Digital Recruiting

Great tone of voice

I was playing around on the internet and came across the graduate recruitment site for Ogilvy ... i thought you would all be interested because it is a great example of how to link the emotional with the rational.

http://www.ogilvy.co.uk/fellows/

You would hope so - as they are an advertising agency.

But - have a look and make you own mind up.

Technology is great – but let’s not forget: it’s all about the HI!

HI? Of course an informal way to say hello (which I naturally extend to you), but in this instance I’m using it in the context of Human Interaction.

I spend a disproportionate amount of my life peering into this screen (mine as I write this, not yours as you read this – that would just be too Matrix!). Not as much as many I’m sure, but a damned sight more than is probably healthy. So as much as I can I try and force myself to think hard about the human aspect of things I’m involved in the delivery of – whether the candidate reading an advert / web page or navigating a site, an applicant completing a job application, a recruiters logical workflow whilst reviewing / processing response to a campaign etc etc etc. Unfortunately it’s all too easy in our world to look around and see glaring examples of where this hasn’t been considered at all – certainly not beyond a passing “and this is where on screen 8 of an undisclosed number of screens we’ll ask them to load a CV if they want to”.

But I heard a tale from an ex-colleague recently about a job application experience they had which just goes to prove that it’s as much a task for “Recruitment Professionals” to take on board as it is for a developer or web builder or creative or indeed anyone else in the recruitment communications industry.

Having applied to an ad with their CV to a recruitment consultant’s email address (as instructed) they waited. And waited. Nothing. Not a peep to even say the CV was there. An auto ack would have been simple and served a purpose (using technology to enrich the candidate experience whilst minimising the effort) – but that was clearly a step too far. So as the closing date neared they tried to call. Consultant not in (are they ever?), so left a message and sent an email asking just for confirmation that the CV had been received. A day passed. Then a weekend. Then another day or two – still nothing.

Anyway – I could go on, but am sure you get the picture. In the end having squeezed out a response that the CV had indeed been received and was being “considered”, there was then more of this silent treatment over the next week or two in terms of “thanks but no thanks”, “we’re still considering” or even “you’re crap – sod off”. It’s amazing and horrifying at the same time. Through all this process, managed by a consultant who would either be on a retainer for their “efforts” or else expecting a nice fat fee at the end of their “work”, the difference some Human Interaction, electronic based or personal, would have made would have been immense. And we’re not talking about a junior role here (perhaps for a £12k admin role this might be more excusable – although I personally think not).

So where am I going with this? Well just that in a career where I’ve been pretty lucky in having many of my career moves find me, this was a confirmation as to how job seeker experience, Employer Brand and Product Brand are inextricably linked. In short, this candidate certainly won’t be in a hurry to buy any of these guys financial products in the near future – and pretty unlikely to apply to them again.

Of course – this can always be fobbed off as a supplier delivering sub standard service etc etc, but if the HR / Resourcing team and the wider business truly appreciated the importance and impact of their Employer Brand then 1. why run down your internal team to the degree where you have to outsource in the first place 2. where are the checks to pick up how your activity is actually managed / the hard and fast SLAs that set out how a candidate should expect to be treated when being engaged by your brand?

I very much appreciate that it’s a full on board room battle to get Employer Brand and recruitment and retention the kind of business critical recognition it deserves – over an above the annual CEO statement that “people are our greatest asset”. I’d say today we’re in a better place than ever before to generate and track the MI (management information) to prove the bottom line impact and value of getting this part of the business right – but to do that you have to invest in the people who understand it and ensure that it penetrates every level of your business and recruitment process, with the technological investment to make this as efficient and effective as possible.

Cheap gets you employee churn (poor hiring decisions & poor retention of good people). Cheap gets you outsourced second rate service (which actually costs you more anyway). Cheap gets your business a greater marketing spend to try and repair the highly personal negative experience you delivered to disgruntled applicants. Cheap isn’t really cheap at all – and it can only ever be short term.

So next time you’re undertaking some recruitment activity, or planning it on behalf of a client – stop a moment, put yourself in the candidates’ shoes and think, “are we making sure that in this process we really do deliver HI?”

And another one...

Another recruitment video and this one is certainly different!

Video: Two men, two baby blue tuxedoes, two pianos

The rational and emotional factors when looking for a job …

I am going to try and remove my head from my own arse with this posting … but it is a difficult one to do it with. Why? Well some people think that emotion and rational thought are separate – well it is not true. Emotion surrounds rational thought and is thus rather important when advertising.

