Recruiter October 2013 new

October 2013

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BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE FOR RECRUITMENT AND RESOURCING PROFESSIONALS

Suki Sandhu The founder of OUTstanding in n Business and executive sea arch firm Audeliss takes diversiity to the top table

RECRUITER AWARDS 2014 ENTRIES ARE NOW OPEN FOR THE AWARDS. SEE INSIDE FOR DETAILS OF HOW TO ENTER

PAYROLL PROVIDERS A joint FPS/Recruiter survey reveals that incentives still influence choice of service providers

INCORPORATING 01_Recruit_Oct13_Cover.indd 1

GOODWIN SELLS ANTAL POLAND... …but urges other recruiters to take the global plunge

REACH FOR THE STARS There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to finding the best recruiters – read what the experts are doing

Recruitment Matters 08/10/2013 14:55

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Contents 32

The UK can look forward to a more efficient economy, but not one in which masses of jobs will be created by large companies.

Today and in the future, people should enjoy the benefits of working for oneself and create their own jobs.

In his plain-spoken yet elegant way, Lord David Young, enterprise advisor to the prime minister, last week shared some too-often ignored home truths about UK unemployment and how the UK education system prepares — or not — its young constituents for the modern world of work. In spite of the growing trend toward self-employment and young people’s interest in doing so, Lord Young said: “The problem is, they haven’t the faintest idea how to work for themselves.”

A 90-minute seminar last week featuring Lord Young, social entrepreneur Lord Andrew Mawson and Demos director David Goodhart was one of the best investments of my time in memory. Sponsored by the Council of Christians and Jews, the event featured no mention of spirituality per se, but the spirit of work in the UK and institutions’ apparent inability to adapt with the times were discussed with candour and offered an inspirational pragmatism often lacking from such events.

A suggestion for recruiters operating in the engineering fields: look up Lord Mawson and get involved in his holistic, community-focused initiatives to educate and inculcate entrepreneurship in East London. As he told the audience: “The talent pool is in the cities of this country.”

Be sure to read Dr Rajia Bibi’s commentary on SMEs and the NHS this month on p20 — a thought-provoking piece to be sure.

24

NEWS 5

Demistifying temp insurance claims The current situation with recruitment firms and accident insurance sales

6

Risk going abroad Antal boss Tony Goodwin urges recruiters to take the plunge abroad

7

Ex-military in HR should lead from the front Experience learned from a military background can put the backbone back into human resources

8 Tech & tools 10 Special report: FPS Group/ Recruiter survey on payroll service providers

REGULARS 13 On tumblr this month 20 Interaction

Soapbox: Dr Rajia Bibi Ricky Martin Soundbites Letters 26 The Challenge 20 20 21 21

Wells Tobias and Elite Recruitment Network

ANALYSIS 14 Sector Analysis Engineering 17 Global Spotlight on Russia 24 Insight APSCo and Deloitte’s ‘UK Recruitment Index 2013’

DeeDee Doke, Editor

13

Scan here to get your own copy of Recruiter

28 COVER STORY Suki Sandhu, CEO of executive search firm Audeliss and founder of OUTstanding in Business 32 Reach for the stars Sourcing recruiting talent is getting tougher. How do you find the brightest gems before the competition?

38 Movers & Shakers Industry moves 42 Bloggers with Bite:

Lisa Jones

WHO’S HIRING? 39 Ruth Moran 41 AMR, Blue Octopus, Human

Capital Investment Group 43 Newcross Healthcare

FEATURES

Solutions

EDITORIAL Editor: DeeDee Doke T: +44 (0)20 7880 7601 deedee.doke@recruiter.co.uk Senior reporter: Colin Cottell T: +44 (0)20 7880 7603 colin.cottell@recruiter.co.uk Reporter: Sam Burne James T: +44 (0)20 7880 7606 sam.burnejames@recruiter.co.uk Contributing writer: Sue Weekes 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 • 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 2011 & 30 June 2012 – 17,838. Recruiter is also sent to all REC members

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CONTRIBUTIONS Contributions are invited, but when not accepted will be returned only if accompanied by a fully stamped and addressed envelope. Articles should be emailed. No responsibility can be taken for drawings, photographs or literary contributions during delivery, transmission or in the editor’s hands. © 2013 Redactive Media Group. All rights reserved. This publication (and any part thereof) may not be reproduced, transmitted or stored in print or electronic format (including but not limited to any online service, any database or any part of the internet) or in any other format in any media whatsoever, without the prior written permission of Redactive Media Group. Redactive Media Group accepts no liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein. The publishers cannot accept liability for any loss arising from the late appearance or non-publication of any advertisement for any reason whatsoever. ISSN 1475-7478

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Intramezzo make an executive appointment with Eploy® Intramezzo Ltd is benefitting from Eploy’s® extensive and unique set of executive recruitment search tools, which are based around the researching and promotion of quality candidates. efficient way of working and sharing information, and the speed and accuracy of the CV parsing tool is probably second to none.

Operating in the merged markets of Executive and Non-Executive Search and Interim Management, Intramezzo specialises in providing senior executive talent, including Interim Managers in the UK and across Europe with a focus on the hi-tech sector.

The Eploy® team are exceptional in their approach to customer service and ‘can do’ attitude and this makes the company a pleasure to do business with.”

Chris Bogh, Eploy’s® Technical Director said: “As a forward thinking company that works at an incredibly fast pace and which already cleverly utilises the power of web and social media, Intramezzo recognised the importance of using the latest in recruitment software technology.

Eploy® has experienced an unprecedented level of interest from executive search companies over the last 12-18 months, and in addition to Intramezzo works with Norman Broadbent, The Oval Partnership and Influence International to name a few.

Intramezzo uses Eploy® to manage its whole search process and further strengthen its research capabilities, tracking, monitoring and simplifying the management of this information.”

Mary Hill, Operations Director, Intramezzo Ltd confirmed: “We had high expectations of the Eploy system which we are pleased to say have been exceeded. Its use has resulted in a much more streamlined and

Chris concludes “We have invested a significant amount of development time over the last few years on our executive search features, and it is great to see this investment continuing to pay off.

Eploy® has always been successful in this sector but in our latest version we have really fine-tuned the existing functionality and added even more exciting new innovations. Our executive search clients were some of the first to make extensive use of Eploy’s® social recruiting tools but the rest of our client base are now catching up quickly.”

To see Eploy® for yourself, please call 0800 073 4243 or visit www.eploy.co.uk to arrange a free online trial.

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www.eploy.co.uk | info@eploy.co.uk | 0800 073 42 43

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07/10/2013 14:32

SHUTTERSTOCK

News ENTRIES OPEN FOR 2014’S AWARDS

What price the sale of accident insurance?

THIS WEEK sees the launch of the 2014 Recruiter •Awards for Excellence with 29 categories to enter by

DEMYSTIFYING TEMP INSURANCE CLAIMS The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is looking into the activities of a sole recruitment company in connection with claims that accident insurance is being sold to temporary workers without proper authorisation, Recruiter has learned.

This is despite claims broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on 26 September that such practice is “widespread”.

The sale of accident insurance is regulated under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and requires authorisation from the FCA. Penalties for regulated activities without authority from the FCA can be an unlimited fine, and up to two years in prison.

Simon Green, head of insurance at the FCA, told Today: “Generally speaking, only those firms authorised by the FCA can sell or arrange insurance. We’ll be looking at the role recruitment agencies play in this and whether it constitutes regulated activity.” However, a financial services industry source speaking on condition of anonymity told Recruiter that only one recruiter, and the insurance company that sold the insurance policy to that recruiter, were being looked at based on information sent to the FCA by the BBC. The source explained that while the FCA does not regulate recruitment companies, it has a general duty to look into cases where regulated activity might be taking place without FCA authorisation.

Several recruitment companies are legally entitled to offer insurance to temporary workers, by becoming authorised representatives of FCA-

FOR MORE NEWS AND COMMENTS GO ONLINE

RECRUITER.CO.UK WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

authorised insurance companies. One example is Blue Arrow, an authorised representative for TenetConnect.

Industrial and logistics recruiter The Best Connection is an authorised representative for Jobson James Insurance Brokers. Paul Hodgkinson, associate director of Jobson James, told Recruiter that claims made on Today, that accident insurance was unnecessary because temps are already covered by the end client’s insurance, were wrong. Unlike the policy offered to The Best Connection, which pays out irrespective of legal liability, employers’ liability insurance only pays out when the employer is negligent, he said.

However, multi-sector recruiter Acorn Recruitment suggests that there are legitimate business reasons to “offer” — as opposed to “sell” — accident insurance to their temp workers. With headquarters in Newport, Wales, Acorn is not an FCAauthorised representative of accident insurance but “offers” the product to its temporary workers because of two separate incidents in which foreign workers died on assignment in the UK, with the families unable to afford the cost of flying their bodies back home.

Dan Langford, group marketing and communications director, told Recruiter that its temps insurance scheme “was only set up after taking account of Financial Service Authority [now FCA] requirements and paying specific attention to Acorn’s obligations not to provide insurance advice.

Our insurers also paid close attention to the arrangements so that neither they, nor Acorn, could be accused of falling foul of FCA regulations.”

And he defended the scheme that costs temps £2.50 a week telling Recruiter “there is absolutely no hard sell”, as evidenced by only around 10% of Acorn’s temps taking it up. Temps can also opt-out at any time, he added.

COLIN COTTELL colin.cottell@recruiter.co.uk

the 6 January 2014 entry deadline.

A new category for Best Creative/Digital/Media Recruitment Agency has been created this year to recognise one of the most dynamic hiring sectors.

The 2014 Awards also mark the refinement of the two categories for individuals into Agency and In-House Recruitment Leaders of the Year.

“For me, one of the highlights of our Awards preparation is working with an illustrious, outstanding panel of judges with front-line expertise across the many disciplines associated with recruitment,” said Recruiter editor and chair of judges DeeDee Doke.

“And this year promises to be especially exciting at a time of dynamism, innovation and growth.”

The 2014 judges are:

• William Axtell, partner, Charles Russell • Toby Barnes, director, Kindred HR • Dr Fiona Bartels-Ellis OBE, head of equal opportunity & diversity, British Council • Jacqueline Biddle, resourcing & talent specialist • Alastair Blair, recruitment, media & marketing specialist, The Potent Mix • Tim Campbell MBE, head of client services — emerging talent, Alexander Mann Solutions • Tim Cook, chief executive officer, Human Capital Investment Group • Jan Dekker, senior writer, The Writer • Jill Duthie, head of sourcing UK & Europe, RBS Group • Tim Evans, managing director, Boxington Corporate Finance • Ali Gilani, global head of resourcing & strategic workforce planning, ArcelorMittal • Nicola Grimshaw, CEO, Oakleaf Partnership • Guy Hayward, CEO, Goodman Masson • Abbas Jaffer, interim talent, strategic resourcing & diversity adviser • Adrian Kearsey, equity analyst, Hardman Research • Mark Kingston, senior executive, Boxington Corporate Finance • David Leyshon, MD, CBSbutler • Kean Marden, City analyst, Jefferies & Co • Paul Maxin, former global resourcing director, Unilever • Roopesh Panchasra, director — talent acquisition EMEA, Workday • Stephen Pierce, human resources director, Hitachi Europe • Cath Possamai, MD (interim) Capita Managed Services • Katharine Robinson (The Sourceress), internet sourcing & social recruiting specialist, Sourcing Hat • Rob Ryan, recruitment & talent manager, Tesco Nutri Centre, Telecoms, Mobile & Phone Shop • Dorian Webb, interim talent acquisition/recruitment leader & change expert • Sue Weekes, technology specialist contributor to Recruiter • Grant Weinberg, director of international talent acquisition, Gilead Sciences • Lee Yeap, head of resourcing, BSkyB

To enter, visit www.recruiterawards.co.uk

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News Events UKABC Annual Conference 2013: Doing Business in Southeast Asia 23 October, The Grange Hotel, St Pauls, London ukabc.org.uk

LinkedIn Talent Connect London 2013 23-24 October, Hilton London Metropole business.linkedin.com/talentconnect-london-2013

European Executive Search Congress 4-5 November, Grange City Hotel search-consult.com/ London2013

SAVE THE DATE! Recruiter HOT 100 Celebration, hosted by RBS 14 November (evening), 250 Bishopsgate, London Successful firms to receive invites by early November

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

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

“Too many jobs are seen by young people as jobs for failures or foreigners” DAVID GOODHART, DIRECTOR, CROSSPARTY THINKTANK DEMOS

GOODWIN URGES RECRUITERS TO ‘TAKE THE RISK’ ABROAD Following the sale of Antal International’s Polish business at the end of September, Antal International chief executive officer and founder Tony Goodwin has urged other UK recruiters to “take the risk” of expanding abroad.

After 18 years in Poland, Antal International sold its Polish business to Polish-listed company Work Service for £5.35m, with the purchaser also acquiring the right to use the Antal brand in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Goodwin told Recruiter: “I would urge them [UK recruitment entrepreneurs] to go out there [into international markets] and take the risk and the plunge.” Goodwin continued: “London isn’t the centre of the recruitment universe. If you have a good business working in Manchester, Leeds or Liverpool, you don’t need to go to London, you can also go abroad.”

Goodwin predicted “a really good period” for recruiters willing to take advantage of opportunities abroad, with the

Goodwin: Global aspirations are far from over

Russian market particularly strong. Goodwin said he was actively looking at South America and South-East Asia as regions for expansion. “People [abroad] really do appreciate the way we in the UK do business,” he added.

Asked whether Poland was a good market for UK recruiters looking for international expansion, Artur Skiba, president of Antal International in Poland, the company acquired by Work Service from Goodwin’s company, told Recruiter that Poland was “probably one of the best

countries to do recruitment in right now”.

“It is not booming, but it is relatively good,” said Skiba. “A lot of the big name recruiters aren’t here yet, and others have only small operations, so it’s not that competitive compared with the UK and Holland,” he explained.

Fewer HR-related regulations than Southern European countries “makes life easier”, while “the culture of using recruitment agencies is getting stronger every year,” Skiba added.

COLIN COTTELL colin.cottell@recruiter.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 recruiterawards.co.uk

FOR MORE NEWS AND COMMENTS, GO ONLINE

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UK STAFF ‘PRICED INTO WORK’ CLAIM •

THE UK workforce have “priced themselves into work” by accepting lower pay than they might have previously in a tight job market, when weekly wages in real terms are going down and consumer prices are going up, a leading UK economist has said.

