Interesting Daze Ahead

Full marks to ATSCo, and the highly charged Ann Swain, for it’s (her) announcement in yesterday’s Recruiter magazine that they intend to take on the World and embrace all professional recruitment within their new incarnation, APSCo.

When I first heard the news, a couple of months ago, I thought it sad for the industry but quickly recovered my corporate head and asserted my well honed mantra that ‘any competition is good news, not bad’. At least there will now be pressure on REC to ensure it stops relying on its 75-years of history and market dominance and starts looking to its future for survival.

There is no better time than November to launch a competing organisation; being as it is, just ahead of 1st December when REC historically issues its corporate membership invoices for 2009 Membership, but I assume this point wasn’t missed by the APSCo Executive, and I’m also guessing there will be a few late night meetings in Welbeck Street; when someone gets around to reading Recruiter anyway, to consider a ‘rapid response’. That’ll be tough when your new competitor has captured 6 pages of the leading industry magazine to promote its launch. I make it 2-0 to APSCo at this stage but the games only just started,

But all parties should remember that there are plenty of goals to go for; REC has only about 35% of recruitment businesses in membership, and by my reckoning that means there is room for at least 3 major players in the market – so, there could even be room for me to get a game!

Ann, please don’t underestimate those out there for whom ‘professional staffing’ is an oxymoron when applied to Recruitment. In my first week at REC I was told by a senior official at DTI (now BERR) that I had to understand ‘it is a very dodgy industry’ and that view hasn’t really changed much since. If you are genuinely focused on the professional end of the market then you have to make sure the offering is far bigger, better and more highly valued by observers than just another badge. The title ‘Professional’ comes with equally high expectations of you and I wish you well in achieving them.

Gareth

Trust me I'm a Banker!

REC and partners Lloyds TSB have today announced the launch of its new Industry Report to March 2008. Sadly they closed the books just before the downturn started to impact on the market but it is none-the-less an invaluable piece of work and it seems quite rosie.

Overall total industry billings (inc. temp salaries) continued to rise and passed £27 billion for the first time ever.

Perhaps more alarmingly, much of the increase came from Perm placements which recorded a significant rise (from £3.5 billion to £4.2 billion). As we all know Perm business is the first to be hit in a downturn and Q3/4 figures for 2008 from the High Street will severely punish this trend. Equally alarming was the decline in Temp placement in the report (1.8% year on year). We desparately need Temp work to hold up if we are to weather the storm.

The biggest single challenge still facing the industry is the continuing decline in margins and let's not forget that guys; as we say at the sharp end, tunover is vanity, profit is sanity and, especially in a downturn, cash is reality.

With the massive reduction in the BoE base rate yesterday, intended to fuel spending in the shops pre-Christmas, let's hope hirers take the bait and spend, spend, spend commercially and don't batten down the hatches for 2009.

Gareth

Winter Blues

Well the news continues to look cold and bleak; but then it always does if you choose to believe it. I admit to being a perennial optimist but even with a pessimists hat on I still don’t buy the media puff and hype about recession. I will accept down turn and that things are going to get tough for a while but as the saying goes “When the going gets tough etc”.

What really convinced me that economists are starting to muse about recovery was the announcement last week by GB that we could face recession, and this came at the same time as the Bank of England announced a net deficit of 0.5% negative growth over the last 3 months. When politicians announce gloom they usually have the magic trick under way and are ready to reveal the ‘rabbit’. Watch for January when they announce that they have saved the day, avoided recession and we are heading back for happier days. But then what do I know … I’m only a businessman.

Think of the down turn as a snowy day when you have to travel on a motorway. It’s unlikely that you can safely do 90 mph (sorry, 70 Officer!) or do 30 in top gear but you can come down a few gears and be ready to put your foot down when the road ahead clears. I say bide you time, do all the housekeeping that you have been putting off during the busy days; start with the database and refresh the content, do some internal brainstorming, keep closely in touch with clients, sympathise with their woes, write press releases and start telling everyone how well you are doing. Above all be ready for 1st January when hearts and minds turn to the future and they go in search of the New Year Recruiter.

Hit a man when he's down!

I have to say that I was devastated, if not really surprised, to hear the outcome of the EU vote on the Agency Workers Directive. After seven years of tireless effort by the REC, this comes as a real blow for the UK recruitment industry. REC put up a good fight but lost ground recently to the reviving strength of the TUC under Gordon Brown’s Government and the persistent claim by Brendon Barber that ‘Temporary work is a demonic form of labour’ – well, there is going to be a shed load of demons on the dole now Brendon unless you do something to help delay its implementation.

Knowing how the EC works, I doubt if the department dealing with the woes of the financial crisis have been talking to those considering the AWD or they would have concluded that passing AWD into law at this particular time is bloody stupid! Every Agency in the Hauptstrasse will tell you that employers are somewhat windy about making permanent placements in a period of economic uncertainty; preferring to opt for the flexibility that temporary placements afford, and this is certainly the case at the moment. So, is this really the time to impede an already pressurised marketplace with more legislation?

But never mind because inspired recruitment pundits are already saying “Don’t worry we have 18 months to do something before it will be implemented!” Don’t worry! Don't these people understand that in business terms 18 months is tomorrow and if their own business planning is that short term, then I worry for the future of pundits! (Not surprisingly, an anagram of Pundits is Stupid ‘N).

For once, can we simply just NOT be good Europeans? I have watched for years as every other Member State has nodded deferentially to new legislation and then overlooked its local implementation for years and years; the French and Italians are especially good at this. The British on the other hand debate it and immediately roll over, implementing it at the earliest possible opportunity.

Burying our collective head is one option but in reality there is no better time for the industry to pull together and jointly craft the method by which ‘implementation’ is interpreted in the UK; this will only mitigate the damage but traditionally we have always accepted the beating and then exposed our privates to ensure maximum effect. This time we should use every defence possible to protect our position.

Gareth

Home thoughts from abroad

I'm watching a Floridian sunrise as I write this piece and may tend to romanticise a little - it's difficult to resist in this breathtaking environment - but I met a recruiter in a bar earlier in the week (like you do) and she invited me to speak at a network meeting of Staffing Agencies in Florida. Great opportunity I thought but do I really want to turn this into a 'Busman's holiday'. I went along anyway and boy am I glad I did.

I was welcomed very warmly, introduced as the guest speaker (news to me) and given the floor. I talked a bit about experiences and then threw the session open for questions.

The leader, a girl who had previously worked for Manpower; and spent sometime in the UK, started by asking me the $64,000 recruitment question - 'Why don't you guys in the UK ever talk to each other?" I admitted that she had already exceeded the scope of my knowledge and asked if she had read my blog, as it was a long standing hobbyhorse.

Two things struck me about this group as the session unfolded; firstly, they were prepared to discuss anything (even pricing, with no mention of the dreaded 'c' word), openly talking about their clients and sharing contacts and secondly, their relationship with their clients (mostly on an RPO type arrangement) seemed so much more professional (or do I mean open) than ours in the UK. They were comfortable being recruiters and were seen as professionals, offering a professional and essential business support service.

It still baffles me why we seem so uncomfortable in our UK recruitment skin and feel shy about the obscene margins we no longer make! And more importantly why we don't speak out collectively to correct these misunderstandings!

I think there are massive lessons to learn from America and it might be a good source for new young talent; at least 30% of the audience I spoke to would love a 12-24 month opportunity to work in the UK (and explore those 'quaint little towns' in Europe). Who knows REC could even create an exchange scheme with its friends at ASA (the American Staffing Association).

Gareth

Banking on recovery

At last the Banking Community has received its due return and should be mighty humbled by the chaos its greed has caused the global economy. For too long now Bankers have looked down on small business owner/managers and pontificated about the need for good financial practice and sound cash flow controls and at every twist and turn limited our ability to grow, invest and take the essential risks associated with innovative business development. Well yah-boo-sucks! Because we might just have been right and they have definitely been proven wrong. When I look at the tax payers money invested to bail them out I can't help wondering what else we could have innovatively done with all those billions of pounds as an alternative plan to rescue the economy.

