Both teams were guilty of potentially damaging their reputation. For the boys it was the quality control disaster with their product. Several members recognised the ‘It’s a Bus’ bags were [...]]]> The Apprentice is back on our screens for another episode tonight, and I hope they’ve learnt from last weeks’ dismal performance. The first episode provided enough examples of how not to run a business to fill many blogs, but the key lesson I learnt is how not to handle damage control.

Both teams were guilty of potentially damaging their reputation. For the boys it was the quality control disaster with their product. Several members recognised the ‘It’s a Bus’ bags were of poor quality, yet they chose to hide them in the bulk order with a retail outlet. The result? An angry customer returning all the products she’d brought – big surprise there.

The crux of the issue is simply this – had they thrown the ten shoddy products in the trash (where quite frankly they belonged!) they would have been able to sell the rest of the bags. Yes they won the task at the end of the day, but in the business world this one mistake can damage your reputation and relationship with a potential buyer.

For the girls the biggest issue was what can only be described as their attack on the unsuspecting shop owner. The ‘Sell, Sell, Sell!’ technique they used served only to have them ceremoniously thrown out of the shop, not to mention some rather harsh words from another shop employee.

Nobody wants to be sold to in that way. Instead, most people prefer the softer approach – building a relationship with a brand, understanding their connection with you and coming to the realisation yourself that you need that product / service. Had the girls team not taken the risky approach of pressure selling they may have had more success in selling their products to the shop owner.

You’re reputation is vital to your success. The smallest of things can ruin your brands image in a second and it will take a lot of hard work to claw this back.

The number of social media channels available nowadays provides both an opportunity to build your brand, but also expose you’re flaws. We encourage our clients to find their voice in the industry and get talking through PR – but always remember that once you’ve said or done something it cannot be taken back.

Our own Managing Director, Tracey Dunn, presentation from the Recruitment Agency Expo

The company

Twenty Recruitment was formed in January 2009, in the depths of the recession, by Paul Marsden and Adrian Kinnersley who were responsible for the rapid growth and sale of Astbury Marsden. The company specialises in mid to senior level appointments within the professional services, financial services and commerce & industry sectors across technology, finance and IT.

The challenge

While the company had recruited a number of senior consultants who were real experts in their field, in early 2009 [...]]]> Media Relations in Action

The company

Twenty Recruitment was formed in January 2009, in the depths of the recession, by Paul Marsden and Adrian Kinnersley who were responsible for the rapid growth and sale of Astbury Marsden. The company specialises in mid to senior level appointments within the professional services, financial services and commerce & industry sectors across technology, finance and IT.

The challenge

While the company had recruited a number of senior consultants who were real experts in their field, in early 2009 Twenty as a brand was still a relatively unknown quantity in the market.  They had excellent client contacts but needed an additional differentiator from the more established brands out there.

The solution

BlueSky embarked upon a campaign of placing thought leadership articles in target heavyweight trade media which Twenty then used as examples of their expertise within their specialist sectors.  One of these pieces was an article written for Twenty covering the brain drain from investment banking into utilities within the energy trading space. When Twenty pitched to a major utilities group for a senior technology specialist within its energy trading division, they used the piece as an example of their expertise.  The client felt that this was a clear demonstration of their industry knowledge.  They won the assignment on an exclusive retained basis ahead of two well established executive search firms, placed the candidate and made a not inconsiderable fee.

What they say

“The team at BlueSky have generated an impressive amount of coverage for Twenty but it doesn’t stop there. They have a refreshing approach when it comes to PR and understand that it covers so much more than just the media. They have been instrumental in developing copy for our website; for our employer branding messages and for our social media channels. Regular visitors to the office are popular with the whole team, BlueSky is more than just a supplier; they are a key strategic advisor.” Adrian Kinnersley, Managing Director of Twenty Recruitment Group 

So what is the industry doing wrong – well according to the survey, end [...]]]> I attended an APSCo members meeting last week and one of the items under discussion was a survey of 173 end user clients of APSCo members undertaken by Innergy.  The survey, ‘Raising the Bar’ asked a number of questions around the reasons for using recruiters, what they wanted to see from recruiters and how they viewed them.  The results of the survey showed that most organisations viewed recruiters somewhere between toleration and disgust. Hmm.