Speaking at the launch of the McLean Partnership’s interim management division launch on 1 October, attended

by Recruiter, the economist, who requested anonymity, said: “Austerity hasn’t achieved anything at all.”

While earnings in nominal terms have increased, real wages have steadily declined since 2008 through 2013, Office for National Statistics figures reveal. “What are people actually earning? In 2009, people were earning an average of £500 per week; now they are earning £30 per week less than they were,” he said.

“People have priced themselves into work. They are prepared to work for less than before,” the economist said.

At the same time, the percentage of post-tax income paid toward non-discretionary household spending such as mortgages and utilities continues to go up. For example, from 2003 to 2013, the value of mortgage loans outstanding has gone up while the number of mortgages has flatlined and dropped. In the same period, the average mortgage outstanding increased from £63,558 to £113,073. He said people currently spend 18% of their household income on their mortgages per month, while 14% would be preferable.

Chris Bernard is senior partner at the newly launched McLean Interim Management.

DEEDEE DOKE deedee.doke@recruiter.co.uk

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News

“I don’t think there is anything wrong with catering for a specific group of individuals. It’s a bit like a swimming or a running club” READ ABOUT SUKI SANDHU IN OUR PROFILE (P28)

UK’S CRISIS OF ESTEEM FOR ‘LOWLY’ JOBS THE UK is experiencing “a crisis of •esteem” for low-skilled, trade and

“Career counselling is at about the level of medieval brain surgery. It’s a disaster”

“People are saying my sobriquet is Mr CEE [Central & Eastern Europe]”

ALAIN DE BOTTON AT RANDSTAD FULFILMENT@ WORK EVENT (SEE RECRUITER.CO.UK FOR MORE)

ANTAL INTERNATIONAL BOSS TONY CEE GOODWIN

HR EX-MILITARY CAN LEAD FROM FRONT Ex-military members now holding human resources (HR) roles have much to offer UK plc in leadership qualities and skills in a business climate that is “lacking moral courage”, the founder and managing partner of HR recruiter Oakleaf Partnership has said.

service jobs, stemming from what he called ‘Downton Abbey syndrome’ and a historical shadow over service roles, the director of cross-party think tank Demos has said.

Because of inflated career expectations based on excessive university attendance targets, there was a perception that there were too few jobs to go around.

David Goodhart said at a Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ) seminar on youth unemployment last week: “The idea that jobs aren’t there is absolutely ridiculous.”

Goodhart was discussing ‘Remoralising capitalism: What can be done about youth unemployment?’ at the CCJ event.

Also speaking were Lord Young of Graffham, enterprise adviser to the prime minister, and social entrepreneur Lord Mawson.

One approach to increase the level of pride associated with practical jobs and professions in which there are massive skills shortages such as engineering is to take a nationalistic tone towards new recruits, Goodhart suggested.

“We need a bit more Lord Kitchener, ‘Your country needs you’’,” he said.

Richard Colgan, who spent nine years in the British Army, was speaking at the launch of a newly established Oakleaf community for ex-military members now working in HR. He told guests that HR and UK business generally needed “people who can lead from the front”.

Richard Colgan Experience, skills and traits such as the ability to motivate and lead, a strong work ethic, moral courage, project management skills, and the ability to work under extreme stress lend themselves well to working in HR, Colgan said. However, he added, those necessary qualities were rare and businesses, and subsequently HR functions, were “lacking in moral courage” to confront the dilemmas of the day.

Ex-forces members could change the environment, he said. “You can have a real say in how leaders run the business… We’ve created so much leadership potential,” he added, looking around at the audience, which included well-known HR and resourcing leaders from organisations such as RBS, Lloyds Bank, Virgin Atlantic Airways, “that I hope will come up the ranks and be the leaders of the future. Have enough belief that you are real agents of change.”

Colgan told Recruiter that he wanted to develop the community into a leadership forum which will “deliver thought leadership via debate, talks from both military and business leaders. There are significant numbers of operationally proven leaders of all ranks currently leaving the Forces, and UK plc should be snapping them up”. He also plans to expand the network globally.

DEEDEE DOKE

DEEDEE DOKE deedee.doke@recruiter.co.uk

HILDER RELISHES ROLE AS THALES UK SOURCER HILDER, the newly-appointed UK head of sourcing at Thales Group, has told Recruiter he •isROB relishing the new opportunity of developing the sourcing operation to “really be seen as a

valued function” in the business.

He described his new role as breaking down into three areas. First is “the very sophisticated work to deliver an outcome — meaning a hire, then secondly I get to feed into a number of projects that relate to attraction, then the third piece is the longer-term approach, which is engaging talent communities”.

Hilder told Recruiter the new role is “quite a change for me” having come from agency world, most recently at Penna placing interim managers in transportation and infrastructure.

“Despite the fact that it’s working for a single company… the exposure I will get is far broader,” he commented.

• See p32 for our feature on how agencies and corporate are sourcing recruitment talent.

Rob Hilder

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Contract News ALP: The Association of Labour Providers is strengthening labour supply arrangements with the British Growers Association…

Antal International: The global recruiter has sold its Polish business to local firm Work Service… BiS Henderson: The supply chain and logistics recruiter has acquired counterpart Woodman Scott… CIPD: The HR body has agreed mutual recognition of qualifications with the Australian Human Resources Institute… ConSol Partners: European football governing body UEFA has engaged the recruiter to bring in IT talent… Corporate Resource Services: The US recruitment and consulting firm is to acquire a UK-based tech and staffing firm — but won’t say which one… CVLibrary: Joint founder Lee Biggins has bought the job site outright… Darwin: The IT recruiter has partnered with news site Broadband TV News… JobsTheWord: The North-West Fund for Venture Capital has awarded the ‘virtual headhunter’ £525k…

Matchtech: Niche tech recruiter Provanis has been acquired by the recruitment group… NHS Professionals: The public workforce services company is to manage temp staffing at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS… Odgers: Australian exec search Braithwaite Steiner Pretty has been merged into the global search group… Penna: The HR firm has launched an outsourcing partnership with India’s Husys… TrueBlue: The US industrial staffing firm has bought 37-branch recruitment network The Work Connection

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

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10/10/2013 14:52

News

Tech & tools

RECRUITMENT PLATFORM MAKES USE OF GLOBAL DYNAMICS O

ne of the first products to make use of Microsoft’s latest customer relationship management (CRM) technology is being released to the recruitment industry.

Mercury xRM, from technology provider and recruitment firm Crimson, is built on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 platform and has been developed specifically for recruiting. The software aims to offer recruiters one platform for taking and posting a vacancy and sourcing relevant CVs through to assigning candidates to a vacancy for shortlisting. Its latest incarnation will take advantage of new features in the CRM platform, including better collaborative and knowledge-sharing facilities and additional mobile functionality.

Crimson has been a Microsoft Gold Partner for some years, developing across other areas as well as recruitment. Chris Kendrick, recruitment services director at the firm, told Recruiter that the recruitment product first came about after Crimson was dissatisfied with the software available on the market.

“We looked into the market to address the demands we had as a recruitment business … but we couldn’t find anything that was integrated with what we wanted,” he said.

The company then set about developing and integrating it with what it saw as bestof-breed products such as Broadbean and Daxtra. “But we also wanted to evolve these beyond where they finished as stand-alone products. So with Broadbean we wanted to post to multiple sites and allow a recruiter to do it not just on their own behalf but on behalf of other people.”

The Microsoft CRM platform allows developers to customise workflows to suit different business processes and Crimson maximised this capability to build efficiencies into the system and a high level of automation.

“The objective Chris Kendrick

was to take away up to 70% of recruitment admin,” said Kendrick. The product also has some vendor management functionality built in, which Kendrick said might appeal to people that aren’t in the “full-blown RPO space” but may need to work with other agencies in the recruitment process.

Mercury xRM was originally launched to a select number of recruiters two years ago and transitioned to the cloud last year.

It is now being made available to a wider audience. It integrates with Microsoft Office and so can be run from within Outlook, “where recruiters spend much of their day”, said Kendrick.

One of the early users of the product was contractor services provider Professional Representation Network (PRN). Managing partner Jon Summers said it allowed PRN to deliver high levels of service to contractors and recruiters with the minimum of staff. He added: “There are two key areas where we feel this leads the market: the ease of processing a CV into our database and the powerful search ability which quickly produces a refined shortlist of preferred contractors.”

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is not a familiar product name in the recruitment software market but much like Salesforce’s Force.com development platform, it is likely to become more widespread as take-up of the cloud increases. In August, Recruiter reported on Talent Rover, which is built on the Force. com platform. Global CRM platforms such as these make it easier for recruitment firms to scale up their businesses and allow a small company to tap into the development expertise of world-leading software houses.

Kendrick believes one of the key strengths of such platforms is that they are also able to take advantage of the next “big thing” as soon as it comes along. “There are some fantastic recruitment systems out there but some are built in a highly bespoke way and aren’t nimble enough to quickly take advantage of innovations or even changes in legislation,” he said, adding that future developments of Mercury xRM will drive more efficiency in the area of compliance.

Mobile jobs for mobile talent The social recruitment platform Jobandtalent is launching a mobile app for the Apple iPhone after it found that 40% of traffic came from its mobile website.

Originally set up in Spain, the platform launched Juan Urdiales in the UK in 2012 and uses an algorithm that analyses the linguistic patterns in the structure and phrasing of job adverts and CVs to match candidates with jobs. Its corporate users include Accenture, G4S, GE Capital, Direct Line Group, Fujitsu, Nationwide and Morgan Stanley, and it has just begun working with agencies.

Juan Urdiales, who set up the company with fellow Spanish entrepreneur Felipe Navio, told Recruiter that the mobile environment has e become one of its main strategic focuses and it aims to become “a personal headhunter” in a candidate’s pocket. “Some people check their mobile devices more than 95 times a day and we want to be in that space,” he explained. “We see mobile as helping connect to a lot of passive candidates who don’t want to go to the desktop.” Urdiales added that he hoped the app would help to convert passive candidates to active ones.

Urdiales and Navio set up the company after they felt that the proliferation of job boards and recruitment channels meant too many professionals were missing job opportunities, so they wrote the algorithm to match jobs with talent. The platform has 500,000 registered users and revenue comes from job postings and feeds from employers.

The mobile app climbed into the top 15 business apps in the UK Apple app store before its official launch and an Android version is in development. As well as giving users a list of the jobs they are suited to, there is also a social section on the app that connects their account to Facebook and LinkedIn so they can find out if they have a connection at the company or make a referral from their networks. The digest of jobs will initially be sent out weekly but eventually users will be able to sign up for a daily feed. www.jobandtalent.com

www.mercuryxrm.co.uk SUE WEEKES

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News

SPECIAL REPORT

Web comments ‘Huge upskilling’ required for UK military (recruiter.co.uk, 16 September) Since leaving the military 14 years ago as a former Specialist Warrant Officer my skills, knowledge and experience have increased tenfold due to education programmes, business development, financial and commercial aspects, and ensuring that I took myself out of my comfort zone by listening and learning from other core business functions. While in a specialist role in the military, the opportunities to grow knowledge and expand beyond normal military functions was there; what was missing was the opportunity to attend what is primarily officer academic courses of study.

If the intent is to increase skills, from languages and understanding various cultures to business subjects such as risk and programme management, then this up-skilling has to extend to SNCOs [senior noncommissioned officers] and Warrant Officers for the military across the spectrum of functions to really up-skill its entire workforce and not a select few!

Nick Duggan Beer, tears, feet on desk and worse — top interview blunders from Foosle (recruiter.co.uk, 4 October) Interesting article — I interviewed a candidate who picked her nails and then placed each torn off piece in front of her on my desk. I can’t remember whether she took the torn nails away or left them on my desk for me to clear away when she left, as I was so shocked and speechless at the time!

Olivia Ryder See Soundbites, p21, for more interviewing tales

10

RECRUITER

OCTOBER 2013

10_12_Recruit_Digest_Oct13.indd 10

INCENTIVES PLAY ROLE WHEN PICKING PAYROLL PROVIDER

THE RESULTS OF A RECRUITER AND FPS GROUP SURVEY HIGHLIGHT THE BURDEN OF LEGISLATION AND THE USE OF INCENTIVES The impact of recent legislation and the role of incentives were highlighted as recruiters’ and senior managers’ key payroll concerns in a survey carried out by umbrella company administrator FPS Group and Recruiter.

The survey was carried out to discover what recruiters think about payroll service providers and how everchanging regulations are affecting their businesses.

The burden placed on the industry by an increasing level of new legislation was raised as a major issue, with 70% of senior managers and 61% of staff saying it has made their jobs ‘significantly’ or ‘somewhat’ more time consuming.

Payroll service providers’ use of incentives can be controversial, with 38% of recruiters saying they have a negative impact on perceptions of the industry.

Awareness of the schemes is high among recruitment agencies, yet many don’t set a formal policy for staff. Around a quarter of senior managers said they either didn’t know what the company stance was or they didn’t mind how payroll providers incentivise staff. Further, an unusually high number skipped the question, suggesting they have not formulated a specific policy.

Just over half say staff are not allowed to receive incentives.

The risk that recruiters could shape contractors’ decisions to meet their own ends had led FPS to call on staffing companies to establish policies and continue a push for transparency in the sector.

“Recruiters should work to establish policies on payroll provider incentives. We would encourage them to review what’s happening and speak to their service provider,” Matthew Huddleston, managing director at FPS Group told Recruiter.

Senior managers survey: How much influence do ‘candidate facing’ staff within your agency have on what payroll provider your temps choose?

4.7%

■ They control the candidate’s decision

34.1% 61.2%

■ They influence the candidate’s decision ■ The candidate makes their own decision, they are not influenced

Senior managers survey: Please rate the following from highest to lowest priority for your company when deciding on what payroll services providers to put on your PSL 1.7%

■ Product offered

8.5% 21.4% 16.2% 4.3% 5.1% 6.8% 35.9%

■ Level of timesheet rebate ■ Amount of introducer commission/voucher ■ Admin fee for contractor ■ Level of compliance ■ Financial securiy of the provider ■ Number of contractors already using them ■ Other

Senior managers survey: How do you feel financial incentives impact on the recruitment industry as a whole?