I really hope that next time around Bankers leave their undeserved arrogance behind, remember that banking is not the be-all and end-all and learn lessons about good customer service.

A thought for the business day

"The weak set their own goals and always achieve them,
The strong look to others and strive to exceed."

Gareth

Probably my best justification for a challenging NXD on the Board

R's about face

I visited over 1000 recruitment firms across the UK, Europe and the USA during my time at the REC and since leaving, in late 2006, I have worked with a handful of the best; all ambitious, targeted and successful businesses in their sector. I now think I have fathomed why so many recruiters fail to achieve their true potential and the professional recognition they rightfully deserve.

One thing always hits me when I start to get inside the mind and culture of a recruitment business; in most cases the best recruiter in the business is in the wrong job.

I sit around with business leaders listening to them bemoaning the lack of good consultants these days; ‘Oh they aren’t as committed as we were, they don’t do the hours, don’t build the relationships and they never take time to understand the clients (or the candidates) and the benefits they want!’ It all starts to sound rather Pythonesque and only gets worse when I ask ‘So who is the best recruiter then’ and they point surreptitiously at each other (or themselves). So I ask myself, if the best recruiters are playing at being MD, Ops Director and other posts with meaningless titles, why aren’t they still Recruiters? I say that the great recruiters should become even greater recruiters rather than shifting uncomfortably sideways and becoming less than adequate business managers, leaders and directors.

My solution would be to scrap the traditional model of a recruitment agency where consultants become team leaders, become branch managers, become area managers or directors and then find themselves so far away from the coal face that they simply shuffle paperwork, calculate the PAYE and make themselves, operationally, redundant. After all, we all know that most sales people make appallingly bad managers, so why do we persist in letting the blind lead the ill-informed.

Now, please don’t think this observation is a slight on recruiters; in fact, there is nothing I rate more highly than a top performing Consultant. I genuinely regard them as an artist; as good as any Ronaldo, Amy Winehouse or Tracey Emin, but let’s face it they aren’t great business leaders or administrators and rarely get to grips with the ‘back office’. Even Richard Branson considers his success attributable to his ability to put the right people around him to do the things he can’t (and doesn’t want to) do himself.

Therefore the answer is surprisingly simple and you only have to look to those two others business outsourced professions for a clue; Lawyers and Accountants, to learn how it should be done. When you enter the Accountancy Profession you train, you qualify and you become a junior accountant, you eventually progress and become a senior accountant. This leads to you becoming a Department Head (still a lawyers) or even a world-renowned specialist, and you eventually make Partner; still practising the law, and with ever increasing rates charged for your time and knowledge. Now I know senior lawyers don’t do the donkey work, they have juniors, but they do lead teams in support of major clients and they remain client facing. Oh, and most importantly, the business management and administration is performed by a team of business managers, maybe even a General Manger, who works for the Lawyers and are bought in for their expertise in that field and run the business around and for the owners.

So I say let’s adopt the same style of structural governance as the professions and keep recruiters doing what they are great at; recruiting. How knows some of the professional status may also rub off.

Gareth


I refer to this as the “Boon Gatherers” model for the significant advantages I believe it brings to the business. For more details contact me directly.

Stressed Out!

I was concerned by the recent report from the Stroke Association that cited recruitment as a highly stressful job. At least I was worried until I saw that in second place came the legal profession; I can only assume they suffer stress from the constant increase in their fees and from worrying about the choice of colour for the next Porsche.

Now I readily recognise that recruitment is a highly charged, target driven and fast-paced industry but I am worried that it all too often suffers from the headless-chicken syndrome rather than the wise old owl. As someone who suffered a brain tumour at forty, which ‘may’ have been stress induced, I can confirm that chasing your own tail all-day-every-day is less than effective and eventually leads to structural collapse.

I think it's time the REC started to do some work into the effectiveness of the general recruitment model; that has staff chasing numbers; phone calls, registrations, interviews, placements and fees in a regime that thinks you are a part timer if you leave the office before 8pm, and researched a more intelligent way to do the business. Wh knows it might even lead to a reduction in the ridiculous levels of staff turnover in the industry.

The Stroke Association Report could be just the spring board we need to professionalise the profession.

Gareth

Niche Job Boards

After serving as the MD of REC's technology subsidiary and doubling up as their acting technology director during the highly innovative and productive 'Osborne years', I developed a specialism in online recruitment and recruiting technology.

I saw everything from the existing to the truly innovative, however, one technology stood out from the crowd and I am delighted to be heading up its penetration into the UK marketplace for many reasons.

Brainhunter provides its proprietary job board technology to professional body's and membership groups in partnership, to enable them to add a new member/audience service and capitalise on the myriad of benefits of operating a professional niche job board.

These include, adding a specialist membership/audience service to support its career aspirations, injecting a number of ways of generating new revenue streams, driving additional individual and corporate visitors to the host site and enhancing search engine ranking due to the dynamic content created by the job board.

I chose the picture above because it highlights one of the key areas of negative feedback I was given continuously at REC regarding the excessive volume of unsuitable applicants provided by online channels, a problem solved by all Brainhunter powered job boards.

One of the main reasons I was bowled over by Brainhunter's technology was that it matches each online applicant to the posted job specification across 200 data points and separates applicants into 'A' and 'B' matched lists. This ensures the best candidates on paper are not buried at the bottom of the pile. In addition, Brainhunter only works with organisations with an established professional membership, so advertisers know in advance they are targeting their efforts to the correct audience.

In addition, the advertiser desktop operates as a mini ATS and enables all candidates to be communicated to at the click of a button and suitable candidates routed within the recruiter and employer with ease.

Job seekers are the main focus of Brainhunter's attention, which is why they are given four levels of data security to ensure they are in complete control of who does and does not have access to their personal details.

Finally, Brainhunter has bridged the gap between online recruitment and print advertising by enabling all advertisers to surround each job posting with a four sided template to promote their corporate and employer brand and communicate their key recruiter/employer messaging.

During my years before, during and after REC I watched and commentated on the development of the online recruitment industry and in my opinion the only real change is the mass of boards that have developed without a tremendous amount of innovation or methodology to serve up suitably matched candidates to recruiters and employers.

The result is the propensity for recruiters and employers to have to purchase costly matching and parsing technology or spend valuable man hours matching more CV's than ever to job specifications.

Surely the job boards should take some responsibility in supporting their clients to achieve maximum efficiency. Brainhunter certainly does!

Toothless Tiger

Again this week someone felt compelled to tell me what they thought was wrong with our professional body and concluded “The trouble with the REC is that it has no teeth!”

In my normal, less than tactful, way I was quick to climb onto my soap box and exercise my theory about the reality of trade associations, which is that: All Trade Bodies (from the CBI to the Association of Acorn Crafters) have whatever power their membership chooses to give them. They can be as toothy and voracious as the Membership demands and the good ones (backed by their Members) have bite and the weak ones invariably get bitten. Put simply: “Members get the Trade Association (or Professional Body) they deserve.”

My headmaster’s report on REC Members would say “Good when present!” Sadly all too many recruiters abdicate their corporate responsibility and leave it to the few to get involved. I promise that if more took an active interest in their REC they would see the returns come back to them, ten fold. There would be far less legislation level against the industry, far fewer complaints about it and much higher margins across the board (and yes, it is that important!).

This is just another justification of my belief that “Recruitment is the spotty youth of British business” – see earlier Blog.

Gareth

Reed on!

Congratulations to REC on winning Reed back into the fold; after an 8 year absence. This is a major achievement and one that will bring considerable kudos to the Confederation. I am sure Kevin Green, as the new CEO, is delighted. I couldn’t do it during my time there and it took me leaving the REC to even get a meeting with James.

