%, and so claimed the software was 800% more reliable. “You can believe that there is a fatigue factor in reading CVs, accurately ranking and scoring them against a competency matrix and each other,” he said.

“According to [online recruiting community] ERE, even seasoned recruiters miss the best candidates 88% of the time.”

Nick Rodgers, director of Productiv, said he expects ResumeSort to be a central component of its future recruitment strategy as it recruits more than 100 people over the next two years. ORO has also used the technology itself for some of its own RPO work with similar rates of success.

ResumeSort can be bought from ORO People Solutions as part of an integrated recruitment service or through a softwareas-a-service arrangement (SaaS). It is principally aimed at direct recruiters but Whelan reports there are a number of RPO companies interested in the product and it is also in conversation with agencies. ORO’s strategy is to seek out technologies that address specific pain points in the recruitment process and Whelan said it was currently assessing video-interviewing systems which could complement its services. www.orosolutions.co.uk

New Google algorithm focuses on more targeted meaning Google has introduced Hummingbird, a new search algorithm, which aims to handle the more lengthy and complex search queries it receives from users, and give the search engine a better grasp of meanings and concepts.

Senior vice president of search at Google, Amit Singhal, said that Hummingbird was already affecting 90% of searches.

Andy Drinkwater, founder of internet marketing company iNet SEO, told Recruiter that the main areas of change focus around intent and a more thorough understanding of natural language or semantics to deliver a more targeted result.

“What this means for recruiters is that there will need to be a more diverse use of words that support their [website’s] page content. For example, rather than just saying ‘SAP Recruitment Agency’, you might now have to say ‘London recruitment agency focusing on SAP vacancies the UK’ and then find additional words that relate to SAP, that can then also be included in the page. But be careful, Google doesn’t want to see ‘keyword stuffing’ — the unnatural, repetitive use of keywords — it’s all about delivering quality content,” he explained.

Hummingbird also focuses on more ‘long tail’ terms (more targeted and complete search phrases), so being more descriptive with your content is going to be key to ranking above competitors.

“The primary strategy of writing great unique content should never change,” said Drinkwater. “But you really should be looking to be a little smarter about how this is delivered and where possible, try to think more about what you want to say and how this will translate into what someone is searching for.” www.inetseo.co.uk

SUE WEEKES

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News

SPECIAL REPORT

Web comments Initiative aims to ‘explode myth that engineering is not for women’ (recruiter.co.uk, 1 November) Rich coming from the party that declared war on manufacturing in the 70s under Margaret Thatcher. Many of the critical skill shortages that exist in manufacturing and engineering today are directly attributable to her government’s antipathy towards manufacturing and its move away from a balanced economy. It is now left to her ‘descendants’ to correct the imbalance but resolving such an issue is not as easy or swift as flicking a light switch or turning a tap!

David Scarlett Recruiters talking about my generation at the APSCo conference (recruiter.co.uk, 21 October) Times are changing but it is sad that people are losing the art of talking as a means of communication.

Story telling has kept generations trading ideas, stories passing down knowledge and history. It is what makes us human.

Yesterday my client told me that she Facebooks her son (upstairs) to remind him when dinner is on the table!

I believe that social media has an important place but as a recruitment company trying to prepare young people for interviews it is increasingly more difficult for us to get them through the interview process. After all, our clients still use face-to-face interviews as the main method to recruit, and looking into the whites of someone’s eyes and having the ability to build relationships (in person) is a skill that is at the forefront if you are to secure a job in the first place.

Danielle Asano

10

RECRUITER

NOVEMBER 2013

10_12_Recruit_Digest_NOV13.indd Sec3:10

Cath Possamai, managing director (interim), Capita Managed Services THE RESEARCH WAS CONDUCTED ON BEHALF OF CAPITA MANAGED SERVICES BY MIKE RUDDLE AND KATE HARPER.

INNOVATE OR LOSE OUT HR DIRECTORS BELIEVE RPO FIRMS ARE MISSING OUT BY NOT BEING INNOVATIVE IN PROCESS OR PEOPLE. DEEDEE DOKE REPORTS New research from Capita Managed Services paints a picture of a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) industry that is at a crossroads, with an evident disconnect between suppliers and buyers.

The 21 participants in the research were HR directors including resourcing leaders at large enterprises. Participants, none of whom were Capita clients, included Arup, BSkyB, the Cooperative Banking Group, Lockheed Martin, TalkTalk, Thales and Virgin Money, among others. They were particularly critical of the sector’s failure to really engage with candidates and build relationships with hiring managers. They contended that some problems rested with technological innovation, which has had a negative impact upon personal interaction.

They also were critical of the quality of staff on many accounts and their inability to act as ‘talent advisors’ rather than recruitment process operators, researchers found.

Problems were also linked to contract governance, with an overemphasis on outputs rather than outcomes.

Linked with this was some providers’ inflexibility in, respondents believed, their intent to provide a ‘one-sizefits-all’ process rather than a solution. Some respondents reflected these challenges back on themselves; for instance, respondents linked several shortfalls to their organisations’ tendency to contract on cost alone, a failure to challenge how

resourcing was perceived as a business discipline within their own organisation, and a lack of both focus and investment in workforce planning and talent management.

The research unearthed “a cry for ‘back to basics’ ” and undertaking core requirements better, Cath Possamai, managing director (interim) at Capita Managed Services, told Recruiter.

At the same time, buyers often enter an RPO arrangement without having a full, in-depth view across their spectrum of stakeholders of what their organisations expect from it, she said. For instance, in terms of “innovation”, she added, “our sense and feeling was that no one was clear what that really meant”.

From an RPO perspective, Possamai said, “buyers don’t always spend enough time at the front end with us to articulate what they want”.

Once an agreement has been signed, “cost savings become the overriding concern”, she noted.

Ultimately, she said, the goal must be “more about increasing the end value for clients” — what is needed by all stakeholders in the client organisation — “rather than the cost of services”.

The report’s findings posed the following questions: What is innovation and how can the market become more innovative?

One respondent said: “Innovation simply means removing the stuff that doesn’t add value and adding the stuff

that does.” Some respondents felt that the “stuff that has been added” by the suppliers in recent years has actually set the industry back.

Instead, the emphasis has been on developing processes to support sophisticated applicant tracking (ATS) systems and blindly pursuing social media strategies without any real sense of how these things benefit either the hiring manager or the candidate.

So what adds value?

Respondents mentioned the following: • Total workforce planning • Branding and consistency • Building communities and networks, and developing channels rather than job specifications and advertisements • Direct sourcing • Being a true advisor to the business • Account managers that provide solutions rather than just sales • Being more strategic How can resourcers be more strategic?

Respondents suggested: • Take a more advisory role • Focus on talent planning • Engage with candidates personally • Increase convergence with HR and the wider business, such as the relationship between customers and candidates • Balance candidate personalisation with technology • Give hiring managers more control

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

07/11/2013 14:56

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SPECIAL REPORT

engagement with prospective staff, workforce planning is also linked to better management of permanent and temporary resources, with some alluding to the challenge of developing ‘total workforce solutions’ across all groups including perm, fixed term, temp, consultant and statement of work contractors.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of RPOs in adding value? What role can they play in innovation?

RPO providers excel in handling volume and temporary recruitment, respondents said.

However, participants said they were less useful for permanent hires, especially senior and professional roles.

Reasons cited by participants included: • They try to ‘tie down all the details in the commercials’, which results in a lack of flexibility • Recruiters are more likely to be accepted by the business as advisers if they are part of an internal team • The cachet of your own brand means you can get better quality recruiters if you hire directly • They are more concerned with selling many services than getting the basics right • They are “not as strategic as they think they are, and there is a lot of chatter and sales bumph”, one respondent said

Is there a ‘rightsource’ model that sits between outsourcing and in-house recruitment?

The almost unanimous view among interviewees was ‘yes’ — although there was less consensus about the form that such a model might take.

Suggested features from the respondents included: • Specialist niche providers that offer a range of services from talent pools of pre-screened and pre-vetted candidates • Teams of contract recruitment consultants hired to meet peaks in demand • Specialist search providers that provide quality long lists at a lower price than the traditional headhunters • A ‘total workforce solutions’ model that builds workforce planning and forecasting into the process • Effective relationship management at its core • Experts from outside the business that fill the gaps where internal teams cannot deliver.

Asked how Capita will act on the survey findings, Possamai said that one avenue will be encouraging clients to enter into increasingly “detailed engagement sessions” before contract. By doing so, client and provider can ensure that all parties understand exactly what the needs are and the right talent solution built.

Experian Hitwise most popular employment and training websites — October 2013

12

Domain

Visits share

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

www.linkedin.com www.indeed.co.uk www.reed.co.uk www.totaljobs.com www.jobs.nhs.uk jobs.theguardian.com uk.jobrapido.com www.cv-library.co.uk www.tes.co.uk www.jobsite.co.uk www.monster.co.uk jobsearch.direct.gov.uk www.jobisjob.co.uk www.jobs.telegraph.co.uk jobs.trovit.co.uk www.simplyhired.co.uk www.changeworknow.co.uk msn.careerbuilder.co.uk www.jobs.ac.uk www.jobstoday.co.uk

18.82% 12.61% 5.11% 4.03% 2.79% 2.75% 2.68% 2.64% 2.59% 2.24% 2.17% 1.57% 1.30% 0.80% 0.67% 0.67% 0.60% 0.59% 0.58% 0.57%

NOVEMBER 2013

10_12_Recruit_Digest_NOV13.indd 12

of UK employees, almost 5 million, called in sick due to stress in the past year, costing employers over £460m per day, says research from pension provider Friends Life

5

MOST VIEWED JOBS ON OUR WEBSITE

1. Futura Rec2Rec, Senior oil & gas recruitment consultant

2. Xinfra, Experienced

account/recruitment managers

3. Sharna Associates, Team leader, engineering recruitment

4. Nigel Frank, Germanspeaking consultant

5. Fresh Partnership, Recruitment consultant

5

MOST VIEWED ARTICLES ONLINE

recruiter should watch

Websites

RECRUITER

16

1. 10 films every

Percentage reflects share of visits to most visited sites

LinkedIn Indeed UK reed.co.uk Totaljobs.com NHS Jobs Guardian Jobs jobrapido UK CV Library TES Connect Jobsite UK Monster UK Direct Gov – Universal Jobmatch Job is Job UK Telegraph Jobs trovit UK Jobs Simply Hired Change Work Now MSN Careers – Careerbuilder.co.uk jobs.ac.uk JobsToday

%

TOP

What do clients want recruiters to do?

Many resourcers believe they are being innovative simply by using the latest mobile and CV-mining technologies, online assessment and social media tools. But in the sector these are not always seen as having the potential to make a big difference.

Views included: • Too easily distracted by the noise that is considered innovative • A desire to return to ‘oldschool’ techniques • Recruiters must see their role as one of ‘relationship builder’ with both candidates and hiring managers • Be true talent advisers with real business acumen.

Respondents almost universally agreed that this is lacking in the sector, both in in-house and outsourced models • Re-focus on outcomes instead of outputs • Use approaches which allow the candidate experience to be ‘authentic’. The hiring manager experience should be simple but with enough control that they can be confident in the quality of candidates • Be flexible and scalable Many view workforce planning as the ‘missing link’ in the resourcing process. While it facilitates the development of pipelines and promotes better

TOP

News

2. How to make your

recruitment start-up a success

3. Michael Page’s UK

results strong as CFO resigns

4. ‘No revolution’ as

Randstad announces CEO Noteboom’s departure

5. New offshore

employment legislation to hit recruitment

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

07/11/2013 14:56

News

On tumblr this month Robert Walters

Have you seen the Recruiter magazine tumblr feed yet? This is where we highlight the lighter side of recruitment, which this month includes:

More charitable stuff from staff at five UK offices of Robert Walters, raising money for the Stroke Association in a charity day involving onesies, a Robert Walters-themed cake (left), a rowing machine challenge and doughnut and chicken nugget eating competitions, although they didn’t send us any pictures of that bit…

Communicate Recruitment Solutions James Lock, the founding partner of Communicate Recruitment Solutions, raised over £6k for Arthritis Research UK by climbing Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Western Europe.

Page Personnel The secretarial and business support brand of PageGroup celebrated its 10th anniversary in October. Over 40 staff from the company’s regional offices gathered in London (Teletubby costumes among them) for a day of activities including some fundraising for the recruiter’s charity partner, Alzheimer’s Research UK.

Nixon Williams Alongside that Robert Walters cake, we were also sent a picture of the culinary delights prepared for the 18th birthday of contractor accountants Nixon Williams.

Anyone else getting inspired by Berry, Hollywood and Co, do let us know!

Go to recruitermagazine.tumblr.com for more including IT recruiter Rethink’s new volunteering initiative alongside supermarket Marks & Spencer, ‘A Cup of IT’, a ‘back to school’ quiz night from Bournemouth recruiter Jobshop UK and more onesies from recruitment software firm Recruitive.

And don’t forget to send us your pictures from baking endeavours, charity capers, excursions, celebrations or whatever takes your fancy to recruiter.editorial@redactive.co.uk

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RECRUITER

NOVEMBER 2013

13

07/11/2013 12:48

Sector Analysis

Risk

Views from the market

AS RISK DEVELOPS AS A PROFESSION, RECRUITERS FACE BOTH CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Carolyn Williams Head of thought leadership, Institute of Risk Management

In an increasingly risk-averse world, risk is moving inexorably up the corporate agenda, says Carolyn Williams, head of thought leadership at the Institute of Risk Management.

“The culture of an organisation is absolutely critical to how it manages its risk. Best practice is spreading, so that companies are starting to put people in place to help them define their risk appetite and look at their culture.”

Source: Barclay Simpson’s 2013 Risk Management Compensation and Market Trends Report

“There is more focus on corporate governance codes around the world and an explicit understanding of the risks faced by business, and boards are just going to have to get to grips with this,” says Williams.

And whether it is oil companies wishing to avoid the damaging fallout from environmental disaster, or financial institutions seeking to reduce the risks of making bad loans, risk professionals are at the heart of this trend.

One factor that has undoubtedly accelerated change was the financial crash of 2008. As Mark Dainty, director of specialist insurance recruiter High Finance Group, explains, the response of the EU in the form of Solvency II legislation aimed at reducing the chances of insurers going bust led to the creation of whole new departments and roles such as chief risk officers (CROs) — despite implementation being delayed.

Solvency II created challenges, says Dainty, namely finding individuals with the skill set to build new teams, but also with the technical knowledge and gravitas to challenge actuaries.

“Within insurance that has been a big talent problem,” he says. Dainty notes “a growing trend for CROs to have a very technical background, and quite often they are an actuary”.

James Bowie, consultant at the financial services recruiter Emerald Group, says this trend

THESE DAYS IT’S A MUCH MORE REGULATED AND QUANTITATIVE ENVIRONMENT. THE ACTUARIAL AND THE RISK MARKETS ARE VERY MUCH BECOMING ALIGNED

has resulted in more competition for vacancies in financial risk.

According to Williams, with “more and more responsibilities being placed on the boards of organisations” in terms of risk, the development of risk as a profession that began in the financial sector is now spreading into other sectors, with new roles being created, such as head of risk and head of enterprise risk management.

One area where change is less apparent is recruitment, where because of the technical nature of risk jobs, with staff working in small specialist teams, risk managers rather than HR continue to play the leading role.

This is particularly the case in banking, where HR’s role is “largely administrative”, says the director of credit risk at one of the UK’s biggest investment banks, who spoke to Recruiter on condition of anonymity.

Even with his many years’ experience in the area, he admits he doesn’t understand other areas of risk — for example, people risk. This makes it hugely problematical for HR to take a central role in recruiting, he says.

Jeremy Harrison, who recently left Network Rail, where he was head of risk and value management, is concerned about the lack of a sustainable talent pipeline, having seen several of his staff poached by competitors. “Going to the highest bidder means that people aren’t seeing the more rounded picture of their personal development,” Harrison explains, and this results in “a gap in people who understand risk in its strategic sense”.

