A new post today from Andy McCormack – Counsellor and Career/Life Coach….

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Another blog from my guest contributor Amy Goldstein. Recruiters PLEASE take note!!

The only thing the young, unemployed, and penniless love more than money is to complain. During the past year in New Zealand, I’ve commiserated with many fellow job seekers over how tedious and stressful it is to find work. We particularly enjoy gossiping about recruitment agencies.

For the most part, the recruitment process is rather mundane and innocuous; but sometimes, you hear a good horror story. My favourite comes from my friend Jennifer. Apparently, one of her consultants keeps referring to her as Jessica, even over email, even though her name is included in her email address.

Lately, I’ve been thinking: during your professional career, you undergo annual reviews and complete exit interviews, giving you and your manager the chance to evaluate and constructively criticise each other. However, job candidates rarely get to give feedback to their HR consultants (which is why we talk about them behind their backs instead). That hardly seems fair or productive. Since I’ve yet to fill out a recruitment agency performance review, I’d like to take this opportunity to share my advice on how to be a better HR consultant.

Tip # 1: Be Honest About Available Opportunities

When I first arrived in Auckland, one agent seduced me with the promise of a well-paid, three-month contract as an Administrative Assistant with a telecommunications company. As soon as she received confirmation of the role, it would be mine. Excited about this particular position, I rejected less appealing roles offered by other agents.

It took over a week of unreturned calls and emails for me to realize that this job didn’t actually exist. The agent was just leading me on until a suitable opportunity became available. When the consultant finally contacted me, she sounded hurt and betrayed to discover I had already found work through a competing agency. Manage candidate expectations by being up front about their prospects, and giving them concrete and realistic deadlines for when they are likely to hear back from you and get a job.

Tip #2: Communicate Frequently With Your Candidates

Even though recruitment agencies don’t charge candidates directly for their services, in my experience there are many hidden fees. For example, money spent on phone credit and Internet so that you can harass your HR consultant. Job candidates tend to resemble patients awaiting the results of a medical exam. Ideally, agents would ring candidates periodically with a progress report, or tell them exactly how long they should wait before checking in. Otherwise, prepare yourself for stalkers.

Tip #3: Optimise Compatibility

Unhappy with his former employer, one of my flatmate’s recently quit his job. He has extensive experience in (and for some reason greatly enjoys) the insurance industry. However, because he is moving overseas in a few months and knows his next role will be temporary, he is willing to be flexible.

Imagine his delight when a recruitment agent announced that she had found him a potential opportunity in his field, as a Sales Manager. Unfortunately, his expertise is in Customer Service, and he’s never had a leadership position. “I can’t wait to see how they present my CV for that role,” he said. “They are going to have to do a serious sales pitch of their own.” He and I are still debating which is worse – being hired to do a job for which you have no training or experience or being hired to do a job for which you’re overqualified.

Tip #4: Consider Your Candidates’ Long-Term Career Goals

I’m not proud to admit some of the things I’ve done for money. Like don a one-dollar coin costume and walk down the streets of Wellington handing out chocolates and fliers to strangers (even if the pictures are amazing). Given the current economic climate, many job seekers feel guilty if they turn down an unattractive role; and those already employed feel greedy if they go for something better suited to their personal skills and passions. Desperate job seekers can feel as though recruitment agencies are doing them a favour by finding them work, and thus have no right to make demands.

A candidate’s short-term goal may be a steady income. But, whether we are in New Zealand on a temporary working-holiday visa or a native citizen, we all ultimately want a job that is interesting, challenging, and meaningful. Once a candidate has been placed, stay in touch with them, inquire after their job satisfaction, and keep them in mind when new positions arise.

Perhaps that’s the key to a positive job candidate-HR consultant relationship: the future. Treat all candidates as if you want them to be lifelong clients, and try to find them a role they would be happy to fill for the rest of their lives. If that’s not possible immediately or ever, at the very least, make an effort to remember their names.

Thanks for a great post Amy

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This is a guest blog from Amy Goldstein. Amy is the founder, principal contributor, and editor of Expat Essays. Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Amy moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2005, where she lived for over three years before moving to New Zealand in 2009. She hopes that readers, especially other expats, benefit from her notes, stories, advice, and experiences.

I have published this, as I will more of her work, as sometimes we get so buried in recruitment that we can forget the candidate’s perspective.

“I hate to say this, as I’m not one to generalize, but all recruitment agencies look the same to me. That may sound awful, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. One of the benefits of applying for a job through an HR consultancy is that you know exactly what to expect.

