Kindness…

‘Kindness don’t ask for much/But an open mind’ (Ryan Adams – Kindness 2011)

Well hello…feels like it’s been a long time since I’ve posted here! I’ve still been blogging as part of the day job but things have been a bit quiet on the T Recs front.

Fear not, there are a couple of posts in the pipeline that will hopefully see the light of day over the next week or so.

In the meantime I can report that recovery from the shoulder operation is progressing well – slowly but surely – and I’m hopefully on course to be sling-less within 4 weeks. Many thanks to everyone who has been kind enough to tweet, DM, text, e-mail and generally show support, interest and concern. The two fingered tweeting and blogging has been a nuisance and, to be honest, didn’t last long…just don’t tell my physio 😉

I can’t complain. Whilst I’ve been away from here there are people in my life (both offline and online) who have been suffering much worse than me, and to whom I have offered as much support as I can – a sharp lesson in however hard you think things are for you, there always people a lot worse off 😦

One of the things I love most about the online community that I am a part of, and which grows daily, is the generosity and kindness so often shown to those who need support, encouragement, help and guidance, and barely a week goes by without those on the receiving end of this kindness showing thanks – often by sharing gratitude on social platforms or else through a blog.

This was very well described by my friend Alison Chisnell on her most recent blog – in which she comments about the first blog from another of our friends, Flora Marriott:

“The other thing that struck me in reading Flora’s first post was the great way that she described her network – vibrant, full of varied, precious friends and family, people she loves and respects, people who she helps and who help her. That reminded me of the general fabulousness of the people that I am privileged to have become friends with through ConnectingHR and Twitter, as well as those who I have met through more conventional means” Continue reading “Kindness…” →

The Challenges of the Two Fingered Tweeter

If you follow me on twitter then you may already know that this weekend I’m having surgery (keyhole) to repair torn cartilage in my shoulder. If the medical technicalities interest you then it’s a Bankart Lesion.

It’s a first for me – I’ve never needed an operation, never broken anything, nor ever required a general anaesthetic, so it will be a whole new experience.

On the down side – I’ve got about 3 months in a sling with minimal use of my left arm, and for the first few weeks minimal use of my left hand too (lucky I’m right handed)

On the up side – I won’t be doing any shopping for a while, I’ll get driven everywhere and the surgeon tells me that he mostly performs the operation on young sportsmen!

It will be daunting at first – having to do everything one handed. Having practiced tasks such as dressing and making lunch using only my right hand I can see that this will be a challenge…but then it will be a challenge that will make me appreciate how lucky I am.

And I may uncover previously untried skills.

So I’ll be the two fingered blogger and tweeter, index and middle fingers primed to skate over the iPad and laptop.

It’ll be awkward, you may have to excuse the typos but the upside for you guys is I’ll be slower hence probably also more succinct!

I’ll let you know how I get on…

Will it be The Last Rites for the CV at #TruLondon?

‘He’s not pining, he’s passed on. This parrot is no more. He has ceased to be. He’s expired and gone to meet his maker. He’s a stiff, bereft of life, he rests in peace. If you hadn’t have nailed him to the perch he’d be pushing up the daisies. He’s rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-parrot!’
Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch

‘Kiss me where the sun don’t shine
The past was yours but the future’s mine
You’re all out of time’
Stone Roses, She Bangs The Drums

At this week’s TruLondon5 I’ll be talking CVs with James Mayes and (I hope) a whole bunch of attendees in the track ‘The CV is Dead!’ If the CV was Monty Python’s parrot would it be pushing up daises, merely resting or stunned? Could the Stone Roses lyric be from an ‘online profile’ to a traditional CV?

This is one of those subjects that creates megabytes of content in cyberspace. Everyone has a view and many like their views to be controversial. I’m sure that the debate on Wednesday will be both lively and heated.

It’s actually a deeply complex topic as it has many facets:

How does a jobseeker want to be represented
What is the best way to showcase skills and capabilities
How does a recruiter want to receive applications
How do recruiters screen and select
Do recruiters/hiring managers have the time to devote to assessing in a different way
What information does a recruiter really need to make an informed decision
How much is invested in technology that requires the maintenance of the status quo

These are just a few; I’m sure readers will have many more to add.

