Recruitment – the hardest job in the world?

I was watching television this weekend when a sports pundit asserted that a premier league manager had "...the hardest job in the world." Not half an hour later I heard the exact same phrase, this time as a descriptor for one of horse racing’s leading jockeys. It made me realise how many times I’ve heard people say this across all walks of life, and how daft those statements are. For starters getting paid to play sport can’t possibly qualify as a hardship. Secondly I’d have thought that those working in the likes of bomb disposal, fire fighting and heart surgery would hold more compelling claims to the title. Furthermore, if Vernon Kaye were to pose the question to 100 people in the street in all seriousness I wouldn’t mind betting that "being a mum" would be the top answer.

So, when someone commented to me this week that recruitment must be the hardest job in the world, I advised them accordingly. Yet it got me thinking, whilst recruitment can be very rewarding, it is undoubtedly a hard job.

Many people get into recruitment because they’ve been told it’s possible to make good money. And it’s fair to say the rewards can be attractive for delivery quality work. Yet the statistics show that around a third of new hires will leave the industry within their first year. Recruitment isn’t rocket science, you don’t sit at a desk unable to answer tricky questions. So what’s the problem?

In our view there are recruitment consultants and there are recruitment agents. The job I’m referring to here is that of a recruitment consultant. The priority for consultants is to build trusting relationship with candidates and clients in order to best satisfy the needs of both parties. If you do that well, the results will follow. Agents, conversely, care very little about the quality of service they provide. For them it is all about hitting KPIs and that inevitably involves cutting as many corners as possible. In my personal experience, both from my time at Fabric and also my PR days, true recruitment consultants are a rare breed. For every one good recruitment consultant there are a dozen bad recruitment agents. Little surprise, therefore, that the overall reputation of the recruitment industry isn’t overly positive and you’re facing an uphill battle before you’ve even started.
 
In recruitment there is nowhere to hide. Most recruiters leave their job because they are unable to hit their targets. They are either fired or jump before being pushed. That would imply it’s a cut-throat, pressurised world where only the hardest-nosed survive. It is relentless for sure, but cut-throat isn’t an accurate description. The real pressure in recruitment comes from the fact that we do not produce what we sell, yet we are constantly under pressure from clients to deliver the best quality product – i.e. the candidate. Add to that the fact that internally our performance is up there in black and white for all to see. We simply have to deliver tangible results day after day, week after week, year after year. The more we slip behind the curve the more the pressure grows. We don’t want to let the team down but most of all we know we risk becoming a cost to the company. Coasting isn’t an option because recruitment is about ‘all or nothing’.

 good recruitment consultant will be an expert at handling a myriad of variables including clients, candidates and HRs. In itself that is true of a number of occupations of course. However recruiting is uniquely demanding, and consequently frustrating, as it is the only industry that I am aware of where the ‘product’ in question can stop a deal from happening. If you want to buy a car, and the dealer has set a price which you’re happy with, you take that car. The car can not turn round and say "I don’t want this to happen". As a recruitment consultant we can spend months on a job, agree an offer which everyone seems happy with, and then be reduced to a blubbering wreck as the candidate decides he or she doesn’t want to go ahead. We have done nothing wrong, it’s not our fault the deal hasn’t been done. We’ve left no stone unturned, worked flat out, given excellent consultancy to all parties throughout and acted with skill and sensitivity. Yet we’ve got absolutely nothing to show for that time and effort. There is no time for sympathy, we simply have to get back on the horse and start from scratch again. Now imagine that has just happened for the third time in as many weeks. Frankly the whole thing can be soul destroying.


In my view people can’t understand what impact this all-or-nothing model has until they have tasted it. Firstly, bear in mind that basic salaries in recruitment are relatively low, as this is an incentive-based industry. Secondly, consider that the vast majority of work we do is known as ‘contingency recruitment’ – in simple terms there are no retainers and we only get a fee upon the successful placement of a candidate. We all work to ratios – for example the ratio of candidates CVs forwarded to a job to those then shortlisted for interview, those interviewed to invited for a second interview, those re-interviewed to offered, and those offered to placed. The ratios of CVs forwarded to placements will vary from consultant to consultant, with a ‘consultant’ having a much lower ratio than an ‘agent’ (see above). However what this all means is that as recruiters we do a huge amount of high quality work which essentially goes to waste, no tangible results at all. Worse still, the effort we’ve put in means very little. There may be some sympathy from a client or our boss in the short term, but ultimately this is a results business and that sentiment soon evaporates. Keeping yourself motivated against this backdrop isn’t easy. Pushing it all to the back of the mind and performing constantly at a high level is nothing short of demanding.
 