However I guess the greatest pleasure will be felt by the ex-Acting CEO, Helen Reynolds; who must be thrilled to have achieved what I always suggested was, the unachievable. Now she's gone I hope someone, at least in part, attributes the success to her. Its rather like REC winning Trade Association of the Year soon after I left and knowing it takes two or three years to be eligible to win; you hope a little reflected glory rubs off.

Winning back Reed certainly proves that ‘you should never say never’ and I hope this means that the other great target is now in REC's gun sights.

Gareth

Temp from Chiswick saves the World

Yes, OK, I know it’s only science fiction but Donna Noble (aka the brilliant Catherine Tate) may have done the Recruitment Industry a massive favour yesterday when she became the first female Time Lord and defeated the Daleks all in sixty minutes; and at an amazingly good hourly rate! Now if that doesn’t prove the value of a good temp, nothing does.

On a more serious note, I really hope Recruiter picks up this obvious marketing boon and invites Ms Tate to present an award at its next industry celebration, and only then if not beaten to it by the REC which should use her to present the One-in-a-Million award for the best Temporary Worker. I might have personally been tempted to create a parallel award for the ‘Best Temp in Chiswick’.

Mind you, having left the REC over 18 months ago, I am in little doubt that there are those out there who refer to me as ‘Dr. Who?’

Gareth

'Throwing a McQueen'

Well I have to say I was pleased by the number of recruiters who agreed with my comments about the wayward Mr. Lee McQueen and his dodgy dealings in The Apprentice. Recruiter gave it a good airing, on the website and in the magazine, and I’m pleased that under Dee Dee’s stewardship they are strong enough to come out on the side of professionalism (previous staff would have preferred the sensationalism and had him as their guest speaker at the next Awards ceremony).

I do however have one comment for Phil who, almost anonymously, suggested I should ‘Get a life.’ Actually Phil, if I had still been at the REC at the time I would have asked the Membership Department to see if Lee is an individual Member and if so referred his activity to the Standards Committee under the Code of Ethics; where it says, ‘They [the Member] should represent themselves fairly, honestly and courteously at all times, and should not engage in any activities, which would bring the recruitment industry or the REC into disrepute.’ And request that he be expelled.

Lee’s cavalier attitude has been proven once more, if the press is to be believed, where today they claim that Lee called in sick yesterday; his first day. A ‘spokesman’ for Sir Alan’ said “He won’t be pleased.” Which I think must be a rough translation of the phrase ‘Recruiter place thy self’. Wouldn’t anyone who was really serious about proving themselves crawl over burning coals to get in on the first day? I bet Claire Young would have done!

Have no fear Lee, if you fail with Sir Alan, there are still one or two recruiters out there who will welcome you with open arms.

Gareth

The future looks bright

“The outlook for the UK economy is less than rosy, but a recession is not looming” according to the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM). I personally suport this belief and while things will get tough for a while, recruiters who have a positive cash flow and are able to weather potential client payment problems could do extremely well.

According to the latest growth forecast by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) the UK's gross domestic product (GDP) should increase by 1.7 per cent this year and 1.3 per cent in 2009. While both of these figures are lower than previous estimates, the CBI warns against being overly cautious. Richard Lambert, the CBI's director-general, said: "We should avoid believing a recession is inevitable, or talk ourselves into unnecessary trouble."

I say, "If there is grow to be had, it had better be mine!"

However, and of much more of a concern to recruiters, the report also predicts that unemployment will increase to 1.79 million by the end of 2009, meaning around 150,000 people will lose their jobs between now and then. Recruiters need to be fast on their feet to offer solutions for employers and workers alike.

One initiative to pre-empt approaching issues might be to implement a confidential ‘Staff Flow Forecasting’ exercise with your major clients and help them flex if times get tight. Feel free to contact me if you want an insight into what you could do here.

I worked with one agency recently that was wonderfully innovative in the way it worked with one of its key clients that had just lost a major order and needed to make staff redundant. The Agency agreed to take excess permanent staff onto their own books as Temps and give them assignments (some back into the original employer) until the situation improved. The client underwrote any downtime and preserved key skills and good people until replacement business was found.

Complacency is the chief killer in an economic down-turn, creative thinking is the key to survival.

Gareth

Dumbing Down Recruitment (again)

Well I have to say I was stunned when Sir Alan hired ex-recruiter Lee McQueen in the finale of The Apprentice last night and passed on the ballsy and talented Claire Young. I can only think AMS is going to find a role for him in football; I’m thinking Wide Boys United.

There can’t be many Recruiters (especially Capita) who can be proud of Lee’s achievement after the damning interview session in Week 11 when Sir Alan’s ‘aids’ determined that he lied on his CV (Was anyone else desperate to know what he was doing for the unaccounted for 20 months?) and made more spelling mistakes than the ‘pimp who bought the warehouse’. Surely these are the two Cardinal Sins for any Candidate!

What a damning indictment for the Recruitment Industry that one of its own could get it so terribly wrong! Surely this is going to give every one of our Industry’s critics a field day when they want to suggest we don’t do an honest or professional job.

Perhaps we will even see the establishment of a new defining term for CV abuse; ‘Doing a Lee McQueen’.

Recruiter Magazine (who recently described him as ‘Recruitment’s champion’ yet dropped the word Professional from its own title some years ago) could now introduce the Lee McQueen Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement to acknowledge occurrences where Standard’s reach a new, all-time, low.

Now I have to confess to making the odd grammatical gaff myself but I would certainly make a good attempt to ensure my CV was spot on if I was going to have it exposed to 12 million TV viewers and might lose the contest; needing to use it again in the future. Surely he knows someone who could have checked it for him; perhaps not!

For Claire, I hope Karen Brady is true to her word when she told Sir Alan, “If you don’t hire her, I will!” I think this is definitely a case of Sir Alan Sugar 0 Karen Brady 1.

Having said that … I have no doubt that Lee will fit in perfectly at the AMS Empire and do a few good deals for the Chief Geezer.

Gareth

UK limps in last

I didn’t bother to watch the entries in the Eurovision Song Contest last night but the voting always makes for an interesting half hour; if only to remind me where the UK stands within the European ‘Family’ of Nations.

Most of us have no idea how legislation in Europe is drawn up or voted upon. Well, having spent a considerable amount of time in discussion with the European Commission and Parliament over the last few years, I can confirm your worst fears are true and that the Song Contest is a very close and real analogy. And it equally offers no short term hope of success for the UK.

In summing up the Song Contest you might conclude that the truly talented people always steer well clear, leaving the music, lyrics and performance to a group of talentless ‘D-listers’ who struggle to produce a decent delivery. They get stacks of airtime ahead of the competition and look and seem genuinely hopeful throughout and everyone nods their acceptance and support. But when it comes to a decision the judges, who might not even be in attendance, cast their votes according to some historical prejudice or political allegiance to ensure that friends or allies win the day.

Well sadly the EU is much the same and until we put forward our ‘A-list’ performers we will never win the day; at anything.

This is particularly true in recruitment where European staffing practice is quite different to our own and we need to argue the case that we do have the best, most flexible and most sustainable model within the community (at the very least, the best for our own marketplace) and it is being destroyed by endless, unnecessary legislation. There are three things that will destroy the recruitment industry and all are gaining in strength, these are; 1) the mediocrity of Europe, 2) the rebirth of the Unions, and 3) the apathy of UK agencies.

Its time we made the last legislative imposition the final assault on the industry.

Gareth

PS. Apologies to all those who think that winning is a Neanderthal ambition and believe it is better to run with the mediocre masses in a modern caring society; I certainly don’t.

PPS. Sorry to Andy Abrahams for inferring he is a talentless ‘D-lister’.

No Deal for Recruiters

This week’s announcement that agency workers will be given the same employment rights as permanent staff after 12 weeks was a desperate blow for the UK Recruitment Industry; which has been fighting for a 12 month derogation period (or a worst case scenario of six months) for the last seven years. The Trade Unions, in a similarly arrogant position, demanded equality from Day One and secretly eluded to a more realistic expectation of 12 weeks. So who’s the winner here I ask myself?