■ Positive – referrals business is essential in any industry

18.4% 31.6%

■ No impact – it’s a part of how the industry functions ■ Somewhat negative – it affects the perception of the industry

25.4%

■ Negative – it is unfair, promotes bad practice and paints the industry in a bad light

24.6%

A small number of recruiters admitted that incentives help shape their decision on which payroll service provider to recommend, raising the potential for contractors to be misled.

Asked the importance of incentives in decision making, 7% said they were essential, and a further 16% said they were important

and “strongly influenced” the service provider that was recommended.

Incentives given to recruiters include cash, vouchers, food and drink, and corporate hospitality. The survey found the most popular methods were vouchers, which 57% of recruiters reported receiving, and food and drink during the working day at 53% (39% had

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

10/10/2013 10:26

What does compliance mean?

Written by Julian Ball – Legal Director In our industry it is generally accepted that “compliance” means compliance with laws, particularly tax laws. Of course laws can be interpreted in different ways. This keeps lawyers and tax advisers in a job but can give Legal and Compliance teams in agencies huge headaches. Providers can produce counsel’s opinions that say “this scheme works” - the trouble is these opinions are often procured because HMRC does not agree.

At PayStream we take a low risk approach so our starting point is always “what would HMRC consider to be compliant?” For example HMRC has made it very clear that it will pursue offshore schemes and “pay day by pay day” models so even the most robust counsel’s opinion would not persuade us down those routes. We regularly engage with tax advisers, lawyers and most importantly HMRC to keep up with changes in legislation or HMRC’s approach.

What is the best way to determine a service provider’s compliance?

Agencies have differing approaches: • Send out a questionnaire with a series of compliance related questions – this is a good starting point but the difficulty is how to validate the answers given. Everybody says they are compliant.

• Rely on third party audits – generally these give more comfort than a simple questionnaire provided the auditor has visited the service provider to examine working practices (which would be HMRC’s approach). You should check this point. We are audited annually for general compliance by Professional Passport and six monthly for MSC compliance by BDO. • Carry out a site visit and review working practices yourself.

Why should agencies be concerned about service provider compliance?

Financial risk – there is risk of debt transfer under MSC legislation if agencies work with a service provider who is “involved” with its clients. If the contractors are using offshore schemes HMRC can use host employer regulations to pursue UK hirers for unpaid tax. In addition, as announced in the budget, there is currently a consultation in respect of new legislation to formalise the automatic transfer of liabilities to third parties which would include recruitment companies and their clients where offshore schemes are used.

Reputational risk – agencies spend time and money on building their brand so being associated with a non-compliant provider makes little sense particularly since clients are becoming more and more interested in a compliant supply chain. The public sector and the banks now look for assurance that contractors are paying the right amount of tax.

Culture – if you are trying to embed a culture of doing the right thing for contractors it makes sense to look at the culture and values of your suppliers.

Value – if you are looking for an exit you will need to demonstrate to a purchaser that your earnings are sustainable. For example if you work with a partner using a “pay day by pay day” model a purchaser will undoubtedly look to discount your earnings on the basis that HMRC will challenge the model. Similarly the multiple attached to business profitability is easily discounted if noncompliance is identified.

Personal responsibility – the directors of companies are responsible for determining the risks the business is willing to take. If trying to build risk resilience into a business it would be hard to explain the use of offshore schemes in the current market.

“We get external auditors (BDO and Professional Passport) to vet our processes and to audit the audits. We get a certificate of compliance from both parties.”

Obviously if you can manage all three approaches it gives you the best chance of assessing a provider. For agencies with large PSLs this can be extremely time-consuming. The solution – reduce the size of your PSL.

Ensuring compliance internally At PayStream we have a compliance team of 6 people who understand exactly how the business should operate. The key is to ensure that the rest of the business has the same understanding. To that end we have: • process mapped our key processes • scripted key conversations • automated key communications. Our in house IT development team allows us to do this • held regular training sessions for staff • acquired call recording software which allows calls to be recorded and assessed.

This allows the internal compliance team to monitor and assess the rest of the business against our compliance templates. This happens on a monthly basis and the sales team commissions are contingent on passing these compliance audits which is a powerful motivator.

Very importantly we get external auditors (BDO and Professional Passport) to vet our processes and to audit the audits. We get a certificate of compliance from both parties and their comments are fed back to the business by the compliance team.

By focussing, from a compliance perspective, on our interaction with contractors and agencies we identified areas where we can improve our customer service and again part of the compliance team’s job is to feed this back to the business.

Conclusion We believe that our stance on compliance puts us in a strong position to grow our business. Clients, now more than ever before, are keen to ensure a compliant supply chain. This means that agencies are looking more closely at what service providers actually do and are gravitating to those that can demonstrate that they are operating compliantly.

Call 0800 197 6516 e: info@paystream.co.uk or visit www.paystream.co.uk

REC.10.13.011.indd 11

07/10/2013 14:52

SPECIAL REPORT

12

RECRUITER

OCTOBER 2013

10_12_Recruit_Digest_Oct13.indd 12

Candidates survey: How has changing legislation had an impact on your job?

1.8%

■ It has made it significantly harder and more time consuming

9.9%

■ It has made it somewhat harder and more time consuming ■ It has had no impact on my role

34.8%

■ It has made it somewhat easier and less time consuming ■ It has made it significantly easier and less time consuming

50.5%

■ Not applicable to my role as I work back office

Candidates survey: How are your temps/contractors/locums currently being payrolled?

73.3%

%

36

of students surveyed by Universum thought that live webinars with hiring companies worked better as an engagement channel for students than social media channels, at 28%

TOP

received food and drink after work).

Huddleston believes transparency is crucial to the industry’s success both in dealing with incentives and ensuring public perception is positive. While the industry has a good understanding of the role of payroll service providers, the government has targeted the sector, carrying with it a risk that this reflects badly on the industry. In May, Treasury minister Danny Alexander announced a government plan to ensure income tax and National Insurance Contribution charges were levied on offshore intermediaries.

Huddleston says he supports the government’s attempts to legislate on tax avoidance and other matters, as long as it is properly targeted.

“The legislation changes are causing difficulties for people’s workloads. We support the legislation, but sometimes it tries to target a sub sector [of recruitment], but ends up catching everyone,” he says, citing the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR), which aims to help low-paid workers, but increased the administrative burden around well-paid contractors.

Legislation that agencies must regularly deal with includes the Gangmasters [Licensing] Act 2004 and pension auto-enrolment. But by far the biggest impact on recruiters’ choice of payroll service provider is levied by Intermediaries Legislation IR35, designed to counter disguised employment, and AWR, according to survey respondents. “I think there has been an acceleration in the pace of change in the 20 years that FPS has been in business.

The industry copes very well,” says Huddleston.

However, in the case of the AWR, there’s little case law and the regulation remains largely untested. “We haven’t seen a lot of cases come forward and it’s hard to predict which way that’s going,” says Huddleston, adding the umbrella route is fairly risk averse.

Huddleston also noted the level of recruiters using offshore trusts to payroll

5

MOST VIEWED JOBS ON OUR WEBSITE

1. MLR Recruitment,

64.8%

German-speaking senior recruitment consultant

53.1%

2. Newcross Healthcare Solutions, In-house recruiter

9.2% 2.2% Agency payroll

Umbrella

Own limited Sole trader/ company/Personal CSI Sole service company trader

3. GNB Partnership, Recruitment consultant

Offshore trust

4. DMA, Recruitment consultant, Leamington Spa

Candidates survey: What incentives have any staff within your agency received from payroll providers?

57.1%

5. Sharna Associates,

53.3%

Senior recruitment consultant

39.1% 28.3%

12%

14.7%

Cash direct to Cash to a their bank pre-paid account debit card

TOP

News

5

MOST VIEWED ARTICLES ONLINE

1. Recruitment agencies Vouchers

workers, which, even at 2%, appears high given the level of negative media attention.

The level of new regulation and compliance obligations has led to a high number of agencies using preferred supplier lists (PSL) to select payroll service providers, with just over half of senior managers saying their firm has a PSL for payroll providers.

Compliance was highlighted as senior managers’ highest priority when choosing suppliers to work with, at 36%, followed by the product offered

Food/drink during the working day

Food/drink after work

Corporate hospitality

at 21% and the financial security at 16%.

Huddleston says the level of legislative change and the importance of compliance is the key driver behind recruiters’ decisions to use PSLs. However, he added that it’s important to balance contractor choice: “What’s really interesting, it comes back to contractor choice again.

They want the contractor to decide, but agencies should operate a PSL.”

accused of insurance ‘rip-off’ on BBC Radio 4’s Today

2. Nine former

employees of A4e on fraud-related charges

3. Old Bailey £1m fake

Harrods jobs ‘scam’ case to last six weeks

4. AMS tops list of UK’s largest sourcing functions

5. Impellam director

defends Blue Arrow’s accident insurance

CHRISTOPHER GOODFELLOW

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

10/10/2013 10:26

News Digest

On tumblr this month Gap Personnel bosses raise £10k over Three Peaks

Have you seen Recruiter’s tumblr feed yet? Here we highlight the lighter side of recruitment, which this month includes:

The directors of industrial labour provider Gap Personnel have tackled the Three Peaks Challenge in 24 hours, raising £10k for The Brook Hill Foundation, a charity for the rehabilitation of children suffering severe head injuries.

Barker Ross managers fall to earth for charity While Gap directors were all about scaling the heights for charity, recruitment group Barker Ross decided to fall from a height of over 4,000m, with managers at the firm jumping out of a plane. They raised £1k for Children with Cancer, as part of a drive to raise £25k for cancer to celebrate the firm’s 25th anniversary this year.

Driving Ms Collins Driving recruiter Transline Group had a special guest in their mobile driving simulator, used for training candidates: none other than Michelle Collins, better known as landlady Stella Price in ITV’s Coronation Street.

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• Other firms having fun, including raising money for charity and sending in the evidence to Recruiter this month include ID Medical, Human Capital Investment Group and Wise Employment.

Go to recruitermagazine.tumblr.com for more, and send us pictures from your charity fundraisers, office days out and whatever takes your fancy to recruiter.editorial@redactive.co.uk

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13_Recruiter_Tumbler_news_OCT13.indd Sec3:13

RECRUITER

OCTOBER 2013

13

10/10/2013 10:28

Sector Analysis

Engineering

Views from the market

RECRUITERS AND RESOURCERS MUST LOOK FOR INCREASINGLY INGENIOUS SOLUTIONS TO SOLVE THE INDUSTRY TALENT PUZZLE The market for engineering talent has transformed in the last year, says Tim Cowell, director of Manufacturing Recruitment Ltd. While only 12 months ago if an engineer was offered a job, “it was fairly cut and dried they would take it”, he says it is not uncommon for them to have “three, four or even five job offers”. Cowell says that demand for mechanical, electrical and design engineers is particularly strong.

Hilary Wright, executive vice president of business services, including HR, at Cambridge-based international engineering software firm AVEVA, says the challenge is a dual one — to integrate a rapidly ageing workforce with younger talent, and to find people with new skill sets, particularly around cloud-based and gaming technology.

The younger generation expect career development rather than having to go elsewhere for it, she says, and consequently she adds, “rather than relying on external hiring, identifying and developing internal talent will become increasingly important within engineering”.

Chris Marsh, UK director of resourcing at Atkins Global, agrees that engineers are increasingly interested in working for a company with good long-term prospects. “That potentially becomes more of a game changer,” he says.

However, he argues that one consequence of the government increasing, in April 2012, the qualifying period for employees to bring an unfair dismissal claim from one to two years, in an attempt to encourage employers to take on more staff, has been to reduce candidate mobility. “It is quite a risk to leave a company now,” he says.

COMPANIES, PARTICULARLY IN THE OIL & GAS INDUSTRY, ARE BENDING OVER BACKWARDS TO ENCOURAGE SKILLED WORKERS TO TRAVEL

Wright suggests that one good way of encouraging engineers to move is to give them the opportunity to work overseas early in their career. “This is a very positive way of attracting people,” she says.

Richard Ruddock, regional director of technical recruiter Fircroft, concurs that engineers are more willing to travel abroad for work than before.

However, as he point out, “this makes it harder for UK employers” because they are competing with global companies.

Companies, particularly in the oil & gas industry, are bending over backwards to encourage skilled workers to travel. Not only can engineers earn “good money”, work patterns have been made more attractive and living conditions improved, he says.

Henry Noteman, associate director resourcing solutions at engineering recruiter Jonathan Lee Recruitment, says that solving the engineering talent puzzle is no longer “just a recruitment issue” but “a resourcing issue right across HR”. He suggests that a solution must include employers not only providing more opportunities for their engineers internally, but also selling themselves better.

Noteman says that one response to the “insatiable demand” for engineers, particularly in the car industry, has been for employers to widen their search. “There is a move away from the cautious approach of only wanting to recruit someone who has done it before, and employers are more open to taking on candidates with transferable skills,” he says.

Ruddock cites an example in the car industry, where an employer looking to hire specialist noise reduction engineers targeted candidates from the music industry with acoustic engineering experience.

Engineers are famous for great inventions, so it is perhaps fitting that solving the profession’s shortage of talent depends on the ingenuity of recruiters and HR professionals.

Tim Cowell Director, Manufacturing Recruitment Ltd “One or two candidates have even told me they have created spreadsheets, listing the pros and cons of each of their offers to help them decide.”

Rowland Cooper HR director, BAE Systems Maritime – Submarines “The whole industry needs to be promoting engineering and STEM subjects as careers choices because there are good careers to be had, and not only that these are internationally portable skills.”

Henry Noteman Associate director resourcing solutions, Jonathan Lee Recruitment “Relatively small SMEs want to attract skilled professionals from large organisations and are prepared to pay for it.

They are taking engineers away from those large organisations.”

Hilary Wright Executive vice president of business services, including HR, AVEVA “This is a fantastic opportunity to be creative…

I am not pessimistic about it; there are some fantastic people out there.”

