The View From The Other Side

All I can say is wow! Time really flies when you're having fun. I can't believe I've now been in my new role in-house for 3 months. I feel like I've already achieved a huge amount but I'm very aware that my task is just starting. A few people (Hi Kasia) have asked to find out about the transition as a sourcer into an internal role. Now I've been brought in due to my sourcing knowledge but it's very much a broader recruitment role which is a little different to my initial thoughts of what I wanted to do. Which leads on to my first point of a few about the transition:

Things change, quickly

I thought that external roles were of fast change but being on the other side has changed my view point on this! Everything from priorities through roles to your very own role and ownerships can change very quickly. Its good to be comfortable with change as it happens!

There's a lot more scope

It's not just about finding candidates, getting them interviewed and hiring. Oh no. If it were that easy it'd be no fun! The flip side of this however is that it can be very much like being a kid in a sweet shop. There's so many exciting and new things to do that it's very easy to get overawed. I've found myself (aside from day to day recruiting) looking at psychometrics, graduate recruitment, apprenticeships, marketing, reporting, on boarding, training, assessments and much more.

Access to hiring managers

One of my biggest frustrations comes from feedback and being able to fine tune searches with input from the teams on the ground. Being on the other side means that I've got access to the managers either voluntarily or by going and finding them and sitting down to really understand their needs. 

There's no where to hide

The flip side of the above point is that that when things aren't going so well there is certainly no hiding to give yourself an extra hour or two to get things done. Everyone knows where you live!

Impacting the business every day

Probably the number one reason to make a move to an inhouse recruitment role is that you really can see the impact your work has on the people around you. You really will find that when you do well people are very grateful. Saying that, the business critical role that you're struggling to fill through direct or agency.. you really do feel the impact of it.

Learning
 
Very much along the lines of the scope point above, there is so much to learn. Whether you're learning how to put together graduate scheme, how to use that ATS or even contributing (in a very small way) regarding HR issues every day genuinely is a learning experience.

Agency recruiters

It is and has been really important to develop relationships with external recruiters who have a niche knowledge of our sector. The main problem for me at the moment is the cold call. It appears that there is a cold call manual with the script for introduction and objection handling. It also appears from my (albeit limited) experience that every single recruiter has it in front of them when they call. It can be frustrating.

Sourcing time

The biggest downside for me is the other side of the coin from my reason for the move in-house in the first place. I wanted to open up my responsibilities and get involved with a larger amount of things. This has had a significant impact on the time I'm able to spend sourcing and keeping up with latest tools and techniques. Before I spent almost all my time developing new techniques and testing the latest tools along with active sourcing. Now there's so much more to do that I just can't give it that same dedication. 

If you love your sourcing then you need to weigh this up versus the long term benefits of the great stuff from above. For me it's a no brainer but I'm acutely aware I need to find more time to study and practice amongst all the other exciting things I'm working on. 

And finally... Free stuff! 

One of the lovely things about working in FMCG is that you occasionally get to taste some of the produce and get involved with taste testing for future products. If you like food (like I do) then it's a brilliant perk! 

I hope this has given an insight into the transition that I've gone through but I'm more than happy to chat further if anyone has any questions.

On New Beginnings

Today is a big day for me. Today is the day I finish my time at Talent Works International.

It's A New Dawn

I'm incredibly excited about the new challenges ahead, the new people I'll meet and the new experiences I'm going to have. I've been given a fantastic opportunity to work on a really challenging project that is going to be huge amounts of fun (more about that further down the line).

It's also a time of introspection, looking back at the past three years (to the day) and looking forward to what the future holds. 

I've had the opportunity to learn from some of the best in the business, I've had the opportunity to work with some of the biggest and best companies on the planet. I've had the opportunity to work on such a diverse range of roles that simply wouldn't have been possible in any other company. I've placed a VP of Finance for an oil and gas company in the Far East, I've placed a Brand Director for one of the world's leading beer brands, I've placed candidates across Europe, across sectors and learned so much in the process. 

Talent Works was my first step onto a road I didn't even know existed. It has been pivotal in shaping my view on how the world should work. It has been pivotal in making me realise what I want to do with my career. This is something I'll be eternally grateful for, I didn't know where I was going, what I wanted to do and what my passion was. 

Now I do. 

Really knowing how positively direct sourcing can impact a business is one thing. It's now time for me to implement that and show just how good it can be. 

It's an adventure I'm looking forward to.