In a week where the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, was given a public dressing down by Jan Berry, the passionate Chair of the Police Federation, for betraying the honest Copper, I hope the Chair of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation will take a similarly forthright stance and remind John Hutton and Pat McFadden at BERR that they have equally failed the UK’s 1.3 million temporary workers, the 11,000 agencies that place them and the 3.2 million businesses that are dependant upon them to manage their constantly fluctuating staffing needs. And not just leave it to the staff at the REC. Watch this space!

At a time when the Government needs to hold its nerve if the economy is to remain stable (or at least stable-ish), I am not comforted by this apparent appeasement of the Unions and worse, the French! (My earlier pieces refer).

This has been a bad week for recruitment. Not because we can’t accept this new imposition, not because we won’t again have to pick up the tab and not even because it will directly cause the loss of temporary assignments but principally because it will bring even more red tape, bureaucracy and process to an already over regulated and under policed industry and one that is being driven into the ground by a lack of appreciation.

Sometimes I feel like the last Giant Panda saying “They’ll miss me when I’ve gone.”

RIP Recruitment.

Gareth

The power of a PA

It’s a simple mathematical calculation but if new research by the Association of Personal Assistants (APA) is right then every senior manager, leader and principal must employ a PA if they want to achieve and exceed corporate targets. In a report published today the APA details the results of its survey of over 5,000 business leaders and suggests that their effectiveness is hugely enhanced by having an Aid and most report an improvement in excess of 30%.

If the average salary of a CEO for the Top 500 listed companies in the UK is over £750,000 per year then a 30% increase in their effectiveness is sufficient to fund an entire department. And that level of return on investment makes real economic sense says the APA. In a small business, where the owner director fulfils every major management role, a PA is doubly essential to ensure all the competing plates are kept spinning and none of the business critical ones are dropped; in this size business MDs also suggested that their PA is the sole guardian of their corporate quality of life and director of their work life balance.

Gone are the days when a PA was a glorified secretary (a ‘Miss Jones’) and even less true is the stereotype portraying the PA as a flunky who runs errands, makes coffee and looks attractive in the outer office. Modern PAs are highly business savvy, using every technological means at their disposal and are increasingly well educated, trained and qualified to maximise their boss’s time. They plan meetings and diaries, co-ordinate travel plans and accommodation and process all of the day-to-day issues of an executive office

A PA has to be a great communicator and even better negotiator; managing people’s expectations when they hope to access the boss, and making sure that all priority tasks are processed quickly. If you ask the modern boss what takes the most time in their busy working life most will say meetings and emails and their PA is of fundamental importance in managing the problems associated with both. As our research suggests, a good PA is worth a fortune and every business leader should have one.

I have been blessed by having three of the very best supporting me over the years (Johanne Hawes, Faye Jennings and Carly Beales), each different but each possessing an abudence of skill, good humour and patience and playing no small part in the successes along the way. Faye still calls me now and reminds me about birthdays I definitely should not forget and we haven't actually worked together for 5 years!

Gareth

The Image shows me with my two wonderful PAs, Carly Beales (left) and Faye Crisp (right)

REC goes Green

Congratulations to the REC for finally completing its process to appoint a new CEO; Kevin Green - announced today. I will resist offering advice to my successor but the obvious and immediate problem he needs to overcome is the likely claim from industry cynics that he will be a Gamekeeper turned Poacher; coming, as he does, from the world of HR – the natural prey of the recruitment industry. With the talented and highly experienced Helen Reynolds as his Number Two and Anita Holbrow as Marketing Director I am sure he will quickly grasp the realities of the job and win over the Beaters.

I certainly wish him every success in a job I adored and at a time when Agencies need strong leadership and understanding if they are collectively to overcome the revitalised TUC and a weakened Government likely to jump quickly to win influential friends.

Gareth

The height of incompetence

Are the Banks getting more incompetent or is it just me (jokers beware here)?

Yes, I know they are an easy target but why is it that their administration can be so abysmal and yet their arrogance (and profit) remains at such an award winningly high level; it’s the way they talk down to you as though you simply don’t understand how complex banking must be.

In the last twelve months Barclays have completely lost a wire transfer of £267 from one business account to a supplier in India and then completely given up on me because I dared to suggest that they try and locate it! And then today Nat West has lost the papers that Colin and I filed to open a new business account – and that after going to the branch with passports and water bills in hand for "money laundering purposes" (I tried to explain we didn’t want to launder money but I think it must be compulsory these days).

If the recruitment industry acted this badly with paperwork and identity verification the Government would bring out another swathe of legislation to keep us in our place. Its time the Customer regained their throne – let the Banker beware.

Gareth

All a matter of balance

As a former RAF pilot I learned at a very early age that keeping the various forces on your aircraft in balance was the fundamental skill required to ensure you have happy passengers and a safe flight.

Now, 30 years on, the balance may be totally different (and sadly far less exciting) but it is no less important and I have suddenly mastered the art of working from home and getting a far better work life balance than I ever have had before.

To all those who struggle into the office (especially in London) only to sit on their computer for ten hours before joining ‘the great unwashed’ on their journey home, I would say “Think about it.” I now only go into the office for meetings, cleverly arrange to coincide, and on the writing, thinking and doing days I work from my own desk, overlooking my own trees and breath a far less polluted combination of gases and feel much healthier for it. And on a sunny day (like today) the world seems a much happier place.

Working in London, especially in this weather, does have certain perks but, on balance, I think I’m far more effective in the Suburbs. I usually start at 6 am, work through to breakfast, work until lunch and again until I break for ‘Deal or No Deal’ and then do a bit more if I feel inclined or need to contact the far flung parts of the Empire. I can do three days work in one and regularly take a long weekend.

So to all my small business friends out there I would say “For once, you should do as I do not just as I say and work on your balance.”

Gareth

It's time for a change at the top in Recruitment

I believe this is possibly my most important statement about the industry and one that could change the fortunes of many within it. Please read on.

For years, and especially whilst at the helm of the REC, I tried to get Clients to believe that Recruiters are professionals. I also tried to convince Recruiters themselves by introducing better structured qualifications and even a Recruitment Degree and opened the door for the organisation to become Chartered – still, sadly, a long way off.

However I missed the key point, you can’t create a Profession overnight, but you can watch what Professionals do and learn from their experience and successes.

I want all readers to stop and think for a moment and answer the following question; What is the fundamental difference between a Lawyer and a Recruiter?

I will avoid the obvious one-liners but most will eventually agree that a Lawyers charges far more per hour for his/her time than does a Recruiter. It’s true and if you follow that logic through to its final conclusion you will also find that Senior Lawyers charge more than Junior Lawyers and Practice Principals charge heaps more than the rest.

In short; "Your Top People should be your Top Billers!" I’ll say it again; "Your Top People should be your Top Billers!" Definitely not true in most recruitment firms.

I have had the rare privilege of visiting over 2,000 recruitment agencies during my time and since leaving REC have worked with some of the best and most entrepreneurial of them (now about 40 in total) and one thing has become glaringly obvious to me; the owners are, or were, the businesses best Recruiters and they have all ‘promoted’ themselves away from recruiting to a wholly spurious role (usually titled Managing Director) which they don’t understand, have no talent or empathy for and from where they look down on lesser mortals struggling to achieve targets they themselves once realised without breaking into a sweat (and wanting more and more money for doing it)..

So why, I ask myself, don’t Recruiters learn from Lawyers and Accountants and Architects et al and create a career progression where Junior Consultants become Senior Consultants become Principals; all still doing what they are good at and all staying as fee earners.

OK, I accept that Top Lawyers don’t do the grunt work, they have juniors to do that for them, but they work with the Client (and more particularly with the Client’s CEO) and establish the relationship and lead on the important cases. And so should we.