The recession years that we are experiencing have been painful for everyone but they have given rise to opportunities as well. Poor quality recruitment ‘agents’ who might have survived in a boom market have either been forced out altogether or resorted to increasingly underhand practices. It is something which blights our industry but in the long run it isn’t sustainable. The best recruiters have built relationships where they are seen by clients and candidates as a service, not a product. If we work with intelligence, integrity and deliver exceptional consultancy we grow relationships with the best people in our industry, to the point that a high volume of our business comes from referrals and recommendations. To my mind there is no better feeling than finding someone the ideal role or the ideal candidate and quite simply that’s the best way to succeed in what is a highly pressurised job.

Tim Court - Director

Which job is right for me?

When you are reviewing jobs from agencies, job boards or trade magazine adverts, how do you decide which opportunities to apply for?  It is tempting to look for impressive job titles, well known brand names and high salaries – but are those good indicators of a job you’ll enjoy?

To be able to effectively sift through all the jobs available, first of all you need to spend a bit of time on yourself.  If you spend some time reflecting on your own values, what motivates you, and what gives you satisfaction at work, then you will be able to look beyond the flashy headlines to assess the job itself more effectively.

If you are to fit comfortably into an organisation and feel energised and motivated to work there and give your best, then you need to be sure that their organisational values are a good match to yours.  If they operate on the ‘make the most profit at any cost’ principle, while you gain satisfaction from going the extra mile to give great service, you are likely to find your natural inclinations at odds with their operating policy much of the time.  Likewise, if you are driven to earn the highest bonus while they place most emphasis on customer care, you are likely to feel impatient with their slower pace of life quite frequently.

Perhaps you are motivated by receiving praise and recognition in front of your peers for a job well done?  Check whether a prospective firm offers internal award schemes.  Perhaps getting a promotion is important to you?  Find out what their internal career development and appraisal process is like. 

Think about what aspects of your current and past jobs have given you greatest satisfaction – that ‘wow’ factor of a job really well done.  Was it presenting a stunning campaign, hearing from a client about positive effects of the work you’ve done with them, or learning new skills so you’re ready to tackle something more challenging?  How many of these satisfying activities would a new job involve? 

Having thought through all the aspects of a job and an organisation that will make it right for you allows you to frame the right questions to ask of your recruiter, to look for in adverts and job descriptions, and to ask at job interviews.  Armed with this more in-depth information you will be able to make a better decision when it comes to which job to apply for – and which offer to accept.

AWR - Agency Worker Regulations

The Agency Worker Regulations (AWR) have caused quite a stir of late. For good or bad they come into effect on 1 October 2011 and have certainly divided opinion across the industry.

This EU directive seeks to ensure equality between those workers supplied through an agency and those recruited directly by hirers, and it seems there is little that can stop it from being implemented. Such new equality rights may seem incredulous to some during these times of economic hardship, but to gain perspective it is important to remember those people working in sectors of the economy that don’t feature in PRWeek, the Financial Times or the weekly glossies. These are the people to whom these regulations will make the most difference.

For the most part in the digital, marketing and PR industries, agency worker rates of pay are at least on a par with, and frequently superior to, those of their directly recruited comparators. Therefore with AWR being focused on the issue of equality, clients needn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and decide not to use agency workers at all. That said, ignoring or flouting the regulations can’t lead to anything good either. The focus needs to be on working with your recruitment partners to ensure compliance and finding the best way of going forward.
　
At Fabric we’ve been speaking to our clients for the last few weeks to ensure that everyone is aware of the regulations and working with us towards full compliance. As part of this process, and in consultation with the REC and senior figures in employment law, we’ve put together a guide - An Insight to AWR - which breaks down the AWR and demystifies it all. If you would like to discuss anything AWR related and see how Fabric can work with you to ensure a transition that is as smooth as possible, do get in touch.
 
