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Recruiters – do you leverage your PR?

August 27th, 2010 . Posted by Sam Woodward

Category: PR for recruiters | No Comments »
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You may have seen our recent post on Greg Savage’s ‘The Savage Truth’ blog (click here!) But if you were unlucky enough to miss it, do not fear, here it is:

Investing in PR is key for recruiters who want to boost their brand in the eyes of their clients, candidates and even potential employees for themselves – however that’s really only half the story. What should recruiters do to really leverage that PR coverage and make sure that great article isn’t quickly forgotten?

We’re always saying to our clients that using PR coverage is essential. Why make that investment if all you do with the coverage is send it to your proud mother or maybe tuck it away in a folder on reception? PR can establish you as a credible and respected commentator in your field – so make sure you shout about it! And not only that, the chances are that whatever you are talking about in the media is going to be of interest to your audience, so sharing this information will be of benefit to them, and they’ll remember you for it. Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook – damaging candidate’s chances. A true story.

August 19th, 2010 . Posted by Stephanie Braham

Category: Recruitment, social media | 2 Comments »
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I came across an article on HR Zone recently claiming that social media is feared by some graduate recruiters. Why? It can result in unsuccessful and unproductive employees and some stated that social media was actually dangerous for a company’s reputation if staff members publicly posted content on there. This is not to say that recruiters are not using it – plenty are and very successfully.  But what about the dangers of social media to potential candidates?

This got me thinking about a conversation I was having with a friend recently – an HR Manager at a company in the West End. She is currently recruiting for a graduate HR administrator role and here at BlueSky we are recruiting for a graduate level account executive so we were comparing recruiting techniques and candidate experiences. Read the rest of this entry »

Ageism?

August 12th, 2010 . Posted by Sam Woodward

Category: Employment | 2 Comments »
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We’re always hearing stories about ageism – people in their 50s and 60s struggling to find work because they’re nearing retirement age and people not wanting to hire them. But what about the other way around?

I may not look it, but I am in fact 25 (I’d be in the ‘oldies’ section on X-Factor therefore I don’t class myself as that young any more!) Being youthful and energetic should be beneficial in the business world, right? Well, I’m not so sure. I have always looked young – in fact only a couple of years ago I got asked for ID buying party poppers – but I’ve got by, and I guess I thought that in the world of work it wouldn’t be an issue. But it’s one that has cropped up a few times. Read the rest of this entry »

Social media – a mum’s perspective

August 2nd, 2010 . Posted by Tracey Dunn

Category: social media | No Comments »
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So there I was – I had just about managed to get over the emotional draining of my 11 year old’s leaving assembly from primary school ( which included a back catalogue of all the kids from age 3 upwards on a big screen set to Greenday’s Wake Me Up When September ends…sob) – and now I was waving him and his 13 year old brother off to scout camp for eight days.

They were off to Cromer – no mobile phones allowed so no contact. Now I knew in my heart of hearts that they would have a great time but it still doesn’t stop you worrying!!

Then – 2 days after they left I received a facebook invitiation from 10th Harpenden Scouts. I was intrigued and then when I clicked through, the first thing I saw was a picture of both my sons building a biovouac!

The leaders posted photos, daily updates and little anecdotes for each day of the camp. And the scouts themselves gave camp reports each day. It was really wonderful to share in all the great stuff they were involved in – swimming in the sea, backwoods cooking; gutting mackerel and smoking it on the campfire.  They even posted photos of all the scouts being made to clean their teeth!!!  And best of all – as a mum I saw photos of my kids living out of doors and having an absolute ball ( …sob again)

What a fanatstic use of social media – thank you 10th Harpenden – you are stars!

They came back yesterday with all their washing…….enough said!

BlueSky PR needs YOU!

July 21st, 2010 . Posted by Tracey Dunn

Category: BlueSky news, Recruitment | No Comments »
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Further to our recent post Working in PR for Grown Ups, we had lots of response from some great freelance journalists – the problem was they wanted to stay as freelance journalists and what we need is someone who can not only write – and write well –  but who can also account manage.