But what about the management of the business I hear you shout, who’s going to do that? Well hire a business manager, a general manager or even an MBA. They are ten-a-penny and they can do what most recruiters can’t; they can plan, they can budget, they can administer and they can market the business and use the businesses greatest assets, its Recruiters, to maximum effect and profit.

I call this the ‘Osborne Model', or the Professionals Approach, and as the holder of a Doctorate in Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation I am told that I have the right to postulate the odd theory, so please allow or excuse me my Newtonic moment. I believe this could work for many in the industry and add significant value to their business as it grows.

Think about it. And trust me, I’m a Doctor!

Gareth

Browned Off - and facing another charisma crisis

Can you imagine how deflated Gordon must be feeling today after an appalling day at the polls yesterday? It really proves my point that real leaders must have charisma to command a following and not just an over abundance of intelligence and self belief.

Gordon won’t be the first Number Two to have aggressively and conspiratorially displaced their boss only to find they have neither the guile, guts nor panache to fill his (or her) shoes but surely he will be regretting losing his place in history as ‘The Best Chancellor ever’ to become known as ‘The worst Prime Minister in living memory’. Ergo ego!

Gareth

What is the best Recruitment Software? Answered!

During my three years at REC as their ‘Technology Bod’, I was forever being asked ‘What is the best recruitment software?’ normally on the back of being told by recruiters that everything out there is rubbish, including their own existing technology! Since leaving, it is still the main question I get asked.

Asking ‘What is the best recruitment software?’ is effectively the same as asking people ‘What is the best music band in the world?’ or ‘What is the best car?’ Everyone has a different opinion of what ‘best’ really is and how do you work it out!

Let’s take Radiohead as a personal example. They are one of the biggest bands in the world, so must be ‘best’ for many people, but they just don’t do it for me. That doesn’t make them rubbish, far from it, they just don’t hit my personal hot buttons. Likewise, no one technology is ever going to be ‘best’ for every recruiter and the objectives they have for it.

After reviewing more recruiting technologies than you could shake a stick at, I formed a fixed opinion that the majority of platforms out there are not rubbish and are in fact extremely good in terms of functionality, user ability and the potential efficiency and value they can provide to a professional recruitment business.

This provided me with a problem because after reviewing some of the technologies called into question, including some of the leading edge and emerging ones, my conclusions were probably not what recruiters wanted to hear and when I delivered my opinion and still do, it didn’t and doesn’t provide the response those asking are looking for.

I will expand!

Using my example above and relating it to recruitment software, what one recruiter thinks is good and a key feature, another will think is surplus to requirement. Throw in the different technical abilities of the users and it gets even more complex.

A business will be sold a technology and naturally all staff will be made to use it. Some will take to it like a duck to water, but others, who maybe prefer the good old days of the rolodex and the telephone will not, and in some circumstances it will effect, albeit and hopefully temporarily, their efficiency and productivity when it was actually purchased to enhance it.

This highlights just how important a decision this is and that all stakeholders in the business, including and most importantly the users must be involved in the decision making process.

In most cases I have been involved with, when the truth really comes out, the decision making process has not necessarily been based on solid and sound investigation and analysis. Recruiters are great salespeople and although it pains me to say it, I, like most salespeople, can easily get sold to.

Let’s be honest, if someone were to pitch a technology with all the bells and whistles, that will actually make the tea and sweep up at the end of the day, cheaper than anything else on the market, you wouldn’t be surprised if that technology got some interest and traction in the market.

However, once it has been taken out of the box and implemented, some will find that the tea really is great and the office has never been cleaner, but as for managing their specific client, candidate and vacancy records and facilitating placements in the style they are accustomed to, it is lacking.

Also, how much of the whizzy and jazzy functionality that closed the deal will really be used to its fullest extent or at all. I would guess that certain solutions are only being used at half strength and the core functionality elements for an individual recruiter that should have formed the basis of the procurement decision, were overlooked at the making the tea and sweeping up stage, and therefore, the technology turns out not to be the best for the job.

In addition, I have spoken to many vendors and one of the biggest issues they report is getting the training message through to the end users. Just because you can drive a car, it doesn’t mean you can drive a lorry, so absorbing and disseminating the training is as important as the procurement process. If barriers exist for doing this, then problems will ensue.

Now, some vendors can paint a good picture and sell a good story and might not be the best training organisations in the world, which is something they could brush up on, plus the sales processes can be so technical and complex that recruiters are forced to decide on price because they are so confused at the end of the process. However, if you have a solid procurement process in place you should not get caught out.

You can see where this is heading. I have told many recruiters a few home truths and that their decision making process was leaky. They did not understand what the core objectives and needs of the business were before making a purchase and it isn’t in fact the technology that is ‘rubbish’, it was the process used to identify the technology that was suspect, which created the wrong fit!

Believe me, my opinion goes down like a lead balloon, especially in seminars, where groups of recruiter’s are looking for a swift answer to what they believe is an easily answerable question.

So to draw conclusions, there is no swift answer and the only way to really identify what is the best recruitment software solution for your business is to do the necessary homework, which will include an internal needs analysis, a user and business impact analysis, a detailed specification exercise and a thorough tender process.

I expect that some recruiters believe their software to be inadequate, but in reality it might be perfectly suitable for their business and that they might be wrong to judge it without going back to the drawing board and working out what they need the system to do, and giving the vendor the opportunity to configure and train it accordingly.

If it is ultimately inadequate and a new solution is required, there is a defined, lengthy and sometimes internally painful process that you need to go through if you are to answer the question on every recruiters' lips; ‘What is the best recruitment software?’ Believe me, it’s well worth the effort!

Colin.

Recruiter Awards - congratulations to the winners

As a great supporter of meaningful awards I was especially pleased to see Bob Wicks being recognised for his outstanding contribution to the Recruitment Industry, through the award of the Gary Clark Individual Achievement Award.

Also to see an Elite Group member at the head of the pile, with Kate McCarthy of McCarthy Recruitment picking up two awards for Best Newcomer and Best Retail Recruitment Firm, was especially pleasing. It proves my point that you don’t have to be long-established to be the best – well done Kate.

Gareth

Leader, thought leader

Too many business leaders, who aspire to be a Managing Director, find themselves with nothing to do and start doing menial tasks and rarely elevate themselves to the strategic. This is true in all sectors but especially true in recruitment.

If you stop and break the words down, then a managing director is someone who manages the process of direction; the Captain of the ship – the one who says ‘hard to port me hearties’ not the one who takes the helm and steers the boat.

I like the phrase ‘thought leader’ when defining the role of an MD and explain it as ‘someone who explores opportunities (or problems) and inspires their team, through the introduction of innovative debate, with the sole aim of making progress in areas that are essential to business success or are losing focus’.

I still believe one of the very best management practices (although now seen by some as outmoded) is that of MBWA (Management By Walking About). I make a point, on every day I am in the office, of walking around and talking to people; hopefully finding out more about their life and what makes them tick but especially exploring their working life and participating in their successes and frustrations. Remembering of course that any intelligence I gather must go straight to their manager so as not to circumvent the chain of command. This also gives me the opportunity to ‘Columbo’ them; ‘One last thing before I go .. how is the Tennison Project progressing? I haven’t heard much lately’. You will be amazed what you find out and how receptive people are to you questions, ideas and solutions.

MBWA has always worked for me; give it a try, it might work for you and turn you from a busy fool into an engaged and essential thought leader in your business.

Gareth

Developing a Second String

One of the things I thank the RAF for, other than allowing me to throw their very expensive aeroplanes around the sky at 18 years of age, is my belief in ‘Secondary Duties’. Let me explain.