Jody Dunn - Freelance Consultant

On & Offline Marketing: Job Market Update

Talk about unpredictable! 2011 has been an unusual and changeable year for jobhunters in London, so it seemed a good idea to give an overview of the marketing job market as it is at the moment.

 

Here is what we have been seeing over the past month or so:

• Salary levels are sluggish. I have been in marketing recruitment for many years and am usually able to accurately guess salaries. No longer! I am seeing a slight year on year decrease in some areas, particularly for broad marketing roles.
• Large international brands appear more optimistic than our smaller clients – we have had a relatively high volume of new roles from our global clients.
• Interesting roles = high competition. Jobhunters are cautious, so are only pursuing their ideal jobs. This is causing intense competition for the more creative and strategic client-side roles.
• Technical skills rule! We have been able to secure significant pay rises for candidates with specialist technical skills which are in demand (yes, search marketers, I mean you....).
• Feedback from clients is slow. Not unusual for this time of year, so don’t take it personally...
• B2B acquisition roles (on and offline) have been our most common new role whilst we have been quieter on the brand marketing side.

 

Most importantly, things change week by week so it has proved difficult to predict patterns and trends. Whilst the market certainly isn’t near its 2007 peak, there are some exciting current vacancies.

 

If you are thinking of looking for a new role, or would like a bit more insight in to the types of roles out there, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

 

Tom Lakin, Head of Marketing Recruitment, Fabric

When is the right time to interview?

It may appear obvious – when you are losing interest in your current role, no longer learning or dreading going in to work – it’s time to get your CV out there and start interviewing.

However, it has struck me a number of times recently whilst interviewing candidates that they have simply got the timing wrong.

Interviewing too early is common at the moment.  Here are a few questions to ask yourself: 

-          Have you really reached your potential in your current role?

-          Have you examined opportunities within your current organisation?

-          Have you achieved what you set out to achieve when you joined?

-          Are your motives to move temporary – e.g. quiet time in your sector, overworked whilst colleagues are recruited etc

Make sure your CV remains strong by not moving jobs every 12 months.  Conversely, don’t leave it too long.  I interviewed a delightful candidate some time ago – lovely, bright and great experience – but who HATED her current role.  Our conversation often came back to the negatives of her current job.   A real shame she hadn’t contacted me six months earlier. 

Worth remembering - talking badly about your current or most recent job is like going on a first date and launching in to a monologue about your charmless ex... 

A common mistake, when things are not going so well, is to write a new CV and apply for lots of jobs.  We would recommend at least attempting to address the issues in your current job before looking for a new one – you will be far more confident, be proud of your achievements and your enthusiasm will shine through. 

Is the time right for you?  If so, email me at tom.lakin@fabricrecruitment.com   

- Tom Lakin, Marketing Division

“My experience speaks for itself – why should I waste time on my CV?”

This is a question I have just been asked.  The gentleman in question is indeed an excellent candidate – very well-placed for a number of exciting and challenging roles.

However, even in areas where there is a skills shortage, it really does pay to step back and take an objective look at your CV.  So often, as our career progresses, we simply add a paragraph or two to our previous CV.  This can be fine, but the marketing industry evolves so fast that one is likely to need to place emphasis on different skill sets at different times and for different opportunities. 

It is easy to argue that CVs are merely a tool to secure interviews.  However, as a marketer, your CV highlights ‘brand you’ – so it deserves more than a little love! 

CVs are subjective but here are a few pointers to bear in mind:

-          Set out your CV in a structured, consistent and clear manner

-          Your CV is likely to be read on screen initially so avoid a text-heavy format which is difficult to read

-          Avoid unnecessary details (photo, religion, date of birth etc)

-          Include a brief personal statement but avoid vague comments such as “work well in a team or autonomously”

-          Use a reverse chronological order format

-          Don’t make assumptions.  It may be obvious to you that social media is a core part of your role but make sure you specify that on your CV, particularly if your CV is being initially assessed by HR

-          CVs should be 2-3 pages

-          Proof your CV, the majority of CVs include typos or inconsistencies – make sure yours doesn’t!

If you are considering a new on or offline marketing role and would like Fabric to assist with your search to find an agency or client-side role or feel that you would benefit from some career consultancy, please do get in touch. 

tom.lakin@fabricrecruitment.com   Fabric Marketing

Are you deterring the best candidates?

