What All Recruiters Really Want to Say to Their Rubbish Clients

What All Recruiters Really Want to Say to Their Rubbish Clients For agency recruiters, it often feels like clients are toying with them these days. It feels for all the world that some*  Line Managers, Internal Recruiters and HR types  have conspired to make life for recruiters as hellish as possible. Job briefs given out to 6 agents, ‘urgent’ orders postponed after weeks of work, interviews cancelled at a moments notice and worst of all sudden silence and no status updates at all. Now don’t misunderstand me. I am no blind defender of 3rd party recruiters. I  criticise our industry  regularly and loudly, and I am appalled by the incompetence of many on the agency side. What is more, it’s also true that many of these internal folk are at the whim of ‘higherâ€"ups,’ who move the goalposts frequently, but I have no doubt whatsoever that some on the client side are revelling in their petty ‘power’, and derive ghoulish satisfaction at seeing those ‘smug recruiters’ suffer. I get told this in Australia and New Zealand. I got told it in South Africa earlier this year, and I was told this same thing by a group of UK recruiters in London. It’s universal. Inexplicably, the worst amongst those seem to be ex-agency recruiters, now preening on the client side. But that is another blog. And we might feel compelled to criticise slow-moving or vindictive clients for their actions, and the impact it has on us as recruiters, individually and corporately. But, in fact all that is a sideshow to the main game. Corporates, who jerk recruiters around, appear to be oblivious to the reality of  who  they are hurting and the  actual  damage they are doing. Here is the thing: The people who are really suffering are  candidates, and the real damage being done is to  their own brands and reputations. Oh yes, make no mistake. It stuns me that employers can be so blind. When you cancel a job on a recruiter at the last minute, who do you think suffers? It’s the  candidate,  who has already been on three interviews with your company, has been led to believe an offer is imminent, and is now tossed aside, usually without any explanation. And when you brief a recruiter on your ‘urgent’ job, demand a rapidly assembled shortlist, and then sit on it for 8 weeks, do you realise it’s not just the recruiter you have sent on a costly and frustrating wild-goose chase? There are six  candidates  who have been briefed on that job, told it’syou  hiring, and advised their resume is on  your  desk. And if, foolishly, you have given that order out to 6 recruiters, that could be 25 candidates waiting to hear back from  you. Getting increasingly angry. At  you. And don’t for a moment think the recruiter, stuck in the middle, is going to take the rap for your behaviour. Why should they? The candidate will know it’s  your  actions that have caused the disappointment and frustration. And trust me, candidates resent your actions. They vent their fury at your unprofessional, disrespectful behaviour, and they blog about it, and they spit your name out across social media. They tell their friends and colleagues what a bunch of cowboys you are, and they refuse to be considered for future jobs at your company, and for all I know they stop using your products and services. And you deserve it. So, wake up, you line managers, HR dudes and internal recruitment teams. Your personal and employer brands are being irreparably harmed by your bureaucratic inefficiency (at best), and arrogant disregard, at worst. And when the market turns, and hiring heats up, as it will, your chickens will flock home to roost. The best talent, and the recruiters who represent them, will avoid you like the plague, leaving you to hire from the dregs, and fighting to rebuild your personal reputation. Which will be… mud. * please note, I said ‘some’. Not all. Not even most. Some.

Show Companies You Can Fit Into Their Culture Easily - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Show Companies You Can Fit Into Their Culture Easily - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career A company’s culture is like a puzzle â€" it’s either you “fit” into it or you don’t. A candidate’s alignment with the company’s values, habits, and even communication styles is both beneficial for themselves and the employer. It can allow for easier management, engagement, and increased satisfaction over time. Even when you’re qualified in every way for a position, if employers can’t envision you fitting in, it’s enough to consider someone else. “More than showing what you can do for the employer, showing how you’ll be able to easily work alongside them is a make-or-break factor for getting the job,” says Josh Tolan, CEO of Spark Hire. “Most employers won’t directly ask ‘Can we tolerate working with you?’ Instead, answer it for them during the interview stage.” Once you’ve found a company that you identify with and applied for that open position, how can you communicate your fit with them? How to fit the puzzle Here are Tolan’s ways for approaching just that in your personal brand: In Your Video Pitch. Video pitches are great for showcasing those “soft skills” employers won’t see on your resume.  It’s also the best way for employers to see how you present yourself and if it’s fits for what they expect in an employee. Through Social Media. Employers want to know what you think about. Your Twitter or Facebook are already designed to share and spread your ideas and knowledge around â€" so don’t be hesitant to showcase your expertise on a trend or topic. Just be sure to keep it professional. On Your Blog. Here you can talk about your professional goals, expectations, and how your values align with the company. If you want to work for an alternative energy company, talk about your love for “green” environmentally friendly initiatives, or how you personally saved more paper in your last position. Employers will see it, and take note of your alignment with their mission. Remember that you don’t have to mold yourself to be the right fit for every company. In doing so, you could be setting yourself up for an eventual negative experience. But when you do find a match between you and a company, be sure to show, not just tell, how you fit into their culture. How would you define company culture? What are other ways to show your “fit” within a company? Author: Heather R. Huhman is a career expert, experienced hiring Come Recommended, a content marketing and digital PR consultancy for organizations with products that target job seekers and/or employers. She is also the author of Lies, Damned Lies Internships (2011), #ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle (2010), and writes career and recruiting advice for numerous outlets.