As a young pilot I was invited to the boss's office (euphemism for ‘Osborne – get your ass in here’) and told that I had been chosen to have meteorology as my Secondary Duty. In those days all officers had their one specialisation (what they were employed to do) and a secondary specialisation. The notion was, in my case, if the Squadron was called away with only limited support, I would be responsible for interpreting and reporting on the weather. Similarly, others were responsible for weaponry, personnel matters, rations etc. It made me study the weather, report on the weather at crew briefings. It has given me a lifelong fascination for everything meteorological.

I have transferred this thinking into commercial life by always giving my ‘Rising Stars’ a secondary duty to perform – skilling them for their new area of responsibility and challenging them to regularly feed back on their progress at team meetings and praising them accordingly.

To give you a specific … PR is always a good one. Why not appoint a member of staff to be responsible for collecting press opportunities. I don’t necessarily mean they have to write anything initially simply that they should become the collection point for good stories. If you have a point of contact (one person), everybody else knows who to tell when a client says, “That was a superb job, well done”. The responsible person can then broker a press comment or testimonial and pass it on to PR agents or web developers. Progressively people become so interested that they start writing releases, liaising with the journalists and opening their own PR agency (well it could happen).

“Ah,” I hear the doubters call, “But it will distract them from their core purpose; putting money on my bottom line!” Well, the reality is that it won’t - it will engage them further with the business, give them another spin on facets of their work and give them something else to excel at in the eyes of their peers.

The RAF was especially sadistic and as soon as you got to be good at one job, they took it off you, gave it to someone else and gave you something completely different – it certainly made for a good breadth of skills and widened your promotion potential.

If you sit and think about it there are a whole host of things that the average MD has to do that a ‘Second Stringer’ could do the leg work for – now that is productive delegation!

Gareth

Worst nightmare possible for Recruiters

I have read with horror, if not surprise, news in the FT and on the REC website that the PM has been in 'secret' discussions with the EC to find a solution to the long held off 'Agency Workers Directive' or whatever it might be called in another guise. And worse that it is being stimulated by his new best mate President Sarkozy. My earlier blog 'Brown Nosing' 28th March also refers.

The Commission has been passionately keen to slip this one in through any available door or the slightest crack in the barracades. A number of good and strong industry champions have kept it at bay for more than 7 years; much to the annoyance of the French and the Commision, and never has it been more important to rally the Industry, mobilise resources and make an attack before we are left high and dry!

If the REC really wants to demonstrate that it has the interests of the Industry at heart it must do more than simply write to the PM. Its time for the Board to stand up and be counted; make some noise and shake your toys (as the Americans would say). It's yours to win or lose and the last person you would want to say "I told you so" is me.

Gareth

Between a Rock and a hard place

I am thrilled to learn that the European Commission is making sense for a change and has suggested that Northern Rock could be forced to repay government loans more swiftly and scale back its business even further as the price for securing EU approval for its rescue.

The Commission has said it will begin an in-depth investigation into possibly illegal state aid by the government which nationalised the mortgage lender in February and has lent it £24bn, plus guarantees.

While I accept that the collapse of any financial institution would have a massive impact on the economy, as a committed Small Business Champion I was appalled to see such a massive amount of tax-payers money being ‘lent’ on an apparent wave of the hand to one business. Twenty four billion is after all about the same as the total revenue generated by the UK Recruitment Industry, the same as the UK spends on the provision of all primary and secondary education and five times the money spent on Class A, B and C drugs by illegal users.

Come on UKG let’s get this into perspective! Especially when, in my time, I have had to go cap-in-hand to an inadequate banker to get my mitts on the smallest and most bureaucratically wrapped government backed loan guarantee scheme worth little more than the Ministers monthly allowances (allegedly).

Wouldn’t it have been better to nationalise Richard Branson and let him sort it out for us; we could have given him Concorde at the same time.

Gareth

"Employing people damages your wealth"

Unless you get it right

I have used this phrase for years and think it should be stencilled onto every payslip and wage packet given to an employee.

Work is a mutual contract and in return for their time, effort and commitment an employee receives a negotiated return (their remuneration) from the employer. I accept that workers have rights and agree they should be robust, to protect against unscrupulous bosses who strive to exploit them but I feel strongly that you have to be able to sever a contract if the relationship doesn’t work. Employment Law sometimes forgets that there are unscrupulous workers as well who exploit their employer.

I support the thinking of Jim Collins, the American business researcher and strategist, in his book ‘Good to Great’ where he suggests that great CEOs adopt a positive strategy to “Get the right people on the bus, get the wrong people off the bus and get the right people in the right seats.” He defines what makes right people and how hard you have to work to make sure your business is populated with them.

I believe business leaders should take a much greater interest and involvement in identifying their staff (at all levels), and not by delegating it to HR professionals; who are the practitioners of policy and implementation, not strategists. One reason small growing businesses get it wrong is that they reach a point; usually around 15-20 employees, where the recruitment policy is abdicated to junior staff who, with little direction, fail to attract and select the best.

One way to do this is to have a strong induction process, with expected targets of achievement, and a good, and extendable, probationary period. If people forget to deliver what their final interview promised then, as Jim would infer “Stamp their ticket and get them off the bus.”

Gareth

Awards - bull or benefit?

As the former owner of a major PR agency, I passionately believe that you must have a corporate differentiator to set you above the rest. A good award, well marketed, can be that differentiator.

I recently participated in an exceptional presentation by Rob Brown, the UK’s leading authority on Business Relationships, during which he reminded me of two inalienable facts, these are, 1) In the land of the bland the one-eyed deer is King and, 2) 95% of what you do is also being done by your competitors. Both support the claim that you have to focus on the unique, be innovative and do anything that makes you different (and preferably better) than your industry peers.

Entering Awards can be considered by the ill informed as crass and I have heard all the arguments against doing it; they only receive a few entries, you win in your turn, your face has to fit, they only want you to buy tables at the event and who believes it’s worth anything anyway, and these are all true in part, but the real value starts when you have the trophy in your hands. The real value comes from how you use it, who you tell and the mileage you can accrue during your year as winner.

Who wouldn’t want to be one of The Times ‘100 Best Businesses to Work for’ and 9 out of the top 50 are all Recruiters. Just think what impact that would have on your own ability to attract staff.

I will resist listing the awards I and my businesses have won over the years but winning them has definitely won me business, tipped the balance in my favour or simply been something to be ribbed about when talking to peers. I would recommend every recruiter have a crack at local, national, sector and community type awards – give it to a high flyer on the team as a secondary duty (see my blog on Secondary Duties – coming soon) and write a marketing strategy for using them to maximum effect .

And don’t just win it – work it.

Gareth

I was thrilled when REC won the CBI ‘Trade Association of the Year’, it was well deserved and clearly the marketing team had done tremendously well to realise their turn but it has been mighty quiet since. Come on gang, you only have a few months left, make it work for you! Make sure that people know that there are nearly 1,000 trade associations out there – to be a member of the best should mean something to them; after all they complain enough when it comes to renewing.

Be careful not to throw out the Baby!

The House of Lords’ Economic Affairs Committee report, “The Economic Impact of Immigration”, fails to recognise the constantly changing nature of the employment landscape and their Lordships’ would do well to engage more often with the recruitment industry if they ever want to preside over a strategy for staffing (and building) Britain’s long-term economic needs.

It was only a couple of years ago that this Government was considering working with the Asia-Pacific governments to stop the flow of nurses into the UK; as this practice was damaging their own ability to staff their health services (aka ‘the vein drain’), and here we are just a few years later watching a reversal of fortunes as some of our best young nurses are leaving these shores for health, wealth and efficiency Down Under.

What the Lords’ have to understand is that never again will labour be a national resource. Staffing is now a global issue and increasingly the workforce will pick up its tools and move to where the work is (Auf Weidersehen Pet like). If their Lordships’ turn their back on the economic benefits of strong immigration policies and forget to focus on the workforce requirements of, say East London, then there will be no tea and scones in the Corporate boxes of the Olympic venues; which are still to be built by a migrant workforce let alone start to look at the huge volume of low cost housing that the UK must deliver over the next ten years.