When your firm is trying to fill a vacancy, you want to attract, interview and offer to the best possible candidate for the job.  However, one of your staff may be putting off the very people you want to hire. 

A new study by major recruitment firm Robert Walters, reported by HR Daily, shows that 45% of professionals they interviewed said that they had withdrawn from a recruitment process because they didn't like one of the people who interviewed them. 

It is vital that everyone involved with greeting your candidates, carrying out tours of the department, and doing the actual interviewing are all aware that the recruitment process is a two-way one - that the applicants are judging your organisation, the culture, the role and your staff just as much as you are judging them.

It can be heartbreaking to find the perfect person for the job, make them a good offer, only to have it turned down. 

To avoid this happening, make sure all the members of your team are ready to talk positively about the organisation, answer questions about why they work there and how they like their jobs, and promote the benefits (cultural, social and career development, as well as financial) of working there.

What interview questions will I be asked?

When we contact candidates with the good news that a client has shortlisted them for an interview, after the initial pleasure often comes an email or call full of questions, or even panic.  What questions will I be asked?  Will they be competency ones?  What are competency questions?  Help!

There are innumerable questions that you could be asked in an interview; one guide that I saw in the past listed 90 different questions!  However, they tend to be grouped into questions focused on a few core areas:

·         Relating to educational achievement

·         Probing work experience and skills

·         Ascertaining personality and attitudes

In any of these areas, the questions could be competency based or not.  Competency based questions are those intended to elicit evidence that you have exhibited certain behaviours that the employer feels are important to carry out the work successfully. 

Typically the employer will have several levels of competence in mind for each behaviour;

1.       Basic understanding of the concepts in a familiar setting

2.       Ability to apply the concepts in a new setting

3.       Detailed understanding of the concepts and integration into workflow

4.       Expert understanding and application in any setting

They may have positive and negative indicators (example) in mind for each level, for each competency.

Here are some example questions (competency based ones have a (C) after them):

Relating to Education

·         What were your favourite and least favourite subjects in college/university?  Why?

·         Why did you decide to go to university?

·         If you had the opportunity to attend college/university again, what would you do differently?  Why?

·         Describe a time when you were juggling several assignments/priorities (C)

Relating to Experience and Skills

·         Describe your ideal manager / colleague / subordinate

·         What is the greatest accomplishment of your career to date?  Why did you select that one?

·         Tell me about a time you worked as part of a successful team (C)

·         What are your main responsibilities in your current role?

·         What would your last manager describe as your greatest strength?  Weakness?

·         What experience have you had that qualifies you for this job?

·         Tell me about a time when you managed a group to achieve something (C)

·         Describe a situation when you saw an opportunity to change/improve something (C)

Relating to Personality and Attitudes

·         What are your immediate and long-term career goals?

·         What are you looking for in an organisation?

·         Who would give you your best / worst reference?  Why?

·         What did you like most / least about your last job?

·         Tell me about a time when you took a risk (C)

It’s also important to remember that interviews should be a two way conversation – the interviewer will probably ask you whether you have any questions for them.  Having none at all indicates to the employer that you aren’t really interested in their organisation/job!  Make sure you prepare a long list before you go, as they will probably answer some of them during the course of the interview (use the job description and try and imagine doing the work described – lots of questions will probably spring to mind).

There is no way to rehearse answers for all the potential questions you might be asked.  Instead, prepare by working through all your skills and key experiences, matching them up to the requirements of the job description, and having several example situations to hand, ready to use in answer to whatever questions come up.  Preparation is 9/10^ths   of the way to succes.

10 Reasons Why Exclusivity is in HR’s Best Interests

Clients may feel that an external recruiter asking for exclusivity on a job role has nothing but their own best interests at heart.  To think this is to miss the detailed picture, however, as there are many reasons why working closely with one recruiter rather than passing the role out to many agencies is the best route from an HR perspective.

While the HR recruitment team may have a number of recruiters on their PSL, each of those firms is likely to have one or two specialist areas where they really shine.  For each specific job vacancy, therefore, there is likely to be one or two agencies on the PSL who are genuinely likely to be able to source closely matched candidates.

