Tips for Selecting the Right Recruitment Partner

How can you be sure you are working with the right company when it comes to selecting a recruitment partner?  The answer to this question lies in the way in which you qualify and screen the agency to find out how they operate, and how they will add value to your business.  

Expect Talent is a proud member of the NRF, which is a voluntary organisation set up to establish/maintain standards & codes of practice for the Recruitment Industry.  Representing recruitment agencies throughout Ireland, NRF Members communicate their commitment to providing quality service by agreeing to abide by a strict Code of Conduct.   Some key important elements of the NRF Code of Conduct include:

• The agency must have an up to date recruitment agency licence (issued annually) 
• Candidates must be handled with respect, integrity and privacy at all times
• Candidates submitted to clients, must first be interviewed (phone or face-to-face)
• Candidates must be told which clients they have been submitted to
• Full candidate permission sought before submission
• References must not be sought without an applicant's consent
• Absolutely no poaching of placed staff
• Only real jobs should be advertised 

A Membership Ethics Committee ensures that this Code of Conduct is adhered to, so always check that the agency you are considering working with is a member of a professional recruitment body such as the NRF (depending on which location you are reading this).  There are currently 159 agencies who are members of the NRF in Ireland, however there are hundreds more listed in business directories, so make sure you are working with an agency who adheres to the NRF Code of Conduct, where you can be sure the ethics of that agency are in line with what you would expect.  The list above sounds standard to the outsider, but there are many companies out there who don't even do the basics well.

Here is a list of questions you should ask recruitment agencies when meeting with them to decide whether or not to work with them?

1.  Are you a member of the NRF? (or equivalent for your location)

2.  Describe in detail your selection process. (look for a lengthy, structured process)

3.  What checks will be done before submission?  (look for references and full interviews)

4.  What else will you send other than a CV? (look for detailed information)

5.  How many CV's will I receive? (look for quality and not quantity) 

6.  Can you provide written or verbal references from clients you have worked with?

7.  What experience do you have in recruiting for this sector/industry? (look for expertise)

8.  How are recruitment team incentivised? (look for NO commission or low commission)

9.  Where do you source candidates from?  What sourcing methods do you use?

10.When can I expect to see CV's from you? (those who give you short lead times, beware)

Ask to see material to back their answers up, look for a copy of their interview questions, internal processes and forms used throughout the process.  Do your homework, and speak to peers in other companies.  Usually those who are recommended or referred top the list.

I had an interesting call from a new client last week.  An ex-colleague who I worked with 10 years ago, gave me a senior role to work on for his company in the Middle East, and prior to speaking to me, he had spoken to another agency.  The other agency had promised him 20 CV's in an hour!!  What??  Yet another example of the industry being totally commission driven with no consideration for the client. I was amazed at how someone could do this, but it unfortunately happens all the time.  No wonder this industry has a bad reputation.   

We would much rather take 5 working days to interview, select and write up a detailed profile a maximum of 3 of the best candidates in the market, where all 3 are considered strong enough for interview, rather than waste a clients time filling their inbox with irrelevant CV's.  As a result, that client gave us exclusivity on their position and 1 week later is about to receive a small handful of the best talent in the market for their role.

When you have a vacancy for a recruitment agency to work on, make sure that you really drill them on their internal processes, their approach, their experience and philosophy to recruitment.  Contrary to popular belief giving the job to 20 agencies is NOT going to get you the perfect candidate.  You would be much better to select 1 or 2 key recruitment partners based on the above criteria and build a really strong relationship with them so that they get it right every time.  With some of our clients, they just know that when a detailed interview profile and CV hits their inbox from Expect Talent that it will always be good enough for the hiring manager to move to interview.  Establishing that level of trust with your agency is vital.  If you would like help in this area, please contact me and to the NRF, thank you for everything that you do for our industry standards.

It Was Much More than I "Expect"ed...

This weeks blog is written by 16-Year Old Aaron McCarthy, who has just completed his 2 week work placement with Expect Talent.  

   

"I remember the day when Samantha Rathling, a local Entrepreneur, came into my business class at Coláiste an Spioraid Naoimh (local School here in Cork) and taught us about the ins and outs of business.  She told us the history of her recruitment company Expect Talent and shared secrets to her success.

Four months later, and I have just finished two weeks of work experience with Expect Talent. My honest opinion? It was absolutely class.  Stepping into the office for the first time was like entering a new world. I have always wanted to be in charge of my own company when I’m older but, the thing is, I had absolutely no idea of what an office even looked like. 

