Tag: HR

It’s a Beautiful Noise…

I was watching a documentary about Neil Diamond on Saturday night and he was talking about his song Beautiful Noise, and how the idea came from his daughter listening to a parade and hearing all the different music which merged together to form a beautiful sound.

This resonated with me, as earlier that day I had been reading some really strong posts from new bloggers, and was really impressed with the way so many of the new bloggers, from different backgrounds and viewpoints, were reaching out and really making a difference, writing some interesting and thought provoking stuff.

We talk about white noise on social media, but when people dig deep and make this kind of effort to give us a different insight into our day to day interactions, then this is really a Beautiful Noise.

There were three people in particular that made a difference to me this weekend and I think they all deserve a big mention and a wider audience. Each one shines a different light on the power of social media and how it can be used to inform and transform.

Firstly, Alison Chisnell. She is an HR Director who came along to the ConnectingHR unconference and was clearly bitten by the social media bug. She has been a willing participant in the ConnectingHR community and is there for our weekly #chrchat. On Friday she posted about her efforts to get her company interested in using social media for communication. Not only did she write this on her blog, but she then posted the Pecha Kucha presentation that she used.

Wow! No nerves, no trepidation, just reaching out to the community with her thoughts and ideas. Jumping in and being part of the conversation.

HR professionals in the UK have tended to be slow adopters of social media, but with ambassadors like Alison I am convinced that the conversion will be quicker.

The second blog that really hit home was from @recruitgal – she is a UK Recruitment Manager with a major global brand and a new blogger. What did she write about? How not to do Cold Calls. A really informative and entertaining blog, and as a third party recruiter this is a great resource. Clearly she is frustrated by some of the approaches that she gets.

A potential client contact telling us how not to approach her. What more could you want? How else could you have got this information? I know that recruiters are not exactly welcoming of potential clients telling them what’s wrong with the industry, but seriously…how can you argue with an in-house recruitment manager telling you how not to try and do business with her. The blog is there…available through social media…no need to cold call to try and get a conversation.

Finally, and most heart warmingly, my friend Sarah Knight. Some of you may already be aware of her quest to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and raise money for a very worthy charity. Some may have even seen another UK HR blogger use his own blog to help raise £1000 in sponsorship for her…and have also read her blog of thanks. For me, her story epitomises everything that is good about social media connections, and how the willingness to engage and share goes way beyond trying to sell your latest product or service.

I have now met her twice socially, and spoken to her on the phone a few times. I didn’t know her before we connected on Twitter, yet there is little doubt that we are now ‘friends’. I encouraged her to start blogging about her quest, have offered my support when things were getting tough, and we are both part of a small Twitter community of people who have pulled together to encourage and inspire her.

So here’s my beautiful noise for this week…

Alison Chisnell – read about how she has tried to transform her company’s attitude towards social media – Practical ideas for becoming more social…and keeping it simple – and watch the presentation that she used – HR becoming social

Katie McNab ( @Recruitgal ) – find out what does and doesn’t work when you are trying to sell to a recruitment manager form a global brand – A cold calling masterclass…how not to do it

Sarah Knight – see how social media really works…if you work with someone who thinks it’s for geeks and nerds then get them to read it too – @theHRD…I thank you

Hope you enjoy reading them…let me know who’s making a beautiful noise for you this week?

Wide Awake at truNORA

There’s a rumour going around the Twitterverse that I dozed off during truNORA on Thursday. It’s complete nonsense I can assure you.

Flicking through the excellent set of images that Sara Headworth has produced you may see one of those photographic moments where a mixture of light, angle and shutter speed combine to give a false impression…proof that the camera can easily lie.

The offending picture was actually taken during a track that I was co-leading about the candidate experience…there was plenty of debate there to ensure that I didn’t doze off.

I’ll start my thoughts of the day with the candidate experience track as it’s the second candidate experience track that I have co-led at a tru event this year, and it’s a subject that has filled blogs, comments and numerous conversations, both online and offline.