Here are ten reasons why working closely with one of these quality recruiters on a specific job brief is actually in HR’s best interests:

1.    You are getting the recruiters full commitment to filling the vacant role.  Where a recruiter knows they are working on the role in competition with 3, 5 or unlimited number of other agencies, you are likely to see a short burst of activity from each one, followed by waning interest and a shift in their focus to another client with whom they have a close or exclusive relationship.

2.    You are putting the onus onto the recruiter to have responsibility for filling the vacancy.  Once they have been given exclusivity, with or without a retainer, they own the issue – and you can concentrate on the rest of your job.

3.    When a role is in competition, the only thing that matters is speed.  The competing recruiters know that you are logging the arrival of CVs to the minute, and that whoever gets a CV in front of you first ‘wins’.  In these scenarios a recruiter who takes time to actually brief the candidate and gain their permission for the submission of their CV loses out, so in reality it doesn’t happen.  Change the scenario to an exclusive partnership and the focus shifts at once to quality.  The recruiter has every reason to make sure that the CVs they put in front of you are for well matched, fully briefed, candidates who are sold on your company and keen to apply for that particular job.

4.    Working exclusively for you means a recruiter can bring all their resources to bear to source talent for you, including the most valuable resource of all – time.  Instead of a quick database search and putting an advert up on a job board, a thorough, detailed search including combing their networks, asking for referrals, and using social media channels.  In other words they will have time to tap into the passive talent market, not just skim off the most actively looking candidates.

5.    Exclusivity means your recruiter has time to take a detailed job brief from you.  A more detailed brief, with the background to the post, the scope of the role, the culture of the firm and the particular department/team will lead to closer matches for you.

6.    Working exclusively means your recruiter can properly screen the candidates before selecting those to put in front of you.  Not just a quick call and wiz over a CV, but in-depth face to face meetings to probe candidates’ suitability and motivations and fully brief them on the roll and sell them on your employer of choice branding.

7.    During the course of the hiring process, your recruiter will have time to gather full feedback after each interview stage, including probing for reservations, checking for other ‘irons in the fire’, and attitude towards the job, people they’ve met and the organisation itself.

8.    Your recruiter will also be able to focus on gathering realistic information on availability, potential start dates, current salary (and package) and future salary expectations, which will save you time and frustration once you come to offer stage.

9.    You will save time and repetition by dealing with just one, competent, recruiter and will be clear on the costs and contract terms you are working under for this role.

10. You will avoid the messy and time consuming issue of several recruiters referring the same candidate to you for the same role.

- Justin Kent

Next Steps in Job Hunting

Today I had the pleasure of giving a talk to the library & information studies students at UCL in London.

Talking to the students about the range of jobs where they could apply their skills, and where they could find those jobs, brought home once again the huge scope of the information profession.

Information is ubiquitous, and everywhere it is found it needs to be organised, retrieved and disseminated.  The result is information management jobs everywhere.  Roles that utilise information management skills pop up in the private, public and third sectors, in banks, law firms and in industry, in charities, institutes and societies, in government, local councils and academia – the list goes on and on.

Not only is the location of information jobs so varied, but also the content of the jobs themselves.  Once upon a time the choice for graduating students seeking their first professional post was ‘assistant librarian’ or ‘information officer’.  Today I didn’t even try to put up a representative list of job titles on the screen – the font would have had to be too small for anyone to read!

Evolving technologies has led to all the various types of ‘information work’ to both expand and to blur together and converge; the core skills gained during an information studies qualification can equally be used in information management, records management or knowledge management roles.

As a result of these changes, much of my talk focused on skills analysis and identification, searching for jobs based on the skills they call for, not on job title, and creating tailored CVs to carefully match your skills to those specified in the job description. 

During a lively Q&A at the end of the session one student asked about the impact of social media and especially LinkedIn on finding a job – did I recommend students having a profile on these sites?  I replied that both recruiters and employers make use of sites such as this, either to find people with the experience/skills that fit their vacancy or to compare with CVs and check for professional (or unprofessional!) activities.  My advice would be to definitely have a profile on a professional social networking site, and also to cast an eye over your other, more social/informal, online presence to make sure you giving an impression you’d be happy for your future employer to see.

- Nicola Franklin

Recruiting the UK’s Meerkat Ambassador: Simples

One of the things I love the most about the world of recruitment is the diverse range of candidates I get to meet. However nothing I’ve experienced to date could have prepared me for the line-up I faced this week.