Lack of people with the personal qualities “needed to do this job at a higher level” is a problem, accepts Williams. Among these are presentation and communication skills, and being able to influence and thereby “get a foot in the door with the board”.

With risk moving up the corporate agenda, not taking this message on board may prove to be the biggest risk of all.

Jeremy Harrison [until recently] Head of risk and value management, Network Rail “Not many move into our area of risk management from banking, because the banking field is more structured and rigorous around its existing model.”

James Bowie Consultant, Emerald Group “These days it’s a much more regulated and quantitative environment. The actuarial and the risk markets are very much becoming aligned.”

Samantha White Partner and managing director UK & Europe, Eames Consulting Group “Ever increasing remuneration, regulation and global mobility are just three reasons why there is an obvious shortage of active and visible risk management talent.”

COLIN COTTELL colin.cottell@recruiter.co.uk

VACANCIES ■ New vacancies ■ Outstanding vacancies

100

120

80

90

60

60

40

14

ANALYSING THE PLACEMENTS

RATE OF PLACEMENTS

150

Period A: January 2012 – December 2012 (12 months) ■ Placement rate

71 % of placements were in permanent roles and received an average increase in remuneration of 18% 29% of placements were in contract/interim roles and received an average increase in remuneration of 0.5% Period B: October 2012 – September 2013 (12 months) 65% of placements were in permanent roles and received an average increase in remuneration of 35% 35% of placements were in interim/contract roles and received an average increase in remuneration of 6%

20

30 Dec 2010

Jun 2011

RECRUITER

Dec 2011

Jun 2012

NOVEMBER 2013

14_Recruit_SectorAnalysis_NOV13.indd 14

Dec 2012

Jun 2013

Dec 2010

Jun 2011

Dec 2011

Jun 2012

Dec 2012

Jun 2013

Source: Eames Consulting Group

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

07/11/2013 14:58

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07/11/2013 09:58

Market Indicators

Global Spotlight on Israel ALTHOUGH ISRAEL SHARES MANY RECRUITMENT PRACTICES WITH THE UK, IT HAS SOME IDIOSYNCRATIC FEATURES THAT CAN COME AS A SURPRISE Keren Shorer, HR consultant and sourcing specialist at recycling firm Applied Clean Technology in Jerusalem, and HR consultant at medical technology company Aspect Imaging, says Israel’s close-knit culture means that employees are constantly sending in friends’ CVs and referring former colleagues.

idiosyncratic. However, Hagit Jekobson, until recently a director at online marketing and web analytics company LivePerson, where she was responsible for talent acquisition and employer branding, says the country’s high-tech sector shares characteristics familiar to recruiters in that sector in the UK. The challenge is how companies make themselves attractive, she says. The phrase ‘employer branding’ has now entered recruiters’ lexicon, albeit only in the past couple of years, according to Jekobson.

Attracting the best means “the emphasis is around the cool technology and what you are delivering and developing”, she says.

A senior member of open source software company Red Hat’s resourcing department, who wishes to remain anonymous, adds that in an economy characterised by entrepreneurial flair and start-ups, successful recruitment “requires allowing associates to be passionate about their projects”.

However, as in many other countries, the jobs market in Israel is not uniform, says Shorer. While there are few takers for specialist technical roles, admin, sales and marketing support positions can easily attract 600-700 applications.

In contrast, the lack of technical talent has led to an initiative championed by Israeli president Shimon Peres, and involving companies such as Cisco, Nike, and eBay, to widen the candidate pool to include Israel’s Arabs and Orthodox Jewish communities, who have previously been largely overlooked. The project sits alongside initiatives to encourage young people into the computer and software sectors.

In a country where community and culture give recruitment its unique flavour, it’s a sign of how the overriding need for talent is driving change.

Key indicators

While people aren’t hired on the basis of who they know, “if you know the right people and you come in at the right time you may have an advantage over other qualified candidates”, Shorer says. Indeed, she adds: “Sometimes even when there is no open position, employers will hire you based on a recommendation.”

Ron Goldman, owner manager of Hever Human Capital, a staffing company with 15 branches in Israel, explains: “Israel is such a small country that everybody knows each other. Many connections are made during people’s time in the army, which is mandatory between the ages of 18 and 21.”

That said, however, Goldman adds candidates are generally hired not only on the basis of their connections, but also on their professional competence.

“The best way to find a job in Israel is through your network, particularly for immigrants,” says Orly Rosenfeld, managing director of Leap, a boutique language recruiter. “It will get you in the door, although you will need to go through a number of [selection] stages.”

However, those candidates may come in for a shock as they go through the recruitment process, she says. “A lack of political correctness is typical in the job market,” she says, explaining that candidates can expect to be asked about their private life and their plans for raising a family. Rosenfeld says she doesn’t know whether it is lawful to ask these questions.

Another question employers ask candidates – indeed, “always the first question”, according to Rosenfeld – is how much they want to be paid.

To UK recruiters, such practices might appear

Population 7.42m Labour force 3.61m GDP growth annual 4.7% GDP per capita $26,719 (£16,511) Source: The World Economic Forum Human Capital Report 2013

The World Economic Forum Human Capital Report 2013 placed Israel 25th out of 122 countries, ranking 20th for workforce and employment Israel was ranked 53rd in its capacity to attract talent and 44th on talent retention ManpowerGroup’s Employment Outlook Survey shows 15% of employers expecting to hire in Q4, 9% expecting a decrease in hiring and 70% of employers expecting no change

Sponsored by COLIN COTTELL colin.cottell@recruiter.co.uk

INSTITUTE FOR MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT (IMD) WORLD COMPETITIVENESS YEARBOOK RANKINGS

EMPLOYMENT BY MAIN ECONOMIC SECTORS (Q4 2011)

(out of 60 industrialised and emerging economies) Manufacturing

414,000

Wholesale, retail, trade

411,000

Real estate/renting

435,000

Education 2011

2012

Within its overall ranking, Israel scored 10th for employment, 8th for its labour market, 11th for education, and 28th for management practices Source: Institute for Management Development WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

17_Recruit_NOV13_Global spotlight.indd 17

382,000

2013 Health service, welfare and social work Transport/storage and communications

301,000 190,000

No. 1 Quality Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics

18th

19th

18th

19th

19th

25th

Source: Institute for Management Development

■ Israel ■ UK

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RECRUITER

NOVEMBER 2013

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Interaction

SOAP

BOX

Deserving of recognition

Miles Lloyd, chief executive officer of Outsauce, argues for the creation of a recognised ‘quality stamp’ for the recruitment industry A strong recruitment industry is integral to the future of UK plc. With nearly half of the country’s workers in non full-time or temporary employment, the economy is heavily reliant on flexible labour. Precrash, positions were easier to fill and the difference between excellent and adequate recruiters was less clear. But now there is less room to hide. Margins are tighter and there are fewer candidates and fewer agencies (Office for National Statistics figures indicate there was an 11% decline in the number of recruitment businesses operating in 2011).

However, the skills shortage presents an opportunity for the industry. Employers are crying out for better candidates and skilled recruiters must rise to the challenge. The prospects are not solely commercial — agencies are under the spotlight and have a chance to prove that excellent recruiters should command prestige.

A meaningful professional qualification for recruiters would inform and improve consumer choice for agencies, their candidates and endclients alike. A ‘quality stamp’ would give talented recruiters the respect they deserve and help to make recruitment a more desirable profession, commensurate with its importance to the economy. The industry needs this more than ever, because the skills shortage will also affect recruitment agencies themselves.

Trade bodies need to work together Recruitment should be acknowledged as a true professional service. The best way to achieve this is to create a widely accepted accreditation of excellence. For it to work, all the major trade bodies would have to acknowledge their shared responsibility to promote excellence and set aside partisan interests to approve the creation of the new accreditation. Common ground should be easy to find if they focus on the essential elements of recruitment excellence. The list is potentially endless, but includes problem solving, communication, flexibility and elements of psychology, sociology, marketing, social media,

RICKY MARTIN

Search your suppliers thoroughly

What was one of my biggest challenges in the first year of setting up Hyper Recruitment Solutions? Suppliers.

When setting up Hyper Recruitment Solutions (HRS) I was fortunate enough to do so off the back of BBC1’s The Apprentice, which provided a £250k cash injection and business partner in Lord Alan Sugar. As fantastic as this was, it did not mean things would be plain sailing and actually made some parts of my set-up, which I assumed would be simple, a big challenge.

What the programme did for HRS was tell people who we were.

While it was great to give us a boost, it also let every supplier in the country know that I had a pot of money to spend. What a brilliant lead. Recruiters would follow up on such a lead without hesitation.

And this is exactly what happened. Every channel people could use to get in touch with me got extremely busy (and continues to be so).

I had never quite appreciated the true volume of options available and a the ways people would find to try and sell to me.

Some might say that this saved me from having to do my own mi research. research A fair point, but when each supplier assumes that I am going to spend all my investment on their services alone, and they can inflate their prices to reflect this, I would say not.

Other suppliers offered to provide services for free in return for an extensive PR campaign, using Lord Sugar’s profile and a my five minutes in the spotlight. Getting something for nothing may sound great but we’re all smart enough to know there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

19_Interaction.indd 19

salesmanship, financial and general business acumen… funnily enough, many of the qualities most valued by employers.

A respected industry body would then need to be agreed upon to set requirements and administer the accreditation. This could be an existing educational organisation or even a specially launched joint venture. Following some initial investment, funding would derive from applicants on a not-for-profit basis.

Financial autonomy is preferable but operational impartiality is paramount. All involved should achieve consensus on the substance of the accreditation, but day-to-day responsibility for administering it should remain the responsibility of the nominated body.

A skilled profession — deserving of recognition Leading recruitment industry bodies have already made crucial strides in the development and promotion of practice standards and professional qualifications. The next step is to create a standard against which all existing standards are benchmarked.

A new accreditation would be an exciting and long overdue step, bringing recruitment alongside established disciplines like marketing and human resources. Recruitment professionals play a vital role in ensuring the efficiency of the UK labour market, improving the prospects of candidates and prosperity of all. They deserve more than a quality stamp — but it would be a start.

Don’t forget… Quality standards for service providers It’s all very well focusing on recruiters themselves, but service providers to the industry should also be able to prove their credentials with the appropriate qualifications. Quality management standards, such as ISO 9001, can be a powerful differentiator, especially if certified by respected bodies such as the British Standards Institution (BSI). However, the industry still lacks a consensus on a bespoke quality mark. Steps are being taken in this direction, which should be commended, but they will not be entirely satisfactory until there is broad consensus on what constitutes excellent service — combined with a robust means to confirm it.

A big dilemma I had was finding suppliers I could trust, those who were going to create a real partnership with my company and therefore those worth spending money on. I may have had a fair amount to invest but when you factor in creating a complete commercial infrastructure from scratch, to enable us to compete with the big names already in my market space, you can pretty much write that figure off.

So when selecting suppliers, I did what I always look for my customers to do with HRS — understand their full offering and the value it can bring, how it differs from their competitors and lastly the price. My method of selecting suppliers was to judge them initially on the first three points mentioned, shortlist on these and then finalise on cost. This value-focused buying, instead of cost-based, would ensure I got the service and relationship I needed first and foremost.

The right businesses can really enhance your service offerings, and you can make some excellent strategic relationships. As much as I have enjoyed finalising my key suppliers, the journey in getting there was a lot tougher then I ever imagined.

So the main advice I would give is: take your time, thoroughly research your options, ask for case studies on satisfied customers and don’t be shy to network with other business owners or suppliers. And never forget: there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

RICKY MARTIN is managing director and founder of Hyper Recruitment

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

RECRUITER

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07/11/2013 12:49

Interaction

FEED

SOUND

BACK

BITES

What about the offshore rogues?

•

I AM responding to your article, ‘Government announces “more targeted” recruitment sector enforcement’ (recruiter.co.uk, 5 November).

What I wish to know is whether this will tackle the umbrella companies who are deliberately flaunting HM Revenue & Customs’ powers by employing temps on minimum wage on a self-employed module, and still the other ones that are operating on pay day-by-pay day terms.

Our contact in HMRC still tells us they do not have the power or resources to tackle the offshore umbrellas who are still flaunting the grey area of the law.

Malcolm Elson, managing director, Personell Solutions Group

“Are language skills a necessity or a luxury when working in foreign markets?”

Abi Agyeman Internal recruiter, Amoria Bond

Whilst it’s not the biggest determining factor in a consultant’s success, speaking the native language adds so much value that it could be viewed as a necessity. Languages differentiate recruitment consultants in their industry, and also gives your business a deeper understanding of the culture, psyche and natural engagement style of clients, leading to a more professional, sustained bond. Across Amoria Bond we have 17 different nationalities and are always actively sourcing language speakers for our offices in Amsterdam, Germany and Singapore to give us more credibility in the market.

Peter Linas International managing director, Bullhorn

English is a global business language, but it’s important to understand which linguistic skills are needed to be successful in your market. Your clients and candidates should determine your strategy, which may involve a blend of English and the local foreign language.

It’s also important to have someone from the local area in a senior position when operating abroad — it will help you successfully strike the right balance of business cultures.

Alan MacKinnon Director, talent acquisition EMEA & APAC, IHS

Stormy weather ahead for umbrella companies flaunting the law?

The old adage that English is the international language of business is outdated. You can get away with just English in the higher levels of the global business arena but if you want to empathise, to negotiate, to be valued and to be respected you have to speak the local language. If you can demonstrate local knowledge and cultural respect by speaking the language of the person you are doing business with, it shows a commitment and appreciation that can become the foundation for a great and successful working partnership.

Faizal Karbani

Ban the Box to recruit with conviction WITH REGARDS to ‘BITC and •Boots urge UK businesses to “Ban

the Box” for criminal records’ (recruiter.co.uk, 16 October), Ban the Box is a great first policy step for organisations to get more people with convictions to apply for jobs in their company and get more to interview. Thereafter recruiters need to be trained, empowered and authorised to Recruit with Conviction and recruit the right people based on their aptitude for the work.

This way the policy does not sit on a high shelf gathering dust.

Richard Thomson, director, Recruit with Conviction

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Founder and chief executive officer, Simply Sharia Human Capital

In terms of the Islamic finance market, the key foreign markets are the Middle East and South-East Asia. In the Middle East many British professionals have found employment without speaking Arabic or another foreign language. Hence I would not say it is a necessity.

However, many candidates looking for key positions in the Islamic finance sector in the Middle East have said that they haven’t been successful in applying for certain positions because they don’t speak Arabic. I suppose a factor is what type of role is being sought. Customer facing roles, where the target client is a Middle Eastern national, will tend to require the ability to speak Arabic, while back office or even legal roles may not require this. As for the Far East, the demand for British professionals seems to be less. This is probably partly due to a relatively rich pool of home-grown talent, particularly in Malaysia. Also in these markets, English seems to be widely used for business purposes, hence less of a need to have a foreign language.

IF YOU HAVE A LETTER OR WOULD LIKE TO BE A CONTRIBUTOR TO SOUNDBITES, EMAIL... VANESSA.TOWNSEND@RECRUITER.CO.UK

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07/11/2013 15:00

Insight

Internal sourcing still on the rise COMPANIES ARE INCREASINGLY EYEING THEIR OWN TALENT POOLS FOR HIRES, WRITES CHRISTOPHER GOODFELLOW Resourcing professionals increasingly look to internal hires when recruiting highly skilled talent, as the importance of sourcing from a company’s own talent pool increases for the second consecutive year.

The findings are part of LinkedIn’s Annual Global Recruiting Trends survey, which questioned more than 3,300 talent acquisition leaders in 19 countries about hiring and budget trends, and ‘what keeps them up at night’.

Internal hiring is identified as second only to recruitment agencies in talent acquisition professionals’ top 10 most important places to find quality hires, at 44% and 53% respectively, in the 2013 survey.

David Cohen, senior sales director Europe, the Middle East and Africa at LinkedIn, tells Recruiter: “There are many potential drivers behind this, not the least of which is that competition for talent is fierce in the UK and that internal talent pools represent one of the most attractive sources of talent to many firms.”