This conversation was similar to the last, in that it featured a mix of representatives from job boards and seasoned (cough, experienced!) recruiters and my conclusions are the same.

Candidate experience is a state of mind not something you should have to think about doing. Automated acknowledgements, no matter how personally written, are not an experience. They should be an absolute minimum expectation as a matter of respect and service and should be followed up by a more personal interaction. Personally I think 3rd party recruiters get too involved in conversations around job board functionality. The experience that matters to the candidate is the one that happens after they have applied, and is most probably important to the candidate whose application is unsuccessful.

Interestingly the recruiters who talked most of the importance of personal contact in this process, of candidates becoming clients and ambassadors for your service, were the most experienced recruiters, those who have been around for 20 years or more…maybe the candidate experience really is just good recruiting habit. In which case shame on the industry for turning its back on it recent years.

I heard a lot about Linked In too, and have to say that each improvement and enhancement to functionality seems to signal another nail in the coffin of traditional 3rd party niche permanent recruiters. Just my opinion, I know, but the industry really does have to come up with a value proposition and offering that does not include something that a client can do for themselves. Posting on job boards and searching on LinkedIn are both routes to market that a well connected hiring director has available directly…we should be able to offer something more that justifies our fee. Most new LI tools are aimed at clients, not at recruiters, which I fear could well lead to a client being able to put together a stronger shortlist than a recruiter unless we look seriously at what we can offer.

With recruiters slow on the LI uptake, it was even more interesting to hear employKyle talk of his age group’s indifference to the platform. Recruiters should be ahead of the curve, not playing catch up…which is why we need to be on top of how the next generation workforce will communicate and engage.

I really enjoyed hearing about Hard Rock and what they do. Loved the Authenticity – Lifestyle – Purpose approach to engagement and believe it is something that all companies should aspire to. I have long thought that trusting your staff, and enabling them see a wider purpose to their role and your business, is key to getting the best out of them. Companies have nothing to fear from social media if they have an engaged, collaborative workforce. If you fear your people will use social media to portray a negative image for your business then your problem is not social media…its much closer to home.

All in all another interesting, thought provoking day offering the chance to chat and debate with old friends and new faces…

…and certainly no time for napping!

 

 

 

 

 

Keeping It Real

What is it with some people and optimism? I mean, it’s nice to be optimistic sometimes…I always believe my team are going to win, am certain that my son will deliver good grades in his exams, and hope upon hope that Santa will bring me a new iPod.

But I pretty much know that the economy isn’t going into overdrive any time soon.

I wrote a blog nearly a year ago called Optimistic Recruiters Don’t Create Jobs. It was true then and it’s true now. For the record:

Growing companies create jobs.

Companies grow when demand for their goods and services grow.

Companies hire when their capacity to fulfil the growth in demand is limited by manpower.

This is fairly basic stuff but you would be surprised how many people seem to think that if we think everything is going to be alright then it will be. I can accept that there are one or two exceptions, that in a GROWING economy some firms will forward hire in anticipation of future demand either in existing or new markets.

But now isn’t one of those times.

There was a bit of a fuss this morning with a CIPD press release forecasting that there could be as many as 1.6m extra job losses in the UK over the next 5 years. The belief is that these will be covered by new jobs created by the private sector…yet to do that would require a level of consistent growth in the UK economy that it is nowhere near achieving any time in the near future. The CIPDs economist – a man I have a lot of time for, and one who has been right a number of times in recent years – was speaking to the Treasury select committee and that was what he was going to advise. Let’s not forget that there are already 2.5m claiming jobseekers allowance (many more inactives not claiming too).

So what was being said here is that total unemployment COULD rise to 4m (almost certainly will be 3m+ it seems) and the very best we can hope for in terms of new jobs is 1.8m, but that the circumstances needed for those 1.8m to be created are not yet in place.