For the last two days I have been interviewing candidates for the role of UK Ambassador to the Meerkat village of Meerkovo. No you didn’t read that wrongly; that’s Meerkovo, home to Aleksandr Orlov and a community of highly frustrated meerkats. Despite Aleksandr releasing epic trilogy adverts, documentaries, an iPhone app and even writing a best selling book, the confusion between meerkats and cheap insurance deals continues to have a major effect on the villagers of Meerkovo and their livelihoods. The successful applicant will become the meerkats’ first ever, human, UK-based Ambassador and will be required to represent Meerkovo at a number of high-profile sporting and cultural events to raise awareness of the plight of the village.

Thousands of people applied for the role and understandably so as it does come with a not inconsiderable £40k salary for six months’ work. On the strength of their written applications, and in some cases accompanying Youtube videos, the group was whittled down to 24, all of whom were invited in for a face to face interview. I was asked to act as an independent recruitment consultant, leading the interview process and ultimately helping to shortlist a final group who will campaign publicly for the role.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from the chosen few but given the people who I would be putting through their paces included a croupier, a zookeeper, a former bodybuilder and a parrot trainer I was keeping an open mind. On the whole they didn’t disappoint. 

For the role of ambassador we wanted someone who showed a clear understanding of the problems facing Meerkovo, outstanding communication skills, in-depth experience of using social media, and the social skills needed to make an impact at public events. There is no doubt whatsoever that each and every one of the candidates desperately wanted the role. Who wouldn’t? As opportunities go it doesn’t get much better. But whilst some of the candidates rose majestically to the challenge, delivering engaging interviews and showing exactly why they fit the bill, others were not as successful in responding to the demands of the brief.

It is imperative to remember that no matter what role you’re gunning for the fundamental principles of successful interviewing remain the same:

-           Prepare, prepare and prepare some more. You can never prepare too much.

-           Adopt an enthusiastic, alert, positive mindset. You don’t have to try to be someone you’re not but make sure you show some spark from the outset. If the chemistry is missing invariably your chances have gone.

-           Answer the brief. Identify the key criteria and ensure you demonstrate how you tick the necessary boxes.

For me it’s back to recruiting the UK’s best talent in PR, comms and social media. The shortlisted finalists for the Ambassador role will be announced on the 10th May and I wish them all the very best of luck as they thoroughly deserve their shot at glory.

Tim Court

How much does a bank holiday really cost?

The cost to the economy of a single bank holiday is £6bn according to the CBI.  With four such holidays in the next two weeks this equates to a £24bn hit to the UK at a time of already struggling finances. At Fabric we certainly foresee a slow-down in recruitment activity as many people will be off work from today until May 3^rd. 

However, what the CBI’s calculations don’t include are the benefits to the workplace of a much needed rest and recuperation period.  Employers and employees have been under severe pressure for the best part of three years now and the chance for two long weekends in a row combined with a national celebration is a welcome and well deserved break for many.  The benefits really could outweigh the costs.  We hope you all have a great few weeks.

- Justin Kent

Recruitment is easy, right?

All HR need to do is find recruitment partners who send as many CVs through as quickly as possible.  Well perhaps, if you base your success metrics purely on ‘time to hire’.  But what happens six months after the onboarding is complete?

In my experience, having recruited for both a global high-street recruiter and several niche industry-specialist recruiters over the past 20 years, many clients see recruitment as a cost rather than an investment, despite platitudes about people being their most important asset.

Viewing recruitment from this mind set leads to the assumption that lower cost and higher speed are good, in-depth discussions and anything else that slows things down are bad.

I have never understood this approach.  In today’s risk conscious world, especially, why would organisations hire key people on a purely transactional basis, blindly taking on the risk of engaging recruiters based on the speed of their service and lowest cost?

It makes me wonder whether those agreeing contracts with outside recruitment services have any understanding of the knowledge and skills that go into a high quality recruitment process.  Do organisations really want recruiters who will pull CVs off an online job board and email them through, in some cases without ever having spoken to the ‘candidate’?  That is the ultimate ‘high speed’ reaction to an ‘automated email alert’ of a vacancy, and means CVs can be uploaded onto the hirer’s system within minutes of the vacancy ‘going live’. 

