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Welcome to issue 333 of the ukrecruiter newsletter. Don't forget out next networking event is on 22nd November in London. You can register via www.recruitmentnetworking.co.uk. Hope to see you there. | 
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CONTENTS
Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs. |
Financial Hints and Tips: Number Four Financial Management Hints and Tips is an occasional series from The Outsourced Finance Department aimed at providing practical help to business owners and managers. Minimise your Banking Costs When was the last time you actually studied a bank charges tariff? Probably never, as you see it as an annoying cost that you just must bear. However, it really is worth spending some time on it. In recent years all the major banks have significantly shifted their tariffs to encourage you to use their electronic banking facilities – like internet banking. Internet banking access is in most cases free and any transactions you put through it clearly make less work for the bank as you are doing the work for them. This is reflected in their charges, which are now much higher for processing things like cheques and cash, than they are for making a payment directly through internet banking. It has many other advantages also, like giving you much more control. If you issue a cheque you do not know for sure when it will get to its destination and when it will clear your account – with the BACS electronic transfer system you can totally control that process. To find out more about The
Outsourced Finance Department visit www.tofd.net
or call 01279 647447. "My Favourites" will be back next week. Why not submit your 3 favourite web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm |
Advertisement Are your looking for fast-track candidates from the world's leading consulting brands? Top-Consultant.com, the leading management consultancy recruitment website, is increasingly used by leading non-consulting brands to source candidates for in-house roles. To add high-flying consultants from the likes of Accenture, Atos Origin, BearingPoint, Capgemini, Deloitte, Detica, EDS, IBM, etc and MBA qualified business executives to YOUR client shortlists call Bryan Hickson at Top-Consultant.com on 0207 667 6880 or email him at bryan@top-consultant.com.
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Article One: Negotiation Tactics for Recruiters By Bill Radin Everything is not negotiable! I recently tried to leverage one bank against the other when applying for a loan, arguing that if I couldn’t get the interest rate I wanted, I was willing to walk away. “Go ahead,” the loan officer chuckled. “I’ve got eight other applications on my desk, waiting for approval. If you can get a better deal somewhere else, be my guest.” He’s got a lot of nerve, I thought. But I sure respect the way he held the line. Later, I found out that his bank had one of the highest ratings in the industry, and was one of the most profitable institutions in the country. And eventually, because of other value-added services they could provide me, his bank became my lender, even though they had a somewhat higher rate. Negotiating: A Way to Satisfy Needs Price, of course, is only one aspect of any sale. If the transaction involves a commodity (such as rice, or soybeans, or crude oil, for example), then price may very well be the predominant issue. Recruiters often find themselves in a position of trying to negotiate for a standard fee when others are discounting. The most successful recruiters know that the only way to offset a concern surrounding price is to build value. Otherwise, the service provided is viewed as a commodity, with the recruiter assuming the role of a vendor, or supplier. The way to distinguish your service and its value-added dimension is to probe for the needs of the employer, and the urgency in filling a position. Once the need has been identified (and qualified), you’ll be in a position to hold the line, or at least reach an agreement in which both parties feel satisfied. (If you are unable to discover a compelling reason why your service warrants the full price you charge, then unfortunately, you may have to settle for whatever you can get.) The loan officer at my bank was able to secure my business, even though he charged a higher rate of interest than a competitor. The reason? There were other important considerations which I valued that led to our settlement. Achieving a Successful Settlement You can sharpen your negotiating skills by following these four steps. 1. Measure what the other side wants. Before you begin a fee negotiation, for example, find out exactly what the employer is asking for. I know this sounds rather obvious, but you’d be surprised how often a recruiter will give away the store after hearing the employer ask for a concession that’s totally vague. 2. Qualify the negotiation. If the employer isn’t sincere, isn’t in a position to buy, or has completely unrealistic expectations, you shouldn’t be negotiating at all. What good does it do to settle for a reduced fee with a prospective client in the first five minutes of taking a job order only to find out twenty minutes later that he won’t be hiring for another six weeks and that he’s currently interviewing five dozen candidates from the ads he’s been running for three weeks? 3. Probe for pertinent information. After you know what your employer is proposing (and he’s qualified to negotiate with you), try and gather every bit of information you possibly can. For example, what has been his previous experience with search firms? With whom has he worked? How did they operate? What did they charge? Has he been happy with the results? In other words, take a careful look at what the employer’s actual benefit needs are. Very often, there exists a critical hidden agenda, which will prove to be the pivotal point of a negotiation. 4. Assess the situation. How much do you need this employer’s business? What are your chances of filling his job orders? What will you gain from making concessions? And if you do make concessions, what will they be? You are now ready to reach an agreement, but remember that you can always delay if you feel you have to. It’s better to put off a bad or uncomfortable deal than agree to something you’ll later regret.