I have to say that I don’t have a foot firmly in either camp, which is why I’m looking forward to hearing the range of views. I know from my work at Jobsite that there is an increasing appetite for CV databases, but what form may the ‘CV’ take in future?

To get the conversation started, here are a few thoughts and questions of my own and some gathered from recent blogs: Continue reading “Will it be The Last Rites for the CV at #TruLondon?” →

Some Thoughts About Youth Unemployment

I’ve been worried about youth unemployment for some time. The recent rise to a figure over a million has really put this at the top of the agenda, both politically and in our everyday lives. Most readers will know someone who is either trying to get a start in the world of work, or will be doing so in the next few years.

But the problem is much wider than we think. The uncomfortable truth is that youth unemployment has been rising stubbornly for 10 years or more. The global downturn has thrown more graduates on the job seeking queues but for one category this has been happening for years.

The graph below shows how youth unemployment rose from 11.7% in 2001 to 19.6% in 2010 (it’s over 21% now) – between 1990 (not on graph) and 2001 it rose very slightly, from 10.4% to 11.7%, but between 2001 and 2008 (start of the recession) it rose from 11.7% to 15%…and this is during an economic boom.

Now look at this graph – taken from a House of Commons briefing document on Youth Unemployment from January 2011 – which shows it much more starkly, and also shows where the real problem lies… Continue reading “Some Thoughts About Youth Unemployment” →

What Type of Leaders do we Really Want?

‘You choose your leaders and place your trust/As their lies wash you down and their promises rust’ (Paul Weller)

What do we expect from our managers and leaders? Judgement and insight, or conviction and ideology?

It’s a question raised in Jonathan Freedland’s weekend piece Chris Huhne, David Cameron and the RBS boss don’t have it, but Al Gore did – asking whether we prefer jaw-jutting certainty to thoughtful judgement in our business and political leaders.

A weighty question. I guess most of us want decisive leaders and managers, the kind of people who know how to sort things out and get things done. And people who can read the signs and adapt. Yet is that what we get? Continue reading “What Type of Leaders do we Really Want?” →

Me & Twitter – It’s a Love Thang!

It must have been fate.

Three years ago today, at about 3 in the afternoon, I climbed the stairs to see the guys in Marketing. They were busy, having fun writing what sounded like limericks. I asked what they were doing and was told they were trying to summarise their lives in 140 characters.

Why? I asked.

We’re going to start using Twitter. They said. Going to try it out, see how we can use it internally and also externally to connect with clients and candidates. It’s going to be big so we want to get in there and try it early. Why don’t you join in?

Oh, I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it. And that was it; I gave it no more thought.

But it nagged away at me, and later that night, 2^nd February 2009, I set up a Twitter page. Far too timid to call myself @mervyndinnen I called myself @mervino , a nickname which Callum Saunders gave me.

And I tweeted. It was a nonsense tweet about the football transfer window which was closing that night and it was about a player Arsenal were about to sign. But I hit send and waited. And waited. But nobody spoke back to me.

Undeterred I tweeted again the next day and followed my marketing colleagues. And Stephen Fry. My marketing colleagues talked back to me but Stephen Fry didn’t.

Timid days and I didn’t know where it would lead. But I stuck with it. And since then I’ve tweeted a lot more, changed my name to @mervyndinnen and had fun. And it’s been good to me. It’s helped me do lots of things: Continue reading “Me & Twitter – It’s a Love Thang!” →

The Good, The Bad and The Cautious

Conference season is in full swing. In recent weeks I’ve attended four recruitment and HR conferences at which – surprise surprise – one of the burning topics was yet again social media.

Clearly it’s a subject that won’t go away – nor should it – but I can certainly detect a shift in attitudes with companies showing a distinct interest, even keenness, to embrace the opportunities.