So what is the industry doing wrong – well according to the survey, end user clients want recruiters to:

• Provide innovative  pricing models
• Be more customer led
• Employ better people
• Provide technical solutions
• Be better communicators

That got me thinking – surely good recruiters would be doing all that anyway?  But this was 173 organisations –  a not insubstantial number.

The meeting then moved onto a client panel – and here’s where I got a real shock. The subject under discussion was:  ’How can recruiters help you attract and retain people with the right values and cultural fit for your business’.  The panel included Greg Allen Head of Recruitment for Nokia who said that when his organisation organised a briefing  session and round table discussion for all PSL agencies  on Nokia’s culture – what good looks like – what sort of  people they are looking for – in fact all the things that would make the recruiters job easier – half the agencies didn’t bother to show.  I was genuinely shocked.

What are you doing to enhance the client experience?

I have attended two recruitment in social media events recently and although I thought I was fairly social media savvy – I definitely learned some interesting new stuff showing that you can indeed teach an old dog new tricks!

The first was the UK Recruiter and  HB RIDA Directors’ Networking Event. The first presentation was from Sophie Relf the Head of Marketing Strategy at Guardian Jobs.  While I didn’t actually agree with a lot of her comments (‘social media is a walled [...]]]>

I have attended two recruitment in social media events recently and although I thought I was fairly social media savvy – I definitely learned some interesting new stuff showing that you can indeed teach an old dog new tricks!

The first was the UK Recruiter and  HB RIDA Directors’ Networking Event. The first presentation was from Sophie Relf the Head of Marketing Strategy at Guardian Jobs.  While I didn’t actually agree with a lot of her comments (‘social media is a walled garden, for example’ – don’t get Andy Headworth started on that!), there was one phrase she did use which really struck a chord and that was “mobile is the remote control of people’s lives.”
This was a theme that Andy Headworth of Sirona Consulting picked up when he asked “How many of you have a mobile website”? The answer of course was everyone– it’s just that most look crap!  Andy then went on to (in his own words) take down the wall brick by brick and gave some great examples of how powerful the platforms have become.

Next up was Steve Evans of NetNatives who gave some really interesting insights into how Facebook pages are changing.  Likes will no longer be the be all and endall – but visitors will able to ‘recommend’ or say ‘I work here’ – think aboutthe potential branding for a temps recruiter around that!

Will Winch of Mishcon de Reya scared everyone to death (only joking Will) by giving the legal perspectives around data protection, data theft and cyber bullying

The other event was #RTSM11 run hosted by Recruitment International.  Andy Headworth (yes him again) talked about how Facebook is a content management platform – not a social network and so your content has to be relevant interactive and interesting – not just a page of jobs!  He also told us that Google+ is now the fastest growing social network in history and there are certainly some really interesting applications for recruiters.

Patrick Traynor from LinkedIn highlighted the new company status update function and pointed out how few organisations were using the free
products and services tab on company profiles. And a really interesting nugget – mobile searching on Linked In is up 400% year on year!!

Jorgen Sundberg from Link Humans gave his top five tips on putting together a strategy for your content marketing while Dave Martin from Brave New
Talent told us that mobile will overtake desktops and laptops by 2013 and gave us a brand new buzzword – SoLoMo ( Social, Local Mobile).

Steve Ward from Cloud Nine shared a great story about his social media journey and then Oracle occupied the graveyard slot by aptly telling all
the recruiters how they recruit everything in house through social media !

All in all two great events – and I learned a lot !

Now, we don’t need to tell you that it’s inadvisable to badmouth your employer on social networks. It’s about as subtle as writing “I hate my job” on your forehead and even if it doesn’t get you in trouble, it certainly won’t single you out as an ideal candidate for promotion.

Under normal circumstances I would argue [...]]]> This week, David Rowat was fired from his job at Argos for taking to Facebook to have a moan about a bad day at work.

Now, we don’t need to tell you that it’s inadvisable to badmouth your employer on social networks. It’s about as subtle as writing “I hate my job” on your forehead and even if it doesn’t get you in trouble, it certainly won’t single you out as an ideal candidate for promotion.