Why We Feel Married to Our Jobs

Why We Feel Married to Our Jobs Its a phrase thats often used and with most of us spending at least a third of our day at work, its no wonder we sometimes feel that our day job is likened to a marriage minus the anniversary cards and presents, romance, and arguments. And in some extreme cases, our job has cost us a marriage. A new poll  found that one in 10 Brits have seen their relationship fall apart due to their dedication to their jobs and nearly a quarter admit having to cancel plans such as date nights and birthdays as a result of it. In fact, three in 10 say they feel like they’re always at work, even when they’re at home. Thankfully my job hasnt cost me my marriage but its led to a number of arguments because as you know news  never stops something my husband doesnt really get. As a journalist, we get a certain buzz when theres major breaking news, and even better if its a rolling news story, and unless you work in news its probably something you cant understand. Take the news of former South African president Nelson Mandela passing away. It broke at around 9 pm  GMT and it was well out of office hours so I was definitely not working and I wasnt even on-call. So imagine the horror on my husbands face when the first thing I did was to call my cousin in Johannesburg to ask him if he was free to do a quick interview about Mandelas death. He agreed, I called the newsroom and there was the start of at least 48 hours of back-to-back coverage of Mandelas passing. I was glued to the rolling 24-hour news channels to soak up as much information I could but my husband was getting increasingly annoyed as I delayed going to bed further and further. Hes died. Thats it. Thats the news. What else do you want to know? he grumbled as he took himself off to bed but in my job, there was still lots to know. I did the same while awaiting the news of the next president of the United States, hoping and praying it wouldnt be Trump by waking up every hour through the night to check the regular updates on the news app and twitter on my phone and again when the EU referendum result was coming in. I was gutted with both results having convinced myself that it would be near impossible for either Trump to be president or for the UK to leave the EU. But something in me just couldnt switch off and its not just the news industry where people cant break free from their jobs. A recent poll  found that one in 10 Brits have seen their relationship fall apart due to their dedication to their jobs and nearly a quarter admit having to cancel plans such as date nights and birthdays as a result of it. In fact, three in 10 say they feel like they’re always at work, even when they’re at home. Fifty-two percent believe this is linked to new technologies allowing us, for instance, to check emails on our phones. Seven in 10 admit being contacted outside of working hours via either text, email or phone for work-related matters and a quarter go as far as saying they spend more time messaging bosses and colleagues than their own friends. When asked why they put these extra hours, more than half say it’s simply because they have too much work. However, a quarter feel they’re being pressured by their boss, and an additional 18 percent feel they might lose their job otherwise. They’ll do things such as checking work emails (23 percent), admin (40 percent) and preparing reports (25 percent) outside of working hours. Sadly its not only our relationships that suffer when we work too much. It can have a huge impact on our health and wellbeing too. Chieu Cao, Co-founder of Perkbox says: These findings serve as a stark reminder about priorities and how new technologies, whilst providing many benefits, are also blurring the lines between our private and professional lives. As employers, we need to start managing people based on their outputs rather than hours worked, leading by example and empowering teams to make their own decisions. Our objective should no longer be keeping employees engaged at work, it should be catering for their entire employee experience, so they feel fulfilled inside and outside of it. So what can you do to leave your work at work? Try not to have work emails on your phone or personal tablet/laptop. Listen to music or watch something on your phone/tablet on your commute home to help you switch off from work-mode. Switch off your work phone or tablet/laptop you cant look at them if theyre not on. Make plans for the evening whether its going for a run, hitting the gym or a date night with your other half and then stick to it. DONT even think about canceling for work! There are times when we do have to work later than our normal hours or indeed bring our work home but as long as its every once in a while and doesnt become the norm then maybe you can enjoy your married life for a lot longer!