Shouldn’t have really been a shock to anyone. Certainly not a shock to anyone working in recruitment and HR, for whom you may have thought this was a quite relevant viewpoint. It should highlight a big cause for concern.

It is an economist’s view; one heavily involved in our industry, and as such I would have thought of interest to us.

But the problem seemed to be that it was a negative message. It prompted some angry tweeting and blogging, including this rant by Andy Headworth.

People seem to want optimism. Had the press release said that lots of new jobs were about to be created, maybe it would have been more acceptable.

Why? Because if we believe that the jobs are coming then they will come? Is this the CIPDs fault?

We will be getting new figures from the REC on recruitment activity soon…if the figures aren’t good will it be the RECs fault? (It won’t be down to them if the figures are good!)

All of this makes me think of the Stockdale Paradox. Written about in the book Good To Great, it refers to an American Captain in the Vietnam war who became a prisoner of war. On his coping strategy he said:

“I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”

In answer to the question ‘Who were the people who didn’t make it’ he said

“Oh, that’s easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

If you’re reading this blog there is a strong chance that you are a someone  who is advising or helping people in their careers and job searches.

I would have thought a bit of realism would go down well, a valuable part of helping people.

Apparently not.

Clearly I don’t believe optimism is good for business and I don’t believe that it is good for our candidates and clients. I do believe that we need to be honest and truthful and deal with things as they are.

So I’m throwing down a challenge.

Tell me why you think I’m wrong. Why is it better to be optimistic, even though it is may be completely unfounded? Are we in danger of leading those who rely on us in to the disappointment?

Surely we all want to be the Stockdales, coming out the other side….

Connecting HR : The Revolution Starts Now!

Maybe revolution is a little strong, but there was definitely an air of change, of something new and exciting, happening at the ConnectingHR Unconference last Thursday.

Maybe it was the surroundings at Spring Community Centre (all very Reservoir Dogs) which lent the proceedings an almost militant air?

Or was it the ambience, part palpable excitement, part nervousness of the new that gave it an edge?

Whichever it was, there’s no denying that what started as a small step into Social for the UK HR community ended as a giant leap! When I went to HREvolution in May, the US HR community ended with a key track about breaking out of the echo chamber…for the UK it’s a case, for now, that we need to break IN! And I’m so excited to be part of a movement which is encouraging just that.

So having had a couple of days’ reflection, what are my thoughts? Three things stand out…

Engagement and Trust

It became clear during each track that I sat in, when the discussions turned to the leap of faith needed to let your people embrace the social and start connecting, that we have a way to go before we eradicate the fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of employees saying something that will reflect poorly on the company, fear of them saying things to each other that may de-motivate. Fear of the transparency and fear of the immediacy.

The attendees all wanted to know more; to be able to go back to their companies and make something new happen, yet back home there would undoubtedly be naysayers and doom mongers. There were certainly some lively discussions, with earlier adopters sharing examples with newer adopters of what had worked and what hadn’t.

And for me it always comes back to Engagement and Trust.

The second blog that I posted here, almost a year ago, was about needing to trust your people if you want to get the best out of them. I’ve had countless conversations about social media since then, with people talking about the control and guidelines, the policies and the ownership, and I’ve never wavered from my belief that if your employees are engaged, and they believe in the values of your company, and can operate in a transparent culture in which they are trusted to do things the right way, then you have nothing to fear from them embracing social media.

It was interesting that when we looked at the world cloud from the mornings chatter and tweeting, that the word ‘Control’ was most used. I don’t think that it was used in a negative way, but I do wonder if HR has an innate belief that if something was to go wrong it would be down to them.

We need to get the buy in from everyone…from the CEO to the cleaner. And if the CEO embraces Twitter, then he or she will have to accept that at 11pm one night they may end up online discussing the latest episode of Mad Men with the cleaner. If they have a problem with that then I believe that this is almost certainly indicative of a wider problem of engagement within the business.