I expected to see grey walls, kind of a warehouse type building and very little sunlight. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Stepping into the Expect Talent office really was like stepping into a new world. While the employees were hard at work, they seemed to work in a sort of relaxed manner. This surprised me, but in a good way. Throughout the two weeks, I realised just how friendly everybody seemed to be. There is a really great team spirit at Expect and I was delighted to be part of it.

            

         But, it wasn’t just the laissez-faire setup that made me love Expect. I mean, on the first day alone, I partook in an online BNI conference with people from all over the world; from America to Japan to Dubai. It was exceedingly cool. And, speaking of Dubai, I had thought Dubai was in a third-world country. And I was shocked to find out how beautiful Dubai is after I researched it.  I wasn’t even here a day and already I was learning so much.

            The following day, I went to a local BNI meeting; this time in Silversprings Hotel. Again, I found that this was a real eye-opener. I wasn’t even here two days and I had already decided that I liked working better than I liked school. So much for the seven dwarves complaining about having to go to work all the time!

            During the two weeks, my principal role was to search for candidates for companies and I worked on a brand new online project. It was really quite amazing. I also did internet research. I also listened in when Margaret, a Talent Manager was interviewing a candidate, after which I wrote up a candidate profile. Most people don’t get to see the other side of the interviewing panel. I was learning all the trade secrets!

            During the second week I went to a large multinational client, a huge call centre!! Incredible to see the size of the companies that Expect Talent works with.  On the second Thursday, Expect had their annual strategy day, which started with us watching "The Secret", a philosophy which Samantha the Managing Director lives and breathes by.  We then had to apply what we had learnt and set our personal goals and dreams for 2011 on paper.  Then Samantha outlined the plan for 2011 and the team contributed with ideas and analysis on moving the company forward.

            Today, we had “Friday club” and went out for something to eat locally as a team. It was delicious! I also did an video email with Samantha. It was my first video email, my first time with a webcam to be exact, and I found it really cool.

            To put how great I found this placement down into words would be very, very difficult. I learnt more from these two weeks than I arguably did during my whole time at secondary school. I had a brilliant time. I was given many chances of a lifetime; from online conferences to trips to huge companies. I got involved with the start up of an online business, the list goes on...  

           I did a lot of work but had a great time doing it. The team were great, Samantha was great and everybody was fantastic to work with. I had an amazing time and learnt many things that will help me with my future plans. All in all, I loved my time at Expect Talent. But, as I said, it is very difficult to put into words how fantastic I found this work placement. I suppose, the only short and concise sentence that will work is:  It was class! Thank you Samantha and the team."

Aaron McCarthy, Aged 16

Ramp-up Rathling - High Volume Talent Strategies

Ramp-up recruitment is a niche sector and not for the feint-hearted! I am not talking ten or twenty roles at a time, I am talking hundreds!  This weeks blog has been written to help those companies out there who have seasonal requirements and regularly have to ramp-up their headcount to cope with demand, such as increased call volumes, or winning new contracts meaning a spike in the level of staffing required to deliver for customers.

Expect Talent has become a leading expert in the field of 'Ramp-Up Recruitment' having recently completed a project for a global online retailer in the lead up to Christmas. Over 380 staff were recruited in 12 weeks across 3 languages, and this is a client who has retained us for the last 3 years in a row.  Another project we recently worked on for Bentley Systems in Dublin, saw us ramp-up a brand new Shared Services Centre from 0-130 permanent staff across 14 languages and 8 disciplines.

My top tips for companies looking to increase headcount and ramp-up staffing levels: 

Tip 1 - Know where to locate a high volume of candidates, know your market and the type of candidates you are looking to recruit.  If you have a clear idea of what your target pool of candidates looks like and where to find them, you can generate a strong pipeline of potential recruits.  This applies whether it is for permanent or contract roles.  High-volume recruitment is about just that!  Having a high-volume of people to select from in the first place.  Once you have the volume you can start to select who would be best to hire.  You can use jobsites, social media, forums, your networks, recruitment partners and staff referrals to name a few.