Most heart-warmingly it was at Recruitment International’s seminar for SME recruitment agencies that I noticed a big shift. I delivered the session ‘The Key to Social Media’ which I started with the question ‘how many companies here have a twitter account?’ to find that over half did! Not only that, but they wanted to learn how to use them properly and get more from them!

I won’t repeat my session here. Suffice to say that leading them through the industry’s communication journey of phone and rolodex, to fax, then computer, e-mail, mobile and now social media highlighted that it’s an evolution not a revolution and companies will adapt much as they have done previously.

This approach helps to focus on the conversation not the medium. On participation, openness, conversation, community and the benefits of connectedness… and the rules of engagement as opposed to the fear of the unknown.

After all, with our previously preferred communication tools now seen as the biggest distractions in the workplace, and new trainees much more adept at communicating through social channels and messaging as opposed to the traditional land-line phone, this is a shift we may all have to accommodate sooner rather than later.

However it’s not all optimism and a sense of adventure at a conference now…there’s the ubiquitous presentation from a law firm to sit through. And don’t they see things differently!

We hear of benefits and opportunities from companies, then of problems and risks from the lawyers. Continue reading “The Good, The Bad and The Cautious” →

To Blog To Serve

In my last blog I listed the five posts from 2011 that were read the most. There were no particular similarity or common theme between them, and looking back it struck me how often the ones that prove most popular are the ones I least expect.

I was keen to find out what other bloggers’ most read posts were…so I asked them!

And here they are…the most read blogs of 2011 from some of our most read bloggers! (Apologies if you’re not included – there was nothing scientific in my methods, I just asked whoever was active in my timeline at the time I had the idea!)

Rob Jones – The One with a Rant about Business Partners

Rob questions the role and evolution, looking at how it has been arrived at and whether there is a disconnect between what it should be and what we think it should be.

Doug Shaw – Kung Fu Panda – The Illusion Of Control

Doug is inspired by the movie and it reminds him of an older post on the illusion of control…having Oogway as your HRD ‘you just need to believe’.

Sukh Pabial – The Nonsense of Not Hiring the Over-qualified

Sukh talks about a big bugbear of mine…why not hire someone very capable of doing the role you have? Why not look for capability and motivation? Continue reading “To Blog To Serve” →

My Year In Lists

I love a list. Just call me Rob Fleming – chief character from the book High Fidelity, played by John Cusack in the movie – the likeness is in our obsessive measuring of our lives in Top 5 moments, not in bearing a resemblance to John Cusack you understand!

Much as I tried to rationalise the need to measure things in my last blog – I can’t deny the fascination with seeing my life through these statistical shapes and patterns. Sometimes they can give an accurate snapshot, other times they can be misleading.

Technology now enables more aspects of my life to be more measured so here I’m using it to bring you my State of Mervyn 2011!

What have I listened to?

Those nice developers at Apple now make it quite easy to find out what I play the most so my 5 most listened to 2011 released albums are:

Radiohead – The King of Limbs
The Horrors – Skying
Bon Iver – Bon Iver
Wilco – Mighty Love
Kurt Vile – Smoke Rings for My Halo

Clearly the ones that I’ve owned the longest have usually been played more…bubbling under were more recently acquired albums from Ryan Adams, PJ Harvey, Tim Hecker, Jonathan Wilson and SBTRKT.

So 2011 has seen me listening to my usual mix of americana, psych folk and leftfield electronica with Radiohead, Wilco and Ryan Adams – three of my favourite bands – all releasing albums I’ve liked. The list is based on what I listened to…sometimes my favourite albums are not always the ones I listen to the most. If it was most liked then the 5 would be as above but with PJ Harvey and SBTRKT replacing Bon Iver and Kurt Vile in the list.

Where have I been?

As a regular Foursquare user it’s quite easy for me to work out where I go the most…providing I remember to check-in! I don’t consider myself obsessive – I don’t have my home set up as a location, nor do I check-in to work locations every day – and I try to limit check-ins to those where there is a message or comment to add.