Does this mean that the people who’s CVs are submitted are actually a good fit to the role?  Or to the company?  At best, it probably means that some of the keywords from the job description might be found on the CV.  At worst, it means the candidates have never heard of the organisation or the job, and will have to be persuaded to attend an interview if any of their CVs do happen to be a close enough match.

To help busy, stressed HR teams understand what makes up a high quality recruitment process, I thought I would share the process we follow here at Fabric:

Ensuring a full understanding of the job brief

• What is the culture of the organisation?
• Listing and also qualifying the duties of the role
•  Discovering the department structure and fit into the organisations’ business model
• Understanding the team dynamics and the personality which will fit well into the group
• Finding out which technical skills &/or previous experience will enable the candidate to do the job successfully

This understanding can be gained much more easily and to a greater degree at a face to face meeting, ideally including the line manager as well as HR.  To save time when there is an urgent requirement, much of the information around organisational culture and department structures can be gathered during an earlier meeting.

Sourcing candidates

Good recruiters have a wealth of methods available to them to identify and source high quality, carefully matched, candidates to suit the job brief:

• People they have already met, possibly several times over the years or at industry networking events, as well as during a registration interview
• People on their database, who have submitted CVs either for earlier advertised vacancies or on spec, who may have had a telephone screening call
• Advertising on the recruiter’s website, which if they are well known in their sector (why would you be using anyone else?) will be a regular port of call for both active job seekers and those ‘keeping an eye on the market/salaries’ and reading the recruiter’s blog/twitter posts
• Advertising on niche job boards, appropriate to the functional &/or industry sector of the role or organisation
• Candidates from all these sources would be screened, selected and then contacted for a detailed briefing on the job opportunity – these first steps may generate an initial shortlist to present to the client

The process doesn’t stop there, however.  However strong some of these candidates appear, it is likely that people who are an even better match haven’t been identified yet, usually because they aren’t actively job hunting.  The recruitment process should continue while the client reviews these initial CVs:

• All candidates going through the screening process are asked for referrals of people they would recommend for the role
• Research into relevant sectors and organisations, to identify passive potential candidates whose background is a good match to the person specification and other requirements of the job brief
• Discreetly approaching those possible candidates – this requires skills to source the right people, make initial approaches, sell the role to them, sell the organisation to them, arrange times to meet and interview the candidate
• These headhunted candidates also require a higher degree of management throughout the process and the clients must be prepared to play their part to, in order to promote their organisation, the team and the role to them and increase their desire to make a career move

Managing the process

A good recruiter’s job doesn’t end at the moment they have a shortlist of candidates ready to send to their client.  To maximise the chances of a successful hire (ie, not just getting an offer accepted, but the candidate starting in the role, passing probation and going on to be a valued team member), the recruitment process needs careful management:

• Managing the expectations of both client and candidate(s) during the various interview stages, acting as a conduit for communication between the two
• Preparing candidates for interview, covering technical as well as behavioural questions, background information on the organisation and its culture, down to practicalities like a map and directions
• For candidates at final stage for permanent roles, working in partnership with the client to take up telephone peer references, focusing on productivity and performance of the candidate, the impact they had and how they worked within the team
• Negotiation of an offer, once made, covering off any candidate concerns 
• Assisting the successful candidate through the resignation (and possibly counter-offer) process
• Informing other candidates in the process of the outcomes of their applications, passing on constructive feedback on their interview performance gained from the client
• Keeping in regular contact with the successful candidate throughout their notice period to ensure they remain excited and engaged with the role up until their start date
• Maintaining periodic contact with new starters and the client to ensure that any impending concerns are caught early and can be addressed effectively

As you can see, a good recruitment service is much more than searching a job board or database and emailing over a few CVs.  It is, above all, a people centred process that cries out for a focus on quality of service, not on speed/cost.  That is the best way to mitigate the risk of a bad hire.

How long do you have to secure a good candidate for your vacancy?

With average or not-so-hot candidates you can basically take your time.  You can pass CVs to line managers for review, wait a week before following that up with them, set an interview date in two weeks time after someone’s holiday is over, not get feedback from a line manager for days after an interview, and so forth.  The average candidate will still be job hunting in the 3 or 4 weeks it might take you to reach the decision to make an offer.