A few years ago, a friend of mine responded to an advertisement for an Event Planner published directly by the employer. The person who phoned her to arrange an interview mentioned that he was impressed with her qualifications and experience. My friend arrived to the interview confident and prepared. Her interviewers, on the other hand, arrived unprepared and arrogant. With no HR Department, the company sent two twenty-something hotshot executives to conduct the interview. Neither brought a notepad, but both had a latte.

For the next thirty minutes, they drilled her on international media and business. She had come ready to talk about guest lists and seating charts. They were clearly more concerned with showing off for one another than with getting to know her. She was horrified and humiliated. Since then, she’s found all of her jobs through agencies.

No one ever got ambushed by an HR consultant. The process with agencies is always the same: email your CV everywhere, call after 1-2 business days to follow-up, go in for a skills test and interview, wait for the best offer. In the event that you do have to meet with a potential employer, there is comfort in knowing that the employer is predisposed to liking and hiring you. My current manager spent the better part of an hour asking me for South America travel tips.

Even at their worst, recruitment agencies are reassuringly predictable. You can expect to be strung along or ignored by at least one consultant. You can count on being told that the “the economy is slow right now, but we’re optimistic it will pick up soon.” And you can be sure that when you do accept a position, all the other consultants will ask you with a mixture of jealousy and resentment for the name of the agency that found your opportunity.

That’s not to say that there are never any surprises. Another friend was recently job hunting in Auckland. She is no stranger to office work, having temped in England, Australia, and New Zealand. She signed up with agencies, and for weeks, was glued to her phone like a prisoner awaiting a last-minute presidential pardon. Finally, after sufficiently harassing her consultants, she got a response: “The truth is,” began the consultant, “we don’t trust that anyone will hire you, because of your nose ring.” My friend now works at an eco-lodge in the Coromandel.

When I lived in Wellington, I registered with an agency that specializes in promotional work. Jobs were highly paid but infrequent, and delegated on a first come, first served basis. One day while on the way to the gym, one of the consultants called to offer me a three-day assignment. I was also working part-time at a bookstore and didn’t know my schedule for those days; so I asked her to give me an hour to confirm. Forget the treadmill, I literally ran across town to the store to check my hours. Still panting, I rang to say that I was in fact available. “Sorry,” she sang, “I just gave those shifts away to somebody else.” That’s when I decided it was time for a full-time job.

It was the height of the recession, and prospects were bleak. I submitted my CV to multiple agencies, hoping the law of large numbers would be on my side. It wasn’t. I was in the process of deleting a series of automated rejection emails when I received a phone call from a consultant who was, “really excited by my CV and would just love to have me come in.” Gushing: another thing you can expect from a recruitment agent.
“But your agency just sent me an email saying you weren’t interested.”
“Oh. Did we?” Eventually, we determined that my CV had landed on the desks of two different consultants (obviously, one more talented and intuitive than the other). By then, it was too late – I was already on my way to Auckland.

I fared much better in Auckland, signing up with and receiving offers from a number of agencies. As all of the opportunities were more or less the same, I went with the consultant I liked best. This consultant actually listened to me and to my story, taking into consideration my needs and aspirations. She treated me like a person that needed help finding a job, rather than a potential commission. Her honesty and reliability were refreshing: if she said she was going to call, she did. When it came to selling me on the job, she confessed that it was neither challenging nor exciting. However, she convinced me that the relaxed office environment and the security of a steady paycheck were what mattered most, given the current climate and my personal situation. Of course, she was right.

Before the holidays, my consultant dropped by my office unannounced to deliver me a present. We chatted for a few minutes about my plans to travel before my visa expires in February. Even though we had just finished discussing my imminent departure from the New Zealand job market, she invited me to meet her for a cup of coffee in January. As soon as she left, I forwarded her email address to my flatmate, who is currently in the market for an HR consultant. It just goes to show that when searching for a job, it’s the individual agent not the agency that defines the experience.”

Thanks for your blog Amy – I look forward to more

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As New Zealand slowly gets back to the workplace, may I wish all my readers a Happy, Prosperous and Healthy New Year.

I thought I would kick off the New Year with a guest blog from Amy who has written a piece about agencies from a candidate perspective.

The blog will be published on Monday when more recruiters are back at their desks!

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Here at Elfland we have been inundated with CVs for the Father Xmas role. In fact so many CVs that we have had to close our applications early. A copy of the ad can be seen here

A worrying factor was that over 40 of the responses to our Trade me advertisement were “serious” ones.