Indeed, ‘structured internal hiring process and supportive culture’ is listed as one of the top five practices of best-in-class employers.

The attitude toward internal hiring is likely to be backed up by changes in hiring volume, with 39% of respondents expecting to increase the share of their hires coming from internal candidates during 2013, with 55% expecting it to stay the same and only 6% anticipating a decrease.

Resourcing professionals also say internal candidates were more productive in new roles because less “ramp-up time” is required for training and gaining familiarity with an organisation.

What can you do to target key professionals in your company? “One of the challenges that larger firms face is that they find it difficult to know where key skills sit across their organisations.

Employers are posting jobs internally and are using LinkedIn sourcing tools to look inwardly and find talent,” advises Cohen.

Social professional networks and employee referrals also showed strong growth as techniques to find key hires; both were identified in the top 10 lasting trends in recruiting for professional roles.

Cohen puts this down to the level of competition that exists, despite the economic downturn: “Companies are looking for channels that can help them compete more effectively, such as global professional networks and referral programmes.”

Notable among the tools that have become less important over the last year are company career websites and newspapers, which both fell 4%, to 32% and 6% respectively.

The study found that UK-based HR professionals’ biggest difference with their international counterparts was in their approach to workforce planning, with 20% of UK respondents saying it was one of their top five priorities, compared to 16% internationally. And ‘workforce planning’ is appearing more regularly in HR professionals’ job titles. [Editor’s note: Strength in workforce planning was highlighted as a key aptitude of three of the professionals selected in Recruiter’s salute to the 11 Most Influential In-House Recruiters of 2013, along with that of Recruiter’s September 2013 cover subject, Jonathan Young, head of international workforce strategy, analytics and talent acquisition at Lockheed Martin].

Competitors’ investment in employer brand was a key threat, with this highlighted as the thing that “makes them most nervous”. However, those same respondents are less likely to measure the strength of employer brand than their international counterparts. In the UK 28% of respondents say they measure employer brand relative to their competitors, and 26% say they measure their employer brand in a quantifiable way, compared to 39% and 33% internationally.

The trend in using data to measure employer brand mirrors that in data used for hiring decisions more generally, with only 15% of respondents in the UK saying they believe their organisation uses data well to make hiring decisions, compared to 23% internationally.

The research found that most employers expect to invest more in their employer brand during 2013 than they did last year. In terms of the most effective way to have an employer brand seen and heard, the top influences are company websites, and word of mouth through friends and family. Traditional job boards and YouTube videos registered a decline, suggesting they are falling out of favour with the HR community.

Worryingly, there is a discrepancy between the growth in the number of hires made during 2013 and companies’ recruitment budget — 42% of respondents expected hiring volume to increase, while only 28% expected hiring budgets to increase — meaning whatever sourcing technique talent acquisition professionals use, they might have to do more with less.

Power Points The UK’s talent leaders’ top three priorities are sourcing highly skilled talent, improving quality of hire and talent pipelining. Notably, they are concentrating more on hiring highly-skilled candidates than those in other international markets Finding better ways to source passive candidates remains the UK’s number one long-lasting recruitment trend, with 37% of resourcing professionals making this their priority Most organisations aren’t investing enough to meet candidate demand for recruiting on the go, with 87% saying they are not investing adequately in mobile. By contrast, 59% of candidates say they use mobile devices to learn about opportunities and 52% to apply Asked to finish the sentence “Talent acquisition is…” a high number of talent acquisition professions use the terms “success”, “key”, “important”, “essential”, “future” and “growth”, highlighting its importance in achieving organisational excellence

DAVID COHEN is senior sales director EMEA, LinkedIn

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

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Recruitment Matters Issue 20 November 2013

Trade Association of the Year

What’s inside The Intelligence 2 -3 and REC talk

Clive Totman

The creative industry numbers and the challenges that recruiters are currently facing

4-5Marketing, media and PR Westminster student Joshua Watkins, who was awarded ‘Trainee of the Year’ for his internship at insurance firm QBE European Operations, with London’s Lord Mayor

Paid internships are the way forward How do you get the necessary experience for a role without doing unpaid work first? The City Business Traineeships (CBT) programme, which is funded by the City of London Corporation and delivered by The Brokerage Citylink, opened the doors of the City this summer to the brightest students in the surrounding boroughs of the financial district.

The programme places students aged 18-19, who live in the seven boroughs and attend state schools, in prestigious City firms, paying them £400 a week.

Since 2000, the scheme has helped almost 1,000 young people into internships. These businesses have benefited from access to untapped talent and potential future employees.

Mark Boleat, policy chairman at the City of London Corporation, says: “The City of London Corporation strongly believes that all

internships should be paid because we have always recognised the importance of levelling the playing field and helping talented young people who live on the City’s doorstep find careers.”

The problem of unpaid internships is one that will surely become increasingly prominent in the coming years. And, as we explore on pages 4-5, it is already a big issue for many sectors, including the marketing, media and creative sectors, which have long been so popular that many young people feel they have no option but to work for free when they start out.

Recruiters have a large part to play in how internships and apprenticeships will change and develop in the future. As Kim Regisford, policy and PR advisor at the REC, says: “Recruiters can learn what the workplace needs and encourage employers to implement the best hiring practices for their business.”

How different hiring strategies in the creative sectors could improve the talent pipeline

Update and 6Legal Business Matters The legal lowdown on internships and how to call for global compliance issues

Institute of 7 Recruitment Professionals We speak to a top recruitment practice exam student and a long-time recruiter from the industrial sector

best events and training 8 The How the Business Brains events are boosting members’ technological know-how and how to be compliant

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Leading the Industry

the intelligence in other sectors too. The number of creative jobs in the UK grew by 9% between 2004 and 2010, compared with 1.6% for all jobs. In their Global Media Outlook, PwC forecast a compound annual growth rate of 4.2% for the UK’s media and entertainment sector to 2016, a higher level of growth compared to Germany or France.

Like other emerging high growth sectors, the scale of growth will, in part, be determined by availability of skilled workers.

The ONS labour market figures released in October show that the number of job vacancies in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector have grown 11% since last year.

This sector is generally considered to have an oversupply of new entrants to the workplace. However, the sector skills assessment for creative industries in the UK (2011) drew attention to potential skills shortages including sales and marketing, multi-skilling and proficiency in using specific software packages.

Undoubtedly, the increased business confidence in the media, marketing and creative sector is positive but the question now is will this be hampered by continued skill shortages?

Marketing confidence index July 2013 vs April 2013

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0

+8.65 -100

+20.36

+100

10 8 6 4 %

Against a back drop of continued growth, the REC/KPMG Report on Jobs signalled a widening rift between the number of vacancies requiring skilled workers and the number of skilled staff to fill them. So what are the implications for the marketing, media and creative sectors?

The Marketing Confidence Monitor, produced by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, produces a quarterly report based on the views of 1,000 UK marketing professionals. The report shows a five-fold increase in business confidence among UK businesses this year. The figure of +20.36 shows a 12-point improvement since April 2013 and is five times higher than the figure reported last year (see graphic below).

The data also shows that during the last year, the proportion of people with greater business confidence has increased from 38% to 44%. In addition, business performance and potential has increased by 14 points to 23.07 in the last quarter.

Marketing professionals are also asked about growth and change. Some 43% of marketing professionals think that their organisation is taking a positive attitude towards risk and investment in the next year.

Professionals are also optimistic about the economic situation outside of the UK, with one in three marketers saying that are planning to increase exporting activity in the next year.

This resurgence is expected

Fig 1: Median recruiter turnover growth

2 0 -2 -4 Sep Nov Jan Mar May Jul Sep Nov Jan Mar May Jul Aug 11 12 13

Fig 2: Recruiter profit margins 5

4

3 %

Nina Mguni, senior researcher at the REC, considers the skills deficit in the creative sector

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1

0 Sep Nov Jan Mar May Jul Sep Nov Jan Mar May Jul Aug 11 12 13

Profit margins slip I have frequently commented, and demonstrated, that the number of vacancies in the UK labour market is an accurate predictor of future recruiter revenue trends. So much so that last month I said that, although recruiter revenues had shown signs of recovery, I was concerned at the sustainability of that recovery. Median recruiter revenue growth in August fell back by 1.3%, as can be seen in Figure 1.

The decline in turnover growth had been driven by a fall in fee earner productivity, with median revenue per fee earner falling £830 since June.

We are also concerned that the recovery in profit margins we had seen in the first quarter of the year has been slipping back from 3.9% in March, to only 3.2% in August – perhaps due to the falling fee earner productivity we mentioned earlier – as can be seen on Figure 2.

Trying to finish on some better news, the Office for National Statistics has reported that the decline in vacancy growth seen in recent months did reverse slightly in August, so we hope that the historic correlation continues and that indicates some improvement for recruiters’ revenues in the next few months.

• Chris Ansell is chief financial officer at Recruitment Industry Benchmarking (RIB). The RIB Index provides bespoke confidential reports on industry trends. See www.ribindex.com; info@ribindex. com: 020 8544 9807. The RIB is a strategic partner of the REC.

www.rec.uk.com 06/11/2013 11:32

Leading the Industry

Making change happen Tom Hadley, the REC’s director of policy & professional services, looks at the new opportunities for specialist recruiters Job roles and skills needs are evolving, and the expectations of clients and candidates are also changing. The aim of REC sector groups is to pre-empt what the changing landscape means for specialist recruiters.

A good example of this was the latest meeting of the REC Marketing, Media & Creative (MMC) sector group that brought together recruiters, employers and representative organisations. You can read more about this sector on pages 4-5. Industry experts talked about how flat structures mean that employers are looking for people who can work with autonomy and can build good working relationships within the organisation. A surge in demand is good news for specialist recruiters – the challenge is to encourage more employers in the sector to develop a genuine partnership approach to address evolving short and longterm skills needs.

Responding to the challenge of an increasingly candidate-driven market is a core theme for other high-end sector groups such as REC Technology, REC Life Sciences and REC Engineering. From an industry perspective the aim is to continue to drive the industry’s voice on the skills agenda, in particular through our work with high-profile organisations such Engineering UK, E-Skills and STEMNET UK. From an agency perspective, getting involved in initiatives to promote careers in high-growth sectors is a great way of raising profile and brand, as well as a means of ‘doing the right thing’.

Another example of how the changing landscape can provide new opportunities for recruiters came at the recent ‘Smarter Working in the Public Sector’ conference, which we were invited to chair. Public sector employers, in particular local authorities, are going through huge structural and cultural changes.

There is a real shake-up in the way people work – for example, employers are embedding flexible working practices. The feedback at the conference was that there is a key role for temporary, contracts and interim staff within this brave new world.

Embedding a genuine partnership approach is the ‘holy grail’ for specialist recruiters – it is also the best way for businesses to bring in the staff they need and to make change happen.

The View The economy is growing and looks sustainable for the first time in five years. This is great news for our sector; the data suggests that the recruitment market has accelerated since the spring and is now just shy of our pre-recession peak of £27 billion.

However, challenges remain. Margins are suppressed and we don’t foresee any significant return to pre-recession levels.This is our new competitive reality. The issue of skill and talent shortages is paramount. When candidates are in demand it creates the need for specialist recruiters who know the market. However, if talent is in really short supply, greater efforts are needed to find, attract and convince candidates to move and the counter offer becomes the enemy.

The skills, talent and employability agenda will be an on-going theme for the REC. We will be pushing government to get its education policy right, with high quality careers advice and work experience becoming central to preparing young people for work. We are supportive of more high quality vocational qualifications and apprenticeships, and we like the look of the proposed technical colleges only on the understanding that these are heavily employer led. We have to become more effective at getting capable young people to study what’s going to be in demand in the economy. Training of the unemployed, as well as making work pay, is now a national priority. We must get people into the labour market and then encourage them to progress.

We will continue to speak directly to government and raise these serious issues in the media but we need you to do your bit. We have developed an apprenticeship in recruitment so that we can attract capable young people to our profession and we have 350 recruiters signed up to go into schools as part of our Youth Employment Charter. I urge you to get involved with both.

• You can follow Kevin on Twitter

• You can follow Tom on Twitter www.twitter.com/@hadleyscomment

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06/11/2013 11:34

The Big Talking Point

Getting creative in recruitment RM editor Francesca Steele explores how different hiring practices could improve the marketing, media and creative sectors

L

ast month, it was revealed that the US publishing house Condé Nast will be closing its prestigious internship programme in 2014 after a period during which the provision of internships in the media industry has been beset by problems.

The publisher behind Vogue and Glamour is being sued by two former interns at the New Yorker and W Magazine, who claim they were paid less than $1 an hour for working up to 14-hour days.

Similarly, in June, a judge ruled that Fox Searchlight Pictures had illegally employed two interns at below minimum wage on the film Black Swan. A former intern’s case against Harper’s Bazaar is currently moving through the courts.

These examples highlight one of the issues crucial to recruiters in the marketing, media and creative sector (MMC): how to help implement hiring practices that encourage as diverse and comprehensive a talent stream as possible.

The creative sector provides over two million jobs in the UK alone, while the industry contributes £24.8 billion to

Britain’s economy annually, according to research conducted by Bedfordshire University.

Marketing and PR are in rude health, with job opportunities in the UK increasing by 13% over the last year, according to figures from the Reed Job Index. The report also suggests salaries are on the up too, with wages swelling by around 2.5% over the last 12 months.

This figure compares favourably to the all sector average increase of 1.5%.

Kim Regisford, policy and PR advisor at the REC, says: “The sector is on the up so it’s more important than ever to get the hiring process right and to ensure that the perceptions of certain things are right too. One problem we have noticed a lot, for instance, is that apprenticeships are traditionally paid for, while internships are not. But apprenticeships are still associated with blue collar work, meaning that some employers don’t want to have them and that many graduates don’t want to apply for them. Recruiters can make the difference by showing employers and employees why good hiring practices and

We insist that after two weeks the interns are paid the minimum wage Amanda Fone, founder and managing partner of f1 Recruitment

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proper internships can provide a better stream of job candidates.”

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) are looking to address this issue through practical guides and ‘Internship Toolkits’.

And at the REC’s latest MMC sector group meeting, which brought together recruiters, employers and representative organisations such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), the PRCA and the National Apprenticeship Service, industry experts agreed that, while demand for staff in marketing, media, PR and comms is surging, the challenge is to encourage more employers in the sector to develop a genuine partnership approach to address evolving short and long-term skills needs.

One recruiter who has already made a difference in this regard is Amanda Fone, founder and managing partner of f1 Recruitment, which has long partnered with clients to provide an established internship programme. “Work experience is a fantastic way to find fresh talent –

www.rec.uk.com 06/11/2013 11:35

Only 44% of marketing departments have a good working relationship with their HR departments

Image Source

Chris Moriarty, head of corporate affairs at the Chartered Institute of Marketing

the only thing we discriminate against is attitude – if applicants are keen and enthusiastic we will introduce them to clients. But we insist that after two weeks the interns are paid the minimum wage.

Occasionally we have had to fight hard for that but clients usually do understand that to get the best people they can’t limit themselves and that that requires proper wages.”

According to Wayne Reynolds, director of Birchwood Knight, “current hiring procedures can create a barrier”. He adds: “There is often a disconnect between stated intentions of sourcing the best talent and procurement practices that force suppliers to focus only on active job seekers. The RPO [recruitment process outsourcing] model doesn’t work well

if you are hiring for a senior role. The increased use of RPOs in the dampened, money-saving economic climate can be very challenging for any specialist recruiter. If you can’t speak to the person who is hiring then you’ve got one arm tied behind your back.”

Higher up the chain, it is crucial not just how clients use recruiters but how prepared candidates themselves are for the changing demands of the sector, says Fone. “We used to have people starting with broader skills and narrowing their focus as they went up the chain. But now it’s the opposite. A marketing and communications director needs a very broad set of skills.”