Good to great candidates aren’t like this.  They are interviewing at several places at once, wowing people with their personality and skill base.  They are likely to move from application to offer stage within 2-3 weeks.  If you let your line managers sit on their CV, or not get back to you after interviews, then the chances are that you will lose them.  Even worse they could be going to join one of your competitors.

If you want to secure the best talent for your organisation you need to be agile, especially in today’s world of ‘always-on’ availability. 

- Nicola Franklin 

Making your portfolio work for you at interview

It’s the job interview. You’ve painstakingly researched the company. You’ve arrived early, shaken hands vigorously and smiled sweetly. You’ve settled into your patter, you’re answering the questions well. And, just when everything seems to be going smoothly, the question arises: “Could we see your portfolio?”

The art of putting together a portfolio is relatively simple. The art of talking through your portfolio and really making it work for you is one that surprisingly few candidates master.

When clients put together a job description it invariably covers a wide variety of desired skills and experience. So when they meet you face to face you should never forget that they want to tick off as many of those boxes as possible. As a former PR I spent many an hour wading through files trying to figure out what to put into my sleek black folder. As someone with considerably less creativity than your average MP’s expense form my aim was never to produce something which was attractive on the eye. Instead I decided to focus on producing something which encapsulated a little bit of everything that I did in my role. Yet now, as I sit on the other side of the fence interviewing candidates at all levels, I am amazed by how many portfolios focus on one thing and one thing only – coverage. Worse still I feel deflated when I sit listening to someone ploughing manfully through the umpteenth piece of coverage they achieved for campaign X, as I know that’s how the client will feel as well.    

Running an interviewer through your portfolio is actually the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the true breadth and depth of your experience and skills. However, too many candidates talk generally about campaigns that have been done within their team, and then proceed to flick through pages of coverage in an effort to prove they were a success. Whilst this may be true it’s imperative to realise that to get the most out of your interview you need to use your portfolio material to make it abundantly clear what YOU have done, and YOU only.

No matter whether you’re early in your PR career or a seasoned practitioner, think hard about what is expected of you at your level, and how you can demonstrate that with one or two tangible materials. Think about every step of each campaign and every aspect of your daily job: What do you do? What are you responsible for specifically? How did your action and work affect specific campaigns? What were the highlights? And so on and so on.

So, as an example:

-      If a campaign started with a new business pitch or proposal show examples of where you were involved (maybe brainstorming ideas, maybe drafting part or all of the presentation). This could be a single campaign, a monthly proposal, or a PR plan for the entire year

-      If you played a role in campaign development, setting the strategy and objectives, and developing the tactics, then get all relevant examples into the portfolio. This is particularly important as it allows you to show that you understood exactly what each campaign was designed to achieve, to demonstrate the clever work you did to hit those objectives, and to then relate all this to the end result (see ‘end result’ below)

-      If you managed other team members and can bring this to life, do so. Even if you simply want to show how you manage your day with a to do list, it’s all relevant to the role for which you’re interviewing

-      If writing is a key aspect of your role show the full breadth of what you’re capable of. So this could be press releases, feature articles, executive profiles, case studies, blog entries, news alerts and much more. And if you want to show how you can take a story and adapt it to different audiences, put the same release or article in multiple times, and highlight how you achieved just that

-      If you played a role in budget management show evidence of how you manage this

-      End result: frequently this will be media coverage, but it could also be many other things, including a perception shift, an event, an increase in sales, social media chatter etc. So don’t just stuff your portfolio full of coverage for coverage’s sake. Look back at the objectives, look at who the campaign was aimed at, and include the most relevant examples of why it was a success

-      Reporting – not everyone’s favourite pastime but an essential part of any future role. Be it contact reports, monthly reports, multi-agency reports or annual reports, show what you contributed specifically

-      And finally, evaluation. Online or offline it’s a vital part of a PR’s arsenal, so demonstrate how you had your say

A portfolio that is well thought out and presented will help you position yourself as someone with authority and confidence. Someone who can succinctly and effectively show exactly what value they are to their business, and how they tick all the relevant boxes required for the job that is on offer. A portfolio which is full of pretty pictures but leaves you with little opportunity to sell yourself can be more damaging than good.

Ultimately the separation will not be “Who has the most jazzy material to present?” It comes down to “Who has the most to contribute to my company?”

- Tim Court