COLIN COTTELL colin.cottell@recruiter.co.uk

JOBS POSTED (CV-LIBRARY)

0

14

15,298

16,862

Feb

23,981

26,201 Jan

14,254

10000

3000

21,991

15000 6000

15,581

20000 15,532

12,854

12,985

13,007

12,022

12,232

11,799

25000

12,576

12000

12,509

30000

9000

AVERAGE SALARIES AND YEAR-ON-YEAR CHANGE

CVs REGISTERED (CV-LIBRARY)

15000

5000 Jan

Feb

RECRUITER

Mar

Apr May 2013

OCTOBER 2013

14_Recruit_SectorAnalysis_OCT13.indd 14

Jun

Jul Aug

0 Mar

Apr May 2013

Jun

Jul Aug

All engineering: £36,668 ▲£350 Operations manager: £60,000 ▲£23,200 Project/programme manager: £49,204 ▲£4,765 Marine: £48,977 ▲£8,263 Avionics: £48,917 ▲£2,697 Systems £42,009 ▼£3,912 Structural: £43,002 ▼£2,512

Source: reed.co.uk WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

10/10/2013 08:47

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07/10/2013 14:54

Market Indicators

Global Spotlight on Russia THE RUSSIAN MARKET OFFERS THE WESTERN RECRUITER A NUMBER OF SURPRISES, BOTH INTERESTING AND CHALLENGING Russia conjures up a number of traditional images, from its sheer size to its biting winters.

But as Luc Jones, a partner in Antal Russia, points out, to the Western recruiter’s eye Russia is also full of surprises. “Russians don’t openly sell themselves at interview. They feel it makes them look desperate; they are much more likely to be matter of fact,” he says.

Russia scored 6.1 in Hays Global Skills Index 2013, reflecting an intermediate degree of labour market pressure, with indicators for labour market flexibility and wage pressure indicating that employers seeking high-skill workers must compete for them.

level of their organisation, creating opportunities for career progression lower down. Russian nationals are benefitting from this trend, with foreign nationals now more likely to be parachuted in for “a quick fix and out”. Marina Stepanova, managing director, Midland Hunt, in Moscow, notes an increasing number of “talented local leaders” with international experience, and often with an MBA. For Anatoli Yakimov, recruitment lead talent acquisition Middle East and Europe at SAP, candidate mobility is an issue. Unlike the US, for example, where candidates are prepared to travel for a job, in Russia it’s just not the done thing. He says his greatest challenge is to persuade candidates that taking advantage of the opportunities in Moscow doesn’t preclude them from returning to work in the Russian regions afterwards.

Yet with Russia avoiding the economic recession that afflicted Europe and the US, perhaps there are sufficient opportunities closer to home. Indeed in sectors such as IT, Yakimov says staff turnover is high, and retention remains a problem.

Elena Stelnova, HR director, Jones Lang LaSalle, Russia & CIS, adds that due to the risk of losing employees to competitors, a priority for many companies is to keep its employees motivated.

Irina Spiridonova, employer brand manager at Mars P&O, for Russia and the other countries that made up the old Soviet Union, adds to the general impression that not only do Russian candidates want it all, but they also often get it.

If working for a prestigious company and earning a high salary isn’t enough, they also want a good work-life balance. “Their thinking is they can’t work all the time,” she says. Perhaps the Russian market is not that different to the West after all.

And don’t expect everyone, even in the Russian capital, to speak English. “Moscow is not Dubai or Hong Kong. The business language in Moscow is Russian not English,” he says.

Similarly, a typical Western recruiter who draws negative conclusions from telltale gaps in a Russian candidate’s CV could well miss out on some great talent. “In Russia, it is pretty normal to quit your job because you are bored and take a few months off. If you present a person like that to an HR person abroad they will say ‘what’s wrong with this person? Is he lazy or was he fired?’ ” Multinationals operating in Russia, whose decisionmakers are based abroad, are particularly prone to not recognising that in Russia things don’t operate the same way as in the US, the UK or Germany. Jones explains that the recruitment process moves fast, with the successful candidate usually in post within two months. Consequently, he says it is not uncommon to have an irate Western-based client on the phone complaining: “What do you mean the person has found another job? We only spoke to him on the phone a month ago.”

Nick Rees, director SThree, Moscow, says he has seen a noticeable change in candidate behaviour in the past two years, with candidates moving away from a short-term mindset that focused only “on how much am I going to earn in the first six months” towards a longer-term career minded approach.

Rees says this has been accentuated by big multinationals starting to grow positions at the top

COLIN COTTELL colin.cottell@recruiter.co.uk

HOW MANAGERS ARE FINDING A NEW JOB

RUSSIAN GDP GROWTH

Source: Hays Global Skills Index 2013

60% of respondents say they are interested in an international career 27% of managers and experienced professionals are dissatisfied with their current place of work 10% say they would only move if they received a 50% or higher salary increase 71% of managers recommend their employer to their friends and acquaintances Source: Antal Russia Job Market overview and salary survey 2013-14

Sponsored by

(* projected growth)

Recruitment consultancy/ headhunter Direct employer approach

10

Personal contacts

8

Internal promotion

6

Advertising (online)

4

Professional network

2

Social networks (eg. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook) Advertising (print) Other

0% ■ 2012 ■ 2013

%0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

17_Recruit_OCT13_Global spotlight.indd 17

■ Russia ■ Euro area ■ China

-2 2011

2012

2013*

Source: International Monetary Fund

Source: Antal Russia Job Market overview

Key indicators

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Interaction

SOAP

BOX

Open up the NHS to SMEs

Dr Rajia Bibi, director at medical recruiter dr-locums, comments on the Association of Professional Staffing Companies’ (APSCo’s) SME Public Sector Procurement Working Party SMEs have been unfairly targeted, especially in public sector procurement, for many years and APSCo’s recently-announced consultation into procurement can only benefit them. In the public sector at present, the frameworks seek larger suppliers to deliver through economy of scale, allowing agencies on preferred suppliers lists (PSLs) to grow and capture larger marketshares through ‘guaranteed’ business, further stifling opportunities for SMEs. Last year NHS Professionals, provider of managed flexible workforce services to the NHS, wrote a White Paper describing the Agency Partnership Programme. Entitled ‘A partnership approach: collaborative working with agencies’, the paper backs the theory of having a reduced number of suppliers on PSLs, the approach used by most NHS Trusts.

Interestingly, a recent mini-tender based on the Government Procurement Service’s (GPS’s) original framework only invited agencies/ consortia who had a history of supplying 50,000 hours in the last year to the Trusts signed up to the procurement hub. As a rough estimate, this is a gross profit margin of £500,000 in business if we were to work on an average of £10/hr margin.

Working backwards, the GPS Medical Locum framework RM1570 had a minimum requirement of 50,000 hours to be considered for the framework at Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) stage based on supply history across the whole of the NHS. I feel this is an attempt to exclude most businesses. Why else would the bar be set so high?

I have spoken to various Trusts who have a PSL of around 10-15 agencies. If you look at the supply of doctors through Health Trust Europe (HTE) and London Procurement Partnership (LPP), a significant number of agencies haven’t engaged with the frameworks.

Perhaps they are far too small to be considered a worthy supplier or perhaps there are several frameworks in the market and various Trusts are working through staff agency procurement outsourcing service

RICKY MARTIN

Networking for business owners

Over the past 12 months I have attended and spoken at a number of conferences across the fields of science, careers and recruitment. No matter what the topic, one key theme has linked all of these events: networking. What is the best way to network? What makes a good networker? etc etc.

To be honest it surprises me how frequently I hear these questions and how much of a foreign subject people make networking sound.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “networking involves a group of people who exchange information and contracts for professional or social purposes”. It is certainly nothing new.

In recruitment we love to be process driven; we follow strict service level agreements and aim for ambitious key performance indicators.

But if we just remember the dictionary definition of networking we can all become better networkers. There is no hidden formula on how to be an effective networker; it is more of a case of just be yourself, with people and don’t over complicate it. engage w When it comes to networking the only complicated thing is the variety varie of methods of engagement. For business purposes, networking network has traditionally been the exchange of a handshake and a business card — simple! But with the boom in social and bus professional professio media we have never had more platforms and opportunities to network. opp The best thing I could say to a networking-shy individual is, don’t get bogged down with all the options. Remember, it is simply the coming together

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STAFFflow. But overall the additional factor is most Trusts are going with a small number of agencies.

I expect the medical locum market to become highly volatile in the next six months to a year. Larger agencies will reduce doctors’ pay rates to service their clients at discounted prices, which will likely result in doctors moving to smaller or off-framework agencies to get better deals for themselves. Often the off-framework business is also owned by the agencies on the PSL, so it’s like the right hand robbing from the left.

Often the framework companies work from the same building as the off-framework company, often the same desk and more often than not the same person who gets the jobs from the framework agency. If they can’t get candidates at the agreed framework price they tell the Trust they have a doctor who can work at a higher rate but through a sister company, their off-framework arm.

In the long run this will be detrimental to the public sector. Unless there is to a certain degree a level playing field, the SMEs will have to think outside the box to generate business.

I expect a rise in framework agencies forming these off-framework sister companies to get better prices for the same work that they are unable to fill at the rates they have agreed with their framework arm.

However, as the framework agencies will be on the PSL, they’ll have sufficient a business pipeline to feed their off-framework arm to sustain both businesses. Sadly this business model allows for the commercial viability of the framework arm of the business, as more often than not the agencies go in with unrealistic prices to get on to the PSL with the knowledge that they’ll have access to jobs and manipulate the rules as they go along. Instead of the jobs coming out to the smaller agencies or lower tier agencies, they get filled by sister companies!

I feel the current procurement practice in the NHS is creating public cartels, which will align with the government’s strategy of reducing costs in temporary staffing in the short run. But overall in the long run — as with all cartels irrespective of it being public or private — this will be detrimental to the industry.

OCTOBER 2013

of two (or more) parties. Don’t try and network across every possible online, offline means. Just start with one approach and become more comfortable. Make sure your personal/professional image is consistent across every platform and truly represents your personality. Do remember that as great and accessible as the online world is, don’t let it take over from a handshake and face-to-face engagement.

People don’t network to catch you out. It is a mutually beneficial engagement that can be rooted in tradition, with the exchange of business cards, or in the online world with a connection request.

But networking won’t deliver an immediate result. Those looking for a quick benefit will not become successful networkers; it takes time, application and patience. If you help other people to network and connect with your contacts, you will find out quickly that they will also help to promote your goods or services without you even asking. What goes around comes around in the world of networking.

Happy networking everyone. Don’t over complicate it, just enjoy.

Anybody you have ever met, interviewed or just spoken to down the pub — it’s all networking. And please don’t let the online world take away your personal touch. A smile is worth a thousand words!

If you want to network with me I can be found on most online platforms including Google+, LinkedIn and of course via my twitter, which is @rickymartin247. See you soon #recruitmentexcellence.

RICKY MARTIN is managing director and founder of Hyper Recruitment

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

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Interaction

FEED

SOUND

BACK In praise of informality SORRY, BUT Rob’s thoughts, •while correct, are not terribly

original (Bloggers with Bite, Recruiter, September 2013). I have been running my company for 20+ years recruiting specifically in the agricultural supply trade. In most cases, candidates wear what they would wear when calling on farm or the merchants.

As you would imaging Hugo Boss, Prada or even Topshop would look rather out of place, so it’s about being dressed appropriately for the position they are being interviewed for, not to try and impress.

In the sector there are key measurements of performance and we are looking for candidates that can demonstrate achievements in either tonnage, acreage, liquid volume, retained margins or technical applications.

I agree it is about exploring their existing achievements or un-covering their potential, which is why I will meet candidates in odd places (service stations, Little Chef, McDonald’s or wherever is convenient) and tell them to turn up in work clothes. I would, however, raise an eyebrow if an individual being interviewed for a chief executive position appeared in shorts!

Being casual is fine but more important is overall appearance.

Tattoos and piercings might be the fashion and acceptable in some areas — I am still struggling getting to grips with these items of fashion…

We do hold assessments in work/casual wear — appropriate for the position — and perhaps if they have to be told what is appropriate.

David Woosnam, managing director, Christopher Murray Recruitment

•

ROB, I READ your piece in the Recruiter and couldn’t agree more with your points. An excellent article that highlights the changes we need to adapt to in the current marketplace. It’s about the people, not the clothes.

Chris Anders, director, Albior

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BITES “What’s the best question a candidate has ever asked you at an interview?”

Jason Guy Managing director, first4staff

I was interviewing a senior consultant for a new office I was opening.

The interview was going extremely well. I had a good feeling about the candidate, which always helps, and she was minutes away from being offered the position. After half an hour of intensive questioning — and text-book answering — I gave the prospective consultant the opportunity to ask me anything. My mind was made up after she uttered the following: ‘How much notice do I have to give if I wish to leave?’ No further questioning necessary.

Clive Hutchings International business director, STR Group

It’s a question I don’t hear often enough from candidates and should be used with the right approach: ‘If successful, when can I start?’. As an interviewer, not only do you want the candidate to appear keen and enthusiastic, you also want some verbal commitment. Over the years very few candidates have asked for the job, and of those that have asked the golden question, most have received an opportunity to work for us. Asked correctly, this question suggests a confident, dedicated and enthusiastic individual.

Derek Kelly Managing director, Parasol

Applicants for roles at Parasol occasionally ask incisive and searching questions about the direction and strategy of the company. This always impresses me as it demonstrates a certain degree of ambition and long-term thinking.

Probably the best and most memorable question I have been asked, however, is ‘can I really bring my dog to work every Friday?’ The candidate asked me this in amazement and delight after I told them about our bring-your-dog-to-work scheme!

Dean Marks HR director of E&P [exploration and production], Centrica Energy

We ask people to become part of our exciting story so, not surprisingly, they want to know what that is. With major growth plans across our exploration and production business, our approach of high performance, safety and pioneering spirit generates some interesting dialogue. ‘What role could I play in Centrica Energy’s ambitious growth plans?’ is probably the best question I’ve been asked. Not only does it show a good understanding of where our business is heading, but it demonstrates the kind of ‘can do’ attitude we look for in our people.

Shaun Witts Technical director, SOLOS Consultants

I was once asked by a candidate: ‘If I had three offers on the table, why should I join SOLOS?’ What a thoughtful question. In recruitment it’s not always about the qualifications, education or skills even — it’s about the fit. I was able to explain why working for an independent family concern can offer a consultant more flexibility and opportunity in many cases. Help and guidance on a personal level to achieve personal goals can often be better achieved in a smaller environment where communication channels are not so rigid.