Today, she explains, someone in a senior role would probably need commercial

Apprenticeships are still associated with blue collar work, meaning that some employers don’t want to have them and that many graduates don’t want to apply for them Kim Regisford, policy and PR advisor at the REC

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If you can’t speak to the person who is hiring then you’ve got one arm tied behind your back Wayne Reynolds, director of Birchwood Knight experience, plus some knowledge of customer relationship management, public relations, social and digital marketing. “We get a lot of senior people coming to us saying they feel totally vulnerable and that they know they need to learn about digital. But we work very hard to give our candidates the right skills. For example, we can recommend online courses, such as Squared, an online digital marketing course created and run by Google. A candidate might not have worked with digital but if they can show willing by achieving a respected qualification that will go a long way to making them more appropriate for many senior roles.”

Looking ahead, it was agreed at the MMC meeting that the most crucial thing for recruiters and their clients in this sector is to build strong partnerships, both outside of organisations and within.

Chris Moriarty, head of corporate affairs at CIM, says: “Only 44% of marketing departments have a good working relationship with their HR departments – this will need to change.”

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Legal Update

Employing interns: what you need to know Carrie North, REC legal adviser, considers the legal ramifications of taking on help from non-employees Work experience Work experience typically describes a voluntary unpaid one or two week programme where an individual, usually a school or college student, shadows a member of staff, in order to build experience of how that business or industry sector operates.

Internships Internships are more widely used in the MMC industry and are typically a contractual form of professional experience. An internship will normally last between one and six months and is of practical benefit and value to both the business and the intern.

Interns are differentiated from unpaid work experience students as they will often perform work and have duties that contribute to the employer’s productivity. Therefore, they are workers and entitled to a number of statutory rights, including the National Minimum Wage (NMW), statutory minimum holiday and payments, such as Statutory Sick Pay, Statutory Maternity Pay and Statutory Paternity Pay where applicable. There are also specific working time rights and employers should particularly note that young workers under 18 are not permitted to work more than 40 hours per week (or an eight hour day) including time at college and must have 2 clear rest days in a week. The NMW is currently an hourly rate of £6.31 for those aged 21 and over, £5.03 for those aged 18-20 and £3.72 for those under 18. There is a real risk that an unpaid internship, or one which covers travel expenses only, may breach NMW legislation and businesses should obtain the own legal advice regarding their liability.

Apprenticeships Apprenticeships are work-based programmes that combine practical training with study and typically take between one and four years to complete depending on the level of apprenticeship.

They are available to those aged 16 plus and can cover a variety of entrant roles in the MMC sector. Available at different levels, apprenticeships enable individuals to gain job-specific skills working alongside experienced staff, whilst earning a wage and studying towards a related qualification or being formally assessed. As apprentices are employees, they are still entitled to the same statutory rights as listed for interns above and will also be owed a duty of care in relation to health and safety and other employment rights, such as maternity or paternity leave.

However, employers will benefit from the specific apprenticeship NMW rate, which is £2.68 per hour for apprentices aged under 19 and for those aged 19 plus who are in the first year of their apprenticeship. Otherwise apprentices are entitled to receive the national minimum wage rate applicable to their age. Apprentices must be paid for both on and off the job training and, therefore, must still be paid if they are attending college.

This is a brief overview of the employment rights of individuals undertaking work experience, internships or apprenticeships and further guidance is advised. REC corporate members can contact the legal team for further information.

• Contact the REC legal team on 020 7009 2199.

Business development: Going abroad With global expansion increasingly on the minds of many growing recruitment practices, ensuring compliance in different foreign jurisdictions is paramount. Crescenzi Consulting has many years of hands-on experience in working with recruitment agenices and end-user companies to achieve international contractor compliance.

“Setting up abroad is definitely something we see more and more companies and individuals thinking about doing,” says Brian Daly, CEO. Employment law and contract law vary considerably from country to country both in the written legislation and in their practical application, he adds. Crescenzi Consulting has the knowledge and experience to best manage these risks whilst not restricting your current business model. From simple compliance advice and country reports, through to full

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compliance management and compliance and contractor audits, their services are designed to help their clients navigate the choppy waters of managing international contractors and temporary workers.

Creszenzi Consulting will charge on a retainer that can vary in price depending on the amount of work they do for you – so of course, if the consultation is minimal you needn’t worry about being charged for hours and hours of work.

“For many businesses, going abroad may start with just a couple of contractors scouting out the local market,” adds Daly.

“But the fewer people you have definitely doesn’t mean you can afford to be any less meticulous about adhering to local laws.

We can help you do that.”

www.rec.uk.com 06/11/2013 14:14

Inspiration

Behind the scenes at the Institute of Recruitment Professionals

Best practice This month we speak to Zoe Tanner, who was the top student in the February Certificate in Recruitment Practice exam RM: Well done! How did you prepare for the exam?

ZT: They send you a booklet, which includes the six units on certificate practice, which you read, do the webinars, and attend two days’ teaching. Then you take the exam.

RM: Has it helped you achieve more in your work?

ZT: I actually only started in recruitment this year, so yes, definitely! I think there is a lot of on-the-job learning in recruitment but completing the certificate introduced me to the wider industry. It gave me an awareness of some of the sales cycles, how to plan business development, and how to develop and maintain a good relationship with clients.

RM: How did you feel when you found out you had come top, despite only recently joining the sector?

ZT: I was shocked when they told me because I’m so new to it. It obviously didn’t go down too badly with my boss either.

RM: What made you decide to go into recruitment?

ZT: I was a financial advisor for five years, but there were quite a lot of changes going on in the industry and I was given the option of redundancy. I loved the relationship building element of what I did before, so when I looked at career options recruitment stuck out.

RM: Were you particularly drawn to a specific sector?

ZT: I researched lots of different options and markets. I liked the idea of construction sales because there seemed to be a lot going on.

RM: Were you surprised that this type of certificate existed?

ZT: Yes, I think there is an outside perception that exists for some people that recruitment doesn’t involve many qualifications or regulations. But I’ve found that not to be the case and anything like this that helps people show just how qualified they are is a great thing.

Things I Know Rhian Balshaw Long-time employee at Linear Recruitment

The X Factor is more important than skills I started off as a trainee in the industrial division and did that for 10 years until moving recently into a new role looking at training and devloping for the whole company. Next year I’m going to move over to the HR side so I will effectively be recruiting recruiters. We definitely look for people with the X factor, people who’ve got the right work ethic. We’re actually less bothered by the skills and knowledge of the sector. We feel we’ve got the ability to provide them with skills; we’re looking for people with get up and go.

Clients increasingly value what we do There are still some people who think we just look at CVs and then charge them lots of money to do so, but I think more and more clients, especially those you’ve had a long-term relationship with, understand that it’s much more than that.

But they do want more for their money…

I feel that the clients’ attitudes have also changed with regard to the candidates. In the industrial sector they want to know that clients have done a numeracy and literacy test, that they’re fully referenced checked and so on. They want more for their money.

Newbies often confuse recruitment with HR Brand new people to recruitment sometimes think they will primarily be dealing with people, and that because they have good people skills they will be fine. They don’t realise that you can only do that once you’ve got the business, and that starting out a lot of recruitment is actually sales.

Stats are important It’s amazing how many people come to an interview without proof of their success. I like to see what someone has made on margin per hour, or what their greatest week of gross profit was. I want someone to be able to show exactly what they’ve achieved.

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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06/11/2013 11:38

Events and training

Make sure you are ahead of the game Are you compliant? Make sure you know all about the REC’s compliance test

The most recent Business Brains event, with Matt Alder leading the session

The brains behind the business Look into attending the REC’s latest Business Brains events to improve your technological know-how It’s all very well having lots of fancy new technologies, but how do you know if you’re maximising their potential?

The REC wants to help its members navigate the complicated world of technology, which is why it has set up its Business Brains events, where members can listen to and ask questions of people in the know about recruitment technologies.

The most recent events, which took place last month in Manchester, Birmingham and London were well received by members.

Speakers included members of the team behind the REC’s RecTechHub (an online resource teaching members about technologies), including Lisa Jones of Barclay Jones and Social Talent’s Johnny Campbell, Matt Alder from Metashift, as well as sponsors Supply Communications, ROAR Communications

Lisa Jones

and recruitment software provider Mercury xRM. REC member and managing director of Personnel Care Bank, Rosalind Payne, said: “I found the sessions extremely worthwhile and took a number of nuggets away with me which have already enhanced the business and been a cost saving.”

The REC is planning on running more free member Business Brains events over the course of the next year, so visit the REC’s events section on the website for more information at www.rec.uk.com/events

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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RM p8-NOV.indd 30

Johnny Campbell

It is important to the REC that new applicants have knowledge of the relevant industry legislation and the REC Code of Professional Practice – indeed, the REC is the only membership body within the recruitment industry to have a compliance test as part of the entry process.

The compliance testing process is a key part of demonstrating to your clients your commitment to adhere to relevant industry legislation, and show that you embody the ethos of the REC Code of Professional Practice.

How does it work?

In 10 easy steps. The test is broken down into 10 bite-sized chunks, consisting of a series of online questions in a multiple choice format, and cover industry legislation and the REC’s Code of Professional Practice. The questions are tailored to the type of business that you operate.

A dedicated team of compliance executives is on hand to support you through the process, in addition to a range of training tools and compliance workshops. Once you have logged on, you have a 24-hour window to complete the test – although it will only, in reality, take a fraction of that time to complete!

The REC recommends taking the test as soon as possible. For more information contact the REC Compliance Team on 020 7009 2100 or take the test online at http://www.rec.uk.com/ about-recruitment/standards/ reccompliancetest

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: Anne Sadler anne.sadler@redactive.co.uk Tel: 020 7880 6213 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 Southernprint © 2013 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 06/11/2013 11:39

We are in a much better position today thanks to Itris.

It is light years away from our previous system in terms of business visibility. It also has great front line functionality and it has really given us back control.

Recruitment consultancies of all kinds choose Itris Recruitment Software because it adds value to their business. It delivers total functionality right out of the box, without the need for countless additional modules or databases.

Inspired by recruiters, Itris can easily be configured by you with no specialist training needed. It’s built on the highly scalable SQL Server platform so it can grow as your business grows. Our total system support will help you maintain a competitive advantage and ensure it’s always working for you. And best of all, upgrades to new versions are included as standard.

It’s the total package, and probably the most cost-effective investment you can make for your recruitment business today.

0845 680 0660 www.itris.co.uk

REC.08.13.002.indd 1

07/08/2013 12:31

The Challenge

Finding new methods to uncover the passive Matt Burney Resourcing manager

IN A BUSINESS AS LARGE AS G4S, KEEPING TRACK OF ITS SOCIAL MEDIA RECRUITING WAS PROVING UNWIELDY. JOBANDTALENT PROVIDED AN INNOVATIVE SOLUTION

THE CHALLENGE Headquartered in Crawley in South-East England, with operations in more than 125 countries and 620,000 employees, security and outsourcing firm G4S is one of the world’s largest private employers.

Notwithstanding its wellpublicised problems in the build up to 2012’s London Olympics, as well as investigations by the Serious Fraud Office, in recent weeks the company’s own shareholders have accused it of being too large for its own good. A fact not lost on G4S resourcing manager Matt Burney, who told Recruiter the many-divisioned G4S was “a huge business”.

He said that G4S hires across a variety of different channels, from job boards to using external recruitment agencies, but Burney’s division Group Resourcing was always on the lookout for something new — “a different proposition”, he said. And the company was always interested

“Juan has got the right attitude to the industry, even though he’s not from a recruitment background” MATT BURNEY

in new technology, particularly revolving around social media.

“We’re always trying new things — to be innovative, aspirational,” he said. “And this involves understanding candidates who are [used to using] new media.”

Recruiting via social networking was one of the fastest growth markets, Burney said. One of the challenges G4S faced in the past was managing the company’s social network activity centrally, due to the size of the organisation and the fact that its operations were in over 125 countries. As recruiter.co.uk reported in June, 11,000 job applications had come via G4S’s Facebook page alone, with more than 75,000 people ‘liking’ the page [as of 4 November].

THE SOLUTION As well as his day job with the resourcing team at G4S, Burney is also a member of the advisory board of in-house recruitment industry roundtable group Reconverse. Reconverse puts on events that help connect employers with suppliers, and it was through one of these events that Burney came across social media recruitment platform Jobandtalent. “I was interested, as they were a new entrant to the market and I could see how they could differentiate from others [other platforms],” he told Recruiter.

Founded in 2009 by Spanish entrepreneurs Felipe Navio and Juan Urdiales, Jobandtalent was formed after both men realised first hand the difficulties faced by

young jobseeking professionals, and that social connections played an important role in the jobseeking process. However, co-founder Urdiales told Recruiter: “No one knew about us in the UK — we didn’t have a brand over here. G4S thought we were innovative.”

Interested in what Jobandtalent had to offer, Burney set up a meeting with the founders.

Following on from that meeting, Urdiales said Jobandtalent undertook “a small test of programmes for different positions”, which went well.

Although G4S looks for around 200,000 roles worldwide every year, Jobandtalent began with UK jobs first — numbering 15,00020,000 per annum — as a test to see if it would integrate with the UK resourcing system. But part of the appeal, Burney said, was that G4S was “looking for growth in Latin American markets”, and with the Spanish pedigree, G4S also decided to trial Jobandtalent for roles in Latin America.

Fully aware of the size of the organisation, Urdiales told Recruiter “we need to demonstrate how we can work with all the divisions”. The challenge, he added, was “persuading the decisionmakers of every division”, who were busy using their own tools, that Jobandtalent was different.

Burney told Recruiter that Group Resourcing acts as an advisory team, “evaluating recruitment tools and processes, and then ‘selling’ the ideas to the business”. He added: “Throughout the company there are minimum recruitment standards.

Juan Urdiales Co-founder

We drive best practice from Group Resourcing — we act as a true internal consultative service.” So during the testing process, Burney was excited with the quality of candidates that Jobandtalent came up with.

Although G4S has around 1m candidates on its own database, and also uses tools such as LinkedIn and job boards, the Jobandtalent algorithm found 80% more passive candidates not sourced by the organisation’s usual methods. Leveraging Facebook friends, this platform can reach users that are not registered on any job board. Burney added that the quality of candidates was higher, which helped in the sifting process and improved efficiency.

With the recent launch of Jobandtalent’s mobile iPhone app, as reported in October’s Recruiter, Burney is excited with the prospect of working closer with Urdiales and Jobandtalent. “Mobile is very important in job hunting,” he explained. “You need to be one step ahead of your competition and mobile plays a huge part in that.”

Urdiales is convinced the iPhone app differentiates them from the rest of the other players. “We’re not just another job board,” he emphasised, “we’re quite different and this mobile positioning could help differentiate us even more.”

The final word comes from G4S’s Burney. “I see a lot of fantastic techy ideas. Juan has a clear vision of what he wants to achieve.

He’s got the right attitude to the industry, even though he’s not from a recruitment background.”

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

24

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Contractor Accountants

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WHO WE ARE? As market leading accountants, Nixon Williams have been supporting the accountancy and taxation needs of contractors and freelancers throughout the UK since 1995.

Our wealth of experience promises that we will act in the best interest of your candidates at all times. Offering good advice, clear and simple documentation, a reliable and professional service, all at a fair price - maintaining your good reputation and ours.

Adele Ryan New Business Manager Direct Dial 01253 362007 Linkedin /Adele-Ryan Email adele.ryan@nixonwilliams.com

www.nixonwilliams.com/agencies Our New Business Manager is currently out and about visiting recruitment agencies, so if you would like to book a time for us to come down to you and discuss how we can work together, please don’t hestitate to get in touch!

© Nixon Williams Limited 2013

REC.11.13.033.indd 2

07/11/2013 09:56

Recruiter Hot 100 2013

Celebrate the growth trend With 2013 drawing to a close, it is not just the recruitment industry that has witnessed a better year. With most indicators pointing in the same direction, businesses are welcoming the upturn in the economy, as growth is a key theme across many industry sectors.