Catalyst

The afternoon tracks I went to were a bit more political! The Age of Austerity loomed large over discussions about jobs, skills, training and the big society.

The two big discussions were over the role of HR during the next few years. Firstly, where did it sit during spending cuts and tough times? With management? With the wider workforce?  Or somewhere in the middle? And whose message will they be carrying? A much trickier question than first sounds.

Then I moved on to the the crowd sourced attempt to join the ‘What’s The One Thing I Would Change About HR’ thread.

Ultimately the two ended quite close together…HR needs to be commercial, to be in the business not regulating the business…and probably needs to attract operators from other support functions to really enhance this commerciality. Credibility wasn’t mentioned, but I suspect that a team drawn from a wider business background may pack more clout.

I had asked a question…what if, in Summer 2008, HR had gone to the board, concerned about the impending economic conditions, concerned that they had heard the sales team having difficulties, concerned that the finance team were worried on cash flow, and suggested that the company take a look at its plans and forecasts for the coming 2 years…would anyone have listened?

Probably not. If sales guys have a problem, then it’s up to their manger/director to sort it out…admission that things are getting tougher is more likely to lead to a new manager/director than a re-think of corporate strategy, so may not be aired.

HR should be at the heart of the business, its pulse and its heartbeat, and social media could and should be the oxygen that enables it. A truly connected company, with everyone in the conversation, can lead to a more enlightened, progressive business, in my very humble opinion.

Which is why I was so pleased that the final group decided that the one thing we would change about HR would be…to make it a catalyst for change, not an inhibitor to progress!

Action!

I’ve said three things, and that’s very apt, because the first attendee to blog was Alison Chisnell, talking about her 3 learning takeaways.

And this says it all for me because she had never blogged before, yet barely 12 hours after Gareth and Jon closed the doors on ConnectingHR (literally!) Alison published that blog. And it was her FIRST EVER BLOG. Now that’s what I call action! That’s being energised and motivated by an event!

Barely a few hours after that, two other attendees had changed their Twitter names to their own names and their avatars to pictures of themselves. More blogs were being published and were being commented on.

I could sense the energy and curiosity from the very first track, with HR professionals wanting to know more about what tools and platforms to use, how to use them and how to encourage others to use them. And within a day, they were jumping in and using them!

So there you have it. My fourth unconference and I really do still feel like a kid on Christmas morning at the start of each one…always fun, always entertaining, always informative and always full of really interesting people.

My biggest hope from this one?

HR is coming and they’re going to make the corporate world a lot more SOCIAL!

HR in a Social World

It’s nearly time for ConnectingHR, the UKs first HR unconference!

I’m really excited about the opportunity to get together and chat about HR & the Social Organisation with a range of HR professionals, Internal Comms practitioners, Learning & Development specialists and a really great bunch of the sectors’ suppliers, consultants and journalists.

The need for organisations to embrace social media, and for HR to take the lead, has never been greater…

Collaboration

Engagement

Branding

Communication (Internal and External)

Learning

Sourcing

Onboarding

Customer Service

Business Development

Relationship Building

…just a few of the areas in which getting social can mean getting ahead and creating real value for the business, its employees, customers and suppliers.

If anyone is in any doubt that now is the time to have this at the top of the HR agenda then just have a look at this article ‘Ten Tips on Social Networking Policies’ which I read today.

Published on a specialist site for small businesses it uses the language of control and suppress…tips such as Enforce Restrictions and Monitor Usage. How about Take Action and Protect You Business!

Noooo!!

(Finally, at point 9 we do get Remember the Usefulness of Social Networking Sites! Yay! At last…mind you, they’re only referring to LinkedIn, but it’s a start!)

Seriously, it’s time for HR to take the initiative, embrace the social and set the AGENDA…Not the policies!