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

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Recruitment Matters Issue 19 October 2013

Trade Association of the Year

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

PA

Public sector crises, Party Conference time and the Good Recruitment Campaign

Michael Gove’s education policies have raised some questions

Speak up at the REC’s Education panel At the Conservative Party Conference this month, education secretary Michael Gove called this generation’s teachers the best ever.

However true Gove’s words, they do not take into account the issue at the heart of this month’s Recruitment Matters: the growing shortage of teachers in parts of England.

In September, the first meeting of the REC Audited Education panel took place to discuss this very issue with key stakeholders, as well as the safe recruitment agenda and the new REC Audited Education process.

Chaired by Professor John Howson from the University of Oxford, members of the panel include representatives of the Association of School and College Leaders; Voice: the union for education professionals; education body SSAT (The Schools Network); the British Council; the Independent Academies Association Assured Services; and the Department of Education.

Recruiters have a huge part to play in helping schools – and of course, pupils – deal with problems such as the growing teacher shortage. Schools are increasingly turning to specialist education recruitment agencies to help them meet critical shortages of staff in subject areas such as English and physical education, in addition to those subjects where there have been long-term problems in recruiting teachers, such as biology and physics.

With 2012 seeing the highest number of births recorded in 40 years and over 700,000 extra children predicted to enter primary level education in the maintained sector in the next five years, this sustained pressure in the system is set to continue.

Turn to pages 4-5 to read more about how this problem has arisen or email chris.wilford@rec.uk.com to sign up to the next REC Education Sector Group Meeting.

Where 4-5 have all the teachers gone?

How new policies have left too many teaching vacancies unfilled – and what can the recruitment industry do to help

Update and Business Matters 6Legal The legal low-down on public sector procurement and how the REC Legal Partners can help you

Institute of Recruitment 7 Professionals The new IRP Awards shortlist is up! Plus invaluable tips from Marios Georgiou, founder of teaching agency Step Teachers

best events 8 The and training Get your info online with the RecTechHub, or try out the REC’s Recruitment Business Academy and consultants

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Leading the Industry

the intelligence Our members have long reported that they are seeing increasing numbers of doctors and nurses, as well as other categories of staff, choosing to leave NHS and local authority social care services to work in a flexible capacity or leaving England to work overseas.

Figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre issued in 2013 illustrated that the number of district nurses fell by 39% between 2002 and 2012, while modelling work from the Centre for Workforce Intelligence predicts that there could be a shortage of 190,000 registered nurses by 2016.

With the current workforce models in place, sustainable and safe nurse staffing levels are fast becoming unobtainable.

The Royal College of Nursing’s 2012 UK nursing labour market review, ‘Overstretched. Underresourced’, highlights an overall staffing decline in the NHS. In the review, it is clear that a relentless focus on cost has contributed to reductions in the numbers of commissioned training and education places, to reductions in staff numbers, pay freezes and reduced training budgets for the nursing workforce.

Whilst the lack of data is a big issue in seeking to understand trends in the workforce, the review indicates that shift demand for agency and temporary staff has been increasing steadily in England.

The REC/KPMG ‘Report on Jobs’ shows that the Nursing/Medical/ Care sector has consistently been one of the top performing

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sectors. In the September 2013 edition, this sector was the second strongest performer in terms of temporary employees, having been the strongest the previous month. The respective index posted 67.9 (scores over 50 indicate growth on the previous month) for the August 2013 period, having stood at 68.3 for the July 2013 period.

The RCN’s 2012 nursing labour market review also provides a stark warning that in the international competition for clinical talent, England and the UK as a whole is falling behind: “In the international context, the UK has moved from a situation of net inflow of nurses to a position of net outflow in recent years, meaning that more nurses are moving abroad than are coming to the UK to practice. The main destinations are Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.” The REC will continue to monitor the situation with interest. For more information on the REC’s work in the healthcare sector, contact Chris Wilford chris.wilford@rec.uk.com Nursing, Medical, Care 80

70

60

50

40

■ Perm ■ Temp

30 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 (year)

Turnover and profit growth 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45

%

The health and social care workforce in England is currently in crisis, says Chris Wilford, senior policy advisor at the REC

Fig 1: Annual growth in median recruiter revenue net disposable revenue (NDR)

■ Median revenue growth ■ NDR growth Apr Aug Dec Apr Aug Dec Apr Aug Dec Apr Aug Dec Apr Jun 9 10 11 12 13

Fig 2: RIB member median revenue growth and UK vacancy growth 20 ■ RIB median revenue ■ ONS vacancies 15

10

%

Rise in public sector skills gaps

5

0

-5

-10 Jan Apr Aug Jan Apr Aug Jan Apr Aug Jan Apr Aug 10 11 12 13

Cautiously optimistic Temporary billing continues to be the fastest growing of the three recruiter revenue streams. Figure 1 shows that both median annualised revenue and median annualised net disposable revenue (NDR) are now growing in high single digits, 6.2% and 6.4% respectively, well ahead of inflation, so this represents real growth – twice the increase in Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation of 3.1%. In fact, this is the highest level of NDR growth in two years. And with the exception of February this year, temporary revenue growth is the highest we have seen since November 2011.

Unfortunately permanent billings, after its remarkable turnaround earlier this year, fell back significantly this year to only low single digits. We will keep a close eye on this.

I would also caution that growth in vacancies in the UK labour market has now fallen back for two consecutive months, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), shown in Figure 2.

• 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 07/10/2013 16:23

Leading the Industry

Party time Tom Hadley, the REC’s director of policy and professional services, gives us the scoop on the Party Conference chatter.

The party’s over – all three of them. The REC’s policy crew was in the thick of it – in the congress halls and hotels bars of Brighton, Glasgow and Manchester – so it’s time to take stock of what the various policy proposals, pronouncements and pontifications might mean for our industry.

• Public sector reform is high on the agenda and we need to keep pushing the resourcing angle All three conferences included specific debates on childcare, education policy and the future of healthcare. Our message is that sourcing and placing suitably skilled staff will always be a top priority.

• Despite the zero hour ‘wall of sound’, the value of flexible work was generally recognised Our fringe events at all three events underlined the need for government policy to reflect the changing world of work and the positive role of agency work.

• The ‘good regulation’ agenda supports our calls for effective enforcement The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives underlined a commitment to cutting red tape while ensuring that the regulations that remain are effective and proportionate. Our line was that ‘good regulation’ must involve effective enforcement in order to ensure that compliant businesses are not undercut.

• Boosting skills is key for all parties. The question is how?

Recruiters are helping UK businesses to access the talent they need, but the lack of skilled workers is a real barrier to growth. We look forward to the findings of our Youth Employment Taskforce – particularly on careers guidance.

• There is broad consensus on the need for tax policy to deliver a level playing field This is a major issue for recruiters, particularly in relation to travel and subsistence schemes, and VAT models in the NHS. These are now firmly on the government’s radar and we will continue to push for more effective HMRC enforcement.

Having a strong industry presence at the party conferences is a core part of our work. This year’s events were especially crucial with manifesto commitments starting to take shape. We will build on our various discussions with ministers and shadow ministers over the coming months and ensure that the voice of the UK recruitment industry resonates loud and clear.

The View It’s been another month in which jobs have been centre stage in the press. Not only has there been the ongoing debate about zero-hour contracts, but the Labour Party is pushing a British jobs agenda, and the trade unions are seeking to reopen the debate on AWR. The media have made extensive use of the REC during this period and we have done a good job at defending the UK’s flexible labour market. It has also enabled us to position the recruitment industry as a force for good and the REC as a voice on all things employment.

While we continue to influence policy makers both inside and outside government, we decided some time ago that this year we also needed to raise our voice and enhance the industry’s reputation within the business community and with your clients. The REC and an alliance of other business bodies including the CIPD, CBI and FSB will be launching our Good Recruitment Campaign.

The campaign includes an aspirational charter, detailed guidance on what good resourcing looks like and a new updated client kit for members to use in conversation with their clients.

The focus of the campaign is very much to promote good practice and to help REC members educate their clients about how they should be working with their recruitment partners.

The timing of the launch is important.

We wanted to wait until the economy and the jobs market were strengthening and we are pleased that is now the case. Now is the right time to put resourcing right at the top of the corporate agenda. We hope it sends a clear message to your clients about the true value of working with professional recruitment organisations.

• You can follow Kevin on Twitter

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

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www.twitter.com/@kevingreenrec

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The Big Talking Point

Where have all the teachers gone?

Funding issues and changing industry perspectives have left too many gaps in schools and on teacher training courses.

Francesca Steele asks what can recruiters do?

E

veryone remembers their favourite teacher. For Darryl Mydat, managing director of The London Teaching Pool (TLTP), it was Mrs Waddie at Stanburn School in Stanmore. “It’s been 40 years but I still I remember her. A little Scottish lady, with very strong classroom management!

But kind and caring too.”

Placing the right teachers in the right jobs has never been more important, with funding being cut to old training courses.

But as this lack of funding continues (along with, recruiters say, a lack of understanding of what is needed in the sector) placing anyone at all in certain roles may become the problem.

Britain is facing a serious shortage of teachers, particularly in the subjects of maths and science, experts say. According to specialist recruiter Randstad Education

there will be a shortfall of 128,000 teachers by 2050 due to skills shortages, an ageing workforce and restrictive migration policy.

In fact, some research suggests the shortfall is already here. Research by Professor John Howson of Oxford University and DataforEducation.info, which specialises in analysing recruitment trends, has revealed that up to 30% of maths places on PGCE teacher training courses due to start this September remained unfilled, leaving schools 700 recruits short this year. There is a similar problem with physics, where courses have attracted 386 fewer recruits than in 2012, while other key subject areas such as modern foreign languages and English are in a similar position. More than 100,000 secondary school pupils may even be taught maths and science by teachers

My favourite teachers at school were W Ashton, who was head of Stamford Hill Juniors and a rarity in the 1950s as he had a physics degree, and Raymond Ryba, who taught me A-level geography and went on to be Dean of Education at Manchester University. Both provided a vision for the future and set high standards.

Professor John Howson of Oxford University 4 Recruitment Matters October 2013

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untrained in the subjects because of a chronic shortage of new recruits.

TLTP says that the widespread problem in the capital, and other cities like Birmingham and Manchester, is down to the growing burden of red tape and bureaucracy in the industry, and the deteriorating behaviour in the classroom.

The agency also says that the withdrawal of government funding last summer for ‘Return to Work’ courses (designed as short refresher courses for former teachers who had taken career breaks), the restrictions surrounding UK visa requirements, and the dramatic increase in UK births, have all put the sector on an “inevitable collision course”.

There has also been a steady growth in the number of teachers leaving the profession altogether.

“People are very disillusioned, with everchanging policies, with bad behaviour in schools and so on,” says Mydat. “We’ve lost respect for the profession. There seems to be no real follow through with policies. So for example, education minister Michael Gove made it easier for foreign teachers to work here but then home secretary Theresa May made it harder for them to get visas – it makes no sense.”

Professor Howson explains that the

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Short-term teaching experts in short supply Stewart McCoy, Randstad Education and new chair of the REC Education sector group, explains the important role played by supply teachers “Reports often come out about supply teachers not being good enough and I couldn’t disagree more. We have to change this perception. Recruiters can play a big part in this by reassuring schools and making sure they match up the person to the job. Sometimes the person who is best on paper is not the best in person for the particular classroom or school you are matching him or her to. We recruit a lot of newly qualified teachers, who we haven’t been able to find the right post for yet. So they work on a supply basis for a period of time, which helps them broaden their experience and see more schools. This is actually really important because new teachers shouldn’t just take the first position that is offered to them. It can take time to get to the right placement, but when people find it they want to stay, which of course benefits the school. The old days of supply teaching, when people would just send in anyone they could think of are over.”

Image Source

Teaching can involve long hours but if you can make a difference even to one child then it’s totally worth it.

government became too reliant on a previous surplus that no longer exists: “The government got complacent after the recession. Secondary school rolls were falling so we didn’t need so many teachers; we were coming to the end of the high spot of teacher retirements and we had all those people who wanted to come into teaching because there weren’t any others jobs available. The danger, though, was that this wasn’t going to go on.”

Last July, Gove announced a huge expansion of School Direct, the government’s main vehicle for funding teacher training through schools, with a subsequent cut in the number of places funded through universities – in other words the PGCE. The impact on certain subjects was

Darryl Mydat, managing director of TLTP drastic: the number of university courses funded to train secondary English teachers, for example, was halved. But School Direct has not had the take-up that was expected, say experts.

So what can recruiters do? For one thing, as supply teaching expert, Stewart McCoy, explains below, teachers who have been out of the game for a while can get back in and ‘upskill’, sometimes by doing supply teaching for a while.

Professor Howson argues that it is very difficult at this stage in the economic cycle to fix the problem, but that we must all make some noise about the problem so that the government “starts to acknowledge what a serious problem it is, especially as classroom sizes rise”.

Recruiters, as the broker between schools and the teachers themselves

My favourite teacher has to be Mr Gates.

He taught physics and he was a little bit bonkers. I’ve always felt inspired by him to find out how and why things act in the way they do. I still use those questions every day in my job but it’s more likely to be about people rather than mass and states of matter.

Stewart McCoy, Randstad Education

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however, do still have an extremely important role to play, adds Mydat.

“Recruiters have to make best use of the people who apply and the people who are here. Matching up the right people to the classroom is as important as knowing the facts themselves.”

Teaching Facts • The PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) was previously the usual route into teaching. However, funding has been cut drastically in the last two years. For example, The University of Sheffield had its trainee places reduced by 71%.

• The government now favours School Direct, the school-based training for those wanting to work at local authority funded schools in England.

• For academies, independent schools and free schools no teaching qualification is required.

• Experts are concerned too that the potentially higher salaries at academies, independent schools and free schools could attract the best candidates, drawing them away from the rest of the state system.