My top 5 categories of check-ins were:

Pubs
Train stations
Coffee Shops
Cafes
Hotels

Not sure the distinction between coffee shops and cafes so probably best to put them together and knock pubs off the top…the recent unlocking of the Wino 2 badge was not my proudest Foursquare achievement of the year!

Not sure this will tell anyone anything about me they didn’t already know…though the classifying of restaurants into different cuisines probably kept them off the list.

Who did I go there with?

There is little doubt that my social media activity has increased my social circles and created more opportunities for meeting people…many people that I have met through social networking have now become real life friends. December is proving to be a very active month socially – by the time I bring in 2012 I would have had arrangements (including family days at Xmas) on 19 of the 31 days of December – so who have I been seeing?

Traditional social friends – 7
Online social friends – 5
Family – 4
Colleagues – 3

Traditional, social, in-real-life friends still win, probably because it’s Xmas time, and haven’t (yet) been overtaken by those that I’ve met through social connectivity, though these latter friendships are very real and increasingly important to me.

I’m seeing all friends…I’m the winner; my liver is the loser (think there’s a new year’s resolution in there somewhere!)

What have I written?

Lastly I’ve been looking at the blogs on T Recs. This has been a strange year as I now blog very regularly as a major part of the day job so the personal blog has suffered by comparison…something I will attempt to address in 2012. Looking back at 2010, my most popular posts tended to be rants about the recruitment industry, something which has been tempered slightly.

The discipline of blogging 3/4 times a week as part of a social job hunt led to me to write more personal pieces and this is something that I have kept up during the year.

To get my Top 5 list I’ve looked at the most read, which were:

All very different blogs, some sharing good news, some sharing bad, and some posing questions…I will be sharing some of the most reads of other bloggers in my next post as I try to look for the themes that we like to read about.

So that’s me in 2011. Let me know about your year, what you’ve listened to, where you’ve been and what you’ve read….

Lies, Damned Lies, Klout Scores and Vanity Metrics

‘Just because everything can be measured, doesn’t mean that you should measure everything’

During the summer the football club I support (Arsenal) offloaded one of their squad players, a young Brazilian player called Denilson. This was a move that resonated well with most supporters who had grown tired of his inability to exert any influence on a match. He played in a central midfield role, essentially as a defensive midfielder, but most of his passes proved ineffective for an essentially attacking team.

Despite that, his OPTA stats scored quite highly. (For those non-football (soccer) fan readers, OPTA are the number one organisation measuring and compiling data and analytics around sports.) In fact, a couple of years ago he was the highest ranked defensive midfield player in the Premiership…according to the stats…yet his ability to influence the outcome of a game was almost zero. The actions that contributed to his score – blocks, interceptions, passes etc – were many, yet they had little overall impact.

If he was a social media user his Klout score would have been very high – yet most people connected to him would say he had little influence.

Continuing with the football theme, the other week I watched the live game between Fulham and Tottenham. The match stats show that Fulham had the majority share of possession, that they had 26 goal attempts against only 8 by Tottenham, and 11 corners against only 1. From those stats you may assume that Fulham won the game. But they didn’t. Tottenham scored from 3 of their 8 chances whilst Fulham scored from only 1 of their 26.

If soccer teams had Klout scores then Fulham would have had a much higher score that day.

******************************

The quote at the start of this blog was taken from a presentation by Tom Farrell of Paddy Power that was given at a conference – Future Digital Strategies – that I chaired last week. Unlike my usual manor of recruitment and HR this was a chance to mix with digital marketers working for companies ranging from Expedia to Disney, Virgin Atlantic to Facebook. As chairman I was able to ask questions, and I asked most of the speakers about influence…how they identify influencers.

For commercial businesses the key influencers mainly used to be journalists and editors – trade press, local and national press and broadcast media – but in the new social media landscape the position is less clear. Everyone I asked was looking to identify bloggers and tweeters who had reach and impact…and they all seemed to use measures such as Klout and Peerindex as a starting point. Not as the final decision maker but as an indicator of who to investigate further. Continue reading “Lies, Damned Lies, Klout Scores and Vanity Metrics” →

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