Not on their own though…our recent research showed an increasing overlap between the HR and Marketing functions, with social media as the enabler.

So much to talk about and share!

And if you’re still thinking about coming along to ConnectingHR and haven’t taken the plunge yet…it won’t ONLY be about Social Media! We’ll also be talking:

The HR Knowledge Exchange

Talent, skill gaps and learning

Performance reviews or what?

Driving Performance in the Age of Austerity (post spending review)

To name but 4!

In fact we’ll be talking about anything you want…the agenda will be all attendee driven! You can still join in – sign up here

Really looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new contacts…and remember, if it’s your first time at an unconference…

The Key to Social Learning is in The ‘Social’ not just The ‘Learning’

Do You Remember the First Time??

Bit of a random blog here but on my way home from work yesterday I was listening to Marquee Moon by Television. A good few years old, I know, but still an incredible debut album.

Incredible because it sounds so fully formed…for a first attempt it sounds like a band that had been together for ages and in total mastery of their sound. There have been many other great debut albums – Velvet Underground, Joy Division, Stone Roses, and Arctic Monkeys to name but 4 personal faves – where everything that the group had worked and practiced for, believed in and hoped for, seemed to come together at the first attempt.

For all of them it’s arguably the case that the debut was their best and nothing they did after ever matched it again.

It got me wondering… what happens when your first shot is your best shot?

If you start a new job, what if your first few months are as good as it’s going to get?

If you’re in HR, what if your first interventions/strategies are the most effective?

If you’re in sales, what if your first quarter is your best quarter?

Will your future achievements be defined by and measured against your first ones?

There are lots of workplace scenarios in which you can start off firing on all cylinders and end up fizzing out. Over years in recruitment I have interviewed many candidates who have started their new roles like a runaway train and then seemed to lose their appetite or creativity.

I’m interested to know how you deal with this. How many chances do you give someone to show that they can still do it? How long does someone live off their early promise?

With the exception of the Arctic Monkeys, all the other bands I mentioned split after 2 or 3 albums…if you’re someone who gets your new role off to a flyer, then maybe struggles to get that momentum back, when do you know if it’s time to quit trying and seek a new challenge?

Despite splitting, they are all still very influential bands, even now…so do we lose our effectiveness and influence the longer we try (unsuccessfully) to replicate early successes?

Let me know what you think…

To CV or Not To CV

I posed a question on Twitter last week to in house recruiters and HR professionals:

In-House recruiters/HR Pros…would you interview someone purely from a LinkedIn profile or social media footprint? Without a physical CV?

Reason was that I had met a really strong candidate who had not yet prepared an up to date CV and I wanted a client to meet her straight away…I wondered if a LinkedIn profile and my notes and impressions would suffice.

My Twitter question started an interesting debate; here are some of the answers:

‘No, would definitely back up the Linked In profile with a physical CV’

‘Depends how comprehensive their profile was’

‘Possibly – think I would want to see their CV at some point, but would organise an interview on the back of their linked in profile’

‘Yes definitely, at least for first stage / informal conversation’

‘Not generally. Might speak, engage and arrange interview based on the Social Media footprint but likely to want CV before the interview’

‘I still prefer to see a “real” CV before setting up an interview’

‘A full Linked In profile is coming closer and closer to a classic CV. But I like it when a candidate shows interest by sending me something’

‘Depends on the strength of the profile. Always suspicious of some recommendations I see though’

‘I would likely have a conversation with someone without a CV, but would still want a formal presentation before going further’

Clearly there was belief that a physical CV is still important…but why??

I can understand some form of a CV being needed if there was no other way of establishing a candidate’s background, but I was intrigued that clientside recruiters would still want a CV even if there was information about the candidate publicly available through social media.

My immediate thoughts were…

–          Does the physical CV act as a kind of filter? It’s almost an excuse. It enables you to read and reject a candidate because ‘they don’t seem to have the right experience’. But previous experience isn’t always the best indicator of future performance. A physical, or ‘real’, CV tells you little about the candidate’s personality, motivators, passions, presence, capabilities or potential.