A migrant workforce is a flexible workforce (and I don't mean cheap)!

Gareth

Recruiters are all talk - or should be!

Recruiters should talk more! Especially to their peers and particularly between companies. And until they do the recruitment industry will always be the underdog and not a very pedigree breed at that.

I have worked and owned businesses in dozens of different industries and professional sectors and never before have I seen such a resistance to share knowledge. You don’t have to form a Cartel to collectively understand your clients; you can just share experiences and learn from each others mistakes.

In the Elite Programme, create by Mike Walmsley’s Recruitment Training Productions, small, local groups of entrepreneurial and dynamic recruiters meet on a monthly basis to share experiences and thrash out solutions to each others problems – under the protection of a Non-Disclosure Agreement. This “really opens up the sluices at both ends” and debate freely flows. It is fabulous to observe (which I do as Chairman for the Birmingham and Manchester Groups) and is highly beneficial to all involved.

Recruiters should really, really talk more!

Gareth

Brown Nosing

Now we really do have to worry … we appear to have a new, cosy relationship with the French! Or, more correctly a Sar-kozy relationship.

I’m personally wouldn’t subscribe to the school of thought that suggests the French are all “cheese-eating surrender-monkeys” but Recruiters should pay special attention to any move to persuade the UK to align its Labour Laws more closely with those of France as a result of the new Anglo French Love-in; unless that is, they are prepared to move some way from their ‘workers rule’ position and put some flexibility back into their own employment policies.

During his recent State visit, French President Sarkozy suggested that “We stand stronger if we stand together”, which may be perfectly true in some quarters but I feel it is more likely that that we will stand together in longer unemployment lines if we move towards France.

I distinctly remember a lobbying visit to a French Socialist MEP in Brussels who informed me that “the British exploit child labour” and when I quizzed her, to explore her rational for this outrageous argument, she sited our cruel and abusive use of children to deliver newspapers (I would have struggled to keep a straight face unless I hadn’t known she was deadly serious!) To top it all, this individual was a member of the EU Employment Group and responsible, at least in part, for drafting or sanctioning the highly questionable legislation we have seen proposed by Europe over recent years.

I have seen deals done with legislation where Governments trade-off one demand for another and I believe Recruiters should argue a strong case for REC to be especially tough in its discussions with BERR to ensure flexible Labour Laws are preserved.

This is doubly worrying as France and M. Sarkozy take the Presidency of the European Union in July 2008 and will, I am sure, be putting that old chestnut The Agency Workers Directive – or some new incarnation or disguised variant of it – back on the table.

Gareth

A new spin on recruitment

One of the biggest problems facing recruiters today is the high level of staff churn in the industry and when they do leave, more often than not, they set up in competition.

It is always the good guys (or certainly the most capable) who go and businesses tend to be left with the mediocre majority. So I ask why let them go? Why not work harder to understand what they want, how you can satisfy them and what’s in it for you? I believe I have a solution – call it Staff Spin-out.

When I first took over at the REC in 2003 I wanted to understand the mindset of a recruiter. As a salesman I recognised that I had to empathise with my customer and REC’s customers are (or should be) it’s Members. So I trawled the information sources to find out what makes recruiters tick. The best piece of research I could find had studied about 450 recruiters who had been identified as ‘high performers’; big billers I assumed. These people, a fairy well balanced sample as it turned out, had been nominated for appraisal by over 50 businesses, both large and small, and the evaluations seemed extremely detailed. The outcomes were fascinating and help me postulate a number of theories.

I quickly concluded that the psychological profile of a high performing recruitment consultant very closely matched that of a successful small business entrepreneur. My thoughts were later supplemented by one of the first pieces of work produced by the REC Industry Research Unit, under Roger Tweedy, which suggested that recruiters most wanted ‘Flexibility; in terms of working structures, and Ownership; in terms of shares and status’ from an employer. This led me to conclude that the best recruiters tend to be naturally entrepreneurial and ambitious by nature. Over the next three years I looked at the people who left good companies and set up on their own and the damage their departure did, or appeared to do, to the agency they left behind. I also spoke to many recruiters who have left, stolen the database, and believe the eventual legal settlement they were forced to pay their former employer was a worthwhile investment in their new business. All of which I find crazy!

Historically, I came from the world of manufacturing (some may remember it) and more recently I was involved in technological innovation; I was a Dragon long before James Caan saw the potential. Perhaps the most sophisticated thing businesses commonly do in the producing sectors is ‘spin-out’ new products or ideas into new, stand-alone companies and, where opportunity exists, compete with themselves. It is quite common place to create a new business around a new technology and hive off some of the best people, often those who are ‘up and coming stars’ and give them their chance to shine.

Now in recruitment, if I am correct, there is an inevitability that the most successful billers (usually two or three of them working together) will quickly conclude that they can have a better future if they set up for themselves. My model offers you, as their employer, an alternative. It suggests that you identify your high flyers and even put them on your high flyers programme, offering them management training (making sure you lock them into repaying your investment if they leave in the next x years). Groom them for success and make sure you understand their aspirations. Tell them that, at anytime in the future, should they wish to start their own business that you will fund them and support them to success. We all know it is fairly cheap to set up an agency so for a modest investment, say £25K, you could fund the creation of a friendly rival, or better still a non-competing parallel business and, with a seat on the Board, keep a limited control over its development. You would of course take a small shareholding (say 25%) for access to your funds, database and mentoring skills and charge a small admin fee for back office support until they can fully stand alone. In three years time you can offer them the opportunity to buy you out, at a fair market price, or you can buy them out – helping them realise their wish for personal wealth – and the opportunity to bring the business back into the fold.

Some try this is the form of a franchise but, and contrary to popular belief, operating a franchise requires an extremely disciplined operating culture and an adherence to process that would defeat most sales-minded people. QED it probably won’t work in recruitment.

Now clearly ‘spin-out’ does happen in our sector. You have to look now further than the genius that is SThree, where Bill Bottriell and colleagues recognised that it is better to keep good people within their sphere of influence than let them get away, and Tim Watts at Pertemps, who just has a great nose for a business opportunity, to realise what is possible but I say that every business should recognise that good people must not be allowed to get away and should implement procedures – managed and operated personally by the business owner – to protect their most precious and costly asset, their staff.

Gareth

"And Cash is Reality" - especially now

You will probably be familiar with the business mantra ‘Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity’. It is certainly true but I always feel this misses one final but vital stanza which should read, ‘And Cash is Reality’.

Many businesses fail each year, not because they are mismanaged; although what follows would tend to suggest they are dumb for not managing their cash, they simply run out of money. With the economy in a vulnerable state, as it is now, I would recommend that every recruitment business focuses a significant amount of effort on making sure its cash collection process is robust and credit control is working properly.

This is not just advice for the back office staff but an essential consideration for the whole client facing team. Make sure you watch for signs that clients may be having problems of their own. Watch out if you see clients starting to chop and change suppliers more than usual; it often signifies that they are spreading the load and not wanting to have too many single supplier large debts accruing. Watch out for debtor days (the period they take to pay you) starting to extend – when money supply is short businesses always use the cheapest cash available and that come from their creditors.

I am confident that the economy is strong enough to stave off any major threat but do worry that ill prepared businesses will become victims. Don’t become one of them.

Gareth

Every business needs an NXD

Ask yourself what the fundamental difference is between a British business and an American business?

The answer is simple, just look at the typical Board structure of both and all will quickly become clear. The Board of a British business has only executive directors (usually 3) who are all working in the business. The average American SME has 5 directors, two executive and three Non-Executives (external professional mentors).

In the British company there is no need for a formal Board meeting; why, because the principals meet everyday, one of the three is ‘boss’ and makes the decisions and why waste time talking about “what we discuss everyday.”