Internal recruitment, I'm coming for you! 

Markets...

How well do you know the market?

It's 3am and I'm currently sat in my car as we traverse Europe. (I've done my stint but I can't sleep in cars... I'm not blogging while driving, don't worry). Any way where was I? Right we're currently crossing Europe, somewhere in Germany. I've not seen the sign for Düsseldorf but we can't be far off. Nearly half way!

Back to the point. I've just filled up at the petrol station and it confused the hell out of me. Nothing to do with being up nigh on 24 hours. This led me to think, how well do you (me) really know your markets? I mean if something as simple as filling up your car (on much cheaper diesel) is significantly different then what else is?

There certainly must be a number of factors in sourcing and recruiting candidates that differ from home. So if you are recruiting outside of your own nation, how much do you really know about the factors that will impact your ability to attract candidates... There's two ways to find out I guess, research and immersion. I'm all for immersion myself but I guess the boss isn't going to send me out to Indonesia next time I have a role there..

I'm lucky in that I'm able to do the in depth research for my clients and have access to a fantastic team of insight consultants who are the best around at finding this info (and lots more) out. I'd be interested to learn how you find out that petrol stations are different?

Why are candidates not interested in your organisation?

One of the main challenges faced by organisations in the current employment environment is candidate attraction. To be able to improve this an understanding of the reasons why prospective candidates may not be interested is required. Once there is an understanding of the exact barriers that could prevent candidates being interested in an organisation then each one can be looked at individually. 

In the first half of this we aim to look at the most common barriers to interest faced by organisations globally. In the second part we will look at the possible opportunities to challenge and remove these barriers.

Core Barriers to Interest

From a sample of the projects we have completed during 2013 there were 10 main barriers to a prospective candidate being interested in any specific role or company. The Barrier to Interest data is made up of 2900 candidates from across a wide spectrum of levels, industries and locations. These candidates made up just over 21% of the total candidate population from the sample. Below is a list of these reasons in descending order:

1. 35% of all not interested potential candidates advised that happiness with their current employer/role was their main barrier to interest. Due to the international nature of the sample projects we are able to see that this value fluctuates dependant on country. The country which saw the highest proportion of candidates who stated that satisfaction with their current situation was Germany. This totalled nearly 60% of all the not interested candidates.

2. Location was the second most mentioned reason for not being interested with 18% of all people mentioning that this was the biggest barrier to interest in the role. This barrier is very much determined by the exact location of the role. When the role required international relocation this percentage was higher, though only by a small margin.

3. The third most common objection came when the candidates have recently started a new role. This compromised 10% of not interested candidates within our data set. As a total number of candidates this then becomes 2.1% of the total candidate population. This compares with the UK average where c.14% of the labour market* are within their first 6 months of employment.

4. With 7% the next most common reason given was the desire to work in a different industry to our client. This often came where we were asked to look for people with cross transferable skills, or where the client occupied a niche area of a wider industry.

5. No reason given took up 7% of the not interested candidates. These were the candidates that did not wish to speak and wouldn’t advise a reason as to why.  

6. 6% of the candidates in the data set weren't interested due to not being interested in the company we were working for. The vast majority of these were where the company we were working on were competitors of our candidates companies and the candidates wouldn't feel comfortable moving between them. There were a small number of isolated candidates that mentioned that they did not like the client company.

7. Role Specifics with 6% was the next most regular reason for candidates not being interested. This category covered a number of different reasons based around the exact details of the role in comparison with what the candidates were looking to do moving forward.

8. 5% of the candidates had stated that the Timing of the role would not be right. Most commonly this was down to events in the potential candidate’s personal life meaning that a change in role was not an option.

9. Level of Role was stated by 4% of the candidates as the key reason for not being interested. Upon having a deeper look into the information these candidates primarily were looking for a step up in role and could not see this opportunity being within our client companies.

10. Maternity was the 10^th most common reason for candidates not being interested in discussing potential roles. This took up 2% of all our not interested candidates and comprised of 0.42% of the overall candidate population that we have spoken with over the last year. This is half of the UK average for women on maternity leave during a year (1.06% of the working population**).

Do you know the reasons why candidates turn down the opportunity to work for you? If not then perhaps it's time to start asking some questions to find out more. If you'd like some help with that then please feel free to ask.

Source: *Office for National Statistics Report: Job mobility and job tenure in the UK **The Telegraph http://bit.ly/1aVA9kl