Recruitment Matters October 2013 5

07/10/2013 16:43

Legal Update

The public sector: the legal low-down Public sector procurement can be challenging. Here’s what you need to know, by Bunmi Adefuye, solicitor in the REC legal team Public sector organisations procure a variety of goods and services, including the supply of staff. In order to demonstrate that taxpayers’ money is spent sensibly and that there is value for money, most government tenders are awarded following a formal tendering process. Where contracts meet the required threshold, the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 (‘the Regulations’) will apply. Under the Regulations the procurement process must be conducted in a fair, transparent and nondiscriminatory manner. There are a number of advantages in winning government contracts, especially in these economic times. However, the process can be a real challenge for the following reasons: • tendering requires a substantial investment in time, finances and resources but there is no guarantee of a successful outcome; • there are legal complexities which might require specific legal advice; • the date when the OJEU (Official Journal of the European Union) is published to the actual contract award could be very long, especially if there are legal challenges; • the deadlines for tender submissions are fixed; • sometimes the financial turnover requirements in the prequalification questionnaire are not achievable for SMEs and it is difficult for SMEs to compete with larger businesses; • the lack of awareness of tendering opportunities; • having to go through the process again when the framework agreement comes to an end.

That said, winning a tender and supplying to public sector clients can be lucrative, so if you are unsuccessful you should consider alternative routes to supply, such as subcontracting via

another supplier provided the terms proposed are commercially viable and your margins are workable. In addition you could join a collaborative consortium with other suppliers and make a joint bid for the contract.

Generally when responding to tenders it is advisable to: • choose your bids carefully and ensure that you have the required experience and can supply under that contract; • read and consider the instructions carefully and seek professional advice where necessary; • keep your responses clear, precise and relevant; • be honest and ensure that you can substantiate your responses, • consider your financials carefully to avoid abnormally low bids and do take into account future legislation that will affect your charge rate for supplying staff during the term of the contract.

To assist suppliers the government is now taking steps to ensure that SMEs are not unfairly excluded from procurement processes because of bureaucracy and laborious requirements. The Cabinet Office now has a mystery shopper scheme so suppliers can inform the government of issues, particularly where attempts at resolving disputes with the relevant authority have failed.

Despite the challenges, if at first you don’t succeed you should not give up. Winning government contracts or being part of the supply chain can be advantageous, particularly now that temporary staffing spend by the public sector has increased in some sectors.

• Please note that this is not a substitute for legal advice and readers should obtain their own specific legal advice on procurement

Business development This year the REC launched a new Legal Partners scheme to enhance the legal services on offer to REC members.

In addition to the existing free legal services, new paid-for services including employment tribunal support, document review and tender support, as well as other commercial, corporate, property and litigation services, are now be available through the REC Legal Partners.

Specialist debt recovery law firm, Francis Wilks & Jones LLP, is one of the firms involved. Proper legal advice has never been more important both in terms of economic climate and in an industry like recruitment, says Andy Wilks, one of the founding partners at the firm.

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“One of the things we do a lot of is factoring, which essentially involves debt recovery, as well as getting involved in drafting terms and conditions of trade between the recruiter and its end customers, and working with clients where former employees have breached their covenants by taking commercially sensitive data with them and so on. These things have always happened, of course, but it’s more important than ever to make sure you are on the ball during the economic recovery.”

• Visit http://www.franciswilksandjones.co.uk for more. For details on the services provided by the Legal Partners, see the REC’s Legal Partner webpage at www.rec.uk.com/legalpartners or contact the REC on 020 7009 2100.

www.rec.uk.com 07/10/2013 16:25

Inspiration

Behind the scenes at the Institute of Recruitment Professionals

The IRP Awards 2013 shortlist is announced Every year, the REC’s Institute of Recruitment Professionals (IRP) Awards recognise and honour the achievements of both individual recruiters and recruitment businesses.

The awards are there to raise the profile of recruiters and to acknowledge the positive role models whose exceptional works, and candidate and client care sets the bar for all recruitment professional and business to aspire to.

Last year saw some pretty incredible candidates, not just in the winners list, but in the overall shortlist too. Over the past year, Recruitment Matters has chatted to the winners to see just what it is that they do to achieve so much. And the shortlist for the 2013 Awards is announced here http://www.rec-awards.com/.

The 16 category winners, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award and highly coveted Recruiter of the Year Award, will be announced at a ceremony hosted by top journalist and presenter Jeremy Vine on 3 December at the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square.

“Putting together this year’s shortlist was hard work as we had some many fantastic entries to choose from,” admits the REC director of member services Anita Holbrow.

“The high calibre and professionalism of all the entrants will give the judges a truly challenging task of choosing this year’s winners. All the shortlisted companies and individuals demonstrate the excellence, ethics and best practice which are the embodiment of everything that the REC and IRP stand for.

“We look forward to celebrating their achievements at the awards ceremony in December and I wish all of our shortlist the best of luck.”

• For more information on the 2013 IRP Awards and to book tickets for the awards ceremony, please go to the IRP Awards website http://www.rec-awards.com/ and follow the IRP Awards twitter account @IRPawards.

Things I Know Marios Georgiou, founder of Step Teachers A CV isn’t always the best indicator of talent On paper people might have all the right qualifications but you meet them and realise they’re not right at all right for a role.

Nowhere is this more true than in teaching. People have to be able to have a rapport with the students or students just won’t listen. I know the value of a CV in teaching better than anyone, because on paper I was really well qualified to teach. But as soon as I’d done my training I realised it just wasn’t for me and moved into teaching recruitment instead.

It’s important to take risks sometimes I had a conversation at a Christmas party with a colleague about how we thought we could provide a better service for our clients and thought nothing more would come of it. The next day he came to me and reminded me that we’d decided to set up our own business the night before. I went downstairs, by chance saw an offer from First Direct for an unsecured loan (back when they still offered that sort of thing to anyone!) and, still in my dressing gown, organised a loan and we set up our own business. Today I have 25 staff and two branches.

Clients love to talk So do I, so that’s good! One of the reasons I love my job is because I like to chat. In the past, most of the people in schools who spoke to recruiters were deputy heads and people who didn’t have much time, but today it’s more often secretaries and people in admin, and they are usually keen to chat. It’s really important to develop a good relationship.

Trying different things is a good thing I used to work as an estate agent and I found there were transferrable skills. Essentially you introduce two people to each other (or one person and a house/school) and see if they match.

You have to understand what people want.

Family is important My friend and I lived with my parents for a year when we first set up the business, working out of a shed in the garden (in our suits, mind) and eating with my mum and dad. I think because of that I’ve always tried to keep a supportive, family vibe going throughout the company.

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

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Recruitment Matters October 2013 7

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Events and training

Introducing the RecTecHub RecTecHub – the one-stop shop for social media It’s so hard to keep up with all the technological advancements that can make business easier. Even though everyone’s aware it would help to know more about certain technologies, it can be hard to decide where to start.

It’s precisely for this reason that the REC has launched the RecTecHub, a one-stop shop for recruiters, providing a range of expert information, advice and guidance on using technology to boost business.

The REC has recruited independent experts to share their insights on the technology, applications and software that can make recruiters’ lives easier and their business more effective.

The experts who will be providing support via the website are Lisa Jones, director at Barclay Jones; Matt Alder, founder of Metashift; and Johnny Campbell, CEO of Social Talent.

“We know recruiters don’t have time to scour websites, trade shows and magazines to figure out what’s helpful, what’s hopeless and what’s just hype,” says REC chief executive Kevin Green. “That’s why the RecTecHub has been designed to support

recruiters via regular blogs from Matt Alder, Johnny Campbell and Lisa Jones on the latest developments in recruitment technology.”

One of the bloggers, Lisa Jones, says that there has been a “significant shift” within the recruitment industry in recent years. “We’re Lisa Jones looking forward to delivering help to REC members on how to use recruitment technology and social media to manage and grow their businesses,” she explains.

Recruiters will be able to get involved in the technology discussions through the RecTecHub blog and Facebook page. If you would like a consultant to visit you and provide you with an impartial health check, call the REC on 0207 009 2100 or email info@rec.uk.com

REC brings training to your office Why leave the office when the Recruitment Business Academy can come to you?

Many members have reported to the REC that they find it hard to take time out of the office to keep up with their professional development. The REC’s Recruitment Business Academy has put together a comprehensive programme of in-company training that offers a wealth of benefits for recruiters: 1. Location and time are flexible 2. You can cover a range of topics 3. If you operate in a niche market, we can focus on that area 4. You get a dedicated trainer 5. The trainers are all experienced recruitment professionals – they speak your language 6. Save money – the cost per head is lower, plus savings on travel and expenses 7. Increased retention levels – you are demonstrating your desire to invest in your employees For more information on the Recruitment Business Academy’s In-Company training, go to the REC website www.rec.uk.com/in-company

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

8 Recruitment Matters October 2013

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Refine and improve the way you work with REC consultancy And for an even more personalised touch, our expert consultants can help recruitment businesses to improve the way they work, find new customers, increase sales, reduce costs and improve margins.

These consultants are the best at what they do because they’ve spent their working lives doing it and they have a passion for improving the industry by helping others.

Whether you’re just starting out, looking to grow or are having problems – you need to talk to us. Our business consultants can take your business to the next level or bring it back from the brink. If you want to have a chat and find out what we can do for you give the REC a call on 020 7009 2100.

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 07/10/2013 16:26

When we looked into recruitment software Itris stood out.

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The intuitive front-end and functionality available has freed up valuable time for us to do what we do best.

Recruitment consultancies of all kinds choose Itris Recruitment Software because it adds value to their business. It delivers total functionality and a high level of integration with third party applications, without the need for additional modules or configuration.

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.

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07/10/2013 15:13

Insight

Growth dominates recruiters’ concerns RECRUITERS ARE LOOKING TO NEW MARKETS IN WHICH TO GROW, CLAIMS NEW RESEARCH Raising debt or finance and social media have slid down the scale of worry for recruiters operating in the professional staffing space, as growth and profitability now dominate the attention of most, according to new research by business advisory firm Deloitte and the Association for Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo).

Achieving financial growth was revealed as the top concern over the next 12 months for 70% of recruiters in the professional staffing sector who participated in the Deloitte/APSCo research, ‘The UK Recruitment Index 2013: Measuring Up’.

The issue reflecting the second highest level of concern, at 69%, was maintaining or improving profitability. Close behind at 66% was growing headcount. In fourth place, tied at 21% each, were concerns for investing in back office infrastructure and making full use of social media. Bringing up the rear, a comparatively paltry 7% identified raising debt or finance as a major challenge over the next 12 months.

“The reality is, they’re all looking for much, much more growth,” APSCo chief executive officer Ann Swain told Recruiter. “It’s all about growth, and it’s all about growth in niche markets. Being a niche recruiter in the professional space is where it’s at.”

Over 100 recruiters responded to the survey, representing about a quarter of APSCo members. The purpose of the survey was to produce an index of certain key financial and operational performance metrics, providing a benchmark for professional companies.

The importance of operating internationally comes into clear focus in the survey results, with only 37% of respondents generating fee income from just the UK. Of the 63% generating overseas fee income, 57% reported that they generate that income from a UK base. Another 43% have physical overseas offices.

The latter group is performing especially well abroad, Swain pointed out to Recruiter. “When they open an office overseas, they can generate five times more income,” she said.

The 57% figure likely reflects the cautious approach of many recruiters of dipping one’s toe into a geographic market from the safety of the established UK operation rather than instead immediately jumping in with two feet and an office. Swain acknowledged: “I think there’s a reality that people will create a bit of market for themselves in a country further afield before they spend their money to go there

— unless they’re following an individual customer and they go straight away. So it makes sense that there’s less income generated when you’re doing it from the UK. “However,” she added, “we had no idea that the figure being created would go so much high once you have an office; we thought it would be bigger, but not five times bigger.”

Obviously, the potential for growth overseas is significant but Swain emphasises that such moves abroad must be done with proper due diligence. “They need to do it properly. But when you do take the plunge, if you get the right people and you’ve got the infrastructure right, you really can do well from it,” she said.

Nearly half (42%) of the overseas offices operated by survey respondents belong to just 29% of participating companies. On average, participating companies with overseas offices have 11 offices each, survey findings revealed.

A strong majority (61%) expect to open a new office in the next year, however the survey did not pinpoint locations in which respondents planned to open. Of the 37% of participants who stated they do not expect to increase or decrease their number of offices, 97% are UK-only companies.

In other survey findings: • Net fee income (NFI): 72% of respondents reported growth in NFI from the previous year, of which 28% reported growth of over 30%.

NFI shrank for 21% of respondents and remained static for 7%.

• Gross profit margin: Education recruiters saw the highest average gross profit margin in contract recruitment with 24.5%; media & marketing came a close second at 23.2%. Oil & gas was lowest at 12.9%.

• Placement fees by sector: At 23%, executive search earns the highest average permanent placement as a percentage of salary by sector, with accounting & finance second with 19.5%. In this instance, education comes in last at 11.7%.

The survey is intended to become an annual benchmarking exercise, Swain said. In the meantime, discussions are underway to conduct similar surveys for individual recruitment sectors and, potentially, for Hong Kong and Singapore.

“There isn’t this kind of information out there; they want it, they want more of it and more of it soon,” Swain said.

Power Points Gross profit margin and placement fees by sector CONTRACT RECRUITMENT & PLACEMENT FEES BY SECTOR (%)

AVERAGE PERMANENT PLACEMENT FEE AS % OF SALARY BY SECTOR

15.7

14.7

18.1

17.9

19.5

18.2

18.2

11.7

23

17.8

16.5

14.5

23.2

18.2

16.3

16.7

12.9

24.5

14.7

■ IT & technology ■ Education ■ Oil & gas ■ Other professional ■ Accounting & finance ■ Health & life sciences ■ Media & marketing ■ Other technical ■ Generalist ■ Executive search

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

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The Challenge

An Elite approach to long-term growth John O’Sullivan Chairman

WELLS TOBIAS WAS A STEADILY GROWING RECRUITMENT FIRM. THE OWNERS WANTED TO TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL. ELITE RECRUITMENT NETWORK SHOWED THEM HOW

THE CHALLENGE Old school friends Joe Wells and Adam Tobias had gone their separate ways after leaving school — as it transpired, both down the recruitment path. Back in April 2005, their paths joined and Wells Tobias launched in London, specialising predominantly in corporate head office recruitment services for finance, legal and office support roles.

Co-founder Wells told Recruiter that the company had grown organically, as neither of them wanted external capital coming into the business. “We wanted to be masters of our own destinies,” he explained. Over the next seven years, the pair grew the company, despite the additional challenge of a recession, opening a second office first in Reading, then in 2009 relocating it further West along the M4 corridor to Swindon. “[By 2012] we were a successful, well-run agency with a strong client base,” co-founder Tobias said.