Under normal circumstances I would argue that, assuming a company has a proper social media policy in place, bringing your employers into disrepute in any way is enough to warrant at least a warning, at worst a dismissal.

However, as more context began to emerge I found myself, oddly, disagreeing with myself. While I still think Mr. Rowat was beyond foolish for posting anything negative about work on Facebook, let’s examine what he actually said. Having come back from holiday to find that work had not been done to a high standard, he grumbled:

“”Had a great day back at work after my hols who am I kidding!! Back to the shambles that is work.”

For a start, Mr. Rowat didn’t mention the company by name. To add to this, at the time of writing a quick search shows he has fewer than 100 Facebook friends – and he posted this to his private wall. While his comments may have been inappropriate, did they really constitute the “gross misconduct” for which he was sacked?

The plot thickens. As it transpires, David Rowat has cancer of the lymph nodes. He had worked at Argos for thirteen years, and even met his wife (who is also in ill health) there.  Facts that the media was all too quick to pick up on.

The story soon became a tabloid’s dream. An extremely unwell man, fired for having an ill-advised yet probably harmless moan on Facebook about a bad day at work, a story of company loyalty being paid back with callousness – you couldn’t make it up.

I’m not an expert in employment law – and I understand that social media needs to be used carefully and that companies need to stick to their policies in order for them to be effective.

But overall, what has caused the company more damage? The poorly thought out ramblings of someone fed up with a bad day at work? Or the business that fired a loyal employee with cancer and a family to support? You decide.

However, I have heard a lot of people talking about how we should celebrate the [...]]]> I bought the last copy of The News of The World last Sunday. Not because I supported the paper in any way shape or form but, from a professional point of view, I wanted to own a piece of publishing history. I can’t remember a time in my whole life ( almost half a century)  an instance of a newspaper closing down in the midst of such a scandal. 

However, I have heard a lot of people talking about how we should celebrate the fact that  ’people power’ and public opinion closed a newspaper.  In fact on Friday’s edition of Newsnight, the founder of Mumsnet said; ” we saw what social media can do…when individual people decide to take direct action…ordinary people on Facebook, on Twitter, on Mumsnet have made a difference.

Errr…I don’t think so

Come on now folks,  lets’ not kid ourselves that it was ‘people power’ that closed this newspaper. As Will Self said on Newsnight it was ‘the people’ that bought the paper year in year out because of their ”ubiquitous appetite for what the gutter press have peddled.” 

It was, in my opinion,  a carefully orchestrated move by the Murdoch empire to try and ensure that the Government had no grounds to refer NewsCorp’s bid for BSkyB to the OFT.  In fact in an article in the Guardian back on 30th June: News International facing job losses , it was reported that Rebekah Brooks had sent an e-mail to staff saying: ”Let me be absolutely clear: there are tough decisions coming. Costs will need to be cut and savings made in overheads and personnel… and that “a seven-day operation will be a reality in some common areas.” Additionally, the article stated  that earlier that week: “News International announced there would be a single managing editor for the Times and Sunday Times, and another for the Sun and News of the World, in an indication that the daily and Sunday titles are preparing to pool some editorial resources in a move to a seven day operation in some areas. Previously each of the four titles had a dedicated managing editor.”

Then there was the regsitration of the sunonsunday.co.uk on 5th July – which News International have taken ownership of today.

And while the bid has indeed now been referred – how long before Newscorp no longer owns News International? We shall see.

A celebration of people power? Don’t make me laugh.  A lot of ordinary people lost their jobs last week because of a few bad apples. Rebekah Brooks still has hers. Not much to celebrate there.

I had the pleasure of being one of the guests at  Jobsite’s Fresh Thinking event on Wednesday. I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I see myself as fairly social media savvy and so wasn’t sure that I would learn anything new. What I forgot was that sometimes you may not learn anything  new – but you  learn how the apply the things that you do know in a different way – and Scott Stratten  certainly did that for me.  Some of the takeaways [...]]]>

I had the pleasure of being one of the guests at  Jobsite’s Fresh Thinking event on Wednesday. I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I see myself as fairly social media savvy and so wasn’t sure that I would learn anything new. What I forgot was that sometimes you may not learn anything  new – but you  learn how the apply the things that you do know in a different way – and Scott Stratten  certainly did that for me.  Some of the takeaways for me were:

People spread awesome not average: Which made me think about  the blogging schedule we have in our own organisation – and how I berate  people when they don’t blog – or tell me that they don’t know what to blog about!  And that by doing that I may be actually stopping the spread of our content. Slapped wrist for me! 