However, the stand out winner by far was Allison Doody and I am repeating her job application in full. She wins the position on merit, sense of humour and her previous experience. Here is her covering letter and would other job seekers please note, how a good covering letter is your one, and only, chance to make a first impression… She read the advertisement and responded to all the relevant requirements brilliantly…now if only it was real (shhhh don’t tell the children)

“I am writing to apply for the above position.

As I have been working for a very long time as Tooth-Fairy Coordinator I have no CV as this advertisement has come out of the blue! So I thought I would just write you a quick letter so you can see I have what it takes to do this job.

Allison Doody
(AKA Freda Fairy, and previously Bronny-Bunny)

For her effort, Allison wins a box of chocolates and a bottle of wine (to keep up appearances) and free career counselling in the New Year.

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*Unlimited Global travel
*No need to worry about expense accounts
*Company Vehicle and smart red uniform provided
*Meals and drinks when on duty

Our client has been operating for hundreds of years and is very well respected in their market. They operate throughout the whole world for one night a year.

Although they have a complete monopoly over their market, they have no problems with the Commerce Commission. Technology has made their market harder but they have continued to operate in traditional ways using tried and tested methodology.

As Customer Service Team leader you will be responsible for managing a multi-cultural team, including many elves. Elves are notoriously difficult to manage due to their playful way of approaching their work.

You will listen carefully to customer requisition requests and you will have to read many letters asking about company services, enquiring about products, and insisting on specific delivery dates. Your eyesight must be good as some of these requests can be composed in quite childlike writing, although many of our customers use capital letters for emphasis.

You will need to be of portly build, or be prepared to wear a cushion. You must not be claustrophobic as you often have to go down chimneys. In fact, some of our deliveries can be quite tricky!

The successful applicant will also be good at multi-tasking as you often have to be in many places at the same time. Sometimes you will be store based (normally in a nice little grotto) but often you will be flying around all over. To assist your role, we will provide a deluxe version of the basic Time-Turner as used by Hermione Grainger (Harry Potter).

Ideally you will look old, or be prepared to look old, as we need continuity of brand and all our previous incumbents have had white hair. A statue of our previous Team Leader has recently been placed on Queen Street in Auckland and this gives you an indication of the look we are trying to achieve. You will also need to be a happy jolly sort of person, of patient disposition, and get on well with children.

You need great attention to detail and previous major project management experience will be essential. Our reputation depends on complete accuracy and our company slogan is “Right People, Right Goods, Right Time” We cannot afford to deliver our products to naughty children.

If you have previous experience of sleigh driving (preferably at night) that will be of distinct advantage.

Closing date for applications 24th December at 11.59pm exactly – NO EXCEPTIONS

CVs to James Cozens, Leading Chief Elf Advisor by e-mail to

james@job.co.nz

Please only send fun CVs and letters – NO SERIOUS APPLICATIONS – THIS IS NOT A REAL JOB.

The “short list” of the best 3 fun CVs will be published on my blog – www.jobblog.co.nz and you can also add any comments there.

It has been a hard year in the job market so this fun ad is especially for all those who have had a tough time.

A very Happy Xmas to all of you reading this and Happy Xmas to my friends (both of them)

Best of luck with your job, and job searching, in the New Year

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The latest Olivier survey has been released and it shows positive news in the run up to Xmas.  Here is the verbatim report from their website:

 “The Olivier Job Index rose 5.88% in November, and 7.84% in the past 3 months. The index has risen in three out of the last four months. This reverses last month’s fall of 1.67%, confirming the resilience of the bounce back in Australian job ads. November’s increase is the strongest since December 2007, before the GFC.

Ads for full time jobs were up 5.9% compared to part time at 4.6%. That’s most encouraging. Our experience at the coal face is that if employers can hire full timers they will. This is a great vote of confidence in the economy.

The increases, despite two rate rises and the (now substantiated) prospect of a third, confirms business confidence is strong. The November OJI is more evidence in support of the RBA’s tight rein on the Australian economy.

Close analysis suggests that the fall in October was a hiccup. Numbers slipped in the first week and stayed down. November’s data looks like a continuation of September’s growth.

When you look closely at the figures it seems the job market now is closer to that in ‘06 and ‘07 than ‘08. This was typical of a strong market with ads staying high until the end of November. Clients who want new starters in January will continue to recruit right up to the Christmas break.

There is no doubt that there will be a deluge of talent on the market in mid to late January. The smart job seeker and employer will secure a deal prior to Christmas and beat the rush.”