–          If the candidate has a full profile on Linked In then still this isn’t enough. There’s a picture, summary of skills and qualities, experience, career history, education and interests. Hopefully there will be some references too. And that’s not all…there will be groups of which they are a member, connections, links to other social media platforms they use. There will, in fact, be lots of things that may not be on a physical CV. Yet we still don’t seem to ‘trust’ it…even though it is probably harder to ‘mislead’ on a public platform than in a private document.

–          Even if we interview someone based on their social media ‘footprint’ we still want to see a physical CV before moving to the next stage. Somehow this legitimises their application, shows that they are taking the application seriously. But how about the effort they may put into creating and maintaining their LI profile, their blogs, their Twitter stream…this shows a different kind of commitment but one that may be even more important to their future success in a new role.

I’ve seen a lot written about the ‘death’ of the CV recently…both from those who agree and those who don’t.  Clearly most hirers expect to see some form of CV so it may be a bit early for the last rites.

Wherever you look there are coaches, tutors, consultants, gurus and experts offering advice to jobseekers on how to create, maintain and promote their online profiles to ensure maximum exposure. They are told to use the full range of platforms and tools at their disposal.

Yet even though they may be found, and found because they have the skills, knowledge and potential that a future employer may be looking for, they still need to present a CV which may actually be less impressive than the information that already exists about them.

So I’m asking again…would you interview, and consider hiring, someone who didn’t have a physical CV, but who had an active social media profile which told you more about them than a physical CV might??

Let me know what you think…

Four Reasons why Recruitment Sales is changing

Last week I posted a blog about the landline phone and how I thought its days as a major business communication tool were numbered. It got a lot of views and comments, for which I am most thankful. Interestingly the comments shifted from the use of the phone to the future of selling, and certainly divided opinion. There were 2 comments in particular that I found interesting:

“65 calls a day with x percent being effective” raises the question of what is effective. I suspect effective in this context means an instant sale or at least a warm lead to follow up. But these sales and leads are to people who are easily susceptible to influence, often from people who don’t have the balls to hang up on their telephone tormenter. They are a quick fix. Very few will become long term sustainable customers. That’s why you have to keep a permanent telesales team; to compensate for high customer churn.

If telesales created long term sustainable relationships by definition they would not need to exist – but they do, albeit as a dying breed. They will become extinct as increasing numbers of companies latch on to the fact that there are far better ways to build proper lasting relationships with their future customers by leveraging new communications technologies and brand building.

Sales is dying. The future is all about creating and maintaining relationships that will make your future customers come and find you rather than you trying to hunt them down in packs”

(Jon Weedon – Internal Communications Manager, Betfair)

“I would be more willing to returning a phone message by email rather than a cold call. I am very busy and it also gives me a chance to research before the call”

(Chris Frede – Human Resources Partner, Fleishman-Hillard)

I have highlighted these 2, not just because they are great comments, but because they are from 2 people who are clearly potential client contacts for most recruiters.

One thing that I have learned, from fax to e-mail, from exclusive briefings to PSLs and CV races, is that once clients start wanting things to be done in a different way then the game changes.

There are 4 main things that I believe will drive the change in recruitment sales:

1)      The future will be about relationships. I happen to agree with Jon that telesales is NOT the way to building lasting, mutually beneficial business relationships. I don’t even rate it as a door opener to long lasting relationships. It’s a fast food fix that leaves you needing something more very soon afterwards. Real lasting business relationships will be built on trust, knowledge and competence, not quick fixes.

2)      Social Media offers a transparency that hasn’t existed before. When a client contact gets a call from a recruiter they can look them up on LinkedIn whilst they’re on the phone. They can see who they are, where they work, what their experience is and who recommends them. If the recruiter leaves a message, then as Chris says, she can do research.