In an American business the Executive Directors are required to air issues, share problems and seek guidance to inform the decisions the Board makes, collectively, for the strategic development of the business. These decisions, accurately recorded in the Minutes, are then enacted by the MD (with clear understanding and parameters) who reports back at the next meeting.

Now I recognise that to many would-be ‘entrepreneurs’ this would be an imposition but to introduce this level of rigor to the business’s governance is an essential element for success.

Running a business can be an extremely lonely pursuit and NXDs don’t just bring knowledge, experience and wisdom (although these are all essential elements of the role), they also bring that invaluable ear; someone to talk to.

If more British businesses had just one NXD then the quality of governance would improve dramatically and there would be significantly fewer early stage business failures.

(Please note that I am about to write a blog on what an NXD should do for you and what you should pay for what level of input – coming soon)

Gareth

Agency Work Commission

I am delighted to see that the REC has this week (12th March) written to the Prime Minister confirming its support for a proposed Agency Work Commission. This is definitely the right action for the industry and it is encouraging that the Government is at last creating the environment for opposing factions to air their differences and try and find common ground; which definitely should exist.

I always personally believed, and regularly reported to the interested partners, that at least 80% of the original EU Agency Workers Directive was capable of immediate implementation and that sensible negotiation would have enabled that part to proceed, if only the more extreme elements could have been set aside for later debate. At my meetings with Brendan Barber, Secretary General of the TUC, I always offered to debate the issues and even commissioned an incredibly robust piece of work to impartially test the opinion of Agency Workers; sadly to no avail – other than to stall the introduction of adverse legislation.

The REC has done a stunningly good job holding off the European Commission’s demand, for what it sees as an equitable application of employment legislation, for over 7 years. Much of this was entirely due to the tireless efforts of the External Relations Team and me, during our respective interventions, but the time is now right for a new approach and the proposal for an Agency Work Commission could afford this.

I recommend the industry really does get on board and have its say.

Gareth

A Budget for Stability - 2008

I have never heard the word stability used so many times in one speech but Alistair Darling achieved a new record in his first UK Budget. It did make me wonder if it was a lesson in brain washing however his supporting evidence did enforce the fact that the UK is ahead of many of its EU partners and most of the world. He suggested it is the most stable of the G7 economies and has the second highest GDP per head of population in the same grouping.

Comments by pundits did suggest that the current slow down will not result in a recession for the UK simply a tightening of fiscal belts. It would probably not allow for further interest rate cuts in the near future.

The Chancellor made a point of stressing that the UK now has lower unemployment than France, Germany and Italy and our “fair employment rules” have gone a long way to ensuring this continues. I hope this point marks a continuing endorsement of the Government’s commitment to not giving way on the EU demands for user comparability pay and what was formerly the Agency Workers Directive; despite its recent proposal to create an Agency Work Commission.

He announced the following aid for businesses, especially SMEs:

· More help for small businesses, with capital gains tax remaining at 10 per cent.

· £60m more for SFLG Scheme, which will be extended to all small businesses.

· New target of 30 per cent of Government contracts for small firms.

The latter point is particularly important to those recruitment agencies that supply to the Public Sector. In recent years we have seen an increasing move towards the use of PSLs and Master/Neutral Vendor arrangements where the criteria for selection preclude SMEs from tendering. This new commitment should endorse our claim to be treated fairly. It must still grow further, especially as SMEs now employ of the workforce than do large firms.

So, in conclusion I would say it was a fairly safe (stable) budget for recruiters. Nothing special but equally nothing horrendously challenging.

Recruiters should welcome ID cards

With the onus now on employers and recruiters to validate the identity of those they place, I passionately believe the recruitment industry should stand up and support the Governments plans for the progressive introduction of Identity Cards. This activity should of course be led by the industry body, REC.

So far the industry has kept a typically low profile but the time is right now to come out and argue its case for introduction.

Its website suggests that, “Recruitment professionals in the front line of the UK’s labour market take their data checking responsibilities extremely seriously. Whether it is establishing a workers eligibility to work in the UK or making sure that the appropriate criminal record checks have been conducted, recruitment agencies play a key role in promoting safe recruitment”.

For years Government has considered the recruitment sector to be mercilessly profiteering (despite any truth in that statement being seriously eroded by continuous legislation and suicidal major operators) and having no real respect or concern for its workers, candidates or clients. Support for this serious issue, which is after all inevitable in a world where identity can be so easily stolen, could be a turning point.

Even more importantly we should mobilise our support for ID cards in exchange for the full and final demise of further, an wholly unnecessary, Temporary and Agency Workers legislation; aka the EU Agency Workers Directive is designer gear.

Gareth

Advice – call the office of your local MP (and MEP) ask for their position on ID cards, tell them yours and invite them to visit you and share opinions. While they are with you demonstrate what you do, as a responsible recruiter to ensure people are who they say they are and explain the current difficulties, take some photos, produce a press release and finally inform the REC; so they can add it to their portfolio of evidence.

UK Recruitment Industry - “The Spotty Youth of British Business”

It is true to say that as a marketeer I really should think before I speak – which sadly I don’t, much to the annoyance of many of those who have worked with me in the past and who would subscribe to the thought that “he only opens his mouth to change feet.” But I would hope that those same critics would also conclude that I can always be trusted to “say it as I see it” and more importantly am always prepared to give way to a well argued contra-opinion. And my frankness has added considerably to my strength as a negotiator, lobbyist and champion of difficult issues.

I have been using the phrase “Recruitment is the Spotty Youth of British Business” since my time as Managing Director oft the REC, the trade body for the £26 billion UK recruitment industry, where I coined it to convey a heartfelt belief that the recruitment industry desperately needed to ‘grow up’, especially if it was ever to stand a chance against the apparently respectable HR and purchasing community – its primary clients.

I visualised the average operator as a hormone charged adolescent, bounding with energy and enthusiasm (and perhaps just a little anger) and eager to please everyone around but without the knowledge and sophistication of age. Simply I reckon the average recruiter goes about business like a ‘bull in a china shop’ and breaks more than a few priceless plates along the way.

Whilst I was charged by some as ‘dissing’ the business sector (which simply goes to enforce my point), the reality is that I have a real love of the industry and especially its passion but I do feel it should spend less time raving (for the short term pleasure) and more time focusing on life and the pursuit of happiness (its strategic gains). It has never come as a surprise to me that few recruiters have Business Plans and even fewer have exit strategies. When I explained to one business owner just what the business was worth to a buyer, after first being highly offended by the derisory valuation of the best business in the land he said “Hell who cares, we have really good parties!” What shocked him more was what it could be worth if the whole corporate psychology was just a tad more robust and a little less ‘Happy Days.’

I hate recruiters who make just enough money to buy the Villa in the South of France and then become absentee parents and leave the blood, sweat and tears of the day-to-day operation to a team of good managers, who themselves quickly become disillusioned and start making plans to rip-off the database and form their own money machine in competition. The resulting legal action, fought from the South of France, which both parties enter into with the same teenage venom as a pair of young Rottweillers.

A more structured and focused approach; leading business development by reference to a well engineered plan and deviating only within measured and reported parameters, could make the experience more enjoyable; in a rewarding sense, and more rewarding; in a long term profitability and return sense. Entrepreneurs often believe their cavalier style and devil-may-care flamboyance will make up for all traditional business disciplines. Well, sadly they are wrong and all good entrepreneurs (like the Bransons of this world)quickly recognise that they can only be gung-ho within the constraints of a focused and profitable plan and with the right people around them to make it succeed.

Therefore I conclude that most recruiters need a mentor, probably with a few grey hairs and real and practical business experience and success, and preferably not just in recruitment, to help guide the formulation and delivery of the business’s full potential. This will also enable it to realise its true worth. And even better, to ensure you get the best service from your mentor give that chosen person authority by appointing them to the board as a Non-Executive Director. Then expect your NXD to tell it like it is, not pussyfoot around difficult subjects and take responsibility (at least in part) for your success.

Gareth