Tip 2 - Have a solid back-office system and internal processes to manage the very high volume of applications that you will receive.  Ramp-up recruitment can be draining on resources, so if you plan to manage a high-volume project internally you need to make sure that you have a full team in place.  They will manage administration, handle applications, responses to candidates, interview/assessment process.  Expect a significant amount of workload and plan for it.  Applications per vacancy are much higher in the current climate and your company reputation is critical in managing future hires.  You don't want to become "the company that never gets back to people".  This can impact on your ability to become an employer of choice and this kind of word of mouth can affect future application levels.

Tip 3 - Have a solid screening process from the outset.  One of the ways to minimise workload is to ask candidates to jump through some hoops before you will consider them, that way you know who is REALLY interested in the job! We use a 2 page application form which over 50% of people never go on to complete.  That saves our team lots of time by only working with those people who are serious about the opportunity.  If the candidate cannot be bothered to complete a 2 page application form then it is a great indication of their work ethic. 

Tip 4 - Assessment Centres can be a fantastic way to determine the best candidates for the position.  When we hired our 380+ candidates in 2010, every single one of them went through a 2 hour+ Assessment Centre and interview process, in fact not only did these people go through the Assessment but the other 600 or so that did not make it through also went through the same process.  Managing this volume of Assessments is time-consuming but essential.  The quality of the candidates hired regardless of how many you are employing is of course paramount.  Having a robust Assessment Centre where candidates can come along, learn about the role and company and then take verbal and written tests to demonstrate their skills is vital.  We usually work with the client's existing format or can design and tailor-make assessment centres for our clients needs.

Tip 5 - Communication with all candidates throughout the project.  Regardless of the stage of their application is vital to maintaining a great reputation in the market.  Even if unsuccessful, it is important to ensure that all candidates are contacted with their feedback as to whether or not they are successful in the position.  Those that you hire will of course be delighted and the onboarding process through to the end of their training period must be handled in the correct way, however those who need to be rejected should also be treated with care.  This goes back to having a great system and great processes internally but can often get lost in the busy hiring period.

As I said at the start, ramp-up recruitment is not for the feint-hearted! It takes patience, expertise, a great project team and access to high numbers of candidates in the first place.  There are very few agencies who specialise in this niche part of the recruitment sector so I hope this blog has given you some insight as to what is involved in hiring quality people in high volumes.  I am starting to get myself the name "Ramp-Up Rathling" which is sticking with those who know me! I am more than happy to help advise and answer questions on this topic, even if you are not in a position to call in the experts.  Please post your comments below.

Mairead's Story to Help Graduate Jobseekers

Last week I wrote about the amazing team at Expect Talent, so this week I am going to introduce you to our newest team member Mairead Collins.  Mairead has written this week's blog to help all graduates out there who are currently looking for a new job, her story will inspire and motivate you to take action.  

Mairead: "Let me introduce myself, my name is Mairead, the newest Talent Manager in Expect Talent.  I graduated in 2010 with an honors Degree in Business and Hospitality. Graduating in the height of recession is obviously not easy, and getting a job in the field where you would like your career to progress is next to impossible or so I thought last June (2010).  Like many of my peers I applied for countless positions online every day, most of them getting no response, and when I did receive a response it generally said “sorry you do not have enough experience in this area" and the famous last words “we will keep your CV on file and should a position arise that is suited to your experience we will contact you “.

By the end of the summer months I was getting extremely disheartened about this and knew I had to do something in order to get my career started. I decided to search for an internship and I was very lucky to get a HR internship with a Global IT company called EMC, based in Cork. Here I got so much experience in the area of HR and Recruitment, learning from brilliant people with great knowledge and the experience I gained was invaluable to my career. 

As a result of this experience, I have now got a fantastic new position working with a great role model, and a great team, gaining even more experience in HR and Recruitment.  If I was to give any graduate advice for the future, internships are the way to go. Working in an unpaid position gaining experience is one of the best decisions I have ever made as it shows future employers that you are dedicated, motivated and interested in getting gaining experience.  Having this on my CV helped me secure my current position."

Mairead interviewed for the job at Expect Talent alongside 5 other candidates for her role as a Talent Manager.  She was selected because of her drive, commitment and dedication shown through the fact that she was willing to work for 5 months unpaid just to gain experience in her chosen field.  She also demonstrated a high level of proactiveness and a strong fit with the core values of our business.  We look forward to developing and upskilling Mairead and helping her to achieve he personal and professional goals.  If you have any comments or questions for Mairead please post them here.  