“We had gone through a period of

“We wanted to start behaving like a big recruitment firm but we didn’t have the expertise” JOE WELLS

sustained growth” but, even with an outsourced finance director on board, he added “we were having strategic management issues that we hadn’t encountered before in business”.

Wells added that the firm had around 15 consultants, with ambitions of getting to 50-60: “We wanted to start behaving like a big recruitment company but we didn’t have the expertise to be able to make that transition.” They were also looking to explore new markets but didn’t feel they were equipped to integrate them into the existing business. And both wanted to create shareholder value, but at the same time maintain the ethos and culture of the business without giving away equity to acquire those management skills or selling to a large recruitment company.

THE SOLUTION Around this time Wells and Tobias were invited to attend a seminar by a friend, the owner of another recruitment firm, showcasing Elite Recruitment Network’s offering. Elite offers recruitment organisations a suite of services to help them grow and develop, improve their performance and outperform the market, through its network of highly experienced professionals with decades of recruitment expertise between them. Both men liked what they saw, so their friend introduced them to chairman John O’Sullivan.

O’Sullivan told Recruiter that Elite cannot work with every recruiter. “We can’t make a bad

Lessons learned Why should recruiters use Elite Recruitment Network? O’Sullivan said: “I like to make the analogy to F1 cars: often, the difference in lap time from the fastest car to the slowest can be as small as 0.5secs. But that can make the difference between winning — and coming home last” company good,” he explained. “We can take a good company and make it great.” He said he looked for “that inspiration, that motivation” which is in a company’s DNA. “I’m looking for that glint in the owners’ eyes,” he said, adding that he saw that in the eyes of both Wells and Tobias.

Four months after joining Elite, they asked O’Sullivan to become a non-executive director. Elite held a strategy day for Wells Tobias, where a four-year plan and a management structure were decided on. Wells explained that one of the key points was to “redefine our positions and work to our strengths”. Tobias said that before, they just used to be accountable to each other — “and that’s quite a comfy place to be”, interjected Wells — but with O’Sullivan as NED, they had to be accountable to the board. Wells continued that afterwards “it became a lot more scientific how

Adam Tobias and Joe Wells Co-founders

we looked at the numbers. We were able to make informed decisions with real information”.

As well as the monthly Elite Leaders meetings — “where we always come away feeling inspired”, said Tobias — Elite’s team of experts offered guidance on staff compensation, HR, marketing and strategic issues, as well as the opportunity of putting the next level of managers through Elite Future Leaders, a personal development programme for staff. O’Sullivan likened Elite Recruitment Network’s suite of services to that of a health club.

“You can just go to the gym once a week or you can take part in other classes if you need them,” he said.

Since Elite came on board 13 months ago, Wells Tobias has nearly doubled in size (26 staff, with three starting the Future Leaders course), doubled in turnover, opened a satellite office in Oxford and entered three new markets. The London office has recently relocated to larger premises in Bedford Row with capacity for more than 50 staff.

Still, the firm’s namesakes are not getting carried away. “We have to be humble enough to know we make mistakes,” they admitted.

Tobias summed it up by using the Elite mantra: “We succeed or we learn.” However, O’Sullivan is delighted with the buzz about the company. Even more than before, he said, “people feel really valued” and with the company attracting top talent, Wells Tobias has “become a place where people want to work”, he added.

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

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Profile

Suki Sandhu COLIN COTTELL TALKS TO THE CEO OF AUDELISS AND FOUNDER OF OUTSTANDING IN BUSINESS

“It’s ultimately around providing excellent customer service to both clients and candidates”

CV Founder and CEO, OUTstanding in Business

June 2013-present Founder & CEO, Audeliss

2011-present Partner, Green Park Interim & Executive Search

2007-10 Graduate trainee to managing consultant, Michael Page International

2003-07 EmployAbility

Innovator of the Year 2012 at the European Diversity Awards for OUTstanding in Business University of Birmingham, BSc Econ

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A bright neon sign displaying the word ‘Vacancies’

by British neon artist Chris Bracey and a red telephone box engage the senses as you enter the offices of executive search firm Audeliss in London’s fashionable West End. These are hardly the offices of the typical executive search firm. But then Suki Sandhu, founder of Audeliss and the purveyor of this art, is not your typical executive recruiter.

As an openly gay man in the sometimes macho world of agency recruitment, Sandhu recounts how he came out to his colleagues at Michael Page. “It don’t recall knowing anyone else at a senior level that was gay, I felt I was the only gay in the village,” he says, as he recalls his former colleagues’ rather underwhelming reaction. “Everyone said they already knew, so there was no drama or trauma when I came out, which was funny,” he says.

While Sandhu can reminisce about coming out to his former colleagues with almost a degree of fondness, he accepts that others find the prospect terrifying. Not only has he not met many gay and lesbian recruiters during his 11-year long career in the industry, he believes that many of those who do work in the industry don’t feel comfortable. “Recruitment can come across as quite macho, and that’s why they are holding themselves back from being themselves,” he says. “For a gay or lesbian employee to surprise their CEO by bringing their partner to the Christmas party, could be quite scary for that individual,” he suggests.

Many recruiters will empathise with the plight of gays and lesbians still in the closet at work, or simply lacking the confidence to be themselves, but Sandhu decided to act. As a member of a number of gay and lesbian professional networking groups, Sandhu says he was struck by the lack of members at senior executive level at events. It was then he says he realised the need for a networking organisation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) executives across all industries.

Launched five months ago, OUTstanding in Business is championed by Lord Browne, ex-CEO of BP, perhaps the UK’s best known gay person at senior executive level, who before his sexuality becoming public had regarded his sexuality “as a private matter”.

“I emailed him [Lord Browne] thinking he was not going to reply, but a week later I got an email from his

PHOTOGRAPHY: RICHARD LEA-HAIR

SANDHU’S PHILOSOPHY

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Profile

SECRETS OF SUCCESS

“I THINK FUNDAMENTALLY I WORK REALLY HARD, WITH COMPLETE HONESTY AND INTEGRITY”

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

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Profile

PA, asking to meet,” Sandhu explains. The new network is off to a flying start. Its first six corporate members are all household names, including EY and Google.

One of the network’s first events aims to provide members with advice on how to improve boardroom performance. According to Sandhu, events such as this will help penetrate the often closed world of non-executive appointments, which operates through the old boys network. Another event will see Lord Browne interviewed about leadership.

The network also aims to broaden the career opportunities for LGBT executives, he says, both by promoting role models at senior levels, and by challenging the stereotype that gay and lesbians only thrive in the media, the arts and entertainment.

To help drive its agenda, later this month OUTstanding’s media partner, the Financial Times, will publish the first OUTstanding in Business list of the top 50 LGBT executives in business. Sandhu says he welcomes nominations, and emphasises that nobody will be named in the list without their agreement. He says that so far only two of those he has contacted have refused permission.

Sandhu rejects the suggestion that creating a professional network of gay and lesbians is tantamount to forming the LGBT equivalent of the old boys network, with the potential for members to unfairly help each others’ careers. “I don’t think there is anything wrong with a club catering for a specific group of individuals. This is a club looking at boardroom diversity, where we all have a shared goal and agenda…

It’s just like women-only groups in the City or networks for ethnic minority groups,” he adds. While he accepts “it shouldn’t matter what someone does behind closed doors” he says the whole point of OUTstanding is ultimately to create an environment “where senior executives don’t have to hide themselves”.

Sandhu’s efforts with OUTstanding in Business were recognised in September when he won EmployAbility Innovator of the Year 2012 at the European Diversity Awards in London.

He seems surprised by the suggestion that in launching OUTstanding in Business and highlighting such a sensitive issue he is putting his head above the parapet to be shot at. Far from being brave, “I think it is really normal to be yourself, quite frankly. If I can drive this agenda, then I am more than happy to do so,” he says.

Perhaps it is because, while Sandhu, in his own words “a workingclass boy from Derby”, says he has experienced homophobia and racism because of his Indian heritage background, for him “it is water off a duck’s back”. “I am quite a strong individual,” he adds.

Sandhu says that alongside his deep-seated and personal commitment to diversity, there are also strong business reasons for pushing this agenda, be that through OUTstanding in Business or through Audeliss, the executive search firm he founded in 2011.

“Diversity has been quite central to everything I do,” he explains.

Indeed, during the past five years, Sandhu says he has always had “an informal network of gay and lesbian executives”, with many of these being Audeliss candidates. In fact, he says, many of the firm’s clients chose it [Audeliss] because of its commitment to diversity. Sandhu says that 52% of the firm’s candidates are diverse — in other words not white males.

Whether wearing his OUTstanding or his Audeliss hat, Sandhu is also a firm believer that diverse teams, be that around sexuality, gender, ethnicity, disability, any the other four equality strands, enshrined in UK law, or simply their cultural background make better decisions.

Not being open at work about their sexual orientation can also have negative consequences for individuals. “The mental capacity of lying or having that double-life in the office, takes way from that person’s performance, and the profitability of the firm,” he argues.

“If they are able to be themselves, hopefully they are going to be more inspiring leaders, motivate their

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KEY FACTS Audeliss Founded 2011 10 staff

Turnover Profit before tax

2011-12 £800k £146k

2012-13 £2m £613k

OUTstanding in Business 250 LGBT executives

Corporate members: BAE Systems, Barclays, BP, EY, Google and American Express (AMEX).

Corporate membership £5k-15k depends on number of members (Launching) Individual membership, roughly £1.2k per annum

teams better, and create more wealth for the company,” he adds.

Sandhu’s interest in recruitment was first engaged during a student summer sales internship at the University of Birmingham, after he sold “some very expensive prawns” to the managing director of a recruitment firm, who suggested he applied for a job. “When I Iooked into it, I thought, I can do that,” Sandhu recalls. And after first joining Michael Page’s graduate scheme, followed by a three-year stint at Green Park Executive Search & Selection before setting up Audeliss, he has never looked back.

That said, having worked “with some pretty horrible people in recruitment” he came to realise “how I didn’t want to do recruitment”. His dislikes include pushing candidates into unsuitable positions, and the unhealthy focus on sales and making the fee, often to the detriment of customer service. “One of the reasons for setting up Audeliss was to do the opposite,” he says. “We are in recruitment, we are dealing with people — not tins of beans or a car.” And no one meeting Sandhu can be other than impressed by his passion not only for recruitment, but also by his desire to do it in his own way.

However, Sandhu seems also aware that recruiters face a number of ethical and practical dilemmas when it comes to promoting the LBGT agenda at the senior executive level. He seems, for example, somewhat torn as to whether quotas for LGBT people are a good thing. “Maybe 10% to try and create headway and build momentum in the boardroom,” he suggests tentatively. But at the same time, he says: “I am not going to put someone gay, black or disabled on the shortlist just because they are different; they have to be inherently able to do the job.” And referring to gender diversity, he admits that were he a woman, he wouldn’t want to get a job just because of gender but “because I am the best person for the job”.

He also sidesteps the issue of who should get the job if two candidates are equal in every other way, apart from their sexuality. “It would be great if they picked the gay or lesbian candidate,” he says, but adds that such a scenario is more theoretical than real, as invariably clients will already have made up their minds based on a range of assessment criteria. He is sufficiently self-aware to realise that his response, that it’s the client’s decision and not his, might be a cop-out.

Throughout the interview, Sandhu is at pains to point out that he supports diversity right across the board, and not just for gays and lesbians. And he argues that the diversity agenda on sexuality will only gain ground if it gets support from others: “We have to engage our straight allies… we can’t make the boardroom diverse on our own.” But with his two parallel ventures Audeliss and OUTstanding in Business, many would say that by pushing the issue out there for all to see Sandhu has made a good start.

WWW.RECRUITER.CO.UK

10/10/2013 08:49

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Sourcing

Brightest stars in the firmament DEEDEE DOKE INVESTIGATES THE DIFFERENT WAYS PEOPLE IN THE INDUSTRY ARE SOURCING THE TOP RECRUITING TALENT

Walking through London, Shaun Simmons’ attention was captured by a woman pitching to strangers on the pavement on behalf of a British charity. “What stood out about her was her personality, her drive, her smile,” recalls Simmons, managing director of multi-sector recruiter Prime Time Recruitment.

“She was engaging people as they walked past,” Simmons explains. “And the same skills that you have to have to stand on the streets of London and sell people [the value of] the British Red Cross — the confidence, the likeability factor, the conversational skills, and getting their trust and belief — are the same ones you have to have in recruitment.”

So impressed was Simmons, that he stopped for a chat with the woman, “allowed her to sell to me”, and arranged to interview her the following week for a recruiting role at Prime Time.

By his own admission, Simmons is “always recruiting”. “We find them from all walks of life,” he says. As well as running Prime Time, he’s an informal talent scout for its six divisions. And he says “the one thing that stands out” when he’s sourcing talent is “personality of the individual — when you meet someone for the first five minutes, a big smile, a face that’s engaging. I feel, if I like you, my candidates will like you, and my clients will like you”. cont. p34

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Sourcing

“THE PERSONALITY OF THE INDIVIDUAL … I FEEL, IF I LIKE YOU, MY CANDIDATES WILL LIKE YOU, AND MY CLIENTS WILL LIKE YOU” SHAUN SIMMONS

Tough times for sourcing In a world gone mad with high-tech recruiting solutions, Simmons embodies a refreshingly oldfashioned approach to sourcing the best recruiters for his business. But regardless of whether the recruiting mission underway is to source top-quality in-house recruiters for a direct employer’s team or sterling recruiters for an agency, it’s tough out there.

The desired characteristics and qualities of the best recruiters vary by employer. But the standard list of ‘desirables’ usually runs something like this: capabilities to build relationships, influence and network; commercial acumen; resilience; and a sharp focus on the job at hand. Expertise in a niche discipline is desirable in many recruitment jobs. Across the board, motivation to succeed and to help drive a business forward is essential.

Graduates vs experience Sourcing potentially high-performing graduates is comparatively simple for most organisations seeking to recruit recruiters, says Tara Lescott, managing director of recruitment-to-recruitment company Recruiter Republic. Where organisations struggle is in recruiting experienced hires with expertise and a track record — and even in a LinkedIn environment, where most savvy professionals have a profile, pinpointing and separating the top performers from the non-performers isn’t easy. “On paper, on a LinkedIn profile, they can look the same,” says Lescott.