We’ve had a lot of new business wins recently – and have a raft of potential client meetings stretching into the autumn.  Clients we already work with include Antal, Aquent, CBSbutler, Twenty , Advantage Professional, Handle, Lander Associates, womenintechnology.co.uk, HB RIDA, Ochre House,  Arrows, ……and thats just for starters – we don’t want to show off too much!!

Much of our time is spent in taking the knowledge inside our clients’ heads and turning it into written interesting, authoritative material for publications, both print and online, around the globe.

We work hard and we deliver a great service (or at least that’s what our clients tell us). But we also believe in work/life balance. Which is why we prefer to be based in rural Hertfordshire than the middle of the big city down the road.

If you are a recruitment marketing person who can write or a B2B PR who has a background in content delivery then drop me a line – tracey@bluesky-pr.net   or tweet me @BlueSkyPR

Working in PR for grown ups

July 5th, 2010 . Posted by Stephanie Braham

Category: BlueSky news, Employment, PR, Recruitment | 1 Comment »
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Might you be interested in working in PR if you could spend a big proportion of your time writing about interesting stuff and dealing with intelligent, informed people? If so, perhaps we should be talking! We’re looking for new people to join us – ideally with a background in journalism.

And why are we so interested in journalists? Because much of our time is spent in taking the knowledge inside our clients’ heads and turning it into written interesting, authoritative material for publications, both print and online, around the globe – precisely what you’ve been doing in your career to date.

We work hard and we deliver a great service (or at least that’s what our clients tell us). But we also believe in work/life balance. Which is why we prefer to be based in rural Hertfordshire than the middle of the big city down the road.

Ok that’s enough rambling. Why not tell us more about yourself and what you’re looking to do? Simply email a short summary and some examples of your work to Adrian Barrett at adrian@bluesky-pr.net.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Social media – how do recruiters compare?

June 25th, 2010 . Posted by Sam Woodward

Category: PR, PR for recruiters, social media | 2 Comments »
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Anyone reading this blog is likely to have found it through social media, so I don’t need to explain how much of a buzz there is around social media in recruitment at the moment. However as a PR company I like to think we have a slightly different take on it – although we know how to how to use these tools in the recruitment process, our focus is more on using social media to promote the recruiter’s brand and expertise.

As BlueSky’s resident social media ‘leader’ if I can use that word, I recently went to PR Week’s Digital Media Conference, where I could listen to big names speak about their social media presence. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but was interested to hear what fancy things the experts were doing.

The answer was: everything that we’re helping recruiters to do. Social media really is so new that we’re all still figuring out what works best. Vodafone had some impressive Google and Twitter mash ups and Action for Children managed to get a massive 9,000 people doing the Time Warp in Trafalgar Square through using social media! These campaigns were really interesting to hear about but it was nice to know that even know that although these companies have techie experts to call on and big budgets to spend, they’re still using the same ideas and technology that many SMEs are using – leveraging blogs and twitter to promote themselves.

It was even more interesting to listen to how companies like Eurostar managed a crisis; I’m sure we can all remember back to the snow trauma which left people stranded and complaining that they had no information. Eurostar at this time actually had two twitter accounts which they used for marketing purposes, but it hadn’t occured to this huge organisation to use Twitter to actually speak to and engage with customers! This only changed when they brought in a specialist digital agency to help them out. All this at a time when recruiters were already on Twitter, talking, networking and engaging with other people.

So, the point to this post is really to tell recruiters that as an industry they are really staying ahead of the game. Of course we still have a way to go though, with many recruiters still not seeing the value of some of web 2.0. However it was Gabi Whitfield, Communications Director at Nissan that said “ignore Twitter at your peril” and I thought that was very apt. I may just use that phrase when trying to convince the next sceptic!