As a whole, the recruitment industry not only mirrors the growth trend that we have seen across the economy, but in many cases precedes it, so those who have made the list of the Recruiter HOT 100 this year have excelled themselves in what has been a challenging time for the whole of the UK. The HOT 100 is an opportunity to celebrate the recruitment businesses who have worked through the years of recession, have become stronger in these hard times, and who are now embracing changes in the industry and the economy as a whole.

One of these major changes we have seen in the industry, and the business world as a whole, is the influence and exploitation of Big Data. Clients now expect suppliers to use the extensive data they hold to improve the services and value they provide. Data really is power, and for recruiters this can be used to improve placement success, or to provide their clients with faster and more relevant information. Whatever it is used for, Big Data is here to stay, and those recruitment businesses that are using such data will be sure to prosper in the future.

Research and analysis by

As a new business in 2013, Flo Software Solutions is very proud to sponsor the 8th annual Recruiter HOT 100. Working in the nonpermanent recruitment software space, we are hugely excited to be starting our journey at a time when both the overall economy and the recruitment sector are turning a positive corner. We look forward to working with members of the HOT 100, who are a select and prestigious group of top recruitment businesses.

A very warm congratulations from all at Flo to those businesses that appear in the HOT 100, both those who are there for the first time, and also those who are continuing to evolve and thrive.

Sponsored by

Craig Aston Managing director Flo Software Solutions

Supported by

26

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34-40 Hot 100 feature.indd 34

NOVEMBER 2013

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

07/11/2013 16:41

Recruiter Hot 100 2013

Reflective mood as recruiters invest in future

COMPILED BY

HOT 100 COMPANIES FOCUSED ON CONSOLIDATION, AGAINST A BACKDROP OF RECOVERING OVERALL MARKET ACTIVITY WITH SOME SOLID GROWTH. SUE DODD, DIRECTOR OF AGILE INTELLIGENCE, REPORTS

C

onsolidation appears to have been the main operational theme for the industry in the year under review for Recruiter’s 2013 HOT 100.

On aggregate, the 2013 HOT 100 displayed modest growth in the 2012 or 2013 reporting year it represents. In total, 66 companies posted a rise in net fees.

Overall, however, erosion occurred both in productivity and gross margin, showing consistency with both global and UK economic weakness and uncertainty.

Nevertheless, the HOT 100 shows a year of selective investment, despite evidence of mixed rewards from such investment in the past. For instance, growth in headcount did not yield full results from the much greater expansion two years ago.

But evidence in 2013 suggests recovering overall market activity with at least some solid growth. Perhaps productivity

stemming from all the new recruits of the past two years could be yielding returns as the economy starts to recover and the labour market sees increased activity. With considerable faith in the future, most HOT 100 recruiters have quietly been putting these fresh building blocks in place for their own longer-term recovery.

Getting hold of experienced feeearners may have been a challenge, so more companies seem to be employing junior and ‘academy’ staff to nurture and train themselves. This in itself is stalling productivity growth, as fee growth lags behind headcount, but again, such hires represent a solid endorsement of the future.

Conversely, another trend at work is the continued erosion of aggregate gross margin, the product of a complex mix of permanent, temporary, client and contract factors. The erosion may, perhaps, be due

METHODOLOGY The data has been rigorously filtered by turnover and employee numbers; details available on request. The companies featured in this edition employ more than 30,000 in-house staff and account for £14.7bn of industry turnover. Latest available accounts have been used, dated 2012 or 2013 for all these companies — a few companies are excluded because of late filing. Companies filing abbreviated accounts and not providing their full figures separately are excluded.

Wherever possible, UK-orientated companies are considered. However, with the internationalisation of many UK recruitment firms the profile is evolving. In some cases and increasingly each year, group accounts have been used where these prove more up-to-date even if some overseas business is evident. Examples are Harvey Nash, Robert Walters, PageGroup (formerly known as Michael Page International), Hays and several IT recruiters.

Primarily overseas operators have been excluded, although UK engineering specialists placing talent worldwide are included. Two prominent exclusions are Manpower and Reed, owing to accounting differences that invalidate comparisons.

Companies combining temporary employees in their employee count are not included, as this grossly underestimates their performance. Small search specialists and headhunters with almost entirely global interests are omitted for a variety of reasons — incomplete disclosure, overseas business and a shortage of data for peer group comparison.

DISCLAIMER: While every effort has been made to ensure accurate reporting and analysis, no guarantees are made regarding the information in this document.

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

34-40 Hot 100 feature.indd 35

to less permanent activity and/or more volume contract or managed services business. As a result, the operational emphasis is increasingly upon process efficiency aimed at limiting overhead costs and thus increasing the conversion rate to the bottom line.

This trend provides the strongest incentive to drive conversion rates higher.

Twenty-eight of the 2013 HOT 100 now earn gross margin below 15%; the proportion of such companies in the HOT 100 ranking rises annually. All but two of those 28 specialise in IT or engineering.

At the same time, these are the very companies that are also marching up the ranks in productivity.

Industrial sector rebalancing, alluded to in last year’s report, has progressed much further. At least eight further IT or technical recruiters have achieved HOT 100 status, and the best performing have also migrated up the table.

A noticeable trend has been job growth in the automotive, life sciences and oil & gas sectors, compared with weak demand in many parts of financial services or retail. Stealthy rebalancing seems to be under way as production begins to regain ground. The ‘HOT’ job sectors are, through a combination of skill shortages and rising demand, more biased towards the production sector than for many years.

The other near-silent recovery is being seen from public sector clients. This is far from widespread but, excluding the challenging locum doctor market, most companies are reporting growth again. This HOT 100 signals mixed gains in education, nursing, care markets and, particularly, in management recruitment. The recovery from recent staffing lows has at least begun.

The average size of the 2013 HOT 100 member jumped from around 200 to almost 300 employees, reflecting two factors. One is an increased number

RECRUITER

NOVEMBER 2013

27

07/11/2013 16:41

164,503

Shilton Sharpe Quarry

13.1

12.2

Legal

N

174,162

181,155

Vector Resourcing

5.6

5.3

Technology

3

▲

161,685

147,257

Morgan Law Partners

4.7

4.9

Multi-sector including executive-level finance, HR, PR and procurement

4

▼

158,531

149,579

Green Park Interim & Executive

5.7

4.6

Interim management

5

N

155,197

134,239

SystemsAccountants

3.9

3.1

Finance systems/projects accountants, IT, management consultants

6

N

145,896

193,084

WA Consultants

4.5

4.8

IT

7

▼

139,718

141,935

Oliver James Associates

12.9

10.5

Financial services and insurance

8

▲

137,585

124,088

NES Global Talent

60.4

43.7

Oil & gas, built infrastructure/utilities, power, life sciences

9

▲

131,644

125,798

Mayday Healthcare

15.1

13.1

Healthcare

10

▼

127,392

128,527

Henderson Scott

3.2

3.0

Technology — managed, financial, sales & marketing

11

N

127,334

129,247

Odgers (Group)

50.7

50.1

Executive search, interim management

12

▲

125,265

120,666

LA International Computer Consultants

11.8

11.1

IT

13

▲

125,099

113,352

High Finance (UK)

5.1

4.9

Finance, actuarial, risk, broking, IT

14

N

124,450

103,659

Penta Consulting

11.0

8.5

IT, telecoms

15

N

121,664

122,567

G2V Recruitment Group

10.0

8.1

IT, engineering

16

▲

121,651

97,810

Eames Consulting Group

6.4

6.8

IT, broking & underwriting, risk

17

▲

121,329

111,327

Fircroft Engineering Services (Group)

49.0

37.7

Oil & gas, mining, nuclear power, automotive

18

▼

121,140

132,078

Swift Technical Group

43.2

40.5

Oil & gas

19

▲

120,501

91,422

Opus Recruitment Solutions

2.5

1.8

IT

20

▲

120,186

85,417

GatenbySanderson

5.6

3.3

Executive search, interim management

21

▼

116,625

137,734

Walker Hamill

5.6

7.2

Multi-sector including accountancy, banking & finance, private equity

22

▼

116,188

120,567

NRL

6.4

5.7

Multi-sector including technical, construction, trades, oil & gas

23

▲

114,523

117,708

Air Energi Group

34.2

25.4

Oil & gas

Sector Coverage

Company/Trading Name

184,519

Gross Profit Previous Year (£m)

Gross Profit per Employee Previous Year (£)

–

Gross Profit Latest Year (£m)

Change Gross Profit per Employee Latest Year (£)

1 2

Parent Group (where different name)

Rank

Recruiter Hot 100 2013

24

N

113,447

86,341

Premier Group UK

5.1

3.5

IT, media, engineering

25

▼

113,256

151,291

Sheffield Haworth

12.2

16.9

Financial search

26

▲

113,184

86,543

Randstad Education

15.4

16.3

Education

27

N

112,249

119,248

Staffgroup

9.3

7.5

Technology, finance, oil & gas, power, mining

28

▼

111,653

124,239

Harvey Nash Group

83.0

78.5

IT, finance, interims, executive search

29

▼

111,574

117,967

Resourcing Group

30

▼

111,465

124,365

Investigo

Randstad Holding NV

Human Capital Investment (Group)

5.2

3.5

Multi-sector including social housing, facilities management

14.2

11.9

Multi-sector including accountancy, finance, change management

31

N

110,860

103,379

Finegreen Associates

32

N

110,167

67,750

Gravitas Recruitment

33

▼

107,553

119,719

Next Ventures

5.6

5.6

SAP, Oracle and vendor-orientated search and selection

34

▼

107,000

111,031

Resource Solutions Group

18.5

16.8

IT

12.8

11.8

Technical

3.7

2.8

Qualified social work, unqualified social care

Accountants in Demand

2.4

1.8

Healthcare – managerial & executive recruitment

3.3

1.6

IT & actuarial

35

N

105,737

78,080

Advantage Resourcing UK

36

▲

105,457

101,536

Caritas Recruitment

37

▲

104,903

97,745

Lorien Resourcing

18.4

16.1

IT, telecoms

38

–

104,132

105,615

Source Personnel

1.6

2.6

Marketing, creative & media communication

39

N

103,431

129,228

Nigel Wright Consultancy

6.7

7.4

Consumer products & services, industrial, manufacturing

40

▲

102,705

100,391

PPF

8.6

6.9

Drivers

41

▼

102,480

111,665

CBSbutler

6.5

5.5

Multi-sector including industrial control & automation, aerospace

42

▲

102,054

98,797

First Technical Recruitment

6.6

5.2

Technical into nuclear, chemical, water, oil & gas

43

▼

102,000

105,563

Badenoch and Clark

6.1

5.0

Banking & finance, legal, IT, property

44

▼

100,802

126,179

Red Commerce

16.8

19.1

IT

45

▼

100,724

101,849

People Source Consulting

2.8

2.3

IT, technical, engineering & management

46

▲

100,009

100,193

Coyle Personnel

11.9

11.2

Technical, construction, medical, rail, engineering

Human Capital Investment (Group)

Adecco SA

47

▼

99,729

109,443

PageGroup (was Michael Page International)

526.9

553.8

Accountancy, finance, legal, engineering, IT, retail, sales & marketing

48

N

99,645

134,941

Allegis Group (UK)

62.6

46.0

IT, engineering, technical, professional

49

▼

99,610

115,538

Aspire Global Network

8.4

9.4

Digital, editorial, design, market research

50

▲

99,081

99,367

GCS Recruitment Specialists

7.5

7.2

Technology, IT, financial services, digital media

Key: ▲ Up ▼ Down – Unchanged N New

28

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NOVEMBER 2013

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07/11/2013 16:44

90,512

Modis International

Adecco SA

98,897

100,328

Matchtech Group

53

▼

98,724

115,064

Tangent International Group

54

▲

98,481

96,717

Rullion Engineering

55

▼

98,412

99,039

56

▼

97,400

101,005

57

N

97,380

58

▲

59

▼

60

Sector Coverage

Parent Group (where different name)

99,010

▲

Gross Profit Previous Year (£m)

Company/Trading Name

▲

52

Gross Profit Latest Year (£m)

Change Gross Profit per Employee Latest Year (£)

51

Gross Profit per Employee Previous Year (£)

Rank

Recruiter Hot 100 2013

7.2

6.0

IT

38.4

36.1

Technical, construction

6.6

6.2

Multi-sector including ICT, call centres, office support

7.2

6.3

Engineering, technical, construction including nuclear, oil & gas, power

Purple Consultancy

2.1

2.2

Digital, design, advertising & integrated

Redrock Consulting

4.5

3.7

IT, telecoms

95,342

Orion Engineering Services

37.4

32.0

Multi-sector including energy, aerospace, construction, IT, commercial

96,528

86,691

Eximius Group

5.5

5.9

Finance, engineering, law

95,125

101,750

Shorterm Group

6.1

6.1

Aerospace, automotive, construction, engineering, rail, telecoms

▼

94,847

117,769

RIG Medical Recruit

2.6

2.6

Radiography, occupational therapy

61

▲

94,649

89,594

Twenty Recruitment

3.4

3.3

Multi-sector including finance, commerce & industry, prof services

62

▼

94,257

125,692

Templeton & Partners

1.9

2.8

IT

63

▼

92,795

96,990

Rullion IT Plus

Rullion

7.5

7.7

IT

64

▼

92,662

104,434

Digby Morgan Consulting

Randstad Holding NV

3.8

5.3

HR

65

▲

92,360

93,336

Pertemps Recruitment Partnership

44.7

41.4

Commercial, industrial, drivers, other

66

▼

91,896

95,754

SThree Group*

205.3

195.5 Multi-sector including financial, energy, IT, pharma, public sector

Rullion

67

N

91,867

83,317

HCIG Synergy

Human Capital Investment (Group)

4.1

3.4

Social care, housing, revenue & benefits

66

▼

91,786

101,371

Eden Brown

Human Capital Investment (Group)

12.0

11.8

Technical, housing, social care, public sector

69

N

91,453

93,242

Hays

719.0

734.0 Multi-sector including construction, financial, public sector, pharma

70

▼

91,426

95,795

CD Sales Recruitment

Cavey Dale Group

3.4

3.9

Sales professionals into specialists sectors

71

N

90,409

93,753

Jenrick Engineering

Simon Holdings

2.0

2.1

Engineering

72

▲

90,395

87,804

FiveTen Group

50.1

53.6

Accounting, banking, legal, marketing, other

73

▼

89,672

98,211

Experis

Manpower Inc

29.8

29.3

IT

74

N

89,537

72,537

Mark Education

CORE Education and Technologies 4.8

3.9

Education

75

N

88,597

68,861

Aberdeen Appointments Agency

3.0

2.3

Oil & gas, accountancy, office support, HR, training

76

▼

87,650

98,389

Brightwork

3.7

3.5

Multi-sector including drinks, industrial, engineering, office, construction

77

▼

87,345

91,086

Timothy James Consulting

5.8

5.2

Project management, IT, finance, HR, procurement, marketing

78

▲

86,778

86,467

Morson Group

41.8

38.9

Aerospace/defence, rail, nuclear/energy, construction, oil & gas

79

N

86,694

104,032

Phaidon International (UK)

8.1

9.4

Banking & finance

80

▲

86,307

81,898

Prime People

7.6

8.0

Multi-sector including real estate, built environment, energy, analytics

81

N

86,208

63,447

Randstad Care

8.3

11.3

Social care, nursing, allied health professionals, social housing

82

▼

85,906

94,852

Robert Walters

188.4

183.4 Accounting, finance, banking, legal, support

83

▼

85,675

88,571

Morgan Hunt UK

13.3

12.9

Multi-sector including housing, social care, education, corp services

84

▼

85,034

87,864

Workmates

5.4

4.7

Construction, technical, trades, social housing, facilities management

85

N

84,770

103,966

ROC Search

3.1

2.4

IT, white-collar engineering

86

N

84,619

84,866

Black Swan Associates

1.7

1.7

Financial services including compliance, risk, audit, insurance

87

▲

84,489

85,813

Hydrogen Group

31.3

29.8

Multi-sector including technology, finance, business transformation

88

▼

84,350

99,708

Ajilon (UK)

Adecco SA

17.1

20.1

IT, other professional sectors

89

▼

83,978

93,195

Hudson Global Resources

Hudson Highland Group

37.4

46.8

Finance, accountancy, banking, HR, legal, IT, office support

90

N

83,872

67,705

Orion Electrotech

3.9

3.5

Domestic gas engineers, construction, technical

91

N

83,738

73,756

Scantec Personnel

4.0

3.5

Nuclear, petrochemical, pharma

92

▼

83,477

104,844

The ReThink Group

20.1

18.1

IT candidates into financial, retail, technology and other

93

▼

83,412

101,593

The Exsurgo Partnership

2.0

2.1

FMCG, retail

94

▼

83,218

99,330

MRL Group

4.9

5.6

Semi-conductors, ICT, lighting, risk, origination & trading

95

N

83,080

71,636

IDPP

2.8

3.0

IT, telecoms, executive, technical sales, interim

96

▼

81,985

92,470

Darwin Recruitment

5.0

4.2

IT, telecoms

97

▼

81,129

102,258

Cornwallis Elt

2.9

3.2

Financial services including buy & sell side, digital media, insurance

98

▲

81,081

81,239

Parity Resources

6.0

5.8

IT

99

▼

80,737

88,345

Mane Contract Services

3.8

4.1

Technical

100

▼

80,540

91,658

RDL

6.1

6.6

Business intelligence, ERP/CRM, pharma

Randstad Holding NV

*SThree constituent companies have been amalgamated. The change symbol is based on the average for the four companies’ values last year.