3)      We are all connected now. Clients, candidates, recruiters, suppliers all able to connect, engage, share and learn. In the future there’ll be no hiding place. Poor practice, false promises, exaggerated claims will all be exposed. In my opinion word of mouth, or advocacy, will be key to growing business. Reputation and validation will replace marketing and patter.

4)      As you will gather from my last blog, I firmly believe that communication is changing, with relationships built online leading to face to face meetings. The young sales force that will be entering the workplace over the next 5 years will be unlikely to use the phone as a ‘door opener’ in the way that predecessors have. Face to face meetings will still be vital, in fact that generation are socially aware and quite comfortable catching up in person, but it will be the start of the relationship, the initial connection and engagement that will be done differently. No killer lines, no scripts, no closing that sale…just connect, engage, share and meet to build a long lasting, mutually beneficial relationship.

Do you see sales changing? Are you experiencing a shift already, either in approaches you make or approaches you receive?

Clients and HR Professionals – what will work for you in future?

Recruiters – are you planning on varying the approach? Or do you think that you’ll be able to find, develop and transact business in that same old tried and trusted ways?

I’d love to hear what you think.

The End of the Phone?

The way we communicate and interact is changing. This has big ramifications for business…Recruitment may never be the same again!

Let’s spin back nearly 50 years to a famous moment in music history:

“guitar groups are on the way out, the Beatles have no future in show business” (Dick Rowe, January 1962)

Mr Rowe (allegedly it was he) had just watched an hour’s audition from a new pop group and was clearly sure that although this new fangled beat music may be popular, it wouldn’t outsell the more traditional forms of popular music. It was all a fad. And he knew, because he was a successful A&R man who usually got things right.

Not this time!

How wrong could he have been?? 50 years later the group that had no future still cast a long shadow over popular music.

Of course he underestimated the power of the 16 – 25 age group to influence popular culture from the bottom up. **

What about phones I hear you ask?

Well, the great and the good of recruitment are lining up to get us back on the phone. All this new fangled Social Media may be popular but it won’t replace traditional forms of communication.

Well I think it will.

If Dick Rowe were a recruitment trainer today he would probably say: Social Media is on the way out, it has no future as a business communication tool.

He’d be wrong again.

The people we are now bringing into the workforce are from the first generation NOT to have had a landline phone as their primary communication tool. They are used to communicating through short messages…whether by text, IM, Facebook, Twitter or short mobile chats. When they organise to do something they create an event. They love social interaction but face to face is way more important than ear to ear.

Teens invariably start by using mobile Pay As You Go…not an arrangement that rewards long conversations.

Relationships are built in a very different way now.

Anyone who thinks they can bring a 21 year old trainee into the workplace and expect them to use the phone in the way we have always done for cold calling and relationship building are in for a shock. You may have been able to teach telesales…but not how to use a basic communication tool.

Ask any 18 – 21 year old how they interact with their mates and organize parties, evenings out or cinema trips and I think you’ll be surprised. But then you’ll understand why they may accept an invitation for an assessment day but not actually turn up. It’s not rudeness; it’s not a lack of interest in your opportunity…it’s just that commitment and communication happen in different ways now.

You can send a text, but then they’ve probably signed up for so many text alerts and updates that yours may not stand out.

You can send an e-mail, but then they probably won’t read it.

You can invite them through Facebook, but then they get invited to lots of things through Facebook.

You can ring, but you’ll probably be leaving a voicemail.

And even if you do get a message through, they won’t have a calendar or diary to put it in…only their mobile phone. Your assessment day will probably end up being the day after a mate’s birthday drinks and will gently slide from memory.

The times they are a-changing…the recruiter of tomorrow will not have the communication skills to build meaningful relationships over the phone, let alone make a cold call.

You can’t teach communication.

Business relationships of the future will be defined by the way people interact and communicate.