Advice for Maintaining a Productive Career During and After a Divorce -

Advice for Maintaining a Productive Career During and After a Divorce - Divorce is undoubtedly one of the most stressful and emotionally draining life experiences someone can go through, so it’s safe to say that it can have a substantial impact on your career. Unless you have been unfortunate enough to experience it, the breakdown of a marriage and the effect it can have on pretty much every aspect of a person’s life is very difficult to comprehend. Distraction, a lack of motivation, and in some cases depression can all take their toll on someones ability to perform efficiently and productively at work. This can cause short and long-term damage to your career and is something that should be avoided at all costs. In this post, we’ll highlight a few of the ways people have been able to maintain a productive and successful career while in the midst of even the messiest divorce. Prioritise Your Well-Being While there’s no doubt that your career is important, working to the best of your ability will be an uphill struggle if you don’t prioritise your mental health and well-being first. Everyone is different, so therefore the routines and stress-relief tactics they adopt with vary. Stress can have a particularly severe impact on your well-being, so a healthy diet and regular exercise can be a massive benefit. The latter is especially useful because exercising â€" whether it’s a daily walk or workout at the gym â€" will help to improve your mood and energy levels. Be Honest and Direct with Your Employer Suffering in silence is one of the worst things you can do when it comes to dealing with divorce and your job. Approaching your employer as well as HR will not only make them aware of the situation, but it will also allow them to provide the necessary support to make life a lot easier for you during this period. Whether this means taking time off to settle your affairs, reducing your hours, or even working from home for a while â€" your employer won’t be able to assist you if they are in the dark. Also, if you have been struggling at work recently it’s crucial for your employer to know that this is due to issues outside of the office, rather than your lack of enthusiasm. Seek the Help of a Specialist Family Lawyer During a divorce, you’ll find that arguably your most vital asset and ally is your family lawyer. It’s for this reason that your choice of legal representation isn’t something to be taken lightly, and in this case, your best bet is to seek a firm who specialises in family law. A reputable divorce solicitor will have a vast range of knowledge and years of experience dealing with cases similar to your own, and therefore be able to offer essential advice and efficient legal services. This is especially important for aspects such as money, property and the custody of children as all three will massively affect your life after a divorce. Make the Most of Your Free Time Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But a failure to make the most of your leisure time is often a decision that can prove to be especially harmful during a divorce. If you’re someone who tends to bring your work home with you, it’s time to stop, at least for now. A divorce is very tough both for yourself and those around you, so putting time aside to relax or blow off steam will prove to be useful. Whichever way you choose to do this depends on what makes you happy. You could take a trip, spend more time with your children, embrace some retail therapy, or just relax on the sofa and see what Netflix has to offer. No matter how you spend your evenings or weekends, it’s important to separate your career and personal life. Then you can go to work on a Monday morning fully rested, relaxed, and raring to go.  

