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