Emotion is key to advertising because … emotion creates attention – AIDA as a model does not work. The emotional connection is needed to create the attention in the first place. Without it you will not generate any response.

So why do we pay so little attention to emotion when planning? I have a few answers but I feel there are more.

Firstly, it is not something that has ever really been part of our mental models and we don’t change mental models unless there is a problem. I think there is a problem with the quality of planning in the industry but I am not sure that is the opinion of clients or agency heads.

Secondly, it is really difficult. As with most things in life the best way is not the easiest way. We are all busy, stressed, tired and maybe a little bit hung over. BUT we are paid to think – so think.

Finally, the lack of integration across and accounts - creative and media are still planned and delivered in vacuums. It is only by working together we achieve the best results – it is the clients and Account Directors who need to push this. Make it happen.

Wow, I am amazed that I have done a whole post without mentioning a book or research paper. There are plenty that go behind my thinking – if you want to know what they are email me and I will send a list (see trying to mot be up my own arse).

Skills Emergency

Just wanted to say thanks to Sam and the team at Chinwag for inviting me to be on the panel at the Digital Skills Emergency debate last night. Some interesting points raised and it soon become apparent how massive a topic this is. We really only managed to scratch the surface in the time available

From my own perspective the key issues for companies in this space are how they widen their talent pools, be cleverer about how they recruit and how they increase the sophistication of their staff retention strategies. It was interesting to see that companies like Conchango and AMV are already embracing these concepts and moving to more direct sourcing models.

Overall though I think there is a long way to go. It's crazy that most companies in an industry with such an acute skill shortage aren't even advertising their vacancies on their own web sites, let alone considering broader branding, attraction and sourcing strategies. It's only a small first step in solving a deeply complex issue but surely one worth taking!!!

Chinwag have produced a really good report on the issues which is available to download from here

When Google's parents leave town.....

This is funny.......but be warned it contains strong language and some mature content..............that should make sure you all watch it ;-)

Close but no cigar

Just heard from Louise that Digital Recruiting has come joint third in the UK Recruitment Blog of 2007 competition. A big thank you to everyone who voted for us and of course to Louise for organising the competition. Congratulations to Peter Gold who won and who has proved that being controversial is good for business

Here's to Digital Recruiting going two steps further in the next competition!!

The Lives of Others

Think of 'Allo Allo' the 1980's comedy set in occupied France during WW2. Now think of Herflick the Gestapo commander character uttering the phrase 'Ve 'ave vays and means of getting you to tell us the truth'.

Now think of Facebook.......eh? Bear with me on this one.

I was sent the below link today by Nicola on our team. Its an article on Facebook and I don't think I have ever read an article about the Internet that has filled me with so much dread. Its a pretty long article on Facebook and the political and philosophical views of the people/venture capitalists who are behind it. The gist of the article is that Facebook 'is some kind of extension of the American imperialist programme crossed with a massive information-gathering tool'. We are all voluntarily giving our most private thoughts and information up to a company who hold right wing Neocon views and who will provide our information to big corporations to advertise to us.

The article is obviously one sided, however it does make me wonder that whilst the Internet is incredibly positive in so many ways there are some areas that concern me in a Big Brother kind of way.

With Friends like these...

Five things to watch in 2008

I have been inspired to try and predict a few trends for 2008 – I have it down to five that I see for 2008.

1. The growth of virtual advertising. More and more ads are created that are not focused on our client; candidates or those we even bother to run in the media. Still, they look nice and win awards.
2. Media and creative continue to be planned with little thought for the other. Just because they are consumed together it does not mean we need to think about how they work with each other. The gamble makes it a little bit more exciting.
3. A number becomes CEO of an agency. With all the CTR, ROI and benchmarks flying around people forget that numbers do not think and people do. All original thought is lost.
4. Bonus schemes are cut. Even thought 2008 ends up a bumper year for profit and turnover we all earn less. Shareholders love a good recession.
5. Digital media planner wages cause inflation. Gordon Brown steps in and ends up giving up his job as prime minister to move into media planning. Everyone has a price.

Who knows what will happen in the year ahead – but I am feeling confident about the above.

This Is Cracking

Carrying on the corporate video theme from last year ...