Let us hope New Zealand follows on (no, not cricket……)

More at their website or the full report is here

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Publishing is a hard area to get into at the best of times and you have to have real talent to succeed and a lot of luck.  Whilst researching today I came across Amy Goldstein (well her blog) and I loved her style. She is the founder, principal contributor, and editor of Expat Essays.  Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Amy moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2005, where she lived for over three years before moving to New Zealand in 2009.   She hopes that readers, especially other expats, benefit from her notes, stories, advice, and experiences.

I read many of her stories, but this extract relating to recruiters I loved and as so many of my readers are in the recruitment business I am repeating her exact words….  

“If you’re on a working-holiday visa, your employment opportunities are limited, especially if you’re in a country that respects and adheres to immigration laws. Restaurant, retail, and hospitality jobs are typically available. However, for many, the best option is temporary office work (which often leads to an extended contract or even a permanent position), and the best tactic is to sign up with a recruitment agency.

Before leaving for Auckland, my flatmate generously offered to forward my details on to his contact at one of New Zealand’s bigger and better staffing agencies.  An HR consultant phoned to invite me in for an interview and skills assessment.   Bearing in mind that the market is so tight Kiwis with 20 years of experience are fighting for the same short-term secretarial roles as gap-year travelers, I told the consultant that I was open to all possibilities.  This was a mistake.  Agencies will not consider you for or place you into a role without first evaluating your aptitude for such a position.  The more open you are, the more tests they give you.

In my case, this included tests on data entry, customer service, typing, sheep herding, apple picking, and goat milking.  I couldn’t believe that I had to go through all this just to have a chance at answering phones and making coffee. Suddenly, I empathize with people attempting to adopt a child. When I asked the consultant how long I could expect the assessment to take, he politely suggested that I pack a lunch.  He was also kind enough to recommend, in a lowered voice, that I memorize the drop-down menus of Microsoft Word and Excel, as shortcuts (and mistakes) are not allowed.

I know as much about Excel as I do about fixing hot water cylinders; and while I use Word daily, I could not tell you the precise path for placing blinking Christmas lights around text (Format -> Font -> Animation -> Las Vegas Lights).  Determined to prove myself a strong candidate, I made flashcards like I was prepping for the GREs, except that acing the GREs promises entrance into a top university, while acing a systems test promises entrance into the mail room of a major company.

Once I completed the epic testing, the consultant called me into an office to review the results.  “How’d it go?” he asked, as if he were asking me where I was on the night of June 24.  I found this question strange, as he already knew the answer.
“Well,” I began to humor him, “it took some time to get used to the test.  Also, I have a different version of the programs at home.  But overall, it was fine.”
“You’re in the 99th percentile of all candidates we’ve tested in the past three months.”
“Oh.  Then I’ll stop explaining myself.”

The following day, a consultant from the Auckland office phoned to discuss my details.  The optimism and confidence of the previous afternoon were soon shattered, when she revealed that Auckland had been hit harder in the recession than Wellington and was taking longer to recover.  I may be valedictorian of the staffing agency, but I appear to be destined for data entry.  Spending forty hours a week performing the same mindless activity is to me what getting stuck in an elevator with a clown is to a claustrophobic person.

My immediate reaction was to panic, and cry, but when I calmed down, it occurred to me that the agency was helping me to take the first step that I should have taken four months ago.  Boring but temporary entry-level positions can lead to more dynamic roles, friendly co-workers, rent, a sense of purpose, a routine, after-work drinks, an office romance, and free pens and notepads, all things that are necessary for my happiness and missing from my life.  So, while I may be disappointed over leaving Wellington and uneasy about moving to Auckland, if nothing else, I can feel good about the fact that I type 71 words per minute with 100% accuracy.”

I loved her story – you can read it in full here on her blog

Anyone got a job for her???

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There has been so much chatter and twitter about Social Networks replacing job boards, recruitment agencies dying out as technology takes over, and candidate care (or lack of it) that it has made me stop and think and, while thinking, that French phrase – in English “the more it changes, the more it’s the same thing” came to mind.

30 years ago, I was a young London based accountant and applied to Michael Page (recruitment agency) for an auditing role they had advertised.  The consultant saw things in me that I did not and over a two month period I ended up convinced by him and others that recruitment could be a great career for a young professional.

Our “database” was a manual card system.  A “system crash” was a drunk Adrian dropping the cards on the floor. We had a phone system that was all lights and flick switches.  No memory phones – but Richard knew all his top client numbers by heart (and many of ours too).  We had a private line (ex directory of course) for candidates to call us back on.  I (as the trainee) collected a large red bag of post from the Post Office every day so we got CVs before other agencies.  We retyped CVs from scratch into our format and then bike couriered them to the client.  Overseas clients were sent details by telex.

