A windy day in Wellington, New Zealand

Enjoyed a relaxing time wine tasting in New Zealand and holidaying at Rottnest Island, ready to take on 2012 and make it a success!

Lunch at Alan Scott Winery, Marlborough, New Zealand

Wine tasting at Cloudy Bay Winery, Marlborough, New Zealand

The new year has started on a positive note with several recruitment and search projects commencing in January. I will continue to grow the team this year to meet demand as several clients are expanding their businesses. It remains critical to find and hire the right talent for an organisation – which is what we do well.

Here’s to a great 2012, let’s make it the best yet!

Shireen

The Team!

It has been an exciting 2011! I hope this message finds you looking forward to, or already enjoying a restful and rejuvenating break with loved ones. The festive season is a great time to slow down, look around and appreciate the abundant goodness in our lives.

I wish to express my deep gratitude to all the people who have supported me throughout the year – Thank you!

To my clients, many thanks for the business and trust you have invested in me. To my contractors, thank you for sharing your talents. To the numerous candidates I dealt with throughout the year, thank you for your professionalism. I have been fortunate to connect with sensational clients, talented contractors and outstanding candidates.

The book I published last year is still selling steadily around the globe through my website and Amazon. I am pondering my next writing project as the search and recruitment industry is constantly evolving, lots of interesting new technologies and thought leaders to research…

I will be taking a break for a few weeks to spend time with my partner, family and friends. Warm wishes to all for a Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year.

Shireen DuPreez

Perth, Australia

Here are a couple of the presenters I enjoyed listening to at the event:

• Jason Kerr, Founder & CTO of Find.ly flew in from Silicon Valley for a brief but energetic promotion of a fascinating and powerful new tool  http://www.find.ly/.
• Stephen McSweeney, Talent Acquisition Manager at AGL Energy presented on developing and implementing an authentic and diverse Employee Value Proposition (EVP) http://www.agl.com.au/about/careers/Pages/Home.aspx.
• Karen Morley, Founder of Gender Worx explained the importance and benefits of having gender targets and women in leadership positions http://www.genderworx.com.au/ 
• Dean Pearson, Head of Industry Analysis, National Australia Bank, gave a lengthy but well researched overview of the global to local economic perspectives and the implications for employment and recruitment.

The target company list should be big enough that you don’t have to keep going back to the research phase during the later parts of the assignment. Five target companies is in all likelihood not going to give you enough options. Many of the searches I have worked on have had a minimum of 20-50 target companies, dependent on the size of the industry or sector.

As I reflect on the opportunities and challenges of 2010, I am very fortunate to have worked with great clients this year, thank you for your business. In addition, I am privileged to have dealt with top candidates, fantastic contractors and supportive business associates.

I have also enjoyed giving assistance during the year to the local school community, Surf Life Saving Australia and Kiva.org.

Sincere gratitude and best wishes to all.  Here’s to good health, peace and prosperity in 2011.

Shireen DuPreez

Employee value propositions and employer branding are buzz words for where companies want to improve their external image to potential candidates. The experience candidates have throughout a recruitment process is of more or less concern to employers depending on each individual company. Some manage the experience very well, others terribly.

As a recruiter I am keenly aware that my interactions with candidates also reflect on their view of my client. It is worthwhile asking yourself the question: “Is the employer brand being improved or diminished by the candidate’s experience of the recruiter and your company during the recruitment process?”

Here are some other tips in relation to candidate management:

►      Timelines – have a clear appreciation of the timeline and communicate it. Justifiably some recruitment processes can be drawn out, particularly when there are multiple decision makers and stringent selection processes. Set some expectations with the candidate up front and let the candidate know when timings change along the way.

►      Updates and touching base – keep the candidate engaged through regular communication, let them know when there are delays in the process.

►      Provide a polished candidate experience – the days of the interrogation interview under blinding lights are a relic of the past. Top-rate candidates will be left with an impression of the company from their experience during the attraction and interview stage so do your best to make that experience positive.

The real cost of a bad hire in 2010 has been revealed – a conservative estimate of a frontline / middle manager leaving after three months is $60,000*, according to world leaders in talent acquisition, Futurestep.  “The calculation gets increasingly complex (and higher) when the roles of more senior staff, managers, sales staff or account managers are considered” said Matt Dale, Head of Consulting at Futurestep.

