Over the last year I have written over 200 posts on my blog, Sirona Says. People keep asking which was my favourite or my best post. So what I have done here is to pick my favourite posts - for different reasons - from 2008( in no particular order) below. This excludes my last post of 2008 which I am still laughing about (very very funny) and my best post of 2008( in terms of page views ) because I actually wrote it in 2007!! So here are some of my favourites for 2008:
1. Top 20 Employee Referral Rewards Schemes
I was recently working with a client on their recruitment process, and one of the areas that they were keen to explore was around employee referral rewards / incentives. They knew what they were currently offering was minimal, and wanted to be able to offer a range of incentives to reward their staff for referring new employees to the company.
So using my network on LinkedIn and other contacts, I reached out to all the HR and recruiter contacts (corporate and agency) to see what other companies were doing around employee referrals and what they were giving as incentives. The question that I posed was, “Does anyone know of any employee referral rewards / schemes, that are a little different?” Thanks to the fantastic response I received, I was able to make some excellent suggestions to my client.
Continue to read this post
2. CareerBuilder’s new marketing tool - Sexual Innuendo!!
There has been alot of discussion about an advert for CareerBuilder that went a little too far. It was so close to the mark that YouTube pulled the video and Cheezhead gave it an R rating. See what you think, but beware those of you, who are easily offended you might feel the need to sit down!! Feel free to laugh loudly but this was meant to be a serious production !!
3. Is it any wonder recruiters go mad?
Reading a good post on small business interview process on HRWorld got me thinking. A recently frustrating experience with a client left me, as the recruiter feeling embarrassed on behalf of my candidate for the time it took for the interview process.
How about this then (bearing in mind the role is for a junior coordinator role, and it is urgent) for a timeline for recruiting this member of staff?
Take brief from Client——relevant cv’s provided in 2 days——-1st interview 3 days later (going well so far isn’t it!)———-now we start to hit the quicksand!!———-although very pleased with 1st candidate, wants to see more———-interviewed more 3 weeks later———-take 2 to 2nd stage assessment interview (including my original) - we are now in 6th week(!)———-they dither and they can’t make a decision so telephone interview the 2 candidates again - in another week!———- hang in there it gets better!———-then in week 9 the candidates have to have a ‘final’ telephone interview with a very senior global head of business (remember, it is only a junior position!)———- during week 10 they discuss the outcome of this interview————-then finally in week 11 they offer the role to the ‘other candidate’———-in week 12 they accept it!!!!!!!
And of course that doesn’t include the notice period the candidate had to serve! so in total it took nearly four months to recruit a junior position!!! Is it any wonder that recruiters go mad quicker than other industry sectors??
(And just for reference, my candidate went to a different company interview at 2pm and by 5pm had an offer - she was so good they didn’t want to lose her!!)
Any of you had any similar (or worse) stories?
4. How can SME’s improve their recruitment?
Last week a journalist from Making Money magazine asked me some questions about on the subject of how owner/managers of SMEs can improve their recruitment technique and locate the right people for their vacancies. One of the questions he asked, prompted some further thought from me (dangerous I know!).
Question: Recruiting can be time consuming and costly. What general advice would you give to SMEs about how they can improve their recruitment procedures and locate the people they need faster?
This is a subject close to my heart, as I do work with SME’s, consulting with them about this lovely subject called recruitment! I also wrote about this subject on this site aimed at SME’s . Here are some of my thoughts on how SME’s should go about recruiting staff in an practical and cost effective way. The first steps to do are:
5. Generation Z’ers - 10 Things you need to know
While the business world (and certainly the recruitment world) are worrying about the Generation Y’ers, and how to engage with them, I wonder how many companies (if any apart) are starting to think strategically ahead……..to the Generation Z’ers. These are people defined as being born after 1995, which means that the first ones will be starting to make education decisions over the next couple of years that will shape their lives - and those of employing companies. So what will Generation Z’ers be like?
Here are my 10 things that you as an employer will have to consider when it comes to generation Z’ers:
6.Are you a Mad Scientist, a Schmoozer or a Big Cheese?
Do you hunt, implement or influence? Your personality type can define your character, what you will achieve and how you perform in the business world. Matthew Baysfield from Tree has defined nine different personality types - can you identify which of these apply to you?
7. Why are they called Generation Y?
Ever wondered why Generation Y was given it’s name? Well, a canadian cartoonist came up with this very apt suggestion as to why they are called generation Y.
8.THE MOST bizarre Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) sales video ever!!
Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) has obviously come along way in it’s evolution over the last few years, but has it come far enough for this? I found this video from Accolo, and I have to say that it is one of the most bizarre sales videos ever, when you consider it is actually selling RPO services. I guarantee you will laugh with disbelief…….
Told you it was mad!!
9.Ten things you need to know about recruiting Generation Y’ers
Yesterday someone was asking me about the difficulties they have in recruiting generation Y’ers. Judging by the amount of searches for ‘generation y’ on one of my Adwords campaigns, they are not alone. It is something that is generating alot of interest for companies needing to recruit new staff. I am finding myself busier with clients who feel they need to examine their candidate attraction strategies, to make sure they don’t miss out on this particular generation. Shamless plug, but if your company is in that situation, feel free to contact me to discuss it further.
There has been much written about this generation (defined as being between 13-27 years old), but I thought I would repost something I wrote last year on a different blog, that I feel is still relevent, about their philosophy to work. So here are 10 important things you need to know about recruiting gen Y’ers:
10. “Get to work, or it will be the Cattle Prod for you!”
Over the last couple of weeks, there has been much talk in the press about the idiotic decision to use a TV presenter to help drive down the numbers of long term unemployed people. It seems that many of the writers agree with me that a self opinionated, arrogant and ‘ratings focused’ person is probably not the way forward, and that there must be a better more focused way to help this group of people.
Enter the Australians, with an idea of how they should approach their long term unemployed.
Recently, one of their new politicians, John Williams, made his maiden speech in the Australian Parliament. In it, he was a little outspoken(!!!) on the subject of unemployment…….”There are many people living on employment benefits who were ‘determined not to work’. The long term unemployed are simply getting a free ride on behalf of tax payers of Australia and it is about time they received a touch on the backside with a cattle prodder to get them off their butts and actually do some work!”
11. The Timeline of Internet Recruiting
Images are more powerful than words,today’s post!
These are taken from an absolutely superb presentation by Michael Marlatt from Cloud Recruiting. He gave the presentation at Sourcecon 2008 in the US, which by all accounts was the best of the show. The full presentation can be downloaded from his website.
12. Sit down, shut up and listen for a second…………..
This is a post that applies to the unfortunate people that have been victims of the CC or R - please notice that I am not using the dreaded words (I am sure you can work those out!), and any others that are currently out there on the job market. From the recruitment perspective (corporate recruiters or recruitment consultants), we get fed up with many job seekers completely wasting everybody’s time. From sending totally irrelevant CV’s for jobs (yes you do need qualifications to be an astronaut!), spamming companies/agencies with continual duplicate CV’s to sending huge bulk email CV’s lists. They are all a complete waste of effort and time and should be avoided.
So over a (large) cup of coffee, I started to compile a long list of do’s and don’ts for job seekers. So if you know anybody in that situation, please feel free to pass this on to them!!
So here are my 50+ do’s and don’ts of job seeking:
I hope you have enjoyed these as much as I have enjoyed writing them!!