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Article Two: Telephone Systems for overseas offices; part one by Chris Malcolm I have lived and worked in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands for the past 6 years, operating deAnsaPlus a research company for headhunters and executive recruitment consultants. Although we do research worldwide, 100% of our assignments are for UK based firms. I am always amazed by the lack of knowledge in the business community about the various options available in operating a business telephone system. As important as it is for a UK based business, particularly from a cost standpoint, it is critical for someone living abroad and maintaining a UK client base. Our system in Spain consists of only one incoming landline which is almost never used. Supplied by the national telephone company Telefonica, it is required in order to get a broadband internet connection. Call rates from this line to the UK are prohibitively expensive but we do maintain it as a fall back in the event of a failure of our main system. On this Telefonica line we have contracted with an independent telecom company with which we pay call costs of approximately 4p per minute to the UK. Although this is a reasonable rate it is not practical for our setup as we need up to 6 lines running at a time, which would require the added expense of additional lines, plus it is not very flexible. It also does not solve the problem of an incoming UK based customer line. Instead we have opted to go with the VOIP technology. VOIP (voice over internet protocol) is simply the ability make calls over the internet and is fast becoming the telephone system of the future. There are in effect two types of VOIP. The first is by Skype, which is a popular method using their own technology. We have opted instead for an open technology using what is called the SIP protocol. There are dozens of telecom companies that offer SIP based systems and it is a very competitive, low margin marketplace, with these providers offering different packages to their clients. We use UK based providers because they are far more competitive with more options available to us and their service support is in English. Considerations when choosing a provider are: 1. Cost per call. We currently pay at peak times 1p per minute almost worldwide, and a fraction of that evenings and weekends. 2. Do they supply a regional number? From our provider we are supplied with our 0207 London number. This number works like any BT number. Some providers charge a small amount for this service and most offer numbers from almost any UK exchange, meaning we can stay local to our clients. 3. Do they offer telephone numbers from other countries? Not something we use but extremely important if you have a local (abroad) customer base. 4. Do they offer a virtual PBX? Using the SIP protocol this software is free and allows you to set up a huge number of extensions (not necessarily in one location, but even in different countries), call transfers, music on hold, in other words everything that you would find in the telephone system of a large corporation. 5. Do they offer a message service? This one can be wonderful, if you are away from the office for example and you miss a call, the message left by the caller is automatically sent to your email address. 6. Do they offer call forwarding? With many of the suppliers it is possible to have your incoming number forwarded to another VOIP based number for no charge, meaning the chance to split your office between say London and Paris; or obviously if you are away from the office and simply need your calls forwarded to your mobile or other landline location. 7. Can you withhold your number to callers, or if showing your number of origination can it be changed between locations? For our research work we very often find it advantageous to show that we are ringing from Spain, France or even America. 8. And finally do they offer incoming caller identification, SMS messaging or SMS message alerts among other items? All of these features can make your life abroad much easier. In two week's time we will discuss the hardware system we use for our telephones. deAnsaplus is a research company for headhunters and executive recruitment consultants. I am pleased to answer any questions (if I can!) on working and living abroad. Please email me at chris@deansaplus.com. |
Advertisement CURA – The state of the art on-line Recruitment software The NEW market leading CURA Recruitment software is aimed at start ups, small and large businesses which are looking for a high-tech, secure and Internet accessible recruitment solution which is flexible, easy to use and managed by the experts. There are so many features that make CURA the market leader, its best you book a test drive before someone else does! To book an on-line test drive, please click on our website: www.artemis3.com/cura or you can email sales@artemis3.com with your details. If you can't wait, please call the CURA Team on 0208 393 4114 now. The next step is already here - CURA |
Don't Miss This (sponsored by http://www.alljobsUK.com "The UK’s Jobs Portal") Recruitment Society Event, Is Candidate feedback a vital new tool in the race for competitive advantage?, 21st November, London Discount on The Juicy Bits of
New Business DVD box set Recruitment Networking Event,
22nd November, London his section is sponsored by http://www.alljobsUK.com "The UK’s Jobs Portal" |
Online Recruitment Update (sponsored by http://www.broadbean.co.uk for "the UK's favourite job posting system") Hitwise top 10 Recruitment
Sites, week ending 10th November 2007 Louise's UK Recruiter blog Press Release: Broadbean announce European launch date Discussion
Board Summary This section is sponsored by http://www.broadbean.co.uk; "the UK's favourite job posting system". |
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Regards
Louise Triance
UK Recruiter http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk
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