“Many organisations only think of the direct costs associated with employing staff; such as advertising and agency fees. There are also indirect costs like the HR/recruitment team, hiring manager time, technology costs, induction costs and the loss of productivity while they get up to speed. Then there is also the costs incurred if a new hire leaves within their first three months, as commonly happens with bad hiring methods. The firm then has the opportunity costs of having an empty chair, when in many sectors, the market is turning.” added Mr Dale.

The trick to cutting this cost of turnover lies in an organisation’s approach to this increasingly complex arena. In some instances it makes sense to pay a specialist to fill a really difficult role. In other instances, the solution lies in how the company actually goes about recruitment and structures its recruitment team.  In all cases though, it starts with having a clear understanding of the real costs of recruitment. 

A large business supplies organisation in Australia is one of many such organisations that had high turnover and found it difficult to measure the cost of recruitment.  By moving from a decentralised model to an outsourced partnership with Futurestep, they gained a deeper understanding of how they need to recruit, reduce turnover and better control recruitment costs. In the last year alone, they saved an estimated $2 million dollars whilst continuing to grow their business and recruit over 500 people.

“Yes, recruitment looks expensive when a company engages a recruitment specialist, but it is far more expensive in the long run to keep going with a broken system. Organisations need a dual approach.  Important vacancies need to be filled quickly and with the right person. In parallel to that, organizations also need to fix their overall system and processes. This approach is tactical as well as strategic, a bit like the surgeon that fixes the critical injury, but also works with the other health professionals to make the patient healthier in the long run, and does not get sick again”, says Mr Dale, “this is where it really does make sense to consult experts in talent acquisition.”

* Figure based upon Futurestep client data encompassing 50,000 employees. July 2009-July 2010

Cost of hiring case study – Sara Lee

Sara Lee is one company that has recently decided to take a more strategic approach. Michael Whitlow, Human Resources Director, said that “although Sara Lee had an effective centralised and internal recruitment model within the business, our organisation is keen to take its sourcing strategy to the next level by maximising the use of leading edge recruitment technology (Taleo) and integrating best practice approaches to sourcing into the business.  We are very keen as a business to build on our strong consumer brand by enhancing our employment brand in the market place.”

Michael Whitlow outlined that by investing in a partnership with Talent Acquisition firm, Futurestep, he can focus his HR team on other, critical business issues. Mr Whitlow commented “bringing in Futurestep to manage our recruitment function will give us access to cutting edge recruitment professionals, processes and systems.”

Challenges facing Sara Lee:

• Diverse range of roles across multiple and remote locations
• Limited ability to innovate in the sourcing of high quality talent
• Lack of recruitment technology to automate the process & create efficiencies
• Inability to obtain sophisticated metrics and therefore report on meaningful measures of success
• Lack of benchmarking against industry or global best practice

Advantages of the outsourced model:

• HR team can focus on developing talent
• Flexibility/ scalability to changing business needs
• Speed to market with innovation, expertise & capability
• Access to leading edge people, processes & systems
• Consulting expertise to develop employment brand & make Sara Lee a career destination

 This article is from Futurestep www.futurestep.com

Find out nine (9) more reasons by reading the newly released ebook which is available for purchase at: www.executive-search-process.com.

Purchase and download the new ebook, available now: $19.95 AUD.

There is a lot of buzz in recruiting circles about the benefits of using sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter for social media recruiting. However, few are talking about the risks involved in using social media channels to recruit.

Here are five social media recruiting pitfalls to avoid:

1. Have a search plan so you don’t go off on tangents and waste time. Searching sites can be time consuming unless you know how to search effectively or have the technology to retrieve the relevant information.
2. Be tactful, respectful and provide a full explanation when approaching candidates through social networks. Contacting prospective candidates through social network sites may be unexpected and possibly unwanted by the recipient.
3. Verify the information you find online. Information on the sites can be out of date or inaccurate.
4. Double check the content before you post or list anything on the internet. There is no way of guaranteeing you can delete something once it is out in the web, make sure you thoroughly review your work before hand.
5. Don’t rely on only those candidates you can find on social networks, a more thorough search method is required. You are only seeing part of the market through social networks.

To discover the system leading search firms use, find out in the newly released book The Executive Search Process: A Step by Step Guide to Finding the Right Candidate. Further details and sample pages can be found at www.executive-search-process.com.

About the author

Shireen DuPreez is an executive search consultant, recruiter and author

This article was also published in Human Capital Magazine

http://www.hcamag.com/news/five-social-media-recruiting-pitfalls-to-avoid/45826