How Training Development Programs Benefit Both the Employer the Employee

How Training Development Programs Benefit Both the Employer the Employee Photo Credit -Pexels.comTraining and development is a process where a person or a group of people are imparted skills, knowledge about a particular technology or concept to improve their skills and knowledge so as to bring an overall change in their personality.Training is teaching or developing an employee to brush his skills to do a particular job. Training is given to the employees to increase their competence level to perform their job well. It’s not only about upgrading their knowledge or polishing their known skills but, it is also about bringing a positive change in their attitude towards their work and their communications among the fellow employees.Training helps in increasing one’s level of competency, capacity and communications resulting in improved productivity, better performance, improved and smooth communications and their retention in the organizations.evalTraining and development brings an overall change in the skills, knowledge, and outlook of the employees. Th is should be scheduled and imparted on time to time whenever a new technology or a concept is introduced or the performance dips down.The objectives of training and development program in an organization:to upgrade the knowledge regarding their work of employees on timely basisto introduce the employees to the latest technologies being used in the industryto improve the communication skills among the employees to reduce the grapevine communicationto increase the employees job satisfactionto increase the morale of the employeesto help employees stay self-motivated about their dutiesto reduce employee turnover rationto retain the employee for a long termto reduce the risks involved in their work and life during job by imparting risk trainingHow does an Employer benefit by conducting training and development for employees: Timely and routine various training and development programs are conducted for the employees of an organization the productivity of the employee’s increases becaus e they remain updated with the latest and the result is that their work done shows quality and quantity.If an employee is well trained then the cost and time of supervision of the employee is reduced. Employee if trained, his output will be better and he will do his work with higher dedicationThe training and development programs induce a feeling of belongingness in the employees and they are self-driven and execute their work better.Training imparts confidence in them this reduces their stress about the work. They gain a feeling of competiveness and this reduces in the employee turnover ratio and promotes less absenteeism.Training and development provides a platform for the employees to share their views and ideas with management and management can discover their high potential which benefits the organization in return.There is an increased consistency in their performance and job satisfactionA Training and development program impart technical knowledge and improves the employee’ s behavioral skills in an organization which ultimately results in optimum resource utilization and management.How Employees benefit from the training and development programs? Increased moraleJob satisfactionImproved communication skillsLess absenteeismEmployee retentionLess employee turnoverBetter employee and employer relationsFeeling of belongingnessImproved work behaviorBetter work related skillsQualitative and quantitative work performance

A Good Social Presence Does Help

A Good Social Presence Does Help If you continue to overlook the importance of your social networking profiles and what you are sharing, youre missing out on big opportunities to set yourself apart! The Reality of Social Media More employers are researching the social profiles and content of candidates today than last year. This should come as no surprise.  CareerBuilders recent survey  found 39% of hiring managers and human resource professionals want to know more about a prospective hire. The Good Side of Social Media 19% of hiring professionals chose candidates because of the good information they found online! This is a summary of the top 5 reasons mentioned. The Ugly Side of Social Media Carelessness, plain and simple, resulted in 43% of candidates losing out on an opportunity. Here were the top reasons listed for dismissing candidates: Candidate posted provocative/inappropriate photos/info â€" 50% There was info about candidate drinking or using drugs â€" 48% Candidate bad mouthed previous employer â€" 33% Candidate had poor communication skills â€" 30% Candidate made discriminatory comments related to race, gender, religion, etc. â€" 28% Candidate lied about qualifications â€" 24% So, what will you do this week to spiff up your social presence?

How to Find Free Help Writing a Resume

How to Find Free Help Writing a ResumeIf you are ready to find out how to write a resume that is to your advantage, then let's continue and look at some of the ways in which you can receive free help writing a resume. While there are many writing services that can help with this, many of them will be overpriced. Here is what you need to know about writing resumes that do not cost an arm and a leg.It is a fact that people these days have a variety of writing needs. You may need to use various types of templates. With any luck you will also find that many different types of software will be available for you to use. There are plenty of different types of writing styles that you may have in mind and as well as the actual resume that you need.Before you get started on any type of resume, you need to consider exactly how you want it to look. You want to make sure that you take a good look at it to determine if it is exactly what you need or not. You need to make sure that it is a uniform style, or you might wind up looking very odd.Once you have decided that it is the right one for you, then you need to know where to begin with it. You need to make sure that you are going to highlight all of the things that you will be able to bring to the job that will help you be successful in the position. After you do this, you should make sure that you create it in such a way that it is eye catching and easy to read.If you are going to come up with the resume for yourself, then you need to ensure that you have some sort of general idea of the format. Then once you are ready to write it, you need to make sure that you keep it focused so that it is simple and straight forward. Many people tend to mix things up by including many different things in the resume that they will need to be aware of.You can get free help in creating your resume as well. The more flexible you are with your requirements, the more likely you are to find someone that will be able to help you create a resume that fits your needs. Keep in mind that when you have multiple responsibilities, then you will have to include that information as well.You should also be looking into your goals before you begin the process. You want to make sure that you do not include all of the information at once because you do not want to have to scramble when you get started. You should be able to get it down in order, and then you can move on to the next step.When you look for free help with writing a resume, you want to make sure that you understand exactly what is involved. You should not fall into the trap of wasting money on a service that does not offer you anything for free. There are plenty of people who can help you with this, and you will find that you are much better off once you have used them to create a resume that you can use for any job opening that you are seeking.