Having a Brilliant Team - Hiring Strategies

When I asked my team for ideas on a topic for this week's blog, they suggested I write about our fantastic team!!  Brilliant, what a great idea.  So I started to think about what makes them so brilliant at what they do, and how could the way that we develop our own in-house staff help others who might be reading this. 

1.  Hiring from outside of your Industry

Very often clients ask us to find them candidates with a number of years experience in their industry. However, this is not always the best route to finding the best talent.  All of my recruitment team have previously NEVER worked in recruitment.  Why? As you will know by now, the way we look at the whole industry and work with customers is so different from all other agencies that it would take far too much time to untrain bad habits, and the fact that we do not incentivise our recruitment team with commission does not suit or appeal to people who have already worked in the industry. 

I always look to hire people with a passion for excellence, a high level of customer service and strong account management skills.  Attention to detail and strong multi-tasking and organisational skills are critical.  Attitude, Attitude, Attitude.  Do you need to have industry experience to become an expert recruiter?  With the right training, environment and support of course not.  The same applies to many industries, companies are often missing out on great talent by only sticking to people with their own industry background.  So next time you go to hire, think outside the box.

2.  Win Happy

I heard the theme for 2011 of great Cork PR company this week, it's "Win Happy!", its not just about the revenue its about the happiness and fun factor of the team too.  The happiness factor and the motivation levels of any team are closely linked to productivity.  We have a staff happiness survey each quarter, and we measure our teams happiness factor.  This for me is what makes our team so brilliant, we have fun regardless of how busy we are, its great to be around happy and motivated people who love what they do.

3.  Commitment & Dedication

Over the 5 years we have built up a great team of Talent Managers and Administrators, their commitment to us as a business and their dedication to our candidates and clients is second to none. Without the team we would not be anywhere near as successful and for that I am extremely grateful.  The "above and beyond" mentality of every one in the team, means that we can deliver great results and be very flexible to clients demands.  This attitude is so important to any company and contributes hugely to the business. 

4.  Development Opportunities

A lack of opportunity for progression is often the reason people leave a company, so the development of my team is critical, giving them opportunities to learn, to upskill and to develop on a personal and professional level is vital to retaining the great talent that we have.  I want to help them all achieve their goals in life, and if the business can make that happen then all the better. 

5.  Celebrating Success, Reward & Recognition

Each member of our team has a "Success Diary", they record their successes no matter how big or small and the first item in our team meeting agenda is each person sharing one success from the previous week.  By focusing on the positive, we attract more great successes, and this keeps everyones mindset in a good place.  We recognise and reward in ways other than commission, surprise vouchers, team nights out, our famous "Friday Club" - team lunch on the house every week, and social time together outside of work.  Celebration of Success and feeling part of something special is what helps to make a brilliant team.

So this is my opportunity to recognise and thank all of my amazing team members - Julia, Margaret, Chris, Jackie, Pablo, Mairead, Caitriona, Lucy, Una, thank you for everything that you do, this business would be nowhere without your hard work, commitment, dedication and great talents. 

How do you develop your team and would you ever consider hiring people with no experience in your industry?

How Internships Can Be a Strategy For Hiring Talent

As a business owner, when I first started out, I was wearing lots of hats! Trying to do everything and struggling to focus on I was actually supposed to be doing to grow the business. So I hired an intern from Interconnection (http://www.i4b.eu/), back in 2005, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.  Dounia went on to become our first employee, as Administrator and is now a PA for a senior Director in a Cosmetics company doing very well in her career.

Many internships are funded by colleges or universites and the interns come fully insured, usually free of charge to the company.  Since 2005, I have had 17 interns come through my business, from France, Spain, Poland, Germany, Austria and to date I have actually hired 3 of them!  Today's blog will give both angles - one from the candidate perspective and one from the client perspective and show you why Internships are a great strategy for your career or business and a path to great talent.

There are some great organisations out there who help people with work placements and internships such as the National Learning Network (www.nln.ie), who provide training and upskilling to those people who may otherwise find it difficult to gain employment.  They help people to develop the skills to move forward with their careers and are always looking for companies to take on trainees on an unpaid basis for work experience.

For Companies

If you are a company looking to grow your team, but not in a position to hire someone on a full time permanent basis, you should talk to an internship specialist.  I recommend that you take on interns who are looking for a 3-6 months placement as the time you will invest in training them will be worthwhile, although some interns come for 4-6 weeks. 