Social media in recruitment workshop

June 1st, 2010 . Posted by Stephanie Braham

Category: BlueSky news, Recruitment, social media | No Comments »
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I attended the Social Media in Recruitment Workshop last week hosted by Peter Gold and what a day it was. I had agreed to help Peter on the day and turned up at the British Library early to help set up; after the initial problem of not being able to get into the British Library (the gates were all locked up at 8:30) I was responsible for registering the delegates along with Lisa Scales and Claire Dalton and by 9:30 the venue was full.

There was a good mix of recruitment agencies and in house recruiters – a clear indication that both are really utilising social media in their recruitment strategies – just what us social media fans like to see! The day was split into different sessions and after some initial problems with the WIFI at the British Library the first session began – Facebook run by Peter.  Prior to the workshop, my thoughts were that in house recruiters – particularly from large corporates – would not see the benefits of using Facebook and that it was not taken as a serious tool. Furthermore it may have been overshadowed by a perception that employees misuse it and there were not enough resources to regulate it. However I was proved wrong – a large proportion of the audience had Facebook pages already and those that didn’t were actually setting them up at the workshop! Read the rest of this entry »

Recruitment and company culture

May 17th, 2010 . Posted by Tracey Dunn

Category: Recruitment | No Comments »
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I recently spent the day with Twenty Recruitment at a vision and values day they were holding for their most recent hires.  I have to say it was really refreshing to see a recruitment firm not just talking the talk and paying lip service to the notion of values – but really living them. The firm has three values Life’s Short; Be Eclectic and Crystal Clear. Through the facilitator Rafe Offer, a marketing and branding expert, the new consultants talked about how those values related to themselves, their clients and their candidates.  

 Looking at  ’Life’s Short’ drove a discussion around daring to be different, embracing change, and being brave enough to take calculated risks. ‘Crystal Clear threw up phrases such as transparency, honesty, no spin and clear objectives; while ‘Be Eclectic’ explored ideas such as ‘there is no box’, solutions driven, differentiation and ‘there’s no such thing as a problem – only an opportunity for a solution’.

Then the real fun began with role plays where consultants had to pitch to clients and potential employees – and integrate some of the ideas around the values. I had great fun playing a client!

OK, I hear you say.  So what stops the consultants enjoying their day away from the office and then forgetting all about values when they walk out of the door?  Well, because how they live the values in the business is part of their performance appraisal – and it’s also linked to their bonus.  There was a great discussion around how the consultants felt that they could be judged around those values with some real measurable metrics.  And what’s more – to ensure that there isn’t a disconnect between how the values are perceived internally – and how they are perceived externally – there is going to be ongoing research with clients and candidates around whether the values are being demonstrated.

Recruitment is an industry where sometimes the egos of the founders can suffocate any attempt at creativity or originality.  It was great to see a company where the employees are really driving the vision and the values.

So what do you think?  Comments welcome!

Overtime bad for your health?

May 14th, 2010 . Posted by Stephanie Braham

Category: Employment, Recruitment | No Comments »
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I recently came across an article in the Times titled ‘Too much overtime is bad for your health’. According to the article, studies suggest that those who regularly work a nine or ten hour day are more likely to suffer from heart-related illness – well surely that’s pretty much all of us?!

We’ve all been sitting at our desks well into the evening trying to finish bits and pieces and plenty of people work well over seven hours every day whether it be in the office, or at home . Does this mean they are destined for health problems? Possibly they are but there are plenty of other activities that we undertake that are equally as bad – smoking, drinking and even eating that can also contribute to heart – related illness.

This got me thinking – was this just another study undertaken by health professionals attempting to scaremonger us or should organisations take note of this and encourage their employees to not do overtime or if they do, in moderation?

Let’s look at the recruitment sector where a typical consultant works from 8am-6pm – that’s already a nine hour day (if we suppose that people actually take a full lunch break these days!) before any overtime is started! Going by this study all recruiters are faced with the prospect of health issues! I tend to believe that we simply cannot go about life worrying about every snappy headline we see telling us that something we are doing in life is going to result in future health issues – if we did our lives would be somewhat nonexistent!

I for one am not about to demand from my employer that I never work longer than a seven hour day and I suspect most organisations will take this study with a pinch of salt!

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