However, adds Ashley Lawrence, director of rec-torec consultancy Strategic-Move, “the best recruiters will always be very passive. It will always be a case of identifying those hires, and ultimately putting an option in front of them that they don’t have in their current environment.” Such options might include fast-track career progression, profit share or equity, Lawrence suggests.

At Robert Walters, the sourcing of recruiters starts at their front door. “Whenever a candidate comes to look at an external role with an employer client, we tell all of our recruiters, the first thing they should be thinking about is, could this candidate work for Robert Walters?” says Katy Friedman, director, group resourcing for the professional staffing company.

“As a business, we tend to grow organically,” Friedman says. “However, when we do go out to market, we don’t specifically look for recruiters — we look at industry professionals: accountants, bankers, lawyers, marketers, qualified solicitors.”

Such professionals who may be bored with a desk-based, spreadsheet-facing job and want a new challenge are likely candidates for a switch to professional recruitment. “It’s just planting the seed,” says Friedman. “They start to realise that, actually, it is a very consultative role, it is going to utilise all

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of their skills — and ‘I could make some good money doing this’.”

In-house challenges The market for in-house recruiters brings its own nuances. Steve Hunt, director of resourcing at international electronics and systems group Thales, reports that his company’s quest for in-house recruiting talent has evolved, along with a change in the kind of experience being sought in their recruiters.

Initially, Hunt says, the aim was to bring in recruiters who came from corporate resourcing and had in-house experience. “That was very much the first year,” Hunt says. “During that time, I think I interviewed around 250 people to hire five. We set the bar relatively high — bear in mind, we had a four-stage interview process which included a three-hour assessment centre.”

But Hunt was disappointed with the applicants, who came from in-house as well as recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) operations, “models of various shapes and sizes, all different industries. A lot of people I saw were very process-orientated; there were very few people with genuine direct sourcing skills”.

Now, Hunt looks for people who have worked in professional recruitment agencies or mid-market search and selection “if they have worked in candidate-short markets, markets where they’ve had to be proactive to identify people and approach them, and coax them into roles”.

Hunt has also recruited for his team through what he calls ‘the network’ – “people we know, referrals. I think the last seven hires have actually been referrals”.

For recruiting talent for the core businesses of Thales Group, Hunt has also recently hired a sourcing specialist (see News, p7 and Movers & Shakers, p38) as part of the company’s drive to map competitors and understand the state of play in Thales’ highly competitive markets — “what’s available in talent in very different locations at different grades and salary levels” is much-needed market intelligence.

“WHEN WE DO GO OUT TO MARKET, WE DON’T SPECIFICALLY LOOK FOR RECRUITERS — WE LOOK AT INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS: BANKERS, LAWYERS…” KATY FRIEDMAN

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Sourcing

“DURING THAT TIME, I THINK I INTERVIEWED AROUND 250 PEOPLE TO HIRE FIVE. WE SET THE BAR RELATIVELY HIGH” STEVE HUNT

Understanding the market That kind of market intelligence is no less essential in tapping into recruitment talent. As Recruiter Republic’s Lescott points out, a key to being able to identify top talent is understanding the market in which a person has been operating, whether it’s a niche job speciality or a geography. She gives the example of a geographic market.

“In Sweden, everything is search — contingency doesn’t exist. And as a nation and culture, they’re quite anti-search. You bring someone into London from Sweden, and a lot [of them] will really struggle,” Lescott says. “You have to know what recruitment looks like locally.”

As many forward-looking recruitment businesses aspire to grow their international footprints, recruiting recruiters who can operate successfully outside the UK takes on great significance. But many, if not most, will be recruited in the UK. “In the sense of sourcing,” says Strategic-Move’s Lawrence, “what we’re seeing more and more is that UK businesses will incubate a team within their London office, and they might work different hours, and work on New York, Stockholm, Zurich, Germany or the Middle East. Then when that team hits a trigger point, they might migrate from London to that international option.

“It happens a lot with Dubai, New York and Germany,” Lawrence continues. “It can be quite hard to hire talent there, so they recruit in London, businesses incubate, then they move out there physically within 12 to 18 months once that business unit has been upscaled.”

Enough to go around?

But is there even enough recruiting talent to go around? Ann Swain, chief executive officer of the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), says an emphatic “absolutely and totally not”.

“The reality is, the recession has caused a problem that nobody wanted to take on raw talent, which is risky, and invest in training,” she explains. “We’ve got to sort it because we haven’t been bringing people in.

Plus, a lot of senior people came out of the recruitment market, perhaps as in-house recruiters or elsewhere, and therefore we haven’t even got the big pool we used to have to be drawing on as the market is starting to improve.

“The talent bucket is not being topped up, and it’s dripping out of the bottom as well,” Swain says. “I think we need to bring new talent in.”

To that end, APSCo is preparing to launch a pilot programme at three UK universities and one in Singapore aimed at bringing undergraduate interns into recruitment businesses. Under the current plans, interns would be recruited in their first year at

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university for summer and other holiday placements in APSCo member recruitment businesses.

Successful placements could result in job offers on the table for interns in their third year, eliminating the need for them to go on graduate milkrounds. “I just think if we wait until they graduate and get the leftovers from PwC or whoever, we’re not going to find the people who can take our businesses forward,” Swain says.

Swain confirms that Reading and Warwick universities and the National University of Singapore will participate in the pilot. Discussions are also underway with a third UK university, but Swain said arrangements with that Northern institution had not yet been confirmed.

While actually pinpointing the best recruiters must come first, there is the little matter of getting them interested in working for you. And Paul Farrer, chairman of media, digital, marketing, research & creative recruiting group Aspire Global Network, knows that benefits aren’t the only answer to stirring that interest.

But with more than 30 employee benefits available to potential recruits, from on-site showers to a health care cashback programme, he hopes that bit of information reaches the very best recruiters. “We’re shouting about it from the tops of the trees,” Farrer says cheerfully. “But I think it is a retention tool, just one of the mix.”

Oh, and in case you were wondering if Prime Time Recruitment actually hired the engaging charity worker whose personality struck Shaun Simmons as a possible new recruiter… sadly, Prime Time says, the woman in question planned to return home to Spain late in the year, making her permanent hiring unviable.

However, a more satisfying conclusion in Prime Time legend came in the form of a shop assistant who so impressed another Prime Time executive that she was offered a recruiting role and later worked her way up to a management job.

“IT WILL ALWAYS BE A CASE OF IDENTIFYING THOSE HIRES, AND ULTIMATELY PUTTING AN OPTION IN FRONT OF THEM THAT THEY DON’T HAVE” ASHLEY LAWRENCE

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Movers & Shakers

Sponsored by Recruit Ventures

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ADECCO: The recruitment group’s chief HR officer Christian Vasino will leave the firm at the end of the year to take up the same role with an as yet unnamed Italian multinational.

BROAD REMIT AT SHAZAM TO GIVE STRUCTURE

•

BIE GROUP: Emma-Claire Kavanagh and Simon Moore join the interim management and executive recruiter as equity partners. Philip Grinhaff is senior finance search specialist.

Ryan Broad is the new head of talent acquisition at Shazam Entertainment, creator of Shazam, the music identification mobile app. Broad was the subject of Recruiter’s December 2012 cover profile interview while with previous employer, film visual effects firm MPC (The Moving Picture Company).

He tells Recruiter his six-month contract will see him overseeing “transformation in the way they think about talent acquisition” at Shazam, as the firm looks to substantially grow its current workforce of 250 staff, based at offices in the UK, US, Australia and South Korea. With the company looking to a stock market launch possibly as early as next year, he says another goal is taking on companies like Google and Microsoft as an employer of choice.

PURPLE: Brian Forbes •hasBRIGHT joined the Scottish recruiter

as head of its Central European operation, based in Lithuania.

•

CTPARTNERS: Eduardo Taylor joins the global executive recruiter as managing partner for Mexico after the acquisition of his firm by the company.

CTPartners also has a new global head of its professional services practice, Michael A Matella.

ONE OF MY OBJECTIVES IS TO INSTIL A HIRING CULTURE… SO WE’RE ALL WORKING AT THE SAME PACE, THE SAME QUALITY, THE RIGHT CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE

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EA CONSULTING GROUP: The change management recruitment and consulting firm has taken on Mark Peacock as head of its new talent partnering offering.

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EADS: The aerospace and defence firm has moved Lars Immisch to the role of executive vice president for HR at its new Airbus defence and space division.

EXECUTIVES ONLINE: The •interim and exec recruiter has

taken on Graham Thomson as retail practice director.

• EXSURGO: Neil Syred has joined the retail and consumer recruiter as an associate director.

• FIRCROFT: The technical staffing specialist has brought in Stuart Hall as chief finance officer.

HEALTHCARE: Jay Sihota is •theH1new UK business manager at

the recruitment and training firm.

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KELLY SERVICES: Natalia Shuman is promoted to senior vice president and general manager for EMEA and APAC. .

LAURENCE SIMONS: The international legal recruiter has

•

taken on Chris Cayley as EMEA managing director.

•

MCLEAN PARTNERSHIP: The new search and management consultancy’s interim management division is led by senior partner Chris Bernard.

Alan Horn joins the division as a director.

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OMNI: The RPO provider has appointed Martin Wainman to the newly-created role of business development director.

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PEPSICO: The consumer brand has taken on Katharine Robinson, AKA The Sourceress, as a talent acquisition sourcing specialist on a 12-month contract.

SEARCH: Thom Leeser has •beenROCappointed to lead the IT

and engineering recruiter’s new Frankfurt office.

• ROYAL MAIL: Liza Strong arrives as group head of talent and succession from a similar role at telecoms firm Everything Everywhere.

• RP INTERNATIONAL: The professional recruiter has taken on Ute Jess and Sonia

Soni to launch its first office in mainland Europe, near Stuttgart in Germany.

Your next move?

A selection of vacancies from recruiter.co.uk

Recruiter Republic Divisional director, property recruitment £45k-50k plus bens London

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PARTNERSHIP: The •legalSELLICK and financial recruiter has

taken on Simran Khanijau in the new role of HR adviser.

For more jobs, people moves and career advice go to

SOCIAL MEDIA SEARCH: The •social media sourcing firm has

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

taken on new client services manager Billy McDiarmid and six new client relationship managers: Haroon Azam, Marc Crichton, Tracy Lott, Jennifer McDougall, Craig McHugh and Joseph Weir.

• SR GROUP: Michael Ilert will lead the recruitment group’s new Dusseldorf office as a partner in its HR brand Frazer Jones. Miriam Kuepper is the head of SR’s legal brand Taylor Root in Germany.

Both are internal promotions.

•

THALES GROUP: Rob Hilder

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Your business - YOUR BRAND Contact David Simons on

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

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38_Recruiter_movers_OCT13.indd Sec3:46

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10/10/2013 10:30

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OCTOBER 2013

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Ŷ ŚŽŶĞƐƚ ŽŶůŝŶĞ ƌĞĐƌƵŝƚŵĞŶƚ ĐŽŵƉĂŶLJ ǁŝƚŚ Ă ĚŝīĞƌĞŶĐĞ͘ From Yorkshire and proud.

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41

10/10/2013 14:58

Bloggers with Bite

READY, FIRE, AIM AIM AIM Do we really take digital job adverts seriously these days, or have digital job ads led to the death of the quality candidate?

T

echnology has totally broken the ‘great’ advert. Yes, I probably remember this all wrong — perhaps the average job advert during my days in a recruitment firm was awful too, but at least we took it seriously. We took time over it, it looked pretty good, we got specialists involved, managers had a say in the content — and it got us decent talent.

Now, with the evolution (revolution?) of digital technology adding machine-gun-type processes to the recruitment workflow, the expression ‘ready, aim, fire’ has turned to ‘ready, fire, aim aim aim’.

Nearly every recruiter I work for aims to write the perfect ad. They tell me that this is a big gap in their recruitment process. If I had the recipe I’d give up my day job, sell the secret sauce and live off the royalties, but I don’t, so I’m just going to whinge.

It’s just too easy to post — post and pray, spray and pray, tweet and share… Whatever! Technology and the ‘fastest finger first’ mentality has evolved the job advert from a juicy, thick, interesting ‘so and so are hiring’ during a mooch over the Sunday papers to ‘when did the appointments section become a napkin?’, while I scroll through the endless, boring tweet-tweet-share-job tweet tweet share job updates on my smart phone.

Hold on, I am a technology freak — my job dictates that I sell the concept of tech to recruiters! But something’s got to give.

When was the last time that…

1. you looked at your job ads?

2. you researched what worked?

3. you tried to apply for a role on your own website and got a handle on how difficult it is?

Lisa Jones is director of Barclay Jones — specialists in recruitment technology and social media for recruiters

I see too many poorly written adverts — typos, a clear lack of understanding of the sector, advertised in the wrong places, lack of what you want to me to do, assumptions that I care enough to click 17 times to find out more info or how to apply.

If the objective is to get lots of poor quality candidates, then carry on… Somewhere along the line, volume applications and adverts have become a KPI [key performance indicator]: the more places a recruiter can hit with their content, the better. The result: a stack of pointless candidates who now need rejecting.

So what’s the future? Sort this out, recruitment technology suppliers — and recruitment leaders. I suggest: 1. Create a sharing platform that cleverly chooses (at the point of clicking) which platforms are the best according to the sector, geography, job type, salary — and helps the recruiter aim correctly.

2. Market, research and invent great advert templates, helping the mythical 360-degree recruiter build a decent advert that appeals to people who didn’t even know they were looking — the passives are waiting to be dazzled.

3. Recruitment leaders — train your staff to pen great adverts and give these mythical 360-degree recruiters time to create them. Or admit that recruiters are not best placed to magically become digital marketers and find a specialist who gets the advert written, posted and applied to without the pain.

4. We must not bow to the ‘easy to apply’ culture that social media has created, and create more adverts with opportunities for candidates to deselect themselves.

It’s only going one way: smart phones, apply via LinkedIn, Twitter lead generation cards, Facebook getting jiggy with professions — all creating an environment for candidates to not take the process seriously either. A hiring manager wanting their recruiters to give them more applications is only going to make it worse…

Volume applications and adverts have become a KPI: the more places a recruiter can hit with their content, the better What do you think? Tell us at recruiter.editorial@redactive.co.uk

TO POST YOUR COMMENTS, GO ONLINE

RECRUITER.CO.UK 42

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