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Recruiter Hot 100 2013

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EXAMINING THE MARGIN BREAKDOWN IN MORE DETAIL Percentage of HOT 100 companies by gross margin band (in accounting year) 30

■ 2007 ■ 2008 ■ 2009 ■ 2010 ■ 2011 ■ 2012

25 20 15 10 5 0 Less than 10% 10% to 15% 15% to 20% 20% to 30% 30% to 40%

and sustainable sales approach? The 2013 HOT 100 provides the answers.

Key findings 2013 HOT 100 group sales turnover rose 8%, ahead of the whole recruitment industry sales turnover growth of 5.1% reported for calendar 2012 by the ONS. As a group, HOT 10 technical recruiters added over 23% to net fees, while HOT 10 professional recruiters rose just 1.1%.

The HOT 100 accounts for almost half of industry sales turnover. Like for like, comparing this group against their own figures for the previous year, growth proved more cautious. Overall headcount gained 5.8% but translated into just a 2.0% rise in gross profit (GP), with productivity unable to keep pace as staff were added. So GP per head again fell slightly. Gross margin also fell.

Like for like: • The 2013 HOT 100 companies collectively reported an increase from their previous year in latest available sales of 8.0% to around £14.7bn.

• HOT 100 combined GP reached £2.9bn, a gain of 2.0% versus their prior year.

• HOT 100 companies’ in-house headcount rose 5.8% to total 30,102 employees.

• Productivity (GP per employee) for this group of HOT 100 companies fell by 3.6% over the year to an average £97,415. This figure also stands 6.6% below last year’s HOT 100 group average of £104,263.

• HOT 100 average gross margin fell 120 basis points for these companies to 19.9%. A shift in the business mix from permanent to temporary fees is likely to be a contributing factor.

• This HOT 100 group in the past year added just £57.3m in net fees with an additional 1,649 staff at an incremental gross margin of only 5.2%, making barely an incremental £35,000 additional GP per head. This backs the view that much sales growth was not converted even into fees, either through passed-on payroll costs or through pricing pressure.

• Entry level (ranked 100) to the 2013 HOT

40% to 50% more than 50%

Source: Company accounts

of companies included at group, not subsidiary, level with an aggregate of all their employees. Also, crucially, some net organic growth has been experienced by more than two-thirds of constituents.

Some has taken place via overseas offices, but many of the HOT 100 do not even operate outside the UK, and headcount increases have straddled both camps.

For an industry often thought to be weak on strategy and strong on instinct, the continued expansion over the past year seems to be a textbook example of measured investment in the future.

Calendar year 2012 proved to be a period mainly of consolidation across the industry with its sales value rising barely above 5%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and possibly entirely explained by temporary payroll cost increases.

There is, however, an underlying shift in the proportion of business derived from temporary and permanent placements, and also in the share taken by managed service operations. This is seen in the fall in the bulk of company gross margin percentages.

Continued demand for managed services illustrates the client drive for efficient and transparent delivery models that can offer value-add metrics. To compete, recruiters seek to provide low-cost delivery through process efficiencies, and the lower gross margin simply feeds the need for greater productivity and a lower cost base. Gains in gross profit per head since 2009 still provide a cushion to enable companies to pursue expansion goals despite a slow payback, but within the next two years the benefits will need to flow.

With little corporate consolidation seen in the recruitment industry, despite the challenging economic environment, the persistently fragmented market continues to encourage companies to invest in the knowledge that market share gains are achievable, fortune may favour the brave and nobody is ever just ‘average’.

Agile Intelligence has compiled the HOT 100 Report on behalf of Recruiter to determine which companies are best at leveraging their intellectual assets.

Measuring the gross profit (net fees) per employee indicates how effectively an organisation uses the skills of all its people to generate a profitable return for stakeholders. All in-house staff (excluding temporary workers or contractors) are included in the calculation — not just feeearners. This measurement is a standard senior management key performance indicator (KPI). Companies emerging strongly from this analysis, especially if featuring regularly, are those that operate the most productive organisations.

Which companies derive most added value from their own employees (before allocating overheads), yet still engender the right atmosphere to encourage a profitable

100 was £80,737 in GP/head, just slightly below last year’s £81,239.

Across all HOT 100 companies, 72% expanded their workforce compared with 77% previously. But only 39% increased GP/ head, below even last year’s dip to 45%. This suggests a more reflective approach, since the headcount growth at 5.8% was much more modest than the prior year while the returns from that previous expansion have yet to be seen in full.

The dream combination of expanding workforce and rising productivity was achieved by only 23% of the 2013 HOT 100, versus 36% last year. Smaller firms proved better at achieving this goal, with the following success rates: • 28% of the 36 firms with less than 50 employees • 20% of the 64 firms employing above 50 employees Gross margin (see chart above) is the GP (or net fees) as a percentage of sales turnover.

GP is a combination of permanent fees (at virtually 100% margin) plus the profit on temporary supply after subtracting payroll and other ‘temp’ employment costs. The mix of business between temporary and permanent placements influences the gross margin level, as does the trend in temporary pricing and employment-related costs.

• Margin distribution of 2013 HOT 100 versus previous issues: high-end margin players (driven more by permanent) unchanged in numbers; middle margin players, with more of this group achieving margins towards the top end of the 1530% range, while bottom-end margin suppliers (<15%) rose markedly. At the very bottom, below 10%, the number of companies increased but also in the 10% to 15% margin band.

• 6% of the HOT 100 — down from 7% — almost entirely permanent recruiters.

• Permanent market remained subdued with further losses in some sectors; evidence that the temporary and contract business proved more robust overall for the 2013 HOT 100 members.

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engineeringjobs.com

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Recruiter Hot 100 2013

• Most represented group, and rising: those companies with margin between 20% and 30% — ie substantial temporary but also a high portion of permanent fees, possibly 50/50 in this range, or specialist temporary in a higher-margin niche.

• Biggest losers: the 30-40% margin band saw a substantial loss from 13 down to nine constituents • Most gains: the 20-30% margin band gained most, owing to a shift towards temporary from permanent business mix for companies with combined earnings.

• 28 agencies now achieve gross margin below 15%, with 13 of these below 10%.

• A permanent squeeze has added pressure on many firms, and those servicing both temporary and permanent market in the middle-margin bands have shifted mix, and therefore gross margin, towards the temporary end of the range. Several companies dropping out of the HOT 100 saw gross margin reductions of more than 2% (200 basis points), explaining the drop in numbers in that 30-40% band and also some migration into the band below.

Company trends: As technical firms strengthen, public sector specialists also begin to revive After last year’s strong push upwards, the bar for entry almost held firm at just below £81,000 GP/head this year, but there were few signs that the investment of last year had moved companies forward. Indeed, most presided over a drop in productivity yet continued to add headcount, albeit more cautiously, during 2012/13.

Only 23% of companies achieved both headcount and productivity growth versus 36% last year and 34% the previous year. Of these 23 companies, IT and technical sectors together provided 15, with two professional recruiters and one driver agency, but also five public sector specialists, illustrating a turnaround from the previous year when there were none.

A threshold of £80,737 represents a mere 0.6% decline on last year’s minimum threshold, emphasising the message of stability and consolidation. Nevertheless the constituents themselves have changed, with a mix of IT, care and professional firms slipping below the cut-off.

For most generalist recruiters, average fee levels are too low to compete with the specialists on people productivity. So once again, the office and industrial market is grossly under-represented here. In many companies, an efficient operational process will compensate for low fee rates, but this is evident only on the bottom-line profitability.

While the top 10 has often been professional recruiter-biased, this sector has lost ground across the whole HOT 100 in recent years and is only now creeping back up. There are seven professional recruiters listed in the top 20, only four of which make the top 10. Seven IT staffing companies are

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listed in the top 20, of which three are in the top 10 while the top 20 balance comprises three public sector firms and again three technical recruiters.

Last year’s winner, SSQ, the permanent professional legal recruiter, maintains its strong showing and improved GP/head by more than 12% to £184,519 to hold its top spot, illustrating the benefits of a focused niche specialisation. Second is Vector Resourcing, covering the full range of IT/ technology roles from its Southern England base, also enjoying some European business.

The top 10 are consistently focused specialists, even though purely global search firms are excluded from this remit. This year NES Global Talent has replaced Swift Technical Group as the largest firm in the group and the top performing engineering/ technical provider.

Increasingly international business from UK recruiters has led us to include more group-level accounts in this analysis, so SThree is amalgamated to join PageGroup (formerly Michael Page International), Robert Walters and Harvey Nash, and Hays also comes in at 71st but Networkers is eased out. Where it still makes sense to separate brands we do so. This shift of emphasis gives a more polarised, yet broader, view of the market.

Overall, 22% of HOT 100 companies employ more than 200 staff, while at the other end of the scale 13% employ between 20 and 30 staff, rising to 36% for all staff up to 50. So there are more independently

owned — or privately financed — and smaller companies than previously. This change supports evidence from the ONS, which showed a slow trend towards smaller agencies in the past year.

General staffing The number of ‘generalists’ within the HOT 100 has receded further with just four left (six last year) and even some of these are specialists within the industrial market.

The highest rated, at 40th, is PPF, the driver specialist, which has grown quickly in a market displaying noticeable candidate shortages through a business model that can thrive despite margin below 10%. The remaining companies ranked are Pertemps, slightly up at 65th and still the sole national UK ‘High Street’ brand, Brightwork (in Scotland) and Workmates, although one or two other constituents may straddle the line between professional and generalist.

While many office, industrial and other general recruiters did not make the cut, their success depends increasingly upon improving efficiency levels to increase profit conversion to the bottom line of their P&L (profit & loss) account. In an increasingly managed, service-driven marketplace, it becomes inevitably harder to keep pace with smaller specialist providers on gross margin, fee levels and thus productivity.

• See recruiter.co.uk for the HOT 10 breakdowns of four specialist groupings — IT/telecoms, technical, public sector and professionals.

OUTLOOK AND CONCLUSION The demand patterns from last year have progressed with a far greater HOT 100 presence for technical recruiters, while IT also remains in the lead. Both sectors, within the HOT 100, reported overall substantial headcount expansion last year, in contrast to the professional and public sector recruiters. Together, these two sectors account for 52% of HOT 100 companies, punching well above their weighting in the wider workforce.

The strength of oil & gas has undoubtedly played its part, but resurgence in technical roles is not just about the energy sector. Several engineering sectors see increased demand for technical skills, many of which are in short supply. In this respect, at least, the prediction last year that the recruitment industry would be an essential part of the solution for our economy is on track. Economic rebalancing may prove slow, but technical recruiters are at the leading edge of any such change.

After a nervous end to 2012, economic recovery in 2013 has exceeded expectations and most forecasts are being upgraded. Thus far, GDP growth has been more consistent, and possibly more sustainable, than seen since pre-recession. Talk of double-dip and triple-dip recession has itself receded, to be replaced by forward-looking concerns on a possible resurfacing of a housing market bubble and household debt spiral. Assuming that we do not turn full circle in this way, and given that the eurozone continues to progress away from the brink, prospects look much sounder for 2013/14.

With a strong correlation between GDP and recruitment activity, the returns on the investment in people since the substantial cuts incurred in 2009 look likely to come to fruition.

If both the private and public sector (less established) are in recovery, then activity levels should rise selectively with improving prospects for many recruiters, while the industry’s fragmented profile still offers opportunity for relative outperformance to grow market share, even in the weaker individual sectors.

The past two years’ headcount expansion has not yet paid off for many recruiters but the fast-changing combination of economic, workforce and recruitment trends suggests that those companies with the right people, market strategy and delivery should at least begin to reap some of the rewards going forward.

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07/11/2013 16:42

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Profile

Vector Resourcing SAM BURNE JAMES SPOKE WITH DONNA MEDWAY AND WAYNE STARRITT Interviews with Recruiter HOT 100 high-fliers tend to take us to gleaming towers in the City or august West End addresses.

So it was in anticipation of something a little different that we arrived at technology recruiter Vector Resourcing’s head office, a converted barn in where our cab driver described as “basically the middle of nowhere” — more accurately the small village of Hartfield in rural East Sussex.

From this base and a second office in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, the firm supplies to a wide array of firms from multinationals to smaller businesses across the tech sector itself and commerce & industry — with twothirds of business in the finance, retail and travel sectors.

This includes technical and non-technical roles right through from lower-level IT support to management and director positions. Most of the business is contract.

“We’re not outwardly your typical recruitment firm,” owner and director Donna Medway tells Recruiter. True, all HOT 100 firms are, by nature of the rankings, a bit atypical, even extraordinary, but even so, Vector — a new entrant with gross profit per employee of £174,162 — stands out.

Paradoxically, one way they stand out is by rarely courting publicity, and flying, for the most part, even under Recruiter’s own radar. “I think people [other recruiters] are kind of a lot more vocal than we are, and we’re just quietly confident in what we want to do and how we’re going to achieve it,” Medway adds.

This said, Medway and her head of sales Wayne Starritt are by no means reserved in their views about one particular ingredient of the mix that has led them to such high profitability: a blanket ban on working through recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) firms. “These contracts don’t have workable terms, if you spend time looking through them you’ll see that, and we have people who do that every day of the week here,” Medway says.

Plus, adds Starritt, RPOs curb the recruiter’s remit. “If it’s just a CV gathering service, then it’s not a service any more, there’s so much more for us on that front.”

“We made the decision not to supply or deal with any other agents, however they want to badge themselves, many years ago,” Medway says, adding that they the company “makes it very clear to people [ie. staff] what they can and can’t do and what is and isn’t tolerated”.

Surely the company must have made an exception here or there? “No! No!,” Medway laughs. “We’re strong on that — and we’re strong on our views on it!”

Another firm policy is the moratorium on job boards, a decision taken more than three years ago. Medway says the firm prefers to uses its own database, although acknowledges that maintaining that resource is “harder work than just whacking things up on job boards, so

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we’ve made things quite difficult for ourselves”.

Aside from these two clear policies, flexibility is a watchword for the firm. Medway clarifies that while the company does not have set corporate principles or a mission statement “in a kind of ‘oh, there’s a poster up in the kitchen kind of way’,” they have “core principles...

I think if you’ve been going for as long as we have then you must have. It’s about having an ever-flexible model”.

She adds: “The excitement for me is always being able to think of new ideas of where we could grow, and where we could be more profitable.”

A case in point is what Medway calls plans to “aggressively expand” its permanent division, which officially launched in 2012, to allow the firm to further leverage existing client relationships.