We can be dismissive:   New things are coming onto the market all the time – some will look like a pile of crap ( as Scott pointed out  the company that created Farmville has just been valued at $8 billion.)  The point he made is that if  it is consumed then it’s worth looking at just to investigate whether it can be of any use in terms of your clients. And crucially – you have to be where your customers are.  You may hate Facebook – but it depends who you are trying to reach!

Twitter is an entrepreneurial water cooler ( I just liked that qote)

Don’t be an app tart – give options – people may not want to go through an app!

Scott has delegated everything in his business except making relationships – I’d like to get to that!

I’m now reading his book – and I’m hooked !

Next up was Amanda Hite  who talked  about the importance of realising that brands don’t own communities  they need to be part of them – and they may need to join different communities depending on what their objectives are. And one of the big takeaways for me was her take on the whole ‘time’ issue. Yes – social media takes an investment of time – but it can also save so much time and give you what Amanda calls “Superpowers.” You can get advice within minutes, you can connect with someone within seconds – you can carry all your business contacts around with you in your pocket – and talk to them whenever you want.

She also made me think about how brands should be using social media to find out what their communities want from them – and letting the communities drive the communication. And what of research? There are focus groups on line all the time so use them.  Amanda gave the example of an organisation that had spent an enormous amount of money on an employee enagement survey, the results of which could be pretty much replicated by looking at social media profiles! Food for thought!

Another great point that she made was that when organisations ban their employees from using social media then they are only sliencing the people that will says great things about them.  The people that are going to diss you will do it anyway!

But the real takeaway – and one that will stay with me for a long time is when she began talking about how we can change lives using social media - from multinational communities raising funds for Japan to a community in Alabama using Facebook for lost and found items after a bout of tornadoes.  Communicating with thousands of people across the world at the same time is something we just can’t do offline. So Amanda thank you for making me think about building our social capital by doing something good!

Oh and  the breakfast pastries and  lunch were both fab

Ok – I know a lot of people will be throwing their hands up in horror but are we trying to put too many people through university?

I recently attended my son’s GCSE options evening and learned about the new English Baccalaureate.  Students who receive an A* to C grade in English, Maths, at least two sciences, a foreign language and either history or geography will automatically be awarded the English Bacc. And why? Well no matter what the official line is, [...]]]>

Ok – I know a lot of people will be throwing their hands up in horror but are we trying to put too many people through university?

I recently attended my son’s GCSE options evening and learned about the new English Baccalaureate.  Students who receive an A* to C grade in English, Maths, at least two sciences, a foreign language and either history or geography will automatically be awarded the English Bacc. And why? Well no matter what the official line is, it will be another way for universities to filter through too many applications. And the reason that universities get too many applications is that the Government has this ridiculous notion that we need to send at least 50% of our young people to university. This apparently is so we can compete with China ( whose young people are doing degrees in maths/science/engineering).  The HRD in a recent post talked about today’s youth being a beaten generation. I agree wholeheartedly with him when he says that everyone should have the right to a decent education – but it should be the right education – and university may not be the right route.

I am old enough ( unfortunately) to remember the old secondary modern system where those who were not academically slanted went on to undertake a highly valuable vocational education. As a country we have this obsession with sending a higher and higher proportion of our young people to university. And so we end up with high graduate unemployment, a two tier system where some degrees are valued by employers as more ‘worthy’ and no plumbers!!

My brother was not gifted academically as he will be the first to admit – luckily for him there was still a scheme called apprenticeships – he left school at 16 went on to qualify as an electrician and now runs his own business, providing employment to others, and therefore contributing to the economy! So basically he does exactly the same as I do.  I went to university – because that was the right route for me -we both got to the same destination – we just took a different route.

Education needs some joined up thinking