We advertised in Newspapers and specialist magazines and used Direct Marketing by post.   

Many clients operated a “first CV gets the fee” approach so your business depended on James getting the post bag, fast typists and fast motorbike couriers.

Then the fax machine arrived and our business started to depend on not getting an engaged tone, or the receiving client not running out of paper.  Some clients refused to accept faxes as they were getting so many and the thermal fax paper used in those days was expensive. So the bikes survived for a while.

Then came e-mail.  We phoned clients at first to check they had got the e-mail . We attended courses on “What is the Internet” and a whole new world opened up.  More CVs from all over the world now – whereas in the past our “overseas response” would be from a two month old advert from the Financial Times that someone had posted up on a board in a Spanish job centre.

and then came Job Boards…..and then Social Networks….and then…..

but did our business really grow because we had faster bikes? Because we had three fax machines and our competitors had none? Because James got an early train to work to collect the post?

Of course these all helped, but Michael Page and many other recruiters built their business on real (not virtual) relationships – between Consultant and Client and between Consultant and Candidate.  We used the phone to talk to people, we met with clients, we interviewed candidates. We knew our specialised markets well and we were respected for that knowledge.

The recruitment expert Greg Savage said at an RCSA presentation once “in the old days” you walked into a recruitment office and it was a bedlam of noise – everyone on the phone talking to people.  Now you walk into an office and the only noise is the tapping of keyboards – “libraries can be noisier” he said.  But are lasting relationships built by e-mail? Maybe in a Tom Hank’s movie……..  

This recession (I have worked through 4 now) has been a good thing for our industry.  The agencies that have been adding no value, and that have been taking CVs from the job boards, flicking them onto a client and who have expected a large fee for little effort have suffered.  Whilst 2009 has not been a fantastic year, generally the specialist recruiters have survived.

Many clients have been using job boards and several are experimenting with social networks, but there will always be a need, a positive reception and a reward for the consultant who recognises a good candidate for a relevant client. 

Job boards and social networks will give you a CV.  The Internet will give you the ability to find jobs and company information.  What technology does not give you is a beating heart.  It does not show you the motivation behind an individual, the growth plans for a company, things that are said privately and not publicly.

To fully understand your candidates and clients and to be a good recruiter you need to know what makes them tick, you need to never stop asking questions (and listening to the answers) as my mentors Bruce Duncan and Steve Brown taught me, and you need to meet with them and build the trust.  You need to treat “Human Resources” less as a resource and more as a Human. 

The trust you build with your client and candidate gives you exclusive work, preferred supplier status and enables you to act as their advisor for years to come.  Seek, Facebook, Twitter etc etc give you the ingredients – you still need to put it all together and bake the cake.  There is no “take away” or “ready meal” in good recruitment, the best job is done with fresh ingredients, a great chef and a little magic.

The skills have remained the same for 30 years – only the tools have changed.

Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose

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After my last post about Technology and candidate care, I was reading an article today by my longtime friend, and ex colleague, Tracey Dunn of BlueSkyPR.  Rather than paraphrase her fine words, I repeat it here in its entirety.

“I was chatting to Alan Whitford recently of RCEuro .

To any innocent eavesdropper it would have sounded like an episode of grumpy old men/woman. You see Alan and I are from the old school of recruiters – before technology, before faxes – hell even before electronic typewriters. But during the last twenty odd years one thing has remained constant – the complaint from candidates about the candidate experience.

So why haven’t we learned? And there really is no excuse, as technology has made it easier than ever before to engage. But still we have the problem of candidates applying for jobs online and, at best, getting some impersonal auto reply. I know that we have a huge pool of candidates at the moment – and okay – many of them may not be suitable. But how difficult is it, on that auto reply, to point them to something that may help – a careers guidance area on your website for example with downloads on networking advice, coping with redundancy, the benefits of temping, upskilling etc etc .  Because when the war for talent comes back – and having worked through three recessions I can tell you it surely will, which recruiters will those candidates remember? A recruiters reputation can succeed or fail on something as simple as this so isn’t it time at last to try and get it right?  Here are my three  favourite anecdotes from my conversation with Alan:

• The candidate who received an e-mail to say your details  look exactly right so we will be putting you forward for the job and will contact you shortly.  The candidate then never heard anything.
• The recruitment firm that sent an auto reply after two weeks.
• The candidate who, having uploaded her CV as requested was then sent a form asking for two referees

There were lots more but it is too depressing! Technology is a great tool but you can’t e-mail a handshake! What are you doing to engage?”

Thanks Tracey for some thoughtful comments

Another Grumpy Old Man

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