REC's IRP - Some in favour and some not

Great article on Page 12 of Recruiter Magazine, 8 July 09 – IRP: tweaking or enhancing.

I was intrigued by the debate between some of REC’s heavyweights p12, 8 July 09, IRP: tweaking or enhancing, which discussed the timing and merits of REC’s new Institute of Recruitment Professionals.

Naturally time will tell if it is the wrong or right move and it was refreshing to see it reported that Peter Searle from Spring was in full support and one of REC’s Fellows, Steve Huxham, painted a different picture.

Let’s face it, recruiters are salespeople and salespeople want to earn money, therefore, to throw a little relevant research into the debate, a recent report from the UK’s leading Professional Management Organisations delivered by the Consultative Committee for Professional Management Organisations confirmed the following;

“The estimated lifetime economic benefit associated with holding professional qualifications and membership of a professional institute is approximately £152,000 in today’s money terms. This is comprised of £81,000 from holding professional qualifications, and £71,000 from holding membership of a professional institute.”

Perhaps this will be a factor if individual recruiters acknowledge that membership of IRP or sitting REC qualifications will positively effect the back pocket.

I personally feel any steps to professionalise any industry are good news, and in light of REC’s recent focus on Phoenixing in the industry, more professionals adhering to best and fair practice can only increase the perception of recruiters by employers in what is an extremely challenging market.

Phoenixing

The REC is inviting Government to take a tough stance on Phoenixing as highlighted in Recruitment Consultant Magazine today.

I remember an REC event last year where some senior figures in the recruitment industry were laughing about how this was how they had made their money in the sector, so this practice seems to be quite common and at all levels in the industry.

I left the conversation at the point this was raised because I have no time for people who create other's misery and as an ex employee of the REC, I like them, would love to see this stamped out and those who have profited exposed.

Well done REC, cast the net far and wide and look into all the nooks and crannies.

Mixed messages regarding impact of job boards on HR hiring

I was with one of the largest UK job boards last week and largest UK recruiters this week and received mixed messages about the impact of job boards on HR's hiring activity.

The job board indicated that direct employers were just not posting and that recruiters were still and always have been the predominant user of its boards.

The recruiter indicated that they have lost considerable business to job boards with direct employers choosing to test the online channels available.

I'm interested in the community's intelligence on this matter because I would like to pull some representative statistics together to share with the community.

Many thanks.

Sad but true ...

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the maiden flight of Concorde 002 (the first British Concorde) from Filton, Bristol in April 1969. In the intervening years Concorde flew thousands of business travellers at supersonic speeds to close multi-million pound deals and in a style and comfort previously unknown in aviation. Concorde scorched passengers to New York in just 3.5 hours from Heathrow and won the hearts of all who loved design, imagination and technological advancement. It was a true icon of it’s time.

How sad it is then that Concorde, which was permanently grounded in 2002, was the last great hope for ground breaking science in aviation. In the first sixty years of the last century we saw advancements taking us from the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina to our first steps on the moon. In the subsequent 40 years we have only seen retrograde steps and boring, slow aircraft.

RIP manufacturing, RIP innovation, RIP Concorde.

Gareth

Recession Virgin

After confessing to being a Recession Virgin at My Long Lunch today, I highlighted why I was qualified to speak on the subject of ‘Innovation During Times of Recession’.

Quite simply, like almost everyone else in the room (my fellow Virgins), I have had to perform a 360 degree analysis of our business and implement creative and innovative measures to drive the business forward through these challenging times.

I shared my methodology with the group because a definite balance is needed between continuing the focus on traditional operating strategy and thinking creatively and innovatively.

I strongly believe that people should first think innovatively about how their businesses currently operate, not how to take them and their service offering(s) in new directions. It is vitally important to analyse what activities are still delivering value and do more of the same, before starting to identify innovative pathways. In essence, there is no room for panic tactics.

Once you have streamlined the business and shored up the spine of your operation and business strategy, you can start to be creative and innovative to support the strengthened operation, just like a team sports manager who builds a solid structure but when necessary substitutes in players who can bring width, depth strength or pace, depending on the challenges faced by opponents game by game.

Our innovations feed off what we have already built at Brainhunter to add further value to clients, and part of me is thankful of the economic situation because without it, we wouldn’t have thought of, researched and launched a range of complimentary and innovative solutions that give Brainhunter competitive edge.

If you innovate in a controlled manner, you can test new theory’s and approaches without risk, because doing something might yield a result and it might not, whereas doing nothing always generates nothing, in fact you could start to go backwards.

In addition if you don’t innovate and others around you do and strike gold, when the economic situation improves, imagine how far ahead of you they will be!

Join The Staffing Division

The Staffing Profession is the specialist networking and promotional platform for everyone with an interest in Recruitment, HR and Recruiting Technology.

http://www.staffingprofession.com

Once you are a member you can look up other members and invite them to be friends to grow your network and communicate with it collectively.

Also, set up a Corporate Group so you can promote your business.

In your own profile you can use the blog feature and add and take part in all discussions on the forum.

You can also set up events and invite people to attend them from within the community.

To build the membership base there is a feature for you invite all your contacts to join that have an interest in any facet of staffing.

Use it as a communication, networking and lead generation tool.

According to REC there are in excess of 100,000 people working in the recruitment industry in the UK alone.

That would be a good start!

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

An interesting debate this morning with my train friends regarding the logic surrounding candidates' fears for applying for jobs and switching roles, given the current economic uncertainty.

It was a real dividing subject because some believed it was better to stick with the devil you know and take the safe option. This also included crossing ones fingers that the incumbent company can ride the economic storm.

Other's, including myself, thought that every business is being affected in one way or another at present so if a company is employing, it means they are growing or replacing a critical role, which should generate a perception of safety and if you are a good candidate you can negotiate the right package for your ability.

What do you think?