Like The Beatles social media and mobile technology offer platforms that will probably cast a giant shadow over how business communicates for the next 50 years.

It’s changing already. Those of you in the London area may have seen me on BBC London news a couple of weeks ago talking about how what you can say on Twitter could affect your job. One of their reporters read this blog and contacted me, asking if they could interview me. They didn’t call me and they didn’t e-mail me…they sent me a message through Facebook. And I don’t even have a link to my Facebook page on my blogsite.

I’ve written before how my favourite quote of recent weeks was the one from a Clay Shirky interview:

‘no medium ever survived the indifference of 25 year olds’

25 year olds are very indifferent towards the landline phone, e-mail, letters and long conversations..

The future workforce will dictate the way business ultimately communicates…and I’m fairly sure that it won’t be on the landline phone.

Let me know what you think.

** (To set the record straight, Mr Rowe eventually must have seen the error of his ways and signed a number of bands who would go on to dominate the music industry including The Rolling Stones, Them – including Van Morrison – The Animals and Tom Jones…will our industry thought leaders be similarly as visionary?)

The World is Your Recruiter

We used to offer jobseekers one pair of eyes…sometimes a few pairs of eyes…but now the whole world has their eyes open.

Two meetings this afternoon have really energised me and got me thinking, yet shown me how network and community are increasingly doing the job of 3rd party recruiters.

Is this the dawn of Community Recruiting? It’s free for the hirer. It’s part of the ‘Big Society’

Firstly, I had a great catch up with Marianne Cantwell today. Twitter followers will know her as Free Range Humans, career change coach and corporate life escapologist. Soon she’ll be Free Ranging in the USA!

She was very excited; she had found a business card on a bus which was part of a Facebook campaign by a Graphic Designer called Mark Winter to find a new job. He was offering 10% of his first month’s salary to whoever helped him:

Marianne had photographed the card and tweeted it out. Within minutes it was being retweeted by her network. She showed it to me and I started tweeting it out…and then decided to blog about it.

Within 5 minutes the reach of his campaign was growing fast. Who knows how many other people have seen this campaign and communicated it…from his modest number of followers many thousands are being exposed to his work.

Thousands of pairs of eyes.

After meeting with Marianne I caught up with an old candidate who was coming to the end of a long contract with a major global brand. It’s been really good for her, especially as it came following a redundancy and prolonged period of job searching. She knows a lot of recruiters. Did any of us find her this lucrative contract, which has given her a great development opportunity and a brilliant name on her CV? No. It was through a friend who has nothing to do with recruitment or HR, but who knows someone, who knows someone, who…you get the picture. Now I appreciate that this kind of referral recruitment has long been around, but it has now been given added impetus and strength by connectivity, network and a real sense of wanting to help.

Time was that people would job search in private. Certainly using friends, friends of friends and family to spread the message is something more recent.

Friends and family, network and community.

Then I fire up the laptop this morning and start by reading Day 13 of the #MyJobHunt daily blog series from Gary Franklin. I don’t know if you’re following this series, but you should. All 3rd party and inhouse recruiters, and anyone involved in the hiring process should.

He talks about a role that was passed to him. He mentions the company name and the role. It’s  not a role for him, but in his capacity as founder of the Forum for Inhouse Recruitment Managers he is able to inform relevant candidates, passive and active, of this role.

So it looks like we’re all recruiters now!

I’ve been thinking about where recruitment goes next. Whilst some niches, sectors and locations may find its business as usual I think that there are clearly many challenges ahead for the majority. Social recruiting and direct sourcing are just two, but not the only two.

So it could be time for a change on this blog. I feel myself in more philosophical or reflective mood, keen to blog and debate about some of the key challenges that I see and to get your input.

It’s time for the dinosaur to evolve and move on! T Recs may well remain in some form…but I think this may be time for a more agile and forward looking image!

Watch this space…and as always, let me know what you think…