I have had interns in my own business help me with data entry, web research, reference checking, sourcing candidates, reporting, PA work and more... Interns are looking to learn the skills they need for the world of work, and they are looking to apply their knowledge from their education.  What better way to give something back and help someone launch their career.  

You may find that the person is brilliant and you can go on to offer them a job, leaving you to focus on what you should be doing!  Whether you are a company large or small then Internships is a path to hiring great talent.  I have just hired a fantastic new team member, who has been working in an unpaid work placement in HR, to gain experience.  Now she has a great job related to HR, Careers and recruitment which is what she wants to do. You can try before you buy with an internship student or work experience placement.  

For Candidates

If you are a job-seeker, then offering to do work experience or an internship with a company, even if you are not being paid is a great idea.  You will get to make valuable contacts in the company at all levels, so even if they are not hiring now, show them what you can do and they may just call you back in when the next job opening comes up. 

You can put the experience on your CV and you will learn new skills in any work experience placement.  An internship very often can lead to a dream job, or can help you refine what career you want to pursue.  You may think that you want to go into a specific industry, but the work experience will soon give you exposure to the reality of that particular field and you may decide to take a new direction. 

I did some work experience in London at 18 years old, in a Marketing agency, and within a week I was being offered a dream job! This launched my career and was the best strategy to get into a competitive industry.   

Has every single intern been fantastic, well no of course not, but I have learnt to really guage their level of interest in the company, the industry I am in and their reason for wanting to do the placement before accepting them into the company.  If they are a match, I then align their career goals with what I can offer them and give them tasks which fit with their goals.  It has to be win-win-win for everyone and you need to dedicate time to training them so that you can both benefit from the experience.

I would love to hear your own views and experience with internships and work placements, so please feel free to leave a comment below. 

   

Multilingual Talent in Demand across Ireland

Thanks to great efforts and work by the IDA  there is still a big demand for multilingual talent in Ireland.  The most challenging of languages is something we have always loved to work on here at Expect Talent. 

We usually get invited to work with a client when they have been trying to recruit for an obscure language combination, and been unsuccessful through their own methods.  Of course, it is not just about the languages, it is also important to secure a candidate with the best skills and experience too.  Expect Talent has always been a specialist in this area, and we have proven to be very strong in sourcing high quality bi-lingual and even tri-lingual candidates which are often most valuable to a company as they can cover mutliple markets. 

I often get asked how we can achieve such great success in this multilingual area, the reply is simple; Quality Relationships; Quality Networks; Quality Team.

Quality Relationships

We have formed partnerships and strategic alliances with organisations and companies across Europe to ensure that we have maximum reach.  We also build relationships across Ireland with referral partners and with all of our candidates with languages.  These relationships allow us to leverage access to candidate markets and constant referrals to the right talent.  Both within the industry and outside we are known for being experts in multilingual recruitment so this helps us to build relationships which are mutually beneficuak. 

Quality Networks

Our online and offline networks give us access to multilingual talent across the globe. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, online networks such as LinkedIN, Twitter and Facebook help out recruiters to contact candidates with languages for all types of roles.  Our international network through BNI allows us to generate links in 47 countries across the globe. The BNI Global Power Team of which I am Vice President gives us as an agency, unrivalled access to multilingual talent.

Quality Team

Having knowledge of local markets in Europe within our own team is critical. Our Talent Managers and support team cover many European Languages including Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian and of course English.  The ability to tap into local forums, careers centres, universities, local social networks and jobsites allows with native speakers who understand the country and local market allows us to generate an ongoing pipeline of candidates. It is important that we can respond instantly when a client needs languages.  We regularly attend recruitment fairs in EU countries, so that we can be ahead of the pack and secure candidates faster for our clients.

The Future for Languages in Ireland

Ireland remains an attractive place for large corporations to run their European operation, and despite the economic climate, there are more and more companies generating jobs here.  Great to see Quest Software's arrival into Cork and companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Big Fish Games and Blizzard Entertainment growing and developing their need for top multilingual talent.  We fully expect this to be a great year for job creation in Ireland and based on the activity levels we have seen within our clients in the first few weeks of this year, there is huge opportunity for candidates with the right skills and experience to secure a great opportunity in this country.

There are always great opportunities available for multilingual talent across all parts of Ireland, especially for Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, German and all Scandinavian languages.  Whether it be for an entry level position in customer support, or sales, finance or administration.  But, it can also can be a significant advantage for top level management.  To find out more, contact our specialist team at info@expect-talent.com.