It also intends to open a third office some time in 2014 or 2015. This will certainly be in the UK, not abroad.

Vector supplies small numbers of contractors across the channel — 4% of current assignments as Recruiter went to print. These come sporadically from existing clients, as “kind of a bolt-on”, Medway says, and adds that she feels there is enough opportunity in the UK that they need not actively seek them out.

Looking for new opportunities means that ever increasingly, Vector supplies not just IT teams, but departments such as finance, logistics and marketing among others. Starritt says over recent years they realised it should refer to itself as a ‘technology’ rather than purely ‘IT’ recruiter.

Even in a competitive market, IT and technology being by far the biggest HOT 100 constituent once again, Starritt says this broad spread means that “there’s not really one [competitor firm] we come up against all the time”. He add: “We don’t find really that we lose out to competition in so far as normally when clients are dealing with us, it’s because they want to deal with us and the unique way we would approach something. It doesn’t become a competition thing.”

Another area where the firm avoids competition is finding internal staff. Both Starritt and Medway are unusual in the firm in having recruitment experience before coming to Vector. For senior staff, Medway says, Vector seeks “people who perhaps have reached a pinnacle in their current sales career” and seek responsibility and “a chance to maximise their earning”.

It is, Medway later explains, partly because of this that the company doesn’t have the typical recruitment firm’s social calendar. Many staff are more “established, grownup... people come here because they’re not having to join in that typical sales-y, banter-y scene; it’s not really like that”. Indeed, Starritt comes in, “it’s not that important”, although he does note that there is more teambuilding at the junior level, and adds that regardless, “everyone gets on like a dream”.

MEDWAY’S SECRET OF SUCCESS “Keeping very steady on our core principles, core methodologies and always looking for process improvement”

CV Donna Medway 1997 – present: Vector Resourcing • Joined as a senior consultant • Made managing director in 1998 • Now owner and director

1991-97 Arena Resources (now part of Lorien), various roles

Wayne Starritt 2005 – present: Vector Resourcing • Joined as consultant • Set up resourcing team in 2010 • Head of sales since July 2013

2004-05 Sand Resources, consultant

“WE [MEDWAY AND STARRITT] REALLY LIKE CHANGE, SO IF WE’RE NOT DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT OR IF THERE’S NOT SOMETHING ON THE HORIZON THAT’S GOING TO BE DIFFERENT AND GOING TO BE DIFFERENT AND GIVING POSITIVE CHANGE, THEN WE’RE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING THAT WILL BRING THAT” WAYNE STARRITT

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PHOTOGRAPHY: PETER SEARLE

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Profile

At that other point of hire, less experienced recruits, Vector takes people “at a very, very junior level straight out of university or maybe in their second job”. On joining the business’s resourcing team, they spend around a year in “intensive training”, including a learning system with over 100 individual modules, Medway says.

“We like to grow people in our own model,” Starritt says, adding that there can be “baggage” if you take people on from elsewhere in the industry. Both a cause and effect of its success, Vector also avoid one hallmark of the recruitment industry — the rate at which many consultants jump from firm to firm. “I can’t really think of a time of us losing people we want to keep,” adds Starritt, a relative newbie with a mere eight years’ service under his belt; Medway joined the company shortly after it was founded in 1997, while plenty of other staff have been there for five, six years, even a decade or more. “We don’t lose people to competitors.”

Starritt says part of this come from the company creating roles specifically around the strengths of existing staff, something that he himself has benefitted from during his progress through the company.

“I think we’re very good at seeing what people’s strengths are and what the best opportunities are for people,” he says. No point, for example, having “people who were very good at resourcing spending a lot of time doing new business, and not being very strong at it”.

The company has abandoned the 360-degree recruitment model, and now breaks its business down into back office, resourcing and sales teams. This is all backed up by its bespoke back office system Vector Live, which Medway calls “integral” to the business and says essentially runs all of the client and supplier-facing back office, integrating timesheet and contract management. So integral, in fact, that its launch in mid-2009 was practically the last time Recruiter heard from the usually taciturn firm.

Medway is keen too that Vector’s “exceptional” back office team,

COMPANY PROFILE Founded in 1997 Head office in Hartfield, East Sussex, second office (opened 2008) in Malmesbury, Wiltshire

Financials: • 2013: Turnover: £26.6m, gross profit £5.6m • 2012: Turnover: £25m, gross profit £5.3m • 2011: Turnover £23.2m, gross profit £4.7m The vast majority of turnover comes from contract recruiting Two-thirds of business comes from the finance, retail and travel industries

unsung heroes in many a company, are given the credit they are due. “It’s not enough just to have good sales people,” she says, “you have to have a very, very good support function and they have to be empowered, trained, they have to have development as well.”

While training and development are key to the retention plans of many a recruitment firm nowadays, company culture can also play a huge part. Medway refers to the company’s working culture as “relaxed but hardworking”. She explains: “We want people … to feel that it’s a serious environment where they can develop their skills and they can achieve. It does take hard work, dedication and focus.”

And in terms of relaxed, one notices the relatively casual dress code around the office. “We’re serious and professional, but it’s not this work hard, play hard culture,” Starritt says. With typical confidence, but as ever steering clear of pomp, Medway adds: “I think we get it right.” Based on their showing in the HOT 100, there can be little debate about that.

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INTEGRATION & INTERROGATION: dǁŽ WŝůůĂƌƐ ŽĨ Ă ^ƵĐĐĞƐƐĨƵů ZĞĐƌƵŝƚŵĞŶƚ WƌŽĐĞƐƐ

Part one: INTEGRATE

Part two: INTERROGATION

One of the great technical developments of the last 5 years is ƚŚĞ ŽƉĞŶŝŶŐ ƵƉ ŽĨ /ŶĨŽƌŵĂƟŽŶ dĞĐŚŶŽůŽŐLJ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚ W/Ɛ ƚŽ ĂůůŽǁ ƐLJƐƚĞŵƐ ĂŶĚ ƉƌŽĐĞƐƐĞƐ ƚŽ ďĞ ŝŶƚĞŐƌĂƚĞĚ ŵŽƌĞ ƐĞĂŵůĞƐƐůLJ͘ Ɛ Ă ƌƵůĞ ƚĞĐŚŶŽůŽŐLJ ŚĂƐ ďĞĐŽŵĞ ŵŽƌĞ ŽƉĞŶ ĂŶĚ ŇĞdžŝďůĞ ƚŽ ǁŽƌŬŝŶŐ ǁŝƚŚ ƚŚŝƌĚ ƉĂƌƟĞƐ͕ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ƐŝŐŶŝĮĐĂŶƚ ďĞŶĞĮƚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ĞŶĚ ƵƐĞƌ͘

Our ideal recruitment process also relies on a second element– ŝŶƚĞƌƌŽŐĂƟŽŶ͘ Ɛ Ă ƌĞĐƌƵŝƚĞƌ͕ LJŽƵ ŶĞĞĚ ƚŽ ďĞ ĂďůĞ ƚŽ ŝŶƚĞƌƌŽŐĂƚĞ ƚŚĞ ĚĂƚĂ ĂŶĚ ŝŶĨŽƌŵĂƟŽŶ LJŽƵ ŐůĞĂŶ ĨƌŽŵ ƐƵĐĐĞƐƐĞƐ ĂŶĚ ĨĂŝůƵƌĞƐ͘ tŚĂƚ͛Ɛ ƚŚĞ ƉŽŝŶƚ ŽĨ ŚĂǀŝŶŐ ĂŶ ŝŶƚĞŐƌĂƚĞĚ ƐŽůƵƟŽŶ͕ ŝĨ LJŽƵ ĐĂŶ͛ƚ ŐĂŝŶ ŝŶƚĞůůŝŐĞŶĐĞ ĂŶĚ ƉŽƐŝƟǀĞůLJ ĂīĞĐƚ LJŽƵƌ ƌĞƚƵƌŶ ŽŶ ŝŶǀĞƐƚŵĞŶƚ͍

dŚĞ ƌŽůĞ ŽĨ ŝŶƚĞŐƌĂƚĞĚ ƐLJƐƚĞŵƐ ǁŝƚŚŝŶ ƚŽĚĂLJ͛Ɛ ƌĞĐƌƵŝƚŵĞŶƚ ŝŶĚƵƐƚƌLJ ŝƐ ďƵƐŝŶĞƐƐ ĐƌŝƟĐĂů͘ dŽ ĂĐŚŝĞǀĞ ĞĸĐŝĞŶĐŝĞƐ ĂŶĚ ŐĂŝŶ ŵĂdžŝŵƵŵ ǀĂůƵĞ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ƚĞĐŚŶŽůŽŐLJ ǁĞ Ăůů ƵƐĞ͕ ĞĂĐŚ ĞůĞŵĞŶƚ ŵƵƐƚ ƐƉĞĂŬ ĞĂƐŝůLJ ǁŝƚŚ ƚŚĞ ŶĞdžƚ͘

^Ž ǁŚĂƚ ǁŽƵůĚ LJŽƵ ǁĂŶƚ ƚŽ ŝŶƚĞƌƌŽŐĂƚĞ͍ ,Žǁ ĂďŽƵƚ ĞdžĂĐƚůLJ ǁŚŝĐŚ ƐŽƵƌĐĞƐ ǁŽƌŬ ďĞƐƚ ĨŽƌ ĚŝīĞƌĞŶƚ ƌŽůĞƐ͍ ŽĞƐ ƐŽĐŝĂů ƌĞĐƌƵŝƚŵĞŶƚ ƌĞĂůůLJ ǁŽƌŬ͍ ŽĞƐ ƚŚĞ ƉĂLJͲƉĞƌͲƉĞƌĨŽƌŵĂŶĐĞ ŵŽĚĞů ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ĂŐŐƌĞŐĂƚŽƌƐ ŝŵƉƌŽǀĞ LJŽƵƌ ĐŚĂŶĐĞƐ ŽĨ ĐŽŶŶĞĐƟŶŐ ǁŝƚŚ ƚŚĞ ďĞƐƚ ĐĂŶĚŝĚĂƚĞƐ͍ dŚĞ ĂŶƐǁĞƌƐ ƚŽ Ăůů ŽĨ ƚŚĞƐĞ ƋƵĞƐƟŽŶƐ ĂƌĞ ƉŽƐƐŝďůĞ ǁŝƚŚ ĨƵůů ŝŶƚĞŐƌĂƟŽŶ ĂŶĚ ƚŚĞ ƐŽƵƌĐĞ ƚƌĂĐŬŝŶŐ ĨƵŶĐƟŽŶĂůŝƚLJ ǁŝƚŚŝŶ Ă ƐLJƐƚĞŵ ƐƵĐŚ ĂƐ ƌŽĂĚďĞĂŶ͘

dĂŬĞ ƚŚĞ ƉƌŽĐĞƐƐ ŽĨ ĂĚǀĞƌƟƐŝŶŐ Ă ǀĂĐĂŶĐLJ͕ ĂŶ ŝŶƚĞŐƌĂƚĞĚ ƐLJƐƚĞŵ ǁŝůů ŶŽƚ ŽŶůLJ ƐƉĞĞĚ ƵƉ ƚŚĞ ƟŵĞ ŝƚ ƚĂŬĞƐ ƚŽ ŐĞƚ LJŽƵƌ ĂĚǀĞƌƚ ŽƵƚ ƚŽ Ăůů ŽĨ LJŽƵƌ ŝŶƚĞŶĚĞĚ ĐŚĂŶŶĞůƐ͕ ŝƚ ǁŝůů ĂůƐŽ ƌĞĚƵĐĞ ĞƌƌŽƌƐ͕ ĂŶĚ ƵůƟŵĂƚĞůLJ ƌĞĚƵĐĞ ƚŚĞ ƟŵĞ ŝƚ ƚĂŬĞƐ ƚŽ ĂƩƌĂĐƚ ĐĂŶĚŝĚĂƚĞƐ ŝŶƚŽ your business.

KŶ ƚŽƉ ŽĨ ƚŚĂƚ͕ ďĞƩĞƌ ŝŶƚĞŐƌĂƟŽŶ ĂůƐŽ ĂůůŽǁƐ Ă ƌĞĐƌƵŝƚĞƌ ƚŽ ĞdžƉůŽŝƚ ŵŽƌĞ ĐŚĂŶŶĞůƐ͕ ĂŶĚ ŵŽƌĞ ƐŽƵƌĐŝŶŐ ŵĞƚŚŽĚŽůŽŐŝĞƐ ǁŚŝůƐƚ ƐĂǀŝŶŐ ƟŵĞ͘ ƌŽĂĚďĞĂŶ ĂůůŽǁƐ ŝƚƐ ƌĞĐƌƵŝƚĞƌƐ ƚŽ ƉŽƐƚ ŽƵƚ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ǁŝĚĞƐƚ ŶĞƚǁŽƌŬ ŽĨ ũŽď ďŽĂƌĚƐ ĂŶĚ ŬĞLJ ƐŽĐŝĂů ŵĞĚŝĂ ĐŚĂŶŶĞůƐ͕ ƐĞĂƌĐŚ Ăůů ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ůĞĂĚŝŶŐ s ĚĂƚĂďĂƐĞƐ͕ ǁŚŝůƐƚ ĂůƐŽ ůĞǀĞƌĂŐŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ ĚĂƚĂďĂƐĞ ŽĨ ĐĂŶĚŝĚĂƚĞƐ ĂůƌĞĂĚLJ ĂǀĂŝůĂďůĞ ǁŝƚŚŝŶ LJŽƵƌ ďƵƐŝŶĞƐƐ͘ ůů ĨƌŽŵ ŽŶĞ ƉůĂƞŽƌŵ͕ ĂŶĚ Ăůů ŝŶƚĞŐƌĂƚĞĚ ŝŶƚŽ LJŽƵƌ ŽƚŚĞƌ recruitment systems

/Ĩ LJŽƵ ŚĂǀĞ ƚŚĞ ĚĂƚĂ ĂŶĚ ĐĂŶ ŝŶƚĞƌƌŽŐĂƚĞ ŝƚ͕ LJŽƵ ĐĂŶ ŵĂŬĞ ďĞƩĞƌ ĂŶĚ ŵŽƌĞ ŝŶĨŽƌŵĞĚ ĚĞĐŝƐŝŽŶƐ ĂďŽƵƚ ĞǀĞƌLJ ƉĂƌƚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ƌĞĐƌƵŝƚŵĞŶƚ ƉƌŽĐĞƐƐ͘ zŽƵ ĐĂŶ ŚŽŶĞ ĂĐƟǀŝƚLJ͕ ŵĂŶĂŐĞ ƐƉĞŶĚ ŵŽƌĞ ĞīĞĐƟǀĞůLJ ĂŶĚ ŝŵƉƌŽǀĞ ƚŚĞ ĐŚĂŶĐĞƐ ŽĨ LJŽƵƌ ƌĞĐƌƵŝƚŵĞŶƚ ƚĞĂŵ ŐĞƫŶŐ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ƌŝŐŚƚ ĐĂŶĚŝĚĂƚĞƐ ĨĂƐƚĞƌ ƚŚĂŶ ƚŚĞ ĐŽŵƉĞƟƟŽŶ͘ dĂŬĞ Ă ůŽŽŬ Ăƚ Ăůů ŽĨ ƉƌŽĐĞƐƐĞƐ LJŽƵ ĐƵƌƌĞŶƚůLJ ŚĂǀĞ ŝŶ ƉůĂĐĞ͘ ĂŶ LJŽƵ ŝŵƉƌŽǀĞ ƚŚĞ ƐƉĞĞĚ Žƌ ƋƵĂůŝƚLJ ŽĨ ƐĞƌǀŝĐĞ ŝĨ LJŽƵ ŚĂǀĞ ŵŽƌĞ ŝŶƚĞŐƌĂƟŽŶ͍ ŶĚ ǁŚĂƚ ǁŽƵůĚ ďĞ ƚŚĞ ƌĞĂů ǀĂůƵĞ ŽĨ ŚĂǀŝŶŐ ŵŽƌĞ ŝŶĨŽƌŵĂƟŽŶ ĂŶĚ ĂŶĂůLJƐŝƐ ĂďŽƵƚ ǁŚĂƚ ƌĞĂůůLJ ǁŽƌŬƐ ĨŽƌ LJŽƵƌ ďƵƐŝŶĞƐƐ͍ tĞ ǁĂŶƚ ƚŽ ĞdžƉůŽƌĞ ƚŚĞƐĞ ƋƵĞƐƟŽŶƐ ǁŝƚŚ LJŽƵ ďĞĐĂƵƐĞ ǁĞ ŬŶŽǁ ǁĞ ĐĂŶ ŚĞůƉ LJŽƵ ƚŽ ĂĐŚŝĞǀĞ ŵŽƌĞ͘ Contact us today. There really is so much more to Broadbean.

2million

9million

1.5million

3500

60,000

65

ADVERTS POSTED A MONTH

JOB BOARD INTEGRATIONS

REC.11.13.045.indd 2

APPLICATIONS A MONTH

USERS GLOBALLY

CANDIDATE SEARCHES A MONTH

020 7536 1661 | UKSales@broadbean.com www.broadbean.com

COUNTRIES SERVED

07/11/2013 16:52

Movers & Shakers

Sponsored by Recruit Ventures

•

ADVANTAGE RESOURCING: The multi-sector recruiter, part of Japan’s Recruit Co, has taken on Peter Donoghue as managing consultant for its IT division.

‘BUSY AND EXCITING’ 2014 FOR NEW LV= HRD

ANTAL INTERNATIONAL: The •global recruiter’s founder Tony

Goodwin has become executive chairman, as Tremayne Elson is promoted to chief executive officer (see p6 for full story).

Julia Tyson has joined insurance firm LV= as group HR director. The company has won the Most Effective Employer Brand Development category at the Recruiter Awards for Excellence two years running, also being highly commended for Best Recruitment Team in 2013.

She said the entire HR team, not just recruitment, was key to “creating the total experience” so that the resouring function could “promote the brand with integrity”.

“We’re not ones to rest on our laurels and we’ve got a busy and exciting 2014 ahead of us,” she told Recruiter.

•

ARGYLL SCOTT: The tech recruiter has appointed Richard Prentice as the head of financial services technology, permanent division.

CAMPION WILLCOCKS: Richard •Clifford has been promoted to

MD at the interim management and resourcing consultancy.

YOU’LL DEFINITELY SEE A STRONGER FOCUS ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND ONLINE CAMPAIGNS, RATHER THAN TRADITIONAL OUTDOOR ADVERTISING FOR THE NEXT YEAR

CASTLEROCK RECRUITMENT •GROUP: Paul Allen has joined the

firm as group strategic business development manager.

CONSOL PARTNERS: The tech •recruiter will move manager

Mike Cain and co-founder Marc Cohen to its new Santa Monica, California offices.

• DARWIN RECRUITMENT: APSCo chair Miles Hunt has joined the IT recruiter as non-exec chair, succeeding Harvey Nash founder David Higgins. Alf Davis and Simon Lawton also join the board.

•on new director Charles José

FWB: The search firm has taken

McGarry.

joins as regional CEO heading the specialist recruiter’s new Houston office.

•

PAGEGROUP: The recruitment group’s chief financial officer Andrew Bracey has left, with Kelvin Stagg the new acting CFO.

•

POOLIA: Stockholm-listed staffing group Poolia has appointed new CEO and MD, Morten Werner.

•Daniel Redfern has joined

PRIME TIME RECRUITMENT:

Ciara Smyth is the •newKING.COM: chief people officer at the maker of notoriously addictive smartphone game Candy Crush.

HEIDRICK & STRUGGLES: The •search firm has taken on Chad

Hesters as head of natural resources for the Americas, while Mark Livingston is promoted to global managing partner.

MATCHTECH: The technical and •professional recruiter’s chair

George Materna steps down on 2 December to become nonexecutive deputy chair, with the post filled by former Randstad executive Brian Wilkinson.

• OIL CONSULTANTS: Jon Marrs

the multi-sector agency as a corporate sales manager, while Allena Clarke joins as managing consultant in executive division Grosvenor Boston.

•

RESOURCING SOLUTIONS: The rail, power and built environment recruiter has taken on Tom Holbrow as group business development director.

•

SODEXO: Jon Hull is the new head of resourcing UK & Ireland at the on-site services group, succeeding Melanie Hayes.

TALENT INTERNATIONAL: •Jonathan Butterfield, founder and

as managing consultant of its interims offering.

RECRUITER

NOVEMBER 2013

46_Recruiter_movers_NOV13.indd Sec3:46

For more jobs, people moves and career advice go to

START

YOUR OWN

RECRUITMENT

business

totally risk free?

USG PEOPLE: The staffing •group halves its executive board

to two on 1 December, with chief corporate officer Albert Jan Jongsma departing, while chief operational officer Eric de Jong retains an advisory role.

Email people moves for use online and in print, including a short biography, to recruiter.editorial@redactive.co.uk

38

Fresh Partnership Recruitment consultant Engineering, industrial, manufacturing sector Up to £35k basic Leeds

do you want to

• TALENTMARK: The life sciences recruiter has hired Paul Duffy

•

Nigel Frank International Nordic languages-speaking recruitment consultant Newcastle

energy recruiter to launch its Berlin office. Ross Ellingham arrives to lead the new Perth, Australia office.

to lead its new Frankfurt office, while its new Melbourne base is led by new hire Mike Ward.

RANDSTAD: Ben Noteboom will stand down as CEO at the end of February, to be succeeded by internal hire Jacques van den Broek.

Sharna Associates Business development director, healthcare sector Up to £60k OTE £100k Manchester

SPENCER OGDEN: Andrew •Roberts has joined the global

The specialist recruiter •hasPROCO: taken on Vanessa Sproedt

•

A selection of vacancies from recruiter.co.uk

• recruiter.co.uk/jobs • inhouserecruiterjobs.co.uk • internationalrecruiterjobs. com

ex-CEO of AIM-listed recruiter Rethink Group, has become an adviser to the board of Australia’s Talent International.

PROFFICE: The Nordics-wide recruiter has taken on new CEO Henrik Höjsgaard.

Your next move?

Your business - YOUR BRAND Contact David Simons on

07900 263043 dsimons@recruitventures.com

www.recruitventures.com

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

07/11/2013 15:07

Appointments

View the latest jobs at www.recruiter.co.uk

To place your advertisement E: amalia.zafeiratou@redactive.co.uk or T: 020 7880 7608

www.recruiter.co.uk

Be the first to get exciting new opportunities and industry news, by following us on

SCAN HERE

To register a vacancy either in the UK or Internationally, please contact: Ruth Moran Managing Director

Neil Prestwich Director

Lucy Spencer Director

Francesca Macauley Director

• • • • •

• • • •

• Technical • Engineering • Oil and Gas • Scientific • Construction • Manufacturing • Automotive • Rail

• International All Sectors • Accountancy & Finance UK Wide

Email - lucy@ruthmoran.co.uk 0113 2460062/07805 687550

Email - francesca@ruthmoran.co.uk 0113 2460062/07887 442550

Legal • Accountancy/Finance Financial Services/Insurance Sales/Marketing • HR • IT Executive Search & Selection FMCG

Email - ruth@ruthmoran.co.uk 0113 2460062/07970 840061

The Recruiters’ Recruiter

REC.11.13.047.indd 2 RUTHMORAN_FP2013.indd 36

Commercial • Industrial Driving • Social Care Healthcare • Medical/NHS Education • Hospitality & Catering

Email - neil@ruthmoran.co.uk 0113 2460062/07971 094450

For current updates or to register online log on to our website on www.ruthmoran.co.uk

RECRUITMENT AGENCY

07/11/2013 11:54 11:56 07/11/2013

JOIN HAYS

RECRUITMENT CONSULTANTS MAKE THE MOVE Melbourne, Australia, $performance based + benefits Being the world’s leading experts in qualified, professional and skilled recruitment, we can help broaden your experience and advance your career. Melbourne is Australia’s culture capital and boasts an abundance of reasons to join us down under as a recruitment consultant.

A recruiting career with Hays is like no other. We play a unique role in the global world of work.

To continue our growth and success we seek experienced recruiters to join our Melbourne operations. On offer is a huge client base that consists of both small and medium enterprises, as well as large global corporations from a variety of industries. There are strong, well established client relationships in place and many preferred supplier agreements to leverage off.

Whilst Hays maintains an excellent market position, your strong business development skills and personal brand will ensure you win even greater market share in this competitive space.

Recruitment is a demanding environment and those who succeed are ambitious and determined, as well as being exceptionally motivated and sales driven. You will be passionate about building strong relationships and achieving results. If this sounds like you, then we will invest in your journey.

Ref: 2020810 For further discussion or to apply contact Diane Boyce on 020 3465 0158 or email diane.boyce@hays.com

hays-careers.com

Qui Recruitment R2R is proud to exclusively partner with Finegreen Associates, in their key hiring plans in Manchester and London.

Who are Finegreen Associates?

Established in 2005, Finegreen Associates have established themselves as the leading recruitment consultancy within the public and private healthcare sector, in the UK and internaƟonally.

Business Accolades in 2013 for Finegreen encompass why they are so well respected by their clients, candidates and staī alike: • Best Business Awards- Best Small to Medium Business • Health Investor Awards- Best Recruitment Business • Finegreen are also at number 31 on the Recruiter Hot 100 2013.

So why should YOU consider working for Finegreen?

Their diīerenƟators as a recruitment business include hosƟng industry speciĮc events and conferences - in 2013 it was “Seƫng the Pace” which involved some of the most proliĮc inŇuencers within the healthcare sector.

As a recruitment business, Finegreen have a strong meritocraƟc environment, with entrepreneurialism and accountability at the core of their culture. By being wholly consultaƟve and holisƟc in their approach to recruitment, they have become the preferred partner within this diverse, consultaƟve and challenging yet rewarding sector.

So WHO do Finegreen need to hire?

Finegreen are interested to speak to any recruitment consultant who is currently recruiƟng for any public or private healthcare company; ideally you will be capable of running a dual desk, as although the roles they recruit for are predominantly interim requirements, the opportunity to place senior permanent execuƟves is a reality and genuine opportunity.

AlternaƟvely, if you are a discipline focused recruiter, currently operaƟng within the Finance, IT, Change Management, HR, CommunicaƟons, or any area within the public sector including public health, educaƟon, governance and estates, then you may feel this is a perfect opportunity to develop your repertoire and more importantly, move into a much more lucraƟve environment.

Finegreen reward their staī with very compeƟƟve basics, dependent upon experience and expectaƟons- with a phenomenal commission scheme and beneĮts package.

Please contact Finegreen’s chosen partner, Qui Recruitment R2R directly to enquire, with discreƟon guaranteed. Any 3rd party applicaƟons will be sent to Qui Recruitment R2R.

Please contact Lysha Holmes on 07855778617 or email lysha@quirecruitment.co.uk

EXCITING NEW CHALLENGES IN A DYNAMIC AND FAST-PACED RECRUITMENT ENVIRONMENT! trg Logistics are recruiting for experienced Recruitment Branch Managers and On-site Recruitment Consultants at various locations across the UK. We also need an exceptional Business Development Manager to cover the South of England and an experienced HR Manager in Surrey. trg is a rapidly expanding logistics recruitment business with a growing number of FMCG and large retail clients.

If you meet the criteria we need YOU to join us on our journey!

Email your CV today to apps@trglogistics.co.uk

www.trglogistics.co.uk

40

RECRUITER

REC.11.13.048.indd 40

NOVEMBER 2013

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

07/11/2013 16:05

CELEBRATING EXCELLENCE IN RECRUITMENT

JOIN US AT THE IRP AWARDS 2013 IRP WINNERS

(OVER ER THE PAST 3 YEARS)

honouring achievements and best practice within the recruitment sector.

PEOPLE

(OVER THE PAST 3 YEARS)

For more information and to book your tickets, please visit www.rec-awards.com call 020 7880 6225, or email natalie.dowell@redactive.co.uk

GLASSES OF

PHOTOS TAKEN

LAST YEAR

CHAMPAGNE

JUDGES (OVER THE PAST 3 YEARS)

Tuesday 3 December 2013 Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square

Sponsored by:

REC.11.13.049.indd 2

Supporting:

07/11/2013 10:12

Bloggers with Bite

TIME FOR US ALL TO BECOME BUSINESS INFLUENCERS Recruiting order taker or strategic talent acquisition partner? The choice is yours

R

ecruiting order taker or strategic talent acquisition partner for your business? What would you rather be? Now is the time to raise the profile and credibility of our profession, but only by understanding the business that we work with, its growth plans and the consumer/customer environment in which it operates.

According to research carried out last year by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), ‘From Capability to Profitability — Realizing the value of people management’ (BCG 2012), out of 22 practices within HR that influence economic performance of companies the top six were: delivering on recruiting; onboarding of new hires and retention; managing talent; improving employer branding; performance management and rewards; and developing leadership.

The BCG analysis showed that the companies who delivered on recruiting achieved x3.5 greater revenue growth and x2.0 the profit margin of those companies that were least capable at recruiting. Onboarding of new hires and retention had the second greatest impact on those indicators with x2.5 on growth and x1.9 on profit, with employer branding having a x2.4 impact on growth and x1.8 on profit.

The business context, whether er local or global is ‘VUCA’ — a military term meaning ng volatile, uncertain, complex ex and ambiguous.

In fact,, VUCA is the new normal.l.

The world has changed far more re in the last 10 years than in the previous 50. The value of capitalism is being questioned oned by many. Recent protests ts in Turkey and Brazil, two of the fastest growing and most ost successful economies, mies, are the most recent ecent of many examples. les. Our economies mies are

Paul Maxi Maxin is global former glo director of resourcing ffor Unilever

fundamentally over geared, as is our planet. Trust in both governance and corporate institutions has collapsed. Meanwhile, technology continues to empower consumers, candidates and citizens, and the metaphorical world axis has moved East and South.

In a VUCA world, there is an inevitable impact flow between a company’s strategic priorities and business goals with emerging talent acquisition questions.

• Do we understand differences in leadership styles in different geographic regions?

• Do we have the quantity and quality of talent where we need it?

• Is our attraction strategy effective and sustainable?

• Do we need to meet aspirations of an increasingly mobile workforce?

• How do we ensure that our new hires reflect the values and of our business and our customers?

• What skills and capabilities do we need to use digital data efficiently?

• As mobile becomes the dominant channel to attract and engage with talent, what’s the impact on our infrastructure?

• As the source of a candidate becomes less linear and is impacted by a variety of channels, how do we measure digital impact to gain appropriate ROI [return on investment]?

Once we’ve worked with our business to answer some or all of those questions, only then can we begin to shape the resourcing agenda for the current and succeeding years. Do we need to build talent or buy it?

What skills, behaviours and leadership are required to deliver to company goals? What’s the size of the internal and external addressable market for talent?

All this informs our talent acquisition strategy, recruiting operation and capability. Then we can build a recognisable and differentiating employment brand and channel strategy to express it.

The basics may need to be fixed first in many cases.

But once they are, the opportunity to progress from order taking to strategic talent acquisition partner is there for the taking.

Once we’ve worked with our business … only then can we begin to shape the resourcing agenda for the current and succeeding years What do you think? Tell us at recruiter.editorial@redactive.co.uk

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RECRUITER

NOVEMBER 2013

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In December: Meet the latest recruitment technology game-changers WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

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NOW IN ITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S

3RD YEAR!

Raising Standards

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The Software

for Global Recruitment Businesses

Profile RPM is much more than a simple â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;off-the-shelfâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; recruitment software solution.

It can be configured for individual needs and incorporates bespoke automated routines. Thousands of users around the world that benefit from Profile RPM have an advantage over their rivals - their recruitment consultants are able to make more placements in less time, resulting in increased profits.

People Developing Recruitment Software T: +0044 (0)1277 227778 T E: sales@microdec-profile.com E W: www.microdec-profile.com W

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